Ebûbekir Efendi — Merzifonî

In Modern English

He was the son of Mehmed. Having completed his studies at Amasya under Fâzıl Hasan Efendi, imam of the Sultâniyye, he became a ders-i âm (a müderris giving lectures open to the public) and müderris at Merzifon. Afterwards he became mufti of Merzifon and müderris of the Sultâniyye Madrasa at Merzifon, and from there kadı of Samsun; having served as kadı in various towns, he died around 1086 [1675-76]. He was one of the well-known judges.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• ikmâl-i tahsîl: to complete one's studies
• ba'dehû: after that
• devr-i bilâd: to serve as kadı going from town to town
• meşâhîr-i kudât: well-known judges

The Merzifon Sultâniyye

Two separate "Sultâniyyes" appear in the entry. The first is the Sultâniyye at Amasya, where Ebûbekir Efendi's teacher Fâzıl Hasan Efendi served as imam; the text does not state which building this is. The second is the Sultâniyye Madrasa at Merzifon. This madrasa, called the "Merzifon Sultâniyye" among the people, was begun by order of Çelebi Sultan Mehmed in 817 [1414] and completed in 820 [1417] by Umur Bey, son of Ali. According to its inscription its architect was Ebû Bekir b. Muhammed Hamza el-Müşeymeş; the same architect's name also appears in one of the inscriptions of the Bayezid Pasha Mosque at Amasya.

The madrasa, which continues the plan scheme of an open courtyard and four iwans, according to M. Baha Tanman's encyclopedia entry became one of the important centres of learning of the period from its founding, and scholars such as Ferîdüddîn-i Dîvânî, Seydî Şemseddin Ahmed-i Kırîmî and Rükneddin Abdülkerim of Amasya taught here. After 1844, when the professorship began to pass from father to son, its scholarly life came to an end; it was used for a time as an arms depot and was repaired in the Republican period by the General Directorate of Waqfs. The clock tower above the entrance iwan was added in 1282 [1865] by the mutasarrıf of Amasya, Ziyâ Pasha. The repaired building has been allocated to various cultural activities.

From Merzifon to Samsun

Ebûbekir Efendi's career well illustrates the path followed by a provincial scholar in the seventeenth century: he began as ders-i âm in his hometown, combined the muftiship in the same town with the professorship at Çelebi Mehmed's madrasa, and then moved to the judgeship track. According to Mehmet Öz's encyclopedia entry, at the beginning of the sixteenth century the town had thirty-four quarters and its population was estimated at five or six thousand; Çelebi Mehmed's madrasa, the imaret that his mother Devlet Hatun had built in 822 [1419] together with a mosque and a zâviye, and the Medreseönü Mosque built by Murad II were the buildings that determined the look of the town in the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries. In the years when Ebûbekir Efendi lived, Kara Mustafa Pasha of Merzifon was having his complex of a mosque, bedesten, Taşhan and baths built in his hometown (1666-1679).

No information about his teacher Fâzıl Hasan Efendi or about Ebûbekir Efendi himself was found in other sources. A kadı of Merzifon of this name could not be identified in Şeyhî Mehmed Efendi's Vekâyi'u'l-Fuzalâ either.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 89. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

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

Books

• Şeyhî Mehmed Efendi, Vekâyi'u'l-Fuzalâ: Şeyhî'nin Şakâ'ik Zeyli, ed. Ramazan Ekinci, Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı, İstanbul 2018, vols. 1-2.