Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed) was the son of Bayezid II born in Amasya, and he governed the sanjak of Amasya for more than thirty years, from 1481 to 1512. A broad literary circle of Münîrî, Mihrî Hatun, Âfitâbî and Iranian poets gathered around his court, and these years were among the most brilliant in the history of poetry in Amasya. The Amasya historian Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, describing him, calls him "versed in Arabic and Persian literature, a poet". This is the only known record that describes Ahmed as a poet.

This page is devoted to Prince Ahmed as a poet and to the state of the sources on the question. Despite Hüsameddin's record, no pen name, divan or even a single couplet of Ahmed's is known, and the sixteenth-century biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire) give him no entry. His poems have not come down to us.

Life

Ahmed was born in 870 (1465-66) in Amasya, while his father Bayezid II was governor of the city. In 886 (1481), when his father went to Istanbul to take the throne, he became governor of Amasya and ruled the city until 1512. He was regarded as his father's favourite and heir; but the Şahkulu rebellion and the rise of his brother Selim dashed this hope. After Selim came to the throne in 918 (1512), Ahmed proclaimed his own sultanate from Amasya, was defeated by his brother at Yenişehir and taken prisoner, and in 918 (1513) was strangled on Selim's orders; he was buried in the tomb of Murad II in Bursa. For the details of his life see Şehzade Ahmed: Amasya'nın Otuz Yıllık Sancakbeyi ve Yenişehir'de Son.

The State of the Sources

The testimony to Ahmed as a poet consists of a single description in the Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya), written at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the sixth volume of his work, devoted to poets and notables, Hüsameddin ends his entry "Ahmed Hân-Şehzâde Sultân" with this sentence describing the prince's character:

Âlim, Arab u Acem edebiyâtına vâkıf, şâir, tab'an kerîm, adl ü hakkaniyeti sever, ulemâ ve meşâyîhe muhib, Acemlere pek mâ'il, zevk ü sefâya mübtelâ, azmi kavî, kalb ü re'yi za'if idi. Bu yüzden kendisini ve Amasya'yı felâkete sürükledi.

In English: He was learned, versed in Arabic and Persian literature, a poet, generous by nature, a lover of justice and right, fond of scholars and sheikhs, much inclined towards the Persians, addicted to pleasure and amusement, strong in resolve but weak in heart and judgement. For this reason he dragged himself and Amasya into disaster.

In this sentence Hüsameddin names Ahmed as a poet, but in his entry he neither gives a pen name nor quotes a couplet. In the third volume of the same work, telling the political history of Amasya, he writes that the prince "virtually declared his love" for Persian literature and for Persian notables, and that Iranians such as the Tabriz poet Penâhî entered the circle of his companions. These details show that Ahmed took a close interest in literature, but they carry no trace of his own poetry.

The older sources are silent on the matter. In Sehî Beg's Heşt Bihişt the class devoted to poet sultans and princes has six members, the last of whom is Ahmed's brother Prince Korkud; Ahmed is not on this list. Latîfî's section on poet sultans does not count him either. Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi mentions Ahmed only in telling of the struggle for the throne, and Âşık Çelebi names him as a patron in the entries of other poets. The Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Names in Turkish Literature) has no entry for Ahmed; the Ottoman princes recorded there as poets are Korkud (Harîmî) and the sons of Süleyman the Magnificent, Mehmed, Mustafa (Muhlisî), Bayezid (Şâhî) and Cihangir.

Ahmed's standing as a poet may therefore rest on a source used by Hüsameddin that is no longer available to us; but which source he relied on is not clear. The biography of the prince on our site also notes that there is no record of his own poems. That Ahmed wrote poetry thus remains at the level of a report.

Works

No divan, mesnevi or other literary work by Prince Ahmed is known. No poem recorded under his name or under a pen name has been found in any anthology (mecmua).

Literary Circle

Ahmed's place in literary history is defined less by his own verse than by the poets who gathered around him. Hüsameddin writes that during the governorships of Bayezid II (twenty-six years) and Ahmed (thirty-two years) in Amasya, poets such as Tâcî, Âfitâbî, Figânî, Kutbî, Münîrî, Ca'ferî and Sa'dî Çelebi came to prominence, and that Mihrî Hatun was "among the marvels of this age". Gelibolulu Âlî, in the Künhü'l-ahbâr, counts Münîrî among those "Şehzâde Sultân Ahmed vâsıflarından ve bezm-i hâsına mahrem olan", that is, among the poets who praised the prince and were admitted to his private gatherings; Kınalızâde too calls him "Sultân Ahmedün şâ'ir-i medh-hânı", Sultan Ahmed's panegyrist. Âşık Çelebi records that Âfitâbî of Merzifon attached himself to Ahmed at the end of his life, that Makâmî of Siroz served for a time as his imam, and that Makâmî and Mihrî were together at his court.

The prince's correspondence with poets is also reflected in the anthologies. Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde state that Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman Çelebi (Hâtemî) wrote his ghazal beginning "Nâme kim nâmını yazmış bendenüñ sultân aña" in reply to a letter he had received from Sultan Ahmed. The poets of this circle and the dispersal of the gathering are discussed in Şehzade Ahmed'in Amasya Meclisinin Şairleri, and the poems of Münîrî, Mihrî Hatun, Hâtemî and Âfitâbî in their own sections (Münîrî-i Amâsî, Mihrî Hatun, Müeyyedzâde (Hâtemî), Âfitâbî).

His Poetry

Prince Ahmed's poems have not come down to us. Although Hüsameddin names him as a poet, he gives no example; nor is any couplet of his found in the anthologies examined, in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü or in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. The full text of Hüsameddin's entry and its modern Turkish rendering can be read on our Ahmed Hân-Şehzâde Sultân page.

Chronology

870 (1465-66): Born in Amasya.

886 (1481): Becomes governor of Amasya on his father's accession.

908 (1502-03): The Iranian Mîr Gıyâseddin and the poet Penâhî-i Tebrîzî join his companions (according to Hüsameddin).

918 (1512): Accession of Selim; Ahmed proclaims his sultanate in Amasya.

918 (1513): Defeat at Yenişehir, capture and execution by strangling; burial in Bursa.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Official sources

  • Sehî Beg, Heşt Bihişt, ed. Halûk İpekten, Günay Kut, Mustafa İsen, Hüseyin Ayan, Turgut Karabey, Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 2017 (e-book), p. XVI, contents of the classes.

Books

  • Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, search for "Şehzâde" (entries Harîmî, Mehmed, Muhlisî, Şâhî, Şehzâde Cihângîr). https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr

Online sources