Abdullah Çelebi, who wrote poetry under the pen name (mahlas) Harîmî, was a divan secretary from Merzifon who lived in the middle of the seventeenth century. His father was Alî Ağa, voyvoda of Merzifon, named among the well-known cavalrymen (sipahi) of the town; the family name Sipâhîzâde also comes from this sipahi background. What is known about him amounts to an entry of a few lines in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi, and that entry preserves a single couplet of his. He should not be confused with Prince Korkud, who used the same pen name and lived a century and a half earlier; Hüsameddin gives the two Harîmîs one after the other on the same page. For Prince Korkud's poems, see the category Harîmî (Prince Korkut).

Hüsameddin's Entry

In the eighth volume of his work, in the section listing people of Amasya whose names begin with the letter "ha", Hüsameddin introduces the poet as follows:

Merzifonludur. Sipâhî meşâhîrinden Merzifon voyvodası Alî Ağa'nın oğludur. Amasya'da Hâcezâde Abdullah Remzî Efendi'den tahsîl-i edebiyât ü kitâbet edib İstanbul'a gitdi. Orada Amasyalı Şemsî Paşazâde Ahmed Paşa'ya dîvân kâtibi olup 1066'da kırk bir yaşında vefât etdi. Şâ'ir, kâtib, tab'an latîf bir zât idi. Şu beyt eş'ârındandır:

In plain English the entry says: Harîmî was from Merzifon, the son of Alî Ağa, voyvoda of Merzifon and one of the well-known sipahis. He studied literature and the secretarial art in Amasya under Hâcezâde Abdullah Remzî Efendi and went to Istanbul, where he became divan secretary to Şemsî Paşazâde Ahmed Paşa of Amasya; he died in 1066 at the age of forty-one. He was a poet and a secretary, a man refined and agreeable by nature. The entry closes with the couplet that follows.

Life

The Hijri year 1066 falls between the autumn of 1655 and the autumn of 1656. If the age Hüsameddin gives is correct, Harîmî must have been born around 1025 (1616); this date is not written in the entry but has been worked back from the year of his death. Merzifon is given as his birthplace, yet he received an important part of his education in Amasya.

His teacher, Hâcezâde Remzî Abdullah Efendi, was among the best-known professors (müderris) of Amasya in those years. Hüsameddin writes that he taught for some thirty years and held professorships at most of the city's madrasas, that he could compose poetry in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, that he presented a kaside (qasida) to Sultan Murad in Amasya, and that in 1061 he moved to the Hâtuniyye Madrasa in Tokat and died in Zilhicce 1063. That Harîmî took his lessons in literature and the secretarial art from this teacher places his studies in Amasya before 1061. Remzî's son Şevkî Mehmed Efendi was also a poet; Harîmî seems to have been formed in the circle of this household. Hüsameddin's full entry on Remzî is published under the heading Remzî Abdullah Efendi-Hâcezâde.

Şemsî Paşazâde Ahmed Paşa, whose secretary he became, belonged to the Gümüşlüzâde house of Amasya. According to the entry Hüsameddin wrote for him, the pasha became governor (bey) of Bozok in 1048, and over the next seventeen years held posts in sanjaks and provinces such as Kars, Amasya, Sivas, Batum, Diyarbekir, Karesi, Şehrizor, Konya and Kefe, returning to Amasya several times in between after dismissal; in 1065 he became beylerbey (governor-general) of Sivas for the fourth time and in Zilhicce 1066 beylerbey of Bursa. He came to Istanbul only in Receb 1067. Although Hüsameddin says that Harîmî began his secretaryship in Istanbul, all of the pasha's posts in these years were in the provinces. Since a beylerbey's divan secretary would be at his master's side, it is reasonable to think that Harîmî spent his last years in the pasha's provincial divans; the entry gives no clear information on this point. The details of the pasha's postings can be followed in the entry Ahmed Paşa-Şemsî Paşazâde.

Where Harîmî died, whether he married and whether he had children are unknown. The phrase "tab'an latîf", refined by nature, which Hüsameddin uses for him, is the only description of his character that we have.

Poetry

Whether Harîmî had a divan is unknown. A single couplet of his, quoted by Hüsameddin, has come down to us: "Mihnet-i aşka esîr itdi beni devr-i felek / Düşeyim râh-ı belâya der-i dilber diyerek." The two poles of the couplet are the turning heavens making the poet a captive of love's suffering, and the poet choosing of his own will to set out on the road of calamity, telling himself he is going to the beloved's door. The original text of the couplet and a commentary on it have been given a page of their own in the poet's category. No other record under the name Harîmî Abdullah Çelebi was found in the biographical anthologies and dictionaries that were searched; what can be said about the poet therefore remains limited to Hüsameddin's entry.

Chronology

c. 1025 (1616): Birth (calculated from his age at death).

Zilhicce 1063 (October-November 1653): Death in Tokat of his teacher Hâcezâde Remzî Abdullah Efendi.

1066 (1655-56): Death of Harîmî at the age of forty-one.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources