Ömer Çelebi's pen name does not hide his profession: this surgeon, who tended patients at the Darüşşifa of Amasya for more than forty years, wrote as "Şifâî", a name that points plainly to his healing work. His father had been one of the famous surgeons of the same hospital, which is why Ömer Çelebi was known as "Cerrâhzâde", the surgeon's son, and called simply "Hekîm Çelebi", the doctor. He died in 1072 (1661-62). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's entry remembers him with the words "learned, a physician, skilled, a man of letters, a poet, generous"; for the word "poet" not a single couplet can be produced today.

Hüsameddin's Entry

The entry Şifâî Ömer Çelebi-Hekim from Hüsameddin's eleventh volume, is given here without abridgement:

Amasya Dârüşşifâsı etibbâsından cerrâh-ı meşhûr Hacı Mustafa Efendi'nin mahdûmudur. Cerrâhzâdelikle meşhûr olup "Hekîm Çelebi" denirdi. Amasya'da Kadızâde Küçük Mehmed Efendi'nin halka-i tedrîsinde tahsîl-i ilim etdi. Pederinden tabâbet ve fenn-i cerrâhîyi ahz ederek pederinin vefâtında yerine kâim oldu. Amasya'da yıllarca icrâ-yı tabâbet edib Dârüşşifâ tabîbliğinde iştihâr etdi. Kırk yıldan ziyâde Dârüşşifâ tabîbi olarak Tımârhâne şeyhi meşâhîr-i sulehâdan eş-Şeyh Salih Efendi ile beraber çalıştı. Bu zât enfâs-ı kudsiyesi ile sâhib-i terceme muâlecât-i fenniyyesiyle hastaları tedâvî etdi. 1072'de vefât eyledi. Âlim, hekîm, mâhir, edîb, şâir, kerîm bir zât idi.

In modern English: Hacı Mustafa Efendi, his father, was a famous surgeon among the physicians of the Darüşşifa of Amasya. Known as the surgeon's son, he was called "Hekîm Çelebi". He studied in the teaching circle of Kadızâde Küçük Mehmed Efendi in Amasya. He learned medicine and the art of surgery from his father and took his place when his father died. He practised medicine in Amasya for many years and became famous as physician of the Darüşşifa. For more than forty years, as physician of the Darüşşifa, he worked together with Şeyh Sâlih Efendi, sheikh of the asylum and one of the renowned holy men. The sheikh healed the patients with his holy breath, and the subject of this entry with his medical treatments. He died in 1072. He was learned, a skilled physician, a man of letters, a poet and a generous man.

Life and Medical Career

Ömer Çelebi's teacher, Kadızâde Küçük Mehmed Efendi, was one of the professors who trained the most students in Amasya in the first half of the seventeenth century, and he died in 1044 (1634-35). That Ömer Çelebi attended his lessons shows that his schooling took place before that date. After his madrasa studies he learned his real profession at his father's side, inside the hospital. In Ottoman towns medicine, and surgery in particular, often passed in this way from father to son as a craft. When his father died he took over his post at the Darüşşifa.

The building in which he worked was the Bimarhane of Amasya, a hospital surviving from the Ilkhanid period. Two of Hüsameddin's entries draw a rare picture of how it worked in the seventeenth century. Ömer Çelebi's entry names the asylum's sheikh, Sâlih Efendi, as the partner with whom he treated the patients. Sâlih Efendi's own entry tells the same story: a successor of the Halveti sheikh Hüsâmeddîn Efendi, he was appointed sheikh of the Darüşşifa and recited prayers over the insane and those suffering from nervous illnesses, who were then said to recover. A physician and a sheikh working side by side reveal an arrangement in which medicine and prayer were used together in treating mental illness. Ömer Çelebi carried the medical side of that arrangement for over forty years.

Sâlih Efendi's entry gives one more detail: in his time the physician of the Darüşşifa was "Hekîmzâde Mahmûd Çelebi". Since Sâlih Efendi died in Zilhicce 1078 (May-June 1668), this Mahmûd Çelebi must have taken up the post after Ömer Çelebi's death in 1072. The epithet "Hekîmzâde", the doctor's son, suggests that he may have been the son of Ömer Çelebi, who was known as "Hekîm Çelebi"; in a family where the profession passed from father to son, this is far from unlikely. Hüsameddin draws no explicit link between the two men, so this is not something the source confirms.

His Poetry

His poems have not come down to us. Hüsameddin lists his poetry, his medicine and his generosity in the same sentence but quotes no couplet. That his pen name is tied so openly to his profession suggests that poetry and medicine were not kept apart in his life; yet we do not know in which forms he wrote, whether ghazals, quatrains or chronograms.

Namesakes and Records Easily Confused

The best-known "Şifâî" in Ottoman medical history is Ömer Şifâî Efendi, chief physician of the Yıldırım Darüşşifa in Bursa. This physician, who came from a family of Sinop, was a Mevlevi dervish and made translations from Paracelsus, died in 1155 (1742). Though his name, pen name and profession are the same, he is an entirely different man who died some eighty years after Ömer Çelebi of Amasya. Nor does the "Hekim Çelebi quarter" of Amasya take its name from Ömer Çelebi: Hüsameddin connects the name of that quarter with Hekîm Bedreddîn Mahmûd Çelebi, a physician known in 890 (1485) who lived there. In Amasya Tarihi the heading that immediately follows Ömer Çelebi's entry belongs to Şeyh Şifâî Mahmûd Efendi, son of Bayramzâde Hasan Efendi; because the two entries sit side by side on the same page, they are easily confused.

Chronology

Before 1044 (1634-35): Studies in the teaching circle of Kadızâde Küçük Mehmed Efendi.

1072 (1661-62): Dies after more than forty years as physician of the Darüşşifa.

Zilhicce 1078 (May-June 1668): Death of Sâlih Efendi, the asylum sheikh with whom he worked.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources