Îdîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi was one of the best-known scholars of Amasya in the first half of the eighteenth century and a divan poet who wrote under the pen name (mahlas) "Âkif". Popularly called "Koca Müftü" (the Great Mufti), he twice served as mufti of Amasya and, according to Hüsameddin, taught in the city's madrasas for forty-five years. He was known as "Îdîzâde" because his father was Bayram Efendi, who wrote poetry under the pen name Îdî; in the sources his name also appears as Iydîzâde, ‘Îdî-zâde and, in Râmiz's biographical anthology of poets (tezkire), as Abdîzâde. Âkif, who is known to have written in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, left a small divan whose only copy is in the Topkapı Palace Library; poems selected from it were published in 2020 in an article by Tolga Öntürk and Özcan Tunçadam. Each of the kasides, ghazals, quatrains and couplets in that article is given as a separate page in this category.

Hüsameddin's Entry

In the eleventh volume of his Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya), Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar introduces the poet in a long entry among the people of Amasya whose names begin with "Âkif". The first part of the entry lists his education and his posts:

Âkif Mustafa Efendi-Iydîzâde Hacı. Mevâlîden Iydî Bayram Efendi bin Mustafa Efendi bin Iydî Efendi'nin mahdûmudur. Pederi Amasya müftüsü iken 1097'de doğdu. Amasya ve İstanbul ulemâsından ikmâl-i tahsîl ve hutût-ı mütenevviayı Ali Hulûsî Efendi'den temeşşûk ederek her cihetden mücâz ve mümtâz oldu. İstanbul'da açılan müderrislik imtihânını parlak bir sûretde kazandı. 1122'de müderris olup 1127'de Köprülü Dârülhadîs müderrisi, 1128'de Amasya'da Küçük Ağa, 1129'da Sultân Bâyezîd müderrisi ve birkaç ay sonra Amasya müftüsü oldu. 1133'de baş a'yân Ömer Paşazâde Osmân ve ba'dehû Rahtuvan Paşazâde Hacı İbrâhim beylerin aleyhinde tevâlî eden şikâyetler üzerine davâlarına bakmak için müvellâ ya'nî husûsî hâkim ve müfetdiş ta'yîn edildi. Şu iki nüfûzlu a'yânın şikâyetleriyle fetvâ ve teftişden azl edilerek tedrîs-i ulûm ile iştigâl etdi. 1143'de ikinci defa Amasya müftüsü olduysa da 1144 recebinde meşîhat-ı İslâmiyye'nin emîr ve mezûniyeti olmaksızın birâderi Mehmed Râif Efendi'yi vekîl ta'yîn ederek Hicâz'a gitdiği şikâyet edilmekle şa'bânında fetvâdan azledildi.

In English: Âkif Mustafa Efendi was the son of Iydî Bayram Efendi, a scholar of the rank of mevâlî; his grandfather was Mustafa Efendi, and his great-grandfather Iydî Efendi. He was born in 1097 (1685-86), while his father was mufti of Amasya. He completed his education with the scholars of Amasya and Istanbul, learned the various styles of calligraphy from Ali Hulûsî Efendi and, receiving licences (icazet) in every field, rose to distinction. He passed the examination for madrasa teachers held in Istanbul with brilliant success. In 1122 (1710-11) he became a madrasa teacher (müderris); in 1127 (1715) he was appointed to the Köprülü Dârülhadis, in 1128 to the Küçük Ağa Madrasa in Amasya and in 1129 to the Sultan Bayezid Madrasa, and a few months later he was made mufti of Amasya. In 1133 (1720-21) he was appointed judge and inspector with special powers to examine the repeated complaints made against the chief notable (baş âyan) of the city, Ömer Paşazâde Osman Bey, and afterwards against Rahtuvan Paşazâde Hacı İbrahim Bey. Because of the complaints of these two powerful notables he was removed from both the office of mufti and the inspectorate, and he returned to his teaching. In 1143 (1730-31) he became mufti of Amasya for the second time; but when it was reported that in Receb 1144 (January 1732) he had left for the Hejaz without the permission of the office of the Şeyhülislam, appointing his brother Mehmed Râif Efendi as his deputy, he was dismissed in the month of Şaban.

The rest of the entry describes the long years of teaching after his return from the pilgrimage and the poet's character:

Edâ-yı hâcdan sonra avdet ve çok sevdiği tedrîs-i ulûma mülâzemet ederek pek çok şâkird-i irfân yetişdirdi. Amasya'yı vücûduyla bir Dârülfünûn şekline koydu. Sabah dersini Sultân Bâyezîd, öğle ve ikindi derslerini de İçerişehir'de hânesinin karşısındaki Câmi-i Kebîr'de okuturdu. Bundan sonra her müftü azlinde kendisini müftü yapmak için edilen ısrârlara karşı durdu. Hiçbirini de kabûl etmeyip ölünceye kadar tedrîsden ayrılmadı. Hânesinin selâmlık kısmını erbâb-ı ilim ve edeble musâhabâta tahsîs etdiğinden haftada bir gece bunları toplar, ilmî ve edebî sohbetler ederdi. Müderrislikden yevmîyesi yüz akçe idi. Bunun en aşağı yarısını Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii'ne gidip gelirken fukaraya verir, bakiyyesiyle bol bol geçinirdi. Fakat erbâb-ı dikkat kırk elli akçe ile bolluk içinde maîşet kâbil olmayacağını takdîr ederek "ya hüddâmı var yâhud kırtasiye yapar" derlerdi. Bunu hafîdi es-Seyyid Abdürrahîm Efendi nakleder. Zamanında kendisinden istifâde etmek üzere Amasya'ya koşan talebe-i ulûmu medreselere yerleşdirmek ve güzel idâre etdirmek bir mes'ele olduğundan bir meclis-i ulemâ açılmışdı. Bu meclis-i âlî'ye şeyhü'l-ulemâ olan zevât riyâset ederdi. Ahiren riyâset-i ilmiyye kendisine müntehî ve şeyhü'l-ulemâ oldu.

In English: On his return from the pilgrimage he devoted himself to the teaching he loved and trained a great many students; in Hüsameddin's words, his presence turned Amasya into a university. He gave his morning lesson in the Sultan Bayezid Mosque and his noon and afternoon lessons in the Great Mosque (Cami-i Kebir) opposite his house in İçerişehir. From then on, whenever a mufti was dismissed, people pressed him to take the office, but he accepted none of these offers and did not leave teaching until his death. He had set aside the men's quarters (selamlık) of his house for conversation with men of learning and letters; one night a week he gathered them there for scholarly and literary discussion. His daily stipend as a müderris was a hundred akçe. He gave at least half of it to the poor on his way to and from the Sultan Bayezid Mosque and lived in plenty on the rest. Observant people, reckoning that one could not live in such abundance on forty or fifty akçe, used to say "either he has people serving him or he does paperwork (kırtasiye)", meaning that they suspected he had some other income. This is reported by his grandson Seyyid Abdürrahîm Efendi. In his time, finding places in the madrasas for the students who flocked to Amasya to learn from him, and keeping them in good order, had become a problem, and so a council of scholars had been set up. This high council was presided over by men regarded as "şeyhü'l-ulemâ" (elder of the scholars); in the end the scholarly presidency passed to him, and he himself became şeyhü'l-ulemâ.

The last part of the entry records his death, his character, his students and his family:

Hülâsa Amasya'da kırk beş yıl tedrîs-i ulûma hasr-ı işgâl ederek neşr-i maârife himmet eden bu zât, 1173 senesi recebinin yirmi dördüncü pazar günü sabahında dâr-ı naîme irtihâl etdi. Amasya bir mâtem günü yaşadı. Cenâzesi Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii'ne getirildi. Bir mahşer halinde namazı kılındı. Ok meydanına giden yolun sol tarafındaki mezârlığın şarkında kâin yere defnedildi. Ulemânın ziyâret-gâhı idi. Gâyet fâzıl, her ilimde mütebahhir, muhakkik, vakûr, kâmil, hattât, ulûm-ı Arabiyye'ye hakkıyla vâkıf, usûl ve fürû'da allâme-i asr idi. Edebiyâtda mâhir, şâir, nâzik tabîat, rikkat-ı tab'a mâlik, pek sahî, sofrası açık, hânedân idi. Tilmizlerinin içinde Seküköylüzâde Kâşif Mehmed, Laz Hacı İbrâhim, Çorumlu Kara Müftü İsmail Hâtif, Fenercizâde Hacı Evliyâ Halil Keşfi, Çelebizâde Fâzıl Hüseyin, İstanbul'da ders vekili olan Köprülü Halil, Ürgüplü Hacı Ahmed Efendiler meşâhîr-i fuzalâdan idiler. Tefsîr ve hadîsi Mekke-i Mükerreme muhaddislerinden almış olduğu kendi kalemiyle görmüş ve derhal iktibâs etmişdim. Hayfâ ki yandı. İyi bir sülâle-i ilmiyye idi. Mahdûm-ı yegânesi Kâmil İsmail Efendi'dir. Bu da fuzalâdan Kayyımzâde Hacı İsmail Efendi'nin kerîmezâdesidir. Kâmil İsmail Efendizâde es-Seyyid Abdürrahîm Efendi'dir. Bu tercemeyi bildiren de budur.

In English: This man, who for forty-five years gave all his labour to teaching in Amasya and strove to spread learning, died on the morning of Sunday, the twenty-fourth of Receb in the year 1173. Amasya lived through a day of mourning. His body was brought to the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, and his funeral prayer was performed by a vast crowd. He was buried on the east side of the cemetery to the left of the road leading to the Ok Meydanı (archery ground); his grave was visited by scholars. He was a man of great virtue, deeply versed in every science, a careful researcher, dignified and accomplished, a calligrapher; he knew the Arabic sciences thoroughly and was regarded as the most learned man of his age in the principles and branches of jurisprudence. He was a skilled poet, refined and sensitive in temperament, very generous, with a table open to all, a man of noble household. Among his students were well-known scholars such as Seküköylüzâde Kâşif Mehmed, Laz Hacı İbrahim, Çorumlu Kara Müftü İsmail Hâtif, Fenercizâde Hacı Evliya Halil Keşfî, Çelebizâde Fâzıl Hüseyin, Köprülü Halil, who served as deputy lecturer (ders vekili) in Istanbul, and Ürgüplü Hacı Ahmed Efendi. Hüsameddin says that he had seen a document in Âkif's own hand showing that he had received tafsir and hadith from the hadith scholars of Mecca, and had copied it at once, but that the copy was burned; the sentence appears incomplete in the printed text, but this is its sense. His only son was Kâmil İsmail Efendi, whose mother was the daughter of the scholar Kayyımzâde Hacı İsmail Efendi. Kâmil İsmail Efendi's son was Seyyid Abdürrahîm Efendi, and it was he who passed this life story on to Hüsameddin.

This entry of Hüsameddin's also appears separately in the site's Amasya encyclopedia under the title Âkif Mustafa Efendi (Iydîzâde Hacı).

His Life

The most detailed information on Âkif's life is found in Kitâbü'l-Mecmû' fi'l-Meşhûd ve'l-Mesmû', written in Arabic by his grandson Âkifzâde Abdürrahîm Efendi (d. 1815). Drawing on Hikmet Özdemir's translation of this work, Öntürk and Tunçadam present Âkif as a scholar of great depth, consulted in the rational and transmitted sciences, especially tafsir, hadith, lexicography, legal methodology and literature, and well versed in genealogies. According to the same work Âkif studied in Cairo in his youth, where he learned the sound hadiths transmitted by Bukhârî, Muslim and other traditionists, received a licence from Ebü'l-İzz el-Acemî, made the pilgrimage three times and then returned to his homeland. Mehmet Faruk Çifçi, working from the manuscript of Âkif's Arabic maqamas, thinks that he worked in a court in Egypt in some capacity that cannot be determined and came to Istanbul around 1708. His grandson's account also states that his grandfather made long journeys from east to west.

The details given by his grandson agree with the portrait drawn by Hüsameddin, but add some curious touches. Âkif was knowledgeable in medicine and had treated many patients. To protect his eyesight and strengthen it he would light a great many candles in front of him. He usually taught in the garden of his house and accepted no more than four or five students at a time; if he was persuaded to take more, he would seat them at the back and try not to see them. He would invite the governor, the judge, the scholars and the aghas to a banquet at his house, then regret it and send word that the invitation was cancelled. He would hang round his neck a white bag full of gold and silver coins and distribute them to the poor in the mosque. That he could be so generous without being well off gave rise among the people to the belief that he enjoyed divine favour and knew hidden sciences. The saying recorded by Hüsameddin, "either he has people serving him or he does paperwork", is another reflection of the same curiosity. Towards the end of his life, wary of the disorder and false rumours that people spread, he withdrew into seclusion and gave himself to worship; because during his remembrance of God (zikr) he fell into states resembling those of the ecstatics, people took him for a madman.

According to his grandson, Âkif was fond of collecting books; he gathered especially books relating to Amasya and wrote notes in the margins of his books in a fine ta'lik hand. He was known as "the last scholar in the lands of Rum engaged in learned research". The same source says that at one point Şeyhülislam Mustafa Efendi attached him to the Süleymaniye Madrasa. According to what Ürgüplü Ahmed Efendi reported from him, he was born in 1098 (1686) and died in 1173 (1759-60), and was buried in the cemetery beside the walls of Amasya, on the qibla side of the Musalla road.

His Connection with Amasya

All the sources make Âkif's connection with Amasya clear; only his place of birth is disputed. Hüsameddin says that he was born while his father was mufti of Amasya, and the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Names in Turkish Literature) also gives Amasya as his birthplace. The Kitâbü'l-Mecmû', as quoted by Öntürk and Tunçadam, states instead that he was born in Merzifon and lived in Amasya; Çifçi, relying on the same source, also gives Merzifon as his birthplace. Since the family is known to have come from Merzifon, and his father Bayram Efendi to have been educated there, both statements may reflect the family's history. Whichever his birthplace, Âkif's whole scholarly life was spent in Amasya: he taught in the Küçük Ağa and Sultan Bayezid madrasas, twice became the city's mufti, presided over its council of scholars, and after a funeral prayer in the Sultan Bayezid Mosque was buried in the city's cemetery. In the closing couplet of one of his ghazals he asks himself, "Niyyetiñ semt-i Amasîyaya ric‘at mi degildir", that is, "is it not your intention to turn back towards Amasya".

Family and Circle

The Îdîzâdes, also known as the Hacıbayramoğulları, were a family that produced madrasa teachers, muftis, judges and poets in Merzifon and Amasya for generations. Quoting Sadi Bayram's study of the family, Öntürk and Tunçadam mention the family tradition that traces its descent to Seyyid Ahmed-i Kebîr er-Rufâî and his son Seyyid Necmeddin Yahya er-Rufâî. His father, Ebû Muhammed Bayram Efendi, was a scholar who wrote poetry under the pen name Îdî and left a divan; the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü says that he taught at the Bayezid II Madrasa. Âkif's elder brother Âtıf Ahmed Efendi was also a poet and madrasa teacher; Hüsameddin records that he died in 1138 (1726) (Öntürk and Tunçadam give 1727) and that he was a witty poet skilled in Arabic and Persian literature. Öntürk and Tunçadam mention another brother: Abdurrahman Efendi (d. 1738), who served as mufti in various cities. In Hüsameddin's entry, the brother whom Âkif left as his deputy during his journey to the Hejaz is Mehmed Râif Efendi.

Âkif's wife was the daughter of Kayyımzâde Hacı İsmail Efendi, one of the scholars of Amasya. Both his only son Kâmil İsmail Efendi and his grandson Abdürrahîm Efendi were scholars and madrasa teachers. His grandson Seyyid Abdürrahîm Efendi is both the source of the family memory passed on to Hüsameddin and the author of the Kitâbü'l-Mecmû'. Of the students named by Hüsameddin, Seküköylüzâde Kâşif Mehmed Efendi appears in the same work as the teacher of other Amasya scholars too; in this way Âkif's circle of students links up with the next generation of Amasya's ulema.

His Works

According to Bursalı Mehmed Tâhir's Osmanlı Müellifleri, Âkif wrote glosses (ta'likat) on the Makâsıd, an arranged divan, and a work called Bedî'a consisting of thirty-two maqamas in the manner of Harîrî's Makâmât. His grandson further attributes to him kasides called "Mîmiyye" and "Ayniyye" and a work called Makassimü'l-fünûn. Sâlim's tezkire considers Âkif as strong as Harîrî in Arabic composition and says that the ten maqamas he wrote as a nazire (response work) to Harîrî were admired and copied by the eloquent men of the time. Çifçi has identified four maqamas by Âkif in the miscellany numbered Aşir Efendi 421 in the Süleymaniye Library: the Hagia Sophia, Egypt, Tripoli and Constantinople maqamas. The first of these tells of a plague epidemic in Istanbul through the mouth of a merchant called Sehl b. Yesâr, and according to Çifçi was written between 1713 and 1716, during the grand vizierate of Dâmâd Ali Paşa, to whom it is dedicated. The same miscellany also contains poems by Âkif on folios 42-48.

The only known copy of the divan is held in the Topkapı Palace Library under the number H. 953. According to the description by Öntürk and Tunçadam, the manuscript has 45 folios; its date of copying and its copyist are unknown; it is written in ta'lik script on burnished paper and bound in brown leather with a flap. The divan contains three kasides, one of them a na't (poem in praise of the Prophet), forty ghazals, eight of them in Persian, four quatrains (rubâî), one "nazm", three chronogram poems, one riddle (lügaz) and thirty-one single couplets (müfred). The ghazals do not form a regular series with poems for every letter, and some poems were left incomplete; even so, the authors regard the divan as having the appearance of an arranged (mürettep) divan.

His Poetry

The biographers who mention Âkif agree that he was strong both as a scholar and as a poet. Râmiz describes him as a skilled poet with fine expression in verse and prose; Sâlim says that in Arabic and Turkish poetry he was graceful, harmonious and fluent, and in prose had an elegant mastery. Sadettin Nüzhet Ergun also notes that he was a poet in command of the language who wrote with sincerity. According to the study by Öntürk and Tunçadam, he follows the general rules in his kasides but praises more than one person in a single kaside: the first kaside is devoted to Sultan Ahmed III and Dâmâd Ali Paşa, and the na't, after the Prophet, to the Şeyhülislam of the day, Mustafa Efendi. Like Nef'î, he opens a kaside by praising his own poetry. Most of his ghazals have two opening couplets (matla); he gives colours symbolic meanings, and in one ghazal he uses black, red, white, green and yellow together as redif (refrain words). That he wrote a ghazal on toothache also caught the authors' attention. The themes of the transience of the world, complaint against time and faithlessness predominate in his poems, and a pessimistic mood can be felt in his ghazals. Having lived through the Tulip Era, the poet attached importance to composing chronograms on the events of his time.

