Akdağîzâde Bedreddîn Mahmûd Efendi grew up in Amasya and rose from imam of Bayezid II to judge (kadı) of Bursa and then to military judge (kazasker) of Anatolia; he died in 915 (1509-10). To Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar he was "a learned, virtuous, poet, generous and accomplished man", and his poetry is tied to a single work: the book he wrote as a Turkish response poem (nazire) to the verse Muhammediyye of Yazıcıoğlu Mehmed and called Mahmûdiyye after his own name. All we know of this work is a single judgement that Hüsameddin quotes, and that judgement is not praise. His pen name (mahlas) is not recorded, and not a single couplet of his verse is in our hands.

Hüsameddin's Entry

The seventh volume of Amasya Tarihi lists a whole run of scholars called Bedreddîn Mahmûd one after another; Akdağîzâde's entry is one of them:

Bedreddîn Mahmûd Efendi-Akdağîzâde Amasyalıdır. Kibâr-ı meşâyih-i kirâmdan Akdağlı Mevlânâ Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi bin Ahmed mahdûmudur. Amasya'da müderris-i meşhûr Mevlânâ Şemseddîn Ahmed Cendî Çelebi'den ulûm-i edebiyye ve şer'iyyeyi ahz edib Mu'arrifzâde Mevlânâ Sinâneddîn Yûsuf Çelebi hizmetinde ikmâl-i tahsîl etdi. Amasya ve İstanbul'da müderris olup Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî nezdinde ma'rûfiyet kazanan 893'de İmâm-ı Sultânî Amasyalı Alî Efendi sefâretle Mısır'a gitdiği esnâda üstâdı Mu'arrifzâdenin sevk ü ta'rîfiyle imâm-ı Sultânî oldu. 899 senesi ramazânında Bursa kadısı Kadızâde Mevlânâ Kâsım Çelebi vefât etdikde Bursa kadısı oldu. On yıl Bursa'da kemâl-i istikâmet ile icrâ-yı hükûmet edib 909'da Anadolu kazaskeri olarak İstanbul'a geldi. İki yıl kazaskerlik edib 911'de azliyle ikinci defa Bursa kadısı olup gitdi. 914'de yevmî yüz akçe ulûfe ile mütekâ'id olduğu hâlde 915'de dâr-ı na'îme irtihâl etdi. Âlim, fâzıl, şâir, kerîm, kâmil bir zât idi.

In modern English: he was from Amasya, the son of Mevlânâ Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi bin Ahmed of Akdağ, one of the great sheikhs. He studied the literary and legal sciences under Mevlânâ Şemseddîn Ahmed Cendî Çelebi, a famous madrasa teacher (müderris) of Amasya, and completed his education in the service of Muarrifzâde Mevlânâ Sinâneddîn Yûsuf Çelebi. He taught in madrasas in Amasya and Istanbul. In 893, when the sultan's imam, Ali Efendi of Amasya, who had won standing with Bayezid II, went to Egypt as an envoy, he became the sultan's imam on the recommendation and introduction of his teacher Muarrifzâde. In Ramadan 899, when the judge of Bursa, Kadızâde Mevlânâ Kâsım Çelebi, died, he became judge of Bursa. He administered justice in Bursa for ten years with complete integrity, and in 909 came to Istanbul as military judge of Anatolia. After two years as military judge he was dismissed in 911 and went to Bursa as judge a second time. In 914 he retired on a daily stipend of one hundred akçe, and he died in 915. He was a learned, virtuous, poet, generous and accomplished man.

Hüsameddin does not end the entry there. He adds a long quotation from the translation of Taşköprizâde made by Mecdî Mehmed Efendi of Edirne, the Şakâyık Tercümesi, and lists the later generations of the family. Mecdî's is the only assessment we have of Akdağîzâde as a poet.

Life

Akdağîzâde came from a family of sheikhs associated with the Akdağ district of Amasya. Hüsameddin counts his father Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi among the "kibâr-ı meşâyih", the great sheikhs; in the entry on his brother Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Efendi he also says that the father was one of the Khalwati sheikhs and was born in the village of Alakise in Akdağ. Bedreddîn Mahmûd chose the madrasa rather than the dervish lodge and studied with two well-known teachers of Amasya. Of these, Muarrifzâde Sinâneddîn Yûsuf played a decisive role in his life: it was he who opened the way to the palace of Bayezid II, introducing his student to the sultan and having him made imam.

The road began at the prince's court in Amasya. In the third volume, describing the last years of Prince (Şehzade) Bayezid's governorship of Amasya, Hüsameddin records a change around 884 (1479): the prince's imam, Çorumluoğlu Alâeddîn Alî Efendi, was removed from office because his name was caught up in a disturbance at the court and sent to the Hacı Halil Paşa Madrasa in Gümüş, and "Akdağlı Şeyhzâde Bedreddîn Mahmûd Efendi" became imam in his place. The same lines tell how Hatîb Kâsım Efendi was appointed tutor (muallim) to the prince and how Muarrifzâde Sinâneddîn Yûsuf Efendi also came from Istanbul as tutor. Nearly ten years separate Akdağîzâde's post as the prince's imam from his post as the sultan's imam in the seventh volume. Placed side by side, the two records suggest that Bayezid, after coming to the throne in 1481, took his former imam back into his service; Hüsameddin, however, does not connect the two pieces of information and only says that in the intervening years he taught in Amasya and Istanbul.

Ramadan 899 falls in the middle of the summer of 1494. After this date Akdağîzâde served as judge in Bursa for ten years and rose to the military judgeship of Anatolia in 909 (1503-04). The military judgeship was the highest office in the Ottoman learned hierarchy after that of the şeyhülislam. Why he was dismissed two years later and sent back to Bursa, Hüsameddin does not record. About a year separates his retirement from his death. Where he died and where he was buried is not recorded.

In Hüsameddin's record his home town is plainly Amasya. That his father was a sheikh of Akdağ, that his first teachers were müderrises of Amasya and that his career began at Prince Bayezid's court in Amasya all support this record. His brother Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Efendi spent his whole life in Amasya: he studied with Hatîb Kâsım Efendi, completed his spiritual path in the company of the Khalwati sheikh Habib-i Karamânî, became sheikh of the Ahî Darbhâneci lodge and preacher of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, and was placed at the head of the lodge that Prince Ahmed had built south of the Kağnılı Market. In 912 the village of Alakise, where his father was born, was granted to him as freehold by imperial decree, and he endowed it to his lodge and to the mosque he built there. Hüsameddin writes that this brother defended Sunni belief fervently against the Shiism spread by Shah Ismail, that he died in Zilkade 917, and that he wrote a work on Sufism entitled Münebbihâtü'l-Kulûb.

His Poetry and the Mahmûdiyye

What documents Akdağîzâde as a poet are these words of Mecdî:

Ol fâzıl-ı vâlâ-mâye ferîk-i sa'âdet refîk-i ulemâya ve fırka-i sulehâ-yı salâh-ı intimâya muhabbet üzere olup kerem-i nefsle ma'rûf ve ahlâk-ı zekiyye ile mütehallik ve mevsûf bir fâzıl-ı me'âlî-i mahfûf idi. Elsine-i nâsda tedâvül eyleyen "Muhammediyye" nâm kitâb-ı be-nâma nazîre-i Türkî bir kitap tanzîm edib "Mahmûdiyye" deyû tesmiye eyledi. Lâkin merhûmun nazmı süst olup mertebesi rütbe-i kabûlden sâkıt olmağın beyne'l-halâyık rağbete lâyık olmadı.

Rendered into English: that scholar of high worth loved the fortunate company of the learned and the band of the righteous devoted to goodness; he was known for generosity of soul, adorned with pure character and surrounded by lofty qualities. He composed a Turkish response to the famous book called Muhammediyye that circulated on people's tongues and named it Mahmûdiyye. But because the late man's verse was slack, the book fell short of acceptance and found no favour among the people.

The Muhammediyye is the long verse work of Yazıcıoğlu Mehmed of Gelibolu on the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the states of the hereafter; in Mecdî's words it was a book that circulated on people's tongues. That Akdağîzâde wrote a nazire to it suggests that he aimed at a work that could also speak from the preacher's pulpit, as might suit an imam and judge. Mecdî's verdict, however, is clear: the verse is "süst", slack and weak, and the work was not well received. We have not been able to establish whether any copy of the Mahmûdiyye is known today. Hüsameddin quotes no couplet from it, and the tezkires (biographical anthologies of poets) record no poem under Akdağîzâde's name. Not one of his poems is known today.

Mecdî's remark appears to be the basis for Hüsameddin's description of him as a "poet". This also explains the difference between Hüsameddin's own assessment and Mecdî's: one counts him among the poets, the other says his verse found no favour. The two do not contradict each other; Akdağîzâde was a scholar whose pen also reached into poetry but who won his fame as judge and military judge.

Family

According to Hüsameddin, his son Alâeddîn Alî Çelebi served as a judge, and his grandson Mehmed Efendi also joined the ranks of the judges. Mehmed Efendi's son Pîrî Ahmed Efendi died in 996 (1588) while judge of Bursa. Three generations later, then, the family returned to the judgeship of Bursa, Bedreddîn Mahmûd's first high office. Of his brothers, Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Efendi was one of the great sheikhs of Amasya; the other brother, Kemâleddîn Ahmed Efendi, served as a judge.

Chronology

Around 884 (1479): He becomes imam at Prince Bayezid's court in Amasya.

893 (1488): On the recommendation of his teacher Muarrifzâde he becomes imam of Bayezid II.

Ramadan 899 (June-July 1494): He becomes judge of Bursa.

909 (1503-04): He comes to Istanbul as military judge of Anatolia.

911 (1505-06): He is dismissed and becomes judge of Bursa a second time.

914 (1508-09): He retires on a daily stipend of one hundred akçe.

915 (1509-10): He dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources