Seyyid Mahmûd, whose pen name (mahlas) was Emîrî, was a sixteenth-century poet known as the first person in the Ottoman state to bear the title "naqib al-ashraf". This office, which kept the registers of the descendants of the Prophet and judged disputes among them, was entrusted to him by Bayezid II; the sultan's choice owed something to the fact that Emîrî's father had once been the tutor of Prince Bayezid. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar counts him as a native of Amasya in his Amasya Tarihi and describes the father as Bayezid's tutor while the prince was governor of Amasya, who died as professor at the madrasa the prince had built in the city. Some of the authors of biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire), however, have Emîrî born in Bursa. His tie to Amasya therefore rests on his father's teaching in the city and on Hüsameddin's account; his birthplace is disputed. The anthologies of Sehî, Latîfî, Âşık Çelebi, Kınalızâde and Gelibolulu Âlî preserve couplets from a kaside he wrote for Bayezid II and a few fragments of ghazals.

Hüsameddin's Account

Hüsameddin opens the entry he gives in the seventh volume under the heading "Emîr Mahmûd Çelebi-Nakîb" as follows:

Amasyalıdır. Sultân Bâyezîd Hân-ı Sânî Amasya'da vâlî iken muallimi olup Sultân-ı müşârün-ileyhin Amasya'da binâ etdiği medresesi müderrisi iken vefât eden es-Seyyid Abdullah Efendi bin es-Seyyid eş-Şeyh Sadreddîn Mehmed el-Horasânî mahdûmudur. 870'de pederi Amasya'da muallim-i Sultânî iken tevellüd etdi. Pederinin vefâtında amcası Koca Emîr İbrâhim Efendi'nin yanında kalıp mukaddimât-ı ulûmu ondan gördü. Ba'dehû Şehzâde Sultân Ahmed muallimi Birgivîzâde Musliheddîn Mustafa Efendi'ye ittisâl edib onunla İstanbul'a gitdi. Mustafa Efendi'nin Semâniye Müderrisliğinde ma'iyyet ve mülâzım olup sonra medreselere müderris oldu. 810'da lüzûmuna binâen Devlet-i Osmâniyye'de resmî bir nekâbet-i eşrâf mesnedi ihdâs edildikte ilk defa resmen nakîbü'l-Eşrâf ve hâkim-i sadât-ı kirâm oldu. Otuzüç yıl mesned-i nekâbetde bilâ-azl ve fâsıla icrâ-i ahkâm edib 943 senesi zilka'desinde dâr-ı kudse irtihâl etdi. Alîm, fâzıl, müdebbir, kerîm, sâkin, me'mûnü'l-gâile, müstakîm, şâir bir seyyid-i zîşân-ı Hüseynî idi.

In plain English Hüsameddin says this: Emîrî is from Amasya. His father, Seyyid Abdullah Efendi, was Bayezid II's tutor while the prince governed Amasya and died as professor at the madrasa the prince built there; his grandfather was Şeyh Sadreddîn Mehmed el-Horasânî. Emîrî was born in 870 (1465-66), while his father was the prince's tutor in Amasya. When his father died he stayed with his uncle Koca Emîr İbrâhim Efendi and took his first lessons from him. He then attached himself to Birgivîzâde Musliheddîn Mustafa Efendi, tutor of Prince Ahmed, went with him to Istanbul, became his assistant (mülâzım) during his professorship at the Semâniye, and afterwards taught at various madrasas. When an official office of naqib al-ashraf was created in the state, he was the first appointed to it; he held it for thirty-three years without dismissal or interruption and died in the month of Zilkade 943 (1537). Hüsameddin describes him as a learned, prudent, generous, calm and upright Husaynid seyyid and a poet.

In the rest of the entry Hüsameddin quotes a passage from Mecdî of Edirne's translation of the Şakâyık praising Emîrî's character and the entry in Latîfî's anthology, and gives seven couplets of the kaside. The whole entry, rendered into modern Turkish and annotated, can be read on the page Emîr Mahmûd Çelebi-Nakîb.

Life and Office of Naqib al-Ashraf

The information on Emîrî's life differs from source to source; the differences gather around his birthplace, his father's name and the date of his death. The earliest witness is Sehî Beg's Heşt Bihişt, completed in 1538. Sehî introduces him as Mevlânâ Seyyid Mahmûd, naqib al-ashraf under Sultan Bayezid and Sultan Selim, who died in the reign of Süleyman, and says "Sultân Bâyezîdüñ ḫᵛâcesi oġlı", the son of Sultan Bayezid's tutor. He adds that while occupied with learning he turned to asceticism and piety, that his prayers were held to be answered and that his company was pleasant. This sentence supports, with a witness from the age of the anthologies, what Hüsameddin says about the father; Sehî does not, however, say where the tutoring took place.

Âşık Çelebi's Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, finished in 1568, gives the most detailed account and begins the poet's life elsewhere. According to him Seyyid Mahmûd's father was Ubeydullah (Abdullah in some manuscripts) and his birthplace Bursa. The boy, who lost both parents early, was adopted by Molla Kırîmî. After his studies Emîrî travelled for a while in Persian and Arab lands and turned to Sufism; when he returned to Rum, the unseemly conduct of some who bore the name of seyyid made it clear that they needed a head, and he was made "nâzır-ı sâdât" (overseer of the seyyids) with twenty-five akçes a day. He adopted as his title the term "naqib al-ashraf" he had seen in Arab lands, the office came to be known by that name, his stipend rose to thirty, thirty-five and by the end of his life seventy akçes, and a stipend was granted to his son as well. The anthologist takes the occasion to mention his own family: Seyyid Nattâ', who was made the first overseer of the seyyids in the time of Yıldırım Bayezid, was Âşık Çelebi's ancestor. He places Emîrî's death in 941 (1534-35), during the campaign of the two Iraqs.

Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi gives the father's name as Seyyid Abdullah, shows the birthplace as Bursa and repeats that Molla Kırîmî adopted him. The same entry contains two different reports of the death: first it says that he died in the days when Süleyman came to the throne, while at the end of the entry it writes that he died in 943. Latîfî in 1546 knows only the first date: Emîrî died when Süleyman Han "came to the throne in felicity and fortune". Three different dates thus emerge for his death: 926 (1520), 941 (1534-35) and 943 (1537). Sehî's statement in 1538 that he died in Süleyman's reign excludes none of the three. The article "Nakîbüleşraf" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi gives the year of death, with a question mark, as 944 (1537).

There is also an error in the date of the office's foundation. The year "810" in Hüsameddin's text cannot be right for a man he says was born in 870. According to the TDV article, in 900 (1494) Bayezid II appointed Seyyid Mahmûd, son of his tutor Seyyid Abdullah, to the office with a salary, and the officials who had until then been called "nâzır" began from this point to use the title naqib al-ashraf. This date does not fit exactly with the thirty-three-year tenure Hüsameddin gives either; counting back from 943 gives 910 (1504-05). The figure may have been corrupted in typesetting or copying, but which number is right cannot be settled with these sources.

His Tie to Amasya

The firmest information linking Emîrî to Amasya concerns his father. Since most of Bayezid II's princely years were spent as governor of Amasya, Sehî's phrase "son of Bayezid's tutor" and Hüsameddin's account that the father tutored the prince in Amasya and died there complement each other. The birthplace, however, splits the sources in two: Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde say Bursa, Hüsameddin Amasya. Hüsameddin is consistent in himself when he says the poet was born during his father's tutorship in Amasya; the anthologists tell of a childhood spent with Molla Kırîmî and never mention Amasya. Whether Hüsameddin was unaware of the Bursa tradition or passed over it knowingly cannot be determined. On our site Emîrî is therefore treated as a poet whose tie to Amasya is documented and whose birthplace is disputed.

His Poetry

No source speaks of a divan by Emîrî. That all the anthologists introduce him with the same kaside shows that the poem was known in his own time. Latîfî calls him "a second Hassân" in poetry and a match for Zahîr and Hâkânî in the kaside; Sehî notes that the kaside was written "in the manner of admonition". Its subject is two Bayezids: Bayezid II and the famous Sufi Bâyezîd-i Bistâmî, who share the sovereignty of this world and the next. The poet praises the sultan's asceticism and devotion to the sharia together with his namesake, the great Sufi. The number of couplets varies from seven to nine in the sources; Sehî gives the fullest text.

What survives of his verse is given in this category, one article to a piece: the fragment of the kaside "İki cihânda iki Bâyezîd'e itdi tufeyl", which Sehî gives in nine couplets; the two couplets beginning "Ben itüñ gibi kapuñda", which Sehî also chose from his ghazals; and the ghazal "Azı çoġı 'ömrüñ ancak ey göñül bir ânımış", given in full by Âşık Çelebi, whose last couplet contains the pen name Emîrî. In that last couplet the poet says that his city is full of sheikhs but that few are found who know their own selves; which city he means is not clear.

Chronology

870 (1465-66): According to Hüsameddin, born in Amasya.

900 (1494): According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Bayezid II appoints him salaried naqib al-ashraf.

926 (1520): According to Latîfî, dies in the days of Süleyman's accession.

941 (1534-35): According to Âşık Çelebi, dies during the campaign of the two Iraqs.

943 (1537): According to Hüsameddin and Kınalızâde, dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Official sources

Online sources