Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's history of Amasya contains two separate entries for Şinâsî Hasan Dede, and they disagree on his father's name, on how he obtained the sheikhship, and on the place and date of his death. The frame they share is clear enough: Hasan Dede was a Mevlevî who headed the Amasya Mevlevî lodge between 1194 and 1204 (1780-1790). The sheikhship passed from hand to hand within his family, the "Hacı Dedezâdes"; both his arrival in the office and his departure from it are entangled with family quarrels and with the influence of Caniklizâde Mikdâd Ahmed Paşa, who ruled Amasya for years. Only the entry headed "Şinâsî" records that he studied literature, Arabic and Persian under one of Amasya's scholar-poets, gives his pen name and calls him a poet; the poems themselves are lost.

Hüsameddin's Record

The entry that records him as a poet stands in the eleventh volume, under the heading "Şinâsî":

Şinâsî Hasan Dede-Hacı Dedezâde, es-Seyyid Amasyalıdır. Amasya Mevlevîhânesi şeyhi Ahmed Dede Efendi'nin mahdûmu ve es-Seyyid Kamî Mehmed Dede'nin birâderidir. Kürd Hâfızzâde İrfânî Osmân Efendi'nin halka-i tedrîsinde edebiyât, Arabiyye ve Farisiyyeyi tahsîl edib pederinin terbiyesini gördü. 1190'da pederinin vefâtıyla meşîhat umarken İsmail Dedezâde Feyzullah Dede'ye tevcîh edilmesinden muğber olup Konya'ya gitdi. Çelebi Efendi âsitânesine mürâcaatla 1194'de Feyzullah Dede'nin ref'inden Amasya Mevlevîhânesi şeyhi olarak geldi. On yıl kadar icrâ-yı meşîhât etdi. Ancak birâderi es-Seyyid Feyzullah Dede'nin teşebbüsâtıyla 1204'de ref'edilip İstanbul'a gitdi. Çünkü Caniklizâde Mikdâd Ahmed Paşa'ya şiddet-i intisâbı onun Amasya'dan azli üzerine bunun da azline bâdî olmuşdu. Beşiktaş Mevlevîhânesi'nde ikâmet etdiği esnâda 1206 senesi şevvâlinde vefât etdi. Edîb, şâir, küşâde meşreb idi.

In plain English: Born in Amasya, he was a son of Ahmed Dede Efendi, sheikh of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge, and the brother of Seyyid Kâmî Mehmed Dede. He studied literature, Arabic and Persian in the circle of Kürd Hâfızzâde İrfânî Osman Efendi and was brought up by his father. When his father died in 1190 he hoped for the sheikhship, and, aggrieved that it was given to İsmail Dedezâde Feyzullah Dede, he went to Konya. By applying to the Çelebi Efendi at the mother lodge, he came to Amasya as sheikh of the Mevlevî lodge in 1194 on Feyzullah Dede's removal. He held the post for about ten years. Through the efforts of his brother Seyyid Feyzullah Dede, however, he was removed in 1204 and went to Istanbul, for his close attachment to Caniklizâde Mikdâd Ahmed Paşa had led to his own dismissal once the pasha was removed from Amasya. He died in Şevval 1206 (May-June 1792) while staying at the Beşiktaş Mevlevî lodge. He was a man of letters, a poet and open-hearted.

His Family and the Struggle for the Sheikhship

The family known as the "Hacı Dedezâdes" or "Hacıoğulları" held the sheikhship, the office of Mesnevî reader and the trusteeship of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge and of the Sheikh Cû'î lodge for generations, from the late seventeenth century into the twentieth. Hüsameddin places Ebû Saîd Ahmed Dede at the head of the family, and in his entry writes that his grandson Gavsî Ahmed Dede died in 1190 (1776-77), leaving the sons Seyyid Feyzullah, Abdullah and Mehmed Kâmî. The father named in the Şinâsî entry, "Ahmed Dede Efendi", is evidently the same Gavsî Ahmed Dede who died in 1190. Yet that list contains no son called Hasan.

The history of the lodge in Hüsameddin's first volume gives the succession of these years in order: in 1177 (1763-64) Hacızâde Sheikh Ahmed Dede; in 1190, on his death, İsmail Dedezâde Feyzullah Dede; in 1194 (1780), on the latter's removal, Seyyid Hasan Dede; in 1204 (1789-90), on his removal in turn, Ahmed Dedezâde Feyzullah Dede. İsmail Dedezâde Feyzullah came from another branch of the same family; his father Sheikh İsmail Dede had become Mesnevî reader in 1166, then sheikh, and died in 1177. This separates the two "Feyzullahs" of the entry: the one preferred over Hasan Dede in 1190 was his kinsman İsmail Dedezâde Feyzullah, while the one who unseated him in 1204 was his own brother Seyyid Feyzullah.

The rivalry among the brothers did not end with Hasan Dede's dismissal. According to the lodge history, Feyzullah Dede was removed in 1208 (1793-94); the other brother, Abdullah Dede, became Mesnevî reader, and Ahmed Dede's nephew Hüseyin Dede became sheikh. In 1209 Hüseyin Dede was removed as well and the sheikhship passed to Şinâsî's other brother, Kâmî Mehmed Dede, who kept it until his death in 1227 (1812). His descendants Sâbit Mehmed Dede and Ahmed Sâlim Dede were among the lodge's poet-sheikhs in later generations. The entry for his brother Abdullah Dede, however, says that it was he, and not Hüseyin Dede, who became sheikh in 1208; the family records do not fully agree for these years either.

His Tie to Mikdâd Ahmed Paşa

The most revealing sentence of the entry gives the reason for Hasan Dede's dismissal: his close attachment to Caniklizâde Mikdâd Ahmed Paşa. According to the chronicle in Hüsameddin's fourth volume, Mikdâd Ahmed, son of Canikli Hacı Ali Paşa, came to Amasya in 1189 at about sixteen as deputy governor, became governor of Amasya with the rank of vizier in 1191, and held the sanjak intermittently until 1202. These were harsh years, in which the property of many Amasya notables was seized and complaints poured into Istanbul. In Şaban 1202 (May 1788) Abdülhamid I stripped the pasha of his vizierate and banished him to Dimetoka, where he was later executed. The pasha's fall cost the Mevlevî sheikh under his protection his office as well.

The State of the Sources

Hüsameddin's eighth volume contains a second entry, headed "Hasan Dede Efendi-es-Seyyid Mevlevî Şeyhi", which tells the same events as the life of a different person. According to this entry Hasan Dede was the son of Hâcızâde Mehmed Dede bin Hasan bin Hacı Mehmed Çelebi; he was trained under Gavsî Dede, sheikh of the Mevlevî lodge, and on his father's death in 1169 (1755-56) became trustee, and later Mesnevî reader, of the Sheikh Cû'î endowment. In 1190 he attached himself to Mikdâd Ahmed Paşa, governor of Amasya, became sheikh through the pasha's influence in 1194 in place of the removed Feyzullah Dede, and, after the sanjak slipped from Mikdâd Paşa's hands in 1202, was dismissed in 1204 through Feyzullah Dede's efforts. He lived withdrawn at home for some eleven years and died in 1215 (1800-01). Hüsameddin describes him as "mümtezic, edebiyâta âşinâ", sociable and familiar with literature; he does not call him a poet or give a pen name.

The two entries agree on the appointment of 1194, the dismissal of 1204, the role of Feyzullah Dede and the tie to Mikdâd Ahmed Paşa, so they clearly describe the same sheikh. The points on which they diverge are these:

  • His father: in the Şinâsî entry, Ahmed Dede Efendi, sheikh of the Mevlevî lodge; in the other, Hâcızâde Mehmed Dede. According to the second, Hasan Dede was a cousin of Kâmî Mehmed Dede.
  • How he obtained the sheikhship: in one, by appeal to the Çelebi Efendi in Konya; in the other, through Mikdâd Ahmed Paşa's influence.
  • His death: in one, in Şevval 1206 at the Beşiktaş Mevlevî lodge in Istanbul; in the other, in 1215 after eleven years of seclusion.
  • His poetry: only the "Şinâsî" entry counts him a poet and gives this pen name.

Which account is correct cannot be determined from Hüsameddin's texts; neither entry cites a source. The absence of a Hasan among Gavsî Ahmed Dede's sons seems to support the genealogy of the second entry. On the other hand, the fact that the Şinâsî entry gives the tie to Mikdâd Paşa and the reason for the dismissal exactly as the other does shows that it too rests on sound information. The recurrence of names in the family adds to the confusion: Hüsameddin also mentions another member, Hüseyin Dedezâde Seyyid Hasan Dede, who was sheikh of the lodge in the nineteenth century.

His Poetry

Şinâsî's poems have not been located. Elsewhere Hüsameddin counts Kürd Hâfızzâde İrfânî Osman Efendi, from whom he received his literary training, among "the poets of the ulema", the scholar-poets. A pupil of such a teacher may well have written in an idiom close to madrasa literature; there is no text to test this, for Hüsameddin, who calls the sheikh "edîb, şâir", a man of letters and a poet, recorded nothing of his verse. Poems by the lodge's eighteenth-century sheikhs may have been preserved in the anthologies of Amasya's Sufi orders and lodges.

Chronology

1190 (1776-77): His father Ahmed Dede dies; the sheikhship is given to İsmail Dedezâde Feyzullah Dede, and Hasan Dede goes to Konya.

1191 (1777): Mikdâd Ahmed Paşa becomes governor of Amasya.

1194 (1780): Feyzullah Dede is removed; Hasan Dede becomes sheikh of the Amasya Mevlevî lodge.

Şaban 1202 (May 1788): Mikdâd Ahmed Paşa is stripped of his vizierate.

1204 (1789-90): Hasan Dede is dismissed and succeeded by his brother Seyyid Feyzullah Dede.

Şevval 1206 (May-June 1792): According to the "Şinâsî" entry, he dies in Istanbul at the Beşiktaş Mevlevî lodge. The other entry places his death in 1215 (1800-01).

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources