Riyâzî Mehmed Çelebi, whose father Hüseyin Ağa tended the private garden of the palace in Amasya, made his way by pen and verse into the chancery of Prince Mustafa, offered him ghazals and kasides, and became his companion and boon friend. According to Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar he spent some fifteen years in comfort under the prince's protection and died in Shawwal 960 (1553), stricken by the sudden killing of his master. Hüsameddin's entry is the only source that describes Riyâzî; who exactly the poets bearing this name in the sixteenth-century tezkires were is a separate question that needs to be argued on its own.

Life

The full text of the entry Riyâzî Mehmed Çelebi-Bostancızâde in Hüsameddin's tenth volume:

Amasyalıdır. Amasya sarâyının hadîka-i hâssasında bostancı olan Hüseyin Ağa'nın mahdûmudur. Ulemâ ve üdebâdan tahsîl-i ilm ü kitâbet edib Amasya vâlîsi Şehzâde Sultân Mustafa'ya intisâb etdi. Ba'dehû dîvânı ketebesinden olup gazeliyyât ü kasâ'id takdîm ederek musâhib ü nedîmi oldu. On beş yıl kadar şehzâde-i müşârün-ileyhin sâye-i ikbâlinde izz ü refâh içinde imrâr-ı hayât etdi. 960 senesi şevvâlinde müşârün-ileyhin şehâdet-i nâgehânîsinden müte'essiren vefât eyledi. Zarîf, turfe-gû, tevârih ü muhâzarâta vâkıf, şâir, kâtib idi.

Translation: Riyâzî was a native of Amasya; his father, Hüseyin Ağa, served as a bostancı in the private garden of the Amasya palace. Having learned scholarship and the secretary's art from scholars and men of letters, he attached himself to Prince Sultan Mustafa, governor of Amasya. He then became one of the prince's chancery secretaries and, by presenting ghazals and kasides, his companion and boon friend. For about fifteen years he lived in honour and ease under the prince's patronage. In Shawwal of the year 960 he died, grieved by the prince's sudden martyrdom. He was a witty poet and secretary, a teller of rare sayings, well versed in history and in the lore of conversation.

The bostancıs were the servants who looked after palace gardens; the entry shows that the prince's palace in Amasya had its own garden staff. A young man from a gardener's family rising to a secretaryship and from there into the prince's private circle says something about the openings a provincial court could offer. "Turfe-gû" describes a man who says rare and subtle things, and "muhâzarât" is the stock of stories, anecdotes and verses one could bring out at the right moment in conversation. Hüsameddin's epithets describe Riyâzî as someone with every accomplishment a boon companion needed.

In Prince Mustafa's Chancery

Prince Mustafa was sent from Manisa to Amasya on 21 Safar 948 (16 June 1541) and was strangled in his father's tent at the army camp near Ereğli in the province of Konya on 27 Shawwal 960 (6 October 1553). His governorship of Amasya thus lasted twelve years. Hüsameddin's "about fifteen years" exceeds that span: either Riyâzî's attachment began during the prince's years in Manisa, or the figure is a round number. Since the entry says he joined Mustafa as "governor of Amasya", the second explanation seems the likelier.

The date of death also allows two readings. The sentence appears to say that Riyâzî died in Shawwal 960; yet the words "in Shawwal of the year 960" may equally attach to the date of the prince's death. Mustafa was killed on the twenty-seventh of the month, which leaves only a few days between the arrival of the news in Amasya and the end of Shawwal. Riyâzî most probably died in the last months of 960, that is, in the autumn of 1553.

Directly after Riyâzî's entry Hüsameddin places that of Zârî Mehmed Çelebi, and the two closely resemble each other. Tokatîzâde Zârî likewise attached himself to Prince Mustafa, became a chancery secretary, took part in the poetry gatherings of the literati of Amasya and lost his prosperity with the death of 960. In the third volume, where Hüsameddin describes Mustafa's circle in Amasya, he lists the prince's chancellor Hamdî Çelebi, his treasurer Lutfî Bey, his secretary Fazlî Çelebi and his companions, but Riyâzî's name does not appear there. Nor is any poem signed Riyâzî known among the elegies written for the prince.

The State of the Sources

No entry devoted to a Bostancızâde Riyâzî of Amasya could be found in the great poets' tezkires of the sixteenth century. Latîfî records Riyâzî of Skopje as a student poet who died while a candidate for office in the reign of Süleyman. Kınalızâde has two Riyâzîs: one is Ali of Istanbul, the other a Mehmed from the town of Skopje, famed for his Persian and fond of punning, double-edged diction. Neither is connected with Amasya or with Prince Mustafa.

On the other hand, Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde both name Zârî, in his entry, as the friend of someone called Riyâzî. Kınalızâde's words are: "Gâyetde hôş-nüvîs ve Riyâzî ile dânişmendligi zemânında celîs ü enîsi idi", that is, he was an excellent calligrapher and, in his student days, Riyâzî's close companion. The friendship thus belongs to Zârî's years as a student in Istanbul, before he entered the prince's service. Âşık Çelebi, in the same passage, speaks of "the late Riyâzî" and in two other entries plainly identifies the name with Skopje: he writes that Niyâzî of Skopje was a fellow townsman of "the late Riyâzî", and that Fazlî of Istanbul read Persian with "Üskübî Riyâzî-i merhûm". It is therefore highly likely that Zârî's friend Riyâzî was this poet from Skopje.

On what authority Hüsameddin made Riyâzî the son of the gardener Hüseyin Ağa and a companion of the prince is not known; the entry names no tezkire and no document. He may have drawn on a local record in Amasya. He may also have started from the Zârî-Riyâzî friendship in the tezkires and placed both names in the same circle. If the latter is true, Riyâzî's link with Amasya and with the prince is Hüsameddin's own inference. Without further evidence neither possibility can be preferred. Another well-known bearer of the name is Birgili Mustafa Efendizâde Riyâzî Mehmed Efendi, author of the tezkire Hüsameddin quotes for Ümîdî Receb Efendi; as he died in Safar 1045 (1635), he must not be confused with the prince's companion.

Poetry

Riyâzî Mehmed Çelebi's poems have not come down to us. Of the ghazals and kasides he is said to have offered the prince, Hüsameddin gives no specimen. The couplets in Kınalızâde's Riyâzî entries belong to Mehmed of Skopje and to Ali of Istanbul and cannot be ascribed to the Riyâzî of this page.

Chronology

21 Safar 948 (16 June 1541): Prince Mustafa is sent to the sanjak of Amasya.

27 Shawwal 960 (6 October 1553): Prince Mustafa is killed at the army camp near Ereğli in Konya province.

Late 960 (1553): Riyâzî Mehmed Çelebi dies, according to Hüsameddin from grief at the prince's death.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources