Aslen Amasyalıdır. Amasya’da müftü ve Şehzâde Sultân Mustafa mu’allimi iken 947’de vefât eden sâdât-ı kirâmdan Kal’acıklı Seyrek Muhyiddîn Mehmed Efendizâde Emrullah Mehmed Efendi’nin mahdûmudur. İstanbul’da doğup tahsîl-i ulûm ederek müderris oldu.
Ba’dehû gazâ mesleğine girip livâlara kadı oldu. 1007 senesi şa’bânında Amasya kadısı olarak gelip 1009’da [469] infisâl etdi. Yolları eşkıyâ kapatdığından Amasya’da ikâmet etmeye mecbur oldu. 1011 senesi recebinde Celâlî eşkiyâsının Amasya’ya girdiği esnâda şehîden vefât etdi.
Âlim, natûk, müstekîm idi. Mahdûmu sudûrdan es-Seyyid Abdurrahman Efendi ve biraderi de sudûrdan es-Seyyid Yûnus Efendi’dir. Vefâtından evvel kitaplarını Amasya’da Sultân Bâyezîd Kütübhanesi’ne vakfetmişdi. Bunlardan ba’zılarını Abdullatîf Efendi kütübhanesinde buldum. Vakfetdiğini kendi hat ve imzâsıyla gördüm.
Diğer kudâtdan Hayreddîn Efendizâde Ahmed Efendi de bu hengâme-i kıyâmette şehîd olup gitdi. Âlim, afîf, tâlik-nüvis bir zât idi. Mahdûmu kibâr-ı mevâlîden “Hayreddînzâdelikle” meşhûr İbrâhim Efendi’nin tercemesi yukarıda geçti.
In Modern English
He was originally from Amasya. He was the son of Emrullah Mehmed Efendi, son of Seyrek Muhyiddin Mehmed Efendi of Kalecik, a descendant of the Prophet, who died in 947 [1540-41] while mufti in Amasya and teacher of Prince Sultan Mustafa. He was born in Istanbul, studied, and became a müderris.
Then he entered the career of the judgeship and served as judge in the sanjaks. In Sha'ban 1007 [February-March 1599] he came as judge of Amasya and left office in 1009 [1600-01]. Because bandits had cut the roads, he had to remain in Amasya. In Rajab 1011 [December 1602-January 1603], when the Celali bandits entered Amasya, he fell as a martyr.
He was a learned, eloquent, and upright man. His son was es-Seyyid Abdurrahman Efendi, one of the scholars of the sudûr rank, and his brother was es-Seyyid Yunus Efendi, likewise of the sudûr. Before his death he had endowed his books to the Sultan Bayezid Library in Amasya. I found some of them in the Abdüllatif Efendi Library. I saw his endowment in his own handwriting and with his signature.
Among the judges, Hayreddin Efendizâde Ahmed Efendi also fell a martyr in this doomsday-like turmoil and was gone. He was a learned and chaste man who wrote the ta'lik script beautifully. His son, İbrahim Efendi, one of the senior judges, known as "Hayreddinzâde," has had his biography given above.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- sâdât-ı kirâm: descendants of the Prophet, seyyids
- mu'allim: teacher, tutor
- kazâ mesleği: the path of the judgeship (the word written "gazâ" in the text, in context, denotes the profession of judge)
- livâ: sanjak
- infisâl etmek: to leave office
- ikâmet etmeye mecbur olmak: to be obliged to stay
- natûk: eloquent, speaking well and effectively
- müstekîm: upright, honest
- sudûr: great scholars who had reached the rank of chief military judge (kazasker)
- kudât: judges
- hengâme-i kıyâmet: turmoil like the Day of Judgement
- tâlik-nüvis: one who writes the ta'lik script beautifully
- kibâr-ı mevâlî: the leading ones among the senior judges
His Grandfather Seyrek Muhyiddin Mehmed Efendi
Ahmed Efendi's grandfather was one of the teachers of Prince Mustafa, eldest son of Suleiman the Magnificent. A study on the killing of Prince Mustafa also states that the prince took lessons from Muhyiddin Mehmed and Sürûrî Mustafa Efendis, and, relying on Hüsameddin, relates that when his teacher Muhyiddin Mehmed Efendi died in 947 (1540), Hayreddin Hızır Efendi became the prince's teacher in his place. There is a chronological difficulty here: according to the same study, Prince Mustafa served seven years as sanjak governor in Manisa and was appointed to the sanjak of Amasya only in 948 (1541). Since his teacher died in 947, Muhyiddin Mehmed Efendi's tutorship falls in Mustafa's Manisa years. Hüsameddin's mentioning him at once as "mufti in Amasya and tutor of the prince" may therefore be combining two separate periods; the Amasya muftiship may have been held before the prince's arrival in Amasya or may be a post separate from the tutorship. In any case the family appears as a family of seyyids and scholars close to the prince's court. Ahmed Efendi's having been born in Istanbul also suggests that his father Emrullah Mehmed Efendi served in the capital.
The similarity of names between the Hayreddinzâde of the entry and Hayreddin Hızır Efendi, the grandfather's successor, is also noteworthy. The father of Hayreddin Efendizâde Ahmed Efendi, who fell a martyr in the Celali raid, may be this Hayreddin Hızır Efendi; but Hüsameddin does not link the two, and this is a guess.
The Celalis' Entry into Amasya
Ahmed Efendi was judge of Amasya in the years when Anatolia fell into great turmoil after the Karayazıcı revolt. Karayazıcı was given first Amasya for a time and then the sanjak of Çorum in 1600; he routed an Ottoman army at Kayseri, and when he suffered a heavy defeat at Sepetlü near Elbistan in August 1601, he withdrew to the Canik mountains and his brother Deli Hasan to the fortress of Tokat. News of Karayazıcı's death reached Istanbul in Ramadan 1010 (February-March 1602). Deli Hasan, who assumed leadership of the Celalis, plundered Kütahya and took tribute from Ankara; the government eventually pacified him by giving him the rank of pasha and the beylerbeyiship of Bosnia. It is known that among the chiefs with Karayazıcı was also Deli Zülfikar of Amasya.
The date Hüsameddin gives, Rajab 1011, falls in this period when Deli Hasan roamed Anatolia. Ahmed Efendi, who, although his judgeship had ended in 1009, could not leave the city because the roads were in the hands of bandits, was killed when the Celalis entered Amasya. Details of this raid were not found in other sources. The sections of Hüsameddin's book that narrate the Celali revolts are the main place to consult for the events of this period in Amasya.
The Books He Endowed and Today's Library
The most striking point of the entry is Hüsameddin's own testimony. He says that he found some of the books Ahmed Efendi endowed to the Sultan Bayezid Library in the Abdüllatif Efendi Library, and that he saw the endowment record in Ahmed Efendi's own handwriting and with his signature. This shows that book endowments in Amasya moved from place to place over time and that Hüsameddin examined manuscripts in person while writing his book.
The books of the library in the complex of Bayezid II are today preserved in the Amasya Bayezid Manuscript Library within the same complex. The building belongs to the General Directorate of Foundations (Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü); after being used for many years as the Provincial Public Library, it was restored with funding from the Turkish Manuscripts Institution (Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu) and reopened as a manuscript library. At the opening it was announced that the library held 2,503 manuscripts and 19,145 printed works. Whether the books of Ahmed Efendi bearing the endowment record are found in this collection today is a matter worth investigating through the library's catalogue; no published information on this was found.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 149–149. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
Official sources
Books
Other sources