Celâlî Mehmed Çelebi was a divan secretary of Amasya who lost, one after another, every master he served. He began as a secretary in the divan of Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed) in Amasya; after the prince's death he served as divan secretary to Şâdî Paşa and then to Lala Sinan Paşa, went on the pilgrimage with Sinan Paşa, and returned to Amasya when the pasha died there. In 934 (1527-28) he became secretary of the endowments of Sultan Bayezid, and he died in the event Hüsameddin calls "the incident of 940". Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, the only source on him, ends the entry with the words "poet, secretary, with a fine hand"; not a line from his pen has come down to us.

Life

The eighth-volume entry in Amasya Tarihi lists, in order, the households Celâlî served:

Amasyalıdır. Yörgüç Paşa’nın emekdâr kethüdâlarından Hamza Ağazâde Ramazân Ağa’nın mahdûmudur. Ulemâ ve üdebâdan tahsîl-i ulûm u ma’ârif ederek Şehzâde Sultân Ahmed’in ketebe-i dîvânı zümresine iltihâk etdi. 918’de Şehzâde-i müşârün-ileyhin kazâ’en vefâtında bir müddet menkûb olup sonra Şâdî Paşa’ya intisâb ederek onun kâtib-i dîvânı olup Sivas’a gitdi. Şâdî Paşa’nın vefâtından sonra Sivas Beylerbeyi Lala Sinan Paşa’nın kâtib-i dîvânı oldu. 931’de Sinan Paşa emîrü’l-hâcc olarak âzim-i Hicâz oldukta beraber gidip surre-i hümâyûn kethüdâsı oldu. Paşa’nın orada vefâtıyla Amasya’ya geldi. 934’de Sultân Bâyezîd evkâfı kâtibi olup 940 vak’asında vefât etdi. Erbâb-ı ma’ârifden şâir, kâtib, hattı güzel idi.

Rendered into English: He is from Amasya, the son of Ramazan Ağa, son of Hamza Ağa, one of the veteran stewards of Yörgüç Paşa. He studied with scholars and men of letters and joined the divan secretaries of Şehzade Sultan Ahmed. When the prince died in 918 he was for a time without office and out of favour; then he attached himself to Şâdî Paşa, became his divan secretary and went to Sivas. After Şâdî Paşa's death he became divan secretary of Lala Sinan Paşa, beylerbey of Sivas. In 931, when Sinan Paşa set out for the Hejaz as commander of the pilgrimage, he went with him as steward of the sultan's surre, the purse sent to Mecca and Medina. When the pasha died there he came back to Amasya. In 934 he became secretary of the endowments of Sultan Bayezid, and he died in the incident of 940. He was one of the men of learning, a poet, a secretary and a fine calligrapher.

The word "menkûb" describes the state of a household whose master had fallen: when Şehzade Ahmed lost the struggle for the throne, his men were left without office for a time and had to wait until they found a new patron. Hüsameddin uses the same word in this volume for other men of Amasya from the prince's circle. The struggle for the throne and the death of Şehzade Ahmed are treated in a separate article.

In the Service of Şâdî Paşa and Sinan Paşa

Celâlî's new master, Şâdî Paşa, was the son of the former grand vizier İshak Paşa of Amasya. According to the entry Hüsameddin wrote for him, the pasha became beylerbey of Amasya in 918, came to Amasya a second time in 922, and in 924, when the seat of the province was moved to Sivas because of the movements of the Celali rebels around Sivas, became beylerbey of Sivas. In 926 he moved to the beylerbeylik of Karaman, and he died in Konya in Rebiülevvel 930 (1524). Celâlî's journey to Sivas with the pasha should therefore fall in the year 924. When Şâdî Paşa died he was no longer in Sivas but in Konya; whether Celâlî left the pasha in 926 and stayed in Sivas, or remained in his service until his death, cannot be learned from the entry. The full text of Hüsameddin's entry on the pasha appears under the heading Şâdî Paşa-İshâk Paşazâde.

Who Lala Sinan Paşa was is not explained in the entry; Hüsameddin mentions him only as beylerbey of Sivas and commander of the pilgrimage of 931 (1525). The steward of the surre was one of the officials who took part in distributing the money and gifts sent with the pilgrim caravan to Mecca and Medina. The pasha's death in the Hejaz left Celâlî without a master once again.

The Incident of 940

The "incident of 940" in which Celâlî died is an event Hüsameddin refers to in short form in many entries. As told in the third volume of the book, when the grand vizier İbrahim Paşa set out on the Iraq campaign with the army of Anatolia, the Shi'i communities around Amasya took heart and, at dawn in Zilhicce of the year 940 (June-July 1534), suddenly raided the city. The sanjak governor Mehmed Bey, known as "Deli Pervâne", was besieged in his house and died fighting; many people in the city were killed and property was plundered; when the warden of the citadel and the sipahis resisted, the raiders were driven off. Hüsameddin writes that he believes Sultan Murad, son of Şehzade Ahmed, was at the head of the raid, stating that this is his own conjecture. How Celâlî died in the event is not known. If Hüsameddin's conjecture is right, Celâlî died in a raid tied to the son of the prince in whose divan he had served as a young secretary; the source does not dwell on this coincidence.

His Poetry

Hüsameddin gives entries in this volume to three men bearing the name, and the Kethüdâzâde is the earliest of them. The others are Celâlî Mehmed Ağa (Türedioğlu), saz poet and sipahi of the mid-seventeenth century, and the secretary Celâlzâde Celâlî Mehmed Çelebi, who died towards the century's end; Metin Hakverdioğlu lists all three separately among the poets of the eighth volume. The "Celâlî" in the heading is most probably the Kethüdâzâde's pen name. Hüsameddin does not state it, nor does he cite a couplet. None of Celâlî Mehmed Çelebi's poems has been found.

Chronology

918 (1512-13): Şehzade Ahmed dies; his divan secretary Celâlî is for a time without office.

924 (1518): Şâdî Paşa becomes beylerbey of Sivas; Celâlî goes to Sivas as his divan secretary.

930 (1524): Şâdî Paşa dies in Konya.

931 (1525): Lala Sinan Paşa goes to the Hejaz as commander of the pilgrimage, with Celâlî as steward of the surre. The pasha dies in the Hejaz.

934 (1527-28): Celâlî becomes secretary of the endowments of Sultan Bayezid.

Zilhicce 940 (June-July 1534): The raid on Amasya; Celâlî Mehmed Çelebi dies in it.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources