Tosyalıdır. Bahşâyiş Çelebi bin Tur Ali Çelebi mahdûmudur. Amasya‘da tahsîl-i ulûm edib ders-i âm oldu. Hayli müddet Amasya’da ikâmet ve tedrîs-i ulûma himmet [79] edib 900 hudûdunda İstanbul’a gitdi.
Ayasofya Câmi-i şerîfinde ders-i âm olup ta’lim-i sıbyân ederek Mu’allim unvânıyla iştihâr etdi. 907 senesi recebinin aşr-ı evvelinde vefât eyledi. Âlim, sâlih, vâiz bir zât idi. Mahdûmu Mustafa Musliheddîn Efendi olup pederinin tarih-i vefâtını kaydetmişdi.
İstanbul’da Muallimzâdelerin cedd-i a’lâsı olup Amasya‘da tevellüd eden Mustafa Musliheddîn Efendi 940’da vefât etdi. Tercemesi aşağıda gelir. Bunun mahdûmu Bursalı Kazasker Ahmed Efendi’dir. Bunun mahdûmları Nişâncı Mahmûd Efendi 987’de ve meşâhir-i şuarâ ve kudâtdan İbrâhim Azerî Efendi 993’de vefât etdi.
In Modern English
He was from Tosya. He was the son of Bahşâyiş Çelebi, who was the son of Tur Ali Çelebi. He studied in Amasya and gave public lectures. After living in Amasya for a long time and working to teach the sciences, he went to Istanbul around 900 [1494-95].
He gave public lectures in the Hagia Sophia Mosque and became known by the title "Muallim" (the Teacher) because he also gave instruction to children. He died in the first ten days of Rajab in 907 [1501-02]. He was a scholar, a pious man and a preacher. His son was Mustafa Musliheddîn Efendi, who recorded the date of his father's death.
Mustafa Musliheddîn Efendi, the great ancestor of the Muallimzades of Istanbul, was born in Amasya and died in 940 [1533-34]. His biography follows below. His son was Kazasker Ahmed Efendi of Bursa. Among the sons of Ahmed Efendi, Nişancı Mahmûd Efendi died in 987 [1579-80], and İbrâhim Azerî Efendi, one of the well-known poets and judges, died in 993 [1585-86].
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mahdûm: son
- tahsîl-i ulûm: studying the sciences, receiving an education
- ders-i âm: giving a lecture open to everyone; in time it became the title of a madrasa professor who did so
- tedrîs-i ulûm: teaching the sciences
- ta'lîm-i sıbyân: teaching young children
- iştihâr: becoming famous, becoming known
- recebin aşr-ı evveli: the first ten days of the month of Rajab
- cedd-i a'lâ: the earliest ancestor at the head of a lineage
- tevellüd: birth
- kazasker: the senior judicial official who headed the judges of Anatolia or Rumelia in the Ottoman state
- nişancı: the senior bureaucrat of the imperial council who marked sultanic decrees with the tughra
- meşâhir-i şuarâ ve kudât: famous poets and judges
The Muallimzades
The real value of this entry is that it lists four generations of one family in a single place. The line reads as follows: İsrâil Çelebi, known as Muallim; his son Mustafa Musliheddîn Efendi; his son Kazasker Ahmed Efendi; and Ahmed's sons Mahmûd and İbrâhim. Hüsameddin says that Muallim came from Tosya, was educated in Amasya and moved to Istanbul late in life. The text says that the title "Muallim" was earned through teaching children in Istanbul; the family name Muallimzade very probably derives from this title, but the text does not draw that connection explicitly.
An encyclopedia entry gives the following about Kazasker Ahmed Efendi: he was one of the scholars of the sixteenth century, he built the Kazasker Mosque (Mescid) in Üsküdar, he rose to the post of kazasker of Rumelia in the learned hierarchy, and he died in 1572 at about seventy years of age. His funeral prayer was performed at the Fâtih Mosque, and his body was taken to Bursa and buried at Zeyniler next to his father, Şeyh Muslihiddin Efendi. This suggests that the man Hüsameddin calls "Mustafa Musliheddîn" is buried in Bursa, though Hüsameddin does not state where he died. The link made here is an inference.
More detail is available about the sons of Ahmed Efendi. Their father served as kazasker of Anatolia and Rumelia in the reign of Selim II. Of his sons, Mahmûd Efendi became nişancı in place of Feridun Bey, and Mehmed Çelebi rose as far as the post of treasurer (defterdar) of Sivas. Of these three brothers Hüsameddin mentions only Mahmûd and İbrâhim; he does not mention Mehmed Çelebi.
İbrâhim Azerî
İbrâhim Çelebi, who appears in the sources mostly under the pen name Âzerî or the nisba Muallimzâde, lived in his youth as a dervish, even in a state of ecstatic withdrawal, and then began madrasa studies and received his mülâzım candidacy from Ebüssuûd Efendi. When his brother Mahmûd became nişancı, he entered state service and joined the sultan's müteferrika corps with a zeamet of 30,000 akçe. After some time he returned to his true profession, judgeship, and served as judge in Tire and Kestel. While judge of Hama he caught a fever and died young. His friend the poet Cinânî wrote a chronogram poem on his death whose last line, "Didiler geçti Âzerî Çelebi" ("They said Âzerî Çelebi has passed"), yields 993; this is also the death date Hüsameddin gives.
The work that brought Âzerî his fame is the mesnevi Nakş-ı Hayâl, which he completed in 987 [1579-80]. Modeled on Hâcû-yi Kirmânî, it has about twenty-six chapters and some 12,000 couplets, and gives counsel on subjects such as trust in God, patience, seclusion, learning, and not being deceived by the world; each chapter tells a story suited to its theme. It is reported that he had a compiled divan, but no surviving copy is known.
Teaching at Hagia Sophia
Hüsameddin writes that Muallim became a "ders-i âm" in Istanbul. The term is known from sixteenth-century sources in the sense of a public lecture, while it most likely became the title of a madrasa professor in the seventeenth century. Muallim lived at the end of the fifteenth century, so Hüsameddin's wording may reflect the language of a later period. This too is an inference.
What Could Not Be Found
No information was found in other sources about İsrâil Çelebi himself, his father Bahşâyiş Çelebi, or his move from Tosya to Amasya. In the searches carried out, information on the Muallimzade family begins only with later generations.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 288–288. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
Books