Amasyalıdır. Pederi Köprü kazâsı dâhilinde Gedüz, Gedüs köyünden ve Amasya müderrislerinden el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi’dir. Buna Gedüzlü ve Gedûsî dendiğinden sâhib-i tercemeye Gedüzlüzâde ve Gedûsîzâde dendi.
Amasya’da doğdu. Pederinden ve Hacı Bayramzâde Şa’bân Efendi’den ve sâir ulemâdan ahz u ulûm edib ders-i âm-ı meşhûr oldu. Yörgüç Paşa Müderrisi iken Köprü kadısı olarak tarîk-ı kazâya girdi. Ba’dehû devr-i kasabât ve bilâd edib Çankırı kadılığından ma’zûlen 1038’de Köprü’de vefât etdi.
Âlim, fakîh, usûlî, müteşerri’ bir zât idi. Mahdûmları Mehmed, Şa’bân Efendilerle âilesi Köprü’de kaldı. Köprü’nün kutbu eş-Şeyh Mehmed Efendi’nin dâmâdı idi. Şa’bân Efendi’nin oğulları Köse Ahmed, Abdurrahman [492] Efendilerdir. Köse Ahmed Efendi, reîsü’l-küttâb olup Abdurrahman Efendi de hattât idi. Bunun mahdûmu Ali Efendi Amca Hasan Ağa’nın dâmâdı olduğundan “enişte” lakabıyla meşhûr oldu. Amcazâde Hüseyin Paşa’nın eniştesidir.
In Modern English
He was a native of Amasya. His father was Hacı Mehmed Efendi, one of the müderrises of Amasya, from the village of Gedüz (Gedüs) in the kaza of Köprü. Because his father was called Gedüzlü and Gedûsî, the subject of this biography too was called Gedüzlüzâde and Gedûsîzâde.
He was born in Amasya. Having studied under his father, Hacı Bayramzâde Şaban Efendi, and other scholars, he became a well-known dersiâm. While müderris of the Yörgüç Pasha Madrasa he entered the career of the judgeship as judge of Köprü. Then, going round the towns and cities, he served as judge, and, dismissed from the judgeship of Çankırı, he died in Köprü in 1038 [1628-29].
He was a scholar, a scholar of jurisprudence and of its principles, a man bound to the sharia. His family, together with his sons Mehmed and Şaban Efendis, remained in Köprü. He was the son-in-law of Şeyh Mehmed Efendi, the pole (kutub, spiritual leader) of Köprü. The sons of Şaban Efendi are Köse Ahmed and Abdurrahman Efendis. Köse Ahmed Efendi became reisülküttap; Abdurrahman Efendi was a calligrapher. Abdurrahman Efendi's son Ali Efendi, because he was son-in-law of Amca Hasan Ağa, became known by the epithet "Enişte" (brother-in-law); he is the brother-in-law of Amcazâde Hüseyin Pasha.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- sâhib-i terceme: the person whose biography is written
- ahz-ı ulûm: acquiring learning, studying
- devr-i kasabât ve bilâd: serving by going round the towns and cities
- fakîh: a scholar of jurisprudence (fıkıh)
- usûlî: a scholar of the principles of jurisprudence
- müteşerri': strictly bound to the rulings of religion
- reîsü'l-küttâb: head of the divan clerks, in the later period the official responsible for foreign affairs
Köprü and Gedüz
The kaza of Köprü in the text is today's Vezirköprü, called in its old name Gedegra (Kedağra). Mehmet Öz, who worked on the survey registers (tahrir defterleri) of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, states that the kaza of Gedegra covered the central and eastern parts of today's Vezirköprü. The village of Gedüz or Gedüs, from which the family takes its name, could not be identified among present-day settlement names.
Grandsons and the Köprülüs
The last lines of the entry show the family's kinship with the Köprülü dynasty. Amca Hasan Ağa is the younger brother of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha; his son Hüseyin Pasha, known as "Amcazâde" during the grand vizierate of Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha, his cousin, served as grand vizier between 1697 and 1702 and signed the Treaty of Karlowitz. Ali Efendi's marrying the daughter of Hasan Ağa shows that this family of scholars settled in Köprü entered the circle of the Köprülüs.
It is known that the reisülküttap Köse Ahmed Efendi, trained at the Sublime Porte, came to this post in 1676 and died in 1681; the poet Fâik Mahmud wrote a chronogram poem on his reisülküttapship. There is a point to note here: in later volumes of his work, in the footnote of the entry on Sıdkı Mustafa Pasha, Hüsameddin calls the reisülküttap Köse Ahmed Efendi, who built the mosque at Kayalar and died in 1092 [1681], "Sıdkızâde." Since the dates of death coincide, the two records appear to belong to the same person; in this case it is understood that Hüsameddin gives two different pieces of information on Köse Ahmed Efendi's father. Which is correct could not be resolved with the available sources.
His teacher Hacı Bayramzâde Şaban Efendi must belong to the old learned family of Amasya that Hüsameddin calls the "Receb dynasty" and that produced the Bayramzâde and Şabanzâde branches. No information on Şeyh Mehmed Efendi, the pole of Köprü, was found in other sources.
Bibliography
Primary sources
Academic studies