Şükrullah is the author of Behcetü't-tevârîh, the earliest Persian prose work to treat the Ottoman dynasty. His name appears in nearly every study of fifteenth-century Ottoman historiography, yet what survives about his life is strikingly thin. His birth and death rest on his own statements, on late biographical dictionaries and on secondary sources that do not always agree. Most sources say he was born in Amasya; the rest of his life was spent in Bursa, in Edirne and on the roads of his embassies to the Karamanids and the Qara Qoyunlu.

His trace in Amasya consists of the nisba "Amasyevî" attached to his name and the record kept by the city's own historian. Small as it is, it is enough to identify one of the scholars Amasya gave to Ottoman learning.

Name, Ancestry and Birth

Şükrullah's father was Şehâbeddin Ahmed and his grandfather Zeynüddin Zeki. In his Persian history he introduces himself as "Şükrullah son of Şehâbeddin Ahmed son of Zeynüddin Zekî." His nisba appears in the sources as "Amasyevî" and "Rûmî"; Kâtib Çelebi gives the name in Keşfü'z-Zünûn as "Şükrullah b. Şehâb Ahmed er-Rûmî." He is also known as Ahmedoğlu Şükrullah, Mevlânâ Şükrullah, Molla Şükrullah and Şükrullah Çelebi. Franz Babinger records his full name as "Şükrullah son of Imam Şihâbeddin Ahmed son of Imam Zeynüddin Zekî."

For the year of his birth the firmest evidence is the author's own words. According to the entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Şükrullah states in his work that he was born in 790 (1388) and entered Ottoman service in 812 (1409). Ramazan Kamiloğlu bases the date on Nihal Atsız and on the age statements inside the book: at the opening of Behcetü't-tevârîh, begun in Muharram 861 (December 1456), Şükrullah says he is past seventy, and at the end he writes that he has been praying for the House of Osman since the age of twenty-two and that fifty-one years have passed since then. On Kamiloğlu's reckoning this means the book was finished in 863 (1461) when he was seventy-three, which fits a birth in 1388. Kamiloğlu's date of 1461 falls somewhat later than the 1456-1459 composition span given by the TDV and most other sources; since the age statements are round figures, the gap is not a firm contradiction. Babinger gives 1386 as the birth year. Some sources also call him a native of Shirvan, but that claim may stem from the confusion with a namesake discussed below.

The Amasya Connection

The sources that call Şükrullah a man of Amasya are numerous. Abdizâde Hüseyin Hüsameddin, the city's own historian, mentions him in the second volume of Amasya Tarihi among the scholars of Amasya and gives his epithet as "Şükrullah Çelebi of Amasya"; the same work says he was born in Amasya around 790 (1388). Bursalı Mehmed Tahir, in Osmanlı Müellifleri, calls him "Şükrullah Amasyavî" and writes that he had the honor of serving as adviser to both Murad II and Mehmed the Conqueror. Hoca Sadeddin also says he was from Amasya in Tâcü't-tevârîh, but records his father's name as Abdullah, a detail that does not agree with the other sources. Kamiloğlu points out that the nisba "Rûmî," which Kâtib Çelebi uses, also covered the region of Amasya and Tokat in that period.

According to the genealogy Hüsameddin transmits, Şükrullah descended from Sheikh Selahaddin Evran of Divriği, one of the scholars of Amasya, and the line runs back to Evran, son of Togan of the Salur tribe. The same source says that his cousin on his father's side, Yâr Ali, was also among the scholars of Amasya and was one of Şükrullah's teachers of Arabic and Persian literature. Bursalı Mehmed Tahir and Babinger likewise present Şükrullah and Yâr Ali as cousins. Atsız passes these genealogical details on but says he is not certain of them. Some researchers write that his grandfather and father came from Divriği and settled in Amasya; Zümrüt Şirinova notes that no source is given for this claim.

Kamiloğlu concludes that most sources place his birth in Amasya, and adds that Şükrullah left the city after reaching adulthood because of his scholarly travels and state duties. Amasya was thus the place where he was born and received his first education. The main part of his life passed in Bursa, Edirne and on the roads of his embassies. No tomb, endowment or building of his is known in Amasya; the sources mention no such trace.

