Among the companions whom Prince Bayezid kept around him in his years as governor of Amasya (1454-1481) was a madrasa teacher and judge who also wrote poetry: Hıfzî Ali Çelebi. In Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi his entry bears the heading "Hıfzı Ali Çelebi-Mevlâna Şehrî": his pen name was Hıfzî, and the byname under which he was known together with his scholarly title was Şehrî. The earliest date that attests his existence is 872 (1467-68); he is known to have died after 883 (1478-79). No poem of his is known today.

Hüsameddin's Entry

The entry comes in the section of the ninth volume that lists people bearing the name or pen name Hıfzî, immediately after Nâibzâde Hıfzî Abdurrahman Efendi, and consists of four sentences:

Amasyalıdır. Mahmûd Çelebi mahdûmu ulemâdan tahsîl-i ulûm ederek müderris kâdı olduğu 872'de Hüsameddîn Temennâyî Vakfiyesinden anlaşıldı. Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî Amasya vâlîsi iken musâhiblerinden olup 883 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi. Ulemâ ve şuarâdandır.

Put into plain English: He is from Amasya; his father was Mahmûd Çelebi. That he studied with scholars and became a madrasa teacher and judge is known from the endowment deed of Hüsâmeddîn Temennâyî dated 872. When Sultan Bayezid II was governor of Amasya he was among his companions, and he died after the year 883. He was one of the scholars and poets.

Who his father Mahmûd Çelebi was is not stated; since there were several judges and madrasa teachers of that name in Amasya in those years, no identification has been attempted.

The Temennâyî Endowment Deed

The only document for Hıfzî's career is the endowment deed of Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Ağa, who had a school and a fountain built in the Temennâ quarter of Amasya. According to Hüsameddin, this man was the freed slave and for many years the steward (kethüdâ) of Atabegzâde Hızır Paşa of Amasya; he settled in the Temennâ quarter, had a fountain built that brought water to the whole quarter and a school, endowed his property to them, won the favour of Prince Bayezid and became collector of the poll tax of the province, and died in 887 (1482). The date of the deed is not consistent in the source: Hıfzî's entry gives 872, while the entry on Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Ağa himself says the endowment was made in 878 (1473-74). In what capacity Hıfzî appears in the deed, as a witness or as the judge who registered the document, is not stated either.

Another poet whose signature is found on the same deed is Enverî Pîr Hasan Çelebi, who had won the prince's favour by presenting him with qasidas; Hüsameddin writes that he saw his signature there as a witness. The presence of the two poets side by side beneath the same document shows that the circle of learning and the pen close to Bayezid's court in Amasya also came together in an endowment transaction.

Companion of Prince Bayezid

A musahib is the conversation companion of a ruler or a prince. In the circle of Prince Bayezid in Amasya, Âfitâbî, Enverî and many other poets are mentioned with the same title. The date of 883 given by Hüsameddin coincides with the year in which this circle was broken up. The inquiry opened after a qasida of complaint was presented to Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror ended in the event Hüsameddin calls the "Halîmî affair": the prince's tutor-guardian Mahmûd Paşa was executed, Tâcî Bey and Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman Efendi fled, Âfitâbî Abdurrahman Çelebi was sent to Ankara and Enverî to Tokat as madrasa teachers. For Hıfzî the source says only "883 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi" (he died after the year 883); there is no record showing that he too was affected by this purge. Whether 883 is the last year in which his name is known to appear, or an estimate of the date of his death, is also unclear.

The Byname Şehrî and the Question of Identity

The "Mevlânâ Şehrî" in the heading of the entry raises the possibility of confusing Hıfzî with another poet of the same era. In the entry on Çeşmî Mehmed Çelebi, Hüsameddin lists a "Şehrî Çelebi", together with Mihrî, Figânî, Şermî and Münîrî, among the poets of Amasya who took part in Çeşmî's literary gatherings during Prince Ahmed's governorship of Amasya (1481-1512). For this Şehrî (Prince Ahmed's Era), whose identity is uncertain, Hıfzî Ali Çelebi is one of the closest candidates that come to mind.

There is both a link and a distance between the two records. The byname is the same, and both men belong to the circles of the princely courts of Amasya. On the other hand, Hıfzî appears to have been old enough in 872 to be a madrasa teacher and judge; for him to be mentioned in Prince Ahmed's gathering together with much younger poets such as Mihrî and Figânî, he would have had to live into his eighties. Hüsameddin does not connect the two entries. It therefore cannot be said that Hıfzî Ali Çelebi was the same person as Çeşmî's friend Şehrî, nor can it be ruled out.

There are other poets in Amasya who used the pen name Hıfzî, and they should not be confused with Ali Çelebi: the judge and poet Nâibzâde Hıfzî Abdurrahman Efendi, who died in 1103 (1692), İmâmzâde Hıfzî İbrâhim Efendi, preacher (hatib) of the Hâtuniye mosque, who died early in the eighteenth century, and the veteran poet Hıfzî of Merzifon, who lived in the second half of the nineteenth century. Metin Hakverdioğlu's survey of the poets in Hüsameddin lists Abdurrahman and İbrâhim Efendi among the Hıfzîs of the ninth volume; Ali Çelebi's name was left out.

His Poetry

Hıfzî Ali Çelebi's poems are lost. Hüsameddin's entry places him among the poets as well as the scholars ("şuarâdan"), but offers no example. There is no Hıfzî linked to Amasya in the sixteenth-century biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire) either: of the two Hıfzîs mentioned by Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi, one is Sarı Memi of Edirne and the other a poet of slave origin raised in Istanbul.

Chronology

872 (1467-68): He appears as a madrasa teacher and judge in the endowment deed of Hüsâmeddîn Temennâyî.

878 (1473-74): According to the entry on Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Ağa himself, the endowment in the Temennâ quarter is founded in this year.

883 (1478-79): Prince Bayezid's circle in Amasya is broken up by the inquiry; Hıfzî dies after this year.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources