Amasyalıdır. Saraçlar şeyhi Sûnullah Halvetî ahfâdından ve kudâtdan Abdülcelîl Çelebi bin Mehmed Çelebi bin Pîr Sûnullah Halvetî mahdûmudur. Amasya‘da tahsîl-i maârif edib Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânînin Amasya’da tevellüd eden şehzâdesi Sultân Şehinşâh’a intisâb etdi.
İbtidâ şehzâde ile Manisa’ya gidip Dîvân Kâtibi oldu. 896’da şehzâde Konya vâlisi oldukda [93] beraber gidip sonra Nişâncı oldu. 917’de şehzâdenin vefâtında muallimi Hayreddîn Hızır Efendi ile beraber Amasya‘ya gelip tekâüd vazîfesi aldı. Ba’dehû vefât etdi. Maârif-âşinâ, mümtezîc bir zât idi. Mahdûmu Dârâ Çelebi’dir.
In Modern English
He is from Amasya. He is the son of Abdülcelîl Çelebi, a descendant of Sûnullah Halvetî, the sheikh of the Saraçlar, and one of the judges, who was the son of Mehmed Çelebi, son of Pîr Sûnullah Halvetî. After studying in Amasya he attached himself to Sultan Şehinşah, the prince of Bayezid II who was born in Amasya.
First he went with the prince to Manisa and became Dîvân Kâtibi (secretary of the council). In 896 [1490-91], when the prince became governor of Konya, he went along with him, and afterwards became Nişancı. In 917 [1511-12], on the death of the prince, he came to Amasya together with his teacher Hayreddîn Hızır Efendi and received a retirement stipend. Afterwards he died. He was a man who valued learning and was of agreeable character. His son is Dârâ Çelebi.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- ahfâd: grandchildren, the generations that continue a lineage
- kudât: judges
- tahsîl-i maârif: acquiring learning
- intisâb: attaching oneself to a person or to a path
- Dîvân Kâtibi: the official who handled the writing work in the prince's council
- Nişancı: the secretary who affixed the seal (tuğra) to decrees and documents on behalf of the sultan or prince
- tekâüd vazîfesi: retirement stipend
- maârif-âşinâ: close to learning and knowledge
- mümtezîc: well-blended, agreeable
Saraçlar Pîri Sun'ullah Halvetî
Sun'ullah Halvetî, on whom İsfendiyâr Çelebi's line rests, is among the known names of the Halvetî circle in Amasya. In the record that lists the succession of sheikhs of the Halvetî tekke built in the Pîrler quarter in 815 [1412-13] by Yâkub Pasha, the beylerbeyi of Ankara, "Saraçlar Pîri Sun'ullah Halvetî" is named after Pîr Celâleddin Abdurrahman Çelebi. The tekke is also known among the people as the Çilehâne Tekke. Hüsameddin says the tekke was inside the Yâkub Pasha Mansion.
Prince Şehinşah
The point that stands out in this biography is that the prince to whom İsfendiyâr Çelebi attached himself was born in Amasya. Şehinşah was born in Amasya in 1470; his father was Prince Bayezid and his mother Hüsnüşah Hatun. According to some sources he was sent to Menteşe in 1480, moved to Manisa the next year, was appointed to Konya in 1483 on the death of his brother Abdullah, and to Karaman in 1485. Hüsameddin's "when he became governor of Konya in 896" does not fit this order exactly: the year 896 corresponds to 1490-91, while in the sources the move to Konya is given with an earlier date. This difference may arise either from the date being written wrongly in the book or from the sources ordering Şehinşah's posts differently; which it is could not be determined.
Şehinşah died in Konya on 2 July 1511, at the age of forty-one. How his death came about is not certain: by one view he was killed on the order of his father Bayezid II, by another he took his own life, and by the widespread opinion he was killed through the scheming of Prince Ahmed and Hadım Ali Pasha. His body was buried in the Muradiye Complex in Bursa. Hüsameddin's "917, the prince's death" agrees with the 1511 of the sources. Hayreddîn Hızır Efendi, whom Hüsameddin names as the teacher of İsfendiyâr Çelebi, was not found in the sources we examined; there, the prince's teachers are given as Hadım Yakup Pasha and Sinan Bey.
Points to Note
About İsfendiyâr Çelebi's son Dârâ Çelebi, and about his own service as Nişancı, no information could be found in other sources.
Bibliography