Kutbî-i Câmî, whose name was Ahmed Çelebi bin Kutbeddin Câmî, was a scholar and poet from Iran who served in the Amasya divan of Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed), son of Bayezid II, first as secretary and then as nişancı (chancellor). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi presents him as the nephew or kinsman of the great Persian poet Molla Abdurrahman Câmî (Jami) and says that people and poets alike knew him as "Kutbî Ahmed Çelebi". Everything known about him rests on records scattered across different volumes of Hüsameddin's work, and these records disagree on dates, on his father's name and on his end. No entry for this Amasya Kutbî could be found in the sixteenth-century biographical anthologies of poets (tezkires). None of his poetry has come down to us. The research notes on Hüsameddin's short entry are published on this site under the title Ahmed Kutbî Çelebi-Câmîzâde. This page brings together all the records concerning him.

Hüsameddin's Records

Hüsameddin mentions Kutbî twice in the volumes in which he introduces the city's notables in alphabetical order. The short entry in the sixth volume is no more than a note on his identity:

Ahmed Kutbî Çelebi-Câmîzâde: Mevlânâ Abdurrahman Câmî Hazretlerinin akrabâsından ve Amasya ulemâsından Mevlânâ Kutbeddîn Mahmûd Câmî mahdûmu olduğu kendi imzâsından anlaşıldı. Halk ve şu'arâ arasında "Kutbî Ahmed Çelebi" demekle meşhûr olduğundan tercemesi harf-i kâf'da gelir.

In English: It was understood from his own signature that he was the son of Mevlânâ Kutbeddin Mahmud Câmî, one of the kinsmen of Mevlânâ Abdurrahman Câmî and one of the scholars of Amasya. Since he was known among the people and the poets as "Kutbî Ahmed Çelebi", his life will be given under the letter kâf. The "kâf" entry Hüsameddin promises could not be found in the published volumes. In the eighth volume, however, under the letter "cim", there is a longer entry on the same man:

Câmî Ahmed Çelebi-Kutbzâde: Molla Câmî-i meşhûrun hemşîrezâdesi olup Kutbeddîn Mehmed Câmî mahdûmudur. Molla Câmî'nin tavsiye-nâmesiyle Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî Amasya'da vâlî iken geldi. Şehzâdesi Sultân Ahmed'e Fârisî mu'allimi nasb etdi. 886'da Şehzâde Sultân Ahmed Amasya vâlîsi oldukta kâtib-i dîvânı ve 896'da tevki'-i dîvânı, ya'nî nişâncı olarak nüfûz u i'tibâra nâ'il oldu. 904'de sâhib-i dîvân olan Tâceddîn Paşa'nın aleyhinde tezvîrâta kıyâm ederek Şehzâde Sultân'ın nüfûzuna mâlik olmak istedi. 905'de Tâceddîn Paşa'nın azline muvaffak oldu. Kendisine mu'ârız olan kâdı'l-kudât Ebu's-Su'ûd Efendi'yi de azl etdirmiş olduğundan vezâretle sâhib-i dîvân olmasını gözlerken Abdullah Beyzâde Kâsım Paşa sâhib-i dîvân olduğunu müte'âkib kendisi de azl edildi. Halefi olan hattât-ı meşhûr Fettahîzâde Ahmed Efendi kendisini müderrisliğe teşvîk ederek te'mîn ü tesliye itdiği esnâda merâkından müte'essiren vefât etdi. Fâzıl, şâir, edîb, hod-bîn olduğunu Münirî Efendi "Münşe'ât"ında zikr eder. Mahdûmu Basîrî Mehmed Çelebi'dir. Tâceddîn Paşa'nın vakfiyesi zeylinde "Ahmed bin Kutbeddîn el-Câmî et-Tevkî'î" diye imzâsı görüldü.

In English: He was the son of the sister of the famous Molla Câmî and the son of Kutbeddin Mehmed Câmî. He came with a letter of recommendation from Molla Câmî while Sultan Bayezid II was governor in Amasya. Bayezid appointed him Persian teacher to his son Prince Ahmed. When Prince Ahmed became governor of Amasya in 886, he became secretary of the divan, and in 896 its tevkîi, that is, its nişancı, gaining influence and standing. In 904 he set about intriguing against Tâceddin Paşa, head of the divan, hoping to gain sway over the prince. In 905 he succeeded in having Tâceddin Paşa dismissed. As he had also had the judge Ebussuûd Efendi, who opposed him, removed from office, he was hoping to become head of the divan with the rank of vizier, but after Abdullah Beyzâde Kâsım Paşa was made head of the divan he himself was dismissed. His successor, the famous calligrapher Fettâhîzâde Ahmed Efendi, was encouraging him to take up teaching in a madrasa and consoling him when he died of grief. Münîrî Efendi records in his Münşeât that he was learned, a poet, a man of letters and self-conceited. His son was Basîrî Mehmed Çelebi. His signature, "Ahmed bin Kutbeddin el-Câmî et-Tevkîî", was seen in the appendix to the endowment deed of Tâceddin Paşa.

