First Ottoman Chief Physician,
author (B. 1432, Kastamonu – D.1524, Cairo). According to some sources his name
is Ahmed, Mehmed and Mahmud. However he is rather known as AhîÇelebi. His
father Physician ŞirvanîMevlânaKemaleddinBey, originally comes from Tabriz.
While he was serving Candaroğlu İsmail Bey in Kastamonu, this principality was
captured by Fatih Sultan Mehmed (1461) and İsmail Bey was granted a place in
Rumeli, so he settled to Istanbul. He worked in a clinic he opened in Mahmut
Pasha. AhîÇelebi received his first knowledge of medicine from his father.
After the death of his father he took lectures from the great physicians of
that period Kutbüddin and Altunizâde. He improved in a short time and was
assigned to Fatih Hospital first as a physician and later as a chief physician.
AhîÇelebi is a physician who lived
during the periods of Fatih Sultan Mehmed, Beyazıt II, YavuzSelim and
KanunîSüleyman and served twice as thechief physician. During the rule of Beyazıt II, he won the ruler’s favor
and was appointed as the chief cook and later chief physician. He stayed in
this position for 4, 5 years. Upon the death of Sultan Beyazıt he was dismissed
from his duty according to the tradition. After a while YavuzSelim appointed
him chief physician again and took him to his Egypt expedition. After the death
of Yavuz he was again dismissed from his position (8 October 1520). According
to sources, although he was older than 90 years old, he passed away in Cairo
while returning from pilgrimage and he was inhumed near to İmam Shafii’s grave.
Ahî Çelebi’s most important work is “Risâle-ihasâtü’i-kilyeve’l-mesâne”
he wrote during the sultanate of Beyazıt II in Turkish language and which
consists of ten chapters concerning kidneys and bladder stones. This work,
which has various manuscripts in Istanbul libraries, was analyzed by
ÂkilMuhtarÖzden in an article written about it and SaimErkun published it in
Turkish and English (Istanbul 1948). Besidesthis, AhîÇelebi has a Persian work titled “el-Fevâdü’s-sultâniyyefi’l-kavâcidi’t-tıbbiyye”
and two Turkish works titled “Risale’û’t-tıb” and “Mesnevlü’t-tıb”.
MehmedTâhir of Bursa wrote that he translated a work of AhîÇelebi titled “İbnü’n-Nefîs’inMûcez”
into Turkish but this claim is debated.
AhîÇelebi had a great fortune, which
consisted of more than 40 villages in Çorlu, Edirne, Hayrabolu and Şile, a
public bath in Istanbul and numerous storehouses, and were inherited from his
father or acquired by him. He donated this wealth to a madrasah and a school he
built in Edirne and a mosque known as KanlıFırın Mosque he built in Istanbul atYemiş Seaport. Besides he bequeathed
that the extra income of his foundations was sent to the poor of Medina. Today
a neighborhood in Istanbul, a region in Edirne (in the southeast of Balkan
Peninsula, between Rodop Mountains) and a flatland in Bulgaria are named after Ahî
Çelebi.AhiÇelebi
Mosque is located in Istanbul Eminönü, on the Haliç shore and aside Istanbul
Commercial University. The mosque whose architect is unknown and which is
assumed to be built by Architect Sinan is especially
important because it is the mosque in which EvliyaÇelebi had his famous dream.
REFERENCE:
M. Tayyib Gökbilgin / XV-XVI. Asırlarda Edirne ve Paşa Livası
(s. 488-489, 1952), Veli Behçet Kurdoğlu / Şair Tabibler (s. 81-85, İstanbul 1967), Câhid Baltacı / XV-XVI.
Asırlarda Osmanlı Medreseleri (s. 72-73,
1976), A. Adnan Adıvar / Osmanlı
Türklerinde İlim (s. 66-67, 1982), Bedi N. Şehsuvaroğlu / Türk Tıp Tarihi (ortak kitap, s.
51-52, 1984), İstanbul Kültür ve Sanat
Ansiklopedisi / “Ahî Çelebi” (s. 340-342, 1982), Büyük Larousse Sözlük
ve Ansiklopedisi (1986), Ali Haydar Bayat / TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, c. 1, s.
528-529), İhsan Işık / Ünlü Bilim Adamları (Türkiye
Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 2, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People
(2013).
