Cüneydî Ahmed Çelebi's name is bound up with a book that no longer exists: a history of his master Hacı Şâdgeldi Paşa's house and of the events of his time. A scholar, secretary and poet who ran the correspondence of the divan at Şâdgeldi Paşa's court in Amasya's pre-Ottoman emirate period, he is among the earliest poets whose biographies appear in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's history of the town; he died early in 789 (1387). Hüsameddin presents him as a stylist (münşi) at home in Arabic and Persian literature, clear and persuasive in speech. No specimen of his poetry survives either. What remains of him is a memory passed down the generations in a pupil's handwriting, and a descendant who told it to Hüsameddin five hundred years later.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Mevlânâ Şemseddîn Abdülazîz bin Cüneyd'in mahdûmudur. "Cüneydoğlu" demekle meşhûr olduğu münâsebetle "Cüneydî" mahlasını kabûl etdi. Amasya hükümdârı Hacı Şâdgeldi Paşa devrinde fezâ'il-i ilmiyyesiyle iştihâr etdiğinden paşaya takarrüb eyledi. Hüsn-i ahlâkı fesâhat-i beyânı sâyesinde paşaya kendisini sevdirmiş olduğundan muvakki'-i dîvânî, kâtib-i hâssı olarak beyne'l-ulemâ temâyüz etdi. Paşanın irtihâline kadar âbâ ve ecdâdına ve zamân-ı vekâyi'ine dâ'ir bir târîh yazdı. 789 senesi evâ'ilinde vefât eyledi. Âlim, fâzıl, şâir, kâtib, münşî, edebiyât-ı arabiyye ve fârisiyyede mâhir halûk, fasîhü'l-lisân, belîğü'l-beyân bir zât idi. "Târîh-i Cüneydî" demekle ma'rûf olan "Hacı Şâdgeldi Pâşa Târihi" olduğunu Vâsi' Çelebizâde Hâfız Ebûbekir Efendi söylerdi. Çünkü Hâfız Ebûbekir Efendi'nin cedd-i a'lâsı olan ve Yârî-i Şirâzî diye şöhret bulan Divriğilizâde Yârî Alî Çelebi bu Cüneydî Çelebi'nin tilmizi olup yazdığı târîhin bir nüshası kendisinde olduğunu, kendi kalemiyle yazmış ve üstâdının tercemesini kayd etmişdi. Hayfâ ki bu târîhi bulamadım.

In English: He was the son of Mevlânâ Şemseddin Abdülaziz bin Cüneyd. Because he was known as "Cüneydoğlu" (son of Cüneyd) he took the pen name "Cüneydî". In the time of Hacı Şâdgeldi Paşa, ruler of Amasya, he became famous for his learning and so entered the Paşa's inner circle. Through his fine character and the clarity of his speech he endeared himself to the Paşa and stood out among the scholars as the divan's muvakkî (the official who placed the ruler's mark and signature on decrees) and the Paşa's private secretary. He wrote a history of the Paşa's forefathers and of the events of his own time, down to the Paşa's death. He died early in the year 789. He was a learned and virtuous man, a poet, secretary and stylist, skilled in Arabic and Persian literature, good-natured, correct in language and eloquent in speech. Vâsi' Çelebizâde Hâfız Ebûbekir Efendi used to say that the work known as "Târîh-i Cüneydî" was the "History of Hacı Şâdgeldi Paşa". For Divriğilizâde Yârî Ali Çelebi, known as "Yârî-i Şirâzî", the remote ancestor of Hâfız Ebûbekir Efendi, had been a pupil of this Cüneydî Çelebi; he had recorded that a copy of the history written by his teacher was in his possession, that he had written it out in his own hand, and that he had also set down his teacher's biography. Alas, I could not find this history.

At the Court of Şâdgeldi Paşa

Hacı Şâdgeldi Paşa, whom Cüneydî served, was an emir who, in the years when the Eretnid principality was breaking up, ruled Amasya for nearly twenty years as a de facto independent sovereign and gathered scholars around him. His life ended in the autumn of 783 (1381), after his struggle with Kadı Burhaneddin. The emir's political career and his monuments in Amasya are given a fuller account in the piece titled Hacı Şadgeldi Paşa.

The two titles Hüsameddin uses show where Cüneydî stood in this small but ambitious court. The muvakkî was the official who placed the ruler's mark on documents issued by the divan; the private secretary (kâtib-i hâs) handled the emir's personal correspondence. That both posts were held by one man shows that Cüneydî was at the centre of the divan's business and that the Paşa trusted him. Hüsameddin attributes this closeness to his learning, his good character and his "eloquence of expression".

The Lost Chronicle

According to the entry, Cüneydî wrote a history recounting the Paşa's lineage and the events of his own day down to the Paşa's death. The work has no title of its own; Hüsameddin refers to it as the work known as "Târîh-i Cüneydî" and, relying on a family tradition, says that it was the "History of Hacı Şâdgeldi Paşa". Since Şâdgeldi Paşa died in 783 and Cüneydî early in 789, the work must have been completed within those six years. Hüsameddin's wording implies that the narrative was carried down to the Paşa's death.

Knowledge of the work comes from a single family. The man who told Hüsameddin about it, Vâsi' Çelebizâde Hâfız Ebûbekir Efendi, belonged to a branch of Amasya's old Müeyyedzâde family and died after 1310 (1892-93), so he was close to Hüsameddin's own time. As Ebûbekir Efendi told it, the family's remote ancestor Divriğilizâde Yârî Ali Çelebi had been Cüneydî's pupil; he had copied his teacher's history in his own hand and added his teacher's biography to the copy. On whether the copy was still in the family in Hâfız Ebûbekir Efendi's day, the entry is not explicit. Hüsameddin, for his part, records in one short sentence that his search came to nothing: "Alas, I could not find this history." Because so few written sources survive from Amasya's period of the principalities, this loss also leaves a gap in the town's fourteenth-century history.

His Pupil Yârî Ali Çelebi

Through his pupil, Cüneydî's name is linked to one of Amasya's longest-lived scholarly families. According to Hüsameddin, Yârî Ali Çelebi was the son of Mevlânâ Zeyneddin Siyâvuş Çelebi of Divriği, and the descendants of Yârî Ali Çelebi's son Mevlânâ Şemseddin Müeyyed Çelebi were called the "Müeyyedzâdes". For the generations of the family and the life of Yârî Ali Çelebi, see The Müeyyedzâdes.

Yârî Ali Çelebi's well-known nickname was itself born of a poetic rivalry. Hüsameddin relates that the Shirazi poet Temennâyî Ali Çelebi, after settling in Amasya, competed with Yârî Ali Çelebi in Persian literature and, likening him to Hâfız of Shiraz, gave him the nickname "Yârî-i Şirâzî". This shows that the pupil Cüneydî trained was one of the leading names of Persian poetry in Amasya; that the teacher too was counted a master in this field agrees with Hüsameddin's description of him as "skilled in Arabic and Persian literature".

His Pen Name

Hüsameddin states the source of the pen name plainly: because the poet was known by the nickname "Cüneydoğlu", taken from the name of his grandfather Cüneyd, he adopted the pen name "Cüneydî". The word also appears in the same work in another sense: Hüsameddin describes some sheikhs, such as Baba İlyâs, as "Cüneydî" by order, that is, followers of the path of the Baghdad Sufi Junayd. There is no record linking the poet's pen name to this mystical usage; the pen name derives from the family name.

His Poetry

None of his poems has come down to us. If even his one known work, the chronicle, lives on only as a family memory, the trail of his poems is fainter still: Hüsameddin counts him among the poets but quotes no couplet and mentions no divan. The Ottoman text of the entry, with explanations, can be reached under the title Cüneydî Ahmed Çelebi-Mevlânâ Şemseddîn.

Chronology

783 (1381): Hacı Şâdgeldi Paşa dies after his struggle with Kadı Burhaneddin.

783-789 (1381-1387): Cüneydî's history of the Paşa's lineage and times must have been completed in these years.

Early 789 (1387): Cüneydî Ahmed Çelebi dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources