Ebûbekir Çelebi — Aydınoğlu el-Hâc

In Modern English

He was the son of el-Hâc Hasan Bey bin Aydın Bey bin Hasan Bey, of the noble offspring of İltekin Gâzi. He acquired learning from the scholars of his time and became a ders-i âm; on his father's death the use of the estate (malikâne) of Emîr Hasan Âlâkî passed to him. He lived in the village of İltekin and taught at the Torumtay Madrasa. He died after 921 [1515]. He was a scholar and a mature person. His sons are Ahmed and Abdî Çelebi.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• evlâd-ı kirâm: noble, honorable offspring
• mahdûm: son
• tahsîl-i ulûm: study of the sciences
• ders-i âm: a müderris charged with giving lectures open to all in a great mosque; this title also indicated a level of teaching at which one could grant licenses (icazet)
• irtihâl: death, departure from this world
• mâlikâne: land whose revenue is left to a person or family; mutasarrıf: the one who uses the revenue of that land
• tedrîs-i ulûm: teaching the sciences, giving lessons
• kâmil: mature, virtuous

İltekin Gâzi and His Line

İltekin Gâzi, to whom Ebûbekir Çelebi is tied, was one of the Danishmend emirs. He is believed to have conquered Merzifon after Manzikert; one of his sons, Hüseyin Gazi, also lived for a long time in Merzifon. Hüsameddin writes that İltekin Gâzi, at the beginning of the conquest of Amasya, entered the city by force from this direction and destroyed the Kelkis Castle, and was later buried in this area. For this reason the vineyards and slopes on the eastern foot of Karaman Mountain are called "İltekin." In the İltekin Tomb in the same place, with a conical dome resting on four stone pillars, according to Hüsameddin, İltekin Gâzi and his son Emîr Hüsâmüddevle Hasan Gâzi lie. The Çağlayan Bridge over the Yeşilırmak, five or six kilometers from Amasya, is also called "İltekin Bridge" among the people; it is said that the bridge belonged to İltekin Gazi or to his son Hüsâmüddevle Hasan, but its date of construction and its builder are not known with certainty.

The Estate of Emîr Hasan Âlâkî

The estate that appears in the text as "Emîr Hasan Âlâkî" is the land called "Emîr Hasan Alanı" (Emir Hasan's Field) or the "Saz malikânesi" in other entries of Hüsameddin. According to Hüsameddin, this was the farm of İltekin Gâzi's son Hüsâmüddevle Hasan Gâzi, and Hasan Gâzi endowed it to his descendants. That Ebûbekir Çelebi held this estate by inheritance from his father shows that, even four hundred years later, the line still held the revenue of this foundation. The word "Âlâkî" is most probably a corrupted form of the name "Alanı" in the manuscript records.

The Village of İltekin and the Torumtay Madrasa

İltekin, where Ebûbekir Çelebi lived, was, according to Hüsameddin, a town that was the center of the nahiye of Sîmre in the early Ottoman period. It fell into the condition of a village when it was ruined in the Şahkulu incident of 917 [1511]. Ebûbekir Çelebi's living in this village falls in the years after the town's destruction.

The Torumtay Madrasa, where he taught, is the building known in Amasya today as the Gökmedrese Mosque. The building, called "Gökmedrese" in the endowment deed of 665 [1266-67] drawn up by Seyfeddin Torumtay, was in its own time used as both a madrasa and a mosque, and its entrance section served as the madrasa. This entry of Hüsameddin's is valuable in showing that the building was a place where lessons were given as a madrasa in the early sixteenth century as well. No information on Ebûbekir Çelebi was found in other sources.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 87. amasya.bel.tr
• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 1 (Mukaddime: vineyards, tombs and the Sîmre section); vol. 7, "Efrûmiye Bânû-Ana Hâtun" and "Îltekin Gâzi-Emîr Nâsıreddevle-i Artûgî"; vol. 8, "Hasan Gâzi-Emîr Hüsâmü'd-Devle" entries.

Academic studies

• Mehmet Öz, "Merzifon", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/merzifon).
• Selda Kalfazade, "Gökmedrese Camii", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/gokmedrese-camii).