Commissioned by Mehmed II (the Conqueror) to write the history of the Ottomans in verse, in the metre of the Şehnâme, Şehîdî Ali Çelebi came to the task from Amasya: he had joined the circle of boon companions of Şehzade Bayezid (Prince Bayezid) during his governorship of Amasya, and was later taken to Istanbul. According to Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar he completed this history in four thousand couplets in the reign of Bayezid II and died after 898 (1492-93). The work has not survived; Hüsameddin himself says "yazdığı târihi bulamadım", I could not find the history he wrote. The record that makes him a brother of the poet Şermî Osman Çelebi is another point on which the sources do not quite agree.

Hüsameddin's Record

The heading of the entry in the eleventh volume of Amasya Tarihi states the claim of kinship at the outset: "Şehîdî Ali Çelebi-Şermî Birâderi" (Şehîdî Ali Çelebi, Brother of Şermî). The text is also published separately on this site under the same heading:

Amasyalıdır. Şuarâdan ve Amasya vâlisi Sultân Ahmed meddâhlarından Şermî Osmân Çelebi bin Mehmed Çelebi birâderidir. Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî'ye Amasya'da vâlî iken intisâb edib nüdemâsından ve musâhiblerinden olmuştu. 883 vak'asında İstanbul'a kaldırılıp Ebû Eyyüb-i Ensârî Türbesi civârında oturdu. Şiir ve fazîletiyle Sultân Fatih Mehmed'in teveccühlerini kazandı. Osmanlı târihini "Şehnâme" bahrında nazmen yazmağa me'mûr oldu. Kendisine vazîfe verildi. 886'da Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî tahta cülûs edince divân-ı hümâyûn kâtibi olarak vazîfesine devam etdi. Sultân Osmân'dan Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî devrine kadar dört bin beyit ile târihini ikmâl etdi. 898 senesinden sonra vefât eyledi. Âlim, edîb, şâir idi. Ancak yazdığı târihi bulamadım.

In English: He was a native of Amasya, the brother of Şermî Osman Çelebi bin Mehmed Çelebi, a poet and one of the eulogists of Sultan Ahmed, governor of Amasya. He had attached himself to Bayezid II while Bayezid was governor in Amasya and became one of his boon companions and intimates. In the incident of 883 he was taken to Istanbul and settled near the tomb (türbe) of Abû Ayyûb al-Ansârî at Eyüp. Through his poetry and his virtue he won the favour of Mehmed II. He was commissioned to write the history of the Ottomans in verse in the metre of the Şehnâme, and a stipend was assigned to him. When Bayezid II came to the throne in 886 he continued in service as a secretary of the Imperial Council. He completed his history, from Osman to the reign of Bayezid II, in four thousand couplets. He died after the year 898. He was a learned man, a man of letters and a poet. But I could not find the history he wrote.

Hüsameddin closes the entry with two further notes. From Mehmed Süreyya's Sicill-i Osmânî (vol. 3, p. 181) he quotes: "Şehidî Çelebi, Şermî. Asr-ı Fatih Sultân Mehmed ricâlindendir. Şâirdir. 'Şehnâme' bahrında dört bin beyt târih-i Osmanî yazdı" (Şehidî Çelebi, Şermî: one of the men of state of the age of Mehmed the Conqueror; a poet; he wrote an Ottoman history of four thousand couplets in the metre of the Şehnâme). He then interprets this "Şermî" as "Şermî birâderi demekdir", that is, it means the brother of Şermî. Finally he writes that Şehîdî's name also appears in the ode that Halîmî Efendi wrote in Amasya against the men of Sultan Bayezid and presented, with his own commentary, to Mehmed II, and that his brother Şermî has descendants in Amasya.

Life

What is known of Şehîdî's life rests on this single entry. Bayezid, the later Bayezid II, served for many years as governor of Amasya during the lifetime of his father Mehmed II. In these years Şehîdî entered his circle and became his boon companion and intimate. Hüsameddin does not explain the event he calls "the incident of 883"; the Halîmî ode he mentions at the end of the entry, however, connects it with the inquiry opened against the prince's circle. Behind that inquiry stood the Amasya scholar and poet Halîmî Lutfullah Çelebi. According to the article in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Halîmî was slandered and imprisoned in Tokat because he tried to stop those who were leading Bayezid astray; after his release he wrote an Arabic "kasîde-i tâiyye" (an ode rhyming in t), went to Istanbul in 880 (1475-76), and presented it to Mehmed II with a couplet-by-couplet commentary. Mehmed II then sent a commission of inquiry to Amasya and ordered the execution of some members of the prince's circle and the dismissal of others.

There is a gap of three years between the year 883 (1478-79) given by Hüsameddin and the year 880 (1475-76) in the encyclopaedia. The presentation of the ode and the dispersal of the circle need not have happened in the same year, but the sources do not connect the two dates; the discrepancy remains open. In Hüsameddin's account Şehîdî was not punished in this dispersal; on the contrary, he won Mehmed II's favour in Istanbul. Whether his name appears in Halîmî's ode as an accusation or merely in a list of names is not stated.

The task Mehmed II gave him was to write Ottoman history in verse in the metre of Firdawsi's Shâhnâma, that is, the mutakârib metre. According to Hüsameddin, after the accession of Bayezid II in 886 (1481) Şehîdî continued as secretary of the Imperial Council and completed the work in four thousand couplets, bringing it from Osman to the reign of Bayezid II. For his death we are told only "after 898"; what this limit rests on is not written in the entry.

Kinship with Şermî

Hüsameddin counts Şehîdî as the brother of Şermî Osman Çelebi and puts the words "Şermî Birâderi" in the heading. He also names Zekâî Ahmed Çelebi as another son of the same Mehmed Çelebi. According to these records all three brothers were poets. Yet Hüsameddin's own dates strain this kinship: Şehîdî was already Bayezid's boon companion in 883 and died after 898; Zekâî died around 925 (1519), and Şermî around 941 (1534-35). An interval of more than forty years between the deaths of Şehîdî and Şermî does not make them impossible as brothers, but it is not usual either.

The only basis for the kinship appears to be the phrase "Şehidî Çelebi, Şermî" in the Sicill-i Osmânî. Hüsameddin explains the placing of the two names side by side as "Şermî's brother". The phrase may also have arisen from the names of two different poets becoming confused in the sources; Hüsameddin does not discuss this possibility. Where Hüsameddin took the name "Şehîdî Ali Çelebi" from is also unclear, since the Sicill-i Osmânî line he quotes says only "Şehidî Çelebi".

Poetry

No copy of the verse history of four thousand couplets was known in Hüsameddin's day; no record of the work has turned up since, and none of Şehîdî's poems has been found. Hüsameddin quotes not a single couplet of his. The same holds for Şermî, his reputed brother: the article on the poets of Prince Ahmed's Amasya circle notes that no sample of his verse is known either.

Chronology

880 (1475-76): According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Halîmî presents his ode with its commentary to Mehmed II; an inquiry begins in Amasya.

883 (1478-79): According to Hüsameddin, Şehîdî is taken to Istanbul in "the incident of 883".

886 (1481): Bayezid II comes to the throne; Şehîdî remains a secretary of the Imperial Council.

After 898 (1492-93): He dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources