Born into a family of sheikhs in Amasya that descended from the merchant İbâdullah Çelebi, Yamak Şeyhzâde İsmâil Efendi went with his father to Istanbul, attached himself there to the Merkez Efendi lodge, became the son-in-law of its sheikh, and ended his life as sheikh of the lodge of Mimar Acem Ali. This Halveti sheikh died in Istanbul around 1000 (1591-92). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, the author of Amasya Tarihi, describes him as "âlim, sâlih, vâiz, şâir", a scholar, a pious man, a preacher and a poet, but quotes nothing he wrote. The eighth volume of the book contains a second entry headed "Habîbî İsmâil Efendi-Yamak Şeyhzâde"; the author left it with its heading alone and never wrote its text. The entry is also examined, together with a glossary, on the page İsmâil Efendi-Yamak Şeyhzâde eş-Şeyh.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Filed under the letter "elif" in volume seven, the entry runs to two paragraphs; most of the second is given over to İsmâil Efendi's descendants:

Amasyalıdır. İbâd Çelebizâde Yamak Şeyh Mehmed Efendi bin eş-Şeyh İsmâil Kemaleddîn Efendi bin İbâdullah Çelebi mahdûmudur. Amasya'da tahsîl-i ilim ve ma'rifet edib 958'de pederiyle beraber İstanbul'a gitdi. Merkez Efendi Tekkesi'nde ikâmet ve tekkenin şeyhi es-Seyyid Musliheddîn Efendi'ye irâdet edib 961'de müşârün-ileyhe dâmâd ve 984'de Mimâr Acem Ali Tekkesi şeyhi olduğu halde 1000 hudûdunda vefât etdi.
Âlim, sâlih, vâiz, şâir bir zât idi. Mahdûmu es-Seyyid Mehmed Efendi meşâyihdendir. Bunun evlâdından es-Seyyid Ahmed Vecdi Efendi 1141'de ve bunun mahdûmu es-Seyyid Mehmed Emîn Efendi 1170'de tekke şeyhi oldukları halde vefât etdiler. Diğer mahdûmu es-Seyyid İsmâil Efendi bin es-Seyyid Ahmed Vecdi Efendi ve ba'dehû es-Seyyid Abdulhay Efendi bin es-Seyyid Mehmed Emîn Efendi şeyh oldular.

Translated: Amasya was his birthplace. His father was İbâd Çelebizâde Yamak Şeyh Mehmed Efendi, himself born to Sheikh İsmâil Kemâleddîn Efendi, whose own father was İbâdullah Çelebi. He acquired learning and knowledge in Amasya and in 958 (1551) went to Istanbul with his father. He lived in the Merkez Efendi lodge and became a disciple of the lodge's sheikh, Seyyid Musliheddîn Efendi, whose son-in-law he became in 961 (1553-54). In 984 (1576-77) he was sheikh of the Mimar Acem Ali lodge; he died around the year 1000. Learned and pious, he was a preacher and a poet. His son Seyyid Mehmed Efendi was also among the sheikhs. Of his descendants, Seyyid Ahmed Vecdi Efendi died in 1141 and Ahmed Vecdi's son Seyyid Mehmed Emîn Efendi in 1170, both while serving as sheikh of the lodge. Ahmed Vecdi's other son Seyyid İsmâil Efendi, and after him Mehmed Emîn Efendi's son Seyyid Abdülhay Efendi, became sheikhs.

The Family in Amasya

İsmâil Efendi's lineage goes back two generations in Amasya to İbâdullah Çelebi, a merchant who built a market and a mosque in the city. According to Hüsameddin this wealthy merchant joined the entourage of Prince (Şehzade) Ahmed during his governorship of Amasya, lost everything in 918 (1512) when the prince was strangled, because he had lent his fortune to him, and died of the grief. His son, İsmâil Efendi's grandfather Sheikh İsmâil Kemâleddîn, was a Halveti who received his licence as deputy from Gümüşlüzâde Pîr Abdurrahman Çelebi, became sheikh of the Selâmet Hâtun lodge and died around 930 (1523-24).

Hüsameddin states in two places that his father Mehmed Efendi was known by the nickname "Yamak Şeyh". In the third volume, in the section on Prince Mustafa's governorship of Amasya, he says of the years after 945 (1538-39): "Bu esnâda Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii vâ'izi 'Yamak Şeyh' demekle meşhûr İbâd Çelebizâde Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi ve Mehmed Paşa Câmii vâ'izi meşâhîr-i Halvetiyye'den eş-Şeyh Sinâneddîn Yûsuf Efendi pek meşhûr idi." (At that time İbâd Çelebizâde Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi, known as "Yamak Şeyh", preacher of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, and Sheikh Sinâneddîn Yûsuf Efendi, one of the famous Halvetis, preacher of the Mehmed Pasha Mosque, were very well known.) Before going to Istanbul with his son, then, the father was a preacher at Amasya's Sultan Bayezid Mosque. The grandfather's entry adds that Mehmed Efendi went to Istanbul in 958 and that his sons were named İsmâil, Abdülâlî and Yahyâ. Abdülâlî Çelebi's son Ya'kûb Çelebi was a famous calligrapher.

The Circle of Merkez Efendi in Istanbul

The entry names the sheikh to whom İsmâil Efendi attached himself in Istanbul as "Merkez Efendi Tekkesi'nin şeyhi es-Seyyid Musliheddîn Efendi", the sheikh of the Merkez Efendi lodge. This was not Merkez Efendi himself. According to Reşat Öngören's article in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, the Halveti-Sünbüli sheikh Merkez Efendi died in 959 (1552) and had appointed his son-in-law Seyyid Muslihuddin as sheikh of the lodge he himself had built outside Yenikapı. Since name and lodge match, the Musliheddîn Efendi whose son-in-law İsmâil Efendi became in 961 may be taken to be this man; as neither source mentions the other, the identification remains an inference. Of the Mimar Acem Ali lodge, where Hüsameddin says İsmâil Efendi was sheikh in 984, the entry gives no further information.

His Poetry

No poem of his is known. Beyond Hüsameddin's description "vâiz, şâir" there is no trace, and no pen name (mahlas) appears in the seventh-volume entry. The empty entry in the eighth volume offers a clue here. The heading "Habîbî İsmâil Efendi-Yamak Şeyhzâde" shows that there was an İsmâil Efendi of the Yamak Şeyhzâde family who used the pen name Habîbî; according to the editors' footnote, the author left this person's biography blank. This Habîbî may be the same man as the sheikh İsmâil Efendi of the seventh volume; but the family had another bearer of the same name: Seyyid İsmâil Efendi, son of Ahmed Vecdi Efendi, who served as sheikh of the lodge in the eighteenth century. For which of them Hüsameddin noted the pen name "Habîbî" could not be determined.

The Sheikhs Descended from Him

The second half of the entry shows that the office of sheikh stayed in the family for a period running past the middle of the eighteenth century: his son Seyyid Mehmed Efendi; Ahmed Vecdi Efendi of his line (d. 1141/1728-29); Ahmed Vecdi's son Mehmed Emîn Efendi (d. 1170/1756-57); then Ahmed Vecdi's other son Seyyid İsmâil Efendi and Mehmed Emîn's son Abdülhay Efendi. Hüsameddin does not say plainly in which lodge they served; the phrase "tekke şeyhi" may refer to the Mimar Acem Ali lodge.

Chronology

958 (1551): Goes from Amasya to Istanbul with his father.

961 (1553-54): Becomes the son-in-law of Seyyid Musliheddîn Efendi, sheikh of the Merkez Efendi lodge.

984 (1576-77): Is sheikh of the Mimar Acem Ali lodge.

c. 1000 (1591-92): Dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources