Şekvâyî Ahmed Çelebi did not choose his own name: because his father Veli Bey's trusteeship of the Hâce Sultan endowment was dogged by complaints, a nickname derived from "şekvâ", complaint, passed to the son. He himself was a Mevlevî poet and musician who served as head ney player of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge in the first half of the eighteenth century and was sought after in gatherings for the beauty of his voice. He died in 1149 (1736-37). Everything known about him rests on a short entry in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi, and that entry preserves not a single line of his verse.

Hüsameddin's Record

The entry in the eleventh volume opens with the father's endowment and closes with an evening of music:

Şekvâyî Ahmed Çelebi-Velîzâde Amasyalıdır. Hâce Sultân vakfı mütevellîsi Veli Bey'in oğludur. Pederinin zamân-ı tevliyet ve azli şekvâlarla geçtiğinden "Şekvâyî" lâkâbını almışdı. Biraz tahsîl-i maârif ederek Mevlevî olup eş-Şeyh Alâeddîn Dede'ye hizmet etdi. Ba'dehû el-Hâc Ebûbekir ve Arab Salih Dedeler zamanında Neyzenbaşı olup 1149'da vefât eyledi. Şâir, mûsîkâr, hissedâr-ı maârif idi. Sesi de güzel, küşâde meşreb olduğundan müezzinbaşı Yeniceli Hâfız Ahmed Efendi ile birleştiği meclise doyulmazdı.

Rendered into English: A man of Amasya and the son of Veli Bey, trustee of the Hâce Sultan endowment. Since both his father's time as trustee and his dismissal were filled with complaints, he received the nickname "Şekvâyî". After some education he became a Mevlevî and served Sheikh Alâeddîn Dede. Later, in the time of Hacı Ebûbekir Dede and Arab Sâlih Dede, he became head ney player, and he died in 1149. He was a poet and musician with a share of learning. His voice was beautiful too, and because he was open-hearted, no one could have enough of a gathering in which he joined the chief muezzin, Hâfız Ahmed Efendi of Yenice.

The Story of the Nickname

Ottoman poets usually chose their pen names themselves or received them from a teacher. With Şekvâyî it was otherwise: the name grew out of his father's misfortunes and stuck to the son. The entry says nothing more about the endowment Veli Bey managed. In the same volume Hüsameddin mentions Cemâleddîn Mehmed Cemâlî, known as "Çelebi Halife", as sheikh of the Hâce Sultan lodge at the beginning of the sixteenth century; the endowment under Veli Bey's trusteeship probably belonged to this lodge, but the entry does not say so. A trustee collected the endowment's revenues and spent them according to its terms, a post that brought one into conflict with many people demanding accounts or pressing claims; who filled Veli Bey's years with complaints is not known either.

Nor does the entry reveal whether the nickname served as a pen name in his verse. Hüsameddin places it in the heading where a pen name would stand, yet in the text he calls it a "lâkab". It is curious that a poet should adopt a name recalling his father's troubled years; then again, since "şekvâ" is also the name for complaining of the beloved and of fate in divan poetry, the word was hardly unsuited to a poet.

Head Ney Player of the Mevlevî Lodge

Şekvâyî's years as a Mevlevî fall in a period when the sheikhs of the Amasya lodge changed often and quarrels over its trusteeship were never lacking. According to the history of the lodge in Hüsameddin's first volume, Sheikh Alâeddîn Dede died in 1112 (1700-01), after which Ebûbekir Dede, who came from Konya, took the sheikh's seat. Ebûbekir Dede's own entry says he arrived in 1112, while the lodge history has him become sheikh in 1118 (1706-07). When Ebûbekir Dede died in 1131 (1718-19) he was succeeded by Sâlih Ulvî Dede of Aleppo, known among the people as the "Arab Sheikh". Hüsameddin says Konya sent him to end the discord among the sheikhs of Amasya and that he held the office for twenty years until his death on the tenth of Zilhicce 1151 (1739).

The head ney player led the ney section in the sema ceremony; the music of the rite was largely in his hands. Like Hasan Dede, who held the same post a generation earlier, Şekvâyî must have reached it through his skill as a musician. Hüsameddin calls him "mûsîkâr", one who knows and performs music. Since Sâlih Dede's sheikhship lasted until 1151, Şekvâyî, who died in 1149, spent his last years as head ney player under this sheikh.

The liveliest sentence of the entry concerns the life of gatherings. Şekvâyî's fine voice and open nature, joined with those of the chief muezzin Hâfız Ahmed Efendi of Yenice, made for meetings that listeners could not get enough of. One may guess that hymns, ghazals and songs were sung at these gatherings where a ney-playing Mevlevî met a muezzin with a beautiful voice; Hüsameddin does not say what was performed. Nor can Hâfız Ahmed Efendi be identified with certainty. Hüsameddin's sixth volume includes an Ahmed Efendi of the Yenicelizâde family who served as a palace muezzin, but he died in 1210 (1795-96) and cannot have been Şekvâyî's contemporary. Şekvâyî's companion may have belonged to an earlier generation of the same family.

His Connection to Amasya

Şekvâyî was born in Amasya and spent his whole life among the city's endowments and its lodge. His father was trustee of an endowment in the city. The son, for his part, chose the Mevlevî path from among Amasya's Sufi orders and lodges, grew up among the dervishes of the lodge in the Sarachâne quarter and rose to lead its ney players.

His Poetry

No poem by Şekvâyî is known to survive. One would expect much of what a ney-playing poet wrote to consist of hymns sung in the lodge; should eighteenth-century lyric anthologies of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge come to light, his name could be sought there. Hüsameddin offers only the word "şâir", poet: the entry gives neither a couplet nor a hymn and mentions no divan or anthology. Metin Hakverdioğlu, listing the poets of Amasya Tarihi volume by volume, placed him among the poets of the eleventh volume in the form "Şekvâyî Ahmed Çelebi-Velîzâde".

Chronology

1112 (1700-01): Sheikh Alâeddîn Dede, whom he served, dies.

1112 or 1118 (1706-07): Ebûbekir Dede becomes sheikh of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge; in this period Şekvâyî is made head ney player.

1131 (1718-19): Ebûbekir Dede dies and is succeeded by Sâlih Ulvî Dede.

1149 (1736-37): Şekvâyî dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources