Hamdî Hamdullah Çelebi was a secretary, calligrapher and poet from Amasya, descended from Âşık Paşa and Elvan Çelebi, who served Şehzade Mustafa (Prince Mustafa), the eldest son of Süleyman the Magnificent, first as secretary of his divan and then as his nişancı while the prince governed Amasya. He belonged to the family known in Amasya as the "Nefîsoğlu". Almost everything known about him rests on a short entry in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi and on family records scattered through other volumes of the same work. Hüsameddin counts him among the poets of the prince's literary circle, yet no entry for him has been found in the sixteenth-century biographical anthologies of poets, and none of his poems has come down to us. It should also be said at the outset that his name lends itself readily to confusion with two famous namesakes: Akşemseddinzâde Hamdullah Hamdî, the poet of Yûsuf u Züleyhâ, and Şeyhzâde Hamdullah Çelebi, nephew of the Amasya calligrapher Şeyh Hamdullah, are not the subject of this page.

Hüsameddin's Entry

The entry in Hüsameddin's ninth volume, among the people of Amasya whose names begin with the letter "he", reads as follows:

Hamdullah Hamdi Çelebi-Âşık Paşazâde Amasyalıdır. Âşık Paşa'nın evlâd-ı kirâmından tercemesi bâlâda yazılan eş-Şeyh Taceddîn Mahmûd Çelebi bin Nefiseddîn İbrâhim Çelebi bin Kemaleddîn Ahmed Çelebi mahdûmudur. Amasya ulemâsından tahsîl-i ulûm edib hutût-ı mütenevvi'ayı Hayreddînzâde Pir Mehmed Çelebi'den ahz ve temeşşük etdi. 945'de Amasya'ya vâlî olarak gelen Şehzâde Mustafa'ya takarrüb ederek kâtib-i divânı bâ'dehû nişâncısı oldu. 960 senesi şevvâlinde Şehzâdenin şehîden irtihâlinde bir müddet menkûb oldu. 961'de Sultân Süleyman'ın Amasya'yı teşrifinde ağır zeâmetle tekâüd vazîfesi verilip 985 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi. Âlim, kâtib, hattât, şâir, edîb idi. Mahdûmu İn'âm Bey ümerâ-yı livâdandır. Bunun oğulları "İn'âmoğulları" demekle meşhûrdur. Yukarıda yazıldı. Kendisine taraf-ı padişâhîden temlîk edilen çiftliğini vakf etdi. Tilmiz-i hattı, Hacı Nefiszâde Mustafa Efendi meşâhîr-i fuzalâ ve hattâtîndendir.

In modern English the entry says: Hamdullah Hamdi Çelebi is of the line of Âşık Paşa and a native of Amasya. He is the son of Şeyh Tâceddîn Mahmûd Çelebi, one of Âşık Paşa's honoured descendants, whose life has been written above; Tâceddîn Mahmûd Çelebi was the son of Nefîseddîn İbrâhim Çelebi, who was the son of Kemâleddîn Ahmed Çelebi. He studied under the scholars of Amasya and learned the various scripts by copying the models of Hayreddînzâde Pir Mehmed Çelebi. He drew close to Prince Mustafa, who came to Amasya as governor in 945, becoming first secretary of his divan and later his nişancı. When the prince was martyred in Şevval 960, he fell from favour for a time. In 961, when Sultan Süleyman came to Amasya, he was granted a large zeamet as a retirement allowance; he died some time after 985. He was a scholar, secretary, calligrapher, poet and man of letters. His son İn'âm Bey was among the sanjak governors; his sons are known as the "İn'âmoğulları". He made a pious endowment of the farm granted to him as freehold by the sultan. His pupil in calligraphy, Hacı Nefiszâde Mustafa Efendi, was a well-known scholar and calligrapher.

The entry can be read in the encyclopedia on this site under the heading Hamdullah Hamdi Çelebi-Âşık Paşazâde.

His Life

Hamdî's date of birth is unknown. His father, Tâceddîn Mahmûd Çelebi, according to Hüsameddin's record in the eighth volume, was trained in the company of Şeyh Habîb-i Karamânî and received his authorisation as a deputy, became sheikh of the Yakub Paşa dervish lodge, was summoned to Istanbul in 924 to give his opinion on certain political matters, and died after 932 (1525-26). He was the author of a Sufi treatise entitled Risâle-i Tâciyye. In the same place Hüsameddin records that his sons Mehmed, Muhibbî, Fethullâh Ârif and Hamdullâh Hamdî Çelebi, together with his brother Mahremî Mehmed Çelebi, were poets. Hamdî thus grew up in a household where poetry was a family tradition. His brother İbrâhim Çelebi rose from teaching and judgeship to the post of treasurer of Anatolia, and in Ramazan 959 (1552) endowed his property to the school he had built in the Bostancıbaşı quarter of Amasya.

Hamdî's entry into the prince's service coincides with Amasya's liveliest years as a princely sanjak. Hüsameddin gives the year of the prince's arrival as 945 (1538-39). According to Şerafettin Turan's article "Mustafa Çelebi" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, however, the prince was transferred from Manisa and sent to Amasya on 21 Safer 948 (16 June 1541); the beginning of Hamdî's service as divan secretary is tied to one of these two dates. The nişancı was the official who drew the monogram on the prince's orders and warrants and headed the chancery of his divan. When this promotion took place is not recorded.

When Prince Mustafa was strangled at the Aktepe encampment near Konya Ereğlisi on 27 Şevval 960 (6 October 1553), his circle broke up. Hüsameddin writes that Hamdî was left "menkûb" in this period, that is, out of favour and in misfortune. According to Hüsameddin, Süleyman's arrival in Amasya in 961 (1554) proved a turning point for him: the sultan assigned him a large zeamet in lieu of a pension. This was a notable favour to be shown to one of the prince's men, and it suggests that Hamdî himself was not a target. He died after 985 (1577-78); the exact date is not given.

Hamdî's link with Amasya is plain in the sources: Hüsameddin counts him as a native of Amasya and writes that he studied in Amasya and served in the divan of the prince who governed it. His family's standing in the city strengthens this link. According to a record Hüsameddin gives in the fourth volume, the endowment of the Elvan Çelebi zaviye in the Mecitözü area had been enlarged with new endowments "by Hamdullah Hamdi Çelebi, nişancı of Şehzade Sultan Mustafa, governor of Amasya"; for this reason the zaviye's sheikh, Nefisoğlu Elvân Efendi, was his nephew, and the district's voyvoda, İn'âm Beyzâde Seyyid Ali Ağa, was his grandson. In the records of the Amasya sanjak survey register of 984 (1576-77) published by Murat Alandağlı, two village shares in the area to which Elvan Çelebi belonged also appear as "vakf-ı ebnâ-i Hamdullah Çelebi", the endowment of the sons of Hamdullah Çelebi. Whether these are the same as the farm endowment Hüsameddin mentions cannot be settled from the documents; the coincidence of name and date can be recorded only as a possibility.

His Poetry

Hüsameddin mentions Hamdî as a poet in two places: in the entry in the ninth volume he calls him "şâir, edîb", a poet and man of letters, and in the third volume, describing Prince Mustafa's circle in Amasya, he lists him with the treasurer Lutfî Bey and the divan secretary Fazlî Çelebi among the prince's statesmen who were poets. That section, which tells of the prince's fondness for literature and of how he gathered scholars and men of letters around him for conversation, is treated in detail in the entry Sultân Mustafa and in the article Şehzade Mustafa (Muhlisî): His Poems and the Poets of His Amasya Circle on this site.

Hamdî's poems have not come down to us. The Hamdî entries in the anthologies of Latîfî and Kınalızâde belong to other men: Akşemseddinzâde Hamdî Çelebi of Göynük, the Hamdî who served as mu'arrif at Hagia Sophia, and Hamdî of Kastamonu. Hüsameddin does not quote a single couplet of his either. His standing as a poet therefore rests solely on the testimony of one historian; that his pen name was "Hamdî" is itself inferred from his name and from Hüsameddin's listing.

Family and Circle

Hamdî's descendants can be traced in Amasya over two centuries. His son İn'âm Bey was a prominent holder of a zeamet, rose to sanjak governor through his valour in the Shirvan wars and died in 1013 (1604-05). His sons were Ali Paşa and Seyyid Ahmed Bey; Seyyid Ahmed Bey was killed in 1038 (1628-29) while sanjak governor of Kayseri. This branch of the family was known as the "İn'âmoğulları". According to Hüsameddin's record, Hacı Nefiszâde Mustafa Efendi, Hamdî's pupil in calligraphy, was in fact his nephew; this scholar, the son of his brother Hacı Nefîs Çelebi, rose as far as a professorship at the Süleymaniye and died in 1011 (1602-03). The son of Mustafa Efendi's brother Mehmed Efendi was the vizier and calligrapher Nefeszâde İbrâhim Paşa, author of the Gülzâr-ı Savâb. These records of Hüsameddin's can be read together in Metin Hakverdioğlu's study of the Elvan Çelebi line.

State of the Sources

All the information on Hamdî comes from Hüsameddin, and the different volumes of the work disagree on several points. The ninth and eighth volumes give his father's name as Tâceddîn Mahmûd Çelebi; the entry on his brother İbrâhim Çelebi in the sixth volume, however, names the father as "Tâceddîn Mehmed Çelebi, sheikh of the Mahmûd Çelebi zaviye". The İn'âm Bey entry in the seventh volume shortens the genealogy to "Hamdullah Hamdi Çelebi bin Tâceddîn bin Nefis bin Kemâl bin Mes'ûd Çelebi" and drops a link. There is a difference in his title as well: the sixth volume calls him the prince's "kâtib-i dîvân", the other records his nişancı; the ninth volume explains these as two successive posts. As for the year of the prince's arrival in Amasya, Hüsameddin's date of 945 differs from the document-based date of 948 given by the TDV.

The main source of confusion is the name. Akşemseddinzâde Hamdullah Hamdî (d. 1503), who lived at the end of the fifteenth century, was, according to Zehra Öztürk's TDV article, born and died in Göynük and won fame with his mesnevi Yûsuf u Züleyhâ; he had no link with Amasya. Şeyh Hamdullah, who lived in Amasya, and his nephew Şeyhzâde Hamdullah Çelebi were calligraphers and did not belong to the Elvan Çelebi line. The person on this page is the Hamdî whom Hüsameddin distinguishes as "Âşık Paşazâde", the nişancı of Prince Mustafa.

Chronology

After 932 (1525-26): His father Tâceddîn Mahmûd Çelebi dies.

945 (1538-39) or 21 Safer 948 (16 June 1541): Prince Mustafa comes to Amasya as governor; Hamdî becomes secretary of his divan and then his nişancı.

27 Şevval 960 (6 October 1553): Prince Mustafa is killed near Konya Ereğlisi; Hamdî falls from favour for a time.

961 (1554): On Süleyman's arrival in Amasya he is granted a zeamet in lieu of a pension.

After 985 (1577-78): He dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • Metin Hakverdioğlu, "Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar'ın Amasya Tarihi'nde Elvan Çelebi ve Soyu", Uluslararası Horasan'dan Anadolu'ya İrfan Geleneği: Elvan Çelebi Sempozyumu, 2020. https://molekuleredebiyat.com/?p=740
  • Murat Alandağlı, "İnancın, Şekavetin ve Siyasetin Şekillendirdiği Bir Orta Anadolu Kazası: Zünnunabad", Türk Kültürü ve Hacı Bektaş Velî Araştırma Dergisi, no. 115, 2025, pp. 97-99.
  • Şerafettin Turan, "Mustafa Çelebi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 31, Istanbul 2006, pp. 290-292. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mustafa-celebi
  • Zehra Öztürk, "Hamdullah Hamdi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 15, Istanbul 1997, pp. 452-454. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/hamdullah-hamdi

Online sources