Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman Çelebi was one of the best-known scholars of the reigns of Bayezid II and Selim I. He rose to be kadıasker (chief military judge) of Anatolia and of Rumelia, was patron to figures such as Kemalpaşazâde, Ebüssuûd Efendi, Necâtî and Zâtî, and carried the atmosphere of the teaching circles of Shiraz into Ottoman learned life. The same man was, in the words of the biographers, an accomplished poet who wrote in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, and he used the pen name (mahlas) "Hâtemî" in his poems. His tie to Amasya runs from the beginning of his life to its end. He was born in Amasya in Safer 860 (January 1456), spent his youth at the court of Prince Bayezid in Amasya, in his circle of conversation and poetry, and because of this closeness had to flee a death warrant issued by Mehmed II (the Conqueror). Years later his correspondence and closeness with Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed), sanjak governor (sanjak-bey) of Amasya, were used against him, this time under Selim I.

Müeyyedzâde's divan (collection of poems) has not come down to us. His poetry consists of a few ghazals, fragments and couplets scattered among the biographical anthologies (tezkire), a poetry miscellany and the Meşâ‘irü'ş-şu‘arâ of his grandson Âşık Çelebi; half of them are in Persian. In this section the twelve texts that can be found in published sources today appear as separate articles. The details of his life are told in his biography in the Historical Figures section of our site; here the weight is given to his poetry and his literary persona.

Life and Years in Amasya

His given name was Abdurrahman. His father was Alâeddin Ali Çelebi, son of Şemseddin Müeyyed Çelebi, one of the sheikhs of the Kâzerûniyye order, and a member of the Divriklizâde family, one of the notable families of Amasya; the byname "Müeyyedzâde", son of Müeyyed, comes from this grandfather. Some sources trace the family back to Ebû İshak Kâzerûnî, founder of the Kâzerûniyye order in Iran. Âşık Çelebi writes that the family came from Iran and settled in Amasya, and that its roots lay in a place belonging to Amasya which he calls "Halgiz"; in some manuscripts of the anthology the name appears as "Ḫulḳpez". Âşık Çelebi praises the place as one whose air scatters jewels, whose soil grows roses and whose water is mixed with sugar, and he mentions the moaning of the water wheels in its gardens.

According to Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar's Amasya Tarihi, Müeyyedzâde was born in the Yâkûtiye quarter of Amasya, studied at the Şâhbula school in the quarter, and then attended the writing lessons of Şeyh Hamdullah, master of the calligraphers, and the lectures of Mevlânâ Hatîb Kasım and Mevlânâ Abdî. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi records that his father became nişancı (head of the chancery) to Prince Bayezid in Amasya in 865 (1461), and that in this way Abdurrahman entered the prince's close circle at a young age. Hüsâmeddin stresses the literary side of this closeness: because of Bayezid's great love of literature, Müeyyedzâde won the prince's special favour by showing a gift for poetry and prose that could rival that of Âfitâbî and Tâcî Bey, men of letters of Amasya.

This closeness brought him trouble. Kınalızâde, Âşık Çelebi and Beyânî relate that word reached Mehmed II that the prince, Müeyyedzâde and the prince's favourite Hacı Mahmud drank together, and that the sultan ordered their deaths. Bayezid, learning the news before the warrant reached Amasya, gave Müeyyedzâde money and horses and had him escape by night. The TDV places this flight in 884 (1479) and writes that Müeyyedzâde went to Aleppo. Hüsâmeddin, however, links the event to the report made in 881 by the vizier Hamza Beyzâde Mustafa Paşa, who had been sent to Amasya to investigate complaints, and says that the warrant was issued for Bayezid's vizier Mahmud Paşa, Tâcî Bey and Müeyyedzâde, while Âfitâbî was sent away. From Aleppo Müeyyedzâde crossed into Iran, joined the lectures of Celâleddin Devvânî in Shiraz and received his licence (icazet).

When Bayezid came to the throne Müeyyedzâde first returned to Amasya in Ramazan 888 (October 1483); according to Hüsâmeddin he stayed in the city for some forty days and then went to Istanbul. He taught at the Kalenderhâne madrasa and then at the Sahn-ı Semân, was appointed judge of Edirne in 899 (1494), kadıasker of Anatolia in 907 (1501) and four years later kadıasker of Rumelia. In the last years of Bayezid II, when the Janissaries plundered the houses of statesmen regarded as partisans of Prince Ahmed, his mansion too was raided and he left his office. Hüsâmeddin links this dismissal to his being thought a supporter of placing "Amasya vâlîsi Şehzâde Sultân Ahmed", the governor of Amasya Prince Ahmed, on the throne. Selim I appointed him first judge of Karaferye and then again kadıasker of Rumelia, and took him on the Çaldıran campaign; on the way back he was dismissed again. He died on 15 Şaban 922 (13 September 1516) and was buried in the cemetery of the tomb of Eyüp Sultan.

Works

The biographers record independently of one another that Müeyyedzâde wrote poetry in three languages, but none of them speaks of a divan by him. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi likewise notes that his poems appear in the biographical anthologies but that no divan of his has been found. According to the judgement of Edirneli Mecdî quoted in TEİS, his many years in offices such as judge and kadıasker kept the number of his works small, and many of his writings remained in draft. Hüsâmeddin quotes a sentence from Mecdî to the same effect: because he gave his time to judicial affairs, he could not make fair copies of his drafts.

The verse works named in the sources are these:

  • A Persian kaside (qasida) with the refrain "dagger", presented to Sultan Bayezid II. Its full text is in Âşık Çelebi.
  • An Arabic kaside presented to Selim I. TEİS notes that this kaside was written in praise of Selim and was greatly admired in its day. According to Âşık Çelebi, Selim said of it, "if Müeyyedzâde were to call this poem my miracle, what would the other mevâlî say". Its text is not in the anthologies.
  • An Arabic kaside that he placed at the head of his treatise on questions of theology and sent to Prince Korkut (TEİS, Hüsâmeddin).
  • Ta‘miye chronograms composed on the deaths of important persons. Kınalızâde gives a Persian example.
  • Turkish and Persian ghazals, fragments and quatrains. Latîfî writes that from time to time he composed "rubâʿîden ve ḳıṭʿadan baʿżı laṭîf beytler", some fine couplets in quatrains and fragments, and Kınalızâde that his Turkish poems were beyond count.

His prose works are mostly treatises in Arabic. Among those listed by the TDV are the Mecma‘u'l-fetâvâ (Müeyyedzâde Cöngü), the Risâle fî ta‘zîmi'n-nebî on reverence for the Prophet, treatises on the indivisible particle, on beings in the external world and on the resolution of general doubts, short works on questions of pilgrimage and ablution, and a number of glosses. Hüsâmeddin writes that his library held seven thousand volumes apart from duplicates; the TDV records a register showing that a count made after his death found 2112 books.

Literary Persona

All the biographers present Müeyyedzâde first as a scholar and mention his poetry as an ornament of that identity. Latîfî calls him the "mercîʿ u mefḫar", the authority and the pride, of all the ulema and men of learning in the reign of Bayezid II, and adds that with his natural bent for poetry he composed fine couplets from time to time. Âşık Çelebi records that his grandfather wrote every style of script beautifully, composed poetry in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, and trained gifted young men. Beyânî mentions his Persian kasides and fine ghazals. Kınalızâde says that besides his Arabic and Persian kasides "Türkî eş‘âr-ı belâgat-şi‘ârı dahı bî-hadd ü bî-şümârdur": his eloquent Turkish poems too are beyond count. Hüsâmeddin describes him as "elsine-i selâsede şâir-i mâhir", a master poet in three languages.

The liveliest story of Müeyyedzâde's skill with words is told by his grandson Âşık Çelebi on the authority of his teacher Emîr Gîsû. One day, giving a banquet in his garden at Galata for scholars who had come from the Persian lands, such as Monla İdrîs, Kadızâde, Şah Mehmed and Şah Kasım, Müeyyedzâde had to write a letter; he took up his pen, wrote a letter without a moment's thought and read it aloud. After the guests had praised the fluency of its style, they noticed that the letter was sixteen lines long and that every line began with the letter "sîn" and ended with the letter "nûn". In Âşık Çelebi's account those present bit their fingers in amazement. Emîr Gîsû, the narrator of the story, raised a small objection, saying that it would have been finer still if these two letters had also carried a meaning, and after the gathering broke up Monla İdrîs told him that had he not made this objection they would have perished of envy. The story shows a trait also visible in his poetry, a fondness for wordplay and for difficult rules. His turning the redif (refrain word) towards a different meaning in every couplet of the Persian kaside with the refrain "dagger", his use of the word "yekî" in two senses in the ta‘miye chronogram quoted by Kınalızâde, and his praise of letters and dots as the dark and the pupil of the eye in the ghazal he wrote in answer to Prince Ahmed's letter are products of the same taste.

Another strand is also marked in the couplets chosen by the biographers: a rind-like manner of speech. The two couplets beginning "İçelüm içelüm şarâb içelüm" appear in four anthologies at once, and Latîfî calls them a "şiʿr-i meşḥûr", a famous poem; Kınalızâde says that the poet Hayâlî took these couplets for himself with slight changes. The Persian spring matla and the kıt‘a on the fleeting moment quoted by Latîfî also turn on the transience of time and the idea of seizing the moment. The memory of the Amasya years described by the biographers, of gatherings in which the cup never left the hands of the prince and his companion, may have played a part in this choice; the sources, however, do not tie these poems to any particular period.

Müeyyedzâde's ties with contemporary poets have also left their mark in the anthologies. Together with Hâcı Hasanzâde, Kemalpaşazâde, Câfer Çelebi, Necâtî and Vasfî, he wrote a nazire (response poem) to Bayezid II's Persian matla beginning "Her nāle ki peydā şeved ez sīne-i çākem". Necâtî arranged his divan in Müeyyedzâde's name, and Zâtî said that he did not seek an office because he lived on the bounty of Müeyyedzâde and Câfer Çelebi. Âşık Çelebi relates that in Müeyyedzâde's youth he came to know Mihrî Hatun, the poet of Amasya, and that an affection arose between them, and that when Müeyyedzâde was kadıasker Mihrî paid him a visit. When Müeyyedzâde alluded to this old story, Mihrî sent him this couplet: Sen yalāndan Ḫātemī ‘āşıḳ geçerdüñ Mihriye / S̱ümme vallāhī seni Mihrī sever oġlandan (You, Hâtemî, falsely played the lover to Mihrî; by God, Mihrî loves a boy more than you). Right after the couplet Âşık Çelebi adds that Mihrî's story with a young beauty named İskender was well known; the second line can also be understood as "Mihrî has loved you since you were a boy". The couplet is Mihrî's, but it shows that the pen name Hâtemî was known to his contemporaries as well.

Selections from His Poems

The examples below are taken from the biographical anthologies and from the miscellany text published in TEİS. The original text, English prose rendering and commentary of each of the twelve texts appear as separate articles in this section.

Ghazal: "Nāme kim nāmını yazmış bendenüñ sulṭān aña"

Nāme kim nāmını yazmış bendenüñ sulṭān aña
Ġuṣṣadan āzādelıḳ ḫaṭṭı olur ‘unvān aña

"The heading of the letter on which the sultan wrote the name of this servant of his becomes a deed of release from sorrow." According to Âşık Çelebi this ghazal of six couplets was written in reply to a letter from Prince Ahmed. Ahmed was for many years sanjak governor of Amasya during the reign of Bayezid II. The ghazal praises the letter stroke by stroke: the alifs become the beloved's stature, the letter ‘ayn a narcissus, the letter hā a rosebud (Âşık Çelebi, Kılıç edition p. 630).

Ghazal: "Çâk olan dest-i cefâ ile girîbânumdur"

Çâk olan dest-i cefâ ile girîbânumdur
İlişen ḫâr-ı ġam u miḥnete dâmânumdur

"The collar torn by the hand of cruelty is my collar; the hem caught on the thorn of grief and trouble is my hem." It is among his Turkish couplets most often cited in the anthologies. Latîfî gives three couplets of the ghazal, and Kınalızâde records that it was composed "Sultân Bâyezîd zemânında", in the time of Sultan Bayezid. Âşık Çelebi relates that before seeing this matla he himself had composed a similar one with the image of collar and hem, and counted this a state inherited from his grandfather (Latîfî, Canım edition p. 359).

Persian Kaside: "Zi dest-i şāh-ı cihān mī dehed nişān ḫancer"

Zi dest-i şāh-ı cihān mī dehed nişān ḫancer
Ki kerd-i cevher ü zer cümle der-miyān ḫancer

"The dagger gives a sign from the hand of the king of the world; it is a dagger that has gathered jewels and gold wholly into its middle." This is the matla of the sixteen-couplet kaside presented to Bayezid II. Âşık Çelebi counts this kaside as proof that the poet "conquered the land of eloquence with his sword" (Âşık Çelebi, pp. 628-629).

Nazm: "İçelüm içelüm şarâb içelüm"

İçelüm içelüm şarâb içelüm
Nice bir ṣûfî ṣâfî âb içelüm

"Let us drink, let us drink, let us drink wine; how much longer shall we drink clear water like the Sufis?" In the second couplet the poet proposes, since there will be a reckoning for wine in the hereafter, to drink here beyond reckoning. In Sehî the second line reads "Nice bir gāv gibi āb içelüm" (how much longer shall we drink water like an ox) (Latîfî, pp. 359-360).

Chronology

Safer 860 (January 1456): Born in Amasya.

865 (1461): His father Alâeddin Ali Çelebi became nişancı to Prince Bayezid in Amasya.

884 (1479): After Mehmed II's death warrant, fled from Amasya to Aleppo with Prince Bayezid's help; then studied under Devvânî in Shiraz. Hüsâmeddin places the event in 881.

Ramazan 888 (October 1483): Returned to Amasya, and shortly afterwards went to Istanbul.

17 Rebîülevvel 891 (23 March 1486): Married the daughter of Kestelî and became professor at the Sahn-ı Semân.

899 (1494): Became judge of Edirne.

Rebîülevvel 907 (September 1501): Became kadıasker of Anatolia.

911 (1505): Became kadıasker of Rumelia.

917 (1511): His mansion was plundered in the Janissary revolt, and he left his office.

919 (1513): Made kadıasker of Rumelia again by Selim I.

920 (1514): Took part in the Çaldıran campaign and was dismissed on the way back.

15 Şaban 922 (13 September 1516): Died in Istanbul and was buried at Eyüp.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Official sources

Books

Online sources