To teach the pages of his palace, Prince Mustafa, governor of the sanjak of Amasya, chose a madrasa professor named Muîdzâde Sâlim Ömer Çelebi. The prince's execution in Shawwal 960 (October 1553), on the orders of his father Sultan Süleyman, changed Sâlim's life as well: in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's words, once the prince's "household and palace were ruined", Sâlim was removed from Amasya with the judgeship of Erzincan. He later served as judge of Erzurum, returned home without office in 967 (1559-60) and died around 968 (1560-61). Hüsameddin calls him "âlim, şâir, kâmil, edîb"; no example of his poetry survives.

The Entry in Hüsameddin

Volume ten of Amasya Tarihi gives the following under the heading Sâlim Ömer Çelebi-Mu'îdzâde:

Amasyalıdır. Kibâr-ı ulemâdan Mu'îdzâde Abdurrahmân Çelebinin mahdûmudur. Tahsîl-i ma'ârif etdikten sonra ders-i âm ü müderris olup Amasya vâlîsi Şehzâde Sultân Mustafa fezâ'il-i ilmiyye ve edebiyyesini takdîr ederek sarâyı gılmânına mu'allim nasb etmişdi. 960 senesi şevvâlinde şehzâde-i müşârün-ileyhin şehâdetiyle hânumân u sarâyı harâb olduğundan Erzincân kadısı olarak Amasya'dan çıkarıldı. Ba'de'l-azl Erzurum kadısı olup 967'de ma'zûlen Amasya'ya geldi. 968 hudûdunda vefât etdi. Âlim, şâir, kâmil, edîb idi.

In modern English: A native of Amasya, whose father was Muîdzâde Abdurrahmân Çelebi, one of the great scholars. After completing his studies he gained a teaching licence and a professorship, and Prince Sultan Mustafa, governor of Amasya, appreciating his scholarly and literary merits, appointed him teacher of the pages of his palace. When the prince was martyred in Shawwal 960 and his household and palace were ruined, he was sent away from Amasya as judge of Erzincan. After his dismissal he became judge of Erzurum and in 967 came back to Amasya out of office. He died around 968. Learned, a poet, accomplished and refined.

At the Prince's Court

Mustafa governed the sanjak of Amasya from 1541 until his death. A prince's palace was organised like a small-scale copy of the palace in Istanbul, and the gılmân, the pages raised in it, received regular instruction ranging from reading and writing to religious learning and literature. According to Hüsameddin, Sâlim's appointment to these lessons followed from the prince's admiration for his learning and his knowledge of letters. Mustafa himself wrote poetry under the pen name Muhlisî and kept poets around him; Sâlim's verse belongs within that circle.

Hüsameddin's sentence does not say how long Sâlim taught at the palace or when he began. What is certain is that this world came apart with the prince's death. The phrase "hânumân u sarâyı harâb olduğundan" conveys how suddenly the people attached to Mustafa's palace were left without a place. Sending Sâlim to Erzincan as judge can be read less as a punishment than as the dispersal of the former prince's circle from Amasya; Hüsameddin draws no such distinction and simply says he "was removed from Amasya".

Erzincan and Erzurum

After Erzincan came the judgeship of Erzurum. Hüsameddin gives no dates for either post; he records only that Sâlim returned dismissed in 967. Since he died about a year after his return, he must have spent the seven years following Mustafa's death in two judgeships on the eastern frontier. Passing from teaching to the bench was a common change of course in the learned profession at the time; for Sâlim it was forced by the prince's death.

Family

His father, Muîdzâde Abdurrahmân Çelebi, is someone Hüsameddin counts among the "kibâr-ı ulemâ", the great scholars. He has no entry of his own, but his name appears as a teacher in another entry: Sheikh Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Efendi of Sonisa came to Amasya in his youth and studied "with Mu'îdzâde Abdurrahmân and Acem Sinâneddîn Yûsuf Efendi". The Muîdzâde name is found in Amasya earlier as well: Mevlânâ Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi-Muîdzâde, who taught in Amasya during the years when the future Bayezid II was prince there, is listed among the teachers of Seydî Ahmed Çelebi-Sarıgörez. Hüsameddin does not state whether the two Muîdzâdes were related. The family name probably goes back to an ancestor who was a muîd, an assistant to a madrasa professor.

Poetry

None of Sâlim Ömer Çelebi's poems has been traced. "Şâir" is one of four epithets in the entry, and not a single line of verse stands beside it. No couplet from his years at the prince's palace is known, nor any anthology or tezkire note that mentions him. Here too "Sâlim" looks like a pen name, and he is the earliest man of Amasya to bear it; the others lived in later centuries: Necmîzâde Sâlim Ahmed Efendi in the seventeenth, Alaybeyizâde Sâlim Ali Bey (d. 1221) and Kırmacızâde Sâlim Mustafa Efendi (d. 1225) much later still.

Chronology

1541: Prince Mustafa arrives in the sanjak of Amasya.

Shawwal 960 (October 1553): Prince Mustafa is executed; Sâlim leaves Amasya as judge of Erzincan.

967 (1559-60): Dismissed from the judgeship of Erzurum, he returns to Amasya.

c. 968 (1560-61): He dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources