Celîlî Mehmed Çelebi was one of the professors who kept company with the poets of Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed) at Amasya, and a poet who took up the judge's career after that circle broke up. He had studied with Münîrî; his line went back to Pîr Sun'ullah, one of the great Halveti figures of Amasya. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar counts him "kibâr-ı kudât u şu'arâdan", among the great judges and poets, and writes that he died in Amasya in 943 (1536-37). The only poem attached to him today is a seven-couplet ghazal (gazel) that Hüsameddin quotes from the response-poem anthology Mecma'u'n-Nezâ'ir. Hüsameddin says the ghazal was written for the handsome Dârâ Çelebi, a kinsman whom Celîlî raised in his house. Which Celîlî the pen name in the anthology belongs to must, however, be discussed separately.

Hüsameddin's Record

Among the names beginning with the letter "cim" in the eighth volume of Amasya Tarihi, the entry reads:

Amasyalıdır. Kudâttan Abdüsselâm Çelebi bin Abdulcelîl Çelebi bin Pîr Sun'ullâh Halvetî mahdûmudur. Amasya'da Mevlânâ Münîrî Çelebi'den ulûm-ı edebîyye ve şer'iyyeyi ahz edib Şehzâde Sultân Ahmed devrinde müderris ü şu'arâsıyla musâhib oldu. 918'de Şehzâde-i müşârün-ileyhin gaybûbetinde bir müddet menkûb olup 920'de Sultân Selîm Hân'ın Amasya'yı teşrîfinde Atabeg Gâzi medresesiyle taltîf edildi. 926'da kâdı olup devr-i bilâd ederek 943'de Amasya'da vefât etdi. Kibâr-ı kudât u şu'arâdan idi. Mahdûmları Abdüsselâm, Abdulcelîl, Abdul'alîm Efendiler meşâhîr-i kudâttandırlar.

Rendered into English: He was from Amasya. He was the son of Abdüsselâm Çelebi, one of the judges; Abdüsselâm was the son of Abdülcelîl Çelebi, and he of Pîr Sun'ullah Halvetî. In Amasya he learned the literary and legal sciences from Mevlana Münîrî Çelebi; in the time of Şehzade Sultan Ahmed he became a professor and a conversation companion of the prince's poets. In 918 (1512), while the prince was away from Amasya, he fell from favour and suffered hardship for a while; in 920 (1514), when Sultan Selim Han came to Amasya, he was rewarded with the Atabey Gazi Madrasa. In 926 (1520) he became a judge, moved from city to city, and died in Amasya in 943. He was one of the great judges and poets. His sons Abdüsselâm, Abdülcelîl and Abdülalîm Efendi were well-known judges.

Life and Years in Amasya

Celîlî's youth coincided with the most brilliant years of Amasya's princely court. Şehzade Ahmed, son of Bayezid II, was governor of Amasya from 1481 to 1512 and had gathered in his palace a circle that brought poets and scholars together. Celîlî's teacher Münîrî also belonged to this circle; he was a poet who had served as nişancı (head of the chancery) and written the longest verse life of the Prophet in Turkish literature. Hüsameddin's phrase "şu'arâsıyla musâhib" tells us that Celîlî was a professor who kept company with the prince's poets and took part in their conversations.

The year 918 was the year this circle broke up. Selim I had come to the throne, Şehzade Ahmed had entered the struggle for the throne and left Amasya. During this absence, which Hüsameddin calls "gaybûbet", Celîlî is said to have remained "menkûb", that is, struck by misfortune and fallen from favour; what he went through is not told in detail. That the new sultan gave him the Atabey Gazi Madrasa when he came to Amasya in 920 shows that some of Şehzade Ahmed's men were pardoned within a short time. After 926 Celîlî entered the judicial career and served "devr-i bilâd", that is, by being appointed from one city to another. In which cities he was judge is not recorded. He died in 943 in his home town of Amasya.

