The endowment of the İbadullah Mosque in Amasya passed to Şükrü İbrâhim Çelebi when his uncle died. He served for a time as secretary of the sanjak divan, then put down his pen to look after his own estates. The madrasa teacher Abdî Efendi included one of his ghazals in the tezkire in which he gathered the poets of Amasya. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar saw that ghazal, but his copy burned along with his papers. Of the poet, who died in Şaban 1071 (March-April 1661), not one line survives today.

The Text in the Source

Hüsameddin's entry Şükrü İbrâhim Çelebi-İbâdzâde in Amasya Tarihi sums up the family and the poet's life in a few paragraphs:

Tercemesi yukarıda yazılan İbadzâde es-Seyyid Şükrullah Efendi'nin li-ebin kardaşı Abdullah Çelebi bin Yahya Çelebi bin Mehmed Çelebi bin Ubeydullah Efendi'nin oğludur. Amcası mumâ-ileyh es-Seyyid Şükrullah Efendi'nin hânesinde büyüdü. Hat ve kitâbet öğrendi. Biraz tahsîl-i ilm etdi.
Amcasının vefâtında emvâline vâris ve İbadullah Câmii vakfına mütevellî oldu. Bir müddet Amasya sancağı kâtib-i divânı olup hayli nüfûz ve servet kazandı. Sonra kitâbeti terk edib kendi emlâk ve evkâfının hüsn-i idâresiyle imrâr-ı hayat ederek 1071 şâbânında vefât etdi.
Edîb, şâir, kâtib, hânedan idi. Bir gazelini "Tezkîre" sâhibi müderris Abdî Efendi kaydetmişdi. Hayfâ ki yandı. Oğulları Mehmed, Mustafa Efendiler eimmedendir. Hâfız Mustafa Efendizâde Abdullah Efendi mevâlîdendir.

Put plainly: his father Abdullah Çelebi was the paternal half-brother of İbadzâde Seyyid Şükrullah Efendi, whose life is told above; Abdullah Çelebi was the son of Yahya Çelebi, and Yahya of Mehmed Çelebi, son of Ubeydullah Efendi. He grew up in the house of his uncle, Seyyid Şükrullah Efendi. He learned calligraphy and the scribal craft and acquired some learning. When his uncle died he inherited his property and became trustee of the endowment of the İbadullah Mosque. For a while he was secretary of the divan of the sanjak of Amasya and gained considerable influence and wealth. Then he gave up the scribal profession, lived by managing his own estates and endowments well, and died in Şaban 1071. He was well read, wrote poetry, worked as a scribe and came of an old family. The madrasa teacher Abdî Efendi, author of the "Tezkire", had recorded one of his ghazals; alas, it was burned. His sons Mehmed and Mustafa Efendi were imams. Abdullah Efendi, son of Hâfız Mustafa Efendi, belongs to the mevâlî, that is, he rose to the rank of senior judge.

Life

The figure who shaped İbrâhim Çelebi's life was his uncle, Seyyid Şükrullah Efendi. Having moved from teaching to the judiciary and risen to the rank of the senior judges, Şükrullah Efendi rebuilt in 1017 (1608-09) the mosque his ancestor had founded, which had burned in 1011 (1602-03), and in 1024 (1615) endowed part of his property to it and took on its trusteeship himself. Having no children, he raised his brother's son in his own house. That İbrâhim Çelebi learned calligraphy and scribal work and did not advance far in learning seems to have turned him from his uncle's madrasa path towards the work of the pen from the start.

On his uncle's death he succeeded to his property and to the trusteeship of the İbadullah Mosque endowment. For a time he was secretary of the divan of the sanjak of Amasya, and in this post he gained considerable influence and wealth. Then he left the scribal profession and spent the rest of his life managing his estates and endowments. His death in Şaban 1071 falls right in the middle of the span covered by Abdî Efendi's tezkire, which gathered the poets of Amasya who flourished between 1000 and 1081 (1591-1671); the compiler was his contemporary and fellow townsman.

The İbâdzâde Family

The family name goes back to the ancestor who first built the mosque. In Şükrullah Efendi's entry Hüsameddin writes that the family was originally called "Ubeydullahzâde" and that among the people this turned into "İbâdullahzâde". In that entry the chain of ancestors is given as "Mehmed Çelebi bin Abdullah Efendi", while İbrâhim Çelebi's entry has "Mehmed Çelebi bin Ubeydullah Efendi". Ubeydullah and Abdullah appear to have been used for the same ancestor; Şükrullah Efendi's entry also states that the family descended from Tayyibzâde Abdullah Efendi, one of the great senior judges. Elsewhere Hüsameddin records that Yahyâ Çelebi married Rukiye Hâtun, daughter of Tennûrîzâde Zeynelâbidîn Çelebi, and that Şükrullah Efendi was born of this marriage. The phrase "li-ebin kardaş", brother by the father only, suggests that Şükrü İbrâhim's father Abdullah Çelebi was born to another wife of Yahyâ Çelebi; Hüsameddin does not name this second wife.

The later generations turned back to learning. İbrâhim Çelebi's sons Mehmed and Mustafa Efendi were imams. Mustafa Efendi's son Abdullah Efendi passed the examinations in Istanbul and became a madrasa teacher and judge. During the Iranian campaigns he became army judge in 1144 (1731-32) and molla of Baghdad in Rebiülâhir 1146 (September-October 1733), serving in the suite of the commander-in-chief Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Abdullah Paşa. Hüsameddin writes that he died in 1147, together with the pasha who fell in battle.

His Poetry

Şükrü İbrâhim Çelebi's poems have not been recovered. The only concrete trace of his verse is a ghazal recorded in Abdî Efendi's tezkire. Abdî Efendi's tezkire is lost today; some of the passages Hüsameddin quoted from it survived, but this ghazal is among those that did not. The sentence "alas, it was burned" tells us that Hüsameddin read the ghazal and noted it, but that his notes perished in a fire. Its place in the tezkire shows that the poet was known in the literary circles of Amasya in his own day, and that his verse was admired enough to enter the selection of a madrasa teacher compiling a tezkire.

Chronology

1017 (1608-09): His uncle Seyyid Şükrullah Efendi rebuilds the burned İbadullah Mosque.

1024 (1615): Şükrullah Efendi endows his property to the mosque; after his death İbrâhim Çelebi will administer the endowment.

Şaban 1071 (March-April 1661): Şükrü İbrâhim Çelebi dies.

1147 (1734-35): His grandson Abdullah Efendi dies while molla of Baghdad, in the suite of Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Abdullah Paşa.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources