AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

Ahmed Efendi — Müfessir el-Hâc

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 6, p. 146 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Recep Orhan ÖZEL - Doç. Dr. Metin HAKVERDİOĞLU

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Amasyalıdır. Hızır bin Abdullah’ın mahdûmudur. Amasya [458] fuzalâsından Molla Bahşi ve Karabâğî Muhyiddîn Efendilerden ve ba’dehû İstanbul’a gidip Şeyhülislam Kemal Paşazâde Ahmed Şâh ve Muhaşşi-i Beyzâvî Sa’dî Efendilerden ulûm-ı akliyye ve nakliyyeyi ahz u ikmâl edib avdetle Amasya’da ders-i âm oldu.

Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii’nde yıllarca tedrîs-i ulûma himmet edib pek çok talebeye icâzet verdi. Ba’dehû Halfet Gâzi, Atabeg, Hüseyniyye, Mehmed Paşa Medreselerine müderris ve 975’de Yörgüç Paşa Medresesiyle mütekâid olup kendisine teklif edilen iftâ ve kazâdan ictinâb etdi.

Bu esnada Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii kürsü şeyhliğini kabûl ve Tefsîr-i Beyzâvî tedrîsine hasr-ı himmet edib sâhib-i Keşşâf ile Beyzâvî arasında münâza’un fîh olan mesâ’ilin hal ve îzâhına çalıştı. Tefsîr okuturken câmi-i şerîf dolardı.

Bir taraftan vaz ve nasihati, diğer tarafdan tedrîs-i hadîs ve tefsîre himmet edib bütün halkı müstefîd ederek 985 senesi rebîulevvelinde seksen yaşını mütecâviz [459] bir halde dâr-ı na’îme irtihal etdi.

Gayet fâzıl, muhakkik, ulûm-ı şer’iyye ve usûlde mütebahhir, tefsîr ve hadîste mâhir, müteşerri, âbid, müttakî’ bir zât-ı sütude-sîmât idi. Avâm ve havâs arasında “Müfessir Ahmed Efendi” demekle meşhûr idi. Te’lîfâtından “Hayru’n-nühâ fî Tefsîr-i sûret-i Tâhâ” adlı bir eseri vardır. Sâhib-i “Tebyînü’l-mehârim” Amasyalı Sinan Efendi’nin üstâdıdır. Mahdûmu Fahreddîn Mehmed Efendi de fuzalâdandır.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was a native of Amasya. He was the son of Hızır, son of Abdullah. He acquired and completed the rational and transmitted sciences from Molla Bahşî and Karabâğî Muhyiddin Efendis, among the virtuous scholars of Amasya, and then, going to Istanbul, from Şeyhülislam Kemalpaşazâde Ahmed Şah and Sâdî Efendi, who wrote a gloss on the Beyzâvî commentary; on his return he became a teacher giving lessons open to all in Amasya.

He laboured for years teaching in the Sultan Bayezid Mosque and gave icazets to many students. Later he became müderris of the Halfet Gazi, Atabeg, Hüseyniyye and Mehmed Pasha madrasas; in 975 [1567-68] he retired from the Yörgüç Pasha Madrasa and avoided the müftülük and kadılık offered to him.

At this time he accepted the pulpit shaykhship (kürsü şeyhliği) of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque and devoted himself to the teaching of the Beyzâvî commentary; he tried to solve and explain the disputed questions between the author of the Keşşâf and Beyzâvî. When he taught tafsir the mosque would fill.

Benefiting the whole people on the one hand with sermon and counsel and on the other with the teaching of hadith and tafsir, he migrated to the eternal world in Rabi' al-Awwal 985 [May-June 1577], having passed eighty years.

He was an exceedingly virtuous man, a researcher, deeply learned in the sharia sciences and in principles, a master of tafsir and hadith, devoted to the sharia, fond of worship, pious, worthy of praise. Among the people as well as among the notables he was known as "Müfessir Ahmed Efendi." Among his works is a book called "Hayru'n-nühâ fî tefsîr-i sûret-i Tâhâ." He was the teacher of Sinan Efendi of Amasya, author of the "Tebyînü'l-mehârim." His son Fahreddin Mehmed Efendi is also among the scholars.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • fuzalâ: virtuous scholars
  • ulûm-ı akliyye ve nakliyye: the sciences based on reason (logic, kalam, etc.) and those based on transmission (tafsir, hadith, fıkıh)
  • muhaşşî: one who writes a haşiye, that is, explanatory notes, on a work
  • ders-i âm: a teacher who gives lessons open to all in a mosque
  • tedrîs: teaching lessons
  • mütekâid: retired
  • iftâ ve kazâ: the müftülük and kadılık
  • ictinâb: avoidance
  • kürsü şeyhi: the officer who gives sermons and tafsir lessons from the pulpit in a mosque
  • münâza'un fîh: disputed, subject to disagreement
  • dâr-ı na'îm: abode of bliss, paradise; an expression for dying
  • mütebahhir: one whose knowledge is as wide as the sea
  • müteşerri': strictly bound to the commands of religion
  • sütûde-sîmât: of praiseworthy character and condition
  • avâm ve havâs: the common people and the notables

His Teachers

Müfessir Ahmed Efendi's teachers are leading names of the sixteenth-century Ottoman learned world. Molla Bahşî, also known as "Akbilek," was a scholar of tafsir who was born in the village of Kızılca in Amasya, taught in Amasya for nearly forty years after studying in the Hijaz with scholars such as Suyuti and Zakariyya al-Ansari; Kemalpaşazâde too read tafsir and hadith with him. He died in 930 (1524). Thus Ahmed Efendi took lessons from the same teacher, first in Amasya himself, and then in Istanbul from the teacher's student Kemalpaşazâde.

Kemalpaşazâde became şeyhülislam in Shaban 932 (May 1526) and died in this office on 2 Shawwal 940 (16 April 1534). Sâdî Çelebi, born in Daday, Kastamonu, after serving ten years as kadı of Istanbul, became şeyhülislam in Kemalpaşazâde's place and died on 2 Shawwal 945 (21 February 1539). The gloss he wrote on the Beyzâvî commentary is a work with many copies, followed especially in the madrasas of Istanbul as an auxiliary book in tafsir lessons. Considering that Ahmed Efendi died in 985 past eighty, he must have been born in the early 900s; his education in Istanbul also falls in the 1520s and 1530s when these two şeyhülislams were most influential.

The identity of Karabâğî Muhyiddin Efendi, counted in the text among the scholars of Amasya, is open to debate. Muhyiddin Muhammed b. Ali el-Karabâğî, known by this name, was a scholar of philosophy and the rational sciences, born in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, who settled in Istanbul, taught in madrasas there and at Iznik, and died in 942 (1535). The sources telling his life contain no record that he taught in Amasya. It is possible that Ahmed Efendi read with him in his Istanbul period, or that the person Hüsameddin means is another Amasya scholar bearing the same name.

Which Sinan Efendi

Hüsameddin's presenting Ahmed Efendi as "the teacher of Sinan Efendi of Amasya, author of the Tebyînü'l-mehârim" is an important detail, because Amasya produced two famous scholars bearing the same name. The first of these is Sinâneddin Yusuf Efendi, who took the epithet "Muhaşşî" from his Beyzâvî gloss; born in 893 (1488), he rose to the kazaskership of Anatolia and died in Istanbul in 986 (1578). It does not seem possible that this man, older than Ahmed Efendi, was his student. The author of the Tebyînü'l-mehârim, however, is Yûsuf Sinânüddîn el-Amâsî, who died in 1000 (1592). He wrote this work, which explains the prohibitions in the Qur'an under ninety-eight headings with examples from real life, while living in Mecca. According to research on the Halvetiyye in Amasya, his grave is in the tomb in the Üçler neighbourhood, behind the Amasya Museum. Hüsameddin's record points to this second Sinan Efendi and is also consistent in chronology.

Tafsir Lessons and His Work

The Sultan Bayezid Mosque, where Ahmed Efendi taught tafsir as pulpit shaykh, is the mosque of the Bayezid II Complex, begun in 1481 and completed in 1486. The glosses on the Beyzâvî commentary written by his teacher Sâdî Çelebi and by his fellow townsman Muhaşşî Sinan Efendi show how widely this commentary was read in the madrasas of the time; Ahmed Efendi's lessons comparing the Keşşâf with Beyzâvî belong to the same field of interest. No information was found in other sources on Hayru'n-nühâ, Ahmed Efendi's commentary on the Sura of Ta-Ha.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 146–146. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

Books

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