Rising from clerk to chancellor (nişancı) in Şehzade Bayezid's council at Amasya, Sa'dî Çelebi lost that post in 882 (1477-78) and moved into the judiciary; he was a scholar, and he wrote verse. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar calls him "âlim, şâir, edîb, muhâzarâta vâkıf, nedîm": a man whose conversation was enjoyed, who knew witticisms and stories and was sought after in gatherings. He descended from Ahî Sâbıkuddîn Ebûbekir, who came from Baku and gave his name to a quarter of Amasya in the fourteenth century, and the family was known as the "Sâbıkoğulları". He is known to have died after 896 (1490-91). His son Mehmed Şeyhî Çelebi and his grandson Ârifî Hüseyin Çelebi were poets as well, and this branch was called "Sa'dîzâde" in his memory. Of his own verse not even a couplet has come down.

His Entry in the Amasya Tarihi

Hüsameddin describes him in the tenth volume, immediately before Tâcîzâde Sa'dî Çelebi, under the heading "Sa'dî Çelebi-Mevlânâ Sâbıkî":

Amasyalıdır. Ulemâdan Mevlânâ Hüseyin Çelebi bin Abdulmuhsin Çelebi bin Ali Bey bin Ahî Sâbıküddîn Ebûbekir Baküvânî mahdûmudur. Amasya ulemâsından tahsîl-i ulûm edib vâlî olarak Amasya'ya gelen Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî'ye intisâb ederek kâtib-i dîvânı oldu. Ba'dehû müşarün-ileyhin nişâncısı olup 882'de azl edildi. Sonra kudâtdan olup 896 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi. Âlim, şâir, edîb, muhâzarâta vâkıf, nedîm bir zât idi. Mahdûmu Mehmed Şeyhî Çelebi ve hafîdi Ârifî Hüseyin Çelebi de şu'arâdandır. Bunlara "Sa'dîzâde" dendi.

A modern rendering: He is from Amasya. He was the son of the scholar Mevlânâ Hüseyin Çelebi; Hüseyin was the son of Abdülmuhsin Çelebi, Abdülmuhsin of Ali Bey, and Ali Bey of Ahî Sâbıkuddîn Ebûbekir of Baku. He studied under the scholars of Amasya and, attaching himself to Sultan Bayezid II, who had come to Amasya as governor, became his council clerk. Later he became his chancellor and was dismissed in 882. Afterwards he served as a judge and died after 896. He was learned, a poet, a man of letters, rich in conversation and anecdote, fit to be the companion of princes. His son Mehmed Şeyhî Çelebi and his grandson Ârifî Hüseyin Çelebi are poets too. They were called "Sa'dîzâde".

The Sâbıkoğulları

The founder of the family, Ahî Sâbıkuddîn Ebûbekir, was by Hüsameddin's account a native of Shirvan, son of Mikâil, of the Turks of Baku. He came to Amasya as a child, was trained in the service of Emîr Bahâeddîn Kürt Bey, received the rank of emir in the time of Hacı Kutluşah and became guardian of Kutluşah's palace at the Meydan bridgehead opposite İçerişehir. The mansion, masjid, school and lodge he built near the palace grew in time into a quarter, and in 781 (1379-80) he endowed his property. The trusteeship passed to his son Hacı Ali Bey and from him to his grandson Abdülmuhsin Çelebi.

This Abdülmuhsin, Sa'dî Çelebi's grandfather, appears in his own entry as a clerk known as "Muhsin Çelebi". He served as secretary to Sultan Mehmed I and his son Murad II, then became council clerk to Yörgüç Paşa, the great emir of Amasya, and died after 833 (1429-30). Hüsameddin's words for him are "âlim, hattat, kâtib, üç lisâna vâkıf": learned, a calligrapher, a clerk who knew three languages. A generation later his grandson reached the chancellorship of a prince's council, which suggests that the pen was a trade handed down in this house. Abdülmuhsin's sons were Ali, Hasan and Hüseyin; in Abdülmuhsin's entry Hüsameddin sets the family's two best-known names side by side: "Ali Çelebizâde Mevlânâ Osmân es-Sâbıkî ve Hüseyin Çelebizâde Sa'dî Çelebi meşhûrdur". The entry on his uncle Ahmed Çelebi repeats that Sa'dî Çelebi was "among the famous scholars and poets".

Poetry in the family did not end with Sa'dî Çelebi's generation. Şuayb Efendi, son of his brother Muhsin Çelebi, wrote verse under the pen name "Turâbî" and signed himself with the name "es-Sâbıkî"; Turâbî Şuayb Efendi was thus Sa'dî Çelebi's nephew. Taken together with his son Mehmed Şeyhî and his grandson Ârifî Hüseyin, this shows poetry being written among the Sâbıkoğulları across three generations.

In Bayezid's Council

Bayezid had been sent to Amasya as a child in 1454, and clerks raised in the town's learned families served in his council; Rıdvan Çelebi, of the line of Pîr Sun'ullah, was one of them. When Sa'dî Çelebi joined the council is not recorded. His move from council clerk to chancellor shows that he rose to the head of the council's chancery. Hüsameddin gives no reason for his dismissal in 882. In the following years he became a judge; the districts where he served are not known. When Bayezid II came to the throne in 1481, Sa'dî Çelebi seems no longer to have held any post in the prince's circle; he probably remained in the judiciary until his death some time after 896.

The State of the Sources

In the same years another man named "Sa'dî", attached to Bayezid's council, appears in Amasya. According to the lists of quarters and lodges in Hüsameddin's first volume, a "kâtib-i dîvân-ı sultânî Sa'dî Efendi", a clerk of the princely council, built a masjid and a lodge in the Sa'deddîn quarter of İçerişehir and drew up their endowment. The year of construction is given as 878 (1473-74) in the list of quarters and as 871 (1466-67) in the list of lodges, and the author counts this Sa'dî Efendi among the descendants of Sa'deddîn Çelebi, who gave the quarter its name. Title, period and town all fit Sa'dî Çelebi of the Sâbıkî family; but Hüsameddin does not connect the two records and assigns them to different families. It therefore cannot be said that the lodge was his work; at most it is a possibility worth investigating.

His grandson Ârifî Hüseyin Çelebi has a namesake too: Sofuzâde Ârifî Hüseyin Çelebi, who has a separate entry in Hüsameddin's eleventh volume. Sofuzâde went from clerk to superintendent of the Amasya mint and died around 871 (1466-67), so he lived before Sa'dî Çelebi and could not have been his grandson.

His Poetry

Hüsameddin's entry lists his qualities and moves on without even giving his pen name; none of the poems of Sa'dî Çelebi of the Sâbıkî family has survived. That his name was later given to the whole branch, and that two generations of his descendants were remembered as poets, suggests that the family looked on him as a starting point. The fame of Tâcîzâde Sa'dî Çelebi, whose entry follows on the same page, has thoroughly overshadowed his name in later records; the two shared a name but were different men, and Tâcîzâde Sa'dî Çelebi lived a generation later.

Chronology

781 (1379-80): His ancestor Ahî Sâbıkuddîn Ebûbekir endows his property.

After 833 (1429-30): His grandfather Abdülmuhsin Çelebi dies.

882 (1477-78): He is dismissed as Şehzade Bayezid's chancellor.

After 896 (1490-91): He dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources