For twenty years the sheikh's seat of the Amasya Mevlevi lodge was held by Sâlih Ulvî Dede, a man sent from Konya to make peace. Because he came from Aleppo, the people of Amasya called him "the Arab Sheikh". In the lodge he reached in 1131 (1718-19) he calmed the quarrel among the resident sheikhs, later took over the management of the endowment as well, and remained in office until his death in 1151 (1739). That he wrote poetry we know from a brief note by Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, for whom he was above all a Sufi whose learning and gravity won over the notables of the city.

Life

What we know of him rests on a few lines Hüsameddin devoted to him among the poets of Amasya Tarihi:

Haleplidir. Konya'da Mevlânâ dergâhında sâkin olarak seccâde-nîşîn Abdülhâlim Dede Efendi'den ta'lîm ve terbiye gördü. Amasya Mevlevîhâne meşâyihi arasında geçimsizliğe hitâm vermek üzere Mevlevîhâne şeyhi Ebûbekir Dede'nin vefâtıyla Konya'dan şeyh olarak 1131'de geldi. Gerek ilmen ve gerek ahlâken yüksek olduğundan ulemâ ve a'yâna kendisini sevdirdi. 1143'de Mevlevîhâne vakfı tevliyet ve nezâreti de uhdesine tevcîh edildiğinden keşmekeşe hitâm verdi. Tam yirmi yıl icrâ-yı meşîhat edib 1151 senesi zilhiccesinin onuncu günü dâr-ı naîme irtihâl etdi. Âbid, zâhid, âlim, edîb, şâir, sûfî meşreb, halûk ve müteşerri' bir zât idi. Vakârıyla herkes yanında muhteremdi. (Kuddise sırruhû)

In English: He was from Aleppo. Living in the convent of Mevlânâ in Konya, he was educated and trained by Abdülhalîm Dede Efendi, the occupant of the sheikh's seat (seccâde-nişîn). To end the discord among the sheikhs of the Amasya Mevlevi lodge, he came from Konya as sheikh in 1131, after the death of the lodge's sheikh Ebûbekir Dede. Being eminent in both learning and character, he endeared himself to the scholars and notables. In 1143 the trusteeship and supervision of the lodge's endowment were also entrusted to him, and he put an end to the turmoil. After serving as sheikh for exactly twenty years he passed to the abode of bliss on the tenth day of Zilhicce 1151. He was devout, ascetic, learned, cultivated, a poet, Sufi in temperament, good-natured and observant of the sacred law. His dignity earned him respect from everyone. (May his soul be sanctified.)

A footnote to the entry refers the reader to another notice further on under the name "Ulvî Sâlih Dede", but no separate entry with that heading could be found in the scanned text of the volume. The fact that the name is written in both orders suggests that "Ulvî" was a second name carried alongside Sâlih, most probably a pen name (mahlas). The day of his death, 10 Zilhicce, is the first day of the Feast of the Sacrifice; in 1151 it fell in the second half of March 1739.

Twenty Years in the Amasya Mevlevi Lodge

The lodge he came to had burned during the brigand troubles of 1011 (1602-03) and had been restored in 1047 (1637-38) with the help of the grand vizier Bayram Paşa, who enlarged both its buildings and its endowments. The history of the lodge that Hüsameddin gives in his first volume presents the following decades as a time when the sheikhship and the management of the endowment frequently passed into different hands. In 1118 (1706-07) Ebûbekir Dede became sheikh, while the affairs of the endowment were controlled by Hacı Osman Sâkıb Efendi of the line of Mehmed Ârif Dede. When Ebûbekir Dede died in 1131, "eş-Şeyh Sâlih Dede Efendi" was appointed to the sheikhship.

The same history explains what the entry means by "turmoil". Although Sâlih Dede took over the trusteeship when Hacı Osman Efendi was dismissed, in 1135 (1722-23) the trusteeship went to Seyyid Hâfız Halîl Çelebi and the supervision to his brother Seyyid Hâfız Mustafa Çelebi. The two offices changed hands several times before they were given back to the sheikh, together, in 1143 (1730-31). Set side by side, the records in the two volumes make the picture clear: the sheikh from Konya was able to settle matters only once he had a say over the lodge's revenues.

After his death in 1151 the lodge history gives the seat to Dervîş Mehmed Dede. On the other hand, the entry for Seyyid Ahmed Efendi of Amasya, who was trained under Ulvî Dede, states that this disciple became sheikh of the Mevlevi lodge in 1158 (1745). Hüsameddin's text leaves the discrepancy between the two records unresolved.

Circle and Disciples

During Ulvî Dede's sheikhship the lodge's mesnevîhân, the reader and teacher of the Mesnevî, was Sâfî Hüseyin Çelebi, son of Alemdâr İbrâhim Ağa. Hüsameddin, quoting the supplement to the tezkire by Şeyh Alizâde Ahmed Rüşdî Efendi, mentions him as a poet; Sâfî died in 1143. Seyyid Ahmed Efendi learned the Mevlevi rule in Ulvî Dede's service, later rose to be chief notable of the city, and was known for his familiarity with literature and Persian. When he died early in 1174 he was buried, according to the record, "inside the Mevlevi lodge beside his sheikh". The sheikh meant here is very probably Ulvî Dede; if so, the grave of the sheikh from Aleppo was also inside the lodge. The source does not say this explicitly.

Hüsameddin names "seccâde-nişîn Abdülhalîm Dede Efendi" as Ulvî Dede's teacher in Konya. Seccâde-nişîn was the title of the Çelebi who sat at the head of the convent of Mevlânâ in Konya, and the appointment to Amasya was made from that office. That a sheikh was sent from Konya to fill the seat left empty by the death of his predecessor Ebûbekir Dede also shows how closely, among the city's Sufi orders and lodges, the Mevlevi house was bound to Konya.

Poetry

Even the language in which a Mevlevi sheikh born in Arabic-speaking Aleppo and trained in Konya composed his verse is uncertain: Turkish, Persian and Arabic are all possible. None of Ulvî Dede's poems have reached us; Hüsameddin calls him a "poet" but quotes not a single couplet in the entry. In Metin Hakverdioğlu's study of Amasya Tarihi as an anthology of poets, his name stands among the poets whose lives are recounted in the eleventh volume. A few pieces may yet turn up in a miscellany (mecmua) or in one of the lodge's registers; no such manuscript has been identified so far.

Chronology

1131 (1718-19): After the death of Ebûbekir Dede he comes from Konya to the sheikhship of the Amasya Mevlevi lodge.

1135 (1722-23): The trusteeship of the endowment is given to Seyyid Hâfız Halîl Çelebi, its supervision to his brother Mustafa Çelebi.

1143 (1730-31): Trusteeship and supervision pass to Ulvî Dede.

10 Zilhicce 1151 (March 1739): He dies in Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources