Amasya’nın Kuba Mahallesi’nden Ali oğludur. Ulemâdan tahsîl-i ulûm edib ders-i âm, müderris, 1064’de yevmî otuz beş akçe ile Hüsâmiye, 1079 zilka’desinde kırk akçe ile Doğrâkiyye müderrisi olduğu hâlde 1081 hudûdunda vefât etdi. Âlim, vâ’iz bir zât idi.
Diğer eş-Şeyh Ebûbekir Efendi bin Ali de İçerişehir’de enderûn câmii vâ’izi, Mahmûd Çelebi zâviyesi şeyhi oldu. 1083 senesi hudûdunda seksen yaşlarında vefât etdi. Ulemâ-ı meşâyîhden, sâlih, halvetî-meşreb, va’zı müe’essir, natûk bir pîr-i muhteremdi.
In Modern English
He was the son of Ali from the Kuba quarter of Amasya. He acquired learning from scholars, and became a ders-i âm (a müderris giving lectures open to the public in a mosque) and a müderris. In 1064 [1653-54] he was müderris of the Hüsâmiye Madrasa at a daily stipend of thirty-five akçe, and in Zilkade 1079 [April 1669] of the Doğrâkiyye Madrasa at forty akçe; he died around 1081 [1670-71]. He was a scholar and preacher.
Another Ebûbekir, Şeyh Ebûbekir Efendi bin Ali, became preacher of the Enderun Mosque in İçerişehir and sheikh of the Mahmûd Çelebi Zâviye. He died around 1083 [1672-73], at about eighty years of age. He was one of the scholars who served as sheikhs, a man of good character, of Halvetî leaning, effective in his sermons, eloquent, and a venerable pir.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- tahsîl-i ulûm: the pursuit of learning, education
- ders-i âm: a müderris who gave lectures open to the public and students in the great mosques
- yevmî: daily; madrasas were referred to by the müderris's daily wage (akçe)
- hudûdunda: around that year, approximately
- vâ'iz: one who preaches, one who gives counsel
- zâviye: a small tekke, a place where dervishes lodged
- ulemâ-ı meşâyih: those who were both scholars and sheikhs of a tarikat
- halvetî-meşreb: attached to the way of the Halvetî order
- müe'essir: effective, influential; natûk: one who speaks well and fluently
- pîr-i muhterem: a respected elder, a great person
The Kuba Quarter and the Hüsâmiye Madrasa
The Hüsâmiye Madrasa where Kubalı Hoca taught shares its root with the quarter where he was born. According to what Hüsameddin relates in the first volume, the old name of the quarter was Kubâlu Mahallesi. The quarter took this name because Cemâleddin Hüseyin bin Mehmed el-Fergânî el-Kubâvî, known in Amasya as "Kubâlu Şeyh," from among the inhabitants of the town of Kuba in the Fergana region, lived here until 810 [1407-08]. His son Şeyh Hüsâmeddin Hüseyin el-Halvetî is the person known among the people as the Saint of Kuba. He had the madrasa built in 857 [1453] and arranged its waqfs. The name Hüsâmiye also comes from his name.
The later history of the madrasa is also recorded in the same source. The building, ruined in the fire of 1011 [1602], was renovated as a tekke by Seyyid Ahmed Efendi, deputy of the nakîbüleşraf, of the lineage of the sheikh of Kuba; it burned again in the fire of 1099 [1688]; around 1125 [1713] Kubalı Hâfız Ali Efendi revived it as a lecture hall; and after 1241 [1826] it fell into ruin and turned into a garden. In the same place Hüsameddin also writes that the Hüsâmiye professorship was once a very prestigious post at the level of sixty akçe. Ebûbekir Efendi's appointment here in 1064 at thirty-five akçe is a detail showing the madrasa's grade in the mid-seventeenth century.
According to Metin Hakverdioğlu's study on the Kubalıs, the place called the Kuba quarter at the time the Kuba Madrasa was founded is a high location that today lies within Amasya's Dere quarter. The madrasa has been destroyed and lost; but the Kuba Mosque and a small tomb are standing. This mosque, one of the first places seen by anyone looking at the southern slopes of the town, is known among the people as the Kuba Mescidi or the Kuba Evliyası.
There is a similarity of names that the reader should not confuse. Hakverdioğlu also counts among the sons of the Saint of Kuba a man called "Kubalı Hâce Ebubekir Efendi." This person must have lived in the fifteenth century; Kubalı Hoca Ebûbekir Efendi of our entry, whose father was Ali and who died around 1081, is a scholar of two centuries later.
Doğrâkiyye Madrasa
The Doğrâkiyye (Doğrakiye) Madrasa, Ebûbekir Efendi's last post, is one of the old institutions of Amasya going back to the Seljuk period. The mosque built at Amasya between 1229 and 1235 by the Seljuk governor Nûreddin Toğrak was later converted into a madrasa and called the Doğrakiye Madrasa. Ömer Efendi was appointed as the first müderris of the madrasa. The building was damaged in 1891 when the Yeşilırmak flooded and was repaired by its last müderris, Canikli Mehmed Efendi. Moving from the Hüsâmiye to the Doğrâkiyye at forty akçe meant a step up in grade among the provincial madrasas of that period.
The Second Ebûbekir Efendi
Şeyh Ebûbekir Efendi bin Ali, mentioned in the entry's second paragraph, is a separate person who bears the same father's name as Kubalı Hoca. No information was found in the sources read about the Enderun Mosque in İçerişehir and the Mahmûd Çelebi Zâviye, where this man, whom Hüsameddin calls of Halvetî leaning, served. It is known that Amasya was one of the Anatolian towns where Halvetism was most widespread and that the order entered it at the beginning of the fifteenth century through Pîr İlyas (d. 833/1429); but no record of the zâviye named was found. No information about either Ebûbekir Efendi was found in other sources.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, pp. 88–89. amasya.bel.tr
- Metin Hakverdioğlu, "Amasya'da Kubalılar, Kuba Medresesi ve Azerbaycan Göçmenlerinin Amasya'da Edebiyata Etkileri" (molekuleredebiyat.com/?p=723); with citations from Hüsameddin's vol. 1 (p. 282).
Academic studies
- Kadir Özköse, "Amasya'da Bulunan Halvetiyye Tekkeleri", AKADEMİAR Akademik İslam Araştırmaları Dergisi, no. 5 (December 2018), pp. 91-118.
Books
- Yılmaz Karadeniz, "Amasya", Türk Maarif Ansiklopedisi, 2022 (turkmaarifansiklopedisi.org.tr/amasya).