Kâmî is a poet named in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar's Amasya Tarihi among the "Turkish poets" who celebrated with odes (kaside) the circumcision festivities that Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed) held in Amasya in 911 (1505-06). Hüsameddin gives no information about this Kâmî beyond his name. In the same work, among the poets of Şehzade Mustafa's circle forty years later, "Kâmî Mehmed Çelebi, son of Kadı Mehmed Efendi, brother of Zenbilli Ali Efendi" is also mentioned. The sixteenth-century biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire), for their part, know several Kâmîs. One of them is a judge and poet whose given name was Mehmed Çelebi, a nephew or close relative of Şeyh Cemâl (Çelebi Halife), founder of the Cemâliyye branch of the Halvetiyye order, who died in 952 (1545-46). He is the one who matches Hüsameddin's Kâmî Mehmed Çelebi in family circle, name and profession, a family circle connected with Amasya. This page treats the life of this Kâmî and the poems of his preserved in the tezkires. It has not, however, been proved that he is the same person as the Kâmî of Prince Ahmed's circle, and this question of identity is discussed separately below.

Life

The poet introduced in Âşık Çelebi's Meşâirü'ş-Şuarâ under the heading "Kâmî-i Sânî" (the second Kâmî) is "Şeyh Cemâl-i merhûmun birâderzâdesi ve perverde-i hânevâdesi", that is, the son of the late Şeyh Cemâl's brother and one raised by that family. His name is Mehmed Çelebi. Âşık Çelebi does not think much of his appearance, but says that his character surpassed his looks and that those who heard his conversation sought out his company. He obtained his candidacy (mülazemet) from Müftü Ali Çelebi, served as judge in Arkadiye (in the Morea) and other places in Rumelia, and died in the year 952. His property passed to his cousin Şeyh Cemâlzâde. According to Âşık Çelebi the poet used to say that he had seen the prophet Jacob in a dream, and he set about putting the story of Joseph into verse. He completed the work, but after his death the leaves of the book scattered "like varakü't-tayr", like the feathers of a bird, and were lost.

Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi and Beyânî mention the same poet under the heading "Kâmî-i Diger" (the other Kâmî) with similar information: he is Şeyh Cemâl's nephew, obtained his candidacy from Müftü Ali Çelebi, died in 952 while in the service of the sacred law, and had a verse Yûsuf u Züleyhâ, but the work was lost. In his tezkire completed in 1546, Latîfî introduces a poet under the heading "Kâmî-i Karamânî": he is from Karaman, one of the scholars and the pious, a relative of Şeyh Cemâl, and has a Yûsuf u Züleyhâ translated from Jâmî. Sehî Bey too, in his Heşt Bihişt completed in 1538, mentions "Mevlânâ Kâmî" as from Karaman, a relative of Şeyh Cemâl Halife, a man of learning, accomplished and perfect in the art of poetry. Since Şeyh Cemâl's family was of Aksaray origin, the nisba "Karamânî" in Latîfî and Sehî agrees with these records. It is very probable that the person in these four tezkires is the same Kâmî.

Hüsameddin's record adds a family link to this information. According to him, Kâmî Mehmed Çelebi is the son of Kadı Mehmed Efendi, brother of the Şeyhülislam Zenbilli Ali Efendi, and was himself one of the judges. In the genealogy Hüsameddin gives for the Cemâlî family, the brothers of Zenbilli Ali Efendi are listed as Muhyiddin Mehmed Çelebi, "kibâr-ı kudâttan" (one of the great judges), and Kıvâmeddin Kâsım Çelebi, judge of Istanbul. Kâmî's father "Kadı Mehmed Efendi" is very probably this Muhyiddin Mehmed Çelebi; this is our inference. The person the tezkires call "Müftü Ali Çelebi" is Zenbilli Ali Efendi himself: the office of mufti of Istanbul was conferred on Ali Cemâlî Efendi in 908 (1503), and he remained in it until his death in 1526. It thus appears that Kâmî obtained his candidacy under his uncle.

Connection with Amasya

The only source linking Kâmî with Amasya is Hüsameddin. Hüsameddin mentions him in three places: among the poets of the circumcision festivities of 911 under the name "Kâmî" alone, again as "Kâmî" together with Çeşmî and Mihrî when listing the famous poets of Amasya, and as "Kâmî Mehmed Çelebi" when describing the literary circle of Şehzade Mustafa in Amasya. The tezkires do not mention the poet's presence in Amasya. The original text of Hüsameddin's two basic records reads:

Bu esnâda Amasya'da Türk şu'arâsından Çeşmî, Şermî, Figânî, Kâmî, Melîhî, Münîrî, Mihrî ve Acem şu'arâsından Basîrî, Penâhî, Kutbî pek ma'rûf idiler. (…) Kudâtdan Zenbîlî Alî Efendi birâderi Kadı Mehmed Efendi mahdûmu Kâmî Mehmed Çelebi, Tayyibzâde Lutfî Efendi, Seyrekzâde Ânî Ahmed Çelebi (…)

In English: At this time [during the festivities of 911] Çeşmî, Şermî, Figânî, Kâmî, Melîhî, Münîrî and Mihrî among the Turkish poets, and Basîrî, Penâhî and Kutbî among the Persian poets, were very well known in Amasya. (…) [Among the poets around Prince Mustafa there were], from among the judges, Kâmî Mehmed Çelebi, son of Kadı Mehmed Efendi, brother of Zenbilli Ali Efendi, Tayyibzâde Lutfî Efendi, Seyrekzâde Ânî Ahmed Çelebi (…).

The family's connection with Amasya, on the other hand, can be seen from other sources as well. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Şeyh Cemâl, that is, Çelebi Halife, after receiving his licence spent some time guiding disciples in Amasya, came to know there Prince Bayezid, then governor of Amasya, and his chief gatekeeper Mustafa Ağa (Koca Mustafa Paşa), and was invited to Istanbul after Bayezid's accession. Some sources also record that he was born in Amasya, though most point to Aksaray. Zenbilli Ali Efendi too was twice mufti of Amasya, took on the teaching post at the Bayezid madrasa of Amasya completed in 1486, and left his post and returned to Istanbul when Prince Ahmed gave precedence to his own tutor at the circumcision festivities of 896 (1491). Hüsameddin writes that one branch of the Cemâlî family remained in Amasya, the Çelebi Halife branch living in Amasya and the Zenbilli Ali Efendi branch in Istanbul. That Kâmî came from this family is known from the tezkires; that he was in Amasya is known only from Hüsameddin.

State of the Sources and Discussion

The main question on this page is who the Kâmî mentioned by Hüsameddin in Prince Ahmed's circle was. Hüsameddin gives this name for the festivities of 911 without further explanation. According to Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde, Kâmî, the nephew of Şeyh Cemâl, died in 952 (1545-46). It is possible that this Kâmî was old enough to recite an ode at the festivities of 1505, but in that case he must have had a poetic career of more than forty years. Since the Istanbul muftiship of Ali Cemâlî Efendi, under whom he obtained his candidacy, began in 1503, Kâmî's candidacy very probably dates from after that year. The years between Şehzade Mustafa's arrival in Amasya in 1541 and Kâmî's death, on the other hand, fit comfortably with his joining this second circle. Hence, if Hüsameddin's two records refer to the same person, Kâmî's presence in Mustafa's circle is the more convincing. It cannot be ruled out that the Kâmî of the 911 list was a different poet.

Namesakes in the tezkires further complicate the question of identity. The "Kâmî Efendi" mentioned first in Âşık Çelebi, Kınalızâde and Beyânî is Mesnevîhânzâde Mehmed of Edirne. His father was reciter of the Mesnevi at the Muradiye Mevlevi lodge in Edirne; he himself, as a candidate under the Şeyhülislam Ebussuud, served as a müderris and as judge of Edirne, and presented odes to Süleyman the Magnificent. Latîfî's "Kâmî-i Edirnevî" is very probably the same person. This Kâmî has no known connection with Amasya. One couplet, however, has not been settled between the two Kâmîs: the opening couplet "Meyl itme sîme olma bahâda ḫaẕef gibi", which Sehî assigns to Kâmî of Karaman, appears in Âşık Çelebi and Beyânî, together with a second couplet, among the poems of Kâmî Efendi of Edirne. Considering that Âşık Çelebi knew Kâmî of Edirne personally and wrote him a letter, the couplet more probably belongs to him. The couplet is given on a separate page in this category, with the attribution dispute noted.

The sources also differ slightly on the degree of kinship. The tezkires call Kâmî Şeyh Cemâl's "birâderzâde" (brother's son), and Âşık Çelebi writes that his property passed to his "cousin" Şeyh Cemâlzâde. According to Hüsameddin, however, Kâmî is the nephew of Zenbilli Ali Efendi; according to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Zenbilli Ali Efendi and Çelebi Halife were first cousins. In that case Kâmî would be the son not of Şeyh Cemâl's brother but of his cousin. Hüsameddin's own genealogies are not consistent on this point either; in one place he gives Ali Çelebi as Şeyh Cemâl's nephew, in another as his cousin. The tezkires may well have used the word "birâderzâde" in a broad sense, for a nephew within the family. In any case the sources agree that Kâmî was a member of the Cemâlî family.

Works

Kâmî's only known work is his verse Yûsuf u Züleyhâ. Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde say that the work scattered and was lost after the poet's death, and Beyânî that it was as unobtainable "as the Ankâ" (the phoenix). Latîfî, however, seems to have seen the work. According to him it is a translation from Jâmî. Kâmî took many ideas from the Yûsuf u Züleyhâ poems of Hamdî and Selâmî, from Nizâmî, from Nizâmî-i Semerkandî's Üveys ü Râmin and from Efsahî-i Cürcânî's Vâmık u Azrâ, but gave them his own expression. Latîfî therefore says that those unfamiliar with the work's sources cannot tell these works apart, but adds that the Yûsuf u Züleyhâ contains fine subtleties and colourful, surprising artistry, and that in the mesnevi the art and imagination reach the limit the human mind can attain. Latîfî and Âşık Çelebi quote fragments from the beginning of the work, from the description of Zuleikha and from the descriptions of a horse and a camel. These are what is known of the work today.

His Poetry

No divan of Kâmî is known. What survives of his poetry are the examples in the tezkires. Latîfî gives four fragments of the Yûsuf u Züleyhâ, three couplets of a ghazal and one further couplet; Âşık Çelebi gives three more couplets of the mesnevi, an opening couplet (matla) and a two-couplet ghazal fragment. Kınalızâde and Beyânî repeat this last opening couplet and ghazal fragment. The attribution of the single opening couplet given by Sehî is disputed, as explained above. Latîfî says of the poet's verse that it was "matbû ve mevfûr", natural and abundant, but remained far from fame. The surviving ghazal couplets are built on images such as the nightingale and the rose, Joseph and Jacob, and the falcon on the beloved's arm. Traces of the Joseph story appear even in his ghazals. Every poem that has come down to us is given on a separate page in this category with its original text, English prose version and commentary.

The other poets of Prince Ahmed's Amasya circle and Hüsameddin's account of this circle are described in the article Prince Ahmed's Amasya circle and its poets, and the circle of Prince Mustafa in the article Prince Mustafa and the poems of Muhlisî.

Chronology

891-896 (1486-1491): Zenbilli Ali Cemâlî Efendi is mufti of Amasya and müderris of the Bayezid madrasa.

899 (1494): Şeyh Cemâl (Çelebi Halife) dies on the pilgrimage road.

910 (1504): Ali Cemâlî Efendi takes up the muftiship of Istanbul; Kâmî becomes his candidate.

911 (1505-06): According to Hüsameddin, Kâmî is among the poets celebrating Prince Ahmed's circumcision festivities in Amasya.

945 (1538): Sehî Bey completes the Heşt Bihişt and mentions Kâmî of Karaman among contemporary poets.

948-952 (1541-1545): According to Hüsameddin, Kâmî Mehmed Çelebi belongs to Prince Mustafa's circle in Amasya.

952 (1545-46): According to Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde, Kâmî dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Official sources

Online sources