Amasya fuzalâsından Allâme es-Seyyid el-Hâc Abdullah Vecîh Efendi bin eş-Şeyh Hasan Sinanî Efendi bin Mehmed bin Hasan bin Mehmed’in üçüncü mahdûmu olup 1200 senesi muharreminde doğdu. Mukaddimât-ı ulûmu pederinden görüp eniştesi Niksarlı Müftüzâde el-Hâc İsmâil, Hacı Ahmedzâde es-Seyyid Mustafa ve pederinin tavsiyyesiyle Payaslı el-Hâc Mehmed Efendilerden ulûm-ı akliyye ve nakliyyeyi ahz ve ikmâl ederek mücâz ve ders-i âm oldu.
1219’da pederinin vefâtı ile mahlûl olan Hüseyin Ağa Medresesi müderrisi olup tedrîs-i ulûma nasb-ı nefs etdi. Tahkîk ve ifâdesi pederinin hayrulhalefi olduğunu ispat eylediğinden 1233 zilka’desinin on birinde Amasya müftüsü oldu.
Fakat vazife-yi fetvâdan istiğnası, iftâdan ictinâbı tab’-ı âlîlerine galib geldiğinden 1234 senesi rebîülevvelinin dokuzuncu günü fetvâdan isti’fâ ederek kûşe-i vahdete [742] çekildi. Bundan sonra cedd-i âlîlerinin halifesi eş-Şeyh Osmân Efendi’nin hulefâsından Halvetî eş-Şeyh İsmâil Efendi sohbetine mülâzemet ederek ondan ahz-ı hilâfet etdi.
Tedrîs ve takrîre müdâvemet edib pederinin açtığı zâviyesinde Halvetîye tarîkatı üzere zikr ü tevhide muvâzabet ederek alâ’ik-i dünyevîyeden el çekti. Birkaç defa Amasya müftülüğü, meclis-i de’âvâ ve idâre a’zâlığı teklif ve ibrâm edildiği halde hiçbirini de kabûl etmedi.
Fazilethânesi, ziyâret-gâh-ı ulemâ ve a’yân-ı kirâm, merci-i havâss ü a’vâm olduğu halde asla meslek-i inzivâsından inhirâf etmeyerek gâyet muhterem bir halde yaşadı. Sonunda on beş gün kadar hasta yatdı. 1273 senesi rebîülevvelinin on ikinci gecesi seherinde mu’tadı olan teheccüt nâmazını ba’de’l-edâ secdegâhında dâr-ı kûdse irtihâl etdi. Peder-i âlîlerinin nezdine defnedildi.
Fâzıl, kâffe-i ulûmda mütebahhir, hâssaten ulûm-ı şer’iyye ve edebiyyede mâhir, gâyet kâmil, vecîh, vakûr, [743] âbid, müteşerri’,zâhid, latîf, tab’ân sahî, edîb, âlî-himmet, mazınne-i kerâmet bir azîz idi. İlm-i şeri’atde yektâ, fenn-i tasavvufda yegâne-i asr idi.
-Kuddise sırruhü’l-azîz-.
Merhûmun cenâzesi Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii şerîfinin avlusuna getirilip sağ taraftaki mûsâlla taşına kondu. Namazını mahşer halinde mazınne-i kirâmdan Nakşibendiyye şeyhi şehir Kethüdâsızâde eş-Şeyh Mehmed Arif Efendi kıldırdı.
Namazın hitâmında tezkiye edilirken meşâyih ve mürîdânın sayhası, halkın şâhikası, ulemânın dökdüğü hazîn gözyaşları bütün Amasya’yı bir mâtem-hâneye çevirdi. Tabutu parmak üzerinde ezkâr ü tehlîlât ile Aşağı Pirlerin şarkında kâin köşe başına kadar götürüldü.
Müşârün-ileyhin zâviyesi her cuma gecesi bir mahfel-i ulemâ ve a’yân olur. Nice mebâhis-i celîle ve siyer-i nebeviyyeden bahsedilirdi. Meclisi gâyet muhteşem olup herkes müşârün-ileyhin ne söyleyecek diye yüzüne bakıb ebsem durur. Bir şey söylerse kemâl-i dikkatle dinlerdi. Meclisinde gıybet, mezemmet [744] riyâkârâne medh ü sitayiş, lağviyyât gibi hâlât-ı mezmûmeden eser bulunmaz. Meclisin mehâbetinden tütün içilmezdi.
Yatsı nâmazını kıldıran Efendi, Sûver-i Kur’âniyye ve âyât-ı kerîmeden her hangisini okursa mevzu-ı bahs ancak bu suver ü âyât olur. Bunun tefsîrinde nice ehâdis-i şerîfe, hakâyık-ı şer’iyye, dekâyık-ı sûfiyye söylenir. Bunlar büyük ve rahmânî bir vecd ile dinlenirdi.
Ma’işeti Hüseyin Ağa müderrisliğinden aldığı vazifeye münhasırdı. Sonra bu vazifesi Sultân Mahmûd Hân-ı Sânî tarafından tezyîd ve senevî ayrıca surre ihsân edilirdi. Kezâlik Mısır Valisi Mehmed Ali Paşa tarafından da kendisini iğnâ edecek kadar surre gelirdi. Sultân Abdülmecid Hân’ın cülûsundan sonra vazife ve ma’aşı biraz daha artırıldı. Bu sûretle zâviyesinde fukarası bol, masârif-i ta’âmiyyesi mebzûl, herkes lutf ve nimetinden mütena’im idi.
Mahdûmları meşâhîr-i sulehâdan es-Seyyid İsmâil Efendi 1311’de ve hayrü’l-halefi olan el-Hâc eş-Şeyh Hâfız Mehmed Ali Efendi 1312’de Hicâzda vefât etdi. İsmâil Efendi’nin oğulları [745] AbdullahVecîh, Mehmed Dâ’î Efendilerdir. Şeyh Hacı Ali Efendi’nin oğulları da el-Hâc Ali, Mustafa Efendilerdir.
In Modern English
He was the third son of the learned Seyyid Hacı Abdullah Vecîh Efendi, a scholar of Amasya; Abdullah Vecîh Efendi was the son of Sheikh Hasan Sinanî Efendi, who was the son of Mehmed, son of Hasan, son of Mehmed. He was born in the month of Muharram 1200 [1785-86]. He studied the basic sciences with his father. Under the guidance of his brother-in-law Hacı İsmail of Niksar, known as Müftüzâde, of Seyyid Mustafa, known as Hacı Ahmedzâde, and of his father, he studied the rational and the transmitted sciences with Hacı Mehmed Efendi of Payas and others, completed his studies, received his licence to teach, and gained the right to give public lectures.
In 1219 [1804-05], when his father died, he became professor of the Hüseyin Ağa Madrasa, which had fallen vacant, and devoted himself to teaching. His research and his way of explaining showed that he was a worthy successor to his father, and on the eleventh of Zilkade 1233 [1817-18] he became the mufti of Amasya.
However, his lofty temperament inclined to stay away from the duty of issuing fatwas and to avoid giving them, and on the ninth day of Rebîülevvel 1234 [1818-19] he resigned from the post and withdrew into solitude. After this he frequented the company of the Halveti Sheikh İsmail Efendi, one of the deputies of Sheikh Osman Efendi, who had been his grandfather's deputy, and received from him the licence of the order.
He continued to teach and lecture. In the lodge his father had opened he persevered in remembrance and the affirmation of divine unity according to the Halveti order, and he gave up worldly attachments. Several times the post of mufti of Amasya, and membership of the council of lawsuits and of the administrative council, were offered to him and pressed upon him, yet he accepted none of them.
His house was a place of visit for scholars and notables, and a door to which both the elite and the common people turned. He never departed from his path of seclusion and lived in great respect. In the end he lay ill for about fifteen days. On the twelfth night of Rebîülevvel 1273 [1856-57], at dawn, after performing the night prayer he was in the habit of offering, he died at his place of prostration and passed to the next world. He was buried beside his father.
He was a man of virtue, deeply versed in all the sciences, especially skilled in the religious sciences and in literature, very mature, dignified and grave, devoted to worship, faithful to the sharia, detached from the world, refined, generous by nature, a man of letters, of lofty aspiration, and a saintly figure believed to possess miraculous gifts. He was unique in the science of the sharia and the one man of his age in the knowledge of Sufism.
-May God sanctify his secret.-
The late scholar's body was brought to the courtyard of the Mosque of Sultan Bayezid and placed on the funeral stone on the right-hand side. The funeral prayer was led by the Naqshbandi sheikh Şeyh Mehmed Arif Efendi, the son of the city steward (kethüda), who was counted among those thought to possess saintly gifts.
At the end of the prayer, as the people were asked to forgive any claim they held against him, the cries of the sheikhs and disciples, the wailing of the townspeople and the bitter tears shed by the scholars turned the whole of Amasya into a house of mourning. His bier was carried on fingertips, accompanied by invocations and recitations of the creed, as far as the street corner east of Aşağı Pirler.
The lodge of the late sheikh was a gathering place of scholars and notables every Friday night. Many lofty subjects and the life of the Prophet were discussed. His assembly was very impressive; everyone looked at his face to see what he would say, and waited in silence. When he said something it was heard with the greatest attention. In his assembly there was no trace of such censured things as backbiting, slander, hypocritical praise and flattery, or idle talk. Because of the gravity of the assembly, no tobacco was smoked.
When the Efendi led the night prayer, whichever sura or verse of the Quran he recited became the sole subject of conversation. In its interpretation many hadiths, truths of the law and subtleties of Sufism were spoken. These were heard with great and divinely inspired rapture.
His livelihood was limited to the stipend he drew from the professorship of the Hüseyin Ağa Madrasa. Later this stipend was raised by Sultan Mahmud II, and a surre gift was bestowed on him every year. Likewise a surre came to him from Mehmed Ali Pasha, the governor of Egypt, large enough to make him wealthy. After Sultan Abdülmecid Han's accession, his stipend and salary were increased somewhat more. Thus in his lodge the poor were many, the food expenses abundant, and everyone benefited from his kindness and bounty.
Of his sons, the well-known pious Seyyid İsmail Efendi died in the Hejaz in 1311 [1893-94], and his successor Hacı Şeyh Hâfız Mehmed Ali Efendi died in the Hejaz in 1312 [1894-95]. İsmail Efendi's sons are Abdullah Vecîh and Mehmed Dâî Efendi. The sons of Sheikh Hacı Ali Efendi are Hacı Ali and Mustafa Efendi.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mücâz: one who has been granted a licence (icazet) to teach
- ders-i âm: a professor authorised to give public lectures in mosques
- mukaddimât-ı ulûm: the basic introductory lessons of the sciences
- ulûm-ı akliyye ve nakliyye: the sciences learned through reason and the sciences based on transmission (exegesis, hadith, jurisprudence)
- istiğnâ, ictinâb: not feeling the need for something, avoidance
- isti'fâ: withdrawal from office, resignation
- kûşe-i vahdet: the corner of solitude, seclusion
- hilâfet: in a Sufi order, the authority to teach and to take disciples
- zâviye: a small lodge, a place where dervishes gather
- teheccüd: the voluntary prayer performed after midnight
- mûsâlla taşı: the stone on which the body is placed during the funeral prayer
- mazınne-i kirâm: respected persons believed to possess saintly gifts
- surre: money and gifts sent to Mecca and Medina; here used in the sense of a gift reaching the person
- vazife: a stipend paid in return for a post
The Hüseyin Ağa Madrasa
The building Hüsameddin calls the Hüseyin Ağa Madrasa appears to be the one known today as the Büyük Ağa or Kapı Ağası Madrasa. It was built in 1488, in the reign of Bayezid II, at the wish of Hüseyin Ağa, the Kapı Ağası, head of the harem servants at the palace; it is listed among the notable Ottoman buildings of Amasya as the "Kapı Ağası Hüseyin Ağa Madrasa (1488)". Its plan is octagonal, and this plan was used here for the first time in Ottoman madrasa architecture. Around a colonnaded octagonal courtyard are student rooms, each covered by a small dome; the largest domed room is the main lecture hall. Today the building is used for the training of local youth as hafızs. According to the text, the stipend that supported Ahmed Rüşdü Efendi came from the professorship of this madrasa, and the text also shows that the professorship passed from father to son.
The Halveti Tradition and Pirler
The lodge Hüsameddin describes is one link in the Halveti line that has run through Amasya for centuries. The lodge founded in 1412 in the Pîrler quarter of the city by Pazarlıoğlu Yâkub Pasha, Beylerbeyi of Ankara, belongs to the Halveti order and is also known among the people as the Çilehâne Lodge. The author of Amasya Tarihi says that this lodge stood inside the Yâkub Pasha Mansion. It is counted among the rare early examples of Ottoman Sufi buildings that have kept their original form; it was damaged in the 1939 Erzincan earthquake and repaired in 1967. That the funeral procession in the text walked as far as "the street corner east of Aşağı Pirler" suggests the quarter's link to this spiritual setting; however, the location of Ahmed Rüşdü Efendi's lodge and its relation to this lodge could not be verified in the sources read.
His Time and Family
Ahmed Rüşdü Efendi lived in the reigns of Mahmud II (1808-1839) and Abdülmecid (1839-1861). According to Hüsameddin, his stipend was raised under these two sultans, and Mehmed Ali Pasha, the governor of Egypt, also sent him a surre. These details show that the sheikh of a lodge in Amasya was known at the level of the palace and of the governorship of Egypt; they have not, however, been confirmed by another source. No information was found in other sources on the Naqshbandi sheikh Mehmed Arif Efendi, who led the funeral prayer, or on Ahmed Rüşdü Efendi himself.
Bibliography