Amasya’da ulemâ-yı resmiyyeden İsmâil Efendi bin Mörekli Hasan Efendi’nin mahdûmudur. 1288’de doğdu. Mekteb-i Rüşdiyede [778] tahsîl-i fünûn ederek şâhâdet-nâme alıp meşâhîr-i ulemâdan Seyyid Mehmed Şükrü, ErzuRûmî Ömer, Arabgirî Osmân, Hacı Müsevvidzâde Hâfız Mehmed Tevfik Efendilerden Arabiyye, ferâ’iz, fıkıh, usûl ilimlerini ahzederek Mehmed Tevfik Efendi’den mücâz oldu.
Pederinin vefâtında mahlûlünden Mehmed Paşa müderrisi, ba’dehû mekteb-i ibtida’î muallimi, mu’ahharan ders-i âm olmuşdu. Medreseler ve ders-i âmlık ilgâ edildikten sonraki hâli malûm olamadı.
In Modern English
He was the son of İsmâil Efendi, one of the official ulema of Amasya, who was the son of Mörekli Hasan Efendi. He was born in 1288 [1871-72]. At the Rüşdiye School he studied the sciences and received a diploma. From the renowned scholars Seyyid Mehmed Şükrü, Ömer of Erzurum, Osman of Arapgir, and Hâfız Mehmed Tevfik Efendi, son of the Hacı Müsevvid family, he learned Arabic, the law of inheritance (ferâiz), jurisprudence (fıkıh), and its methodology (usûl), and received his license from Mehmed Tevfik Efendi.
On his father's death he took over the vacated post and became müderris of the Mehmed Pasha Madrasa, then teacher at a primary school, and later ders-i âm. What became of him after the madrasas and the post of ders-i âm were abolished could not be learned.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mahdûm: son
- ulemâ-yı resmiyye: religious scholars holding state posts
- mekteb-i rüşdiye: Ottoman state school at about middle-school level
- tahsîl-i fünûn: studying the sciences
- şâhâdet-nâme: diploma, certificate
- meşâhîr-i ulemâ: famous scholars
- ferâ'iz: the law of inheritance
- ahz etmek: to learn, to take (from a teacher)
- mücâz: one who has received a license
- mahlûl: a vacated post
- mekteb-i ibtidâî: primary school
- ilgâ: abolition
Madrasa and New School Side by Side
The education of Möreklizâde Hâfız Ahmed Efendi is a typical example of the transition of the late nineteenth century. He first studied the sciences at the rüşdiye school opened by the state and received a diploma; he then took Arabic, the law of inheritance, jurisprudence, and its methodology from separate teachers, as in the madrasa tradition, and obtained a license. These two paths, listed side by side on Hüsameddin's page, show that the learned men of Amasya had added the new schools to their own training. His career fits this. Ahmed Efendi was first a madrasa müderris, then a primary-school teacher, then ders-i âm.
The Tradition of the License
An icazet is a document by which a teacher certifies that a student is authorized to transmit knowledge and teach. Under Abdülhamid II (1876-1909) information on members of the ilmiye was recorded in the Meşîhat Archive. A study based on this archive finds that in the licenses of Amasya's müderrises the chain of teachers converges on Ebû Saîd Muhammed el-Hâdimî and continues from there in two lines, one going back to Buhârî and the other to Ebû Hanîfe. The license Ahmed Efendi received from Mehmed Tevfik Efendi belongs to this tradition. Ahmed Efendi is not among the eight müderrises examined in the study, so neither his own license nor an archive record of him could be found.
Müderrisship at Mehmed Pasha
The Mehmed Pasha Madrasa where Ahmed Efendi served is the madrasa attached to the Mehmed Pasha Mosque in Amasya. Some sources say that the inscription over the mosque's main door bears the date 891 (1486), that Mehmed Pasha was a deputy of Bayezid II during his governorship of Amasya, and that the madrasa stood opposite the mosque and has been completely demolished. Because this was seen only in a search-result summary, it could not be verified. That Amasya had more than forty madrasas, that the city had been one of the region's educational centers since the Seljuk period, and that it was called the "City of Princes" in Ottoman times are stated in the study cited above. In the same mosque and madrasa circle, Kara Vâ'iz Ahmed Efendi, in the neighboring entry, also served as imam and stayed for a time in the same madrasa; Hüsameddin treats the two Ahmed Efendis in separate entries.
The End of the Müderrisship
The text gives no date for the abolition of the madrasas and of ders-i âm; it says only that Ahmed Efendi's later circumstances are not known. According to an encyclopedia entry on Friday preaching, müderrisship and ders-i âm are among the duties that preachers and imams carried out together. So these duties are known to have been close to one another, but no record was found of Ahmed Efendi's later work.
In Other Sources
No information was found in other sources about Möreklizâde Hâfız Ahmed Efendi, his father, or his teachers Seyyid Mehmed Şükrü, Ömer of Erzurum, Osman of Arapgir, and Hâfız Mehmed Tevfik Efendi of the Hacı Müsevvid family.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 240–240. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
Other sources