Kırşehirlidir. Amasya vâlisi Şehzâde Sultân Ahmed bin Sultân Murâd-ı Sânî lalası Şeyhî Mahmûd Paşa’nın birâderi Ali Çelebi bin Şihâb’ın mahdûmudur. Bursa’da amcasının yanında tahsîl-i maârif edib hazîne kâtibi oldu.
Ba’dehû hayli müddet ma’zûl kaldı. 838’de Şehzâde [41] Sultân Ahmed’in defterdârı olup Amasya‘ya gönderildi. 841’de Şehzâdenin vefâtından sonra darbhâne kâtibi olup on yıl kadar bu me’mûriyette kaldı. 852 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi. Kırşehirli kâtip demekle meşhûr idi. Mahdûmu Şemseddîn Ahmed Çelebi’dir.
In Modern English
He was from Kırşehir. He was the son of Ali Çelebi bin Şihâb, brother of Şeyhî Mahmud Pasha, tutor (lala) of Prince Sultan Ahmed, son of Sultan Murad II and governor of Amasya. He studied in Bursa with his uncle and became a treasury scribe.
Afterwards he remained without office for a long time. In 838 [1434-35] he was sent to Amasya as treasurer (defterdar) to Prince Sultan Ahmed. After the prince's death in 841 [1437-38] he became a mint clerk and stayed in that post for about ten years. He died after 852 [1448-49]. He was known as "the scribe from Kırşehir." His son is Şemseddin Ahmed Çelebi.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mahdûm: son
- lala: the adult administrator who took charge of a prince's education and of his duties of government
- tahsîl-i maârif: studying, education
- ma'zûl: dismissed from office
- defterdâr: a senior official in charge of finance; here, the person who ran the prince's financial affairs
- darbhâne: the mint, the place where coins are struck
- me'mûriyet: official post
Prince Ahmed and Amasya
Amasya was one of the places where Ottoman princes served their first sanjak posts. Murad II, father of the prince mentioned by Hüsameddin, was himself born in this city in 1404 and at the age of twelve was sent here with the governorship of the province of Rum, which covered the region of Amasya, Tokat, Sivas, Çorum and Osmancık. Murad's son Alâeddin Ali Çelebi was also governor of Amasya and died here at the end of 1443; this death shook Murad II deeply and left his brother Mehmed II as the sole heir to the throne. In the section on the east side of the Tomb of Murad II in Bursa stand the sarcophagi of Murad's children Alâeddin, Ahmed and Orhan and his daughter Şehzade Hatun.
Princes were not sent to a sanjak on their own; adult administrators called lalas accompanied them. For example, Mehmed II was sent to Manisa as governor in the spring of 1443 with his two lalas, Kassabzâde Mahmud and Nişancı İbrâhim Bey. Hüsameddin's mention of Şeyhî Mahmud Pasha as Prince Ahmed's lala fits this arrangement. The Prince Ahmed in Hüsameddin's text must be one of these children; however, no detail could be found in the sources read on his governorship of Amasya, on his lala Şeyhî Mahmud Pasha or on the date of his death. The dates 838 and 841 in the text could therefore not be verified independently.
The early years of Amasya as a princely sanjak had been turbulent. While Murad was there around 1416 he was summoned toward Saruhan and İzmir to put down the revolt of Börklüce Mustafa; when he left, the Mongol nomads of the region (the Kara Tatars) caused disorder, and the prince returned with his atabey. Between 1417 and 1421 Murad and his new atabey, the beylerbey of Rum Hamza Bey, took Samsun from the İsfendiyaroğlu. The years 1434-35, when Edhem Çelebi came to Amasya, fall more than ten years after these events.
Prince's Treasurer and Mint Clerk
Both of Edhem Çelebi's posts belong to the early period of Ottoman finance. No exact date can be given for the founding of the Ottoman financial organization because first-hand documents are scarce; the earliest signs of a specialized financial staff go back to the time of Bayezid I. Judging from the fact that a separate treasury and defterdar system in the provinces became widespread only after the second quarter of the sixteenth century, the "princely treasurership" of 1434-35 is probably a clerkship running financial affairs within the prince's own sanjak retinue; this is an inference and the source does not state it outright. As for the mint, coin striking among the Ottomans begins with the coin Orhan Bey had struck in Bursa, and it is known that in the time of the sons of Yıldırım Bayezid coins were also struck in Bursa, Amasya, Edirne, Serres and Ayasuluk. Hüsameddin does not say in which city's mint Edhem Çelebi worked. When mints were farmed out, officials called "emin," appointed by the state, could be placed beside the tax-farmer's clerks to audit the accounts.
What Could Not Be Read
No information was found in other sources on Edhem Çelebi of Kırşehir, his father Ali Çelebi bin Şihâb, the uncle named as Şeyhî Mahmud Pasha or his son Şemseddin Ahmed Çelebi.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 276–276. amasya.bel.tr
- "Defterdar", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.
Academic studies