Şeyhî Mehmed Çelebi won his way into Prince Ahmed's court at Amasya by his eloquence and his manners, and when the prince died in 918 (1512-13) he could not bear it and died too. A madrasa teacher who surpassed his contemporaries in Arabic and Persian letters, he exchanged verses with Münîrî. He bore the name of an ancestor nicknamed "Şeyh Kırık" and belonged to a family that, with his father Hâtemî Abdülkerîm Efendi and his uncle Âfitâbî Abdurrahman Çelebi, lived for three generations around the princely courts of Amasya. Neither these exchanges nor any other verse of his has survived.

Life

The entry in the eleventh volume begins with his father's name:

Amasya şuarâ ve ulemâsından "Şeyh Kırık" demekle meşhûr Şeyhî Çelebizâde Hâtemî Abdülkerîm Efendi'nin oğludur. Muallim-i sultânî Hatîb Kâsım Efendi'den ikmâl-i tahsîl edib ders-i âm sonra Atabeg Gâzi müderrisi oldu. Takrîr ve beyânı edeb ve ahlâkı ile Amasya vâlisi Şehzâde Sultân Ahmed'e kendisini sevdirdiğinden takarrüb ederek terakkî gördü. Ancak 918'de Sultân Ahmed'in ömr ü saltanatı hitâma erdiğinden müteessîren vefât etdi. Âlim, kâmil, şâir, edîb idi. Edebiyât-ı Arabiyye ve Farisiyye'de akrânına fâik olup Münirî Efendi ile müşâare ederdi.

In translation: His father was Hâtemî Abdülkerîm Efendi, son of Şeyhî Çelebi known as "Şeyh Kırık", one of the poets and scholars of Amasya. He finished his education under Hatîb Kâsım Efendi, tutor to the sultan, was licensed to teach, and then became teacher at the Atabeg Gazi madrasa. Because his lecturing, his speech, his manners and his character endeared him to Prince Sultan Ahmed, governor of Amasya, he drew close to him and rose. But in 918, when the life and rule of Sultan Ahmed came to an end, he died of grief. He was learned, accomplished, a poet and a man of letters. He surpassed his peers in Arabic and Persian literature and used to exchange verses with Münîrî Efendi.

The first sentence of the entry can be read in two ways: the nickname "Şeyh Kırık" may belong either to Hâtemî himself or to Şeyhî Çelebi, presented as his father. Since the Şeyh Kırık entry in the same volume gives the nickname to the Şeyhî Mehmed Çelebi who died in 846, the second reading is the more consistent; the grandson would then have borne his grandfather's name. Which generation bore which name is not consistent across Hüsameddin's volumes, and the dispute over the lineage of his ancestor Şeyh Kırık reaches down to the grandson as well.

Teacher and Madrasa

Hatîb Kâsım Efendi was, according to Hüsameddin, the tutor of Bayezid II and of his son Prince Ahmed, and died in Ramadan 894 (August-September 1489). That Şeyhî Mehmed finished his studies with him shows that his student years ended by 1489 at the latest and that he was tied, while still young, to the circle of teachers around the princely court. Hatîb Kâsım's sons also took part in the learned life of Amasya; one of them, Ahmed Şemseddîn Efendi, was removed from his post in 918 while teaching at the Mehmed Pasha madrasa in Amasya.

After receiving his licence he worked for a while as a ders-i âm, a scholar entitled to give lessons, and then became teacher at the Atabeg Gazi madrasa. His father Hâtemî Abdülkerîm had likewise taught in his youth at the Halifet Gazi madrasa before turning to the path of the dervish lodge; over the generations the family's calling moves back and forth between madrasa and lodge.

In Prince Ahmed's Circle

Prince Ahmed, the eldest son of Bayezid II, held the sanjak of Amasya for more than thirty years and gathered round him a large company of poets, calligraphers and scholars. Hüsameddin says that Şeyhî Mehmed won the prince's favour by the way he lectured and by his courtesy. In those same years his uncle Âfitâbî Abdurrahman Çelebi had died in 907 (1501-02) as administrator of the Sultan Bayezid endowments and boon companion to Prince Ahmed; Âfitâbî's son Abdülhay Efendi was also one of the prince's men and fell from favour after the events of 918. The family's fortunes were firmly bound to the prince's.

In 918 (1512-13) Ahmed lost the struggle for the throne against his brother Selim and was killed. Hüsameddin writes that Şeyhî Mehmed died of grief at this end. The wording recalls the sentence telling how the family's ancestor Şeyh Kırık died of fear after the death of Prince Alâeddin; that two members of the same family, seventy years apart, should leave life with the death of a prince may be part of Hüsameddin's telling of a family tradition. No source gives any other cause for Şeyhî Mehmed's death.

Poetry

Of Şeyhî Mehmed's poetry a single report survives: he used to exchange verses with Münîrî of Amasya. His poems, these exchanges among them, have not been found. Among Münîrî's poems that can be read today there is no piece addressed to Şeyhî Mehmed or composed in reply to him; a Şeyhî does appear among the poets who influenced Münîrî, but that name belongs to the poet of Germiyan and cannot be carried over to the Amasya teacher. The language in which the exchanges took place is also unknown. Hüsameddin's stress on his mastery of Arabic and Persian letters suggests that Şeyhî Mehmed may have composed verse in those languages too, but there is no text to show it.

Family

His father, Hâtemî Abdülkerîm Çelebi, was a madrasa teacher and poet who had belonged to Prince Bayezid's circle in Amasya, later became a deputy of İbrâhim Tennûrî, and died around 903 (1497-98). His uncle Âfitâbî was also a poet. Enverî Pîr Hasan Çelebi, called "son of Abdülkerîm Çelebi" and "Şeyhîzâde" in the seventh volume, may have been Şeyhî Mehmed's brother; Hüsameddin does not state the link, and the possibility rests only on the likeness of name and surname. Hüsameddin does not mention any children of Şeyhî Mehmed.

Chronology

894 (1489): His teacher Hatîb Kâsım Efendi dies.

c. 903 (1497-98): His father Hâtemî Abdülkerîm Çelebi dies.

907 (1501-02): His uncle Âfitâbî Abdurrahman Çelebi dies.

918 (1512-13): Dies in Amasya after the death of Prince Ahmed.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources