Ebûbekir Efendi — Hayâtî

In Modern English

He was a native of Merzifon, the son of Abdülhayy from the village of Sehmü'd-devle near Merzifon. He completed his studies at Amasya under the renowned scholar Kadızâde Küçük Mehmed Ali Efendi and, returning to Merzifon, became a ders-i âm. He taught for more than twenty years; while müderris of the Merzifon Sultâniyye and mufti of that place, he died in 1068 [1657-58]. He was a scholar, a virtuous man, a poet and a mature personality. He was called "Hayâtî Ebûbekir Efendi." He trained many madrasa students; one of them was eş-Şeyh Ahmed Efendi, the son of Şeyh Ali Efendi and one of the mevâlî. His son Mehmed Efendi is a well-known man.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• civâr: the nearby surroundings
• ikmâl-i tahsîl: completing one's studies
• avdet: return
• ders-i âm: a müderris who gave lectures open to all in a mosque and could grant licenses
• tedrîs-i ulûm: teaching learning
• Sultâniyye-i Merzifon: the Çelebi Sultan Mehmed Madrasa at Merzifon
• fâzıl: virtuous, learned; kâmil: mature
• şâkirdân-ı softa: madrasa students
• mevâlî: scholars who had reached the upper ilmiye ranks, such as the judgeships of the great cities and professorships at the high madrasas
• ma'rûf: well-known, known

Sehmü'd-devle Village

The village where Hayâtî Ebûbekir Efendi was born takes its name from Hüseyin Gazi, son of the Dânişmendid emir İltekin Gâzi. This son of İltekin Gâzi, who conquered Merzifon, was known by the epithet "Sihâmüddevle" and lived in Merzifon for a long time. The place where he stayed appears in the Ottoman tahrir records as "Samadola" and in the avarız register dated 1052 [1642] as "Sehmüddevle." Today this village is a quarter within the town of Merzifon; its name is Samadolu Mahallesi, and in more recent times it has also been called Buğdaylı.

Hüsameddin gives two separate pieces of information on this matter. In one entry he calls Hüseyin Gâzi the person who, as emir of Merzifon, had a mosque built here and endowed his farm called "Sehmü'd-devle" to the expenses of this mosque; in the entry on İltekin Gâzi he says that the village of Sehmüddevle was the farm of Ahmed Gâzi. Mehmet Öz, in his entry on Merzifon, also links the name to Hüseyin Gazi.

The Merzifon Sultâniyye

The "Sultâniyye-i Merzifon," where Hayâtî was müderris, is the madrasa that Çelebi Sultan Mehmed had built at Merzifon between 817 and 820 [1414-1417]. With its open courtyard and four-iwan design, this building holds a monumental place among early Ottoman madrasas and was called the "Merzifon Sultâniyye" among the local people. After its founding, scholars such as Ferîdüddîn-i Dîvânî, Seydî Şemseddin Ahmed-i Kırîmî and Rükneddin Abdülkerim of Amasya served as müderris here. From 1844, when the professorship began to pass from father to son, the scholarly life of the madrasa came to an end; the building, used for a time as an arms depot, was repaired in the Republican period and set aside for cultural activities. The clock tower above the entrance gate was built in 1866 by the mutasarrıf of Amasya, Ziya Pasha. That Hayâtî Ebûbekir Efendi was both müderris of this madrasa and mufti of Merzifon shows him in the highest scholarly office of the town in the mid-seventeenth century.

His Teacher and His Pen Name

His teacher, Kadızâde Küçük Mehmed Ali Efendi, is a famous Amasya scholar who died in 1044 [1635], also called "Küçük Hoca" and "Mehmed İlmî Efendi" in Hüsameddin's book. Dereli el-Hâc Ebûbekir Efendi, on the same page, was also one of his pupils. Accordingly, Hayâtî's studies at Amasya fall before 1635; his teaching at Merzifon for over twenty years also agrees with his death in 1068.

Hüsameddin, although it is understood that Ebûbekir Efendi wrote poetry under the pen name "Hayâtî," gives no sample of his poems; in the ninth volume of the book, under the heading "Hayâtî Ebû Bekir Efendi," too, he merely refers to this entry. The entry immediately following is devoted to Hayâtî İsa Çelebi, a defterdar and poet of Merzifon who lived in the tenth [sixteenth] century; these two poets of Merzifon bearing the same pen name should not be confused. No information about Hayâtî Ebûbekir Efendi and his poems was found in other sources.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 88. amasya.bel.tr
• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 4, "Hüseyin Bey" entry; vol. 7, "Îltekin Gâzi-Emîr Nâsıreddevle-i Artûgî"; vol. 9, "Hüseyin Gâzi Bey-Emîr Sehmü'd-devle", "Hayâtî Ebû Bekir Efendi" and "Hayâtî İsa Çelebi-Defterdâr" entries.

Academic studies

• Mehmet Öz, "Merzifon", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/merzifon).
• M. Baha Tanman, "Mehmed I Medresesi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mehmed-i-medresesi).