İshak Çelebi — Mevlânâ Mecdeddîn

In Modern English

He was the son of Mevlânâ Kemaleddîn İsmâil bin Ya'kub Salârî, one of the virtuous scholars of Amasya. He acquired learning and virtue from his father and from Mevlânâ Cemâleddîn İbrâhim Aksarayî and gave public lessons; at his father's death he became müderris of the Atabeg Gâzi Madrasa, then a judge, and died after 751 [1350-51]. He is counted among the well-known scholars.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• fuzalâ: virtuous, learned persons
• mahdûm: son
• peder: father
• iktisâb-ı fezâil: acquiring learning and virtue
• ders-i âm: the authority to give public lessons, general teaching
• irtihâl: death
• meşâhir-i ulemâ: well-known scholars

His Father Kemâleddîn İsmâil

For his father Hüsameddin wrote a separate entry in the sixth volume. According to it, Kemâleddîn İsmâil came from the city of Cend, north of Bukhara; he was the son of Ya'kûb bin Sâlâr, took learning and the principles of jurisprudence from Mevlânâ Tâcü'ş-şerîa Mahmûd el-Buhârî, one of the scholars of Bukhara and Khorasan, obtained a licence, and came to Amasya while travelling through the lands. Because of the attention the emirs of Amasya showed him he settled here, taught for years, and by the generosity of Halfet Gâzizâde Emîr Celâleddîn Mehmed Pervâne Bey became müderris of the Halîfiyye-Halfet Madrasa. After serving for a time as chief judge of Amasya in the days of Sultan Altunbaş he was dismissed, and while occupied with teaching and issuing legal opinions he died around 737 [1336-37]. His sons are listed as Sadreddîn İshâk, Cemâleddîn Ya'kûb and Tâceddîn Mahmûd Çelebis, and they and their children were called "Ebû İshâkoğulları". This list does not separately include the İshak of this entry, who is known by the epithet Mecdeddîn; whether the two records describe the same person is not explained in the book. If the father died around 737, this entry, which says the son died after 751, shows that he outlived his father by at least fourteen years.

In the third volume Kemâleddîn İsmâil's name is counted among the well-known scholars of Amasya at the time of the death of the Ilkhanid ruler Ebû Saîd in 1335. This shows that the father was an active scholar in the city in those years.

The Atabeg Gâzi Madrasa

The madrasa is the Atabey Madrasa built by the emir of Amasya, Nâsıreddîn Ahmed Atabeg. According to Hüsameddin's entry in the sixth volume, Nâsıreddîn Ahmed became famous as "Atabeg" because he was the atabey of Altunbaş Gâzi Çelebi, son of the Seljuk ruler II. Mesud; the "Gâzi" in its name most likely alludes to this Gâzi Çelebi. Ahmed became emir of Amasya in 722 [1322], governed Amasya for about five years, and died of wounds in 727 [1327] in the war with Karamanzâde Yahşî Bey. He had the deed of the madrasa he built below the Sığır Pazarı, by the stream, drawn up at the beginning of the month of Safar 727 and endowed his property and land to it. Cemâleddîn İbrâhim Aksarayî was appointed to the post of müderris. His descendants were called Atabeyoğulları or Atabeyler. An official record was seen that in 802 [1399-1400] the trustee of the waqf appointed Mevlânâ Şemseddîn Ahmed Çelebi as Atabeg müderris. An academic study also confirms that Nâsıreddîn Ahmed was in charge of Amasya between 1322 and 1327 and had his madrasa built in that time. Another old madrasa of Amasya is the Halifet Gazi Madrasa, built in the Seljuk period; since the names are close, they are easily confused.

Cemâleddîn İbrâhim Aksarayî

The Aksarayî of the text was a great scholar who came from Aksaray, near Konya, and taught for years in Amasya. According to Hüsameddin's entry in the eighth volume, he studied in Konya, went with his teacher to Damascus and then to Egypt, returned and became sheikh of the Hânkâh-ı Mes'ûdî and müderris of Halfet Gâzi in Amasya. He also served as deputy to the chief judge of Amasya; after his periods in Egypt and Malatya he returned to Amasya, went to Sivas at the invitation of the emir of Sivas, and died there in 727 [1326-27] and was buried. The year of death is not the same in the sources: one academic study says 729 [1328], and another place in Hüsameddin also gives 739. In any case, if Kemâleddîn İsmâil's son took lessons from this Aksarayî, he must have begun his studies before the 1320s; this calculation rests only on comparing years in the sources and is not a firm judgment.

Aksarayî's son Fahreddîn İlyâs is also one of the famous teachers of Amasya; later generations such as Hacı Şadgeldi Paşa took lessons from him. Cemâleddîn Muhammed Aksarayî, Şadgeldi's classmate, was appointed by the emir first to the judgeship of Amasya and the post of müderris of the Dârü'l-ilm, and later to the post of chief military judge.

No information on the İshak Çelebi of this entry was found in sources other than Hüsameddin's book.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 282–282. amasya.bel.tr
• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, 2022, vol. 6, entry "Ebû İshâk İsmâil Cendî-Mevlânâ Kemâleddîn Sâlârî", p. 79–80; entry "Atabeg-Emîr Nâsıreddîn Ahmed Bey", p. 13; vol. 8, entry "Cemâleddîn İbrâhim Aksarâyî", p. 521–522; vol. 3, section "Dokuzuncu Fasıl".
• Hasan Telli, "Meşihat arşivi'ne göre Amasya müderrisleri", Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi, 2024, https://acikerisim.aku.edu.tr/xmlui/handle/11630/12210

Academic studies

• "Atabeyzadelerin Amasya'nın Siyasi ve Sosyal Tarihindeki Yeri ve Önemi", MANAS Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/mjss/article/485672
• Mehterhan Furkani, "Siyasî ve İlmî Bir Kişilik: Amasya Emiri Hacı Şadgeldi Paşa ve ed-Dürerü'l-mensûretü fi'l-furûʻ Adlı Eserin Kendisine Nispeti", Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı I, Amasya 2017, https://isamveri.org/pdfdrg/G00226/2017/2017_FURKANIM.pdf
• "Hilfet Gazi Medresesi ve Türbesi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/hilfet-gazi-medresesi-ve-turbesi