Ebûbekir Efendi — Aynagöz

In Modern English

He was a native of Amasya. The son of Ahmed, he completed his studies in Istanbul and became a ders-i âm (a müderris giving lectures open to the public in a mosque); in 1053 [1643-44] he became imam to Kapudan-ı Derya Yûsuf Pasha. In 1062 [1651-52] he became a müderris by examination and, going around the customary madrasas in turn, in Ramazan 1085 [December 1674] became mollah (kadı) of noble Jerusalem; at the end of 1086 [March 1676] he was dismissed from the post and retired, and he died in 1091 [1680]. He was a virtuous man, a jurist and a man of good character. It is written in the Zeyl-i Şakâyık-ı Şeyhî (Şeyhî's supplement to the Şakâyık) that he became known by the nickname "Aynagöz" because he used spectacles.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• ikmâl-i tahsîl: to complete one's studies
• ders-i âm: a müderris who gave lectures open to the public and students in the great mosques
• kapudan-ı deryâ: the commander-in-chief of the Ottoman navy
• bi'l-imtihân: by examination
• medâris-i mu'tâde: the customary madrasas passed through in turn on the path of the ilmiye
• Kudüs-i şerîf mollası: the judge of Jerusalem, at the rank of mevleviyet
• gâye: end, conclusion; "1086 gâyesinde" means at the end of the year 1086
• ma'zûl: dismissed from office; mütekâ'id: retired
• fakîh: a scholar of jurisprudence
• isti'mâl: use

Şeyhî's Record

The work Hüsameddin cites as his source is the Vekâyi'u'l-Fuzalâ, written by Şeyhî Mehmed Efendi (d. 1144/1731) as a supplement to Nev'îzâde Atâî's work and giving biographies of scholars and sheikhs who lived between 1042 and 1144. In the published text of the work, Aynagöz Ebûbekir Efendi's biography appears under the heading "Yûsuf Paşa İmâmı Ebû Bekr Efendi" and considerably expands Hüsameddin's short entry.

According to Şeyhî, Ebûbekir Efendi came from Amasya and became famous as "Aynagöz Ebû Bekr Efendi." Having moved to Istanbul, he became a mülâzım of Şeyhülislam Bahâyî Efendi; at the time when he had left a forty-akçe madrasa, on 14 Zilkade 1062 [17 October 1652] he was appointed to the newly founded Dizdâriyye Madrasa. He was the first müderris of this madrasa. Later he taught in turn at the madrasas of Pervîz Efendi (1065), Kürkçübaşı (1066), Hasan Efendi (1068) and Hayreddin Pasha (1074), in Muharrem 1076 at one of the Sahn-ı Semân madrasas, and then at the madrasas of Muîd Ahmed Efendi (1078), Ali Paşa-yı Cedîd (1080), İsmihan Sultan (1081), Ebâ Eyyûb-i Ensârî (1083) and the Valide of Istanbul (1084). In 1072 he was dismissed for a time and the next year returned to the Hasan Efendi Madrasa.

Şeyhî records that in Ramazan 1085 he was appointed to the judgeship of Jerusalem in place of Esîrî Mehmed Efendi, and that in Zilhicce 1086 he was dismissed and Tophâneli Abdî Efendi was appointed in his place. Hüsameddin's phrase "1086 gâyesinde" agrees exactly with this Zilhicce date. According to Şeyhî, Ebûbekir Efendi died in 1091 and was buried outside Edirnekapı. He adds that he was also known by the name "Yûsuf Paşa İmâmı" because he served as imam to the former kapudan-ı derya Yûsuf Pasha, and that he was a man with a generous share of learning and gnosis.

There is a small difference between the two sources. Hüsameddin says that in 1062 Ebûbekir Efendi "became a müderris by examination"; Şeyhî writes that he had earlier left a forty-akçe madrasa and came to the Dizdâriyye in 1062. The information that the nickname came from spectacles is also not found in Şeyhî's published text; the work mentions only the nickname. It is possible that Hüsameddin took this explanation from another manuscript copy or another source; this point could not be verified.

The Imam of Silahdar Yûsuf Pasha

Yûsuf Pasha, whose imam Ebûbekir Efendi was, is one of the statesmen who rose quickly in the reign of Sultan İbrahim and tragically lost his life. According to Metin Menekşe's study, Yûsuf, born at Vrana in Dalmatia, after being taken into the palace rose in 1053/1643 to the silahdarship and then to the second vizierate, and became companion (musahib) of Sultan İbrahim. In 1644 he became kapudan-ı derya, and in 1645, as serdar of the land and sea forces in the Cretan campaign, he captured the fortress of Chania. However, at the instigation of the sultan by Grand Vizier Sultanzâde Mehmed Pasha, who envied the standing he had won, he was executed on 22 January 1646. On his sarcophagus in the Karacaahmet Cemetery at Üsküdar he is called "fâtih-i Hanya" (conqueror of Chania).

The date 1053 in Hüsameddin corresponds to the year Yûsuf became silahdar; that is, Ebûbekir Efendi must have begun as imam before the pasha had become kapudan-ı derya. In the section of Hüsameddin's book narrating the events of 1054, too, he writes that Ebûbekir Efendi of Amasya, famous as "Ayna Göz," was the imam, teacher and closest confidant of Kapudan-ı Derya Yûsuf Pasha, the sultan's companion and serdar of Crete. That Ebûbekir Efendi rose uninterruptedly in the ilmiye career after the pasha's execution shows that this closeness did not harm him.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 89; also the events of the year 1054 (amasya.bel.tr e-book, vols. 1-4, p. 569). amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

• Abdülkadir Özcan, "Şeyhî Mehmed Efendi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/seyhi-mehmed-efendi).
• Metin Menekşe, "17. Yüzyılda Osmanlı Devleti'nde Makbul iken Maktul Olan Bir Devlet Adamı: Kaptan-ı Derya Silahdâr Yusuf Paşa", Stratejik ve Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, 5/3 (2021), pp. 527-553.

Books

• Şeyhî Mehmed Efendi, Vekâyi'u'l-Fuzalâ: Şeyhî'nin Şakâ'ik Zeyli, ed. Ramazan Ekinci, Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı, İstanbul 2018, vol. 2, pp. 1200-1201.