AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

Emânî Mehmed Çelebi-Kâtib

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 7, p. 347–348 • Edited by: Prof. Dr. Safi ARPAGUŞ- Prof. Dr. Ahmet Hakkı TURABİ

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Amasyalıdır. Culğazâde Hâce Resûl Çelebi bin Mehmed [275] Çelebi mahdûmudur. Bade’t-tahsîl ümerâdan iken Şehzâde Sultân Mustafa bin Sultân Süleyman Hân Amasya‘ya vâlî olup geldikde intisâb etdi. Şehzâde hatt ve kitâbetini takdîr edib dîvân kâtibi yaptı.

On yıl kadar şehzâde-i müşârün-ileyhin dîvânında kâtib olduğu halde 958 hudûnda vefât etdi. Edîb, şâir, kâtib, hatt-ı dîvânîde mâhir idi. Birâderi kudâtdan Mustafa Çelebi’dir.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was from Amasya. He was the son of Culğazâde Hâce Resûl Çelebi, son of Mehmed Çelebi. After completing his studies, while among the beys, he attached himself to Prince Sultan Mustafa, son of Sultan Süleyman Han, when the prince came to Amasya as governor. The prince admired his handwriting and his skill as a scribe and made him divan secretary.

After serving about ten years as a scribe in the said prince's divan, he died around 958 [1551]. He was a man of letters, a poet and a scribe, and a master of the divanî script. His brother was the kadı Mustafa Çelebi.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • mahdûm: son
  • bade't-tahsîl: after completing his studies
  • ümerâ: beys, emirs
  • vâlî: the governor of a region
  • intisâb: attachment, entering someone's service
  • hatt ve kitâbet: fine handwriting and secretarial work
  • dîvân kâtibi: the scribe who ran correspondence in a prince's divan
  • müşârün-ileyh: the said, the one mentioned above
  • hudûd: around, in the vicinity of
  • hatt-ı dîvânî: the divan script, a style of writing used in official correspondence
  • edîb: a man of letters, a writer
  • kudât: kadıs (judges)

Prince Mustafa's Years in Amasya

According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, after eight years as governor of Manisa, Prince Mustafa was sent to Amasya on 21 Safer 948 (16 June 1541). The encyclopedia presents him as a poet and writes that he gathered many poets and scholars around him. The text's "about ten years" agrees with the time from 1541 to the year of death, 958 [1551]; this is a conclusion drawn from comparing dates. The same encyclopedia mentions a petition of Mustafa's dated 19 Muharrem 958 (27 January 1551); the year of Emânî Mehmed Çelebi's death is also given as 958, but the sources draw no link between the two events.

One might think the name "Emânî" in the heading is a pen name; the text does not say so, and this is an inference. Searches on Emânî Mehmed Çelebi's poems, the Culğazâde family and his brother the kadı Mustafa Çelebi turned up no information; he is not mentioned among Prince Mustafa's divan secretaries in the sources consulted. For this reason the descriptions of him as a scribe and poet rest only on Hüsameddin.

Bibliography

Volume 7 contents