Amasyalıdır. Etıbbâdan Lokmân Çelebi bin Muhtâr Çelebi bin tabîb-i meşhûr Reşîdeddîn Lokmân Harezmî mahdûmudur. Amasya Dârü’ş-şifâsı tabîbi hekîm-i meşhûr el-Hâc Şücâ’ İlyâs Amâsî’den tahsîl-i tabâbet ve sâ’ir ulemâdan ahz-ı ulûm ederek hekîm-i müşarün ileyhe halef oldu.
841’de yazdığı Şerh-i Mûcez’in sonunda şu imzâsı görüldü: “Ketebehû bi-kalemihî Hüseyin bin Lokman bin el-Muhtâr bin Lokman er-Rûmî Hüsâmeddîn Ebû Nasr el-Muhtârî el Amâsî” allâme-i meşhûr Sa’âdeddîn Taftazânî’nin Şerh-i Miftâh’ını da yazıp sonunda [323] aynı imzâ ve târîhi koymuşdur. Şerh-i Mûcez, Amasya’da kaz’asker olan Cemâleddîn Mehmed bin Aksarâyî’nindir.
Amasya Dârü’ş-şifâsı tabîbi ve Amasya vâlisi Şehzâde Sultân Alâeddîn Bey’in tabîb-i hâssı oldu. Muhtâroğlu Hekîm Ebû Nasr Çelebi diye şöhret buldu. 854 sâline doğru vefât etdi. Meşâhîr-i etıbbâdan edîb, hâzık, kâmil bir zât idi. Mahdûmu Nasrullah Çelebi de etıbbâdandır.
In Modern English
He is from Amasya. He was the son of Lokmân Çelebi, one of the physicians; Lokmân Çelebi was the son of Muhtâr Çelebi, who was the son of the famous physician Reşîdeddîn Lokmân Harezmî. He learned medicine from el-Hâc Şücâ' İlyâs Amâsî, physician of the Amasya Dârüşşifâ (hospital) and a famous doctor, and, acquiring learning from other scholars as well, succeeded this physician.
At the end of a copy of the Şerh-i Mûcez that he wrote in 841 [1437–38], the following signature was seen: "Hüseyin son of Lokman son of el-Muhtâr son of Lokman er-Rûmî Hüsâmeddîn Ebû Nasr el-Muhtârî el-Amâsî wrote this with his own pen." He also wrote the Şerh-i Miftâh of the famous scholar Sa'deddîn Teftâzânî and put the same signature and date at its end. The Şerh-i Mûcez is the work of Cemâleddîn Mehmed bin Aksarâyî, who was kazasker in Amasya.
He became physician of the Amasya Dârüşşifâ and personal physician of the governor of Amasya, Prince Sultan Alâeddîn Bey. He became famous as Muhtâroğlu Hekim Ebû Nasr Çelebi. He died around 854 [1450–51]. He was one of the famous physicians, a man of letters, skilled at his work and mature. His son Nasrullah Çelebi is also one of the physicians.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- etıbbâ: physicians, doctors
- tahsîl-i tabâbet: study of medicine
- halef olmak: to succeed someone
- ketebehû bi-kalemihî: an Arabic expression meaning "he wrote this with his own pen"
- allâme: a very learned scholar
- kaz'asker: kazasker, head of the military class and of the higher judiciary
- tabîb-i hâss: personal physician of a ruler or a prince
- meşâhîr: the famous
- hâzık: expert in his work, skilled (said of a physician)
The Amasya Dârüşşifâ
The Amasya Dârüşşifâ, where Ebû Nasr Çelebi practiced as physician after succeeding his teacher, is a hospital built on a madrasa plan in the Yâkutiye quarter, at the edge of the street running parallel to the Yeşilırmak. According to the Arabic inscription above its door, it was built in 708 [1308–09] by Anber b. Abdullah, slave of İlduş (Yıldız) Hatun, wife of the Ilkhanid ruler Olcaytu Khan, and by Ahmed Bey, emir of Anatolia. Its waqf deed, which has not survived, is known to have been drawn up in 712 [1312]. On two sides of a rectangular courtyard there are porticoes and behind them long halls, and opposite the entrance iwan there is a main iwan opening onto the courtyard with a pointed arch.
The building was also called "bîmarhâne" among the people, and over time this name gave rise to the idea that only the mentally ill were treated here; yet, as its inscription also states, it was founded as a general hospital and worked for a long time as a medical institution. In the years after Ebû Nasr Çelebi's death, Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin, author of the Cerrâhiyyetü'l-Hâniyye, regarded as the first Turkish book of surgery, also served here for fourteen years as physician and surgeon and presented his work to Mehmed the Conqueror. The building, restored today, is open to visitors as a museum of the history of medicine exhibiting surgical instruments made on the basis of the illustrations in Sabuncuoğlu's work; the museum also has a section presenting the treatment with music practiced in old hospitals. The chain of physicians Hüsameddin lists, that is, the link beginning with Reşîdeddîn Lokmân Harezmî and extending to Şücâ' İlyâs and Ebû Nasr Çelebi, is important because it shows what kind of physicians' tradition the period before Sabuncuoğlu formed in this institution. In some sources it is said that Lokmân Harezmî was the first physician of the dârüşşifâ; since this information could not be read in a full-text source, it was not verified.
The Works He Copied and the Question of Aksarâyî
The Şerh-i Mûcez, which Ebû Nasr Çelebi copied with his signature, is the medical commentary that Hüsameddin ties to Cemâleddîn Aksarâyî. Cemâleddin Aksarâyî's real name is Mehmed; he gained fame in the religious, literary and rational sciences in the time of Murad I, served as müderris at the Zincirli Madrasa in Aksaray, and trained students such as Molla Fenârî. Among his works is the Hallü'l-Mûcez, a commentary on the summary called Mûcezü'l-Kânûn, which Ibn al-Nafis prepared on Ibn Sina's al-Qanun fi'l-tibb; this is the work Hüsameddin calls "Şerh-i Mûcez." That Ebû Nasr Çelebi, as a physician, wrote this book with his own hand suggests that the work was used in medical teaching in Amasya in the fifteenth century.
Hüsameddin describes Aksarâyî as "kazasker in Amasya." Present-day biographical studies, however, report that Aksarâyî spent his life and activities in Aksaray and do not mention a post in Amasya. The date of his death also differs in the sources: according to Bursalı Mehmed Tâhir he died in 791 [1388–89], according to Brockelmann in 1377, and according to Adnan Adıvar in 1388, in his home town Aksaray. Since the basis of Hüsameddin's record of the kazaskership is not clear, this information could not be verified.
Prince Alâeddin's Physician
Prince Alâeddin, whose personal physician Ebû Nasr Çelebi was, is the eldest son of Murad II. At the age of fifteen, in 1440, he was appointed sanjak governor of Amasya; by his father's order he took part in 1443 with his sipahis in the war against the Karamanids and died when he returned to Amasya from the war. Accordingly Ebû Nasr Çelebi's physicianship to the prince falls between 1440 and 1443. No information was found in other sources on Ebû Nasr Çelebi's teacher Şücâ' İlyâs and his son Nasrullah Çelebi.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 105–105. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
- Gönül Cantay, "Amasya Dârüşşifâsı", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/amasya-darussifasi
- Mustafa Öz, "Cemâleddin Aksarâyî", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 7, Istanbul 1993, p. 308-309. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/cemaleddin-aksarayi
- "Mûsikî İle Tedavinin İlk Merkezi: Amasya Dârüşşifâsı", Somuncu Baba Dergisi. https://www.somuncubaba.net/?p=23722
- Selim Özcan, "Amasya'da Sancak Beyliği Yapan Şehzadeler Döneminde Amasya Şehri", Amasya Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, issue 5. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/19685