Esbak Amasya Müftüsü “Nâbî Efendi Yeğeni” demekle meşhûr el-Hâc Ebûbekir Efendi bin Ali Efendi’nin oğludur. Dayısı Payaslızâde el-Hâc Abdülhalîm Efendi’den tahsîl-i ulûm ederek icâzet-nâme aldı. Pederinin irtihâlinde Bekir Paşa Müderrisi olup bir müddet ders okutdu. Sonra münzevî olup 1293’de vefât etdi. Ulemâdan idi. Fahreddîn Mahallesi’ndeki bahçesinde medfûndur.
Oğlu Hacı Hâfız Mehmed Rahmî Efendi züğürt iken sulehâdan idi. Azıcık dünyalığa erdikte eşirrâdan oldu. Yokluk içinde 1334’de can verdi. Oğulları Ahmed Rüştü, Mehmed Cemal, Ali Râşid Efendilere yalnız borç bıraktı. -Sâmehahullah-
In Modern English
He was the son of Hacı Ebûbekir Efendi, the former mufti of Amasya, famous as "the nephew of Nâbî Efendi"; Ebûbekir Efendi was the son of Ali Efendi. He studied under his maternal uncle Payaslızade Hacı Abdülhalîm Efendi and received a certificate of license. On his father's death he became professor at the Bekir Pasha Madrasa and taught for a time. Later he withdrew into seclusion and died in 1293 [1876]. He was one of the scholars. He is buried in his garden in the Fahreddin quarter.
His son Hacı Hâfız Mehmed Rahmî Efendi was one of the good people while he was poor. When he came into a little worldly wealth he became one of the wicked. He died in poverty in 1334 [1915-16]. He left only debts to his sons Ahmed Rüştü, Mehmed Cemal and Ali Râşid Efendi. May God forgive him.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- esbak: former, previous
- tahsîl-i ulûm: acquiring learning
- icâzet-nâme: a written certificate that a student has completed the lessons and may teach
- irtihâl: death, departure
- müderris: madrasa professor
- münzevî: withdrawn, living apart from people
- medfûn: buried
- züğürt: poor, empty-handed
- sulehâ: good, pious people
- eşirrâ: ill-natured people, troublemakers
- Sâmehahullah: may God forgive him
The Bekir Pasha Madrasa and the Ijazah System
The Bekir Pasha Madrasa of the text is one of the madrasas in Amasya where teaching continued in the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1879 Abdurrahman Kâmil Efendi (Yetkin) was appointed professor of the same madrasa; he later became mufti of Amasya and was among those who received Mustafa Kemal at the beginning of the National Struggle. Kâmil Efendi himself wrote that he gave licenses to sixty-five students over three periods in twenty-seven years. This figure gives a concrete idea of the number of students a teacher could train in an Amasya madrasa at the end of the nineteenth century.
The ijazah is the last link of madrasa education. The student read certain books under a teacher and finished them, and the teacher confirmed in writing his competence to teach. In the text, Ahmed Rüşdü's receiving a license from his maternal uncle shows how this system worked. It is known that Amasya had more than forty madrasas and that under Abdülhamid II the identity, education, teachers, courses and licenses of the learned class were recorded in the Meşihat Archive. Studies on these records have examined eight Amasya professors in detail; Ahmed Rüşdü Efendi is not among them.
The Last Years of Madrasa Education
Abdurrahman Kâmil Efendi received his license in 1879 from Şirvânî Mîr Hasan Efendi and was appointed professor of the Bekir Pasha Madrasa in the same year. By his own account, at the third license ceremony held in 1908, at the request of Hacı Reşid Pasha, who attended, the office of the Meşihat gave silver medals to twenty-two of his students and a gold medal to himself. These records show that license ceremonies were still held at this madrasa thirty years after Ahmed Rüşdü's death in 1293 [1876], and that they were valued by the state.
On the Family
In this entry Hüsameddin describes three generations of a family one after another. The first generation was a mufti, the second, Ahmed Rüşdü, a learned professor. The words written about Mehmed Rahmî of the third generation, however, depart from the general language of the book in their harshness. The author says that he was good while poor and became bad when he came into a little wealth, and adds a prayer for forgiveness. The events on which these sentences rest cannot be understood from the text. Hüsameddin is seen describing his own contemporaries in the same book, sometimes with praise and sometimes with criticism; this entry is one of the critical examples.
The garden in the Fahreddin quarter shows that the family owned property. That the professor is buried in his garden may mean that burials were made in private gardens within the quarter in nineteenth-century Amasya; the text gives no further information on this.
The Man in Other Sources
No information could be found in other sources about Hacı Bekir Efendizade Ahmed Rüşdü Efendi, his father Hacı Ebûbekir Efendi, "Nâbî Efendi," or his maternal uncle Payaslızade Hacı Abdülhalîm Efendi. These names do not appear in studies of the madrasas and professors of Amasya.
Bibliography
Primary sources
Academic studies