Câmî Ahmed Efendi was a judge (kadı) and poet of Amasya who lived at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. He was one of the descendants of the Halveti shaykh Habîb-i Karamânî, who lies buried in front of the tomb of Mehmed Pasha in Amasya; he rose in the judicial profession, was for a time judge of his own city, and ended his life in İstanbul as deputy judge (naib) of Eyüp. Almost everything known about him rests on the short entry in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi. A single couplet of his poetry remains; Hüsameddin writes that he saw it in the biographical anthology of poets (tezkire) of Kafzâde Fâizî. Hüsameddin's entry is published in full on the site as Câmî Ahmed Efendi-Habîbzâde.

Hüsameddin's Record

The entry stands in the "cim" section of the eighth volume, immediately after that of Kutbzâde Câmî Ahmed Çelebi, chancellor of Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed):

Câmî Ahmed Efendi-Habîbzâde Amasyalıdır. Amasya'da Mehmed Paşa türbesi önünde medfûn olan eş-Şeyh Habîb-i Karamânî Hazretleri'nin ahfâd-ı kirâmından ve ulemâdan Abdulbâkî Efendi bin Ahmed Efendi bin eş-Şeyh Habîb-i Karamânî mahdûmudur. Amasya'da tahsîl-i ulûm edib meslek-i kudâta girdi. Hayli kasabât u bilâda kâdı oldu. Bir kaç def'a İstanbul'a gidip terakkî gördü. 1006'da Amasya kâdısı olup, Karayazıcı Abdulhalîm Amasya sancâğı Beyi olduğu 1008 senesi muharreminde İstanbul'a gitdi. Bundan sonra Medîne-i Ebâ Eyyûb el-Ensârî nâibi olup 1014'de tekâ'üd edildi. 1019'da dâr-ı bekâya rihlet etdi. Ebû Eyyûb-i Ensârî türbesi civârında medfûndur. Âlim, fâzıl, şâir idi.

In English: Câmî Ahmed Efendi Habîbzâde is from Amasya. He is the son of Abdülbâki Efendi, one of the learned and one of the honoured descendants of Shaykh Habîb-i Karamânî, who lies buried in front of the tomb of Mehmed Pasha in Amasya; Abdülbâki Efendi was the son of Ahmed Efendi, and he of Shaykh Habîb-i Karamânî. He studied in Amasya and entered the judicial profession. He was judge in a great many towns and cities. He went to İstanbul several times and was promoted. In 1006 he became judge of Amasya, and in the month of Muharrem of the year 1008, when Karayazıcı Abdülhalim became governor of the sanjak of Amasya, he went to İstanbul. After this he became deputy judge of the town of Eyüp and was retired in 1014. He died in 1019. He is buried near the tomb of Eyüp Sultan. He was learned, virtuous and a poet.

Life

According to the lineage Hüsameddin gives, Câmî was the great-grandson of Habîb-i Karamânî. He calls his father Abdülbâki Efendi "one of the learned"; the family was part of the city's learned circle around Habîb's tomb and the Mehmed Pasha complex. Câmî grew up in this circle and passed from the madrasa to the judiciary. Which towns he served in is not written; Hüsameddin says only that he was judge in "hayli", a great many places, and that he went to İstanbul several times and was promoted.

The most distinct date in his life is his judgeship of Amasya in 1006 (1597-98). His judgeship ends in the same sentence as the name of Karayazıcı Abdülhalim, one of the best-known leaders of the Celâlî revolts that shook Anatolia: Hüsameddin writes that Câmî went to İstanbul in Muharrem 1008 (1599), when Karayazıcı became governor of the sanjak of Amasya. He does not say whether his departure from the city had anything to do with this event; the two pieces of information standing side by side bring a connection to mind, but this may be a meaning drawn from the text and is not certain. After this Câmî served as deputy judge in the town of Eyüp in İstanbul, was retired in 1014 (1605-06) and died in 1019 (1610-11). His grave is near the tomb of Eyüp Sultan.

His Poetry

After saying that Câmî was "learned, virtuous and a poet", Hüsameddin quotes a single couplet with the words "this couplet was seen in the 'Kafzâde Tezkiresi'". Kafzâde Fâizî was a poet who died in İstanbul in 1622 and wrote an anthology of poets of the early seventeenth century called Zübdetü'l-eş'âr. Kafzâde's anthology itself was not available for this study; the couplet is given in the form Hüsameddin quotes it. No other poem or divan of Câmî's is known. The couplet, which has a page of its own in this category, is an opening couplet (matla) that says the beloved's arrows have lodged in the body and turned each bone into a "kandîl-i tîr", describing the pain of love with an extravagant image.

Another poet who bore the same name and lived in Amasya may cause confusion. Kutbzâde Câmî Ahmed Çelebi, described by Hüsameddin in the entry just before, was the nephew of Molla Câmî and chancellor of Şehzade Ahmed, is also known as Kutbî-i Câmî, and lived about a century earlier; he has a separate page on the site under the heading Kutbî-i Câmî. Hüsameddin draws no family connection between the two Câmî Ahmeds.

Bibliography

Online sources