Aşık Çelebi ("Gentleman Bard" in Turkish) was the name of Pir Mehmed ("Mehmed the Pir"; 1520–1572), an Ottoman biographer, poet, and translator. Born in

Prizren ) , settlement_type = Municipality and city , image_skyline = Prizren Collage.jpg , imagesize = 290px , image_caption = View of Prizren , image_alt = View of Prizren , image_flag ...

, he served as '' kadi'' (judge) in many towns of the

Rumelia Rumelia ( ota, روم ايلى, Rum İli; tr, Rumeli; el, Ρωμυλία), etymologically "Land of the Names of the Greeks#Romans (Ῥωμαῖοι), Romans", at the time meaning Eastern Orthodox Christians and more specifically Christians f ...

. His major work ''Senses of Poets'' (Meşairü'ş-Şuara) of 1568 is of major importance.

Life and work

Çelebi was born in Prizren,Ottoman Empire. His birth name was Pir Mehmed, and descended from a Turkish

seyyid ''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali, sons of Muhamma ...

family. After his father's death in 1535 (941 in Ottoman calendar) he departed for Filibe and later to

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. He studied in a

medrese Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...

in Istanbul under best tutors of his time and received an excellent education. His first civil servant position was that of a court secretary in

Bursa ( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the ...

. There he was also a trustee of a

vakif A waqf ( ar, وَقْف; ), also known as hubous () or ''mortmain'' property is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitable ...

. He returned to Istanbul in 1546. There he obtained a clerical position of justice with the help of his tutor Emir Gisu. He applied for the position of the head cleric of the Imperial Council left vacant after the death of Receb Çelebi, but did not succeed, following with accepting a position as a cleric at the Fatwa Office.
After that he would work in many cities of Rum as a judge, such as

Pristina Pristina, ; sr, / (, ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. The city's municipal boundaries in Pristina District form the largest urban center in Kosovo. After Tirana, Pristina has the second largest population of ethnic Albanians and ...

, Servia, Arta, Kratovo, Nikopol,

Rousse Ruse (also transliterated as Rousse, Russe; bg, Русе ) is the fifth largest city in Bulgaria. Ruse is in the northeastern part of the country, on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the Romanian city of Giurgiu, approximately south of ...

, etc. In overall, he failed to get the position of his dreams which his father and grandfather had, the Nakibü'l-eşraf ( MP, representative Sayyid and

Sharif Sharīf ( ar, شريف, 'noble', 'highborn'), also spelled shareef or sherif, feminine sharīfa (), plural ashrāf (), shurafāʾ (), or (in the Maghreb) shurfāʾ, is a title used to designate a person descended, or claiming to be descended, fr ...

of the Empire). He translated into Turkish many poetry of prose works from Ottoman writers, originally in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

.
His main work is ''Meşairü'ş-şuara'' (Senses of Poets), a ''

tezkire ''Tezkire'' ( ar, تذکرة), from Arabic '' tadhkirah'' meaning "something that causes one to remember" or "memorandum", is a form of bibliographical dictionary or bibliographical compendium which flourished in the 16th-century Ottoman Empire. T ...

'' (bibliographical dictionary of poets and poetry). It was published in 1568 and is an excellent source not only on the life and work of Ottoman poets, but also on social life and customs of the scholar-bureaucrat cast (to which he belonged) of Istanbul of those times. He completed it while working as a kadi in Kratovo, and presented it to the Sultan

Selim II Selim II ( Ottoman Turkish: سليم ثانى ''Selīm-i sānī'', tr, II. Selim; 28 May 1524 – 15 December 1574), also known as Selim the Blond ( tr, Sarı Selim) or Selim the Drunk ( tr, Sarhoş Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire ...

in 1568. 30 copies have been encountered which makes it the second most read ''tezkire'' of all times after that of Latifî (1491-1582) with 91 copies. It covers 427 poets, in poetry or prose.
Among many example of his poems, the majority are placed strategically rather than for decoration purpose. Once a selected few exhibit his poetic skills. He used the rest (majority) to convey feelings of hardship, joy, and desire.
Aşık was part of the shared culture of the Ottomans of the 16th century. His work in Arabic translations shows high proficiency and intrinsic gasp of the language. He shows himself in various situation as a master in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. To this is added his vast knowledge on the

Ottoman literature Turkish literature ( tr, Türk edebiyatı) comprises oral compositions and written texts in Turkic languages. The Ottoman and Azerbaijani forms of Turkish, which forms the basis of much of the written corpus, were highly influenced by Persian a ...

. Aşık lived for many years as a ''kadi'' in Üsküb where he died in 1571 or 1572. He is buried there, which coincides in today's

Gazi Baba Municipality Gazi Baba ( mk, , sq, Gazi Babë) is one of the ten municipalities that make up the City of Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia. The municipality administration consists of a council and mayor. "Skopje encompasses ten municipalities (Aerodr ...

. His

türbe ''Türbe'' is the Turkish word for "tomb". In Istanbul it is often used to refer to the mausolea of the Ottoman sultans and other nobles and notables. The word is derived from the Arabic ''turbah'' (meaning ''"soil/ground/earth"''), which ...

is known as Aşık Çelebi Türbe. It was severally damaged during the 1963

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

and was not repaired or reconstructed by the Yugoslav authorities. Today, only a few ruins remain. Religion: Muslim

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Celebi, Ashik Divan poets from the Ottoman Empire People from Prizren 1520 births 1572 deaths 16th-century writers from the Ottoman Empire Turkish Alevis Ottoman Sufis Jurists from the Ottoman Empire Civil servants from the Ottoman Empire Turkish-language poets Kosovan Turks Ashiks

Life and work

See also

Notes

References