The Confused Şükrullahs

The name Şükrullah was common in the fifteenth century, and the lives of several people became entangled. According to Atsız, Şükrullah Şirvânî, who worked on medicine, has at times been mistaken for the Şükrullah of Amasya. The work on the science of jafr titled Fütûhât fi'l-cifr is disputed for this reason: M. Orhan Bayrak counts it among the works of the Amasya author, while Atsız says it belongs to the Şükrullah of Shirvan. The Turkish Wikipedia entry likewise opens with a warning that the two names should not be confused.

The real confusion lies in the field of music. There is an author who translated Safiyyüddin Urmevî's Kitâbü'l-Edvâr into Turkish in the fifteenth century and who introduces himself as "Ahmedoğlu Şükrullah." According to Kamiloğlu, this Edvâr-ı Mûsikî was made at the command of Murad II and grew beyond a plain translation: after Urmevî's fifteen chapters, Şükrullah added some twenty more. The added chapters describe the instruments of the day, the making of strings, the rules of musical gatherings, the modes suited to the hours of the day, and the construction of nine instruments, namely the ud, ıklığ, rebab, mizmar, pişe, ceng, nüzhe, kanun and muğni, each of them illustrated. In this respect the work is regarded as the first illustrated Turkish book on music. Kamiloğlu counts this treatise among the works of the Amasya Şükrullah. The TDV entry, by contrast, says it is recorded that Şükrullah presented some musical treatises to Murad II, that he himself gives no information about this, and that there is no certain knowledge whether the two names belong to the same person.

Şirinova argues that two different people lived. According to her, in the introduction of the music treatise the author presents himself as "Ahmedoğlu Şükrullah" and says in a poem, "Benüm kadîmî yerümdür Çimişgezek" (my old homeland is Çemişgezek). In the introduction of Zehretü'l-edeb, a small Turkish versified dictionary, he calls himself the son of Ahmed, judge of Çemişgezek, and names his grandfather as Mevlânâ Zekeriyâ, judge of Isfahan. This ancestry does not match that of the historian of Amasya, son of Şehâbeddin Ahmed and grandson of Zeynüddin Zeki. Şirinova says that Şükrullah of Amasya produced works on theology, wisdom literature and history, and that no document shows he wrote on music; she notes that almost all the sources omit the music treatise from the historian's works and that only Bursalı Mehmed Tahir mentions his interest in music. From a line in the introduction of the treatise it has been thought that the work may have been dedicated to İsa Çelebi, son of Bayezid the Thunderbolt; Atsız observes that the years 1402-1405, when İsa Çelebi appeared on the political stage, fell in Şükrullah's early youth, so that writing such a book at that age would be difficult. Şirinova also finds it implausible that one person could have been a contemporary of İsa Çelebi, of Murad II and of Mehmed the Conqueror all at once.

Kamiloğlu says that the "old homeland" in the Çemişgezek line means a former homeland and may therefore point to an earlier settlement of the family. The matter has not been settled. Because the attribution of the music treatise to the historian of Amasya remains uncertain, it is not counted among his works here.

Education and Formation

The most detailed information on his education is transmitted by Kamiloğlu on the basis of Hüseyin Hüsameddin. According to this, Şükrullah took his Arabic and Persian literature lessons from Ali Yâr Çelebi, son of Mevlânâ Zeynüddin Siyavuş Çelebi, and his lessons in the principles of Islamic law and in theology from the sheikhulislam Gümüşlüzâde Mevlânâ Celâleddin Abdurrahman Çelebi. He then went to Bursa, studied under Molla Şemseddin Mehmed Fenârî and attended scholarly gatherings. This information comes from a single source and has not been confirmed by an independent record.

According to the same source, once his education was complete he took up a post at the Sultâniye Madrasa in Bursa, then became professor of hadith at the dârülhadîs in Edirne and, through the great favor of Murad II, was appointed judge of Edirne. The TDV mentions only a judgeship in Bursa; Kamiloğlu adds that after his diplomatic missions he served for a time as judge of Bursa. That he could write in Arabic, Persian and Turkish shows he was well trained in all three languages. Kamiloğlu also recalls that he included poetry in most of his works and concludes that he should be counted a good poet.

Entering Ottoman Service in the Interregnum

In 1409, at the age of twenty-two, he entered Ottoman service. The date falls in the middle of the Interregnum that followed Bayezid the Thunderbolt's defeat at Ankara (1402), when Bayezid's sons were fighting one another for the throne and the state was being rebuilt. According to the TDV, Şükrullah witnessed these political upheavals and then moved into the learned (ilmiye) profession under Murad II. Traces of this witness are visible in his book: as Ayla Demiroğlu notes in the TDV article on Behcetü't-tevârîh, the most original parts of the work are those on the reigns of Çelebi Mehmed, Murad II and Mehmed the Conqueror, which the author lived through. Kamiloğlu likewise treats the book as a first-hand source for the period of the princes after Bayezid the Thunderbolt and for the reigns of Murad II and the Conqueror.

Embassies

The best-known part of his life is his two embassies. The first was to the Karamanids. According to the TDV, after the Ottomans took Beyşehir and Akşehir in 1437, Şükrullah went in 1444 to Karamanoğlu İbrâhim Bey to conclude a peace treaty. Kamiloğlu, relying on Hüsameddin and Atsız, dates the embassy to 846 AH (1442-43) and names the counterpart as Karamanoğlu Mehmed Bey. In this account Mehmed Bey, defeated in a war with Murad II, sent Mevlânâ Hamza as envoy, and Murad II sent Şükrullah in return. The contradiction between the sources has not been resolved; the embassy belongs to the 1440s, and the date and the name of the counterpart are reported in two ways.

The second embassy was to the Qara Qoyunlu ruler Cihan Shah in 852 (1448). Cihan Shah had by then defeated their common enemy, the Aq Qoyunlu, and taken Baghdad. The TDV says the embassy probably had the purpose of congratulation and alliance. Şükrullah was well received there, and the visit bears directly on the section of his book dealing with Ottoman descent.

In the Nuruosmaniye manuscript, which appears to be the first redaction of Behcetü't-tevârîh, Şükrullah says that Ertuğrul Bey's lineage reaches Gökalp son of Oğuz, and records that this information was conveyed to him in Cihan Shah's council from a book written in Mongol script. According to Kamiloğlu, Cihan Shah said in conversation, "Sultan Murad is my brother"; when Şükrullah asked how that could be, he had a book written in Uyghur brought and read out the history of the Oghuz. By the book's account, Sultan Murad's line went back to Gök Alp, son of Oğuz Khan, and Kara Yusuf's to Deniz Alp. The linking of the Ottoman dynasty to Oghuz ancestry is thus grounded in a record heard in the council of a rival dynasty. The book in question is unknown today; the account rests on Şükrullah's own statement alone.

Kamiloğlu further writes, on the authority of Bursalı Mehmed Tahir, that on his return from the pilgrimage Şükrullah stopped in Egypt and met the scholars there, and, on the authority of Hüsameddin, that he was sent to Egypt as an envoy under the Conqueror, a mission he considers scholarly rather than political. This information rests on secondary sources and is not supported by another record.

In the Time of the Conqueror

After the death of Murad II (1451), Şükrullah remained close to the palace under Mehmed the Conqueror. According to the TDV, he was in Bursa at the beginning of Mehmed II's reign. The strongest record of his place beside the Conqueror is the circumcision feast of the princes Bayezid and Mustafa, held in Edirne in the summer of 861 (1457). The TDV regards it as an indication of his standing with the sultan that Şükrullah sat opposite Mehmed, together with Hızır Çelebi, judge of Istanbul. Kamiloğlu, relying on Atsız and Hoca Sadeddin, adds that Mevlânâ Fahreddin sat at the Conqueror's right and Mevlânâ Tûsî at his left. The same author says that Şükrullah had by then written a large part of his book and brought it to Edirne, and that Hızır Bey Çelebi and Tûsî most probably wrote the endorsements (takriz) at the head of the work at this time. This last point is an inference, not a documented fact.

Behcetü't-tevârîh

The work that carried Şükrullah into history is the Behcetü't-tevârîh, which he wrote in Persian. He began it in Muharram 861 (December 1456). He wrote it in his last years in Bursa, between 1456 and 1459, dedicated to the grand vizier Mahmud Pasha, and according to the TDV the grand vizier rewarded him with 1,000 akçe for it. The work is one of the earliest sources on the Ottoman dynasty and is regarded as the first Persian prose work to speak of the Ottomans. According to Kamiloğlu the book is a single volume, and thirteen manuscripts are known in the world, seven of them in Turkey. The TDV lists copies in Istanbul in the Nuruosmaniye, Beyazıt State, Topkapı Palace Revan Pavilion, Istanbul University and Süleymaniye libraries, and manuscripts also exist in libraries in Vienna, London, Paris, Petersburg and Munich.

The work consists of thirteen chapters (bab). The first eight form a history of Islam. The first chapter recounts the creation of the universe and of Adam, and gives the historical traditions of the Zoroastrians, the Jews, the Christians of the Byzantine and Roman churches and the Muslims, together with geographical information and such subjects as the four elements and the realm of the angelic world. The following chapters deal with peoples such as the Chinese, Turks, Rum, Indians and Abyssinians, the prophets of the Israelites, the lineage and life of the Prophet, the ten promised paradise, the Companions, the founders of the legal schools, and noted scholars and sheikhs. The tenth chapter is devoted to the Greek philosophers; the eleventh to the shahs of Iran starting with Kayumars, to non-Muslim and Muslim rulers and to the Umayyads; the twelfth to the Abbasids and Fatimids and on to the Tahirid, Buyid, Samanid, Ghaznavid and Seljuk dynasties, ending with the Mongol invasion. Şükrullah describes the descendants of Genghis Khan as a ruthless power. The last chapter, fifteen folios long, is the history of the Ottomans and closes with praise of Mehmed the Conqueror and Mahmud Pasha; the author adds that he intended to write the history of the Conqueror's reign in a separate volume.

He names his sources in part himself. In the preface the works of Beyzâvî, Taberî, İbnü'l-Cevzî and İbn Hallikân are cited, together with Mevlânâ Hasan b. Ali b. Hammâd's Kūtü'l-ervâh. In the Ottoman section he used Ahmedî's İskendernâme and the Sahîhu't-tevârîh, whose author and nature are unknown. Colin Imber draws attention to the fact that the Ottoman part of the work resembles the section Dâstân-ı Tevârîh-i Mülûk-i Âl-i Osmân in Ahmedî's work. Kamiloğlu writes that among the sources Şükrullah drew on were geographical works that have not survived, which makes the book valuable for geography as well.

In its framework of ideas the book makes a deliberate choice. According to the TDV, Şükrullah narrates the creation of the universe starting from the concept of the light of Muhammad (nûr-ı Muhammedî), taken from Ibn al-Arabi's system of thought, and brings forward the precedence and superiority of the Oghuz Turks and above all the Ottomans in the hierarchy of world rulers throughout history. He gives a more detailed Oghuz genealogy than Yazıcızâde's work and stresses that the House of Osman embraced the ideology of gaza and jihad. According to Ayla Demiroğlu, the fact that the Nuruosmaniye manuscript has twelve chapters, that Mahmud Pasha's name appears only in this copy, in the "reason for composition" section after Mehmed II, and political causes such as the Pasha's dismissal from the grand vizierate, may account for the differences of this manuscript from the others.

A 2017 study by Mesut Can and Talha Fortacı compares the information on Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Christianity in the first chapter of the work with present-day knowledge. The comparison shows that the book must be read within the limits of what a fifteenth-century Ottoman scholar could see.

According to the TDV, although Behcetü't-tevârîh is an important source, it drew the attention of hardly any historian other than Zaîm Mîr Mehmed, author of Câmiʿu't-tevârîh; according to Babinger the Ottoman section of Zaîm's work can be considered a translation of Şükrullah's. The Turkish Wikipedia entry adds that Karamanî Mehmed Pasha, Sarıca Kemal and Ruhî Çelebi also used the work as a source; this information is at the level of an encyclopedic summary and needs separate checking. The book's Turkish career begins under Süleyman the Magnificent. Mustafa Fârisî translated the work in 937 (1530-31) under the title Mahbûbü kulûbi'l-ârifîn, dedicating it to the grand vizier İbrâhim Pasha, who was later executed. According to Kamiloğlu the translation was begun on 13 September 1530 at the request of the Janissary agha Mehmed Agha and was done in a rather ornate language. Fârisî altered the opening sections somewhat and abridged some passages; in some copies the Ottoman history section is missing.

The modern editions come in the twentieth century. The Ottoman section was published with the Persian text and a German translation by Theodor Seif in 1925 in the second volume of Mitteilungen zur osmanischen Geschichte (pp. 63-128); the Munich and Vienna manuscripts were used for this edition. Nihal Atsız translated into Turkish the early part of the work and the sections on the ancient Turks and the Ottomans, publishing them in 1939 as Dokuz Boy Türkler ve Osmanlı Sultanları Tarihi, and in 1949 only the Ottoman section within Osmanlı Tarihleri. According to Demiroğlu, the first edition is superior because it rests on a comparison of the manuscripts in Istanbul libraries with Seif's edition; the extensive explanations of the Turkish tribes are not included in the 1949 edition. The whole work was prepared by Hasan Almaz as a doctoral thesis at the Ankara University Institute of Social Sciences (2004) and translated into Turkish.

Other Works

  • Câmiʿu'd-daʿavât: A book of prayers written in Bursa in 1464. According to its author it was compiled from 140 works and contains 472 prayers in twenty-two chapters. The book gives prayers to be recited in various circumstances, times and places, together with their merits. It is also recorded in the Süleymaniye Library as Kitâbü'd-Daʿavât and Edʿiye-i Meʾsûre. It is Şükrullah's last documented work.
  • Menhecü'r-reşâd: A religious and ethical work of nineteen chapters, compiled from 144 sources. Among the fifty-eight books given as sources are works of jurisprudence and fatwa such as al-Quduri's al-Mukhtasar, al-Marghinani's al-Hidaya and the Fetâvâ-yı Tatarhan, as well as Sufi works such as Suhrawardi's Awarif al-Maarif. The work begins with divine unity and the monotheist, then moves to the people of verification, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, the lesser pilgrimage, the saints and the creation of the world. According to Şirinova each chapter opens with a hadith and ends with stories. In the last chapter, reports on the appearance of the Mahdi and the Antichrist after the conquest of Istanbul are transmitted. Kamiloğlu gives 1460 as the date of composition.
  • Enîsü'l-ʿârifîn: A work that has not survived. Kâtib Çelebi mentions it as a biographical book on the scholars of the Conqueror's time; Atsız suggests it may have been a book not about scholars but about music. Şirinova writes that it covers the praise of men of learning, wisdom, friendship and loyalty; the TDV says that a book on wisdom and ethics recorded under this name in the Manisa Provincial Public Library is probably Şükrullah's work.
  • Commentary on the Kasîde-i Emâlî: A commentary on Üşî's creedal ode al-Amali. Şükrullah mentions this work in the introduction of Menhecü'r-reşâd.

According to the TDV, Şükrullah wrote his works in Persian. Kamiloğlu says that, apart from Edvâr-ı Mûsikî, his works are held in the Süleymaniye Library, that he could not make a deep study of them because they are in Persian, and that such a study should be made in the future.

Death and Family

The date of his death is uncertain. The TDV says that Şükrullah cannot have lived long after 868 (1464), when he wrote Câmiʿu'd-daʿavât, and gives his death date in the entry heading as "after 868/1464." The sources, however, diverge. According to Kamiloğlu, Hoca Sadeddin and Bursalı Mehmed Tahir write that he died in 894 (1489) and say he was buried in the Şeyh Vefâ cemetery in Istanbul. The Turkish Wikipedia entry and the Can-Fortacı article give 1488. Hüseyin Hüsameddin records 864 (1459-60); the introductory line of the TDV article on Behcetü't-tevârîh also cites that year. On the evidence available it is impossible to decide among these dates. A man born in 1388 who died in 1488-89 would have lived almost a hundred years; this makes the TDV's view of a death after 1464 look more plausible, though it is not conclusive proof.

His son Ahmed Çelebi is known. In 1483, during the struggle for the throne, Cem Sultan, who had captured Bursa, sent him to Bayezid II together with Selçuk Sultan, daughter of Mehmed II, to conclude a treaty; the TDV bases this on the introduction to Atsız's translation of Behcetü't-tevârîh. Kamiloğlu presents the Ahmed Çelebi in the delegation as Şükrullah's son and writes that Cem Sultan took Bursa in 886 (1482). According to Hüsameddin, Şükrullah had two sons: Muhyiddin Mehmed and Şemseddin Ahmed.

Legacy

Şükrullah stands on one of the first steps of Ottoman historical writing. The value of Behcetü't-tevârîh comes from its having been written by a close witness of the period stretching from the Interregnum to the early years of the Conqueror. Kamiloğlu writes that his works carried the history, culture, scholarship and music of the age into our time. The book was used by historians such as Zaîm Mîr Mehmed, translated into Turkish under Süleyman the Magnificent, and in the twentieth century became readable again through German and Turkish editions. It is also important for the story of descent: it offers an early and detailed example of how the Ottoman dynasty was linked to Oghuz ancestry.

For Amasya, Şükrullah is remembered as a man who carried the city's name as a nisba and as one of the names the city gave to Ottoman scholarly and state life; Hüsameddin included him in the city's history. Today no building or monument bearing his name is known in Amasya. No record survives of the quarter where he was born, his house or his family's place in the city.

Chronology

1388 (790): Year of birth by Şükrullah's own statement; birthplace Amasya according to Hüsameddin. Babinger gives 1386.

1409 (812): Enters Ottoman service (his own statement).

1437: The Ottomans take Beyşehir and Akşehir (TDV).

1444: According to the TDV, goes to Karamanoğlu İbrâhim Bey for a peace treaty. Kamiloğlu dates this embassy to 846 (1442-43).

1448 (852): Goes as Murad II's envoy to the Qara Qoyunlu ruler Cihan Shah.

1451: Murad II dies; Mehmed II accedes to the throne.

December 1456 (Muharram 861): Begins writing Behcetü't-tevârîh.

1457 (861): Sits opposite the Conqueror at the circumcision feast of Prince Bayezid and Prince Mustafa in Edirne.

1456-1459: Behcetü't-tevârîh is written and dedicated to Mahmud Pasha; he receives 1,000 akçe in return (TDV).

1460: According to Kamiloğlu, writes Menhecü'r-reşâd.

1464 (868): Writes Câmiʿu'd-daʿavât; the last documented date.

1483: His son Ahmed Çelebi is sent by Cem Sultan to Bayezid II as envoy for a treaty.

1530-31 (937): Behcetü't-tevârîh is translated into Turkish by Mustafa Fârisî.

1925, 1939, 1949: Seif's German edition and Atsız's Turkish editions.

2004: Hasan Almaz's doctoral thesis covering the whole work.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Abdizâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin, Amasya Tarihi, vol. II (via Kamiloğlu's article).

Academic studies

  • Sara Nur Yıldız, "Şükrullah," TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 39, TDV Center for Islamic Studies, 2010, pp. 257-258 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/sukrullah). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Ayla Demiroğlu, "Behcetü't-tevârîh," TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 5, 1992, pp. 349-350 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/behcetut-tevarih). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Zümrüt Şirinova, "Ahmedoğlu Şükrullah: Tarihçi mi, Musiki Nazariyatçısı mı?," İstanbul Üniversitesi Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Dergisi, pp. 257-267.
  • Mesut Can and Talha Fortacı, "Tarihçi Olarak Şükrullah Amasyavî ve Behcetü't-Tevârîh Adlı Eserinde Diğer Dinlere Dair Verdiği Malumatın Bir Eleştirisi," The Journal of Turk-Islam World Social Studies, 2017, pp. 315-320.

Other sources

  • Ramazan Kamiloğlu, "Amasyalı (Ahmedoğlu) Şükrullah'ın Hayatı ve Eserleri," Hikmet Yurdu, year 1, no. 2, 2008, pp. 103-110.
  • Şükrullah, Behcetü't-tevârîh (trans. Nihal Atsız, in Osmanlı Tarihleri I), Istanbul 1949, pp. 36-76.
  • Turkish Wikipedia, "Şükrullah" (tr.wikipedia.org). tr.wikipedia.org

Online sources