Zârî Mehmed Çelebi was a sixteenth-century poet who served as a secretary in the Amasya divan of Şehzade Mustafa (Prince Mustafa), eldest son of Süleyman the Magnificent, and who was known for his fine handwriting and his fondness for wine parties. The biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire) call him "Zârî-i Tokâdî", Zârî of Tokat; Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, however, counts him in Amasya Tarihi as a native of Amasya and records him under the family name "Tokatîzâde". The life that had flourished under the prince sank into obscurity when Mustafa was strangled near Konya Ereğlisi in 1553, and the poet himself died out of favour. Latîfî's tezkire preserves five of his couplets. Zârî is also mentioned, together with the other poets around Şehzade Mustafa, in Prince Mustafa (Muhlisî): His Poems and the Poets of His Amasya Circle. This page brings together all the records about him.

Hüsameddin's Record

In the tenth volume of Amasya Tarihi, in the section on people of Amasya whose names begin with the letter "ze", Hüsameddin introduces the poet as follows:

Zârî Mehmed Çelebi-Tokatîzâde Amasyalıdır. Amasya müderrislerinden Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Tokatî Efendi'nin mahdûmudur. Amasya ve İstanbul'da tahsîl-i ilm ü edeb edib hattât-ı meşhûr Ebû'l-fazl A'rec Mehmed Efendi'den hutût-ı mütenevvi'ayı ahz ü temeşşuk etdi. İstanbul'da Sahn müderrisi Amasyalı Kara Sâlih Efendi'nin dârü'l-ifâdesinde iktisâb-ı ilm ü ma'rifet ederek edebiyât ile iştigâl etdi. Üstâdına mu'îd iken Amasya vâlîsi Şehzâde Sultân Mustafa'ya intisâb ederek Amasya'ya geldi. Şehzâde-i müşârün-ileyhe eş'ârını beğendirip dîvânı ketebesinden oldu. Amasya üdebâsıyla musâhabât-ı edebiyye ve müşâ'are ederek imrâr-ı evkât etmekte iken 960'da şehzâdenin şehâdeti refâh u sa'âdetini bozdu. Ba'dehû menkûbâne Amasya'da vefât etdi. Şâ'ir, fasîh, inşâda kâmil, edîb, âlim, hattât-ı meşhûr olduğunu Âşık Çelebi yazıyor.

In English the record says: Zârî Mehmed Çelebi, of the Tokatîzâde family, is from Amasya. He is the son of Hüsameddin Hüseyin Tokatî Efendi, one of the professors (müderris) of Amasya. He studied learning and letters in Amasya and İstanbul, and learned the various scripts by copying the models of the famous calligrapher Ebü'l-fazl A'rec Mehmed Efendi. In İstanbul he advanced his knowledge in the lessons of Kara Sâlih Efendi of Amasya, professor at the Sahn madrasas, and occupied himself with literature. While he was his teacher's repetitor (muîd), he attached himself to Şehzade Sultan Mustafa, governor of Amasya, and came to Amasya. Having won the prince's approval for his poems, he became one of his divan secretaries. While he was passing his days in literary conversation and poetic exchanges with the men of letters of Amasya, the prince's martyrdom in 960 destroyed his comfort and happiness. Afterwards he died in Amasya in misfortune. Âşık Çelebi writes that he was a poet, eloquent, accomplished in prose, a man of letters, a scholar and a famous calligrapher.

At the end of the entry Hüsameddin quotes a sentence of introduction and two couplets from Latîfî. He gives no date of death; with the word "menkûbâne" he merely links the poet's last years to the misfortune that came with the prince's death.

Life

Zârî's date of birth is unknown. Latîfî counts him "of the class of students", that is, among the madrasa students, and among the contemporaries of Hayâlî Bey. He says that he was a student (dânişmend) of high standing in learning and intelligence, unmatched in reading and writing; he had a fine hand and well-liked poetry. In the same sentences, however, the writer adds that he gave all his attention to wine parties, so that he left his studies unfinished, gave up both teaching and learning, and let "the daughter of the vine", that is, wine, carry off his reason. This portrait also agrees with the couplets Latîfî chose from him.

Âşık Çelebi's Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ gives more concrete information on his life. The writer says that he knew three poets called Zârî in his time. The first is Abdurrahman Çelebi of Alaşehir; the second is our poet; the third is Zârî-i Sûzenî, the tavern poet of İstanbul. According to Âşık Çelebi the second Zârî was a student from Tokat. He was a close friend of the late Riyâzî and wrote the various scripts with an elegant hand. He became the dânişmend of Samsunîzâde Efendi while the latter was kadı of İstanbul, and became divan secretary in the time of Sultan Mustafa. As long as that prince's fortune lasted he enjoyed esteem; in the time of the interregnum, however, his condition became unknown and he himself was left without name or trace. Âşık Çelebi's verdict is harsh: Zârî does not have enough standing as a poet to be mentioned among the poets on account of his verse. Kınalızâde repeats this information in almost the same words and says that in the days of the interregnum the poet "cân gibi nazardan nâ-peydâ vü pinhân", vanished from sight and hid like the soul.

The tezkires and Hüsameddin's account diverge on several points. The tezkires count the poet as from Tokat, Hüsameddin as from Amasya. Hüsameddin's giving the family name "Tokatîzâde" and his father's nisba "Tokatî" may explain the difference: the son of a Tokat family settled or born in Amasya may have entered the tezkires under his family's nisba. This is an inference and cannot be settled from the sources. On his teachers the two accounts seem to complement each other. The dânişmend post with Samsunîzâde Efendi mentioned by the tezkires and the post of repetitor with Kara Sâlih Efendi mentioned by Hüsameddin may have been two stages of the same student years; there is no documentary proof of this either. On the poet's fate, however, the sources do not agree. While the tezkire writers say that after the prince's death he disappeared and his condition was unknown, Hüsameddin states firmly that he died in Amasya in a wretched state.

Another contradiction lies in Hüsameddin's quotation. Hüsameddin says that Âşık Çelebi praised Zârî as "şâir, fasîh, inşâda kâmil, edîb, âlim, hattât-ı meşhûr". In Filiz Kılıç's edition, however, the only praise Âşık Çelebi gives this poet concerns his fine handwriting; his remark on the poetry is negative. According to a note in the edition, this passage describing the three Zârîs is entirely missing from some manuscripts of the tezkire. It could not be determined whether Hüsameddin drew on another manuscript or another source, or rendered the writer's words according to his own opinion. His quotation from Latîfî also appears shortened and altered compared with the text of the edition.

His Connection with Amasya

Two things link Zârî to Amasya: Hüsameddin's record of him as the son of a professor of Amasya, and his post as secretary in Şehzade Mustafa's Amasya divan. According to Şerafettin Turan's article "Mustafa Çelebi" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, the prince was removed from Manisa and sent to Amasya on 21 Safer 948 (16 June 1541), and was strangled on 27 Şevval 960 (6 October 1553) at the army camp of Aktepe near Konya Ereğlisi. The tezkires do not say in which city Zârî attached himself to the prince; Hüsameddin, however, writes plainly that he came to Amasya after entering his service. Accordingly the poet's years as secretary fall between 1541 and 1553, during the prince's governorship of Amasya.

In Hüsameddin's words Zârî spent these years in conversation and poetic exchange "with the men of letters of Amasya". Among those who served as secretaries with him in the prince's divan was Kara Fazlî, the poet of Gül ü Bülbül. The article in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü written on Şehzade Mustafa, who wrote under the pen name Muhlisî, also counts Zârî, together with Şikârî, Senâyî, Sürûrî Efendi, Kara Fazlî and Zamânî, among the poets who were with the prince.

His Poetry

There is no record that Zârî left a divan. Five couplets of his poetry survive, all in Latîfî's tezkire. Kınalızâde gives only the opening couplet (matla) "Bugün hurşîd-veş giymiş o mâh-ı sîm-ber üsküf"; Hüsameddin quotes this matla and the couplet "Tîrüñ gözedür merhem-i râhat diyü ey yâr". The five couplets appear in this category as separate articles: the matla "Tutmaz ayagı elüm bâde-i nâb olmayıcak", which describes his love of wine; the couplet "ʿAcabâ kangı hânümânı harâb", which teases whoever gave wine its name; the matla "Bugün hurşîd-veş giymiş", composed for a youth in a golden üsküf cap; the couplet "Sîm-berler çü zelle-bend oldı"; and the couplet "Tîrüñ gözedür merhem-i râhat", to which Latîfî himself wrote a response poem (nazire).

These couplets match the portrait drawn by the tezkire writers. It is a poetry that leans less on imagination than on everyday life, on the tavern, on the beauties of the street and the witticisms they inspire. The poetry Latîfî calls "mergûb", well liked, is not found worth noting by Âşık Çelebi. That both writers praise the poet's handwriting suggests that Zârî entered the prince's divan by his pen more than by his verse; Hüsameddin, on the other hand, writes that the prince liked his poems. These two views have been left side by side, as far as the sources allow.

Poets of the Same Pen Name

The pen name Zârî was common in the sixteenth century, and the sources sometimes confuse its bearers. Latîfî gives three separate Zârî entries: Zârî of Skopje (Üsküb), Zârî of Tokat, and Zârî-i Sûzenî, whom he introduces as from Mudurnu. Kınalızâde likewise gives the Zârîs of Skopje, Tokat and İstanbul one after another, in the same order; he too counts Sûzenî as from İstanbul. The ghazal "Göz karasın eşk ile boyayın agarınca", which appears under the name Zârî in some compilations, belongs according to Kınalızâde to Zârî-i Sûzenî, the tavern poet of İstanbul. The only couplets that certainly belong to Şehzade Mustafa's secretary are those in Latîfî's entry "Zârî-i Tokâdî".

Chronology

21 Safer 948 (16 June 1541): Şehzade Mustafa is sent from Manisa to Amasya.

1541-1553: Zârî serves as secretary in the prince's Amasya divan.

27 Şevval 960 (6 October 1553): Şehzade Mustafa is killed at the Aktepe army camp near Konya Ereğlisi.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

Online sources