Abdülkerîm Çelebi, who wrote under the pen name Kerîmî, belonged to the family of sheikhs that had led the Mevlevî lodge of Amasya since its earliest generations. His father was Cemâleddîn Yûsuf Çelebi, remembered as "Yavuz Dede" and "Buğra Şeyh"; his grandfather was Veliyyüddîn Ahmed Dede. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar finds him among the Mevlevî sheikhs in the year 745 (1344-45) and describes him as "a poet among the learned sheikhs". This brief note is one of the rare traces that carry into our day the name of someone writing poetry in the Mevlevî circle of mid-fourteenth-century Amasya. The date of his death, his works and his poems are unknown.

The Entry in Amasya Tarihi

Hüsameddin's entry Abdülkerîm Çelebi-Kerîmî, in volume 11, consists of four sentences:

Amasya Mevlevîhânesi şeyhi "Yavuz Dede" demekle meşhûr Yûsuf Çelebi mahdûmudur. 745'de meşâyih-i Mevleviyye'den görüldü. Sonra vefât etdi. Ulemâ-yı meşâyihden şâir idi.

Rendered into English: he was the son of Yûsuf Çelebi, sheikh of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge, known as "Yavuz Dede". In 745 he was seen among the Mevlevî sheikhs. Later he died. He was a poet, one of the learned among the sheikhs.

"Was seen" is a phrase Hüsameddin uses often, and in most places it means that the person's name appears in a document of that date, an endowment deed or a court register. The entry does not say what the document was. The year 745 is therefore a year in which Kerîmî is known to have been alive and counted among the Mevlevî sheikhs. It does not show when he became a sheikh.

His Family and the Mevlevî Lodge of Amasya

The house Kerîmî grew up in is best seen through his father's record. Under Buğra Şeyh Cemâleddîn Yûsuf Çelebi, in volume 7, Hüsameddin writes that he was a son of Veliyyüddîn Ahmed Çelebi, sheikh of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge; that he studied in Konya and received the Mevlevî path from Hüsâmeddîn Hasan Çelebi, the deputy of Mevlânâ Celâleddîn Rûmî; and that after returning to Amasya and teaching for some time he became sheikh of the lodge. Because he was a big, imposing man he was called "Buğra Şeyh" and "Yavuz Dede"; he died in 722 (1322). Volume 2 adds that Yûsuf Çelebi also received spiritual instruction from Sultan Veled and that, together with Âşık Paşa, he was counted among men who were "learned, poets" and masters of Sufism. Kerîmî, then, grew up amid the learned and dervish life of Amasya after Kösedağ, in a house steeped in poetry and in the Persian culture of the Mevlevîs.

Another member of the family is recorded in volume 11. According to the entry Sâlih Çelebi-Yavuzoğlu, this son of Yavuz Dede became sheikh of the lodge after his father's death, but was dismissed in 739 (1338-39) because he took a stand against Ya'kûb Şâh, the great emir of Amasya. Hüsameddin also notes that he valued Persian above Turkish and preferred learned men from outside to the local ones. Sâlih Çelebi and Kerîmî were brothers. That Kerîmî appears among the Mevlevî sheikhs six years after Sâlih's dismissal suggests that the family kept its place in the lodge. Whether Kerîmî took his brother's place, or came after some other sheikh of the family, the source leaves unclear.

The State of the Sources

No record of Kerîmî other than Hüsameddin's has been found. His pen name appears only in the heading of the entry, and the knowledge that he wrote poetry rests on a single word, "şâir". Metin Hakverdioğlu, in his 2024 study listing by volume the poets named in Amasya Tarihi, counts him among the poets of volume 11.

He should not be confused with another man of Amasya who used the same pen name. In volume 3, listing the notables of the city during the years when Prince Bayezid, the future Bayezid II, governed the sanjak of Amasya (around 882 [1477]), Hüsameddin also names "the favourite and poet Âfitâbî Abdurrahmân Çelebi, Kerîmî Mehmed Çelebi". This Kerîmî Mehmed Çelebi is a different person who lived roughly a century and a half after Abdülkerîm Çelebi.

His Poetry

Nothing of Kerîmî's verse is known to survive. The entry holds neither a line nor the title of a work; even the language he wrote in is unknown. His father's circle and his brother were fond of Persian, so it is plausible that he wrote in Persian too. Still, that is a possibility the source never states.

Chronology

722 (1322): His father, Yavuz Dede Cemâleddîn Yûsuf Çelebi, dies.

739 (1338-39): His brother Sâlih Çelebi is removed as sheikh of the Mevlevî lodge for opposing Ya'kûb Şâh.

745 (1344-45): Kerîmî is recorded among the Mevlevî sheikhs.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources