[250] Amasya’da Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii hatîbi İsmâil Efendi bin Ebu’l-Kâsım Abdullah Efendi bin Ahmed Efendi bin Hatîb Kâsım Efendi mahdûmu olup Ebu’l-Kâsımoğlu ve tahfîfen “Ebuloğlu” demekle meşhûrdur. “Tebyînü’l-Mehârim” mü’ellifi Şeyhü’l-harem Amasyalı Sinan Efendi’den ve Bahşîzâde Yahyâ Efendi’den ahz-ı ulûm edib ders-i âm oldu.
Ba’dehû müderris olarak devr-i medâris edib 1034’de yevmî elli akçe ile Halfet Gâzi müderrisi ve 1035 saferinde medrese-i mezbûre ile mütekâ’id ve Halfet Gâzi evkâfına mütevellî olduğu hâlde 1038 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi. Meşâhîr-i ulemâdan olup mahdûmu sipâhî a’yânından el-Hâc İbrâhim Ağa ber-vech-i evlâdiyyet vakfa mütevellî oldu.
In Modern English
He was the son of İsmail Efendi, khatib of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque in Amasya. İsmail Efendi was the son of Ebu'l-Kâsım Abdullah Efendi; Abdullah Efendi was the son of Ahmed Efendi; and Ahmed Efendi was the son of Hatib Kâsım Efendi. He is known as Ebu'l-Kâsımoğlu and, in shortened form, "Ebuloğlu." He acquired learning from Sinan Efendi of Amasya, the author of the work Tebyînü'l-Mehârim and sheikh of the Haram in Mecca, and from Bahşîzâde Yahyâ Efendi, and became a ders-i âm.
He then went from madrasa to madrasa as müderris in turn. In 1034 [1624-25] he became müderris of Halfet Gazi with fifty akçe a day; in Safer 1035 [1625] he was retired with this madrasa, and while he was mütevelli of the Halfet Gazi foundations he died after 1038 [1628-29]. He was one of the famous scholars. His son, Hacı İbrahim Ağa, one of the leading sipahis, became mütevelli of the foundation by right of descent (evlatlık).
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- hatîb: the official who delivers the Friday and festival sermons
- tahfîfen: in shortened form, abbreviated
- mü'ellif: author
- şeyhü'l-harem: the official responsible for the administration of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca
- devr-i medâris: going from madrasa to madrasa, rank by rank
- yevmî: daily
- medrese-i mezbûre: the said madrasa
- mütekâ'id: retired
- evkâf: foundations (waqfs)
- sipâhî a'yânı: the leading men among the timar-holding sipahis
- ber-vech-i evlâdiyyet: by right of descent from the founder of the waqf
His Teacher Yûsuf Sinâneddin el-Amâsî
"Sinan Efendi of Amasya, author of Tebyînü'l-Mehârim and sheikh of the Haram," named as Ebuloğlu Mehmed Efendi's teacher, is known in present-day research as Yûsuf Sinâneddin el-Amâsî (d. 1000/1592). According to a study on him, the author wrote his work while residing in Mecca. Tebyînü'l-Mehârim deals with the things forbidden in the Qur'an; the increase of negative behavior and insensitivity seen in society, and the absence of an independent work in this field, led to its composition. The book has ninety-eight separate headings; that its subjects are chosen starting from the Qur'an and that it gives examples from daily life gives the work a value in shedding light on the social and cultural condition of sixteenth-century Ottoman society. One copy of the work is today in the Amasya Manuscript Library (no. 381) and another in Manisa (no. 1346).
This scholar must not be confused with another man of Amasya with the same name and nisba. Sinâneddin Yusuf, known as Muhaşşî Sinan Efendi, was born in 893 (1488) in the village of Sonusa in the sanjak of Amasya (today Uluköy, attached to Erbaa), earned the epithet "Muhaşşî" through the great gloss he wrote on Beyzâvî's commentary, became kazasker of Anatolia after judgeships in Aleppo, Damascus, Bursa, Edirne and Istanbul, and died in Istanbul in 986 (1578); his name lives on today in the Muhaşşî Sinan Efendi neighborhood in Anadoluhisarı. Hüsameddin describes this second scholar in a separate entry in the tenth volume. Since Ebuloğlu Mehmed Efendi died after 1038, it is chronologically more fitting that his teacher was Yûsuf Sinâneddin of Mecca, who died in 1000.
Bahşîzâde Yahyâ Efendi
The second teacher, Bahşîzâde Yahyâ Efendi, appears in Hüsameddin's book as "Fâzıl Yahyâ Efendi bin İbrahim Kemâleddin Efendi bin Mevlânâ Bahşî Halîfe." His son Molla Bahşîzâde Hızır Efendi studied under his father, became imam of his grandfather's mescit and, after his father's death, mütevelli of his foundation, and died in 1026. It is also written that Altıparmak Hızır Efendi, born in 973, completed his studies under "Bahşîzâde Fâzıl Yahyâ and the exegete Sinâneddin Yûsuf Efendi." This record shows that the same two teachers, that is, Bahşîzâde Yahyâ and the exegete Sinâneddin Yûsuf, were teaching in Amasya at the same time at the end of the sixteenth century, and supports Hüsameddin's record of Ebuloğlu Mehmed Efendi's teachers. No information was found in external sources on Bahşîzâde Yahyâ Efendi.
The Halfet Gazi Foundation and the Ebuloğulları
Mehmed Efendi, like his grandfather Ebu'l-Kâsım Abdullah Efendi, described in the previous entry, took on the professorship of the Halfet Gazi Madrasa and the trusteeship of the foundation together. According to Hüsameddin, the Hatib Kâsım family descends from Halfet Gazi; the passing of the trusteeship to the son "by descent" (evlâdiyet), that is, by right of descent from the founder, rests on this tie. That the son Hacı İbrahim Ağa was a sipahi shows that a branch of the family passed from the scholarly to the military class. In another entry of Hüsameddin's there is mention of a certain "Ebuloğlu İbrahim Ağa bin Ebu'l-Kâsım Efendi," counted among the Hatib Kâsımzâdes, a janissary and serdar of Amasya who died in 1068; since the name and the father's kunya coincide, he may be the same person, but the fact that this record says janissary and our entry says sipahi prevents a definite identification.
The name Ebuloğlu continued in Amasya until the nineteenth century. Hüsameddin also mentions Hacı İsmail Efendi, descended from "Mehmed Ağa bin İbrahim Ağa bin Ebu'l-Kâsım Efendi, famous as Ebuloğlu," who became divan efendisi in 1238, and the name of "the famous calligrapher Ebuloğlu Hâfız Mustafa," who taught writing (meşk) to Muslîzâde Ahmed Kâmilî Efendi; this calligrapher's tie to the family is not stated explicitly.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 84–84. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 6, entry "İbrâhim Efendi-Kadızâde", p. 40; entry "Ahmed Kâmilî Efendi-Muslîzâde", p. 235; vol. 7, entry "İsmâil Efendi-Dîvân Efendisi", p. 325–326; vol. 9, entry "Hızır Efendi-Molla Bahşîzâde", p. 115–116; entry "Hayreddîn Hızır Efendi-Altıparmak", p. 150; vol. 10, entry "Sinâneddîn Yûsuf Efendi-Muhaşşî", p. 318–321.
Academic studies