Hâfız Ali Çelebi, known as Kara Hâfız, was a madrasa professor (müderris) and poet of Amasya who taught Persian to the pages at the Amasya palace of Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed) and, as an old friend of the poet Figânî İshak Çelebi, was removed from the palace after Figânî's execution. After the prince's death in 1513 he became professor at the Torumtay madrasa and died around 935 (1528-29). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar says in Amasya Tarihi that his nazire (response poem) to a ghazal of Şeyhî was famous, and quotes this five-couplet ghazal. Kara Hâfız's grandson was Âşık Mehmed Çelebi, who served as shaykh of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina and wrote the history of that city. Hüsameddin's entry appears on the site as Hâfız Alî Çelebi-Kara Hâfız.

Hüsameddin's Record

In the "ha" section of the eighth volume Hüsameddin describes the poet as follows:

Hâfız Alî Çelebi-Kara Hâfız Amasyalıdır. Evâ'il-i hâlinde ulemâdan tahsîl-i ulûm edib Sultân Bâyezîd medresesi mu'îdi oldu. Ba'dehû edebiyât-ı Fârisiyyede rüsûhuna binâ'en Amasya vâlîsi Şehzâde Sultân Ahmed'in sarâyında gılmân-ı hâssa mu'âllimi oldu. Şi'r ü inşâya mâ'il bir zât olduğundan Figânî Çelebi ile sohbet-i kadîmesi ve müşâ'aresi vardı. Bu yüzden Figânî'nin şehâdetinden müte'essir olup sarâydan çıkarıldı. Ba'dehû ders-i âm olup talâkat-i lisânı sâyesinde halk arasında iştihâr etdi. 918'de Şehzâde Sultân Ahmed'in i'dâmından sonra Torumtay medresesi müderrisi olup 935 hudûdunda vefât etdi. Âlim, fâzıl, edebiyât-ı Arabiyye ve Fârisiyyede kâmil, şâir-i meşhûr idi.

In English: Hâfız Ali Çelebi Kara Hâfız is from Amasya. In his youth he studied with the learned and became assistant (muîd), the repeater of lessons, at the Sultan Bayezid madrasa. Then, because of his deep knowledge of Persian literature, he became teacher of the privy pages in the palace of Şehzade Sultan Ahmed, governor of Amasya. Being a man inclined to poetry and prose, he had an old friendship and exchanges of verse with Figânî Çelebi. For this reason he was affected by Figânî's martyrdom and was put out of the palace. Afterwards he began to give public lessons and became famous among the people for the fluency of his speech. After the execution of Şehzade Sultan Ahmed in 918 he became professor at the Torumtay madrasa and died around 935. He was learned, virtuous, accomplished in Arabic and Persian literature, a famous poet.

Life

Kara Hâfız's life is bound up with the last years of Şehzade Ahmed in Amasya. The prince was governor of the sanjak of Amasya from 1481 to 1512; the privy pages Hüsameddin calls "gılmân-ı hâssa" are the young men brought up in his palace. It appears that Kara Hâfız was chosen for this teaching post because of his knowledge of Persian. His departure from the palace, on the other hand, is tied to what befell Figânî, one of the poets around the prince. According to Hüsameddin, Figânî was slandered and hanged because of a poem he wrote against the Shiite propaganda in the city, and Kara Hâfız, who had an old friendship and exchanges of verse with him, was put out of the palace because he was affected by this event. The words "müte'essir olup" can be understood in two ways: it is not clear whether he was sent away because he showed his grief, or whether he was regarded with suspicion because of the friendship.

After the palace Kara Hâfız gave public lessons and became known for the fluency of his speech. Hüsameddin writes that he was appointed to the Torumtay madrasa after the prince was put to death by order of Selim I in 918 (1513); this order of events suggests that the teacher removed from the palace circle obtained a madrasa only in the new era. The date of around 935 given for his death is approximate.

Family

Hüsameddin writes that Kara Hâfız's son Ömer Çelebi became a dervish and went to India, that after keeping company with the shaykhs there he passed to the Hijaz and settled in Medina, and that he died there in 956 (1549) and was buried in the Bakî cemetery. Ömer Çelebi's son was Âşık Mehmed Çelebi, and the family was called "Kara Hâfızzâdeler". Hüsameddin states that he found the information about Kara Hâfız in Âşık Mehmed Çelebi's work Hulâsatü'l-ahbâr. He tells Âşık Mehmed's life separately in the eleventh volume: he was born in 952, studied in Medina, taught in Egypt and Medina, became shaykh of the Prophet's Mosque in 1018 and died in 1021 (1612); Hulâsatü'l-ahbâr is a work on the history of Medina. Âşık Mehmed's entry is also on the site: Âşık Mehmed Çelebi-Kara Hâfızzâde.

The State of the Sources

What is known about Kara Hâfız rests on Hüsameddin's two entries and on his grandson's work, on which Hüsameddin says he relied. The two entries differ on the poet's name. In the eighth volume his name is Hâfız Ali Çelebi; in the entry on Âşık Mehmed in the eleventh volume, however, the father's name is given as "Ömer Çelebi bin Kara Hâfız Mehmed Çelebi", that is, Kara Hâfız is called Mehmed. Which name is correct could not be determined from these sources. No Kara Hâfız of Amasya could be found in the sixteenth-century biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire); Latîfî's entries on Hâfız-ı Acem, Hâfız of Siroz and Hâfız of Konya belong to other people. Hulâsatü'l-ahbâr itself was not available.

His Poetry

Hüsameddin writes that Kara Hâfız's nazire to Şeyhî's ghazal with the opening line "Aşkdır âfet-i akl ü secîdir rahat-ı rûh" was famous, that this nazire is found in the collection of letters (münşeat) of Münîrî of Amasya and in the Mecmaü'n-nezâir, and he quotes five of its couplets. The ghazal opens with thanks that the tavern door has been found open, and in its pen-name (mahlas) couplet answers the adviser who calls Hâfız to repentance with the phrase "tevbe-i nasûh", sincere repentance. According to M. Fatih Köksal's article in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Edirneli Nazmî's Mecmaü'n-nezâir gathers the nazires written up to 940 (1533-34) and takes twenty-seven ghazals of Şeyhî as model poems; the presence of Kara Hâfız's ghazal in this anthology also agrees with the closeness between his death and the dates of the compilation. For this study the nazire could not be compared with the edition of the anthology or with Münîrî's münşeat. The ghazal is given a separate page in this category; no other poem by Kara Hâfız is known.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources