Amasya kâdı’l-kudâtı Şemseddîn Mehmed bin Necibeddîn Mûsâ bin Mehmed bin Mahmûd el-Hallâtî mahdûmu ve yine Amasya [83] kâdi’l-kudâtı İmadeddîn Ömer bin el-Hallatî birâderidir. Amasya’da müderris-i meşhûr Mevlânâ Şerefeddîn Mehmed bin Ali el-Herevî’den ahz-ı ulûm ederek ders-i âm ve müderris-i Torumtay oldu.
Sivas hükümdârı Hacı Kutlu Şâh devrinde Sivas’a kâdı’l-kudât olup yıllarca orada kaldı. 771’de vefât etdi. Kibâr-ı kudât ve ulemâdan idi. Mahdûmu Mevlânâ Ziyâeddîn Mes’ud Çelebi Amasya kâdı’l-kudâtı oldu. Bunun evlâdına (Kadızâdeler) dendi.
In Modern English
He was the son of Şemseddîn Mehmed bin Necibeddîn Mûsâ bin Mehmed bin Mahmûd el-Hallâtî, chief judge of Amasya, and the brother of İmâdeddîn Ömer bin el-Hallâtî, also chief judge of Amasya. He took learning from the famous professor Mevlânâ Şerefeddîn Mehmed bin Ali el-Herevî in Amasya, gave public lectures, and became professor at the Torumtay Madrasa.
In the time of Hacı Kutlu Şâh, ruler of Sivas, he became chief judge of Sivas and stayed there for years. He died in 771 [1369-70]. He was among the great judges and scholars. His son Mevlânâ Ziyâeddîn Mes'ud Çelebi became chief judge of Amasya. His children are called the Kadızades.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- kâdı'l-kudât: chief judge, judge of judges
- mahdûm: son
- birâder: brother
- ahz-ı ulûm: taking learning
- ders-i âm: giving a lecture open to everyone
- müderris: madrasa professor
- kibâr-ı kudât ve ulemâ: great judges and scholars
- evlâd: children, offspring
The Torumtay Madrasa
Torumtay is Seyfeddin Torumtay, one of the governors of Amasya in the Seljuk period. In the sources he is mentioned among the servants of the Anatolian Seljuk Sultan Alâeddin Keykubad, and it is known that he lived in the Güdül quarter of Amasya and served as governor. His name is said to mean "young man, sturdy, brave." The 1576 Amasya survey register lists the revenues of the Torumtay İmâret and the Torumtay Madrasa: the shares of the village of Alala in the district of Argoma and of the villages of Ilıca and Zara in the district of Geldiklanâbâd were assigned to these foundations, and their revenues were held by Mehmed Çelebi, son of Kaya Paşa, a descendant of Torumtay. In later endowment registers too, the mosque, imaret and income and expenses of the Torumtay foundation are recorded in detail.
Among the surviving works of Amasya are counted the Gökmedrese Mosque (1266-1267) and the Torumtay Tomb. This information gives the names and dates of the buildings; which of them was the madrasa where Es'ad Çelebi taught could not be determined. Hüsameddin does not state the location of the madrasa in this entry either.
Sivas and the Political Situation of the Period
In the second half of the fourteenth century Sivas was in the hands of the Eretnid Principality. Eretnaoğlu Mehmed Bey was killed in 1365 by his own emirs Hacı Şadgeldi, Hacı İbrâhim and Kılıcarslan, and because of the weakness of Alâeddin Ali Bey, the thirteen-year-old who succeeded him, authority in the principality was shaken. When Alâeddin Ali Bey died in 1380, Kadı Burhâneddin first took the regency and then, in 1381, the position of ruler at Sivas, and governed a state centered on Sivas and Kayseri until 1398 (800). His main rival was Hacı Şadgeldi, the lord of Amasya; Hacı Şadgeldi's son Ahmed Bey acted to avenge his father and was defeated in 785 (1383-84). In 1384 Kadı Burhâneddin marched on Amasya and defeated the emir of Amasya repeatedly.
Hüsameddin writes that Es'ad Çelebi was chief judge in Sivas in the time of "Hacı Kutlu Şâh" and died in 771 [1369-70]. This date is before Kadı Burhâneddin proclaimed his rule in 1381 and falls in the Eretnid period. The name Hacı Kutlu Şâh does not appear in the sources read, so it could not be verified; which ruler this person was is not clear.
The Hallâtîs and the Kadızades
The text presents Es'ad Çelebi not as a single individual but as a link in a dynasty of judges: his father was chief judge of Amasya, his brother was chief judge of Amasya, he himself was chief judge of Sivas, and his son was chief judge of Amasya. That his descendants were called "Kadızades," that is, sons of the judge, also reflects this tradition. Since Hüsameddin's genealogy could not be compared with a separate source, it should be read as the book's own account.
Es'ad Çelebi's teacher Şerefeddîn Mehmed bin Ali el-Herevî appears also a few entries earlier, in the entry İsrâfil Çelebi, Mevlânâ Tâcü'ş-Şerîa: this name is in İsrâfil Çelebi's scholarly chain in hadith and exegesis. Thus it becomes clear that the same teacher taught both the Hallâtî family and the chain of İsrâfil Çelebi's teachers.
Madrasa Life in Amasya
When Amasya passed to Ottoman rule it became the center of a sanjak; at the beginning of the sixteenth century the city had ten madrasas, nine mosques, four zawiyas and fifteen baths. The period in which Es'ad Çelebi lived is about a hundred and fifty years earlier; these figures only show the continuity of the city's tradition of learning.
Bibliography