Kutb-ı Şirvânî served as the sultan's physician at the Amasya court of Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed), son of Bayezid II, and was one of the leading figures of a circle that had come from Iran. Everything known about him rests on Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar's Amasya Tarihi. Hüsameddin presents him as the head of the faction in the prince's circle known as the "Kutublar" (the Poles), the man who turned the prince towards the Iranians and Persian literature and who made him lose favour with the people. He writes that he was hanged in Amasya in 919 (1513) by order of Selim I (Selim the Grim). Kutb-ı Şirvânî is not named as a poet in any source, and no poem by him has come down to us. Because his name appears among the poets of Prince Ahmed's circle and he had a place in its poetic life, he is treated here on a page of his own. Reservations about his identity, his status as a poet and the reliability of the source are set out separately below.

Life and Place in Amasya

Hüsameddin gives neither Kutb-ı Şirvânî's origin, nor his given name, nor his date of birth. The nisba "Şirvânî" suggests the region of Shirvan in the Caucasus, and "Kutb" an abbreviation of the name Kutbeddin, common at the time. He first mentions him while describing the last years of the fifteenth century, in the context of the prince's closeness to Iranian scholars and especially to Iranian sayyids: "Tabîbi Kutb-ı Şirvânî ile nişâncısı Ahmed-i Câmî İran edebiyâtını, lisânını, ricâlini, milliyetini şehzâdenin nazarında pek yüksek gösteriyorlardı." That is, his physician Kutb-ı Şirvânî and his chancellor (nişancı) Ahmed-i Câmî raised Iran's literature, language, statesmen and nation very high in the prince's eyes. In the same years Mîr Gıyâseddin Mehmed of Shiraz and the Tabriz poet Penâhî, fleeing the rise of Shah Ismail, had also come to Amasya and joined the prince's companions.

According to Hüsameddin, after 910 (1504-05) the prince's circle split into two factions. On one side were three scholars all named Şemseddin Ahmed: the former tutor Mahmud Çelebizâde, Müeyyedzâde and Çakal Kadızâde. They were called the "Şemsler" (the Suns), and the poets praised them as the "Güneşler" (the Suns). Opposite them stood, from among the Iranians, the sultan's physician Kutb-ı Şirvânî, the master of music Hâce Kutbeddin Mahmud Çelebi and the müderris Kutbeddin Îsâ Çelebi. These were called the "Kutublar". In Hüsameddin's words, "Güneşler'e mukâbil Kutublar, şu'arânın eş'ârında hayli mazmûnlar doğurmuşdu", that is, the Poles set against the Suns gave rise to many conceits (mazmun) in the poets' verse. This opposition between the sun and the pole star must have given the court poets a way to praise and mock the two factions through celestial imagery. None of these poems is among those Hüsameddin quotes.

The rivalry between the factions grew fiercer in the prince's last years. Hüsameddin writes that the Poles did not speak the truth and tried to discredit Hâce, Ahmed and İskender Beys and the Kadızâdes, close associates of the prince, in his eyes. Seeing themselves slandered, the Kadızâdes and Hâce Bey fled to Prince Selim in Trabzon. When Ahmed seized Amasya in Rebiülahir 918 (1512) and proclaimed his sultanate, he made Kutbeddin Îsâ of Tabriz judge of Amasya and Mîr Gıyâseddin marshal of the descendants of the Prophet (nakîbüleşraf). Describing these appointments, Hüsameddin notes that the people regarded Kutb and Gıyâs as the men who had invited the rebels to Amasya, and adds this sentence: "Hele tabîbi Kutb-ı Şirvânî, Sultân Ahmed'i halkın gözünden düşüren adamdı." Above all, his physician Kutb-ı Şirvânî was the man who made Sultan Ahmed lose favour with the people.

In Zilhicce 918 (early 1513) Prince Ahmed was defeated by his brother Selim near Yenişehir and strangled. The new judge, mufti and endowment administrator who came with Şâdî Paşa, sent to Amasya as governor-general (beylerbey), investigated for days what had happened in the city and sent the record of the inquiry, bound as a book, directly to Selim. According to Hüsameddin, an imperial order arriving in 919 (1513) commanded the execution of more than fifty culprits, and in particular of Kutb-ı Şirvânî and Koca Halil, steward of Mîr Gıyâseddin. Kutb-ı Şirvânî and Koca Halil were hanged together with the other culprits. By the same order Mîr Gıyâseddin was thrown into the dungeon, the judge Kutbeddin Îsâ, called "Kutb-ı Tebrîzî", was dismissed and expelled from the city, and many of the prince's sheikh, tutors and companions were exiled to other towns.

Identity

In the Mukaddime (Introduction) of his book, describing the Üçler quarter of Amasya, Hüsameddin gives the names of the "Kutublar" once more. Here the "üç müfsid-i Îrânî", the three Iranian troublemakers who drew close to Prince Ahmed and gained great influence and were called the "Kutublar" or the "Üçler" (the Three), are listed as "Kutbeddîn Ahmed", "Kutbeddîn Îsâ" and "Kutbeddîn Mahmûd". In the third volume the same faction consists of Kutb-ı Şirvânî, Kutbeddin Îsâ and Hâce Kutbeddin Mahmud. Comparing the two lists leads to the conclusion that Kutb-ı Şirvânî's given name was Kutbeddin Ahmed. This is our inference and could not be confirmed from any other source.

The same Mukaddime record says that these three lived in the Üçler quarter until 921 (1515). According to the third volume, however, Kutb-ı Şirvânî was hanged in 919, while Kutbeddin Îsâ was caught in Merzifon, where he had been hiding, and executed in Amasya in Rebiülahir 924 (1518). This small discrepancy of dates between Hüsameddin's two records suggests that the date 921 in the Mukaddime is given as an approximate limit for the faction's presence in Amasya.

State of the Sources and Discussion

The only source of information about Kutb-ı Şirvânî is Hüsameddin. In describing the age of Prince Ahmed, Hüsameddin frequently draws on Münîrî's Mecmûa-i Târîhiyye for this period. He reports that he saw this collection in Amasya but that the work was later destroyed by fire. The details about Kutb-ı Şirvânî therefore have no other witness that can be checked today. The sixteenth-century biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire) and the encyclopedia entries we have searched do not mention this name.

Hüsameddin's narrative carries a clear attitude. He regards Prince Ahmed's closeness to the Iranians as a fault, refers to them as "Acemler" (Persians), "müfsid" (troublemakers) and people "hated by the populace", and links them directly with the Shiite movements in Amasya. Kutb-ı Şirvânî's role in this narrative is that of the evil counsellor who prepared the prince's downfall. This attitude may draw as much on the outlook of Hüsameddin's own time as on the sources of a period when the Safavid threat was real. His judgements about him should therefore be read as a historian's assessment.

The question of Kutb-ı Şirvânî as a poet must also be considered in this context. Describing the circumcision festivities of 911 (1505-06), Hüsameddin lists "Acem şuarâsından Basîrî, Penâhî, Kutbî", the Persian poets Basîrî, Penâhî and Kutbî. This "Kutbî" is most probably Ahmed Çelebi bin Kutbeddin Câmî, the prince's chancellor known as Kutbî-i Câmî. Kutb-ı Şirvânî appears neither in this list nor among Hüsameddin's entries on poets. His place in the poetic life of the circle consists in his being the subject of the conceits the poets composed about the "Kutublar" and in his contribution to the prestige Persian literature gained around the prince. In the light of this information, it must be stated clearly that there is no record of his being a poet and that no poems of his have been found.

Kutb-ı Şirvânî should also not be confused with another Şirvânî known in Ottoman medical history. The physician Muhammed b. Mahmûd Şirvânî, introduced by Necdet Okumuş in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, presented works to the Germiyanid Yâkub Bey II, to Mehmed I (Çelebi Mehmed) and to Murad II, spent the end of his life in Bursa and died between 1438 and 1451. No link is known between him and the Kutb-ı Şirvânî hanged in Amasya more than half a century later beyond the similarity of their nisba. Since the Tabriz judge of the same faction, Kutbeddin Îsâ, is also called "Kutb-ı Tebrîzî" and "Tebrîzli Kutb" in Hüsameddin, the two "Kutbs" must be kept apart.

His Poetry

No poems of Kutb-ı Şirvânî have been found. Hüsameddin does not present him as a poet, and no poet of this name was found in the tezkires. The poems that revolved around him in Prince Ahmed's Amasya circle must have been the couplets of court poets praising or mocking the "Kutublar". These couplets too have not come down to us. The poets of the circle and their surviving poems are described together in the article Prince Ahmed's Amasya circle and its poets.

Chronology

886 (1481): Prince Ahmed becomes governor of Amasya.

c. 903-905 (1497-1500): Hüsameddin first mentions Kutb-ı Şirvânî as the prince's physician in the context of these years.

After 910 (1504-05): The prince's circle splits into two factions, the "Şemsler" and the "Kutublar".

Rebiülahir 918 (1512): Prince Ahmed proclaims his sultanate in Amasya.

Zilhicce 918 (early 1513): Prince Ahmed is defeated near Yenişehir and killed.

919 (1513): By Selim's order Kutb-ı Şirvânî is hanged in Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources