Known in Amasya as "Küçük Emîr", the Little Emir, Eşref Mehmed Çelebi was a madrasa teacher from a family of seyyids, descendants of the Prophet, of Khorasanian origin. His uncle was Koca Emîr İbrâhim Efendi, mufti of Amasya and one of the seyyids of the city known as the "Seven Emirs". During his uncle's term as mufti he became secretary of fatwas (emînü'l-fetvâ) and teacher of the Yörgüç Pasha Madrasa; after Prince (Şehzade) Ahmed was killed in 918 (1512-13) he was taken to Istanbul together with his uncle; he returned to Amasya after the accession of Süleyman the Magnificent and, according to Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, died there in 927 (1520-21). Hüsameddin calls him "âlim, şâir, kâmil", a scholar, poet and accomplished man; he quotes none of it. Another entry in the book, however, suggests a very different year for his death; this discrepancy is discussed separately below. Hüsameddin's entry also appears, with notes on its archaic vocabulary, in the study Eşref Mehmed Çelebi-Küçük Emîr.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Amasya sâdât-ı kirâmından olup 888'de vefât eden Emîr Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Çelebi bin Emîr Sadreddîn Mehmed bin Hüseyin bin Ali el-Horasânî el-Bağavî mahdûmu ve Amasya Müftüsü "Koca Emîr" demekle meşhûr es-Seyyid İbrâhim Efendi'nin birâderzâdesidir. Pederinden kendisine irsen intikâl eden bir kitâbın zahrında; "Kavî olan Allah'ın en zayıf kulu Muhammed Eşref bin Hüseyin bin Muhammed el-Beğavî'nin zamanında" imzâsı görüldü. Amasya'da tahsîl-i ulûm ederek ders-i âm ve müderris oldu. Amcasının zaman-ı fetvâsında emînü'l-fetvâ ve müderris-i Yörgüç Paşa olup hayli iştihâr etdi. Yedi emîrlerden biri oldu. 918'de amcasıyla beraber İstanbul'a nakledildi. Ba'dehû Sultân Süleyman Kanûnî devrinde Amasya'ya avdet edib 927'de vefât etdi. Âlim, şâir, kâmil idi. Üçler Mahallesi'nde medfûndur. Mahdûmu Şerîf Ahmed Çelebi'dir. Diğer mahdûmu Abdülhamîd Çelebi'dir. (Terceme-i Şakâyık-Mecdî Efendi, sayfa 415.)

The Arabic inscription in the book is given here in the Turkish rendering of the editors' footnote. Put into English, the entry says: He was one of the seyyids of Amasya, son of Emir Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Çelebi, who died in 888 (1483-84), and the nephew of Seyyid İbrâhim Efendi, mufti of Amasya, known as "Koca Emîr". On the back of a book that came to him by inheritance from his father, a note showing his ownership was seen: "In the time of Muhammed Eşref bin Hüseyin bin Muhammed el-Beğavî, the weakest servant of God the Mighty". He studied in Amasya and became a public teacher (ders-i âm) and madrasa teacher. While his uncle was mufti he became well known as secretary of fatwas and teacher of the Yörgüç Pasha Madrasa, and was counted one of the "seven emirs". In 918 he was taken to Istanbul together with his uncle. Later, in the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent, he returned to Amasya and died in 927. A scholar and poet, he was a man of complete attainments. He is buried in the Üçler quarter. Şerîf Ahmed Çelebi and Abdülhamîd Çelebi were his sons.

In His Uncle's Shadow

The two great breaks in Eşref Çelebi's life fall in the same years as the breaks in the life of his uncle Koca Emîr. According to Hüsameddin's entry in the sixth volume, İbrâhim Efendi, born in Amasya in 844 (1440), returned to Amasya after serving as tutor to Prince Korkud, became deputy of the naqib al-ashraf, was removed from the city in 911 (1505-06) because of his closeness to Iranians, particularly to Mîr Gıyâseddîn of Shiraz, and came back in 913 (1507-08) as teacher of the Sultan Bayezid Madrasa and mufti of Amasya. The same entry says that he drew close to the "Üçler" and became "one of the seven emirs". Eşref's term as secretary of fatwas must fall in these years of the muftiship, between 913 and 918. The group of seyyids Hüsameddin calls the "Seven Emirs" was, as described in the article on Prince Murad, mentioned together with the Iranian, Shiite-leaning circle at Prince Ahmed's court in Amasya.

When Prince Ahmed was strangled in 918, Koca Emîr was removed from Amasya and taken to Istanbul; Eşref went with him. There Koca Emîr was first made teacher of the Mustafa Pasha Madrasa, two years later was settled at Eyüp by Selim I, and died there in 935 (1528-29). Eşref, on the other hand, returned to Amasya after the accession of Süleyman, that is after the autumn of 926 (September 1520). If the year of death Hüsameddin gives is correct, he can have lived in his home town for only a few months.

The State of the Sources: The Year of His Death

The entry on Eşref's son Abdülhamîd Çelebi in the eleventh volume suggests another date for the father. There Hüsameddin introduces Abdülhamîd as the son of Eşref Mehmed Çelebi, known in Amasya as "Küçük Emîr", and continues: "888'de vefât eden pederinin kaydı üzere 880 senesi şa'bânının ğurresinde Amasya'da doğdu." (According to the record of his father, who died in 888, he was born in Amasya on the first of Şaban 880.) Read plainly, the sentence makes the man who died in 888 Abdülhamîd's father, that is Eşref. In Eşref's own entry, however, 888 is the year of death of his father Hüseyin Çelebi, and Eşref is said to have served as secretary of fatwas between 913 and 918 and to have died in 927. The two entries cannot both be right. Either the word "peder" (father) in Abdülhamîd's entry was written by mistake where the grandfather was meant, or the date 888 was carried wrongly from one entry to the other. Eşref's own entry looks more consistent, thanks to the details that match his uncle's life; this page follows its dates.

Abdülhamîd's entry adds two more pieces of information on Eşref's family: Koca Emîr was Abdülhamîd's "great-uncle", and an Abdülhay Efendi who had been judge of Kastamonu was also his uncle. Abdülhay Efendi, then, must have been Eşref's brother. In the same entry Hüsameddin judges as mistaken Mecdî's translation of the Şakâyık for making Abdülhamîd a native of Kastamonu. Mecdî's work (p. 415), cited as the source at the end of Eşref's entry, could not be consulted for this study; that Mecdî gave Abdülhamîd bin Eşref an entry of his own is known from Hüsameddin's quotation.

The Family Circle

Eşref belonged to a generation of seyyids in Amasya who were grandsons of Sadreddîn Mehmed el-Horasânî. According to Koca Emîr's entry, Sadreddîn Mehmed had three sons: İbrâhim (Koca Emîr), Seyyid Abdullah, tutor to Bayezid II in Amasya, and Eşref's father Hüseyin Çelebi. Seyyid Abdullah's son was the first Ottoman naqib al-ashraf and poet Emîrî Seyyid Mahmûd; Eşref and Emîrî were therefore first cousins. This relationship emerges when the lineages Hüsameddin gives in two separate entries are set side by side; he does not state it himself.

Of his sons, Abdülhamîd Çelebi, as Hüsameddin tells it, studied with Koca Emîr and other scholars of Amasya, attached himself to the Nakşbendi sheikh Uzun Musliheddîn, and after about twenty years of preaching and teaching Quranic exegesis at the Sultan Bayezid Mosque in Istanbul died in 948 (1541-42). For his other son Şerîf Ahmed Çelebi an entry headed "Şerîf Ahmed Efendi-Eşrefzâde" was opened in the eleventh volume, but according to the editors' footnote the author left it blank.

His Poetry

None of his poetry survives. Beyond Hüsameddin's word "şâir" there is no trace. "Eşref" might be taken for a mahlas, but its appearance as "Muhammed Eşref" in the inscription in the book inherited from his father shows that it was part of his name.

Chronology

888 (1483-84): His father Emir Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Çelebi dies.

913-918 (1507-1513): During his uncle Koca Emîr's term as mufti he is secretary of fatwas and teacher of the Yörgüç Pasha Madrasa.

918 (1512-13): After Prince Ahmed's death he is taken to Istanbul with his uncle.

927 (1520-21): Dies in Amasya, to which he had returned under Süleyman; buried in the Üçler quarter.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources