AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

Ahmed Efendi — Osmâncıklı el-Hâc

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 6, p. 126 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Recep Orhan ÖZEL - Doç. Dr. Metin HAKVERDİOĞLU

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Mehmed oğludur. Amasya’da fuzalâdan tahsîl-i ulûm ederek ders-i âm ve Halfet Gâzi müderrisi oldu 907 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi. Meşâhîr-i ulemâdan idi. El-Hâc İbrâhim Çelebizâde Ahmed Şemseddîn Efendi de bu esnâlarda vefât etdi. Ulemâdandır.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was the son of Mehmed. After acquiring learning from scholars in Amasya, he became a dersiâm and müderris of the Halfet Gâzi Madrasa; he died after 907 [1501-02]. He was among the well-known scholars. Ahmed Şemseddîn Efendi, son of el-Hâc İbrâhim Çelebi, also died around this time. He too is among the scholars.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • fuzalâ: virtuous persons, learned men
  • tahsîl-i ulûm: study of the sciences
  • ders-i âm: a licensed müderris who gives lectures open to the public
  • müderris: madrasa professor
  • sâl: year
  • meşâhîr-i ulemâ: the well-known among the scholars
  • esnâ: course, interval, time

The Title of Dersiâm

Hüsameddin often uses the expression "became a ders-i âm" when describing the scholars of Amasya. This term, whose literal meaning is "a lecture open to all, to the public," came in the Ottoman learned hierarchy to denote a müderris who had the authority to teach students in a madrasa and the public in mosques. According to Mehmet İpşirli's finding, although it is not known when the term appeared, it occurs in sixteenth-century sources in the sense of a lecture open to the public, and its spread as a müderris title probably took place in the seventeenth century. To become a dersiâm one had to take, after obtaining the icazet from the madrasa, a separate examination. That Hüsameddin uses this title for an Amasya scholar who lived at the end of the fifteenth century suggests that he may have applied the established term of a later period to the past. Nevertheless the expression is enough to convey that Ahmed Efendi was a teacher who both taught in the madrasa and addressed the public in mosque lessons.

The Halfet Gâzi Madrasa

The Halfet Gâzi Madrasa, where Ahmed Efendi served as müderris, properly the Halîfet Gazi Madrasa, is one of the oldest Turkish educational institutions of Amasya. According to its inscription it was built in 606 [1209-10] by Halîfet Gazi, a Seljuk emir of Danishmendid origin, and its waqf deed is dated 622 [1225]. In the years Ahmed Efendi taught here the madrasa had been active for nearly three centuries, and its waqfs were under the mütevelliship of the Hatîb Kâsım family described in the previous entry. The building was heavily damaged in later centuries; after the earthquake of 1647 its collapsed parts were rebuilt in wood by Müderris Hasan Efendi, and in 1888 it was repaired from top to bottom by the mufti of Amasya, Hacı Osman Hilmi Efendi. Today the south wall and the east section of the madrasa partly stand.

No information was found in other sources about Osmâncıklı el-Hâc Ahmed Efendi and about İbrâhim Çelebizâde Ahmed Şemseddîn Efendi, mentioned at the end of the entry.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 126–126. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

Volume 6 contents