AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

Ebû Türâb Mehmed Rûmî — eş-Şeyh Şemseddîn

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 6, p. 102 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Recep Orhan ÖZEL - Doç. Dr. Metin HAKVERDİOĞLU

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Amasyalı Ramazân bin Mansur’un mahdûmudur. Evâ’il-i hâlinde Sultân Fâtih tarafından Mısır sefâretine me’mûr olan Uzun Mustafa Çelebi ma’iyyetinde Şâm’a gitdi. Orada Mevlânâ Zeyneddîn Ahmed ibnü’l-‘aynî el-Hanefî’den ve eş-Şeyh Burhâneddîn Ahmed bin Nâcî el-Mâlikî’den ulûm-ı şer’iyye ve edebiyyeyi [312] ahzedib tedrîse mücâz ve ders-i âm oldu.

Câmi-i Beni-Ümeyye’de yıllarca ulûm-ı edebiyye ve şer’iyye tedrîs ve nakl-i hadîs ve tefsîr ederek fevkalâde iştihâr etdi. 922 senesi rebiülevvelinin sekizinci günü dâr-ı bekâya irtihâl etdiği el-Kevâkibü’s-Sâire fî A’yâni’l-Mi’eti’l-‘Âşire’de yazılıdır. Fâzıl, muhakkîk, gâyet müteşerri’, âbid, usûlî, sadûk bir zât idi. Şeyhülislâm Takiyeddîn ibnü Kadı Aclûn eş-Şâfîi kimseye i’timâd etmediği hâlde bu zâta pek i’timâd eder; hakkında sikâdandır derdi.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was the son of Ramazân, son of Mansûr of Amasya. In the early years of his youth he went to Damascus in the retinue of Uzun Mustafa Çelebi, whom Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror had charged with an embassy to Egypt. There, from Mevlânâ Zeyneddîn Ahmed İbnü'l-Aynî el-Hanefî and Şeyh Burhâneddîn Ahmed bin Nâcî el-Mâlikî, he took the religious and literary sciences, received a license to teach, and became a dersiâm (teacher giving lectures open to all).

At the Umayyad Mosque (Câmi-i Benî Ümeyye) he taught the literary and religious sciences for years, transmitted hadith and gave lessons in exegesis, gaining great renown. It is written in el-Kevâkibü's-Sâire fî A'yâni'l-Mi'eti'l-'Âşire (The Wandering Stars on the Notables of the Tenth Century) that he passed to the other world on the eighth day of Rebiülevvel 922 [April 1516]. He was a virtuous, painstaking man, extremely devoted to the commands of religion, given to worship, versed in the principles of jurisprudence, and truthful. The Shafi'i şeyhülislam Takıyyüddîn İbn Kadı Aclûn, though he trusted no one, trusted this man greatly and used to say of him, "He is one of the trustworthy."

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • evâ'il-i hâl: the first period of one's life, youth
  • sefâret: embassy
  • ma'iyyet: the party accompanying someone
  • ulûm-ı şer'iyye ve edebiyye: the religious sciences and the sciences of language and literature
  • ahzetmek: to take, to learn
  • tedrîse mücâz: licensed to teach
  • nakl-i hadîs: transmission of hadith
  • iştihâr: becoming famous
  • dâr-ı bekâya irtihâl: passing to the abode of eternity, death
  • muhakkık: a painstaking scholar who examines questions in depth
  • müteşerri': firmly bound to the commands of religion
  • usûlî: a scholar of the principles of jurisprudence
  • sadûk: very truthful
  • sikâ: a trustworthy transmitter

An Embassy under Mehmed the Conqueror

Ebû Türâb Mehmed's going to Damascus is tied to the traffic of envoys between Mehmed the Conqueror and the Mamluk sultans. According to Halil İnalcık, after 1461 the Conqueror's policy of expansion toward the east began to threaten the Mamluk sphere of influence. In 1463 the Conqueror, in a letter sent to the sultan of Egypt, unusually treated him as his equal, and his envoy did not kiss the ground; this deeply offended Sultan Hoşkadem. Later, on account of Uzun Hasan's attacks in the Euphrates valley, the sultan of Egypt sent his envoy Nûreddin Kuşeyrî to the Conqueror with a friendly letter. Which of these embassies Uzun Mustafa Çelebi, whom Hüsameddin mentions, carried out, and the date of his mission, could not be found in other sources.

His Teachers and Circle in Damascus

The names of the teachers Hüsameddin gives show Ebû Türâb's scholarly circle in Damascus. It may be said that the name Zeyneddîn Ahmed İbnü'l-Aynî evokes the Aynî family, to which the Hanafi jurist and historian Bedreddin el-Aynî (d. 855/1451) and his brother Şehâbeddin Ahmed belonged; but the identity of this person could not be verified in the sources. No information was found on Burhâneddîn Ahmed bin Nâcî el-Mâlikî either.

Takıyyüddin İbn Kādî Aclûn, who is said to have trusted Ebû Türâb, is mentioned as the teacher from whom the Damascene scholar Bedreddin el-Gazzî benefited most in the field of jurisprudence after his father. That such a scholar regarded a Rumi (Anatolian) Hanafi teacher as "trustworthy" is a record showing that Ebû Türâb was accepted by the Arab ulema of Damascus.

el-Kevâkibü's-Sâire

Hüsameddin's source el-Kevâkibü's-Sâire is the most important work of Necmeddin el-Gazzî (977–1061/1570–1651), son of Bedreddin el-Gazzî. The work gives the biographies of those who died between 901 and 1000 (1495–1592) in three classes; in each class the persons are arranged alphabetically, with those bearing the name Muhammad placed first. Gazzî gathered the information on those raised in Syria, Cairo and the Haremeyn orally, and summarized the biographies of Ottoman statesmen from Taşköprizâde's eş-Şakâ'iku'n-Nu'mâniyye and from his father's travelogue. In a search made in the text of the work accessible online, this record could not be found; Hüsameddin's report could therefore not be compared with its source.

The date given for Ebû Türâb's death, 8 Rebiülevvel 922, falls in April 1516. This date is only a few months before 25 Receb 922 (24 August 1516), when Selim the Grim defeated the Mamluk army at Marj Dabiq. The scholar of Amasya, who had gone to Damascus with an Ottoman embassy in the Conqueror's time, thus died without seeing the city's passage to Ottoman rule.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 102–102. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

Volume 6 contents

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