AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

Ahmed Efendi (Şeyhzâde, es-Seyyid eş-Şeyh)

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 6, p. 238 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Recep Orhan ÖZEL - Doç. Dr. Metin HAKVERDİOĞLU

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Lâdiklidir. Sâhibü’l-hâl Ahmed kebîrü’r-Rifâ’î evlâdından tekkesi şeyhi es-Seyyid Mehmed Efendi bin es-Seyyid eş-Şeyh Mustafa Efendi bin es-Seyyid eş-Şeyh Ahmed Efendi’nin mahdûmudur. Amasya’da tahsîl-i ulûm edib pederinin vefâtında mezkûr tekkenin şeyhi ve vakfı mütevellîsi olduğu halde 1318’de vefât etdi. Âlim, sâlih bir pîr-i mübârekti. Mahdûmu es-Seyyid Mehmed Arif Efendi yerine geçti. Belediye re’isi iken 1334’de vefât etdi.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was from Ladik. He descends from Ahmed-i Kebîr al-Rifâî, a man of spiritual states, and is the son of Seyyid Mehmed Efendi, sheikh of his tekke; Mehmed Efendi was the son of Seyyid Şeyh Mustafa Efendi, who was the son of Seyyid Şeyh Ahmed Efendi. After studying in Amasya, he became, at his father's death, sheikh of the tekke in question and trustee of its waqf, and died in 1318 [1900-01]. He was a scholar, a righteous man, a blessed elder. His son Seyyid Mehmed Arif Efendi succeeded him. He died in 1334 while serving as mayor.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • sâhibü'l-hâl: a person of spiritual states, believed to possess miraculous gifts
  • kebîr: great, elder
  • evlâd: descendants, children and grandchildren
  • mahdûm: son
  • es-seyyid: a descendant of the Prophet
  • mütevellî: administrator of a waqf
  • pîr: a mature elder who guides others, a leader of a Sufi order
  • belediye re'isi: mayor

What the Rifâî Order Is

Rifâîlik (today also called Rufâîlik or Rıfâîlik) is a path attributed to Seyyid Ahmed al-Rifâî (d. 1182) and counted among the first orders of the Islamic world. Ahmed al-Rifâî was born in 1118 in the Batâih region between Wâsit and Basra, south of Baghdad. He was a seyyid descended from Husayn and came from a Sufi family on both his father's and mother's sides. According to encyclopedic sources, the order was organized during its founder's lifetime, spread in the twelfth century to Syria, Egypt, eastern and south-eastern Anatolia and Yemen, and at the end of the thirteenth century, when the Ottoman state was founded, was one of the important orders in Anatolia. It is known that before the law of 1925 banning the tekkes there were about forty Rifâî tekkes in Istanbul alone. The name "Ahmed-i Kebîr" that Hüsameddin uses reflects the epithet "al-shaykh al-kabîr" given to Rifâî.

Rufâî Zawiyas Around Amasya

Zawiyas run by Rufâî sheikhs appear in Amasya's waqf records. The Ahi Darphaneci Zawiya, in the Pervane Bey quarter near the Bali Bey Mosque, was built in 836 [1432-33] by Şemseddin Ahmed Çelebi, who had served as mint overseer of Amasya; it was run by sheikhs affiliated with the Rufâiyye order and in time fell into ruin and stood empty; Hüsameddin mentions this zawiya too. The same study names Ladik, alongside Geldiklanâbâd, Yavaş, Argoma and Gelengiraz, among the places where zawiya records are dense. In the Ottoman period Ladik was a kaza attached to the sanjak of Canik; that it is mentioned together with Amasya in the records suggests waqf ties between the region and Amasya. No information was found in other sources about the location, founding date or waqf of the Rifâî tekke in Ladik.

From Sheikhship to Mayoralty

The text shows that the sheikhship of the tekke and the trusteeship of the waqf passed from father to son. That Mehmed Arif Efendi later served as mayor is a striking example of a tekke sheikh's family also taking part in local government. That a member of the Ladik sheikhs, in the last generation before the closing of the tekkes in 1925, held office in the municipality suggests that such families carried not only religious but also local political weight. In which years Mehmed Arif Efendi's mayoralty fell, and whether the municipality was in Ladik or in Amasya, cannot be understood from the text.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 238–238. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

Volume 6 contents