AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

Ebûbekir Efendi — Çerkes Şeyh

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

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Ulemâdan tahsîl-i ulûm edib meşâyih-i Nakşibendiyyeden müstahlef olarak Amasya’ya geldi. Bir müddet va’z u nasîhatle iştigâl edib sonra Hazret-i Pîr İlyâs Halvetî türbedârı ve münzevi olduğu hâlde 1306’da vefât etdi. Sulehâ-yı ulemâdan, âbid, nâsih, bükâsı gâlib bir zât idi. Her gün Hazret-i Pîr’in türbesi mescidinde sabâh namazının akabinde Kaside-i Bürde okur, ba’zen ağlardı. Uzunca boylu, söbü yüzlü, seyrek sakallı, nahîfü’l-beden idi.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

After studying with scholars and receiving a khalifaship from Naqshbandi sheikhs, he came to Amasya. For a time he busied himself with preaching and counsel; then he became keeper of the tomb of Hazret-i Pîr İlyâs Halvetî and, withdrawn into a corner, died in 1306 [1888–89]. He was one of the righteous among the scholars, devoted to worship, a giver of counsel, and much given to weeping. Every day in the masjid of the pîr's tomb, after the morning prayer, he would recite the Qasida al-Burda, sometimes weeping. He was tall, long-faced, thin-bearded and lean of body.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • meşâyih: sheikhs
  • müstahlef: one appointed khalifa, one who has received an icazet
  • va'z u nasîhat: preaching and counsel
  • iştigâl: occupying oneself
  • münzevî: withdrawn into one's own corner
  • sulehâ: righteous persons
  • nâsih: one who gives counsel
  • bükâ: weeping
  • söbü yüzlü: long and thin of face
  • nahîfü'l-beden: lean of body

A Naqshbandi at the Tomb of Pîr İlyâs

It is notable that Şeyh Ebûbekir Efendi, though a Naqshbandi, became keeper of the tomb of a Halvetî pîr. The Tomb of Pîr İlyâs is the tomb of Sheikh Şücâeddin İlyâs, who had a large share in the spread of Halvetism in Amasya. The structure, which stands today within Pirler Park, was built in 1486 by Gümüşlüzâde Ahmed Bey, renewed in 1688 by Gümüşlüzâde İbrâhim Pasha, and rebuilt after being destroyed in the 1895 earthquake. The interior of the tomb is divided into three sections by two pointed arches; the western section is used as a masjid, with a mihrab opened in the qibla wall. The place Hüsameddin calls "the tomb's masjid" is most probably this section. The present structure, which was built a few years after Ebûbekir Efendi's death, is not the very building in which he recited the Qasida al-Burda each morning but its reconstruction on the same site.

In the same volume Hüsameddin also speaks of another Circassian who was keeper of the tomb of Pîr İlyâs, Hacı Ebûbekir Efendi, who came from the Caucasus in 1242 and died in 1279 [1862–63] (volume 6, entry 361). That two Circassians became keepers of this tomb within the same century suggests that scholars coming from the Caucasus to Amasya could find a place in the city's religious institutions. No information was found in other sources on when Şeyh Ebûbekir Efendi came to Amasya or from whom he received the khalifaship.

The Qasida al-Burda

The Qasida al-Burda that Ebûbekir Efendi recited every morning is the ode written for the Prophet by the Egyptian Sufi and poet Muhammad b. Saîd al-Būṣīrī (d. 695/1296). According to an account of how it brought about the poet's recovery from paralysis, Būṣīrī saw the Prophet in a dream and recited the ode to him; the Prophet took off his cloak (burda), covered the poet with it and stroked his paralyzed parts; when the poet awoke he found himself healed. The ode takes its name from this account. In the Ottoman cultural sphere, to avoid confusion, it was more often called "Qasidat al-Burʾa" (Kasîdetü'l-bür'e).

The ode, which has 160 couplets in its oldest copies, begins with longing for the beloved; after sections on complaint against the self, praise of the Prophet, his birth, his miracles, the merits of the Quran, the ascension (miraj), jihad, repentance and hope, it ends with a prayer. It has been recited everywhere in the Islamic world at religious gatherings, on blessed days and nights, and at circumcision, wedding, festival and funeral ceremonies. It is also recited as a weekly evrad (litany); Ebûbekir Efendi's reciting it every morning accords with this tradition.

Bibliography

Primary sources

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

Academic studies

Official sources

Volume 6 contents