The texts published in the article by Öntürk and Tunçadam appear as separate pages in this category: the second kaside, a na't, ten ghazals, two quatrains, two single couplets, and nine couplets or pairs of couplets quoted in the analytical part of the article. This last group does not consist of complete poems; from the first and third kasides, from two ghazals and from three chronogram kıt'as only one or two couplets each were published in the source, and this is stated clearly on their pages. The closing couplets of the chronogram kıt'as also shed light on the poet's life: one gives the date 1112 (1700-01) for the death of his father Bayram Efendi, one the date 1120 (1708-09) for the fountain built by Gülnuş Emetullah Sultan in Üsküdar, and one the date 1121 (1709-10) for a commentary written by the vizier referred to as Kaymakam Paşa, who according to Öntürk and Tunçadam was Dâmâd Ali Paşa.

Where the Sources Differ

The sources differ by one year over Âkif's date of birth: Hüsameddin gives 1097 (1685-86), while the Kitâbü'l-Mecmû', relying on Ürgüplü Ahmed Efendi, gives 1098 (1686). On the year of his death they agree. The date given by Hüsameddin, 24 Receb 1173, falls by our calculation in March 1760; this is why the year of his death is written 1759-60 in the sources. The line "Geldi yetmiş üçde emri irciî", a chronogram for his death, is also recorded by Bursalı Mehmed Tâhir. The site of the grave is described in two different ways: Hüsameddin speaks of the east side of the cemetery to the left of the Ok Meydanı road, his grandson's account of the cemetery beside the walls on the qibla side of the Musalla road; whether the two descriptions refer to the same place could not be determined. On his study of hadith the sources also name different cities: Hüsameddin mentions the hadith scholars of Mecca, his grandson Cairo. As he is known to have made the pilgrimage three times, the two statements do not exclude each other.

His position in the family is also reported differently. Râmiz calls him the second child of Bayram Efendi, Sâlim the younger brother of Âtıf Ahmed Efendi, and the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü the younger son. He should not be confused with two men of the same name. The "Âkif Mustafa Efendi-Amasyalı" whom Hüsameddin introduces immediately afterwards is a different scholar, a student of Seküköylüzâde Kâşif Mehmed Efendi who in 1188 (1774-75) fled to Ankara for fear of Canikli Hacı Ali Paşa and died after 1226. The master of ceremonies Ebûbekir Paşazâde Mehmed Âkif Bey is likewise a separate poet who used the same pen name and came from an Amasya family.

Chronology

1097 (1685-86): According to Hüsameddin he is born in Amasya; according to his grandson's work the year of his birth is 1098 (1686) and the place Merzifon.

1112 (1700-01): His father Bayram Efendi dies; Âkif composes a chronogram for his death.

1120 (1708-09): He composes a chronogram for Gülnuş Emetullah Sultan's fountain in Üsküdar.

1122 (1710-11): He becomes a madrasa teacher.

1127-1129 (1715-1717): He teaches at the Köprülü Dârülhadis and the Küçük Ağa and Sultan Bayezid madrasas; he is then appointed mufti of Amasya.

1133 (1720-21): He is appointed special judge and inspector to examine the complaints against the notables; he is later removed from the office of mufti.

1143 (1730-31): He becomes mufti of Amasya for the second time.

Receb-Şaban 1144 (January-February 1732): He is dismissed as mufti on the grounds that he left for the Hejaz without permission.

24 Receb 1173 (March 1760): He dies in Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • Tolga Öntürk and Özcan Tunçadam, "Amasyalı 'Îdî-zâde Âkif Mustafa ve Divanı", Hikmet-Akademik Edebiyat Dergisi, 6(12), 2020, pp. 259-281. https://doi.org/10.28981/hikmet.683811
  • Mehmet Faruk Çifçi, "İbnü'l-Verdî'den 'Îdîzâde'ye Makâmelerde Veba Algısı", Pamukkale Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 8(1), 2021, pp. 277-308. https://doi.org/10.17859/pauifd.913179

Books

Online sources