Amasya’da Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii imâmı Hocazâde Emîr [289] imâm el-Hâc Abdullatîf Efendi bin el-Hâc Halîl Efendi’nin mahdûmudur. Fuzalâdan Seküköylüzâde el-Hâc Kâşif Mehmed ve Müderriszâde Hâfız es-Seyyid Mehmed Efendilerden ikmâl-i tahsîl ederek ders-i âm oldu.
İbtidâ üstâdı Hâfız es-Seyyid Mehmed Efendi’ye, ba’dehû es-Seyyid Abdurrahîm Efendi’ye dâmâd olup Kâşifiyye Medresesi müderrisi ve pederi evkâfına mütevellî, Amasya müftülerine müsevvid ü emînü’l-fetvâ olup yıllarca tedrîs-i ulûma nasb-ı nefs etdi. 1204 senesi evâ’ilinde vefât eyledi. Abdullatîf Efendi Kütübhanesinin bahçesinde pederinin yanında medfûndur. Âlim, fakîh, muhaddis, muttakî idi. Mahdûmları es-Seyyid Abdullatîf, Mehmed, Abdurrahîm Efendilerdir.
In Modern English
He is the son of Hocazâde Emîr İmam el-Hâc Abdüllatîf Efendi bin el-Hâc Halîl Efendi, imam of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque in Amasya. Completing his studies under the virtuous scholars Seküköylüzâde el-Hâc Kâşif Mehmed Efendi and Müderriszâde Hâfız es-Seyyid Mehmed Efendi, he became a ders-i âm.
First he became the son-in-law of his teacher Hâfız es-Seyyid Mehmed Efendi, then of es-Seyyid Abdurrahîm Efendi. He became müderris of the Kâşifiyye Madrasa, trustee of his father's waqfs, and müsevvid and fetva emini of the Amasya muftis; for years he devoted himself to teaching. He died in early 1204 [autumn 1789]. He is buried beside his father in the garden of the Abdüllatîf Efendi Library. He was a scholar, a jurist and hadith scholar, a pious man. His sons are es-Seyyid Abdüllatîf, Mehmed and Abdurrahîm Efendis.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- fuzalâ: virtuous, learned people
- ikmâl-i tahsîl: completing one's studies
- ibtidâ: first, at the beginning
- dâmâd olmak: to marry someone's daughter
- evkâf: waqfs
- mütevellî: the person who administers a waqf
- müsevvid: the clerk who prepares the mufti's fatwa drafts
- emînü'l-fetvâ: fetva emini; the official who examined and arranged the fatwas
- nasb-ı nefs etmek: to devote oneself to a task
- medfûn: buried
- fakîh: scholar of fıkıh, that is, Islamic law
- muhaddis: hadith scholar
- muttakî: one who fears God, a pious person
The Kâşifiyye Madrasa
The Kâşifiyye Madrasa, where Ebûbekir Efendi served as müderris, bears the name of his teacher Seküköylüzâde el-Hâc Kâşif Mehmed Efendi. In the first volume of his book Hüsameddin tells the story of the madrasa thus: when el-Hâc Ömer Ağa, Kalaycı Halil Ağazâde, one of the Amasya ayan and a former bostancıbaşı, was dying in 1174 [1760-61], he bequeathed that a madrasa be built with a third of his property and appointed Kâşif Mehmed Efendi as executor. Through Kâşif Efendi's efforts the madrasa was built in 1175 [1761-62], a few shops were bought with the rest of the property and endowed, and the building was given the name "Kâşifiye". When the wooden madrasa fell into ruin, it was renewed in 1244 [1828-29] by Akhasanzâde el-Hâc Hasan Ağa, and when it was ruined again, in 1304 [1886-87] by Ayşe Hanım, wife of Şefik Pasha, one of the viziers.
The madrasa lay in the Eski Kethüda quarter, within the street west of the Çukur Church and east of the Abdüllatîf Efendi Library. That is, the madrasa where Ebûbekir Efendi taught and the library founded by his father and in whose garden he himself was buried were in the same small area.
There is a conflict here that should draw the reader's attention. Listing the Kâşifiye müderrises with dates in the first volume, Hüsameddin writes that the first müderris was Seküköylüzâde el-Hâc Hâfız Osman Efendi, that with his death in 1191 [1777-78] his brother Hâfız Mehmed Efendi took over and that this Mehmed Efendi remained in office until 1213 [1798-99]; after that came Canikli es-Seyyid Hasan Efendi, Mengülcüzâde es-Seyyid Ebûbekir Efendi and es-Seyyid Ali Efendi. The name of Emîr İmamzâde Ebûbekir Efendi, who died in 1204 [1789], does not appear in this sequence. Since in that period the professorship of madrasas could be divided into shares among several people, it is possible that Ebûbekir Efendi taught here with a share; but the two records do not confirm each other.
The Bekir Pasha Madrasa and Kâşif Efendi's Son-in-Law
In Hüsameddin's first volume there is another record that completes this entry. In listing the müderrises of the Bekir Pasha Madrasa in the Köprübaşı quarter it says, "in 1179 [1765-66] Seküköylüzâde el-Hâc Mehmed Kâşif Efendi, and after him his son-in-law Emîr İmamzâde es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ebûbekir Efendi, and after him his son es-Seyyid Sa'dullah Efendi." According to this, Ebûbekir Efendi also became müderris at the Bekir Pasha Madrasa in place of his teacher Kâşif Efendi. But this record in the first volume introduces Ebûbekir Efendi as Kâşif Efendi's son-in-law; the entry in the sixth volume says that he became the son-in-law first of Hâfız es-Seyyid Mehmed Efendi and then of es-Seyyid Abdurrahîm Efendi and counts Kâşif Efendi only among his teachers. Likewise the first volume names es-Seyyid Sa'dullah Efendi as the "son" who became müderris after him, while in the sixth volume the sons listed are Abdüllatîf, Mehmed and Abdurrahîm Efendis. Whether the phrase "his son" in the first volume belongs to Kâşif Efendi or to Ebûbekir Efendi cannot be understood with certainty from the sentence. The difference over the son-in-law relationship, on the other hand, is a clear contradiction between the two volumes.
The Abdüllatîf Efendi Library and the Sultan Bayezid Mosque
His father Abdüllatîf Efendi was imam of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, the sultanic mosque of Amasya. According to Semavi Eyice, the mosque was completed in Receb 891 [July 1486] according to the entry in its inscription; Hüsameddin, however, reports that construction began immediately after Bayezid II's accession, in Receb 886 [September 1481], and that the work was entrusted to Prince Ahmed. The deed of the complex's waqf was written in 901 [1496], and the buildings were damaged in earthquakes in later centuries and repaired again and again.
The library bearing Abdüllatîf Efendi's name is his own work. In counting the eight libraries founded in Amasya in the first volume, Hüsameddin records that in 1159 [1746] "Emîr-i İmam Abdüllatîf Efendi" had a library built opposite the Sultan Bayezid School and arranged its waqfs, and adds that in his own time, of these eight libraries, only those of Abdüllatîf, Hüseyin and Hamdi Efendis were still standing and the others had been scattered and lost. As Mehmet Fatih Köksal relates, Hüseyin Hüsameddin, while studying at the rüşdiye in Amasya in his youth, had the opportunity to examine many books in this library and began to collect his first information on the history of Amasya at that time. That the author of Amasya Tarihi found his first sources in a library whose founder and whose founder's son he records in his book as lying in its garden is a noteworthy coincidence. No information on the library's present state was found in the sources examined.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 96–96. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 1, section on libraries and madrasas (the Bekir Pasha and Kâşifiyye madrasas). https://amasya.bel.tr/uploads/e-kitap/kitap/1-4/files/basic-html/page161.html, https://amasya.bel.tr/uploads/e-kitap/kitap/1-4/files/basic-html/page166.html, https://amasya.bel.tr/uploads/e-kitap/kitap/1-4/files/basic-html/page175.html
Academic studies