Known in Amasya as "Güzel Dârâ Çelebi", Dârâ the Handsome, this scribe is one of the rare poets remembered less for his verse than for his looks. In the first half of the sixteenth century the city's poets wrote ghazals and romances about him for years, and his kinsman and guardian Celîlî Mehmed Çelebi drew on his beauty for one of his own ghazals. Born in Konya, he came to Amasya with his father as a child, served as a clerk in the sanjak chancery, then became divan secretary to Şehzade Mustafa, and died in Shawwal 960 (1553), after the prince was put to death. What we know rests on his entry in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi and on the entries for his father and his kinsman; not a line from his own pen survives.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Amasya ricâlinden Konya vâlîsi Şehzâde Sultân Şehinşâh nişâncısı Pir Sunullahzâde İsfendiyâr Çelebi bin Abdülcelil Çelebi mahdûmudur. Konya'da doğdu. 918'de pederiyle beraber Amasya'ya gelip ikâmet etdi. Hüsn-i cemâliyle teferrüd etmiş bir âfet olduğundan Güzel Dârâ Çelebi dendi. Pederi küçük yaşında vefât edib akrâbasından ve şuarâdan Celilî Mehmed Çelebi yanında büyüdü. Amasya'nın şuarâ ve üdebâsına yıllarca gazel ve dâstân mevzu olup hakkında hüsn ü cemâlini tasvîr eden nice gazeller ve dâstânlar yazıldı. Hatta Celîlî bile yukarıda yazılan gazelini tanzîm ederken bunun hüsnünden ilhâm almışdı. Amasya'da tahsîl-i ilm ü kitâbet ederek divân-ı livâ ketebesinden oldu. Ba'dehû Amasya'ya vâlî olarak gelen Şehzâde Sultân Mustafa zamanında divân kâtibi oldu. 960 şevvâlinde Şehzâdenin şehâdetinden sonra vefât etdi. Kâtib, şâir, edîb, afîf idi. Gonca Keyvan Bey bundan sonra iştihâr etmişdi.

Put into English: His father was Pîr Sunullahzâde İsfendiyâr Çelebi bin Abdülcelîl Çelebi, one of the notables of Amasya and chancellor (nişancı) to Şehzade Sultan Şehinşah, governor of Konya. He was born in Konya. In 918 (1512-13) he came to Amasya with his father and settled there. Because he was an "âfet", a beauty who stood apart from everyone, he was called Güzel Dârâ Çelebi. His father died while he was small, and he grew up in the care of his kinsman, the poet Celîlî Mehmed Çelebi. For years he was the subject of the ghazals and romances of Amasya's poets and men of letters; many ghazals and romances describing his beauty were written. Even Celîlî drew inspiration from his beauty when composing the ghazal given earlier in the book. He studied learning and the scribal art in Amasya and became one of the clerks of the sanjak chancery. Later, in the time of Şehzade Sultan Mustafa, who came to Amasya as governor, he became divan secretary. He died in Shawwal 960 (September-October 1553), after the prince's martyrdom. He was a scribe, poet and man of letters, and a chaste man. Gonca Keyvan Bey became famous (for his beauty) after him.

From Konya to Amasya

Dârâ Çelebi's family descended from Pîr Sun'ullah, the Khalwati known in Amasya as "sheikh of the saddlers". His father İsfendiyâr Çelebi was the son of the judge Abdülcelîl Çelebi; after studying in Amasya he entered the service of Şehzade Şehinşah, the son of Bayezid II born in Amasya, followed him to Manisa as divan secretary, went with him to Konya when the prince moved there in 896 (1490-91), and rose to the post of chancellor. Dârâ's birth in Konya belongs to these years. Şehinşah died in Konya in 917 (1511).

The two entries disagree on when the family returned to Amasya. His father's entry says that İsfendiyâr Çelebi came to Amasya on the prince's death, together with the prince's tutor Hayreddîn Hızır Efendi, and was granted a pension. Dârâ's entry gives the year 918. Hüsameddin's entry on Şehinşah partly explains the gap: after Şehinşah's death his son Şehzade Mehmed remained governor of Konya and his father's household stayed with him, the chancellor being named as "İsfendiyaroğlu Abdülcelîl Çelebi". When Selim I came to the throne in Safar 918, Mehmed was strangled and his tutor-guardian and teacher were sent to Amasya. The names of father and grandfather seem to have been swapped there; read correctly, it suggests that İsfendiyâr Çelebi kept his post as chancellor under Şehzade Mehmed and returned to Amasya with his family only in 918. This reconciles the two records as an interpretation; the source does not say so outright.

In Celîlî's Household

When his father died soon afterwards, the boy grew up with Celîlî Mehmed Çelebi, of the poet branch of the family. Celîlî was a pupil of Münîrî and one of Şehzade Ahmed's madrasa teachers and poet companions in Amasya; he was exiled for a time in the upheaval of 918, received the Atabeg Gâzi Madrasa when Selim I came to Amasya in 920 (1514), served as a judge after 926, and died in Amasya in 943 (1536-37). Hüsameddin links the two only as "kin". Since Celîlî was the son of the judge Abdüsselâm Çelebi bin Abdülcelîl Çelebi, if both families go back to the same Abdülcelîl, Celîlî would be the nephew of Dârâ's father, that is, Dârâ's cousin; but the two entries do not write the lineage in exactly the same way.

The beauty that made Dârâ's name belongs to these years, to his youth. Of the poems Hüsameddin says were written about him "for years", only one is known: Celîlî's ghazal beginning "Çün cemâlin gördü mescidde imâm ey dil-rübâ", taken from the anthology of parallel poems Mecma'u'n-Nezâ'ir and recorded by Hüsameddin as "the ghazal he spoke about Dârâ Çelebi". The poem is built throughout on the image of the mosque: seeing the beloved's face, the imam turns his back on the mihrab, the eyebrows become the mihrab, the lover who sees that stature falls into prostration; in the closing couplet the poet advises himself to make the beloved's threshold his place of prayer and leave the lodge and the mosque to the hypocrites. Hüsameddin's record gives the ghazal to Celîlî (its attribution is disputed); Dârâ Çelebi is only the beloved addressed in it.

The last sentence of the entry records that this fame passed on a generation later: "Gonca Keyvan Bey became famous after him." Gonca Keyvan Bey was among Şehzade Mustafa's favourites in Amasya, the best known of the young beys called by flower names; what the poets of his circle wrote for him appears in Şehzade Mustafa (Muhlisî): His Poems and the Poets of His Amasya Circle. Hüsameddin's sentence reads like a note of local memory, marking how one beauty of Amasya poetry gave way to another.

Divan Secretary to Şehzade Mustafa

Dârâ Çelebi studied learning and the scribal art in Amasya and became a clerk in the sanjak chancery. When Şehzade Mustafa came to Amasya as governor, he moved into the prince's chancery. Studies based on Hüsameddin date Mustafa's appointment to Amasya to 1538, other sources to 948 (1541); Dârâ's years as divan secretary fall between that date and the prince's execution on 6 October 1553, in Shawwal 960, at the army camp near Ereğli in the province of Konya. Hüsameddin ties his death to the same month, "after the prince's martyrdom", but does not say how he died. The prince's household in Amasya is known to have broken up with his death; whether Dârâ's death had anything to do with those events cannot be drawn from the source. Given the years of his birth in Konya, he must have been past forty when he died.

His Poetry

We have none of his verse. The only poem left is not his own but one written about him, Celîlî's ghazal. Hüsameddin calls him "scribe, poet, man of letters" yet records not a line from his pen, and it is not known whether he used a pen name. "Dârâ" is the name of the ancient Persian king Darius and appears often in divan poetry as a figure of power and splendour; in the entry it does not appear as a pen name but serves as his given name. Hüsameddin's record, with its glossary, appears under Dârâ Çelebi-Güzel; his father's life and Şehinşah's circle are covered in İsfendiyâr Çelebi-Şeyh Sûnullahzâde, and Celîlî in Celîlî Mehmed Çelebi-Pîr Sun'ullâhzâde.

Chronology

896 (1490-91): His father İsfendiyâr Çelebi goes to Konya with Şehzade Şehinşah; Dârâ is born in Konya in the following years.

917 (1511): Şehzade Şehinşah dies in Konya.

918 (1512-13): Dârâ comes to Amasya with his father.

943 (1536-37): Celîlî Mehmed Çelebi, who raised him, dies in Amasya.

1538 or 948 (1541): Şehzade Mustafa becomes governor of Amasya; Dârâ becomes his divan secretary.

Shawwal 960 (October 1553): After Şehzade Mustafa's execution, Dârâ Çelebi dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources