AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

Ahmed Efendi, Ziyâreli Şeyh

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 6, p. 229–230 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Recep Orhan ÖZEL - Doç. Dr. Metin HAKVERDİOĞLU

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Amasya’nın Ziyâre Mahallesi’nden İsmâil’in mahdûmudur. Amasya’da Niksarlı el-Hâc İsmâil Efendi’den tahsîl-i ulûm edib bir müddet ders okutdu. 1251’de Soğuk Pınar Câmii vâ’izi oldu.

Amasya’da meşâyîh-i Nakşîbendiyyeden el-Hâc İsmâil Efendi’den müstahlef olduğundan Ziyâre’de bir Nakşîbendî tekkesi yaptırıp oraya şeyh oldu. Halkı tarîk-i mustakîme irşâd ve tehzîb-i ahlâka hizmet ederek 1270 senesi zilka’desinin yedisinde vefât etdi. Âlim, sâlih, müteşerri’, vâ’iz bir zât idi. Mahdûmu es-Seyyid Ali Efendi [740] kendisine halef oldu.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was the son of İsmail of the Ziyare Quarter of Amasya. In Amasya he studied under Niksarlı Hacı İsmail Efendi and taught for a time. In 1251 [1835-36] he became preacher of the Soğukpınar Mosque.

Since he was the deputy (halife) of Hacı İsmail Efendi, one of the Naqshbandi sheikhs of Amasya, he had a Naqshbandi lodge (tekke) built in Ziyare and became its sheikh. Serving to guide the people to the right path and to improve their morals, he died on the seventh of Zilkade in the year 1270 [1853-54]. He was a scholar, a pious man, one who followed the sharia, and a preacher. His son Seyyid Ali Efendi succeeded him.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • mahdûm: son
  • tahsîl-i ulûm: study of the religious sciences
  • vâ'iz: a person who delivers sermons
  • meşâyîh-i Nakşîbendiyye: the sheikhs of the Naqshbandi order
  • müstahlef: one left as successor, appointed as deputy in one's place
  • tekke: a building where members of a Sufi order gather
  • tarîk-i müstakîm: the right path
  • irşâd: guidance
  • tehzîb-i ahlâk: improving and refining morals
  • zilka'de: the eleventh month of the Hijri calendar
  • sâlih, müteşerri': good-natured and devout, living according to the sharia
  • halef: successor

A Neighbourhood Lodge

The text describes Ahmed Efendi's course in three stages: study with Niksarlı Hacı İsmail Efendi, a preachership at the Soğukpınar Mosque, and the deputyship of the Naqshbandi sheikh Hacı İsmail Efendi. Hüsameddin gives the name "Hacı İsmail Efendi" in two places: once as Niksarlı and once as the Naqshbandi sheikh of Amasya. Whether they are the same person is not clear; the text makes no distinction. The same Niksarlı Hacı İsmail Efendi appears in another entry of the book as a teacher of Ahmed Efendi, Hacıköylüzâde.

The abundance of Sufi lodges in Amasya is a known fact. According to the abstract of a thesis, lodges were built by statesmen so that the great orders spread across the world could carry out guidance in Amasya, and the leaders of the orders also came here and founded lodges; this earned the city the name "City of Saints". The Ottoman state is named as the state that had the most lodges built in Amasya. Whether the Naqshbandi lodge in Ziyare has survived to the present and where it stood could not be established from the sources consulted.

In Other Sources

The searches made for the Ziyare Quarter, the Soğukpınar Mosque and the Naqshbandi lodge turned up no record outside Hüsameddin. The month of Zilkade of the year 1270 [1853-54], the date of the sheikh's death, falls in the summer of 1854; no separate record of this death was found in any of the sources.

Bibliography

Volume 6 contents