Summary View

Country

Turkey

Collection

Ziya Karal's private collection

Contents

Çeng-nāme (Ahmed Dâi, active 1387-1421)

Author

Ahmed Dâi, active 1387-1421

ﺍﺤﻤﺪِ ﺪﺍﻋﻰ

Show other names

Aḥmed-i Dāʿī

Ahmed Dâi, active 1387-1421 (authorised)

Ahmad Dâʻî, active 1387-1421 (variant)

Aḥmed bin İbrāhīm bin Muḥammed, active 1387-1421 (variant)

Ahmed Dâi, fl. 1387-1421 (variant)

Ahmed-i Dāʻī, active 1387-1421 (variant)

احمد داعى (variant)

Biographical notes

Aḥmed-i Dāʿī was a distinguished figure in early Ottoman literature. Renowned for his literary skills, Dāʿī was also a prolific writer. From his original works and translations we can infer that he had knowledge in various fields such as poetry, tafsir, astronomy, astrology, dream interpretation, language (Turkish, Arabic and Persian), and medicine. His father’s name is İbrāhīm ; his grandfather’s name is Meḥmed. Sources agree that Aḥmed-i Dāʿī is from the principality of Germiyān, but his date and place of birth are not certain. We can tell from his works that he lived during the reigns of Murād I (d. 791/1389), Yaʿḳūb II of Germiyān (d. 831/1428) , Emīr Süleymān (d. 813/1411) and Murād II (d. 855/1451). According to ʿĀlī and Sehī, he served as qadi in the principality of Germiyān for some time. Yaʿḳūb II took him under his patronage after the death of Germiyān prince Süleymān Şāh (d. 789/1387). Emīr Süleymān, who was known to be very generous to men of letters, probably took him under his patronage after the defeat of Yaʿḳūb II by Yıldırım and the subsequent Ottoman annexation of the Germiyān lands. Aḥmed-i Dāʿī dedicated his work Çeng-nāme, written in 808 AH [1406 CE], to Emīr Süleymān. In his Dīvān, he also wrote some poems in praise of Emīr Süleymān. After the death of Emīr Süleymān in 813 AH [1411 CE], Aḥmed-i Dāʿī began serving under the patronage of Çelebi Meḥmed (816/1413-824/1421), as is evident from a qasida that he wrote for the latter’s enthronement. Aḥmed-i Dāʿī dedicated his Persian Dīvān to Vezīr-i aʿẓām ʿOsmāncıḳlı Ḫalīl Pāşā (d. after 816/1413). After a period of low attention, he was finally accepted to the court as a tutor for Çelebi Meḥmed (816/1413-824/1421) son Murād II (824/1421-848/1444). He wrote his Arabic to Persian dictionary ʿUḳūdü’l-cevāhir for Murād II (824/1421-848/1444). After Çelebi Meḥmed (816/1413-824/1421) death in 824 [1421 CE], Murād II (824/1421-848/1444) took him under his patronage. He wrote Tercüme-i Tezkiretü’l-evliyā during this period, probably his last work. Aḥmed-i Dāʿī’s date of death is unknown. There is a mosque, a district and a hammam known by his name in Bursa . According to tradition, the tomb near the mosque known as Dāʿī Dede belongs to him.

Title

Çeng-nāme

ﭽﻨﻜﻨﺎﻤﻪ

Notes

This is an allegorical masnavi relating the adventures of the musical instrument çeng (chang). The work is divided into 24 sections, corresponding to the 24 strings of the chang. It exists in three extant copies, located at Burdur İl Halk Kütüphanesi, Konya İzzet Koyunoğlu Library and Ziya Karal’s collection in Sivas. The last of these remains uninvestigated.

Main language of text

Turkish

Bibliography

Editions

Dai, Ahmed-i. Çengname. Edited by Alpay Tekin, Gönül. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1992.

Studies

Abbott, Laurie. "Çengname: textual counterpoint and musical metaphor in Ahmed-i Dâ'î's Book of the harp." International Journal of Music in Turkey. , no. 1 1997: 4-46.

Kut, Günay. "Ahmed Paşa, Bursalı." Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslam Ansiklopedisi. 2Istanbul: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı, 1989: 111-112.

Tel, Hatice. "Çengname (transkripsiyonlu metin ve tahlil)." unpublished MA thesis, Şanlıurfa: Harran University, 1997.

Show filiations

İzzet Koyunoğlu Kütüphanesi 14546

Konya Bölge Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi 735

Physical Description

History

Date of copy

20th. century