İshak Çelebi — Mevlânâ Sadreddîn

In Modern English

He was from Amasya. He was the son of the scholar Mevlânâ Kemaleddîn İbrâhim bin Mûsâ. He served as a müderris and judge in Amasya, and in 718 [1318-19] he was found serving as judge and müderris of Canik. He died afterwards. He was one of the well-known judges.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• mahdûm: son
• ulemâ: scholars, men of learning
• müderris: a teacher who gave lessons in a madrasa
• kadı: judge; at that time also the magistrate and town administrator who handled marriage, inheritance and waqf matters
• ba'dehû: afterwards, then
• meşâhir-i kudât: famous judges, well-known judges

His Father and Family

This short entry is completed elsewhere in Hüsameddin's book. In the sixth volume his father, Kemâleddîn İbrâhim bin Mûsâ, has an entry of his own. According to it, Kemâleddîn received learning from scholars teaching in Amasya such as Sadreddîn Mehmed et-Tiflisî and Ziyâeddîn İsâ el-Hakkârî, gained the authority to give public lessons, and then became müderris of the Mes'ûdiyye Madrasa. It is written that he witnessed the waqf deed of Pervâne Bey drawn up in 699 [1299-1300] and died after 710 [1310-11]. The same entry says that his son, that is, Sadreddîn İshâk Çelebi, the subject of this entry, was "müderris and judge of Samsun". The Canik post of the text is thus understood to be a judgeship and madrasa post centred on present-day Samsun.

In the eleventh volume of the same book there is a second person bearing the name Sadreddîn İshâk Çelebi. He is the son of Ziyâeddîn Ebü'l-Mekârim İsâ el-Hakkârî, chief judge of Amasya; he appears with his signature as deputy judge of Amasya in a document of 722 [1322] and died around 732 [1331-32]. To avoid confusing the two, Hüsameddin refers in that entry to this one.

Where Canik Was

The "Canik" of the text is the old name of a wide region covering the area around present-day Samsun and Ordu. The Turks called this region Canit or Canik, and in Ottoman times the Samsun and Ordu districts, apart from Vezirköprü, Ladik and Havza, were known by this name. The year 718 (1318-19) given by Hüsameddin falls in the period when the region was still under Ilkhanid rule. The Kale Mosque in Samsun was built in 1314 by the Ilkhanid governor Emir Timurtaş, and a mint is known to have operated in the city in the same period.

The fourteenth century that followed was more turbulent. The Kubadoğulları, founded by Tâceddin Altunbaş Gazi Çelebi of Seljuk descent, ruled around Samsun, Kavak and Ladik, while the Tâceddinoğulları ruled around Niksar and Çarşamba. These small principalities were attached to the Eretnids and often fought one another. In the following years the tie between Canik and Amasya also strengthened politically: in the time of Hacı Şadgeldi Paşa the emirate of Amasya covered the provinces of Amasya, Tokat and Canik, and Tâceddin Bey, head of the Tâceddinoğulları, was at first subordinate to Şadgeldi. The scholars who went back and forth between Amasya and Canik in judgeship and madrasa posts are also part of this close relationship.

The Madrasa Tradition of Amasya

That the man served both in Amasya and in Canik agrees with what is known of Amasya as a centre that trained scholars for its surroundings. In Seljuk times the city was called Dârü'l-izz, and in later centuries it was described as the "city of madrasas" and the "Oxford of Anatolia"; more than forty madrasas have been identified in Amasya.

No information on Sadreddîn İshâk Çelebi or his father was found in sources other than Hüsameddin's book. Their names do not appear in the encyclopedia entries and academic studies we examined on the medieval history of Samsun and Amasya.

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 "İbrâhim-Mevlânâ Kemâleddîn Ebû İshâk", p. 28; vol. 11, entry "Sadreddîn İshâk Çelebi-Kadıoğlu", p. 439.
• Hasan Telli, "Meşihat arşivi'ne göre Amasya müderrisleri", Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi, 2024, https://acikerisim.aku.edu.tr/xmlui/handle/11630/12210

Academic studies

• 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

Other sources

• "Beyliks of Canik", Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyliks_of_Canik