Âzerî İbrâhim Efendi was a scholar, secretary, calligrapher and poet who lived in Amasya at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. He served as chief scribe of the court, as teacher at the Torumtay madrasa and several times as deputy judge (naib) of Amasya, then held judgeships in small towns, and died around 1025 (1616). What we know of him rests on the entry in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya) and on a quatrain quoted in that entry from the now lost tezkire (biographical anthology of poets) of Abdî Efendi. He must not be confused with the better-known Muallimzâde Âzerî İbrâhim Çelebi, who bore the same pen name; the difference between the two poets is shown below in a separate section.

Âzerî is one of the four poets known in Amasya as "the four elements of letters". His pen name derives from the word "âzer", meaning fire; together with his friends Âbî (water), Türâbî (earth) and Hevâyî (air) he corresponds to the four elements of the old natural philosophy. The only poem of his that has come down to us is a four-line kıt'a (quatrain), the first half of an exchange of verses on pen names with Âbî Mehmed Çelebi. This quatrain is given in this category in a separate article with its original text, an English rendering and a commentary.

Hüsameddin's Entry

The entry appears in the sixth volume of Amasya Tarihi, in the section where persons are arranged in the order of their names, under the heading "Âzerî İbrâhim Efendi-Kâtip". The original text reads:

Âzerî İbrâhim Efendi-Kâtip Amasyalı Ateş Ali Ağa demekle meşhûr bir sipâhi oğludur. Amasya ulemâsından ve hâssaten Müfessir Ahmed Efendi'den ahz-ı ulûm etdi. Hattât-ı meşhûr Hüseyin Efendi'den hutût-ı mütenevvi'ayı aldı. Ders-i âm olduğu esnâda mahkeme baş-kâtibi, ba'dehû Torumtay Medresesi müderrisi, birkaç defa Amasya nâibi olarak temâyüz etdi. 1017'de kitâbet ve niyâbetden azledilip sonra kasabâta kadı oldu. 1025 hudûdunda vefât eyledi. Âlim, kâtip, şâir, ta'lik-nüvîs bir hattât idi. Abdî Efendi Tezkiresinde Âzerî'nin Âbî ile mulâtafe ve mufâharesine dâ'ir şu kıt'alarını yazıyor.

In English: He is the son of a sipahi (cavalryman) of Amasya known as Ateş Ali Ağa. He acquired learning from the scholars of Amasya and especially from Müfessir Ahmed Efendi. He learned the various scripts from the famous calligrapher Hüseyin Efendi. At the time when he held the licence to teach, he became chief scribe of the court, then teacher at the Torumtay madrasa, and distinguished himself several times as deputy judge of Amasya. In 1017 (1608-09) he was dismissed from the secretaryship and the deputy judgeship and then became judge of small towns. He died around 1025 (1616). He was a scholar, a secretary, a poet and a calligrapher who wrote the ta'lik script. In his tezkire Abdî Efendi records the following quatrains of Âzerî concerning his jesting and his contest of boasts with Âbî.

Life

Âzerî's date of birth is unknown. His father was a sipahi known in Amasya as "Ateş Ali Ağa" (Ali Ağa the Fire), that is, a cavalryman living on the revenue of a timar (military fief). That his son chose a pen name meaning "fire" matches this byname strikingly; Hüsameddin, however, does not explain the reason for the pen name, and the connection is our observation. Âzerî received his education in Amasya. Müfessir Ahmed Efendi, named in particular as his teacher, was according to Hüsameddin a scholar who taught for years in the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, served as teacher at the Halfet Gazi, Atabek, Hüseyniye and Mehmed Paşa madrasas, declined the posts of mufti and judge offered to him, and taught the Qur'an commentary of Baydawi from the lecture chair of the mosque. The life of Müfessir Ahmed Efendi can be read on the site in the rendering of Hüsameddin's entry.

Âzerî also learned the art of calligraphy. He took the various scripts from Hüseyin Efendi, whom Hüsameddin calls a "famous calligrapher", and became a master especially of the ta'lik script. In the years when he was a scholar holding the licence to teach (ders-i âm), he was chief scribe of the Amasya court. He then became teacher at the Torumtay madrasa and served several times as deputy, that is naib, of the judge of Amasya. That a madrasa teacher should at the same time run the court's chancery shows that Âzerî was trusted both in learning and in secretarial work.

In 1017 (1608-09) he was dismissed from the secretaryship and the deputy judgeship. The reason for the dismissal is not given in the entry. He then became judge of "kasabât", that is, of small towns; the towns where he served are not named. He died around 1025 (1616). Nothing is known of the place of his death or of his grave.

His Connection with Amasya and His Literary Circle

Âzerî was from Amasya; he was the son of an Amasya sipahi, received his education in Amasya, and served Amasya in its court, its madrasa and its deputy judgeship. His literary circle, too, was the circle of the city. Abdî Efendi, who introduces this circle, wrote a tezkire collecting the poets of Amasya and died in 1087 (1677). Hüsameddin writes that he had obtained a copy of the tezkire but that the copy was burned. The surviving passages of the tezkire are brought together on the site in the article on Abdî Efendi's tezkire.

According to Abdî Efendi's words as quoted in the entry on Âbî Mehmed Çelebi, Âbî had conversations and jesting exchanges with Âzerî, Türâbî and Hevâyî, and these four were called "anâsır-ı erbaa-i edeb", that is, the four elements of letters. Âbî was secretary of the public treasury and a poet with a fine hand; he died in 1039 (1629-30). Hüsameddin also separately calls Türâbî Mustafa Efendi "one of Amasya's elements of letters". The identity of Hevâyî, however, is uncertain. In the entry on Yeniçerizâde Âhî İbrâhim Efendi, a treasury secretary and divan secretary who died around 1026, Hüsameddin also writes that he had "conversations and exchanges of poems with poets and learned men such as Kelâmî, Âzerî and Turâbî". It thus appears that Âzerî lived within a circle of friends, made up of secretaries and madrasa teachers, who teased one another in verse. Considering that Âzerî died in 1025, it may be said that this gathering came together within the first fifteen years of the seventeenth century, perhaps earlier; this is an inference.

Another Poet with the Same Pen Name

There is another poet in Ottoman literature who bore the pen name Âzerî and the name İbrâhim, and in reference works "Âzerî İbrâhim Çelebi" usually means him. Muallimzâde Âzerî İbrâhim Çelebi was the son of Muallimzâde Ahmed Efendi, who held the chief military judgeships of Anatolia and Rumelia in the reign of Selim II. He became a candidate for office (mülazım) under Ebüssuûd Efendi, entered state service for a while as a müteferrika (palace attendant), then held the judgeships of Tire, Kestel and Hama, and died young in 993 (1585) while judge of Hama. He is the author of the mesnevi Nakş-ı Hayâl and was a close friend of the poet Cinânî. It is also recorded that he was known as a native of Bursa. According to the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Names in Turkish Literature), this poet chose his pen name, because his name was İbrâhim, in allusion to Abraham being thrown into the fire.

Âzerî İbrâhim Efendi of Amasya is a different person from this poet: his father was a sipahi of Amasya, he died around 1025, some thirty years after Muallimzâde, and all the details of his life take place in Amasya. That the two poets bore the same name and pen name may be the result of a convention rather than chance: it is an understandable choice in Ottoman poetry for poets named İbrâhim to take the pen name Âzerî, which alludes to fire. The reason for the pen name of the Amasya Âzerî, however, is not explained in the source; both his name İbrâhim and his father's byname "Ateş Ali Ağa" could account for the choice.

His Poetry

No divan or other work by Âzerî is known. The only poem of his that has survived is the four-line kıt'a that Hüsameddin quotes from Abdî Efendi's tezkire. In the quatrain Âzerî speaks with the meaning of fire carried by his pen name: the foundation of the world is his essence, whoever does not know this worth is coarse and dull, the world is lit by his light, and one should not come near him, for his face is fierce. Âbî's quatrain, which follows immediately, answers him by saying that fire is put out by water. Hüsameddin describes the two quatrains as "mulâtafe ve mufâhare", that is, jesting and a contest of boasts.

It is not possible to judge the poet's general style from a single quatrain. Even so, the quatrain shows a poet who turns his pen name into poetic material, who builds the game of the four elements gathering knowingly, and who is sharp in brief utterance. In the course of this study no other record of Âzerî İbrâhim Efendi of Amasya has been found in the tezkires or in reference works; everything known about him depends on Hüsameddin and, through him, on Abdî Efendi's lost tezkire.

Chronology

975 (1567-68): His teacher Müfessir Ahmed Efendi retires with the Yörgüç Paşa madrasa and begins teaching Qur'an commentary from the lecture chair of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque.

1017 (1608-09): Âzerî is dismissed from the court secretaryship and the deputy judgeship of Amasya; he then serves as judge in small towns.

Around 1025 (1616): Death of Âzerî İbrâhim Efendi.

1039 (1629-30): Death of his friend Âbî Mehmed Çelebi, who answered his quatrain.

1087 (1677): Death of Abdî Efendi, who included the quatrain in his tezkire.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

Online sources