Sîmî Ahmed Çelebi was a calligrapher, judge and poet of the early seventeenth century, from the Gümüşlüzâde family, descendants of Pîr İlyâs. After serving as a court clerk and as judge in small towns, he gave up the judgeship to teach the sciences and calligraphy, became council secretary of the sanjak of Amasya in 1027 (1618), and died in 1032 (1622-23). Apart from the short entry in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi there is no source for him. Hüsameddin also records that he was among the poets included in the burnt anthology of the Amasya professor Abdî Efendi. A single couplet about his pen name survives, and it is not known whether it is Sîmî's own or a verse said about him.

Hüsameddin's Account

Hüsameddin describes the poet on the last page of the tenth volume as follows:

Sîmî Ahmed Çelebi-Gümüşlüzâde Amasyalıdır. Hazreti Pîr İlyâs'ın evlâd-ı kirâmından ve kudâtdan Abdullah Çelebi bin Halîl Çelebi mahdûmudur. Ulûm u ma'ârif tahsîl ve Ramazânzâde Hüseyin Efendi'den hutût-ı mütenevvi'ayı ahz edib âlim u hattât oldu. Bir müddet mahkeme kâtibi sonra kasabâta kadı olup sonra terk-i kazâ ederek neşr-i ulûm u hutûta çalışdı. 1027'de Amasya sancâğı kâtib-i dîvânı olup 1032'de vefât etdi. Şu'arâ ve erbâb-ı ma'âriften bir Çelebi idi. "Gözlerim bakdıkça sîm-endâmına / Parlayub Sîmî demişdir nâmına" beyti gâlibâ bunun hakkındadır. Yâhûd kendisinindir. Müderris Abdî Efendi'nin tezkiresi ricâlindendir.

In English: Sîmî Ahmed Çelebi, of the Gümüşlüzâde family, is from Amasya. He is the son of Abdullah Çelebi, a descendant of Hazret Pîr İlyâs and a judge; his grandfather was Halil Çelebi. He studied the sciences and learning, and learned the various styles of script from Ramazanzâde Hüseyin Efendi, becoming a scholar and calligrapher. For a time he was a court clerk, then judge in small towns; afterwards he gave up the judgeship and worked at teaching the sciences and calligraphy. In 1027 he became council secretary of the sanjak of Amasya and died in 1032. He was a çelebi among the poets and men of learning. The couplet "Gözlerim bakdıkça sîm-endâmına / Parlayub Sîmî demişdir nâmına" is most probably about him; or it is his own. He is one of the men in the anthology of the professor Abdî Efendi.

This entry is one of the last in Hüsameddin's tenth volume. After one more short entry the author notes that he finished the volume, and that he wrote this in Istanbul, in the Hacı Hasan quarter of Çırçır, on Friday 13 Safar 1351, that is, 17 June 1932.

Family and Life

Sîmî belonged to one of the oldest learned and sufi families of Amasya. The Gümüşlüzâdes traced their descent to Pîr İlyâs, the pioneer of the Halvetî order in Amasya; the city's Gümüşlü quarter and its mosque still bear the family's name. His father Abdullah Çelebi served as a judge. Sîmî's life follows a path that moves back and forth between the learned and the scribal careers: it begins with a court clerkship, extends to judgeships in small towns, then turns from the judgeship to teaching, and ends with a secretaryship in the sanjak council. Hüsameddin names Ramazanzâde Hüseyin Efendi as his teacher of calligraphy. The post of council secretary, which handled the correspondence of the sanjak governor in Amasya, called for a good hand.

The Anthology of Abdî Efendi

Hüsameddin's remark "Müderris Abdî Efendi'nin tezkiresi ricâlindendir" ties Sîmî to a lost anthology of Amasya poets. This work, in which Abdî Efendi, professor at the Abdullah Paşa madrasa, collected the poets of Amasya from the late sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century, was burnt, and Hüsameddin could see only excerpts copied from it. Fuller information on the anthology and the poets named in it is in Abdî Efendi: The Lost Anthology of Amasya Poets and Its Poems. The couplet that may be Sîmî's probably came from this anthology too; Hüsameddin does not say so explicitly.

His Poetry

No poems by Sîmî have come down to us apart from a single couplet of uncertain authorship. The couplet is built on the meaning of the pen name: the Persian "sîm" means silver, and the name "Sîmî" is like a Persian equivalent of the family name Gümüşlüzâde, "of the silver family". Hüsameddin himself was unsure whether the couplet was said about Sîmî or was his own. On its own page the couplet is read together with Hüsameddin's hesitation.

Chronology

1027 (1618): Becomes council secretary of the sanjak of Amasya.

1032 (1622-23): Dies.

Bibliography

Online sources