The working life of Zekâî Ahmed Çelebi, secretary and poet from Amasya, was spent in the divans of two masters: first that of Şehzade Alemşah (Prince Alemşah), son of Bayezid II, and then that of Alemşah's son Osman Bey. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar records him as the brother of the poet Şermî Osman Çelebi, who belonged to the circle of Prince Ahmed. Latîfî praises his prose style and his handwriting in his biographical anthology of poets (tezkire), and quotes from him the opening couplet of a ghazal, a couplet spoken in jest and three couplets from the verse preface of his book of model letters, Suver-i Mekâtib. Neither his divan nor his collection of letters has survived. For the prince he served, see Prince Alemşah.

Hüsameddin's Record

In the ninth volume of Amasya Tarihi, among the names beginning with the dotted letter zâl (ذ), the entry reads:

Zekâî Ahmed Çelebi-Kâtib Amasyalıdır. Mehmed Çelebi mahdûmu ve şuarâdan Şermî Osmân Çelebi birâderidir. İki birâder Hatîb Kasım Efendi'nin halka-ı tedrîsinde tahsîl-i maârif ve hattât-ı meşhûr Hamdullah Efendi'den hutût-ı mütenavviayı ahz ü temeşşuk ederek ketebeden oldu. Amasya'da Şehzâde Âlemşâh'ın dâiresine intisâb edib 896'da müşârün-ileyh Saruhan vâlîsi oldukda kâtib-i divânî olarak beraber gitdi. 908'de Şehzâde-i müşârün-ileyhin irtihâli üzerine mahdûmu Osmân Bey'e divân kâtibi oldu. 918'de Sultân Selîm Hân'ın cülûsunda Şehzâde Osmân Bey'in şehîden vefâtı üzerine Amasya'ya gelip kûşe-i inzivâya çekildi. 920'de Sultân Selîm Amasya'ya geldikde kendisine tekâüd vazîfesi tahsîs eylediğinden ihtiyâçdan kurtuldu. 925 hudûdunda vefât etdi. Sûretde güzel, zihn ü zekâda bî-bedel, ilm ü inşâ ve edebi mükemmel idi. "Sûr-ı Mekâtib" adlı münşeâtı ve divân-ı şiiri vardır. Latîfî Çelebi Tezkîre-i şuarâ'sında ve Münirî Efendi de Münşe'ât'ında medh ü senâ etmekdedirler.

In plain English: Zekâî Ahmed Çelebi was a native of Amasya, the son of Mehmed Çelebi and brother of the poet Şermî Osman Çelebi. The two brothers studied in the teaching circle of Hatîb Kâsım Efendi and learned the various scripts from the famous calligrapher Hamdullah Efendi, becoming secretaries. In Amasya Zekâî joined the household of Prince Alemşah, and when the prince became governor of Saruhan in 896 he went with him as divan secretary. When the prince died in 908 he became divan secretary to his son Osman Bey. At the accession of Sultan Selim in 918 Osman Bey was killed, and Zekâî returned to Amasya and withdrew into a quiet corner. In 920 Sultan Selim, coming to Amasya, assigned him a retirement stipend, which freed him from want; he died around 925. He was handsome, sharp of mind, and accomplished in learning, prose composition and letters. He left a collection of letters called Sûr-ı Mekâtib and a divan of poems. Latîfî Çelebi in his tezkire and Münîrî Efendi in his collection of letters both praise him.

At the end of the entry Hüsameddin quotes from Latîfî an opening couplet and the verse preface of Zekâî's collection of letters. The couplet is taken from Latîfî; that the preface came from the same tezkire is clear from the fact that the couplets appear in Latîfî's order with only small differences.

Life

No record gives Zekâî's date of birth. Set Hüsameddin's dates in order and what emerges is the life of a secretary bound to the fortunes of Alemşah. The year 896 (1490-91) is, according to Hüsameddin, the year the prince went to Saruhan, and Zekâî first appears at that date as a secretary in the prince's divan. When Alemşah died in 908 (1502-03) the secretary passed into the service of the prince's son Osman Bey, and with the accession of Selim I (Selim the Grim) in 918 (1512) Osman Bey too was killed. This death, which Hüsameddin calls a martyrdom, belongs to the days when Selim's brothers and nephews were being removed as he took the throne. Having lost his patron, Zekâî withdrew to Amasya; the retirement stipend that Selim granted him on coming to Amasya in 920 (1514) is recorded as a favour shown to a former prince's secretary. For his death Hüsameddin offers only an approximate date: around 925 (1519).

Latîfî's tezkire introduces Zekâî in a short but full paragraph. According to him, Zekâî served as divan secretary to Sultan Alemşah, son of Sultan Bayezid. Of the kinds of prose he wrote both rhymed and plain prose well, and he composed fine kasides (qasidas). He was handsome, and in mind and wit no one could measure up to him; he had brilliant poetry, a choice hand, and a refined spelling and style. Latîfî stresses above all his mastery in drafting decrees and his success in the style of "ahkâm", that is, the orders of sultans and princes, and of letters; in this field he counts him among the rare specimens of the secretarial class. The Zekâî who emerges from the tezkirist's sentences is first of all a master of prose composition; poetry stands beside this secretarial art. Hüsameddin's words "sûretde güzel, zihn ü zekâda bî-bedel" are themselves taken from Latîfî's phrase "vicâhetde vecîh, sûretde güzel ve zihn ü zekâda bî-bedel".

Hüsameddin's record also has something to say about the family. Zekâî's brother Şermî Osman Çelebi was chief muezzin of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque in Amasya and a poet of Prince Ahmed's circle. In the eleventh volume Hüsameddin also gives an entry to Şehîdî Ali Çelebi, whom he calls "Şermî's brother", and counts him too as a brother of Şermî son of Mehmed Çelebi; this Şehîdî was a poet commissioned in the reign of Mehmed II (the Conqueror) to put Ottoman history into verse. According to these records all three sons of Mehmed Çelebi wrote poetry, but the picture is not smooth. Hüsameddin never brings the three brothers together in one place; Şehîdî died after 898, Zekâî around 925 and Şermî around 941, so there must have been a large difference in age between them. The Sicill-i Osmânî entry that Hüsameddin quotes in the same article begins "Şehîdî Çelebi, Şermî"; this raises the possibility that the two names had already become confused in older sources.

Connection with Amasya

The information linking Zekâî to Amasya is found only in Hüsameddin. Latîfî does not say where he came from and reports only that he was Alemşah's secretary. Hüsameddin, however, counts the poet as a native of Amasya and writes that he entered the prince's household in Amasya and spent the end of his life there as well. The Amasya life of Şermî Osman Çelebi and the two brothers' study under the same teachers support this record. Alemşah himself had been born in this city while his father Bayezid II was governor of Amasya, so it is not surprising that his secretary should have entered his service there. A story based on Mevlevî sources, in which Zekâî is named together with Alemşah among those who listened to a sermon of Şâhidî Dede, is also related in the article Prince Alemşah.

Poetry and Letters

No copy is known of the divan or of the collection of letters mentioned by Hüsameddin. All of Zekâî's poetry that we have consists of the five couplets quoted by Latîfî. The first is the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal beginning "Neylerüm ol bezmi k'anuñ sâkî-i meh-rûsı yok". The second is a couplet that Latîfî counts among his "mutâyebât", his pieces of banter, and describes as hezl, that is, jesting and comic verse. The remaining three couplets come from the verse preface at the head of Zekâî's book of letters and describe how greetings, prayers and praise are to be offered in a letter. Each of the three pieces has its own page in this category.

The title of the book is read differently in the two sources. In the edition of Latîfî it is Suver-i Mekâtib, "Copies of Letters"; Hüsameddin writes Sûr-ı Mekâtib. For a collection of model letters the first reading seems more meaningful, but until a manuscript turns up to decide the matter this remains a preference and nothing more.

The Münîrî Efendi who, according to Hüsameddin, praised Zekâî is most probably the Amasya poet Münîrî-i Amâsî, chancellor (nişancı) of Prince Ahmed. Hüsameddin writes elsewhere that he had seen a collection of Münîrî's letters; the praise of Zekâî must have been in that collection. The collection is lost today and the text of the praise is not available to us.

Chronology

896 (1490-91): According to Hüsameddin, Prince Alemşah becomes governor of Saruhan; Zekâî goes with him as divan secretary.

908 (1502-03): Alemşah dies; Zekâî becomes divan secretary to his son Osman Bey.

918 (1512): Selim I takes the throne and Osman Bey is killed; Zekâî withdraws to Amasya.

920 (1514): Sultan Selim, coming to Amasya, grants Zekâî a retirement stipend.

Around 925 (1519): Zekâî Ahmed Çelebi dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources