The son of one of the chief treasurers from Amasya under Süleyman the Magnificent, Cemâlî Mehmed Çelebi made his career as a secretary in Istanbul, in the chancery of the Imperial Council. He died in 981 (1573-74) while a tezkireci of the grand vizierate, one of the secretaries who handled the grand vizier's correspondence. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar calls him "secretary, poet, fond of witticisms" and adds that his brother Kemâlî Ahmed Çelebi was also a poet. Not a single specimen of either brother's verse has survived.

Life

Hüsameddin's entry in Amasya Tarihi is short and gives most of its weight to the family:

Amasya’nın Yenice karyesinde bir câmi ve mektebi ve İstanbul’da bir câmi’ ve dârü’l-hadîsi olup 953’de vefât eden bâş-defterdâr Amasyalı Yenicelizâde Mahmûd Çelebi bin İskender Çelebi mahdûmu ve Amasyalı Hüsâm Bey’in kerîmezâdesidir. İstanbul’da tahsîl-i ma’ârif edib Dîvân-ı Hümâyûn kalemine girdi. Orada tefeyyüz ederek sadâret tezkirecisi olup 981’de vefât etdi. Kâtib, şâir, letâ’ife mâ’il bir zât idi. Birâderi Kemâlî Ahmed Çelebi de şu’arâdandır.

In translation: He is the son of the chief treasurer Yenicelizâde Mahmûd Çelebi of Amasya, son of İskender Çelebi, who had a mosque and a school in the village of Yenice near Amasya and a mosque and a hadith college in Istanbul, and who died in 953; through his mother he is the grandson of Hüsâm Bey of Amasya. He studied in Istanbul and entered the chancery of the Imperial Council. There he rose to become tezkireci of the grand vizierate and died in 981. He was a secretary, a poet and fond of witticisms. His brother Kemâlî Ahmed Çelebi was also a poet.

The life that emerges from the entry is the ordinary path of a family of the scribal service: a son brought up in Istanbul thanks to his father's position entered the central bureau of the state as a secretary and rose as far as the grand vizier's office. His year of birth, which grand viziers he served and where he was buried are not in the entry. The phrase "letâ'ife mâ'il" describes a man of the gathering who loved jokes and witty sayings.

His Father Mahmûd Çelebi

The information Hüsameddin gives largely agrees with the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi article on the Defterdar Mosque in Eyüp. According to Semavi Eyice, this mosque was built by Nazlı Mahmud Çelebi, who served as chief treasurer for about seven years in all under Süleyman the Magnificent, in 944-949 (1537-1542) and 951-953 (1544-1546). The building is dated 948 (1541-42); in its courtyard there was a wooden madrasa, and beside it a stone school. Mahmud Çelebi was a calligrapher who had received his licence from Şeyh Hamdullah, and the Arabic verse chronogram over the door of the mosque is in his own hand. On the foot stone of his open tomb in the graveyard can be read the name of Defterdar Mahmud Çelebi, who died in 953 (1546).

The office of chief treasurer, a mosque with a madrasa in Istanbul and the year of death 953 agree with what Hüsameddin gives for Yenicelizâde Mahmûd Çelebi. Cemâlî's father was therefore very probably the founder of the Defterdar Mosque in Eyüp. The sources themselves never make this match: Eyice's article names Mahmud Çelebi by the byname "Nazlı" and says nothing of Amasya, Yenice or his family. The building Hüsameddin calls a "hadith college" also appears in Eyice as a "madrasa".

Confusion over the Family in the Sources

The entry introduces Mahmûd Çelebi as "son of İskender Çelebi". Hüsameddin mentions the family from the village of Yenice near Amasya elsewhere as well; its most famous member is Yenicelizâde İskender Çelebi, chief treasurer of Süleyman the Magnificent, who was executed in Baghdad in 941 (1534) during the Iraq campaign. Yet in İskender Çelebi's entry Hüsameddin writes that he had two sons named Ahmed and Mehmed and a brother named Ali Çelebi, and adds that he could find neither the biographies nor the descendants of the sons. According to the same entry the man who became chief treasurer after İskender's execution was also a "Mahmûd Çelebi", but no family tie is attributed to him there; Hüsameddin also writes that this Mahmûd Çelebi fell from favour in Ramazan 942 (March 1536), after the execution of İbrahim Paşa. Eyice, for his part, begins Nazlı Mahmud Çelebi's term as chief treasurer in 944. Elsewhere in the third volume, listing the great treasurers Amasya produced, Hüsameddin speaks of "Yenicelizâde İskender, Sarı Kadızâde Mahmûd Çelebiler"; this wording seems to attach the treasurer Mahmûd Çelebi to another family.

This picture can be read in two ways. Either Mahmûd Çelebi really was İskender's son and gave his own sons the names of his brothers, or Hüsameddin confused İskender Çelebi's sons Ahmed and Mehmed with the sons of Mahmûd Çelebi, who became treasurer after him. That Cemâlî Mehmed and Kemâlî Ahmed bear the same names as İskender's sons strengthens the second possibility. The contradiction between the sources has not been resolved, and the family information given here should be read with that reservation. İskender Çelebi's life and execution are set out in detail in the entry İskender Çelebi-Yenicelizâde. Of his mother's father, Hüsâm Bey of Amasya, the entry gives nothing beyond the name.

His Poetry

The names Cemâlî and Kemâlî that stand before the brothers' given names are left unexplained in the entry; it is the first that occupies the place of a pen name in the heading. Hüsameddin does not say from which source he learned of Cemâlî's poetry, and he quotes no couplet of his. None of Cemâlî Mehmed Çelebi's poems has been found. Kemâlî Ahmed Çelebi, the brother, does not even receive an entry of his own. Both brothers' names appear in the list of poets compiled by Metin Hakverdioğlu.

Chronology

941 (1534): Yenicelizâde İskender Çelebi is executed in Baghdad.

944-949 (1537-1542) and 951-953 (1544-1546): Mahmud Çelebi serves as chief treasurer.

948 (1541-42): The Defterdar Mosque in Eyüp is completed.

953 (1546): The chief treasurer Mahmûd Çelebi dies.

981 (1573-74): Cemâlî Mehmed Çelebi, tezkireci of the grand vizierate, dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources