AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

Ebûbekir Efendi — Çerkes el-Hâc

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 6, p. 101 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Recep Orhan ÖZEL - Doç. Dr. Metin HAKVERDİOĞLU

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Kafkaslı Ali oğludur. Oradan 1242’de hicretle Amasya’ya gelip Kabartaylı Hacı Mehmed Efendi’nin himmetiyle ders-i âm ve Ya’kûb Paşa kürsü şeyhi, mu’ahharan Hazret-i Pîr İlyâs Halvetî türbedârı oldu. Va’az ve tedrîs ve ibâdetle meşgûl iken 1279’da yetmiş dört yaşında vefât etdi. Âlim, zâhid, mütenessik, muttakî, va’zı mü’essir bir zât idi.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was the son of Ali of the Caucasus. In 1242 [1826–27] he migrated from there and came to Amasya; through the efforts of Kabartaylı Hacı Mehmed Efendi he became a dersiâm (licensed teacher giving lectures open to all) and kürsü şeyhi (preacher) of Yâkub Pasha, and later keeper of the tomb (türbedar) of Hazret-i Pîr İlyâs Halvetî. While occupied with preaching, teaching and worship, he died in 1279 [1862–63] at the age of seventy-four. He was a learned man, withdrawn from the world, devoted to worship, God-fearing, and effective in his sermons.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • hicret: migration
  • himmet: effort, help
  • kürsü şeyhi: a preacher who gave sermons from the pulpit in a mosque
  • mu'ahharan: later
  • türbedâr: the official who looks after a tomb
  • zâhid: one who is not attached to the world
  • mütenessik: devoted to worship
  • mü'essir: effective

An Early Caucasian Migrant

The year 1242 [1826–27], when the Circassian Hacı Ebûbekir Efendi came to Amasya, is about thirty years before the great wave of migration from the Caucasus into Ottoman lands. The mass expulsion of the Circassians was the result of a policy Russia officially decided in 1861; the number of those expelled or migrating to Ottoman territory between 1858 and 1878 is put at between 1,200,000 and 1,500,000. Ebûbekir Efendi, however, was a man of learning who came before this great migration, alone or with a small group. That Kabartaylı Hacı Mehmed Efendi, whom Hüsameddin mentions, had settled in Amasya before him shows that a small circle descended from the Kabardian branch of the Eastern Circassians existed in the city at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Kabardians began to convert to Islam from the middle of the seventeenth century.

The Yâkub Pasha Pulpit and the Tomb of Pîr İlyâs

The Yâkub Pasha Lodge, where Ebûbekir Efendi served as preacher, is the Halvetî lodge also known among the people as Çilehâne. It was founded in 815 (1412) in the Pîrler district of Amasya by Pazarlıoğlu Yâkub Pasha, beylerbeyi of Ankara, and its waqf deed was registered in February 1413. Yâkub Pasha had the lodge built for the Halvetî sheikh Gümüşlüzâde Abdurrahman Çelebi. In 1031 (1622), to settle a dispute over the sheikhship, a madrasa was established in the masjid and halvethane (retreat cell) sections, and the lodge function continued in the tevhidhane (hall of ritual). The building is one of the rare dervish structures to survive in its original early Ottoman form; it was damaged in the 1939 Erzincan earthquake and repaired in 1967.

The Tomb of Pîr İlyâs, of which Ebûbekir Efendi later became keeper, is the tomb of Şücâeddin Pîr İlyâs, the leading sheikh of Amasya Halvetism. The structure, which stands today within Pirler Park and is also called the Upper Pirler Tomb, was built in 1486 by Gümüşlüzâde Ahmed Bey and renewed in 1688 by Gümüşlüzâde İbrâhim Pasha. It was destroyed in the 1895 earthquake and later rebuilt into its present form. In the tomb, beside Pîr İlyâs, lie his son-in-law Pîr Celâleddin Abdurrahman, his grandson Pîr Hayreddin Hızır Çelebi and their families; the burial of three pîrs here gave the building its name. The tomb is today one of the most visited places in the city.

The keepership of the tomb was held until the middle of the eighteenth century together with the sheikhship and mütevelliship of the Gümüşlüoğlu Lodge; in 1765, with the death of the keeper İsmâil Efendi, the keepership and the mütevelliship of the Fâtıma Madrasa were separated from each other. In Kadir Özköse's study of the Halvetî lodges, Seyyid Ömer Efendi (d. 1247/1831), Seyyid Mehmed Efendi (d. 1275/1859), Seyyid Abdullah Efendi (d. 1280/1864) and Şeyh Mansur Efendi (d. 1284/1867) are listed as mütevelli and keepers in the nineteenth century. The name of the Circassian Ebûbekir Efendi does not appear in this list. It is possible that the difference between Hüsameddin's record and this list arises from the keepership and the mütevelliship having been held by different persons; but this is a guess. In the same volume Hüsameddin also speaks of another Circassian who was keeper of the tomb of Pîr İlyâs, Şeyh Ebûbekir Efendi (volume 6, entry 364); the two persons must not be confused.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 101–101. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

Official sources

Volume 6 contents

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