Cenânî Hüseyin Çelebi was a poet who rose as a divan secretary at the Amasya court of Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed), son of Bayezid II, and who won renown for his calligraphy. Because of his father's name, Rıdvan Çelebi, the biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire) call him "Rıdvanzâde". His life came to a tragic end together with the prince's death in 1513. The entry in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi and the brief notices of the two great sixteenth-century tezkire writers, Latîfî and Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi, make up almost everything we know about him. From these sources a single opening couplet (matla) and a three-couplet fragment of a ghazal have come down to us. Cenânî is also discussed, together with the other little-known poets around Şehzade Ahmed, in Prince Ahmed's Circle in Amasya: Its Poets and Poems. This page returns to the sources and expands what is said there.

Hüsameddin's Record

In the eighth volume of Amasya Tarihi, in the section where he lists the notable people of Amasya in alphabetical order, Hüsameddin gives the poet the following entry:

Cenânî Hüseyin Çelebi-Rıdvânzâde Amasya ümenâsından Geldiklanlı Kâdı Abdüsselâm Çelebizâde Rıdvân Çelebi'nin mahdûmudur. Pederi Amasya vâlîsi Şehzâde Sultân Ahmed'in havâss-ı kurenâsından olduğu esnâda Amasya hattâtlarından Abdullah Efendi'den hutût-ı mütenevvi'ayı ve Münîrî Efendi'den edebiyâtı ahz u tederrüs etdi. Ba'dehû Şehzâde-i müşârün-ileyhin kâtib-i dîvânı olarak iştihâr edib pederinin vefâtında yerine defter emîni oldu. Şehzâdenin kurenâsından olduğu münâsebetle 918 senesi zilhiccesinde şehzâdenin i'dâmından bir mâh sonra bu da i'dâm edildi. Erbâb-ı ma'ârifden olup kâtib, şâir, edîb, hattât-ı meşhûr idi. Mahlasını Mevlânâ Latîfî Çelebi bâ-i muvahhade ile "Cenâbî" diyor. Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi de nûn ile "Cenânî" kayd ediyor.

In English the entry reads: Cenânî Hüseyin Çelebi is the son of Rıdvan Çelebi, son of Kadı Abdüsselam Çelebi of Geldiklan, of one of Amasya's families in government service. While his father was among the closest men of Şehzade Sultan Ahmed, governor of Amasya, he learned the various scripts from Abdullah Efendi, one of the calligraphers of Amasya, and literature from Münîrî Efendi. He then became known as the prince's divan secretary, and when his father died he succeeded him as keeper of the registers (defter emini). Because he was one of the prince's intimates, he too was executed in the month of Zilhicce 918, one month after the prince's execution. He was a learned secretary, poet, man of letters and a famous calligrapher. Latîfî writes his pen name (mahlas) with a "b" as "Cenâbî", while Kınalızâde records it with an "n" as "Cenânî".

Hüsameddin goes on to quote the words of Latîfî and Kınalızâde. Apart from these passages, whose source he names, he does not say where he found his information on the poet's teachers, his office as keeper of the registers and his execution. Since these details are absent from the tezkires, they must rest on local records or family tradition available to Hüsameddin; this is an inference.

Life

Cenânî's date of birth is unknown. His family is associated with the district (nahiye) of Geldiklan, which belonged to Amasya, and in Hüsameddin's words it belonged to the "ümenâ", the class of trusted officials in financial and administrative affairs. His grandfather was Kadı Abdüsselam Çelebi. Hüsameddin describes his father, Rıdvan Çelebi, in a separate entry: he was from Amasya, the son of Abdüsselam Çelebi, son of Pîr Sun'ullah Halvetî and one of the leading judges; having learned scholarship and the secretary's craft, he attached himself to Şehzade Bayezid, the future Bayezid II, then governor of Amasya. He was among Bayezid's divan secretaries and is recorded as chief of the chancery staff (emînü'l-kalem) in 879 (1474-75) and as city superintendent (şehremini) in 886 (1481). Hüsameddin closes this entry with the words "his son is Cenânî Hüseyin Çelebi, one of the poets". The family thus stayed attached to the pen of the princely divan for two generations, from Bayezid's years in Amasya to the governorship of his son Ahmed.

Hüseyin Çelebi grew up in this milieu. According to Hüsameddin he learned the scripts from the Amasya calligrapher Abdullah Efendi and literature from Münîrî, Şehzade Ahmed's chancellor (nişancı) and the best-known poet of the circle. He became the prince's divan secretary and, when his father died, took over his post as keeper of the registers, responsible for the financial records of the sanjak. Both Latîfî and Kınalızâde introduce him as "Rıdvanzâde, of the class of officials from near Amasya"; neither says more about his life.

On his death the sources point in the same direction but differ in detail. Latîfî writes that he "passed on", that is, departed this world, in the time of Sultan Selim; Kınalızâde likewise says that he submitted to his appointed hour in Selim's reign. Neither mentions an execution. Hüsameddin, by contrast, ties the death directly to the fate of Şehzade Ahmed and records that the poet was executed because he was the prince's intimate. The date raises a difficulty. According to Feridun Emecen's article "Selim I" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Şehzade Ahmed was defeated by Selim on the plain of Yenişehir on 8 Safer 919 (15 April 1513) and was caught and killed while trying to flee. The Zilhicce 918 (February-March 1513) given by Hüsameddin falls before that date. If the record's phrase "one month after the prince's execution" is taken as the basis, Cenânî's death would fall in the spring of 919, around May 1513; this is a calculation and could not be confirmed from documents.

His Connection with Amasya

Cenânî's tie to Amasya has several layers. His family came from Geldiklan, a district of Amasya, and the tezkires introduce him as someone "from near Amasya". He and his father served as secretaries in the divans of two princes who resided in Amasya, Bayezid and Ahmed. His training, too, came from Amasya masters: the calligrapher Abdullah Efendi and Münîrî. Since Şehzade Ahmed was in Amasya from 1481 to 1513, Cenânî's years as secretary and keeper of the registers were very probably spent entirely in this city.

What links the poet to the prince's circle is his position as the prince's divan secretary and intimate. His name does not appear in the list Hüsameddin gives of the poets present at Şehzade Ahmed's circumcision festivities in 911 (1505). It is therefore unknown how far he took part in the poetic gatherings of the court. Given that his teacher Münîrî was the leading poet of that circle, it is reasonable to assume that Cenânî lived in close contact with it; this, too, is an inference.

His Poetry

There is no record that Cenânî left a divan. Two pieces of his poetry survive, both preserved by the tezkires. Latîfî gives an opening couplet and a three-couplet fragment of a ghazal; Kınalızâde repeats the same opening couplet with small differences, and Hüsameddin records it once more when quoting Latîfî's text. The two pieces appear in this category as separate articles with their original texts, their meaning in English and commentary: the couplet beginning "Çü fırsat ʿıyşe el virdi geçürgil hoş bu devrânı" and the ghazal "Gözüm ol yâr içün pür-nem degülsüñ".

The judgement of the tezkire writers is measured. Latîfî describes him as a man of learning, good-humoured and playful in conversation, but says that his poetry is "nukûş-ı hayâlâttan sâde", plain of the embroidery of imagination. He reserves his real praise for the calligraphy: Cenânî's hand is faultless and unerring, and even exacting scribes and accomplished calligraphers cannot find in it a flaw the size of half a dot. Latîfî rounds off these words with a couplet describing a pen that strings pearls along the breast of every line and adorns the page with a script of rubies. He then says of the ghazal he quotes, "Bu şi'ri kem degüldür", this poem of his is not bad. Kınalızâde is harsher and counts his poems as "mücerred kelâm-ı mevzûn makûlesinden", mere metrical speech. What the two writers share is the view that Cenânî was known for his pen more than for his poetry.

The spelling of the pen name is also a problem. Hüsameddin says that Latîfî writes it "Cenâbî". In Rıdvan Canım's edition of Latîfî, however, the entry bears the heading "Cenânî", and immediately before it there is a separate entry for a "Cenâbî Beg" who belonged to Sultan Süleyman's company. The introduction to the edition notes that in some manuscripts the name of the poet from Amasya is confused between "Cenâbî" and "Cenânî". In the edition of Kınalızâde the name is read "Cinânî"; when the writer describes the poet's death with the words "karîn-i hûr u rıdvân olmagla 'azm-i gülzâr-ı cinân itmişdür" (becoming the companion of the houris and of Rıdvan, the keeper of paradise, he set out for the rose gardens of the heavens), he plays both on his father's name Rıdvan and on the word "cinân" (gardens of paradise). This wordplay supports reading the pen name with an "n". The form Cenânî, which is the usual one on this site, has been preferred.

Chronology

879 (1474-75): His father Rıdvan Çelebi appears as emînü'l-kalem in the divan of Şehzade Bayezid.

886 (1481): Rıdvan Çelebi is recorded as şehremini. In the same year Şehzade Ahmed takes up the governorship of Amasya.

Zilhicce 918 (February-March 1513): According to Hüsameddin, Cenânî is executed.

8 Safer 919 (15 April 1513): Şehzade Ahmed is defeated at Yenişehir and killed.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources