Çâkerî Ahmed Çelebi's family went back to a freed slave: Sa'dî Çelebi, who built the mosque in Amasya's Üçler quarter, had left the administration of his endowment to his freedman and son-in-law Handân Ağa, and the Handân Ağa family ran it for generations. Ahmed Çelebi was a secretary and poet of this family. He served as secretary to the anthologist Abdî Efendi during the years Abdî was a deputy judge, then worked for a long time as secretary of the imperial estates (hâs) of Amasya, and died in 1121 (1709-10). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar remembers him as a poet of pleasant conversation, devoted at heart to the Prophet's family and of praiseworthy character. Beyond these epithets and the names of a few posts his life stays in shadow, and no specimen of his poetry has survived.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Amasyalıdır. Üçler Mahallesi'nde câmi-i şerîfi olan Sa'dî Çelebi kölesi ve dâmâdı Handân Ağazâde Abdulbâkî Ağa'nın oğludur. Ulemâdan tahsîl-i ma'ârif edib Müderris Abdî Efendi'nin niyâbetinde kâtibi oldu. Ba'dehû Amasya hâsları kâtibi olup tûl-i müddet bu me'mûriyyetinde devâm ederek 1121'de vefât etdi. Erbâb-ı ma'ârifden şâir, hoş-sohbet muhibb-i hânedân-ı risâlet bir zât-ı sütûde-sîret idi. Birâderi Handân Efendi'dir.

In English: A man of Amasya, son of Abdulbâkî Ağa of the line of Handân Ağa, the slave and son-in-law of Sa'dî Çelebi, whose mosque stands in the Üçler quarter. Having acquired learning and letters from the scholars, he became secretary to Müderris Abdî Efendi while the latter served as deputy judge. Later he became secretary of the imperial estates of Amasya and, remaining in this post for a long time, died in 1121. He was a learned poet, pleasant in conversation, a lover of the Prophet's family and a man of praiseworthy character. His brother is Handân Efendi.

The Family of Handân Ağa

Çâkerî's family is linked to one of the wealthiest scholars of early seventeenth-century Amasya. Ahîzâde Sa'dî Çelebi, who retired from the judiciary and settled in Amasya, built a mosque with a school beside it in the Üçler quarter and had a wooden bridge put up in front of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque. According to Hüsameddin he had more than thirty slaves and some twenty slave women; when he freed them he would marry them off and give them a share of his property. He stipulated that the administration of his endowments should pass to his freedman and son-in-law Handân Ağa and to Handân Ağa's male descendants. When Sa'dî Çelebi died at the end of Zilkade 1039 (July 1630), the trusteeship passed to Handân Ağa. In later centuries the post stayed with Handân Ağa's descendants, and branches of the family were known by names such as Handânzâdes, Şîrînzâdes and Handânoğulları. The piece on Üçler Quarter follows the later history of the quarter, the mosque and the endowment.

Çâkerî's father Abdulbâkî Ağa belonged to the generation Hüsameddin calls "Handân Ağazâde", that is, he was a son or grandson of Handân Ağa. The entry leaves this detail open. Names that carried on the family's endowment tradition, such as the trustee Şîrîn Ali Efendi, appear in other entries of Hüsameddin. Çâkerî's brother Handân Efendi has an entry of his own; Hüsameddin records him under the heading Handân Efendi-Handân Ağazâde el-Hâc. For the founder of the family, see the entry Handân Ağa-Mütevellî.

Abdî Efendi's Secretary

The most informative sentence of the entry links Çâkerî to Müderris Abdî Efendi, author of the anthology of Amasya poets. Besides teaching at a madrasa, Abdî Efendi, according to Hüsameddin's wording, served for a time as deputy judge (naib), and Çâkerî was his secretary in that period. A deputy judge's secretary drafted the court's records, legal deeds and correspondence. The post placed Çâkerî beside the man at the centre of Amasya's literary circle. Abdî Efendi had written his anthology to cover the poets who came up between 1000 and 1081 (1592-1670). Considering that Çâkerî died in 1121, he must have been a young secretary in the years he worked for Abdî Efendi. Whether the anthology contained an entry on him is unknown; in what Hüsameddin quotes, his name is not tied to the anthology. Abdî Efendi's circle and the fate of his anthology are the subject of Abdî Efendi: The Lost Anthology of Amasya Poets and Its Poems.

The post he took up later was that of secretary of Amasya's imperial estates. The hâs were large grants whose revenues were assigned directly to the sultan, to members of the dynasty or to high officials; their secretary kept the registers of these revenues. Hüsameddin says he stayed in this work "for a long time". Running a family endowment and keeping a secretary's registers called for the same skill in accounts and records; Çâkerî's choice of this path fits the family tradition.

Character and Pen Name

The words Hüsameddin chooses for Çâkerî go a little beyond the usual formula of "poet and secretary". "Hoş-sohbet" presents him as a sought-after talker in gatherings, and "muhibb-i hânedân-ı risâlet" as someone who felt a deep love for the Prophet's descendants, the ehl-i beyt. This last trait suggests that his poems may have included praise of the ehl-i beyt; but since no text survives, this remains no more than a guess.

The Persian word "çâker" means servant, retainer, slave. In divan poetry it is often used to express humility before the beloved or before a great person, and there are other poets who bore the pen name "Çâkerî". The only information that distinguishes Çâkerî Ahmed Çelebi of Amasya from the others who used the same name is the family and career record in Hüsameddin's entry.

His Poetry

Not one of his poems has been found. Hüsameddin quotes not a single couplet, and no poem in the anthologies is known to be attributed to the Çâkerî of Amasya. The short record of his family and posts stands, in the Ottoman original with explanations, under the title Çâkerî Ahmed Çelebi-Handân Ağazâde.

Chronology

End of Zilkade 1039 (July 1630): Sa'dî Çelebi dies; the trusteeship of his endowments passes to Handân Ağa.

1121 (1709-10): Çâkerî Ahmed Çelebi dies while secretary of the imperial estates of Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources