Merzifonludur. Veliyyüddîn Efendi bin Bilâl’in mahdûmu olup Amasya’da Iydîzâde el-Hâc Âkif Mustafa, Lâz İbrâhim, Şeyhü’l-imâre el-Hâc Mehmed Efendilerden ahz-ı ulûm ederek Merzifon’da ders-i âm ve a’yândan es-Seyyid İbrâhim Çelebi’ye dâmâd ve 1164’de mûmâ ileyhin mütevellî olduğu Sütcü Mescidi imâmı ve kürsü [290] şeyhi oldu.
Uzun müddet va’z u tedrîs ve imâmetle iştigâl ederek benâm olup Hasan Ağa’nın binâ eylediği Şifâiyye Medresesi müderrisi ve ba’dehû Merzifon müftüsü oldu. Sonra fetvâdan azledilip müderris olduğu hâlde 1204 senesi evâhirinde vefât etdi. Kibâr-ı ulemâdan, vâ’iz, müteşerri’, halûk bir zât idi. Mahdûmu meşâhîr-i ulemâdan es-Seyyid eş-Şeyh Nâsih Ahmed Efendi aşağıda gelir.
In Modern English
He is from Merzifon. He is the son of Veliyyüddîn Efendi, son of Bilâl. He studied in Amasya under Iydîzâde el-Hâc Âkif Mustafa, Lâz İbrahim and the imaret shaykh el-Hâc Mehmed Efendis, and became a ders-i âm in Merzifon. He became the son-in-law of es-Seyyid İbrâhim Çelebi, one of the leading men of the city, and in 1164 [1750-51] became imam and kürsü şeyhi of the Sütçü Mesjid, of which his father-in-law was trustee.
Occupying himself for a long time with preaching, teaching and the imamate, he gained fame; he became müderris of the Şifâiyye Madrasa built by Hasan Ağa and then mufti of Merzifon. Later he was dismissed from the muftiship, and while müderris he died at the end of 1204 [summer 1790]. He was one of the great scholars, a preacher, bound to the rulings of the faith, a man of good character. His son, the well-known scholar es-Seyyid eş-Şeyh Nâsih Ahmed Efendi, will be described below.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- ahz-ı ulûm: acquiring learning, studying
- şeyhü'l-imâre: imaret shaykh; the person at the head of an imaret, that is, a soup kitchen and guesthouse
- mûmâ ileyh: the person mentioned
- kürsü şeyhi: a preacher who ascends the pulpit in a mosque and preaches to the people
- va'z u tedrîs: preaching and teaching
- imâmet: the imamate
- benâm olmak: to gain fame
- fetvâdan azl: removal from the muftiship
- evâhir: the last days (of a month or year)
- kibâr-ı ulemâ: the great among the scholars
- müteşerri': one who conforms to the sharia, devout
- halûk: of good character
- meşâhîr: famous persons
His Teachers in Amasya
Ebûbekir Efendi, like Merzifonlu Müftüzâde Ebûbekir Efendi, who is described on the same page, attended the lessons of Iydîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi in Amasya. According to the information given by İncinur Atik Gürbüz, Âkif Mustafa Efendi was the son of Bayram Efendi, poet and müderris with the pen name Iydî; he had served as mufti of Amasya, toward the end of his life withdrew from the muftiship and taught at the Bayezid II Madrasa, and died in Amasya in 1173 [1759-60]. It is also known that he was a divan poet who wrote poems under the pen name Âkif and that, modeled on Harîrî's Makâmât, he wrote a work called Bedî'a. Considering that Ebûbekir Efendi was imam and preacher in Merzifon in 1164 [1750-51], he must have attended Âkif Efendi's lessons in the 1740s.
His second teacher, Lâz İbrahim Efendi, is called by Hüsameddin in the first volume of his book "a renowned master from among the famous scholars," and he records him as the first müderris of the Bekir Pasha Madrasa in the Köprübaşı quarter of Amasya. This madrasa, built as a darülhadis in 1164 [1750-51] by Bekir Beyzâde el-Hâc Osman Bey of Amasya, the former mirliva of Egypt, was with its lecture hall and library one of the favored madrasas of Amasya. Lâz İbrahim Efendi's circle of teaching also trained İskilipli Türkmen Ebûbekir Efendi, who is described on the same page. The title "şeyhü'l-imâre" of the third teacher, el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi, shows that he was at the head of one of the imarets of Amasya; which imaret is not clear from the text.
The Sütçü Mesjid in Merzifon
The Sütçü Mesjid, where Ebûbekir Efendi served as imam and preacher, bears the same name as one of the old quarters of Merzifon. According to the information Mehmet Öz gives on the basis of the tahrir registers, in 926 [1520] the town of Merzifon had twenty-eight Muslim quarters, and "Sütçü" was one of them. It is very probable that the mesjid was the mesjid of this quarter. The same records show that in the temettuat census of the 1840s Merzifon had been reduced to thirteen quarters and that the name Sütçü no longer appears in this list. No information was found on the present state of the mesjid.
The Şifâiyye Madrasa and a Problem of Dates
Hüsameddin says that Ebûbekir Efendi became müderris of "the Şifâiyye Madrasa that Hasan Ağa built". Yet in the first volume of his book, while listing the structures of Merzifon, the author gives the history of this madrasa differently: he writes that Dürrî Mehmed Efendi had a madrasa built in 1145 [1732-33], el-Hâc Ali Ağa in 1178 [1764-65], and that in 1212 [1797-98] el-Hâc Hasan Ağa built yet another madrasa, and "the madrasa of Hacı Hasan Ağa is famous as Şifâiye." It is impossible for Ebûbekir Efendi, who died in 1204 [1790], to have been müderris in a madrasa built in 1212. Either the date in the first volume is a writing or printing error, or the name Şifâiye passed to this building when a madrasa that already existed was rebuilt by Hasan Ağa. In Aysun and Engin Kanbur's list of Amasya madrasas the "Şifaiye Madrasa" appears with the date 1797 and the name "Hacı Ali Ağa"; this record repeats the information of the first volume, confusing the name of its founder. With the sources at hand this contradiction could not be resolved.
His Son Nâsih Ahmed Efendi
Hüsameddin counts Ebûbekir Efendi's son es-Seyyid eş-Şeyh Nâsih Ahmed Efendi among the "famous scholars" and states that he will describe his life separately in later pages of the book. That the son of a father who rose to the muftiship of Merzifon also gained fame on the path of learning shows that in eighteenth-century Merzifon the ilmiye profession continued within the family. No information on Nâsih Ahmed Efendi was found in other sources.
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