His Life

Kutbî's place and date of birth are unknown. The nisba "Câmî" points to the town of Jam in Khorasan, and Hüsameddin links it to his kinship with the celebrated Molla Câmî. According to the eighth volume he came to Amasya with Câmî's letter of recommendation while Bayezid was still a prince, that is, before 1481. Bayezid made him Persian tutor to his son Ahmed, and when Ahmed succeeded his father as governor of Amasya in 886 (1481) he made him secretary of the divan. The third volume of Hüsameddin, which narrates the general history of Amasya, places his appointment as nişancı after the great quarrel that broke out among scholars and beys during the circumcision festivities of the princes in 896 (1490-91), and adds that he was called "Kutbî-i Câmî". The entry on Prince Ahmed in the sixth volume, by contrast, dates the same appointment to 898 (1492-93) and says that he was one of the "ulemâ-yı A'câm", the Iranian scholars.

In Hüsameddin's account the years of his chancellorship are bound up with the rise of the Iranian circle at the prince's court. According to the third volume Prince Ahmed showed great favour to Iranian scholars and sayyids. His physician Kutb-ı Şirvânî and his chancellor Ahmed-i Câmî, for their part, held up the literature, language, statesmen and nation of Iran in the highest esteem before the prince. Hüsameddin takes the events of this period from the Mecmûa-i Târîhiyye of Münîrî Mehmed Çelebi, which he himself had seen in Amasya and which was later destroyed by fire. Münîrî's judgement of the chancellor runs: "Nişâncı Ahmed Çelebi âlim, edîb, şâir olmakla beraber muta'assıb, mütekebbir bir Acem'di." That is, the chancellor Ahmed Çelebi, though a scholar, a man of letters and a poet, was a bigoted and arrogant Persian. According to the same record the lala (tutor-guardian) Tâceddin Paşa and the judge of Amasya, Ebussuûd Mehmed Efendi, could not get along with him at all, and the chancellor complained of both to the prince.

The rivalry came to a head in 905 (1499-1500). Tâceddin Paşa was removed from the prince's side by being sent as beylerbey (governor-general) of Kefe, and the judge Ebussuûd Efendi was dismissed. Yet Kutbî did not obtain what he had hoped for. When Abdullah Beyzâde Kâsım Paşa was made lala and head of the divan, he too was relieved of his post. The third and eighth volumes state that he was succeeded by Fettâhîzâde Şemseddin Ahmed Çelebi of Nishapur. According to Hüsameddin this famous calligrapher tried to steer the former chancellor towards a madrasa post and to console him, but Kutbî died of grief. No date of death is given.

His Connection with Amasya

Kutbî was not born in Amasya; he came to the city from Iran during Bayezid's governorship and spent the whole known part of his life there in the service of the prince's court. The documented trace of his presence in Amasya is a signature. Hüsameddin writes that he saw the signature "Ahmed bin Kutbeddîn el-Câmî et-Tevkîî" in the appendix to the endowment deed of Tâceddin Paşa, Prince Ahmed's lala. The word "Tevkîî" shows that the signer was the nişancı. His father, too, appears to have lived in Amasya: in the sixth volume Kutbeddin Mahmud Câmî is described as one of the "ulemâ of Amasya".

In the Mukaddime of his work, when listing the "fuzalâ-yı şu'arâ", the learned poets who flourished during the twenty-six years of Bayezid's and the nearly thirty-two years of Ahmed's governorship of Amasya, Hüsameddin names a "Kutbî" together with Tâcî, Âfitâbî, Figânî, Münîrî, Ca'ferî and Sa'dî Çelebi. That this Kutbî is the chancellor Ahmed Çelebi can be inferred from the agreement of name and period. The other poets of the circle to which Kutbî belonged are treated together in the article Prince Ahmed's Amasya circle and its poets.

The State of the Sources and Discussion

All information about Kutbî comes from Hüsameddin, who in turn evidently relied largely on Münîrî's now lost collections. The records therefore lack any independent witness that could be checked, and they contradict one another on several points. His father's name is given as Kutbeddin Mahmud in the sixth volume and as Kutbeddin Mehmed in the eighth. His kinship with Molla Câmî appears in one place as "akrabâ" (kinsman), in another as "hemşîrezâde" (sister's son), and in the entry on Basîrî as a relationship that is merely "reported". Ömer Okumuş's article "Câmî, Abdurrahman" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi mentions, of the poet's family, only a brother named Mevlânâ Muhammed who died young; it says nothing of a sister. The kinship may have been deduced from the nisba "Câmî" in the signature Hüsameddin saw. Since anyone coming from the town of Jam could bear this nisba, the kinship cannot be regarded as confirmed.

The date of his appointment as chancellor is given as 896 or 898, and the name of his successor appears in two different forms. The third and eighth volumes name the successor as Fettâhîzâde Şemseddin Ahmed Çelebi, while the entry on Prince Ahmed says that in 905 Sibekzâde Ahmed Efendi, one of the judges, was appointed chancellor. The entry on Sibekzâde likewise states that he became chancellor "upon the death of Câmîzâde Kutbî Ahmed Efendi" and that he died in 910 (1504-05). Whether these two men, both described by Hüsameddin as calligraphers, are one and the same could not be determined. The account in the eighth volume seems to reconcile the two versions by joining dismissal and death: Kutbî was dismissed and died of grief a short time later.

This information gives rise to another contradiction. Describing the circumcision festivities held in Amasya in 911 (1505-06), Hüsameddin lists the poets who were well known at the time and gives the names "Acem şu'arâsından Basîrî, Penâhî, Kutbî", that is, Basîrî, Penâhî and Kutbî among the Persian poets. By his own records Kutbî Ahmed Çelebi should no longer have been alive by then, since Sibekzâde, said to have succeeded him, died in 910. The Kutbî of the list may be another person. In the seventh volume Hüsameddin mentions Kutbî Mahmud Çelebi of Amasya, father of Paşa Çelebi Gıyâseddin İbrahim Çelebi, as one of the "meşâhîr-i şu'arâ ve meşâyih", the famous poets and sheikhs. This Kutbî, however, was a native of Amasya and would hardly be counted among the "Acem" poets. It is also possible that the list does not record the poets of the festival year but names the poets associated with Ahmed's court in general. These explanations are our own inferences and could not be settled by documents.

The attitude underlying Hüsameddin's narrative must also be kept in mind. In the passages describing Prince Ahmed's closeness to the Iranians, Kutbî is portrayed as a conceited "Acem" who led the prince astray. This picture may reflect the tensions of the years when the Safavid danger was beginning to divide the court and Münîrî's personal testimony, but it may also owe something to the attitude towards Iranians that Hüsameddin openly displays.

Family and Circle

According to Hüsameddin, Basîrî Mehmed Çelebi, boon companion and personal poet of Prince Ahmed, was Kutbî's son. The entry on Basîrî in the seventh volume states that the story Latîfî attributes to Basîrî, of coming to the Ottoman lands with letters of recommendation from Câmî and Nevâyî, in fact belongs to the father, since Basîrî's age would not allow it. Mehmed Çavuşoğlu's article "Basîrî" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi paints a different picture. The name at the head of the Persian divan that Basîrî compiled in his own hand is "Mehmed b. Ahmed b. Ebü'l-Meâlî el-Murtazâ". The father's name agrees with Hüsameddin, the grandfather's does not. According to Çavuşoğlu, Basîrî grew up at the Akkoyunlu courts, was sent as an envoy to Bayezid II in 901 (1495-96) and remained in Istanbul. This information weakens the father-son link drawn by Hüsameddin. The question is discussed in detail in Basîrî's biography.

Poets with the Same Pen Name

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the pen name "Kutbî" was common among men named Kutbeddin and their sons. The Mevlânâ Kutbî of Sehî Bey's Heşt Bihişt is a scholar from İznik known as "Paşa Çelebi", son of Şeyh Kutbeddin. The Kutbî in Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi's anthology is Kılcızâde İsmâil of Rumelia. In Amasya, too, besides Kutbî Ahmed Çelebi there was the poet and sheikh Kutbî Mahmud Çelebi mentioned above. None of these can be identified with Prince Ahmed's chancellor.

His Poetry

None of the poems of Kutbî-i Câmî have come down to us. Münîrî counts him as a poet, and Hüsameddin says he was known "among the poets". Yet Hüsameddin quotes not a single couplet of his, and none of the tezkire editions we examined (Sehî, Latîfî, Âşık Çelebi, Kınalızâde, Beyânî and Gelibolulu Âlî) contains an entry on the Amasya chancellor. As someone who promoted Persian literature at Prince Ahmed's court, he probably wrote poetry in Persian. This too is a conjecture, and as no poem of his is known it cannot be verified.

Chronology

Before 886 (1481): Comes to Amasya, to Prince Bayezid, with a letter of recommendation from Molla Câmî; becomes Persian tutor to Prince Ahmed.

886 (1481): Prince Ahmed becomes governor of Amasya; Kutbî becomes secretary of the divan.

896-898 (1490-1493): Becomes Prince Ahmed's nişancı (the date is given in two different forms in the source).

904 (1498-99): His rivalry with the lala Tâceddin Paşa begins.

905 (1499-1500): Tâceddin Paşa is sent to Kefe and the judge Ebussuûd Efendi is dismissed; Kutbî is also removed from the chancellorship.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Official sources

Online sources