Sâfiye Hatun of the İğnecizâde family lived in Amasya in the first half of the sixteenth century and is recorded as having learned poetry and prose composition from Mihrî Hatun. Her name does not appear in the tezkires, the biographical anthologies of poets; the only source that has carried her memory to us is a four-sentence entry in the eleventh volume of Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar's Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya). Brief as it is, the entry matters because it shows that one of the first great women poets of Ottoman literature trained a pupil in Amasya. Sâfiye lived in a household where two of the city's old Halvetî families, the İğnecizâdes and the Gümüşlüzâdes, met, and her life is known only as far as it can be traced through the records of these two families. No example of her poetry has survived. The other women poets of her age are treated together in The Women Poets of Amasya.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Hüsameddin names Sâfiye Hatun under the heading "Safiye Hâtun-İğnecizâde" in the section where he lists the city's notable women in alphabetical order. The entry reads in full: "Amasya ulemâ ve meşâyihinden Abdurrahman Efendi bin Şeyh Safiyüddîn Halvetî kızıdır. Gümüşlüzâde Muhyiddîn Çelebi halîlesi olup ulemâdan tahsîl ve terbiye gördü. Mihrî Hâtun'un şiir ve inşâda tilmîzi olup 945 yılından sonra vefât etdi. Âlim, şâir, sûfî-meşreb idi." In the text version of the e-book published by the municipality the two columns of the page run into each other, so the entry has been read in this form after being separated from the neighbouring entries.

In plain English the record says: Sâfiye Hatun was the daughter of Abdurrahman Efendi, son of Şeyh Safiyüddîn Halvetî, one of the scholars and sheikhs of Amasya. She was the wife of Gümüşlüzâde Muhyiddîn Çelebi and received her education and upbringing from scholars. She was Mihrî Hatun's pupil in poetry and in prose composition, and died after the year 945 (1538-39). She was a learned woman, a poet and of a Sufi disposition. The word "inşâ" that Hüsameddin uses denotes artistic prose such as letters and official correspondence; "sûfî-meşreb" expresses an adoption of the ethics and spirit of Sufism more than formal membership of an order. While the historian introduces many women in the same section only as "learned, devout, ascetic", his explicit use of "şâir" (poet) for Sâfiye places her among the few women of Amasya known to have written poetry. Hüsameddin does not say where he found this information; the document or anthology behind the entry is unknown.

The İğnecizâdes: Her Father and Forebears

On her father's side Sâfiye came from a family of sheikhs going back to Pîr Şerefeddîn Hamza Çelebi, one of the deputies (halife) of Pîr İlyâs Halvetî. According to Hüsameddin, Pîr Şerefeddîn Hamza's son Seyyideddîn Ahmed Çelebi was trained under Pîr Abdurrahmân Çelebi and became his deputy, preached for a time in the Gümüşlüzâde Mosque, became sheikh of the Halvetî dervish lodge beside the mosque on his master's death, and died around 853 (1449). His son Safiyüddîn Mûsâ Çelebi studied with his father and the scholars of his day and taught for many years, then joined the circle of Şeyh Zekeriyâ Halvetî and became sheikh of his lodge. The record says that Bayezid II was deeply devoted to him while serving as prince-governor in Amasya, and that when the sheikh declined the stipends the sultan assigned him on his accession, these were given to the poor of the lodge. Safiyüddîn lived on the income of property inherited from his father, taught Qur'anic exegesis and hadith in the Saraçhane Mosque, counselled the people through his sermons, and died in 893 (1488). It is worth noting that Sâfiye's name shares its root with her grandfather's honorific Safiyüddîn; the source does not say whether this was a deliberate choice of name.

Sâfiye's father, Abdurrahman Efendi, is counted by Hüsameddin "among the famous scholars". According to his own entry he completed his studies with the mufti of Amasya, Musliheddîn Mûsâ Efendi, received the spiritual grace of Sufism from his father, and became sheikh of the İğnecizâde Lodge and preacher of the Saraçhane Mosque. He devoted his time to the moral improvement of the people, to remembrance of God and to worship, and died around 950 (1543-44). Safiyüddîn Mûsâ's entry names Mehmed and Ömer Efendi as Abdurrahman Efendi's sons; they must have been Sâfiye's brothers, although the source does not mention her alongside them. Among the descendants of Ömer Efendi were figures such as Sarı Ali Efendi, molla of Mecca, Abdurrahman Efendi, sheikh of the Haram, and Hâce Ahmed Paşa, beylerbey of Anatolia. Sâfiye thus grew up as the daughter of a family that had taught and preached in both lodge and madrasa for four generations. Hüsameddin's remark that she "received her education and upbringing from scholars" also suggests an education within this household.

Her Husband: Gümüşlüzâde Muhyiddîn Çelebi

In the entry Sâfiye Hatun's husband is named only as "Gümüşlüzâde Muhyiddîn Çelebi". The best known bearer of this name is Pîr Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi of the Gümüşlüzâdes, whom Hüsameddin calls "kutbu'l-aktâb", the pole of poles. According to the third volume of the work, he became sheikh of the lodge of Pîr İlyâs on the death of his father-in-law Pîr Abdurrahmân Hüsâmî Çelebi in 903 (1497-98). He was regarded as the sheikh of Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed), and when Ahmed proclaimed his sultanate in Amasya in the month of Rebiülâhir 918 (1512), he had him recite the prayer at the oath-of-allegiance ceremony. After Selim I took the throne, Ahmed's partisans were dispersed by an imperial order of 919 (1513); Muhyiddîn Mehmed was sent to Istanbul and is recorded as being held in the Yedikule dungeon in 921 (1515). Among the events of 926 (1520) Hüsameddin writes: "Gümüşlüzâde Pîr Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi de Amasya'ya bu sene gelip evlâd u ıyâline kavuşdu" (this year Gümüşlüzâde Pîr Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi too came to Amasya and was reunited with his children and household).

The site's article on the family identifies Sâfiye's husband with this Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi and lists among his wives both Âlime Hatun, daughter of Pîr Abdurrahmân Hüsâmî, and Sâfiye Hatun. The identification is plausible, but it is an inference: in Sâfiye's entry the husband appears without the name "Mehmed" and without the title "Pîr", and elsewhere Hüsameddin, by speaking of a "Büyük Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi" (the elder Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi), hints at a second family member of the same name. If the identification is correct, Sâfiye must have been among the "household" that remained in Amasya during her husband's years in Yedikule; Âlime Hatun, for her part, travelled with her husband to the Hejaz and died in Mecca in 933 (1526-27). Whether Sâfiye went to the Hejaz, and whether she had children by her husband, is not known.

Mihrî Hatun's Pupil

The most important piece of information in the entry is that Sâfiye was the pupil of Mihrî Hatun "in poetry and prose composition". Mihrî was born in Amasya, spent her life in the city and is a poet whose divan has survived complete. Hüsameddin writes under the year 903 (1497-98): "Amasya şu'arâsından Çeşmî Ahmed Çelebi ile Mihrî Hâtun iştihâr ediyordu" (among the poets of Amasya, Çeşmî Ahmed Çelebi and Mihrî Hatun were becoming famous); the last entry for her in the registers of royal gifts dates from 917 (1512). On these dates Sâfiye's lessons with Mihrî most probably fall within the first decade of the sixteenth century, in the period of Şehzade Ahmed's governorship of Amasya; this too is an inference not stated in the source. Given that Mihrî belonged to the poetic circle that formed around the prince's palace, the fact that Sâfiye's husband was regarded as Şehzade Ahmed's sheikh may also be seen as a link that brought the two women into the same milieu.

There may also have been a family tie between teacher and pupil. According to the entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Mihrî's grandfather was Pîr İlyâs Halvetî, and the poet was buried in the graveyard of her grandfather's lodge. Sâfiye's forebears came from among Pîr İlyâs's deputies, and her husband became sheikh of the lodge of Pîr İlyâs. Hüsameddin does not mention such a kinship and names Mihrî in Sâfiye's entry only as her teacher. Mihrî's family details are inconsistent in the sources in any case; in another volume Hüsameddin presents her as the daughter of Yahyâ Çelebi, son of the kadi Bilâlî Mehmed Çelebi. It can therefore be said that the bond between the two women ran through the Halvetî milieu, but a family relationship cannot be demonstrated with certainty.

Her Poetry

Sâfiye Hatun's poems have not been found. Hüsameddin quotes no couplet of hers, nor does he say whether she used a pen name. In the course of this study her name could not be found in the sixteenth-century tezkires, in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, or in studies of Ottoman women poets. Starting from Hüsameddin's description of her as "of a Sufi disposition", her poems might be imagined as mystical in character; but this is a conjecture, and there is no text to support it. No poem in Mihrî's divan addressed to Sâfiye or mentioning her is known either.

Contradictions in the Sources

The genealogy of the İğnecizâde family does not fully agree across Hüsameddin's entries. The entries for Sâfiye and for Safiyüddîn Mûsâ give the line in the order Seyyideddîn Ahmed, Safiyüddîn Mûsâ, Abdurrahman Efendi, Sâfiye. Abdurrahman Efendi's own entry, however, introduces him as "eş-Şeyh Seyyidüddîn Ahmed Halvetî bin eş-Şeyh Safiyyüddîn Halvetî mahdûmu", the son of Seyyidüddîn Ahmed son of Safiyyüddîn; on this reading Safiyüddîn becomes Abdurrahman's grandfather. In the first volume of the work, where the sheikhs of the retreat lodge (çilehane) of Pîr İlyâs are listed, the name "İğnecizâde Pîr Safiyyeddîn Mahmûd el-Halvetî" appears after Şeyh Zekeriyâ; here Safiyüddîn's name is given as Mahmûd. The dates of death, 893 for Safiyüddîn and around 950 for Abdurrahman, are consistent with Sâfiye's death after 945 and support the first sequence. The uncertainty over her husband's identity has been described above.

Chronology

853 (1449): Death of her great-grandfather Seyyideddîn Ahmed Çelebi ("around" this year, according to Hüsameddin).

893 (1488): Death of her grandfather Şeyh Safiyüddîn Mûsâ Çelebi.

903 (1497-98): Gümüşlüzâde Pîr Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi becomes sheikh of the lodge of Pîr İlyâs; Hüsameddin records that Mihrî Hatun was gaining fame among the poets of Amasya.

917 (1512): Last record of a royal gift to Mihrî Hatun.

918 (1512): Şehzade Ahmed proclaims his sultanate in Amasya; Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi recites the prayer of allegiance.

919 (1513): Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi is sent to Istanbul by imperial order.

926 (1520): Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi returns to Amasya and is reunited with his family.

945 (1538-39): Sâfiye Hatun dies after this date.

950 (1543-44): Death of her father Abdurrahman Efendi ("around" this year, according to Hüsameddin).

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources