Sivaslıdır. Amasya’da Şeyh Şâdî hizmetinde âdâb-ı tarîkati öğrenip ondan hilâfet aldı. Mes’ûdiye Tekkesi şeyhi Saru Şeyh demekle meşhûr Şemseddîn Ahmed Çelebi hizmetinde me’ârif-i sûfiyyeyi ve ulûm-i Arabiyyeyi tahsîl etdi. [398]
805’de Timurleng’in torunu Kara Mehmed Sultân Amasya’ya geldiği esnâda şeyhi olan Saru Şeyh Şemseddîn Ahmed Çelebi Şam’a firâr etdiğinde Amasya havâlîsinde ihtifâ etdi. Kara Sultân avdet edib Çelebi Sultân Mehmed Hân’ın Amasya’ya geldiğini müte’âkib meydâna çıktı.
Ba’dehû İltegin kasabasında binâ etdiği zâviyesi şeyhi olup Çelebi Sultân’ın kendisine temlîk etdiği arâzî-i memlûkesini zâviyesi mesâlihine vakf ve 824 senesi hilâlinde vefât etdi. Âbid, zâhid, âlim bir şeyh-i murtâz idi. Mahdûmu Pîr Mezîd Çelebi yerine kâ’im oldu.¹⁸⁴
In Modern English
He was a native of Sivas. In Amasya, in the service of Şeyh Şâdî, he learned the manners of the Sufi order and received a successorship (hilâfet) from him. In the service of Şemseddîn Ahmed Çelebi, the sheikh of the Mes'ûdiye Lodge, famous as Sarı Şeyh, he learned the Sufi sciences and the Arabic sciences.
In 805 [1402-03], when Kara Mehmed Sultan, grandson of Timur, came to Amasya, and his sheikh Sarı Şeyh Şemseddîn Ahmed Çelebi fled to Damascus, he hid in the neighborhood of Amasya. When Kara Sultan had returned and gone, he came out after Çelebi Sultan Mehmed Han came to Amasya.
Then he became the sheikh of the lodge he had himself built in the town of İltegin. He endowed the lands and properties that Çelebi Sultan had given him as his own for the needs of this lodge, and died in the year 824 [1421]. He was a sheikh who worshipped much, who had withdrawn from the world, a scholar, one who had disciplined his soul. His son Pîr Mezîd Çelebi took his place.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- âdâb-ı tarîkat: the rules and manner of conduct of a Sufi order
- hilâfet: a sheikh's giving his student authority to teach and guide in his place
- me'ârif-i sûfiyye: Sufi knowledge
- ulûm-i Arabiyye: Arabic and the sciences related to the Arabic language
- ihtifâ: going into hiding
- zâviye: a small lodge where dervishes gather
- temlik: giving as property
- arâzî-i memlûke: owned lands, lands acquired as property
- âbid: one who worships much
- zâhid: one who keeps away from worldly pleasure
- murtâz: one who disciplines his soul, who practices asceticism
Sarı Şeyh and the Mes'ûdiye Lodge
Sarı Şeyh Şemseddîn Ahmed Çelebi, mentioned as İlik Dede's sheikh, is regarded as the sheikh of the Hankâh-ı Mes'ûdî, known as the first lodge of Amasya; that the Mes'ûdiye Lodge in the text and this hankâh are the same place is an inference. It is written that this hankâh was built by the Seljuk Sultan Mes'ûd in 545 [1150] and appears in Ottoman records under the name Şeyh Kırık. Sarı Şeyh, called Şeyh Şemseddin Ahmed-i Rûmî, is one of those who took charge of the hankâh in the time of Şadgeldi Paşa. According to a master's thesis based on Hüsameddin, Timur appointed Kara Devlet Şah to the governorship of Amasya in 804 [1402]; Sarı Şeyh campaigned against Kara Devlet Şah and drew the people to the Ottoman side, whereupon Timur sent his prince Kara Sultan Mehmed to Amasya. Sarı Şeyh hid for a time and then went to Aleppo. When Çelebi Sultan Mehmed returned from Bolu to Amasya, he put at the head of the hankâh Muhyiddin Mehmed Çelebi, one of Sarı Şeyh's students, and the lodge was called Şeyh Kırık from then on.
This account agrees with the sequence of events in the İlik Dede entry: Kara Mehmed's arrival, Sarı Şeyh's flight, Çelebi Mehmed's return. There is a small difference: the place Sarı Şeyh went to is Aleppo in the thesis and Damascus in this entry. The date also varies between the two sources as 804 [1402] and 805 [1402-03]. We could not determine which is closer to Hüsameddin's original text. That Kara Mehmed Sultan in the text was Timur's grandson could not be verified in another source.
İlik Dede and the Lodge of İltegin
No information could be found in other sources about İlik Dede, Şeyh Şâdî, his lodge, or his son Pîr Mezîd Çelebi. The "town of İltegin" is the town of İltekin mentioned in entry no. 445 on İltekin Gâzi; the two spellings must point to the same place, which is an inference. That entry says the town was built up around the İltekin Tomb; where in the town İlik Dede's lodge stood is not known.
The Record in the Footnote
In a footnote, Hüsameddin touches on the later state of the lodge. On the death of eş-Şeyh Abdurrahmân, one of the Bektashi babas, who was the sheikh of the İlik Dede lodge and steward of its waqf, in Rebîülevvel 1209 [1794], this duty was given to his son es-Seyyid Zeynelâbidîn Baba. This shows that about 370 years later the lodge still existed together with its waqf and was in the hands of Bektashi babas. We could not find the later fate of the lodge and the waqf in the sources we read.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 384. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
- Tolga Aydın, Amasya Tekkeleri, master's thesis, Bursa Uludağ University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Art History, 2019 (section on the Şeyh Kırık Lodge, Hankâh-ı Mes'ûdî).
- Kadir Özköse, "Amasya'da Bulunan Halvetiyye Tekkeleri", Akademiar Dergisi, no. 5, December 2018, pp. 91–118.