Zahîrî Mehmed Efendi owed his nickname, "Musâhib Çelebi", to the charm of his conversation, which had made him one of Şehzade Mustafa's boon companions at Amasya; he was a scribe skilled in the ta'lik hand, a poet, a teller of tales and a wit. When the prince was put to death in 960 (1553), the inquiry that followed accused Zahîrî of having incited him to rebellion, and he was put to death. His father was Gıyâseddîn Mansûr Şîrâzî, who lived in the Üçler quarter of Amasya and was killed. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar states plainly that Zahîrî's death was unjust. None of Zahîrî's poems have been found.

Hüsameddin's Entry

This is the entry that closes Hüsameddin's section for the letter "zâ". The heading gives first his name, then his pen name: "Zahîrüddîn Mehmed Efendi-Zahîrî". The pen name is derived from the honorific "Zahîrüddîn" in his name.

Amasya'da Üçler Mahallesi'nde mukîm iken maktûlen vefât eden Gıyâseddîn Mansûr Şîrâzî oğludur. Amasya'da hattât-ı meşhûr Ebû'l-Fazl A'rec Efendi'den her türlü yazıları ve ulemâdan edebiyât-ı Arabiyye ve Farisiyye'yi öğrendi. Ta'lik yazıda mâhir olduğundan Şehzâde Sultân Mustafa Amasya vâlisi olarak geldikde ikbâl ve teveccüh gördü. Hoş sohbet, ifâdesi tatlı olduğundan müşârün-ileyhin nüdemâsından oldu. "Musâhib Çelebi" demekle iştihâr etdi. Ancak 960 senesi şevvâlinde şehzâdenin şehâdeti üzerine açılan teftîş esnâsında şehzâdeyi kıyâma tahrîk cürmü isnâdıyla yok yere maktûlen ve mağduren vefât etdi. Kâtib, şâir, kıssa-hân, nekre söyler bir adamdı. Birâderi Gıyâs Çelebi'dir.

Rendered in English: the son of Gıyâseddin Mansur Şîrâzî, who was killed while living in the Üçler quarter of Amasya. In Amasya he learned all the scripts from the famous calligrapher Ebü'l-Fazl A'rec Efendi and Arabic and Persian literature from the scholars. Being a master of the ta'lik hand, he won favour and attention when Şehzade Sultan Mustafa came to Amasya as governor. As he was good company and sweet of speech, he became one of the prince's boon companions and was widely known as "Musâhib Çelebi". But in Şevval 960, during the inquiry opened after the prince's martyrdom, he was charged with the crime of having urged the prince to revolt and was killed for nothing, an innocent victim. He was a scribe, a poet, a teller of stories and a man of jests. His brother was Gıyâs Çelebi.

A "kıssa-hân" is one who tells stories at gatherings; "nekre" means a joke or a fine witticism. The qualities Hüsameddin chooses show a companion who had won his place at the prince's gatherings through his talk.

His Father, Mîr Gıyâseddîn

Hüsameddin does not explain in the entry who the father was, but in volume 3 of the same work he gives a long account of a Shirazi who settled in the Üçler quarter and was eventually put to death. Mîr Gıyâseddîn Mehmed bin Mansûr-ı Şîrâzî took refuge in Amasya in 908 (1502-03), claiming to have fled the sword of Shah Ismail to keep his Sunni faith, and joined the companions of Şehzade Ahmed, the governor of Amasya. Drawing on Münîrî, Hüsameddin describes him as hard to please, somewhat learned, very talkative and adept at humouring people; on his arrival he was received with great respect and given the grand mansion of Bâlî Bey in the Üçler quarter. Hüsameddin places him at the head of the Shiite sympathisers in the city.

After Selim I came to the throne an inquiry was sent to Amasya, and in 919 (1513) a decree followed by which Mîr Gıyâs was thrown into the dungeon of the Amasya citadel and his steward Koca Halil was hanged. In 920 (1514), when Selim came to Amasya on his return from Chaldiran, he sought the protection of Selim's tutor Halîmî Çelebi and was pardoned through his intercession. According to Hüsameddin, "Koca Mîr Gıyâseddîn Şîrâzî", who for fifteen years had lived in Amasya with great influence, was executed on 10 Muharrem 923 (February 1517) together with his servant İbrâhim and many of his Shiite followers.

The name appears as "Gıyâseddîn Mansûr Şîrâzî" in Zahîrî's entry and as "Mîr Gıyâseddîn Mehmed bin Mansûr-ı Şîrâzî" in volume 3, which is a discrepancy; yet residence in the Üçler quarter, the Shirazi origin and a violent death coincide on three points at once. Zahîrî's father was very probably this Mîr Gıyâseddîn. Hüsameddin, however, never sets the two records side by side; the link is our own reading. If it is right, Zahîrî was born before 1517, entered the circle of another prince more than twenty years after his father's execution, and was himself killed after that prince's death. His brother Gıyâs Çelebi bore their father's honorific.

His Teacher and the Circle of Şehzade Mustafa

Zahîrî's writing master, Ebü'l-Fazl Mehmed Çelebi, was a famous calligrapher known by the nickname "A'rec", the lame. A pupil of Şeyh Hamdullah, he had taught calligraphy to Şehzade Ahmed and went on teaching the art in Amasya until his death early in 941 (1534). Zahîrî's having studied with him shows that his training began before 1534, at least seven years before Şehzade Mustafa came to Amasya.

When Şehzade Mustafa's governorship of Amasya began in 948 (1541), poets gathered around him; his divan secretary Zârî Mehmed Çelebi was one of them. Zahîrî entered this circle through his mastery of ta'lik and became the prince's companion through his conversation. Zahîrî is missing from the list of the prince's companions in volume 3; his own entry is the only record that ties him to this circle.

The prince's life ended in Şevval 960 (October 1553) at the army camp outside Ereğli in Konya. The inquiry Hüsameddin calls "teftîş" was aimed at his circle in Amasya, but it did not fall on everyone with the same weight: the judge Tayyibzâde Tayyib Efendi was pardoned after a short spell out of favour, while Zahîrî was killed. Hüsameddin's words "for nothing" and "an innocent victim" show clearly that he considered the charge baseless. Whether the execution of his father on a charge of Shiism played any part in Zahîrî's fate is not recorded in the sources.

His Poetry

No poem by Zahîrî has come down to us. In the last sentence of the entry the word "poet" stands in the same row as scribe and storyteller; not one couplet of his is quoted. No entry under this pen name was found in the searched texts of the biographical dictionaries of Latîfî, Âşık Çelebi, Kınalızâde, Beyânî and Sehî. His name does not appear among the authors of the elegies written on the death of Şehzade Mustafa either.

Chronology

908 (1502-03): Mîr Gıyâseddîn Şîrâzî takes refuge in Amasya and becomes a companion of Şehzade Ahmed.

919 (1513): Mîr Gıyâs is imprisoned in the Amasya citadel.

10 Muharrem 923 (February 1517): Mîr Gıyâseddîn Şîrâzî is executed in Amasya.

941 (1534): Zahîrî's teacher Ebü'l-Fazl A'rec dies.

948 (1541): Şehzade Mustafa becomes governor of Amasya; Zahîrî joins his companions.

Şevval 960 (October 1553): Şehzade Mustafa is killed; Zahîrî is killed in the inquiry that follows.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources