AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

Eken Şeyh-Muharrir Çelebi

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 7, p. 339 • Edited by: Prof. Dr. Safi ARPAGUŞ- Prof. Dr. Ahmet Hakkı TURABİ

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Amasyalıdır. Geldiklân nâhiyesinde bir zâviye ve yanında bir câmi’ inşâ edib çiftliğini bunlara vakfetdi. 918’de vefât etdiği zannolunur. Evlâdından Veli Çelebi zâviyedâr olarak çiftliği mutasarrıfı iken vefâtıyla evlâdından Alemdâr Eytem Seyyid Mehmed’e 1206 saferinde tevcîh edildi. [249]

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He is from Amasya. In the Geldiklan district he had a zawiya built, and a mosque beside it, and endowed his farm to them. He is thought to have died in 918 [1512-13]. When Veli Çelebi, of his descendants, was holding the farm as zawiya keeper and died, the farm was granted to Alemdar Eytem Seyyid Mehmed, of his descendants, in the month of Safer 1206 [1791].

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • nâhiye: an administrative division made up of a town and villages
  • zâviye: a small lodge where an order and its dervishes stay
  • vakfetmek: to set a property aside for a charitable purpose
  • zâviyedâr: the keeper of a zawiya
  • mutasarrıf: a person who holds the right of disposal over a property
  • tevcîh: the granting of an office or revenue to someone
  • alemdâr: standard-bearer

The Zawiya of Şeyh Elek in the Geldiklan District

Geldiklan appears in Ottoman records as Geldiklanâbâd, as a district and a kaza. A study of the hurufat records reports that there was a zawiya in this region in the name of Şeyh Elek Dede. Şeyh Elek Dede is also known as Hacı Mehmed. The zawiya has a waqf farm, and its keepership is held generation after generation by descendants of the founder; the record names Alemdar İnce Seyyid Mehmed. On 17 June 1802 [15 Safer 1217] a man named Zeynelabidin received a deed of appointment to this post from the deputy of Hacı Bektaş Velî and from the kazasker of Anatolia.

This record shares many features with the zawiya Hüsameddin describes under the name "Eken Şeyh": the same district, a waqf farm attached to the zawiya, a keepership passing from generation to generation, and the name Alemdar Seyyid Mehmed. The names "Eken" and "Elek" are also close. It may therefore be thought that the two are the same zawiya; but the study makes no reference to Hüsameddin or to Muharrir Çelebi and gives no information on the founder's name, the date, or the mosque beside the zawiya. This is an inference and has not been verified. The epithet of the alemdar is read as "Eytem" in Hüsameddin and "İnce" in the study; which is the correct reading is not clear. Between the appointment record of 1206 [1791] that Hüsameddin gives and the document of 1802 lie eleven years; if both belong to the same zawiya, it may be thought that the post changed hands in the meantime or was granted anew, but this too is an inference.

No further information was found in the sources read on Muharrir Çelebi's identity and lineage, the date the zawiya and mosque were built, or the present state of these buildings.

Bibliography

Volume 7 contents