Family

Celîlî's father, a judge, was one of the grandsons of Pîr Sun'ullah Halvetî, also called the sheikh of the tanners. This house gave several poets to fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Amasya. According to other entries of Hüsameddin, Pîr Mehmed Çelebi, son of Abdüsselâm Çelebi, wrote poetry under the pen name "Sun'î", and the son of another son, Rıdvan Çelebi, was Cenânî Hüseyin Çelebi, a poet who grew up in the circle of Şehzade Ahmed. If this Abdüsselâm is the same person as Celîlî's father, Sun'î would be Celîlî's brother and Cenânî his nephew; but since Hüsameddin does not give the lineage the same way in every entry, this link is not certain. From the same line also came the clerk and poet Saîd Çelebi.

Another member of the family was Dârâ Çelebi, remembered for his beauty. According to Hüsameddin, Dârâ was born in Konya, came to Amasya in 918 with his father İsfendiyâr Çelebi, and when his father died while he was still small, grew up "with Celîlî Mehmed Çelebi, one of his relatives and of the poets". The poets of the city wrote ghazals and romances for his beauty for years; Hüsameddin records that Celîlî too wrote his known ghazal inspired by Dârâ's beauty. Dârâ's later life is traced in the page on Dârâ Çelebi.

His Poetry

Of Celîlî's poetry only one ghazal is known today. Hüsameddin gives it in a note added to the entry, saying "Dârâ Çelebî hakkında söylediği gazeli şudur" (this is the ghazal he spoke about Dârâ Çelebi), and cites Mecma'u'n-Nezâ'ir as its source. The seven-couplet ghazal is built from beginning to end on the imagery of the mosque and the prayer: the imam who sees the beloved's face turns his back to the prayer niche (mihrab), the eyebrows become the mihrab, the stature calls the lover to stand and then to prostrate himself. In the final couplet the poet addresses himself by his pen name and tells himself to make the beloved's threshold his place of prostration, letting the hypocrites go to the lodge and the mosque. The ghazal opening "Çün cemâlin gördü mescidde imâm ey dil-rübâ" has its own page with the original text, an English translation and commentary. Nothing suggests that Celîlî ever compiled a divan.

State of the Sources

The only source that presents Celîlî Mehmed Çelebi as a poet is Hüsameddin. In the great biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire) of the sixteenth century, that is, in Sehî, Latîfî, Âşık Çelebi, Kınalızâde and Beyânî, no entry for a Celîlî from Amasya could be found. The Celîlîs these tezkires know are others: Hâmidîzâde Celîlî of Bursa, a Celîlî of İznik, a Celîlî of Edirne who was a cotton quilter, and Abdülcelîl, the brother of Abdülganî Efendi. The best known of them is Hâmidîzâde Celîlî of Bursa; born in 893 (1488), he presented works to Selim I, left a divan and a quintet of narrative poems (hamse), and lived in the same years as Celîlî of Amasya.

This makes the attribution of the ghazal debatable. Edirneli Nazmî's Mecma'u'n-Nezâ'ir, according to Latîfî, gathers response poems written up to 940 (1533-34) and names the poets only by their pen names. The pen name alone does not show whether a ghazal in the anthology under "Celîlî" belongs to Celîlî of Amasya or to the far better known Celîlî of Bursa. Hüsameddin gives the ghazal to Celîlî of Amasya and connects it with Dârâ Çelebi; he does not explain the basis of this connection. Whether the ghazal is found in the divan of Hâmidîzâde Celîlî, and under which poet's name it is recorded in M. Fatih Köksal's edition of the Mecma'u'n-Nezâ'ir, has not yet been compared. Hüsameddin's record is followed here; the attribution remains an open question.

Chronology

918 (1512): Falls from favour for a while when Şehzade Ahmed leaves Amasya.

920 (1514): When Selim I comes to Amasya, becomes professor at the Atabey Gazi Madrasa.

926 (1520): Enters the judgeship.

943 (1536-37): Dies in Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources