Amasyalıdır. Hızır bin İbrâhim mahdûmudur. Amasya‘da [260] mukaddimât-ı ulûmu görüp Bursa’ya gitdi. Orada Sultâniye müderrisi eş-Şeyh Ramazânzâde Mevlânâ Cemaleddîn Mehmed ve Kara Alâeddînzâde Mevlânâ İzzeddîn Hasan Çelebilerden tahsîl-i fezâil-i ilmiyye edib Amasya’da ders-i âm oldu.
Bursa’da yazdığı “Mecmau’l-Bahreyn” adlı kitâbın sonunda şu kitâbesi görüldü:
قد وقع الفراغ على يد العبد الضعيف الياس بن خضر اَلماسى يوم اَلحد
التاسع عشرين شهر رمضان سنة اربع و ثمانمائة بمدينة بروسا¹⁵⁹
Bundan az sonra Bâyezîd ve Timur harbi olup Topal Timur Bursa’yı istilâ etdiği esnâda kaçıp Amasya‘ya gitmişdi. Orada Çelebi Sultân Mehmed Hân’ın şehzâdeleri muallimi olarak ma’rûfiyet kazandı. 824’de Sultân Murâd-ı Sânînin cülûsu üzerine Edirne’ye gitdi.
Orada Şeyhülislâm ve müfti’l-enâm olup Sultân Murâd’ın mahrem-i hâssı, ümerânın melce’i olarak yaşadı. Edirne’de Sultân Selîm-i Sânî Kütübhânesi’nde Sahîh-i Buhârî kitâbının zahrında şu kitâbe görüldü:
وقف هذا الكتاب افتخار األمراء أبوا الخير أبو يزيد بن[261] يحيى بن أوليا شيخ األنام و عماد الإلسالم كرخى
الزمان معروف اَلوان شجاع الدين¹⁶⁰
Ve âhirinde;
۸۳۰ وقف بايزيد بن يحيى بن أوليا الى الشيخ شجاع الدين فى أواسط محرم¹⁶¹
Edirne’de on yıldan ziyâde iftâ ve tedrîsden sonra 840 senesi hilâlinde vefât etdi. Fâzıl, gâyet fakîh, zî-nüfûz bir zât idi. Mahdûmu kazasker ve hâce-i sultânî Hayreddîn Hızır Çelebi Amasya Sarayı’nda tevellüd etdiği münâsebetle “Hızır bin el-Fakîh İlyâs es-Sarayî” diye imzâ kordu.
In Modern English
He was from Amasya. He was the son of Hızır, son of İbrahim. After studying the basic sciences in Amasya he went to Bursa. There he acquired scholarly distinction from Sheikh Ramazanzâde Mevlânâ Cemaleddin Mehmed, müderris of the Sultaniye, and from Kara Alâeddinzâde Mevlânâ İzzeddin Hasan Çelebi, and became a scholar giving public lessons in Amasya.
At the end of the book "Mecmau'l-Bahreyn," which he wrote in Bursa, the following note was seen:
Completed by the hand of the weak servant of God, İlyas bin Hızır el-Amâsî, on Sunday, the 29th of the month of Ramazan in the year 804, in the city of Bursa. (Meaning of the Arabic note)
Shortly afterwards came the war between Bayezid and Timur; when Timur the Lame occupied Bursa, he fled and went to Amasya. There he became known as the tutor of the princes of Çelebi Sultan Mehmed Khan. In 824 [1421], on the accession of Sultan Murad II, he went to Edirne.
There he lived as şeyhülislam and mufti of the people, a close confidant of Sultan Murad and a refuge of the beys. In Edirne, in the Library of Sultan Selim II, the following note was seen on the back of a copy of the Sahîh-i Buhârî:
The pride of the emirs, Ebü'l-Hayr Ebû Yezid bin Yahyâ bin Evliyâ, endowed this book to Şücâeddin, sheikh of the people, pillar of Islam, the Kerhî of the age, famous of his time. (Meaning of the Arabic note)
And at the end it is written:
830 [1426]: Endowment of Bâyezid bin Yahyâ bin Evliyâ to Sheikh Şücâeddin; in the middle of the month of Muharrem. (Meaning of the Arabic note)
After more than ten years of giving fatwas and teaching in Edirne, he died at the beginning of the year 840 [1436]. He was a man of learning, an excellent jurist, and a person of influence. His son, the kazasker and tutor to the sultan Hayreddin Hızır Çelebi, because he was born in the Amasya Palace, used to sign himself "Hızır bin el-Fakîh İlyâs es-Sarayî."
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mukaddimât-ı ulûm: the basic lessons that serve as an introduction to the sciences
- tahsîl-i fezâil-i ilmiyye: acquiring scholarly distinctions
- ders-i âm: a scholar who gives public lessons
- kitâbe: here, the written note at the end or on the cover of a manuscript
- müfti'l-enâm: mufti of the people
- mahrem-i hâss: closest confidant
- melce': refuge
- zahr: the back, the spine
- iftâ, tedrîs: giving fatwas, teaching
- zî-nüfûz: influential, whose word carries weight
- hâce-i sultânî: the sultan's tutor
- tevellüd: being born
Timeline
Mehmed Çelebi had been sent as governor to the Rum province, which covered Amasya, Tokat, Sivas and Ankara, in Şevval 801 [June 1399], and between 1402 and 1413 he held sway over Tokat, Amasya and Bursa in Anatolia. Hüsameddin's statement that İlyas Çelebi taught the princes of Mehmed Çelebi fits these years. Prince Murad was born in Amasya in 1404; according to İnalcık's article on Murad II he was twelve when he was sent to Amasya with the beylik, and Murad came to the throne in 1421. Hüsameddin's linking of İlyas Çelebi's departure for Edirne in 824 [1421] to Murad's accession agrees with this chronology.
The note of the Mecmau'l-Bahreyn, completed in Bursa, was written in Ramazan 804, that is, around April-May 1402; the Battle of Ankara took place in the summer months of the same year. Hüsameddin's "shortly afterwards" agrees with this interval. According to the calendar table, the 29th of Ramazan falls on a Tuesday, while a Sunday falls on the 27th or the 20th of Ramazan; this is our own calculation. A two-day difference may fall within the deviations caused by moon sighting, but how the number in the Arabic note should be read must be checked against the original manuscript; we could not see the manuscript.
How the Waqf Note Is Read
Of the two notes Hüsameddin reports, the second and footnote 161 state plainly that Bâyezid bin Yahyâ bin Evliyâ endowed the book for Sheikh Şücâeddin. The translation in footnote 160, by contrast, lists the names "şeyhü'l-enâm" and "Şücâüddin" as if they were epithets of the donor. Because it is understood from reading the two notes together that the donor in the Arabic text is Bâyezid and that the person for whom the waqf was made is Şücâeddin, the translation above follows this reading. The present location and number of the book could not be found in the sources read.
Points That Could Not Be Verified
Hüsameddin calls İlyas Çelebi "şeyhülislam and mufti of the people" in Edirne. Whether this title appears for İlyas Çelebi in any other source could not be verified in the sources read. No further information was found on his son, the kazasker Hayreddin Hızır Çelebi, nor on Kara Alâeddinzâde İzzeddin Hasan and Ramazanzâde Cemaleddin Mehmed.
The names Şücâeddin İlyas and Hayreddin Hızır also appear in the genealogical chain of the Atabeyzâde family of Amasya: in Fahameddin Başar's article on Yörgüç Pasha, Yörgüç Pasha's line is traced through "Şücâüddin İlyas b. Hayreddin Hızır." Hüsameddin, however, gives this İlyas Çelebi as the son of Hızır, son of İbrahim; no link between the two chains is made in the source, so they cannot be treated as identical.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 342–343. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies