Şehrî is a poet named among the poets of Amasya during the years of Şehzade Ahmed's (Prince Ahmed's) governorship (1481-1512), but of whom nothing beyond his name has survived. His name appears only in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar's Amasya Tarihi, in the entry on the poet Çeşmî Mehmed Çelebi, where he is mentioned together with Mihrî, Figânî, Şermî and Münîrî among the Amasya poets with whom Çeşmî held literary conversations. Hüsameddin gives Şehrî no entry of his own and provides neither his given name, nor his family, nor his life. No Şehrî connected with Amasya could be found in the biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire) either. The poet's identity is therefore uncertain, and the identifications offered below should be treated only as possibilities. His poems have not been found.

The Record in the Source

The only record in which Şehrî's name appears is Hüsameddin's entry on Çeşmî Mehmed Çelebi in the section on poets. The relevant part of the entry reads:

Çeşmî Mehmed Çelebi Amasyalıdır. Hâce Acem Alî Ağa'nın yaptırdığı çeşmelerinin nâzırı olan Alî Çelebi'nin mahdûmudur. Acem fuzalâsından Hüseyniye müderrisi Ebu'l-Hayr Efendi'den tahsîl-i ma'ârif edib Amasya vâlîsi Şehzâde Sultân Ahmed'in dîvânı ketebesinden oldu. Amasya şu'arâsından Mihrî, Figânî, Şermî, Şehrî, Münîrî Çelebiler ile musâhabât-ı edebiyyede bulunarak iştihâr edib şehzâdenin teveccühâtını kazandı. 918'de şehzâdenin i'dâmıyla dernekleri bozulup kitâbetle ta'ayyüş ederek 927 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi. Şâ'ir, edîb, kâtib idi.

In English: Çeşmî Mehmed Çelebi is from Amasya. He is the son of Ali Çelebi, overseer of the fountains built by Hâce Acem Ali Ağa. He studied with Ebülhayr Efendi, one of the Persian scholars and müderris of the Hüseyniye madrasa, and became one of the divan secretaries of Şehzade Sultan Ahmed, governor of Amasya. He became known by holding literary conversations with Mihrî, Figânî, Şermî, Şehrî and Münîrî, poets of Amasya, and won the prince's favour. When the prince was put to death in 918 their gatherings broke up; he lived by his work as a secretary and died after the year 927. He was a poet, a man of letters and a secretary.

The information to be drawn from this record is limited. According to Hüsameddin, Şehrî is "Amasya şu'arâsından", one of the poets of Amasya, and a conversation companion of Çeşmî, a young secretary attached to Prince Ahmed's court. Mihrî Hatun, Figânî, Şermî and Münîrî, named beside him, are known poets of the circle. It can therefore be understood that Şehrî too lived in the same circle, in the last quarter of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth. Şehrî's name does not, however, appear in the list of ten poets that Hüsameddin gives for the circumcision festivities of 911 (1505-06).

Possibilities as to His Identity

In Hüsameddin's work there are several other people bearing the name or nickname Şehrî. None of them is explicitly identified with the poet in the Çeşmî entry. The possibilities below are identifications we have drawn from what is written in the source.

The first possibility is "Şehrî Emîr Mehmed Çelebi", whom Hüsameddin mentions in the Mukaddime (Introduction) when describing the Yediler Türbesi (Tomb of the Seven). According to Hüsameddin, six of the seven emirs famous in the time of Prince Ahmed are buried in this tomb south of the Üçler quarter. Of these, it is certain that Acem Gıyâseddin Şîrâzî, Küçük Emîr Sinan of Niksar, Emîr Şeref Hamza Çelebi of Kuba and Emîr Akîl Çelebi lie here, while it is doubtful whether Şehrî Emîr Mehmed Çelebi and Emîr Mazlûm Melik Çelebi do. As a man of Prince Ahmed's time, this person falls in the same period as Çeşmî's companion. The title "Emîr" indicates descent from the Prophet's family. Hüsameddin does not say that he was a poet.

The second possibility is the entry given in Hüsameddin's ninth volume under the heading "Hıfzî Ali Çelebi-Mevlânâ Şehrî". Because of the two-column layout of the e-book the text reads confusedly, but the following can be drawn from the entry: he is from Amasya, the son of Mahmud Çelebi, and having pursued learning became a müderris and judge; this is known from the endowment deed of Hüsameddin Temennâyî dated 872 (1467-68). He was one of the companions of Bayezid II during his governorship of Amasya and died after the year 883 (1478-79). Hüsameddin counts him "ulemâ ve şuarâdan", among the scholars and poets. According to the heading of the entry, his pen name (mahlas) was Hıfzî and his nickname Şehrî. Being a poet and having belonged to the court circle of Amasya make him a plausible candidate for Çeşmî's companion Şehrî. It is not known, however, whether this companion of Bayezid's time was still alive in Ahmed's time.

Third, Hüsameddin's eleventh volume includes several other people of Amasya with the nickname "Şehrî", but they belong to other periods. Balcızâde Şehrî İsmail Efendi was a calligrapher and poet who exchanged verses with the men of letters of Amasya and served as secretary of Sultan Bayezid's endowments; he died around 1049 (1639-40), and Hüsameddin writes that he could not find his poems either. Hamza Beyzâde Şehrî Mehmed Efendi was a müderris known as "şehirli" (the townsman) who signed himself "Şehrî"; he is recorded as a council member in 1241 (1825-26). These people have no connection with the Şehrî of Prince Ahmed's time.

State of the Sources and Discussion

It is not even certain that Şehrî was a pen name. The nisba "şehrî", from the word "şehir" (city), means "townsman". Hüsameddin specifically notes that Müstakimzâde Süleyman Sadeddin, who wrote the biographies of calligraphers, called many people born in Amasya and living in Istanbul "şehrî", that is, of Istanbul, and objects to this usage. The "Şehrî" in the Çeşmî entry may be a pen name, or it may have been used as a shortened family name or nickname. In the names of "Şehrî Emîr Mehmed Çelebi" of the Yediler Türbesi and of Hıfzî Ali Çelebi, called "Mevlânâ Şehrî", the word is likewise seen used as a nickname.

In the sixteenth-century tezkires only one Şehrî of this period could be found. Şehrî Çelebi, mentioned in the tezkire section of Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî's Künhü'l-Ahbâr, was from Kastamonu, the ancestor of the Cenderecizâdes, a family of men of the pen; he served as treasurer (defterdar) to Mehmed II (the Conqueror) and Bayezid II and in his youth travelled to Iran as a merchant. Âlî quotes an opening couplet by him. The source shows no connection between this Şehrî and Amasya or Prince Ahmed's court, and there is no ground for identifying him with Çeşmî's companion. For this reason the couplet quoted by Âlî is not given on this page as a poem of Şehrî.

The only firm piece of information we have is that Hüsameddin records the presence in Amasya, in the time of Prince Ahmed, of a poet named Şehrî. For this period Hüsameddin often relies on Münîrî's Mecmûa-i Târîhiyye, which is lost today. It is possible that the name Şehrî was also taken from this source, but Hüsameddin does not say so. The emir of the Yediler Türbesi and Hıfzî Ali Çelebi are the closest candidates for the poet's identity. None of these identifications has been confirmed by documents.

His Poetry

Şehrî's poems have not been found. Hüsameddin mentions his name in the Çeşmî entry but quotes not a single couplet by him. In the tezkires we have searched, no poem by a Şehrî who could be linked with Amasya was found either. The other poets of Prince Ahmed's Amasya circle and the poems that survive from them are described together in the article Prince Ahmed's Amasya circle and its poets.

Chronology

872 (1467-68): Date of the endowment deed of Hüsameddin Temennâyî, in which Hıfzî Ali Çelebi appears as müderris and judge.

886 (1481): Prince Ahmed becomes governor of Amasya.

918 (1512-13): With Prince Ahmed's death the conversation circle that included Çeşmî and Şehrî breaks up.

After 927 (1520-21): Çeşmî Mehmed Çelebi, subject of the entry that records Şehrî's name, dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources