Çeşmî Mehmed Çelebi was a secretary and poet of Amasya who lived during the years in which Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed), son of Bayezid II, governed the city. He served among the prince's divan secretaries, was named in the same circle as poets such as Mihrî Hatun, Figânî, Şermî and Münîrî, earned his living as a scribe after the prince's death, and died some time after 927 (1520-21). Almost everything known about him comes from Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya); no Çeşmî of Amasya has been found in the biographical anthologies of poets. The fact that Hüsameddin's work gives his name in one place as "Mehmed" and in another as "Ahmed" also leaves a small but unresolved question about his identity.

Two poems by Çeşmî have come down to us: a four-line kıt'a (quatrain) thought to have been composed on the execution of Figânî, and a couplet alluding to the prince's calligrapher Pâdişâh Ahmed Çelebi. Both are quoted by Hüsameddin. Each is given in this category in a separate article with its original text, an English rendering and a commentary. The other little-known poets of Prince Ahmed's court are brought together in the collective article on the poets of Prince Ahmed's circle.

Hüsameddin's Entry

The entry appears in the eighth volume of Amasya Tarihi, in the section where persons are arranged in the order of their names, under the heading "Çeşmî Mehmed Çelebi". The original text reads:

Çeşmî Mehmed Çelebi Amasyalıdır. Hâce Acem Alî Ağa'nın yaptırdığı çeşmelerinin nâzırı olan Alî Çelebi'nin mahdûmudur. Acem fuzalâsından Hüseyniye müderrisi Ebu'l-Hayr Efendi'den tahsîl-i ma'ârif edib Amasya vâlîsi Şehzâde Sultân Ahmed'in dîvânı ketebesinden oldu. Amasya şu'arâsından Mihrî, Figânî, Şermî, Şehrî, Münîrî Çelebiler ile musâhabât-ı edebiyyede bulunarak iştihâr edib şehzâdenin teveccühâtını kazandı. 918'de şehzâdenin i'dâmıyla dernekleri bozulup kitâbetle ta'ayyüş ederek 927 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi. Şâ'ir, edîb, kâtib idi.

In English: Çeşmî Mehmed Çelebi is from Amasya. He is the son of Ali Çelebi, the superintendent of the fountains built by Hâce Acem Ali Ağa. Having studied under Ebülhayr Efendi, one of the learned Persians and teacher at the Hüseyniye madrasa, he became one of the divan secretaries of Şehzade Sultan Ahmed, governor of Amasya. He became known by taking part in literary conversations with the Amasya poets Mihrî, Figânî, Şermî, Şehrî and Münîrî Çelebi, and won the prince's favour. When the prince was put to death in 918 their gatherings broke up; he made his living as a scribe and died after the year 927 (1520-21). He was a poet, a man of letters and a secretary.

Life

Çeşmî's date of birth is unknown. His father Ali Çelebi was the superintendent (nazır) of the fountains that Hâce Acem Ali Ağa had built in Amasya, that is, the official responsible for their upkeep and water supply. Given the closeness of the words "çeşme" (fountain) and "çeşm" (eye), one may suspect that the pen name Çeşmî was connected with this family office; but Hüsameddin does not say so, and it is equally possible that the name derives from the meaning "eye".

His teacher Ebülhayr Efendi was one of the Persian scholars whom Hüsameddin calls "Acem fuzalâsı". Ebülhayr Ahmed Efendi of Shirvan, who has an entry in the sixth volume of Amasya Tarihi, was a student of Davvani; he had come to Amasya in 888 (1483), stayed in the city at Prince Ahmed's wish and taught there, and in 906 (1500-01) was appointed teacher at the Hüseyin Ağa madrasa. He later became teacher at the Sultan Bayezid madrasa and mufti of Amasya, was for a time removed from Amasya with the judgeship of Sivas because he had grown too close to the prince, became Ahmed's kadıasker (chief military judge) when Ahmed proclaimed his sultanate in 918, and died that same year during the prince's defeat. Hüseyniye is the name of the Hüseyin Ağa madrasa; it is therefore very likely that Çeşmî's teacher was this scholar, but Hüsameddin does not connect the two entries and the identification is ours.

After completing his studies Çeşmî entered the prince's divan as a secretary. Ahmed's court in Amasya continued the circle that Bayezid II had formed here, and the prince had gathered poets, scholars and musicians around him. According to Hüsameddin, Çeşmî became known in this circle through his literary conversation and won the prince's favour. Hüsameddin writes that the circle broke up when the prince was put to death in 918. Çeşmî must then have found no new patron; he earned his living as a scribe and died after 927 (1520-21). Nothing is known of the place of his death or of his grave.

His Connection with Amasya and His Literary Circle

Çeşmî was from Amasya; his family served in the city's water works, he himself worked in the prince's divan in the city, and his literary life was spent entirely in Amasya. Hüsameddin counts him in three separate places among the well-known poets of Amasya. Describing the events of 903 (1497-98), he says that "among the poets of Amasya, Çeşmî Ahmed Çelebi and Mihrî Hâtun were renowned". Describing the circumcision feast that Prince Ahmed held for his sons in 911 (1505-06), he lists the Turkish poets known in Amasya at the time as "Çeşmî, Şermî, Figânî, Kâmî, Melîhî, Münîrî, Mihrî", and adds that the poets celebrated the feast with kasides (qasidas) and received rich rewards. Where he assesses the second period of Amasya as a whole, he gives a list of the city's poets beginning with "Çeşmî, Mihrî, Kâmî". It is noteworthy that Çeşmî's name stands first in all these lists, but Hüsameddin does not explain why.

Of the poets named as Çeşmî's companions in conversation, Mihrî Hatun is the woman poet of Amasya who left a divan. Figânî İshak Çelebi was a poet descended from the Torumtay family who was slandered and hanged in 912 (1507) because he had composed a satirical ballad against the Persian faction; according to the quatrain quoted by Hüsameddin, Çeşmî grieved over his death. In Hüsameddin's words Şermî was "the best mannered" of the circle and Münîrî "the most learned". The identity of Şehrî is uncertain. The calligrapher Pâdişâh Ahmed Çelebi, secretary in the prince's divan and later reisülküttab (chief of the scribes), also became the subject of one of Çeşmî's couplets. Several of these names have their own articles on the site: Mihrî Hatun and Figânî İshak Çelebi.

His Poetry

No divan or other work by Çeşmî is known. Both of the poems that have reached us come through Hüsameddin. The first is a four-line kıt'a. Hüsameddin says that he found it in an anthology of poets that came into his hands in Amasya, and remarks that it "must surely be about Figânî". The quatrain has the tone of a lament: the poet's two eyes weep without ceasing, his sighs choke his throat, the moaning of his heart makes the people weep, and the last line says "Figânî göklere yükseldi gitdi". "Figân" means a cry of lament; the line says both that the poet's lament rose to the heavens and that the poet named Figânî rose to the heavens and departed. That the quatrain was written on Figânî's death is Hüsameddin's conjecture.

The second is a single couplet. In it the down appearing on the beloved's face, the "hat" of divan poetry, is called "hatt-ı pâdişâhî", and it is said that through this down the beloved's fortune has opened and she has become the refuge of lovers. Hüsameddin writes that the beautiful handwriting of Pâdişâh Ahmed Çelebi was called "hatt-ı Pâdişâhî" and that Çeşmî meant him in this couplet. The couplet thus brings together the beloved's face and a calligrapher's script in a single expression.

These two examples suggest that wordplay, and especially the tevriye (double entendre) that places a person's name inside the poem, held an important place in Çeşmî's verse. It is not possible, however, to draw a general judgement from two pieces.

The State of the Sources

The only source for Çeşmî is Hüsameddin. In describing this period Hüsameddin says that he drew on Münîrî's Mecmûa-i Târîhiyye, now lost, and on an anthology of poets he had found in Amasya; these sources can no longer be checked. No record of a Çeşmî of Amasya has been found in the tezkires of Sehî, Latîfî, Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde.

The two forms of the name raise a further question. In the entry on poets he is called "Çeşmî Mehmed Çelebi", whereas the record for the year 903 in the third volume says "Çeşmî Ahmed Çelebi". Both records belong to the same period, the same city and the same circle, and in both Çeşmî is named together with Mihrî Hatun. It is therefore highly likely that the same person is meant and that one of the names was miswritten or misremembered. Even so, the possibility of two different poets called Çeşmî cannot be ruled out entirely, and which name is correct cannot be determined. This page follows the name Mehmed given in the heading of the entry.

"Çeşmî Hüseyin Efendi-Hacı Paşazâde", whose entry immediately follows this one in Hüsameddin's eighth volume, is a different person. This calligrapher, a descendant of Abdullah Pasha who received the nickname "Çeşmî" in the palace school (Enderun) because of the beauty of his eyes and who died on his way back from the pilgrimage in 1135 (1723), belongs to the eighteenth century and has nothing to do with the poet of Prince Ahmed's circle.

Chronology

888 (1483): Ebülhayr Ahmed Efendi of Shirvan, thought to have been his teacher, arrives in Amasya.

903 (1497-98): According to Hüsameddin, Çeşmî Ahmed Çelebi and Mihrî Hatun are renowned among the poets of Amasya.

911 (1505-06): Circumcision feast of Prince Ahmed's sons; Çeşmî heads the list of Amasya poets named at the feast.

912 (1507): Execution of Figânî İshak Çelebi; Hüsameddin conjectures that Çeşmî's quatrain was composed on this death.

918 (1512-13): According to Hüsameddin, Prince Ahmed is put to death and his circle breaks up.

After 927 (1520-21): Death of Çeşmî Mehmed Çelebi.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources