Amasya ulemâsından ve hâssaten müfessir-i meşhûr Amasya müftüsü Hızır Efendi’den tahsîl-i ilm edib Hızır Paşa Medresesi mu’îdi, Ok Meydânı’nda kâin Atik Ali Paşa ve Şerefeddîn Hamza Türbesi türbedâr ve cüz-hânı, ba’dehû Hızır Paşa Câmii imâmı olarak iştihâr etdi. [317]
Câm’i-i mezkûrda Hızır Paşa Medresesi talebesine Mesnevî, Gülistân, Bostân gibi âsâr-ı sûfiyye ve edebiyye okutur; halka tefsîr ve hadîsden naklederek va’z u nasîhat eder; bahar mevsiminde Hızır Paşa Mahallesi’ndeki menzil ve bahçesi sünbülistân ve mahfel-i yârân olurdu. 1099 senesi hudûdunda vefât etdi.
Müderris Abdî Efendi Tezkire-i Şu’arâ-yı Amasya’sında bunu zikredib edebiyât-ı Arabî ve Fârisiyyede mâhir, latîf, şâir, beşûş, meclis-ârâ, her dem bahâr bir zât idi; şiirinde “Tâlibî” tahallüs ederdi. “Hâfız Bahâr” demekle iştihâr etmişdi, diyor. Mahdûmu Ali Efendi’ye “Bahâroğlu” dendi.
In Modern English
He was one of the scholars of Amasya. Having acquired learning from teachers, foremost among them the famous exegete and mufti of Amasya Hızır Efendi, he became known as muîd (assistant müderris) of the Hızır Pasha Madrasa, keeper (türbedar) and cüzhan (reciter of Quran sections at the tomb) of the tombs of Atik Ali Pasha and Şerefeddîn Hamza at Ok Meydanı, and later as imam of the Hızır Pasha Mosque.
In the said mosque he would have the students of the Hızır Pasha Madrasa read Sufi and literary works such as the Mesnevî, Gülistân and Bostân, and would preach and give counsel to the people with quotations from exegesis and hadith. In the spring season his house and garden in the Hızır Pasha quarter would turn into a hyacinth garden, a gathering of friends. He died around 1099 [1687–88].
The müderris Abdî Efendi, speaking of him in his work Tezkire-i Şuarâ-yı Amasya (Biographical Dictionary of the Poets of Amasya), says: he was a master of Arabic and Persian literature, refined of spirit, a poet, cheerful, one who gave joy to gatherings, always like spring; he used the pen name "Tâlibî" in his poems and was known as "Hâfız Bahâr" (Hâfız Spring). His son Ali Efendi was called "Bahâroğlu."
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- müfessir: a scholar who interprets the Quran
- tahsîl-i ilm: acquiring learning
- mu'îd: the müderris's assistant in a madrasa who repeats the lessons with the students
- kâin: situated
- türbedâr: the official who looks after a tomb
- cüz-hân: a person who, under the terms of a waqf, reads set sections of the Quran every day
- âsâr-ı sûfiyye ve edebiyye: Sufi and literary works
- menzil: house, mansion
- sünbülistân: hyacinth garden
- mahfel-i yârân: a gathering of friends
- hudûd: (for dates) around, in the vicinity of
- meclis-ârâ: one who adorns gatherings and cheers them with his conversation
- tahallüs: a poet's use of a pen name
The Hızır Pasha Mosque and Madrasa
Hâfız Bahâr's whole life was spent around the Hızır Pasha complex in the quarter that bears its name in Amasya. The mosque was built in 1466 by Hayrüddin Hızır Pasha, brother of Yörgüç Pasha, the lala (tutor) of Murad II. The building was originally a complex made up of a mosque, a madrasa, a bath and an ablution fountain (şadırvan); of these only the mosque and the bath stand today. The mosque belongs to the group of zaviyeli (with side rooms), inverted-T plan buildings seen in early Ottoman architecture, of which the Bayezid Pasha and Yörgüç Pasha mosques in Amasya are also examples; however, because of the steep slope of the land its entrance was given not from the north but from the east facade, and the şadırvan too was placed on this side. Because it was damaged and repaired many times, its original roofing system is not known with certainty.
Hızır Pasha's waqf deed of 870 [1465] also shows the source of the posts Ebû Tâlib Efendi held. By this deed Hızır Pasha had a madrasa and a mosque built, created posts such as müderris and muîd for their needs, and endowed agricultural lands, vineyards and gardens in Suluova, Doğantepe, Ladik and the center of Amasya, two hans and a bath. His son Mehmed Pasha in 1493 added to his father's waqf thirteen villages, two mezras (hamlets), seven mills and one more shop. The waqf's accounting records continue until the Republican period. Ebû Tâlib Efendi's salaries as muîd and imam must have been paid from the revenues of this waqf, founded two centuries before.
His Teacher Hızır Efendi
It is very probable that the teacher called in the text "the famous exegete, mufti of Amasya Hızır Efendi" is Hızır b. Muhammed el-Amâsî, one of the best-known scholars of seventeenth-century Amasya. Born in Amasya around 1006 [1597], Hızır b. Muhammed became muîd at the Sultan Bayezid Madrasa at the age of sixteen, moved in 1041 [1631] to the müderrisship of the Yörgüç Pasha Madrasa, and from 1058 [1648] was appointed mufti of Amasya four times. He fell into disagreement over a sharia question with the mutasarrıf of Amasya, Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, and was dismissed; later, because of the complaints of the city kethüda Mumcuzâde, he was exiled to Cyprus and was brought back through the favor of Fazıl Ahmed Pasha. According to Hüsameddin, he died in 1084 [1673] while mufti and was buried in the Hilkat Gâzi cemetery. It is said that his lessons were overflowing and that he trained several hundred students; among his students are a "Hızır Efendi" of the same name and "Tefsîrî Muhammed Efendi." The surviving works of Hızır b. Muhammed are mostly on rhetoric and the principles of jurisprudence; why Hüsameddin describes him in particular as "exegete" cannot be understood from these sources. Ebû Tâlib Efendi's death around 1099 fits chronologically with his having studied under this teacher.
Abdî Efendi's Biographical Dictionary and the Pen Name Tâlibî
The Tezkire-i Abdî, which describes Hâfız Bahâr, is a work Hüsameddin counts among his sources in the first volume. According to Hüsameddin, this tezkire was compiled by Abdî Efendi of Amasya, müderris of the famous Abdullah Pasha Madrasa in Amasya; the work contains the poems and very short life stories of the poets raised in Amasya between 1000 and 1081 [1591–1671], and in its margins the earthquakes and strange events that occurred in the city are recorded. Hüsameddin found the tezkire in Amasya in a rather incomplete copy. Abdî Efendi's son Şeyh Ali Efendi, while nakîbüleşraf kaymakamı (deputy of the head of the seyyids), wrote the register of the seyyids of Amasya in 1110 [1698–99]. Tâlibî's inclusion in the tezkire shows that his poetic life began within these years. No information was found in other sources on any surviving example of Ebû Tâlib Efendi's poems, nor on the tombs of Atik Ali Pasha and Şerefeddîn Hamza.
Bibliography
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