Born in Malatya and arriving in Amasya as a young man, Hacı Hâfız Abdullah Efendi was an eighteenth-century scholar who spent his life teaching in the madrasas of that city. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar records him under the heading "Belîğ Abdullah Efendi"; that his son was known as "Belîğzâde" shows that the name settled in the family as a pen name (mahlas) inherited from the father. He was a preacher, a master of Arabic language and literature and well versed in hadith and Qur'anic commentary; he taught at the Halfet Gâzi Madrasa in Amasya, gave lessons in hadith and commentary at the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, and died in Dhu al-Hijja 1184 (March-April 1771). No example of his poetry is known today.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Belîğ Abdullah Efendi-Hacı Hâfız Malatyalıdır. Halebli Mehmed'in sulbünden 1121'de doğdu. Eyyâm-ı şebâbında Amasya'ya gelip allâme-i meşhûr Iydîzâde el-Hâc Âkif Mustafa Efendi'nin halka-i tedrîsine mülâzemetle fünûn-i edebiyyeyi ve ulûm-i şer'iyye ve akliyyeyi ahz ü tahsîl ederek 1153'de mücâz ve ders-i âm oldu. Yıllarca tedrîs-i ulûm ederek iştihâr edib 1176'da Halfet Gâzi müderrisi ve ba'dehû Sultân Bâyezîd Câmiinde Mi'mâr Kâsım Ağa dersiyyesi mutasarrıfı olduğu hâlde 1184 senesi zilhiccesinde vefât etdi. Fâzıl, ulûm-i Arabiyye ve edebiyyede mâhir, hadîs ve tefsîre vâkıf, vâ'iz, şâir, talâkat-i lisâna mâlik bir âlim idi. Mahdûmu Sırrî Mehmed Efendi'dir.

Modern paraphrase: He came from Malatya. He was born in 1121, the son of Mehmed of Aleppo. In his youth he came to Amasya and attended the teaching circle of the famous scholar İydîzâde Hacı Âkif Mustafa Efendi; having learned the literary, legal and rational sciences from him, he received his diploma (icazet) in 1153 and became a ders-i âm. After teaching for many years he became well known; in 1176 he became professor of the Halfet Gâzi Madrasa, and later, while holder of the Mimar Kâsım Ağa lectureship at the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, he died in Dhu al-Hijja of the year 1184. He was a virtuous scholar, a master of the Arabic sciences and literature, versed in hadith and commentary, a preacher, a poet and a fluent, eloquent speaker. His son is Sırrî Mehmed Efendi.

His Life

He was born in Malatya in 1121 (1709-10). That his father is called "Halebli", "of Aleppo", suggests that the family had come to Malatya from Aleppo; the entry says nothing more on the subject. When he came to Amasya is not recorded; we know only that he came "eyyâm-ı şebâbında", in the days of his youth, and received his diploma in 1153 (1740-41), at the age of thirty-one or thirty-two. His teacher İydîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi is a professor named as teacher in many of Hüsameddin's entries; Kara Müftü Hâtif İsmâil Efendi, three times mufti of Amasya, also received his diploma from him.

After his diploma he worked for many years as a ders-i âm, that is, as a teacher qualified for a professorship who taught without being attached to a particular madrasa. In 1176 (1762-63) he became professor of the Halfet Gâzi Madrasa. His last post was the "Mimar Kâsım Ağa lectureship" in the Sultan Bayezid Mosque. According to another of Hüsameddin's entries, this was a chair of hadith and Qur'anic commentary founded in the Sultan Bayezid Mosque in 1048 (1638-39) by the chief imperial architect Yanyalı Ali Ağazâde Kâsım Ağa, who assigned to it the revenue of the village of Kalburcu in the district of Gelgiras. That Belîğ Abdullah Efendi is described as versed in hadith and commentary fits this post. He died in Dhu al-Hijja 1184 (March-April 1771); the place of his death and his grave are not recorded, but the entry makes clear that he died while holding his post in Amasya.

His Family

His son Sırrî Mehmed Efendi is described in a separate entry in Hüsameddin's tenth volume, with the by-name "Belîğzâde" and as a native of Amasya. In that entry the father is called "fuzalâ-yı şu'arâdan Belîğ Abdullah Efendi bin Mehmed", Belîğ Abdullah Efendi, one of the learned poets. Sırrî Mehmed Efendi studied in Amasya and Istanbul, became preacher of the Nuruosmaniye Mosque, received authorization in the Kadiri order and, in 1184, the year of his father's death, became sheikh of the Nazmîzâde lodge. He rose to the pulpit sheikhdom of Hagia Sophia, became sheikh of the Kâdirîhane at Tophane in 1216 (1801-02) and died in 1226 (1811); he is buried in the Kâdirîhane.

His Connection with Amasya

Hüsameddin begins the entry with "Malatyalıdır", from Malatya. What tied him to Amasya was his education and his profession: in the city where he came and settled as a young man he received his diploma, taught for more than thirty years and died as holder of a madrasa post and a mosque chair. Hüsameddin's recording of his son as "from Amasya" shows that the family was regarded as settled in Amasya.

His Poetry

Two entries mention him as a poet: his own calls him "şâir", his son's "fuzalâ-yı şu'arâdan", one of the learned poets. Neither gives an example, and no poem by Belîğ Abdullah Efendi has been located. Nor does the pen name offer a lead, for Belîğ was common in the eighteenth century. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi article on İsmâil Belîğ notes that, apart from him, four poets with the pen name Belîğ and three with Belîğî lived in the same century and that their poems were at times confused with one another, but it does not list them by name; whether Abdullah Efendi of Amasya was one of them cannot be known. Without evidence, then, no poem signed "Belîğ" can be attributed to him.

Chronology

1048 (1638-39): Mimar Kâsım Ağa founds the hadith and commentary lectureship in the Sultan Bayezid Mosque.

1121 (1709-10): Abdullah Efendi is born in Malatya.

1153 (1740-41): He receives his diploma from İydîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi.

1176 (1762-63): He becomes professor of the Halfet Gâzi Madrasa.

Dhu al-Hijja 1184 (March-April 1771): He dies as holder of the Mimar Kâsım Ağa lectureship.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources