The İbrîzâde family, which for generations gave Amasya scholars and secretaries, took its name from "İbrî", the nickname the wits of the age gave to İbrâhim Çelebi. He himself was a fifteenth-century secretary who served as divan secretary to Koca Mehmed Paşa, grand vizier in the reign of Murad II, and returned to Amasya when the pasha was dismissed in 841 (1437-38). In Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's record he appears as a secretary with a fine hand, a poet, a man of letters and of learning; yet not a single line of his own poetry has survived. A research note on Koca Mehmed Paşa and the family, together with a rendering of the entry, can be read under the title İbrî İbrâhim Çelebi-Kâtib.

The Entry in the Source

The entry in the sixth volume of Amasya Tarihi runs to three short paragraphs; the last tells how the nickname passed to the sons:

Amasyalı Hasan oğludur. Tahsîl-i ilm ü kitâbet edib sadr-ı esbak Hızır Dânişmend oğlu Koca Mehmed Paşa'nın kâtib-i divânı oldu. Amasya'da Sultân Murâd-ı Sânî vâlî iken hizmet-i kitâbetinde bulundu. Paşa'nın sadâretinde divân-ı hümâyûn ricâlinden ve hâcegândan olup 841'de müşârün-ileyhin azl ü i'zâmında Amasya'ya geldi. Ba'dehû vefât etdi.
Koca Mehmed Paşa vakfiyesi şühûdundan olup hattı güzel, şâir, edîb, sâhib-i ma'ârif bir kâtib idi.
Mahdûmları Tâhir, Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebilere "İbrîzâde" dendi. Zurefâ-yı zamânî tarafından kendisine İbrî denildiğinden dolayı da İbrîzâdelikle iştihâr etdi. Tâhir Çelebizâde Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi, Muhyiddîn Çelebizâde Abdurrahman Çelebi meşâhîr-i ulemâdandır.

Translated: He is the son of Hasan of Amasya. Having acquired learning and the secretarial craft, he became divan secretary to Koca Mehmed Paşa, son of Hızır Dânişmend and former grand vizier. He was in (the pasha's) secretarial service in Amasya while Sultan Murad II was governor there. During the pasha's grand vizierate he was among the dignitaries of the imperial council and the hâcegân, the senior secretaries; in 841, when the pasha was dismissed and sent away, he came to Amasya. Afterwards he died. He was one of the witnesses to Koca Mehmed Paşa's endowment deed (vakfiye) and was a secretary with a fine hand, a poet, a man of letters and of learning. His sons Tâhir and Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi were called "İbrîzâde". Because the wits of the age called him İbrî, (the family) became known by the name İbrîzâde. Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi, son of Tâhir Çelebi, and Abdurrahman Çelebi, son of Muhyiddîn Çelebi, are among the well-known scholars.

Life and Patron

İbrâhim Çelebi's life was spent in two places, following the fortunes of his master. In his youth, in the years when Prince Murad held the province, he managed the correspondence of Koca Mehmed Nizâmüddin Paşa in Amasya. When the pasha became grand vizier he went with him to the seat of government and joined the senior secretaries of the imperial council. The pasha's dismissal in 841 ended this career, and İbrâhim Çelebi returned to Amasya. Hüsameddin gives no date of death, and the only thing known about these last years is written in the entry on his son Tâhir Çelebi: Tâhir too was one of the secretaries of the imperial council in his father's time and in 841 "pederiyle Amasya'ya gönderildi", was sent to Amasya with his father. The word "sent" may indicate that the return was not voluntary and that the men of the dismissed pasha were removed from the capital.

His presence as a witness to the pasha's endowment deed shows that İbrâhim Çelebi was counted among his closest men. Hüsameddin does not give the date of the deed or say which endowment it belongs to in this entry.

Family and the Nickname "İbrî"

İbrâhim Çelebi came from a family of secretaries. According to Hüsameddin's entry on İsrâil Çelebi-Hacı Kâtib in the seventh volume, his grandfather İsrâil Çelebi was a calligrapher who served as divan secretary to Ya'kub Şâh, emir of Amasya, and to Hacı Şadgeldi Paşa, and died around 767 (1365-66). Of İsrâil Çelebi's three sons, Halil, İbrâhim and Hasan, it was Hasan Çelebi whose son was "İbrâhim Ebrî Çelebi", and all the branches of this line were called "Benî İsrâil", the Children of Israel. Hüsameddin does not explain the meaning of the nickname and says only that it was a name given by the wits of the time. In his son's entry the family name is also written in Arabic script as "عبريزاده"; "ʿibrî" means Hebrew in Arabic. That a member of a family known as "the Children of Israel" should be called "the Hebrew" suggests that the jest rested on the link between these two names; this, however, is our interpretation, and the source does not say so.

Hüsameddin's records do not agree about the grandsons. In İbrâhim Çelebi's own entry and in the entry Tâhir Çelebi-İbrîzâde in the eleventh volume, Tâhir is İbrî's son and Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi appears as Tâhir's son. In the entry on İsrâil Çelebi, however, Tâhir Çelebi is the son of Dursun Çelebi, İbrâhim's cousin, and Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi, "one of the great scholars", is called directly "Ebrî Çelebizâde". The book does not resolve the contradiction. According to his entry, Tâhir Çelebi was also a secretary and poet; he became divan secretary to Prince Alâeddîn, governor of Amasya, fell from favour after the prince's death in 846 and died some time after 857. The father of Refîkî Ali Çelebi, one of the family's secretary-poets in the sixteenth century, was likewise a Mevlânâ Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi of the İbrîzâde family.

Poetry

The book names him a poet but quotes no couplet of his, nor does it say on what source this judgement rests. No poem of his is known today; what remains of İbrâhim Çelebi is an endowment deed he witnessed and a family name derived from his nickname.

Chronology

c. 767 (1365-66): His grandfather İsrâil Çelebi-Hacı Kâtib dies.

841 (1437-38): Koca Mehmed Paşa is dismissed; İbrâhim Çelebi returns to Amasya with his son Tâhir.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources