Senâyî was a sixteenth-century poet from Manisa who attached himself to the household of Şehzade Mustafa (Prince Mustafa) while the prince was governor of Manisa and who, after entering the judiciary, did not leave the prince but came with him to Amasya. Âşık Çelebi, Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi and Beyânî introduce him in their biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire) as a native of Manisa and preserve nine couplets of his in all. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, for his part, records in the Amasya Tarihi "şuarâdan Manisalı Senâyî Mehmed Efendi", the poet Senâyî Mehmed Efendi of Manisa, who became judge of Amasya in 955 (1548). The tezkires do not give the poet's personal name; the name "Mehmed" occurs only in Hüsameddin. Because he bears the same pen name and the same personal name as Senâyî Mehmed Çelebi of the Hacı Enbiyâzâde, who lived in Amasya, the two can become confused in the sources; this page deals only with the Senâyî of Manisa described in the tezkires.

The Tezkire Entries

The most detailed and the harshest entry on the poet is in Âşık Çelebi's Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ:

S̱enâyî: Maġnisa diyârındandur ve eṭrâfuñ fünûn-ı naẓm ile ehl-i iştihârındandur. Ṭarîḳ-i ʿilme sülûk idüp Sulṭân Muṣṭafâ-yı merḥûm Maġnisa'da iken âstânesine mülâzım olup ol taḳrîble mülâzım olmışdur. Manṣıb-ı ḳażâya sülûk itdükden ṣoñra yine ol âstâneden dûr olmayup Amâsiyye'ye bile gidüp ḫıdmetde müdâvim olmışdur. Egerçi hemşehrileri ḥaḳḳında ıṭrâ idüp ḳaṣâ'id-i maṣnûʿa ve eş'âr-ı maṭbûʿa ve Şebistân-ı Ḫayâl ṭarzında Neyistân-ı Zülâl nâm kitâb ve mü'ellefât-ı ʿadîde ve mes̱neviyyât-ı pesendîde isnâd idüp ṭabl-ı tehî gibi ol diyâra âvâzı ġulġule ṣalmışdur ancaḳ ol ġulġuleden ḳulaḳlarda ṣadâ-yı kuhsâr gibi ḳurı yanġu ḳalmışdur.

In modern English: Senâyî is from the region of Manisa and is one of the men of that country known for the arts of verse. He took the path of learning; while the late Sultan Mustafa was in Manisa he attached himself to his household, and through this connection he became a mülâzım, a candidate awaiting appointment. After he entered the judiciary he did not keep away from that household either; he went with the prince to Amasya and continued in his service. His fellow townsmen spoke of him with excessive praise and attributed to him artful kasides (qasidas), admired poems, a book called Neyistân-ı Zülâl in the manner of the Şebistân-ı Hayâl, many works and admired mesnevis (narrative poems in couplets); in this way they made his name resound in that region like an empty drum. But of that clamour only a dry echo, like the sound returning from the mountains, remained in the ears.

Âşık Çelebi continues with a jibe: the poets of Manisa are Câmi'î, Sâmi'î and the judge Emrezâde, whose pen name is Kâni'î and who in poetry has contented himself with his pen name alone; Senâyî is the fourth of them. This list, which exploits the fact that all the pen names end in the sound "-î", presents the poet as a member of a mediocre provincial circle. The writer then adds that he met the poet at a gathering, sensed much spirituality in him and found him able to express himself well, "hele bârî şâ'irdür", at least he is a poet. But immediately afterwards he takes back his praise by quoting an Arabic couplet meaning "If you know nothing but metre, say: I am a good weigher of verse, not a poet." According to the edition's footnote, this recollection of the gathering is missing from some manuscripts.

Kınalızâde repeats the same information in a milder tone. According to him Senâyî is one of the well-known poets of Manisa and its surroundings; he attended the prince's household while the prince was in Manisa and so became a mülâzım, and after entering the judiciary he did not leave his service but came with him to Amasya. He says that his townsmen praised him greatly, adds that he wrote a commentary on the Maksûd, a book read in the teaching of Arabic morphology, and writes that according to some friends whose praise he trusts he was a poet of fluent tongue. Beyânî says briefly that he came from Manisa, attached himself to the household of Şehzade Sultan Mustafa and became a town judge (kasaba kadısı).

Connection with Amasya

What connects Senâyî with Amasya is Şehzade Mustafa's Amasya years. According to the entry "Mustafa Çelebi" by Şerafettin Turan in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, the prince was sent from Manisa to Amasya on 21 Safer 948 (16 June 1541). All three tezkires write that Senâyî came to Amasya with the prince. Hüsameddin, in the third volume, where he narrates the prince's governorship of Amasya year by year, records that in the month of Cemaziyelevvel of 955 the mufti of Amasya, Sa'dî Efendi, was dismissed and that "then the judge of Amasya also left, and in his place the poet Senâyî Mehmed Efendi of Manisa came as judge of Amasya". This information gives concrete form to Beyânî's words "he became a town judge" and shows the poet in the city's judicial office. Since Hüsameddin writes that in 957 another native of Amasya, Alâeddin Ali Efendi, became judge of Amasya, Senâyî's judgeship must have lasted a few years; this is an inference. For the prince's Amasya years, see Hüsameddin's entry on Sultan Mustafa and the article Şehzade Mustafa.

What the poet did after the prince was killed in 1553, and when he died, are unknown. The tezkires do not mention his death.

Works

No surviving work of Senâyî is known. The kasides, poems, mesnevis and the book called Neyistân-ı Zülâl that Âşık Çelebi lists are, in the writer's words, works his townsmen "attributed" to him; Âşık Çelebi mentions their existence mockingly. According to the edition's footnote, in some manuscripts the title of the book appears as Nisyân-ı Zülâl. The commentary on the Maksûd mentioned by Kınalızâde is a teaching book. No information could be found about any manuscript of these works.

His Poetry

Nine couplets by the poet have come down to us. Kınalızâde gives eight couplets in five separate pieces; of these, the two-couplet piece "Görüp nâz-ı ruhun zünnâr-ı zülfün" also appears in Beyânî. Âşık Çelebi, for his part, quotes an opening couplet (matla) found nowhere else. This yields six pieces: two couplets beginning "Müneccim cevher-i nâ-yâb-ı la'lin bî-nişân söyler", two couplets beginning "Sükkerî itdi halâvetde kelâmun lutfı deng", the matla "Görinmez nokta-i hâl-i lebün cânâna hâl oldı", the couplet containing the pen name "'Ayârın cevher-i nazmun bilen sarrâf-ı mâhirdür", two couplets beginning "Görüp nâz-ı ruhun zünnâr-ı zülfün bir gün âh itdüm" and the matla in Âşık Çelebi "'İzâr âyînesin jeng itmesün diñ hatt-ı fersâya". Each piece appears as a separate article in this category.

Contrary to Âşık Çelebi's harsh judgement, the couplets show a poet who handles the aruz (quantitative metre) correctly and works the conventional images of divan poetry skilfully. In these couplets, built around the beloved's lip, beauty spot, locks and the down on the cheek, figures of speech such as the pun (cinas) and congruence of images (tenasüp) are frequent. His saying in the pen-name couplet that only a master money-changer can know the worth of poetry and that an ordinary man cannot understand a refined meaning sounds like the voice of a poet aware of the arguments about him.

The State of the Sources

This poet's identity is open to confusion in two respects. The first is Senâyî Mehmed Çelebi of the Hacı Enbiyâzâde of Amasya, to whom Hüsameddin devotes a separate entry in the eighth volume. He too is in Şehzade Mustafa's service, but he is described as a secretary of endowments and a divan secretary, and he dies in Amasya in 967 (1559-60). Hüsameddin mentions the two Senâyîs in different places and as different people; in the tezkires, on the other hand, no Senâyî from Amasya is found. There is no evidence that the two men are the same. The information about the Senâyî of Amasya is given on the page Senâyî Mehmed Çelebi (Hacı Enbiyâzâde).

The second confusion concerns the name. The tezkires do not give the personal name of the Senâyî of Manisa. Immediately after his entry, Kınalızâde introduces under the heading "Senâyî-i Diger", the other Senâyî, a different poet named Mehmed, from Balıkesir, who entered the judiciary after becoming a mülâzım and had a complete divan and a verse work called Ravzatü'l-ebrâr. It is not clear on which source Hüsameddin bases the name "Mehmed" that he gives to the Senâyî of Manisa. The possibility that these two judge-poets bearing the same pen name became confused in Hüsameddin's record cannot be resolved from the sources. The Senâyî in Latîfî's tezkire and in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Names in Turkish Literature), on the other hand, is another poet from Kastamonu who lived in the reign of Mehmed II and served as a muezzin and singer of hymns in praise of the Prophet in the mosques. The same dictionary's entry on Şehzade Mustafa, relying on the work of Haluk İpekten, gives the name "Senâyî" among the poets who were with the prince but does not say which one is meant; according to the accounts of the tezkires, the strongest possibility is that this is the Senâyî of Manisa.

Chronology

21 Safer 948 (16 June 1541): Şehzade Mustafa is sent from Manisa to Amasya; Senâyî comes to Amasya with him.

After Cemaziyelevvel 955 (June-July 1548): Senâyî Mehmed Efendi of Manisa becomes judge of Amasya.

27 Şevval 960 (6 October 1553): Şehzade Mustafa is killed at the Aktepe camp near Konya Ereğlisi.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

Online sources