Tâcîzâde Câfer Çelebi was a statesman who headed the Ottoman chancery at the turn of the sixteenth century and was counted among the well-known poets of his age. He was born in Amasya, the seat of Prince Bayezid's governorship, and became chancellor (nişancı) to Bayezid II and then military judge of Anatolia (Anadolu kazaskeri) under Selim I the Grim (Yavuz Sultan Selim). In the summer of 1515 he was executed in Istanbul on the charge of having incited the Janissary revolt. He is remembered above all for the Hevesnâme, a masnavi that describes Istanbul and tells a love story. His life traces a line from the princely palace of Amasya to the imperial tent at Chaldiran, and from there back to the winter camp at Amasya; at the end of that line stands the graveyard of his own small mosque in Balat.

A Treasurer's Son

The fullest account of Câfer Çelebi's life is the entry by İsmail E. Erünsal in the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam. Erünsal names Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin's Nişancılar Durağı as the only source that gives information about the poet's family. According to this work, the poet was born in Amasya in Sha'ban 856, that is August 1452, and the Dictionary of Turkish Literary Names (TEİS) gives the same date. There is no complete agreement on the year of his birth. Some sources give 1459, and one academic study gives 868 (1463-64). The TDV date of 1452 is followed here, but the discrepancy has not been resolved by any document.

The same source traces his ancestry to the son of "Tâcî Beğ, as he is known, Hacı Beğzâde Tâceddin İbrâhim Paşa, beylerbey of Kefe". For the earlier ancestors named in the genealogy there is no information in other sources; the only figure on whom there is information and who can be trusted historically is his father, Tâcî Bey. According to Latîfî and Âşık Çelebi, Tâcî Bey was a poet, a chancery secretary (münşî) and a calligrapher. He served in Amasya as treasurer (defterdar) to Prince Bayezid and also held the post of commander (serasker) of Amasya. The entry on Câfer Çelebi in the Encyclopaedia of Islam by M. Tayyib Gökbilgin, relying on Gelibolulu Âlî, calls him "director of affairs, that is, the trusted steward of the household", and says that after Bayezid's accession he stayed on for a time, from about 1482, as treasurer or chancellor. Of Tâcî Bey's poetry only a few couplets quoted in the biographical anthologies and a single ghazal in a collection have survived. His death is given as 890 (1485) in four chronogram verses at the end of his son Sâdî Çelebi's Münşeât. Kâtib Çelebi writes that it took place in Muharram of that year when he was over fifty-four, and this calculation puts Tâcî Bey's birth in 1432-33.

Gökbilgin notes that the family was an important local one in Amasya, known as "Hacı Bey-zâde", and for this he refers to Hüseyin Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi. In the words of Âşık Çelebi, "the Tâcî Beys were a house known in Rûm for honour and standing". Câfer Çelebi is therefore called by several names: Tâcîzâde, Tâcî Beyzâde, Tâc Beyzâde, Tâc Beyoğlu, Tâcoğlu. Amasya, where Prince Bayezid served as governor for many years, was both a seat of administration and a literary milieu, and his father Tâcî Bey belonged to that milieu. An academic article (Avçın) ties Câfer Çelebi's childhood and early education to this circle: so far as the Tuhfe-i Hattâtîn reflects it, he took lessons from Şeyh Hamdullah, one of the great calligraphers of Anatolia, and his father Tâcî Bey and Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman Çelebi attended the same lessons. The study with Hamdullah does not appear in the TDV entry, but Gökbilgin too, relying on Müstakimzâde, records that the poet learned calligraphy from Şeyh Hamdullah and that some thought his skill in writing as great as his skill as a stylist.

From Amasya to Bursa

According to the TDV, Câfer Çelebi took his first lessons in Amasya from Şeyhîzâde Abdi, Muîdzâde Muhyiddin Mehmed and Horasânîzâde Seyyid Abdullah Çelebi. For further study he went to Bursa and, as Taşköprizâde reports, attended the lectures of Hacıhasanzâde, Kastallânî Hatibzâde Muhyiddin Efendi and Hocazâde. He received his mülâzemet, the first step into the scholarly-judicial career, from Hacıhasanzâde.

Gökbilgin gives a different list of teachers: Hocazâde Muslihiddin (d. 1488), Hatibzâde Muhyiddin (d. 1496), the military judge Kestelî Muslihiddin Mustafa (d. 1496) and "above all" the military judge Hacı Hüseyinzâde Muhyiddin Mehmed Câmî (d. 1505). He writes that he received his mülâzemet from this last. The difference between the two accounts lies in the name of the teacher who granted the mülâzemet. The Hacıhasanzâde of the TDV, which rests on Taşköprizâde, may be taken as the basis; whether the two names refer to the same person or to different teachers, however, has not been verified. It is thought that his brother Sâdî Çelebi also studied in Bursa with teachers such as Kadızâde Kāsım and Hacıhasanzâde, so the two brothers' years of study in that city must have run close together.

Simav, Edirne and Istanbul

His first post was a madrasa in Simav; afterwards he served as judge (kadı) there. According to Mecdî's Şekâik Tercümesi he had a mosque built in Simav; the TDV adds that among these buildings it counts a mosque and a bath. An academic article (Avçın, relying on Atay) relates that during his time in Simav Câfer Çelebi was thrown into the Yedikule dungeon because of a document of allegiance that he was supposed to have sent to Prince Cem, and that after a year and a half he was released through a qasida he wrote and the insistence of notables of Amasya. This story appears neither in the TDV entry nor in Gökbilgin; it is reported at second hand in a single study. It can be mentioned as hearsay, but it cannot be counted as a verified event.

According to records in an endowment register, between October 1489 and March 1492 he served as administrator (mütevelli) of the Bayezid II Imaret endowment in Edirne. The TDV says he probably built the primary school (sıbyan mektebi) in Edirne during this post. In 899 (1493-94) he was appointed to the Mahmud Çelebi Madrasa in Istanbul. Gökbilgin gives the name of the madrasa as the Mahmud Pasha Madrasa and mentions a daily salary of 50 akçe. The same academic study maintains that the appointment came about through the efforts of Çandarlı İbrahim Pasha. In these years his brother Sâdî Çelebi was a professor at the Gazi Murad Madrasa in Bursa, and the two brothers exchanged private letters complaining of separation; those found in Sâdî's collection, mostly lamenting the pain of parting, are written in a sincere and feeling tone.

Hevesnâme

The work for which Câfer Çelebi is best known today is his masnavi Hevesnâme, written in 899 (1494). The TDV derives the date from the abjad value of the phrase "mahabbetnâme-i Ca'fer" in the poet's own words. The Dictionary of Turkish Literary Names, on the other hand, writes that the work was completed in 899/1493 and presented to Bayezid II. This difference of a year circulates as both 1493 and 1494. The work is written in the aruz metre "mefâîlün mefâîlün feûlün". The number of couplets varies with the source: the TDV says 3750, while the Dictionary of Turkish Literary Names and Avçın's study say 3810. At a time when Turkish poets generally took their subjects and inspiration from Iranian literature and translated works were widespread, it told a love story drawn from local life, and for that reason almost all the anthologists, among them Sehî, Latîfî, Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde, found it important. It is counted among the earliest examples of the sergüzeşt (adventure) genre in divan literature.

The masnavi, as every masnavi does, follows its opening tawhid, naat and munajat with three sections. The first is devoted to Istanbul and ranges from the natural beauty of the city to its districts and its important buildings. Galata, the Imperial Palace, the mosques of Hagia Sophia and of the Conqueror, the Sahn-ı Seman madrasas, baths and pavilions, hospitals and soup kitchens, the tomb of Mehmed the Conqueror, how the grave of Eyyûb el-Ensârî was found, Kâğıthane, Eyüp and Yedikule appear in this section. The TDV writes that the section stands closer to the imaginary atmosphere of poetry than to facts, but that it was regarded as important and original because it gave, for the first time, information about a city as a whole. According to Avçın these descriptions lie between couplets 104 and 417, and the buildings are drawn so realistically that they could serve as a source for an art historian's study of old Istanbul.

The second section is the prelude to the main subject and opens with the "Hasbihâl". Here the poet tells anecdotes from his own life: how he spent time with his friends, how he studied in the madrasa from the time he came to Istanbul, how he attended the gatherings of men of letters. He then recounts a poetic conversation in which he explains for what purpose the work was written, and accuses the poets of his day of an infatuation with Iranian literature and of imitation. His words about Şeyhî and Ahmed Paşa of Bursa are harsh: "Those who have renown in the Turkish tongue / One is Şeyhî, one Ahmed, my friend // They are not capable of fresh invention / In truth these two are not poets." In his view Ahmed Paşa is a poet lacking in eloquence and scattered in his ideas, while Şeyhî is a wordsmith who ignores the rules of purity of speech, uses strange words and is a translator and imitator. The importance of the Hevesnâme comes from the effort to keep away from the faults he criticizes, that is, from its claim to be local and original. When his friends pressed him and he was thinking of a work for them to read, he looked for a subject that had never been treated, and in the end decided to tell a love affair from his own life. He explains the title himself in a couplet: "Having laid its foundation with heves, desire / I named it Hevesnâme as well."

The third section is the real subject of the book. First love and the states of love are discussed; then come the description of a spring day at Kâğıthane, the first sight of the beloved, falling in love with her, the suffering endured, the meetings and the exchange of letters. The narration at times takes on an erotic tone, and ghazals are scattered between the couplets of the masnavi to give the subject life. In the story the poet describes a relationship with a married woman; Âlî reports this as an event that really took place and speaks of the poet's fondness for women. In various places in the work, subjects such as the formation of the wind, the rising, setting and changing of the moon, the coming of night and day, rain, hail and the rainbow are examined from a scientific and philosophical angle in the form of questions and answers. The elements of the beloved's beauty in divan poetry are also described one by one in order: stature, hair, eyebrow, lock, cheek, mouth, lip, breast and foot. The poet says he finished the work in two months and dedicates the book not to a shah or a vizier but to "fairy-faced beauties": "I wrote it in the name of neither shah nor vizier / I wrote it in memory of fairy-faced ones."

The claim of the book is also striking: "It is mine, first to last, little or much / There is not a single grain of anyone else's in it." Local in its subject, setting, characters and descriptions, the work has been regarded, in the words of the TDV, as "entirely original in arrangement, style and verse technique". After it was written it was read for a long time in the gatherings of poetry and conversation in which the poet took part, and some passages were changed at the suggestion of those who read it. Not everyone is equally full of praise. Gelibolulu Âlî does not like the work and calls it "nazm-ı bî-nemek", that is, verse without salt; Âşık Çelebi says there is no element of love in Câfer Çelebi's poems and points, as evidence, to an argument between the poet and Selim on this subject. The Hevesnâme survives in manuscripts in the Nuruosmaniye Library, the Turkish Language Association Library, the Istanbul University Library and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Its modern edition, prepared by Necati Sungur as a doctoral study, was published in Ankara in 2006; separate academic studies have also been made on the Hevesnâme's self-descriptive sections and on its claim to originality.

The Divan Chancery and the Office of Nişancı

In 903 (1497) Câfer Çelebi became chancellor of the Imperial Council (Dîvân-ı Hümâyun). Gökbilgin gives the date of the appointment as 904 (1498/99). According to the TDV, whereas his predecessors had stood below the treasurers, he received a rank above the treasurer. In this connection Gökbilgin writes that he was given the title of pasha, took his place on the right-hand side at ceremonies and was allowed on campaign to pitch a tent as the viziers did; Âşık Çelebi too calls him "Nişancı Paşa".

The nişancı is the person who draws the sultan's tuğra and conducts the correspondence of the council. In this office Câfer Çelebi was an innovator. According to the entries in a gratuities register (İn'âmât Defteri) of the reign of Bayezid II, he broke new ground in council secretaryship, reformed the tuğrâî and dîvânî scripts, and the siyâkat script developed under his pen. He is also regarded as the initiator of ornate prose: he preferred an elevated manner of speech, adorned with Arabic and Persian words, to plain expression. In this period his name is hardly linked with any major event; his activities can be followed largely through the sultan's gift records.

He took part in the Modon and Koron campaign of April-August 1500. The conquest of Modon is described in detail in a qasida in his divan; he also wrote the letter of victory (fetihname) sent from Modon to Bursa (August 1500). Gökbilgin further notes that the victory letters on Modon, Koron and Lepanto were from his pen.

According to the Gratuities Register, Bayezid II bestowed favours on him on various occasions. On 5 October 1503 he received a gift for a qasida he presented; on 13 December 1503 he was rewarded for a letter written to be sent to the sultan of Egypt; two further gifts, for reasons not stated, were recorded in January and December 1504; on 10 June 1505 he received 10,000 akçe for a qasida he presented. In later years he was also rewarded for two qasidas, two letters to the sultan of Egypt, the circumcision ceremony of his son and the condolence he offered at the death of Prince Mahmud. His pen can also be seen in the land registers: marginal notes in his own hand record the conveyance of the Hasan Fakih Farm to Dâvud Pasha in September 1504, the villages Bayezid II gave to his daughter Şah Sultan in September 1491, and the conveyance of the village of Keşenlü near Edirne to Hânî Hatun, daughter of Prince Mustafa, in December 1506.

At Prince Ahmed's Side

Toward the end of Bayezid II's reign, in the struggle among the princes, Câfer Çelebi supported Prince Ahmed. In his divan there is a qasida that addresses Ahmed as "heir to the realm", and in it he expresses the hope that he would be the future sultan.

The choice cost him dearly. When Bayezid was considering leaving the throne to Ahmed, the Janissaries who backed Prince Selim attacked and plundered the houses of high officials who supported Ahmed on 21 September 1511. According to Hoca Sâdeddin, Câfer Çelebi saved his life with difficulty. At the Janissaries' demand Bayezid dismissed the chancellor Câfer Çelebi, Grand Vizier Hersekzâde Ahmed Pasha, Beylerbey of Rumelia Hasan Pasha and Military Judge Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman Çelebi, and appointed Çandarlızâde Îsâ Çelebi as chancellor. According to Taşköprizâde, Bayezid offered him a retirement pension of 100 akçe a day, but he declined it; Gökbilgin, relying on Âlî, gives the figure as 200 akçe.

On 24 April 1512 Bayezid II abdicated in favour of his son Selim. Câfer Çelebi presented a Persian qasida to congratulate Selim on his accession. Bayezid set out for Demotika, his birthplace, but died suddenly on 21 May 1512 in the village of Abalar near Çorlu. In the elegy Câfer Çelebi wrote on this occasion, he laments the grief the former sultan felt at leaving the throne and the painful state in which he found himself. The TDV points to one detail: the prayer for the new sultan, customary in qasidas of this kind, is absent at the end of the elegy.

The Years of Waiting

How long Câfer Çelebi waited for a new official post after his dismissal is not known exactly. According to the Gratuities Register the date of appointment of Îsâ Çelebi, who was put in his place, is 28 October 1511; a document of August 1513 shows that he was still in the post. The first reference to Câfer Çelebi as chancellor comes in early December 1513. From this the TDV concludes that the poet held no official post between 22 September 1511 and December 1513. It is likely that in this period he complained of his situation in a qasida addressed to Selim the Grim and asked for a post.

Gökbilgin draws a different picture: after Selim took the throne, to please Câfer Çelebi he first added the judgeships of some towns around Istanbul to his appointment and then restored him to the chancellorship. That the sources are unclear about this period explains the difference between the two accounts. Here the TDV's document-based sequence is preferred.

The Chaldiran Campaign

Once he was chancellor again, Câfer Çelebi was at the side of Selim the Grim when the latter set out on the Chaldiran campaign on 20 March 1514. Âşık Çelebi relates that he took part in the campaign together with the historian İdrîs-i Bitlisî and the sultan's tutor Halîmî Çelebi and that he conversed with Selim. While the army was at İzmit, on 23 April 1514, he prepared a Persian letter to be sent to Shah Ismail. During the campaign he wrote two more letters to the shah; these are in Turkish, the first written at Erzincan in July 1514 and the second a month later at Çermük. Gökbilgin writes that the victory letters sent in all directions after the victory at Chaldiran also came from his pen.

When Shah Ismail was routed on 23 August 1514 and fled, leaving behind his treasury and his wife Taclu Hanım, according to the TDV Selim gave Taclu Hanım to Câfer Çelebi. Gökbilgin, for his part, writes that with the permission of the ulema and the sultan, Taçlı Hanım was married to him. In the bibliography of the TDV this episode appears as the subject of Roger Savory's article "Tâjlû Khânum: Was She Captured by the Ottomans at the Battle of Châldirân, or not?"; that is, the details and the reality of the event are a matter of academic debate, and no firm judgment is offered here.

On the army's return, changes were made among the leading men of state on the plain of Pasinler: Treasurer Pîrî Çelebi was given the vizierate, the Military Judge of Anatolia Zeyrekzâde Rükneddin moved to the military judgeship of Rumelia, and Câfer Çelebi took his place as Military Judge of Anatolia. The TDV links this appointment to the return from the campaign; Gökbilgin gives 23 Sha'ban 920 (13 October 1514).

Winter in Amasya and the Janissary Revolt

On 16 Shawwal 920 (4 December 1514) the sultan returned to Amasya and wished to spend the winter there in order to continue the campaign the following year. According to Gökbilgin, the army had not wintered in Karabağ, contrary to the sultan's wish. For Câfer Çelebi, Amasya was, besides being the city of his birth, also the stage of the last act of his life.

In February 1515 the Janissaries rose in revolt at the instigation of certain viziers, demanding a return to Istanbul. According to the TDV, on 8 Muharram 921 (22 February 1515), and according to Gökbilgin on 28 Muharram 921, the Janissaries attacked the houses of Pîrî Mehmed Pasha, Halîmî Çelebi and Câfer Çelebi; the TDV writes that the houses were burned, Gökbilgin that they were plundered and some of the men killed. According to Gökbilgin, the Janissaries had first applied to the Janissary agha İskender Agha and then to Câfer and Halîmî Çelebi, and had received advice not to object to the sultan's orders; this information rests on Hüseyin Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi. The source of the anger was the granting of the vizierate to Pîrî Mehmed Pasha: in the time of Bayezid it had been announced by a decree that the vizierate was reserved solely for palace-trained devshirme men, and the Janissaries found this appointment contrary to procedure and custom.

Selim had Dukakinzâde Ahmed Pasha executed ten days later on the charge of being responsible for the incident. Gökbilgin cites a source stating that Dukakinzâde's secret correspondence with Alâüddevle of the Dulkadirids also played a part in his execution. Câfer Çelebi survived this episode, but the real reckoning was to come after the sultan's return to Istanbul.

The Reckoning in Istanbul and the Execution

Selim the Grim returned to Istanbul on 11 July 1515. When he looked into who had incited the Janissaries, according to the TDV he learned that those responsible were Vizier İskender Pasha, Military Judge Câfer Çelebi and Sekbanbaşı Balyemez Osman Agha. İskender Pasha and Osman Agha were killed at once. Câfer Çelebi was summoned before the sultan, questioned and executed on 18 August 1515 (8 Rajab 921).

Gökbilgin tells this reckoning in more detail and reports two separate accounts. According to the version on which the historical sources agree, the chamberlain of the Porte Ahmed Agha (Hain Ahmed Pasha), to save himself and at the same time to win the sultan's favour, slandered Tâcîzâde together with İskender Pasha and Balyemez Osman Agha, and brought forward several Janissaries as witnesses. Selim had İskender Pasha and the sekbanbaşı executed at once, and Câfer Çelebi after putting this question to him: "What is the punishment of the man who incites the army of Islam to revolt." Câfer Çelebi's answer was "If it is proved, he is a murderer." In Gökbilgin's phrase, he thus condemned this great man of learning and state of his age with his own words. The text of the exchange comes in this form from Gökbilgin's entry and is given here as he reports it.

Gökbilgin also records that Âlî gives another reason and notes that it is a weaker rumour, to be received with caution. According to this account, said to be transmitted from the chancellor Celâlzâde, a satire written on Selim's encounter with his father near Çorlu while he was still a prince, and on his flight with his army, was later attributed to Câfer Çelebi by certain malicious persons; for this reason his presence in the sultan's council was held to be unbecoming to "the honour of the state". Gökbilgin says that when the statements of Âşık Çelebi, Âlî and Sâdeddin are compared, a measure of truth is found in both accounts. An academic study (Avçın, relying on Atay) also reports the rumour that he caused Pîrî Pasha to be killed needlessly. There is thus no single firm verdict on the cause of the execution: in most sources the incitement of the Janissary revolt stands out, in some a satire, in others different accusations. The anthologies also relate certain anecdotes to the effect that the poet had been told of his martyrdom beforehand; these remain at the level of stories.

Selim's later remorse is on record. The TDV writes that the anthologies relate that Selim felt great regret for having executed Câfer Çelebi unjustly. Gökbilgin reports that a few days later, on 25 August 1515, when some houses and shops belonging to the Atik Ali Pasha endowments burned near Çenberlitaş, the sultan, meeting Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha at the site of the fire, said: "These burnings are the sparks of the fire of Cafer Çelebi's innocent sigh." It is also told that Selim said at every opportunity that at his accession there had been two men in the state, one the then aged Müeyyedzâde and the other Câfer Çelebi, who fell victim to his wrath. Gökbilgin notes that these words too are hearsay.

The anthologies give the line "Vah gitti bu cihandan Ca'fer" ("Alas, Câfer has gone from this world") as the date of the execution; by abjad reckoning this line corresponds to 920. Yet all the sources give the date of the execution as 8 Rajab 921 (18 August 1515), and the TDV notes that this shows the chronogram line to be a year off.

His Grave and His Brother Sâdî Çelebi

Câfer Çelebi's body was buried by his brother Sâdî Çelebi in the graveyard of his mosque in Balat, Istanbul. The mosque is the building that the TDV places on the slopes of Fener; Avçın writes that it is known as the "Nişancı Mescidi". A gravestone believed to belong to Câfer Çelebi stands in the garden of the Museum of Turkish Building and Art. Semavi Eyice published an article on the mosque entitled "Tâcîzâde Tevkii Câfer Çelebi Camii" (TKA, XXXIV, 1998).

His brother Sâdî Çelebi was also born in Amasya and died a year after his elder brother, in 922 (1516). He was a professor at the Gazi Murad Madrasa in Bursa, then moved to Istanbul and taught at one of the Sahn-ı Seman madrasas. He wrote mostly Arabic poetry; the anthologists rate these poems above his brother's Arabic poems, and Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi says that he surpassed Câfer Çelebi in chancery prose as well. Shortly after Câfer Çelebi's death, when a letter had to be written to the Mamluk sultan Qansuh al-Ghawri, he was summoned to the palace; since the letter was greatly admired, Selim the Grim granted him 30,000 akçe and raised his daily pay by 30 akçe. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin records in the Amasya Târihi (I, 13) that Sâdî Çelebi wrote a work called Hayrü'l-ahlâm describing the beauties of Amasya. Sâdî was buried in the garden of the primary school he had built in Balat.

His Works

According to the lists of the TDV and the Dictionary of Turkish Literary Names, Câfer Çelebi's works are as follows:

  • Divan: A critical text based on the eight surviving manuscripts was published by İsmail E. Erünsal (1983). This edition contains twenty-eight qasidas, one musaddas, 255 ghazals, eight murabbas, three tercî-i bends, ten qit'as, together with four Arabic qasidas, one Arabic mustazad, one Arabic ghazal, two Persian qasidas, one Persian tahmîs, two Persian ghazals and one Persian murabba. Gökbilgin says the divan contains 3382 couplets. The TDV states that the poet's verse technique is strong and his use of language good, but that he did not reach a sufficient level in imagination and the expression of feeling. A doctoral thesis and four master's theses have been prepared on the divan.
  • Hevesnâme: The masnavi described above.
  • Mahrûse-i İstanbul Fetihnâmesi (The Conquest of Istanbul): A highly artful example of prose on the conquest of Istanbul, adorned with verses of the Qur'an and hadith and with couplets in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. The TDV says the work can be regarded as one of the most perfect examples of sixteenth-century Ottoman prose, but that the intricacy of its language has stood in the way of understanding its value as a historical source. Sadettin Nüzhet Ergun describes it as a work of literature rather than of history, and V. L. Menage calls it "a little more than a literary exercise". Nevertheless, a comparison of the information in the work with that of other historians of the period shows it to be reliable in some respects: part of what Câfer Çelebi records appears sounder than the accounts of Tursun Bey, Neşrî, Âşıkpaşazâde, Rûhî Çelebi and Enverî. The war council held before the siege and the Conqueror's speech there are given in more detail in Câfer Çelebi; the chain that closed the entrance of the Golden Horn is described more beautifully; and the number of ships hauled overland from Galata and lowered into the Golden Horn is given as "between forty and fifty", while Tursun Bey mentions them only as "a few ships and boats". On the help that reached Byzantium from outside during the siege he also gives particular information, writing that four large ships loaded with munitions, troops and supplies came to the aid of the Byzantines. From a passage in the work it is clear that Câfer Çelebi drew on eyewitness statements as well as written sources. The Fetihnâme must have been completed some time after the Hevesnâme, because the sections and couplets of the Hevesnâme on Hagia Sophia are repeated in it. The chancellor Celâlzâde Mustafa Çelebi gave the whole text in his work Meâsîr-i Selim Han. The work was published in 1331 (1912-13) as a supplement to the Journal of the Ottoman Historical Society; Şeref Kayaboğazı's text in simple transcription appeared in 1953, and a study by A. Çağrı Başkurt and Kaan Doğan was issued by Libra Kitap in 2020.
  • Münşeât: According to the TDV, it is not known today as an independent work. Hâlis Efendi said that a copy was in his private library, but Sadettin Nüzhet Ergun could not find it in the Istanbul University Library. In the collection attributed to him under the title İnşâ-i Tâcîzâde, only the first three letters and one other letter are his; the title of the book was most probably given by someone who had not read the letters beyond the first three. The heading "Hâzâ inşâ behatt-ı Tâcî merhum" of another collection attributed to him in the Mevlâna Museum Manuscripts Catalogue is also misleading, since some letters in it belong to a much later period, the age of Süleyman the Magnificent. It has been established that six of the letters found in chancery collections and historical works are certainly his.
  • Translation of the Enîsü'l-ʿârifîn: A Turkish translation of the Persian work on ethics by Mevlânâ Şükrullah.
  • Kûsnâme: A humorous work mentioned in the sources; no copy has been found. The Dictionary of Turkish Literary Names notes that a masnavi of 93 couplets titled "Nâme-i Tâcîzâde Ca'fer Çelebi", identified in a collection, may be the same work.

The TDV also lists the buildings Câfer Çelebi had built: the mosque in Balat, a mosque and a bath in Simav, a caravanserai in Bergama and a primary school in Edirne. Gökbilgin, for his part, writes that he had a mosque and a madrasa in Istanbul, a mosque in Bursa and a mosque in Simav.

His Literary Character

According to the TDV, the influence of Ahmed Paşa of Bursa can be seen in Câfer Çelebi's poetry; in his divan he wrote nazires, poems in answer, most often to him. He was also influenced by Necâtî and Şeyhî. This stands in interesting contrast to his sharp criticism of Ahmed Paşa and Şeyhî in the Hevesnâme. His verse and prose carry the linguistic and stylistic features of the fifteenth century, though with certain differences. In a period in which plain expression and the Turkish language generally predominated, with Arabic and Persian words also present, he is seen as the writer who began the ornate prose and who chose a loftier manner of speech in place of plain expression. In his poems Turkish words stand side by side with Arabic and Persian words and Persian compounds. The poet, who says that a "fluent tongue" was given to him, adorns plain Turkish expressions with proverbs and idioms when he uses them; he is regarded as skilled in the figures of rhetoric as well as in wordplay.

Among those who wrote nazires to him are counted Basîrî, Nihâlî, Mesîhî, Revânî, İshak Çelebi, Kemalpaşazâde, Zâtî and Amrî. The number of nazires written to him in Nazmî of Edirne's Mecmau'n-nezâir is 146; in the same anthology 84 of his poems appear, in Eğridirli Hacı Kemâl's Câmiu'n-nezâir 14, and in the Pervâne Bey Mecmûası 99. According to the Dictionary of Turkish Literary Names, poets of his age and of the following century wrote hundreds of nazires for some twenty of his poems in the nazire anthologies; Şem'î of Prizren also includes a poem in his divan praising him. This is a sign of his fame and influence in poetry.

The anthologists generally prefer his prose to his verse, his qasidas to his ghazals, and his Persian chancery prose to his Turkish. Sehî finds his poetry graceful; Latîfî rates his verse as equal to Hassân and his prose to Sahbân. Gelibolulu Âlî says "a dignitary whose name outweighs his person", that is, his fame is greater than his own ability. Gökbilgin also reports that Müeyyedzâde, disliking Câfer Çelebi's Persian, said "Tâcîzâde's Persian is a grape-Persian." It is also noted that his brother Sâdî Çelebi is regarded as stronger than his elder brother in art; even so, it is constantly repeated that, with his Persian ghazals and Arabic qasidas, Câfer Çelebi was a valued figure who held the highest position among the chancery masters of his day.

His Trace in Amasya

Câfer Çelebi's tie to Amasya is not limited to his birth, his family and his education. His father was part of Prince Bayezid's administration in Amasya, his brother wrote a work on the city, and he himself spent the last winter of his life in the sultan's winter camp at Amasya, where his house was attacked. Hüseyin Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi records both his family and these last events; the bibliography of the TDV entry also refers to pages 275-277 of volume III of the Amasya Târihi.

Nevertheless, no information has been found in the sources used here that a monument, building, tomb or street bearing his name exists in present-day Amasya. The places where his works and his grave are found are Istanbul, Simav, Bergama and Edirne. Nothing unknown has been invented; the gap has been left as it is.

Chronology

1452 (August): Birth in Amasya (TDV; the dates 1459 and 1463-64 also appear in other sources).

1485: Death of his father Tâcî Bey.

1489-1492: Administrator of the Bayezid II Imaret endowment in Edirne.

1493-94: Appointed to the Mahmud Çelebi Madrasa in Istanbul; writing of the Hevesnâme.

1497: Appointed chancellor of the Imperial Council (Gökbilgin: 1498/99).

1500 (April-August): Modon and Koron campaign; writing of the letter of victory.

1511 (21 September): Janissary attack; dismissal.

1512 (24 April): Abdication of Bayezid II; Persian qasida to Selim.

1513 (December): Mentioned again as chancellor.

1514 (20 March): Departure on the Chaldiran campaign.

1514 (23 August): Rout of Shah Ismail.

1514 (autumn): Appointed Military Judge of Anatolia.

1514 (4 December): The sultan's return to Amasya.

1515 (22 February): Janissary revolt in Amasya; his house burned (TDV; Gökbilgin: plundered).

1515 (11 July): Selim's return to Istanbul.

1515 (18 August): Execution; burial in the graveyard of his mosque in Balat.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • İsmail E. Erünsal, The Life and Works of Tâcî-zâde Ca'fer Çelebi, with a Critical Edition of His Dîvân, Istanbul 1983.
  • Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar, Amasya Tarihi and Nişancılar Durağı (through references in the TDV and Gökbilgin entries). wiki.gokbilgin.com

Academic studies

  • İsmail E. Erünsal, "Tâcîzâde Câfer Çelebi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 39, Istanbul 2010 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • İsmail E. Erünsal, "Hevesnâme", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 17, Istanbul 1998 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • İsmail E. Erünsal, "Tâcîzâde Sâdî Çelebi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Mehmet Avçın, "Tâcîzâde Cafer Çelebi'nin Heves-nâme'sinde İstanbul Tasvirleri", Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, 8/39 (2015).

Other sources

  • M. Tayyib Gökbilgin, "Câfer Çelebi", İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. III (online transcription of the Gökbilgin Library).
  • "CA'FER, Tâcî-zâde Ca'fer Çelebi", Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (teis.yesevi.edu.tr). teis.yesevi.edu.tr
  • Necati Sungur, Hevesnâme edition, Ankara 2006 (through references in the TDV and the Dictionary of Turkish Literary Names).