When his father Kâmî Mehmed Dede died in 1227 (1812), Seyyid Sâbit Mehmed Dede took his place on the sheepskin, the sheikh's seat, of the Mevlevî lodge (Mevlevîhâne) of Amasya; within a year a rival from inside the family had him removed, and he left for Konya. He belonged to the Hacı Çelebizâde, a family that had supplied the lodge with sheikhs and Mesnevî readers (mesnevîhân) for generations. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, author of Amasya Tarihi, remembers him as "urefâ-yı Mevleviyyeden şâir, edîb", a poet and man of letters among the Mevlevîs of spiritual knowledge. The same book records his death under three different dates, and nothing of his verse has reached us. The lodge's next poet-sheikh would be his son, Ahmed Sâlim Dede.

What Hüsameddin Tells Us

Amasyalıdır. Amasya mevlevîhânesi şeyhi olup 1227'de vefât eden es-Seyyid Kâmî Mehmed Dede bin es-Seyyid Gavsî Ahmed Dede bin Sa'îd İbrâhim Dede bin Ebu Sa'îd Ahmed Dede bin Hacı Mehmed Çelebi mahdûmudur. Şeyh Cû'î Mehmed Dede evlâdından olduğu mervîdir. Pederinden edebiyât-ı Fârisiyye ve Arabiyyeyi ahz edib Şeyh Cû'î tekkesi mesnevîhânı oldu. Bu vazîfesini Amasya mevlevîhânesinde îfâ edib 1227'de pederinin irtihâlinde mevlevîhâne şeyhi olmuştur. Fakat pederinin ammizâdesi es-Seyyid Hüseyin Dede Efendi'nin mahdûmu es-Seyyid Mehmed Dede teşebbüsâtıyla bir yıl sonra ref' edildiğinden Konya'ya gitdi. Orada tûl müddet ikâmet ederek 1243'de vefât etdi. Urefâ-yı Mevleviyyeden şâir, edîb idi. Mahdûmu es-Seyyid Ahmed Sâlim Dede'dir.

Rendered into English: He was from Amasya, the son of Seyyid Kâmî Mehmed Dede, sheikh of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge, who died in 1227; his line runs back from Kâmî through Gavsî Ahmed Dede, Saîd İbrâhim Dede and Ebû Saîd Ahmed Dede to Hacı Mehmed Çelebi. He is reported to descend from Şeyh Cû'î Mehmed Dede. He learned Persian and Arabic literature from his father and became Mesnevî reader of the Şeyh Cû'î lodge, that is, the teacher who read and expounded Rûmî's Mesnevî. He carried out this duty in the Amasya Mevlevî lodge, and in 1227, when his father died, he became sheikh of the lodge. But because he was removed a year later through the efforts of Seyyid Mehmed Dede, son of Seyyid Hüseyin Dede Efendi, his father's cousin, he went to Konya. He stayed there a long time and died in 1243 (1827-28). He was a poet and man of letters among the Mevlevîs of spiritual knowledge. His son is Seyyid Ahmed Sâlim Dede.

The family name "Hacı Çelebizâde" in the heading apparently derives from Hacı Mehmed Çelebi at the very top of the line. According to Hüsameddin's entry "Ebû Sa'îd Ahmed Dede Efendi-Hacı Dede" in the sixth volume, those descended from this branch were called "Hacıoğulları" or "Hacı Dedezâdeler". The same entry shows both branches of the family: when Gavsî Ahmed Dede died in 1190 (1776-77) his sons were Feyzullah, Abdullah and Mehmed Kâmî; Şeyh Hüseyin Hüsnî Dede, son of Hacı Mehmed Dede, had also been sheikh of the lodge, and his sons were Mehmed, Hasan and Ali Rızâ. Seyyid Mehmed Dede, who ousted Sâbit from his post, was Hüseyin Hüsnî's eldest son in this second branch.

Mesnevî Reader and Sheikh

The Şeyh Cû'î lodge was a Mevlevî house founded in 817 (1414-15) by Cû'î Mehmed Çelebi west of Amasya, below the village of Şeyh Cû'î on the shore of a lake; in Hüsameddin's time nothing remained of it. In the first volume the list of the lodge's sheikhs and Mesnevî readers ends with the words "1220'de vefâtıyla oğulları Mehmed ve İbrâhim'in 1227'de fevtinden 'Amasya Mevlevîhânesi' şeyhi es-Seyyid Mehmed Kâmî Dedezâde es-Seyyid Mehmed Sâbit Dede mesnevîhân ve tekke şeyhi olmuşlardır" (after the death in 1227 of his sons Mehmed and İbrâhim, who had succeeded on his death in 1220, Seyyid Mehmed Sâbit Dede, son of Seyyid Mehmed Kâmî Dede, sheikh of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge, became Mesnevî reader and sheikh of the lodge). Sâbit's entry also says that he performed the duty in the Mevlevî lodge in the city; by this time the Mesnevî readership of the old village lodge seems to have become a title kept alive through lessons given in the city lodge.

The rivalry over the sheikhship of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge had begun some twenty years earlier. According to Hüsameddin, Hüseyin Dede became sheikh in 1208 (1793-94), was dismissed a year later, and the post was given to Kâmî Mehmed Dede "as sheikh of the Mevlevî lodge only". With Kâmî's death in 1227 the two branches faced each other again. Sâbit's entry relates that it was Sâbit who became sheikh that year and that Mehmed Dede displaced him a year later.

The State of the Sources

The section of the first volume that lists the sheikhs of the Mevlevî lodge records the event differently: when Kâmî Mehmed Dede died in 1227, the sheikhship of the lodge went to "Hüseyin Dedezâde es-Seyyid Mehmed Efendi" and the Şeyh Cû'î Mesnevî readership to Sâbit Dede, and when Sâbit died in 1228 (1813) Mehmed Dede took both posts. In this account Sâbit was never sheikh at all, only Mesnevî reader, and his journey to Konya is not mentioned. The entry for his son Ahmed Sâlim Dede, for its part, says that he became Mesnevî reader "1238'de pederinin vefâtı üzerine" (on his father's death in 1238).

So the same book offers the dates 1228, 1238 and 1243 side by side for Sâbit Dede's death. The 1243 of his own entry fits the statement that he lived a long time in Konya and falls just before Seyyid Mehmed Dede was killed on the road back from Konya in 1244 (1828-29); the 1228 of the first volume gives the year in which the "Şeyh Cû'î" posts changed hands. Where the 1238 of his son's entry comes from could not be established. Which of these dates is right cannot be settled from Hüsameddin's records; the question of who received the sheikhship in 1227 carries the same uncertainty.

His Poetry

Sâbit is known to have read Persian and Arabic literature with his father, yet Hüsameddin quotes not a single line of his. His poems have not come down to us. His son Ahmed Sâlim Dede is likewise called "a poet among the men of spiritual knowledge and letters", but nothing of his verse survives either. Sâbit Mehmed Dede's name appears in Metin Hakverdioğlu's list of the poets of Amasya Tarihi, with those named in its eighth volume.

Chronology

1190 (1776-77): His grandfather Gavsî Ahmed Dede dies.

1209 (1794-95): His father Kâmî Mehmed Dede becomes sheikh of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge.

1227 (1812): Kâmî Mehmed Dede dies; according to his own entry Sâbit becomes sheikh, according to the first volume Mesnevî reader of Şeyh Cû'î.

1228 (1813): According to his own entry he is removed and goes to Konya; according to the first volume he dies.

1243 (1827-28): According to his own entry he dies in Konya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources