Although he only refers to himself as Elvān in his work, he is generally referred to as Elvān Çelebī in later Ottoman sources. A shaykh at zāwiya (Dervish convent) in the
village named after him lying outside of the town of Mecidözü in the province
of Çorum in north-central Anatolia, Elvān Çelebī hailed from an illustrious Sufi family. His father was ʿĀşık Paşa (عشق باشا),
author of the well-known early Old Anatolian Turkish mystical mathnawī, the Ġarib-nāme (غريب نامه), and his great grandfather was
the Şeyḫ Ilyās(شيخ الياس),
who played a principal role in the Baba’i rebellion of 1239 [1239 CE]-1240 [1240 CE]. Elvan Çelebi informs us that he was elected by his father's disciples to succeed as his father's spiritual successor upon
his death. Elvan Çelebi is
believed to have been born in Kırşehir where his father lived and died, but apparently
later established a zāwiya at Mecidözü (the sixteenth-century [1500-1599 CE] Ottoman author Mecdī Mehmed Efendi (مجدي محمد افندي
) dates this at 1326 [1326 CE]). His famous ancestor
Şeyḫ Ilyās
(T. Şeyḫ Ilyās;
also known as Baba Ilyās
(بابا الياس) in other sources) was the main disciple of Dede Ġarḳīn (دده غرقين)
(or Şeyḫ Ġarḳīn,
as he is also referred to in el-Kitābu’l-Menāḳib (الكتاب المناقب)),
a Turkmen baba, or shaykh of the Wafā’iyya order. Dede Ġarḳīn is believed to have come to
Anatolia with the Khwarazmians fleeing before the Mongols in the 1220 [1220 CE]-1230 [1230 CE]s and settled in the
region of Elbistan. Dede Ġarḳīn sent his disciples into
Anatolia, and his main disciple Ilyās settled in the region of Amasya at a village named Çat where he established
a zāwiya.
Elvan Çelebi, Aşık Paşa zade, active 14th century
Manuscripts by this author
Süheyl ü Nev-Bahār
Süheyl ü Nev-Bahār is a mathnawī romance
of 5568 couplets in the mutaqārib meter and with 14 ghazals
interspersed throughout the narrative. Composed in Old Anatolian Turkish in 1350, the
work relates the love story between the Yemenite prince Süheyl and the Chinese princess Nevbahār. A minstrel of superior talent, Süheyl succeeds
in winning the heart of Nevbahār through his singing. Süheyl and Nevbahār express their love and passion via lyrical ghazals. Ḫoca Mesʿūd claims in his text to have composed this work as a translation of a Persian romance yet makes no mention of which
work. It has thus been speculated that, although the names of the characters and the story line of the narrative is quite diffrent, Ḫoca Mesʿūd's Süheyl ü Nev-Bahār
was inspired by and, to some extent, modeled after Khwājū Kirmānī (خواجوی کرمانی)'s Persian mathnawī,
Humāy u Humāyūn (هماي و همايون), a work composed as a nazīra (response) to Niẓāmī's Iskandarnāmah (اسكندرنامه)
in 1331. The work survives in two manuscript copies. The work place of composition is
the Germiyanid realm of Anatolia, centered at Kütahya.
Composed in 760 (dated by a chronogram), this Old
Anatolian Turkish work exists in a unique undated manuscript. A sufi hagiography, or menāḳıb, in
the format of a mathnawī of 2084 couplets, it relates events in the lives of the shaykh Ilyās and Ilyās's son, the shaykh Muḫliṣ (Mukhliṣ) or Şeyḫ Muḫliṣ Paşa
((شيخ مخلص باشا)) and Şeyh ʿOsmān (شيخ عثمان) (the author's maternal grandfather).
The work constitutes a major source for the Baba’i rebellion of 1240
against the Seljuks. Elvān Çelebī aims
to clear his ancestor's name by proving false numerous rumours spread about Baba Ilyās (such as his supposed claim to prophethood) and establishing a more correct account of the events.
Elvān Çelebī's work thus represents a
sympathetic insider's view of the so-called Baba’i shaykhs as opposed to the hostile sources emanating from the Seljuk court,
such as Ibn Bībī's account, and other
contemporary or near-contemporary sources. The work also provides important commentary on other sufi orders in late thirteenth-century and early fourteenth-century Anatolia. The unique manuscript lacks several folios at the beginning of the work, including some sections on Dede Ġarḳīn, explaining his origins and how he came to Anatolia and settled in the region Elbistan. The work place of composition is
the village of Mecidözü, Çorum province. Show more
Necati Ergin discovered the unique manuscript in 1957 in the town of
Karaman and sold it to the Mevlana Museum in
Konya.