A qasida presented to Sultan Ahmed III won Âtıf Ahmed Efendi the professorship of the Hızır Pasha madrasa in Amasya. Born to Bayram Efendi, the Amasya mufti who wrote under the pen name Îdî, and elder brother of Âkif Mustafa Efendi, remembered as the "Koca Müftü," this scholar was still teaching in the town's madrasas when he died in Zilhicce 1138 (July-August 1726). Hüsameddin remembers him as a poet skilled in Arabic and Persian letters, witty and the life of any gathering; yet not a line of that poetry survives.

The Entry in the History of Amasya

Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's entry Âtıf Ahmed Efendi-Iydîzâde reads:

Pederi Bayram Iydî Efendi Amasya müftüsü iken doğdu. Amasya'da Merzifonî Mustafa, Çorumlu Hâfız Seyyid, Mehmed, Osmân Feyzi Efendilerden ikmâl-i tahsîl edib ders-i âm ve 1125 cumâdelâhire ğurresinde türbe-i Pîr İlyâs müderrisi oldu. Ba'dehû İstanbul'a gitdi. Sultân Ahmed-i Sâlis'e takdîm etdiği kasîdesi istihsân edilip Amasya'da Hızır Paşa müderrisliği atiyye ile verildi. Amasya'da tedrîs-i ulûm etmekte iken 1138 zilhiccesinde vefât etdi. Âlim, fâzıl, edebiyât-ı Arabiyye ve Fârisiyye'de mâhir, natûk, nüktedân, meclis-ârâ, şâir, ma'nâya muktedîr bir zât idi. Mahdûmu Hâfız Mehmed Efendi'yi yetîm bıraktı.

Translated: he was born while his father Bayram Îdî Efendi was mufti of Amasya. He completed his studies in Amasya under Mustafa Efendi of Merzifon, Hâfız Seyyid Mehmed Efendi of Çorum and Osman Feyzi Efendi, became a licensed lecturer, and on 1 Cemaziyelahir 1125 (25 June 1713) was made professor attached to the tomb of Pîr İlyas. He then went to Istanbul. A qasida he presented to Sultan Ahmed III was well received, and the professorship of the Hızır Pasha madrasa in Amasya was granted to him as a royal favour. He died in Zilhicce 1138 while teaching in Amasya. He was a learned and accomplished man, skilled in Arabic and Persian literature, eloquent, witty, an ornament of gatherings, and a poet able to handle meaning with mastery. He left his son Hâfız Mehmed Efendi an orphan.

The commas in the list of teachers can be read two ways. Describing another son of the same family, Hüsameddin names the teachers as "the Amasya mufti Mustafa of Merzifon and es-Seyyid Hâfız Mehmed of Çorum"; on that reading "Hâfız Seyyid" and "Mehmed" are parts of a single teacher's name, Seyyid Hâfız Mehmed Efendi of Çorum.

His Life

Âtıf's year of birth is unknown. According to another of Hüsameddin's entries his father was mufti of Amasya in Rebiülevvel 1087 (May-June 1676), left a deputy behind when he went to Istanbul, and was reappointed to the post in 1088. Âtıf was born in one of these years of office; since he was the elder brother of Âkif Mustafa, born in 1097 (1685-86), his birth falls before that date, and no closer year can be given. His teachers had all served as muftis of Amasya, and the same names appear in the entry on his brother Seyyid Abdürrahîm Efendi; the Îdîzâde sons were trained in the same circles.

His first professorship was the one attached to the tomb of Pîr İlyas, regarded as the first great figure of the Halveti order in Amasya. The journey to Istanbul followed. A provincial teacher seeking promotion by presenting a qasida to the sultan was following a familiar route of the age; Âtıf's poem found favour, and in return the Hızır Pasha madrasa, one of the respected colleges of Amasya, was given to him as an "atiyye," a gift of grace. The qasida itself is lost; Hüsameddin neither quotes it nor says what occasion it marked.

Âtıf died while still teaching in Amasya. In the Gregorian calendar Zilhicce 1138 runs from 31 July to 28 August 1726. Tolga Öntürk and Özcan Tunçadam, in their article on Âkif Mustafa Efendi, give the year of his death as 1727; the difference may come from a different conversion of the hijri year. He left a young son, Hâfız Mehmed Efendi, about whom Hüsameddin says nothing more.

The Îdîzâde Family

Âtıf's family came from Merzifon. His father Bayram Efendi was a scholar who wrote verse under the pen name Îdî, served as mufti of Amasya and rose to the rank of the mevâlî; the family name comes from that pen name. Bayram Efendi's father-in-law was the judge Kadızâde Seyyid Abdürrahîm Efendi, of the Rifâî sayyids; that one of the brothers bore the title "Seyyid" and the name of his maternal grandfather may be a trace of this marriage. Which mother Âtıf was born to is not stated.

The best known of the brothers is Îdîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi: twice mufti of Amasya, a teacher for forty-five years, and the author of a small divan whose copy survives in the Topkapı Palace. As reported by Öntürk and Tunçadam, the anthology of poets that Sâlim completed in 1134 (1722) introduces Âkif as "the younger brother of Îdîzâde Ahmed Efendi, who wrote poetry under the pen name Âtıf"; it is the only record besides Hüsameddin to vouch for Âtıf as a poet. The other brothers also followed the path of learning. Râif Mehmed Efendi taught at the Saraçhane madrasa and died in 1145 (1732-33); the poems Hüsameddin had gathered from him perished in a fire. Seyyid Abdürrahîm Efendi sat as judge at Niksar, Zile, Merzifon and Çorum, served as deputy judge in Amasya, and on returning from the judgeship of Erzurum died in Amasya in 1161 (1748).

Where the Sources Disagree

In the annals of his fourth volume, recounting the time of Kaya Ali Pasha as governor of Amasya, Hüsameddin writes that Bayram Îdî Efendi died at Eskişehir on 19 Rebiülahir 1122 (17 June 1710) while travelling to take up the judgeship of Konya, and he lists his sons as "Âtıf Mehmed, Âkif Mustafâ, Râ'if Mehmed, Seyyid Abdurrahîm." In that list Âtıf's name is Mehmed. In his own entry and in Sâlim's anthology it is Ahmed. The entry that follows his in Hüsameddin's eleventh volume belongs to a different man, Âtıf Mehmed Efendi of the Ak Mehmedzâde; the "Mehmed" of the fourth-volume list may be a slip from this namesake.

The father's death date is disputed as well. Öntürk and Tunçadam report that one of the chronogram poems in Âkif Mustafa's divan marks his father's death in 1112 (1700-01). Hüsameddin gives 1122 in two separate places, in the fourth volume and in the entry on Râif Mehmed Efendi. These sources cannot settle which date is right; the dates of Âtıf's own life are unaffected.

His Poetry

Two separate pens vouch for Âtıf as a poet. Sâlim names him in his anthology by the pen name Âtıf, and Hüsameddin calls him a poet at home in Arabic and Persian letters, "able to master meaning." None of Âtıf Ahmed Efendi's poems has been found. Even the qasida to Ahmed III that won him his chair is lost, no one mentions a divan, and Hüsameddin's entry holds no verse. The single copy of his brother Âkif's divan survives at Topkapı; of the elder brother's poetry no manuscript is known.

Chronology

Rebiülevvel 1087 (May-June 1676): His father Bayram Îdî Efendi, mufti of Amasya, leaves for Istanbul; he is reappointed mufti in 1088.

1097 (1685-86): His younger brother Âkif Mustafa Efendi is born.

19 Rebiülahir 1122 (17 June 1710): According to Hüsameddin, his father dies at Eskişehir.

1 Cemaziyelahir 1125 (25 June 1713): He becomes professor attached to the tomb of Pîr İlyas.

1134 (1722): Sâlim completes his anthology, which mentions Âtıf as a poet and as Âkif's elder brother.

Zilhicce 1138 (July-August 1726): Âtıf Ahmed Efendi dies in Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources