Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL
Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 6, p. 84 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Recep Orhan ÖZEL - Doç. Dr. Metin HAKVERDİOĞLU
Amasyalı Ahmed oğludur. Müfessir Hızır Efendi’den ahz-ı ulûm edib ders-i âm, 1091’de Havza’da Firuz Ağa, 1094’de Amasya’da Ayas Ağa Medreselerine müderris, 1096’da Havza kadısı, 1098’de Amasya kassâmı olup 1108 hudûdunda vefât etdi. Ulemâdan idi. [251]
Mahdûmu Abdullah Bedrî Efendi “Kassâmzâdelikle” ma’rûf-ı şu’arâdandır.
He was the son of Ahmed of Amasya. He acquired learning from the exegete Hızır Efendi and became a ders-i âm; in 1091 [1680] he became müderris of the Firuz Ağa Madrasa in Havza, in 1094 [1683] of the Ayas Ağa Madrasa in Amasya, in 1096 [1684-85] judge (kadı) of Havza, and in 1098 [1686-87] kassam of Amasya, and he died around 1108 [1696-97]. He was one of the scholars.
His son Abdullah Bedrî Efendi was one of the poets known by the nickname "Kassâmzâde."
Ebu'l-Kâsım Mehmed Efendi's teacher was the exegete Hacı Hızır Efendi, one of the leading scholars of seventeenth-century Amasya. According to his long biography in Hüsameddin's ninth volume, Hızır Efendi was born in 1006 in the Hacı İlyas neighborhood of Amasya, became repetitor (muid) of the Sultan Bayezid Madrasa in 1030 and müderris of Yörgüç Pasha in 1041, and in 1043 was appointed kassam of Amasya. Thus he himself had performed the duty his student would take on about half a century later. Hızır Efendi, four times mufti of Amasya, was dismissed in 1060 because he opposed the mutasarrıf of Amasya, Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, on certain religious-law questions; in 1070, as a result of complaints and false testimony organized by the city steward (kethüda) Mumcuzâde Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, he was convicted and sent to Cyprus, and under the grand vizierate of Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha his standing was restored and he returned to Amasya. He died on 8 Zilhicce 1084 and was buried in the Halfet Gazi cemetery. His works include a commentary reaching as far as the Sura al-An'am, Gusûnü'l-usûl on the principles of jurisprudence and its commentary, Unbûbü'l-belâğa on rhetoric, and Lübbü'l-ferâiz on the law of inheritance shares.
Hüsameddin writes that on the days when Hızır Efendi taught exegesis and hadith the Sultan Bayezid Mosque overflowed, and that many judges, müderrises and muftis came from among his students. Ebu'l-Kâsım Mehmed Efendi's path is also a typical example of this circle: professorship in the madrasas of Amasya and its surroundings, then a judgeship in a town such as Havza, then the office of kassam in Amasya. No detailed biography of Hızır Efendi was found in external sources; the information above rests on Hüsameddin's record.
The madrasa in Havza where Mehmed Efendi first served as müderris is the work of Firuz Ağa, founder of the Firuz Ağa Mosque in Sultanahmet, Istanbul. According to the inscription on the door of the Istanbul mosque, Firuz Ağa was chief treasurer (başhazinedar) of Bayezid II and had the mosque built in 896 (1490-91). He died in 918 (1512-13) and was buried in his tomb in the mosque's graveyard. According to the Istanbul Foundations Survey Register of 953 (1546), Firuz Ağa b. Abdülhayy had, besides his mosque, a teachers' school (muallimhane), a madrasa in Havza, and fountains at Smederevo Fortress and in the town of Saray, and many foundations had been made for these works.
Describing Havza in the first volume, Hüsameddin writes that in the year 900 "Firuz Ağa, famous as the Chief Black Eunuch (Kızlar Ağası)," had the madrasa built of masonry, solid, in the middle of the town, on the mountain side. In one source the same Firuz Ağa's title is chief treasurer and in Hüsameddin chief of the girls' aga (kızlar ağası); that the Havza madrasa is tied to the same person in the foundation register shows that the two are the same Firuz Ağa. Hüsameddin bitterly relates that the Firuz Ağa Madrasa, a home of learning for four hundred years, was made a government building (hükümet konağı) in 1300 [1882-83], that its lecture hall was turned into a prison and the lower story of its front into a police ward, and that no place was left in the huge town to teach children.
The Ayas Ağa Madrasa, where Mehmed Efendi became müderris in 1094, is also known in Amasya as the "Küçük Ağa Madrasa." According to Hüsameddin, it is in front of the Ayas Ağa Mosque in the Şamlılar neighborhood and was built in 900 by Ayas Ağa, known as the "Küçük Kapı Ağası" (Lesser Chief Gatekeeper); in the ranking of madrasas it was counted at the "hamsîn" level, that is, fifty akçe, and remained in good repair until Hüsameddin's time. Its first müderris was Şamlızâde Tâceddin İbrahim Efendi, and after him Emir Kulu Şemseddin Ahmed Efendi. It is written in other sources as well that Muhaşşî Sinan Efendi in his youth took lessons from Emîr Kulu Şemseddin Efendi, a teacher of this madrasa. In the list in which Hüsameddin in the first volume enumerates the müderrises of the madrasa, Pîrî Efendizâde Hâfız Hüseyin Efendi is mentioned in 1086, Hâfız Ali Efendi in between, and İbrahim Efendi in 1101; Ebu'l-Kâsım Mehmed Efendi's professorship in 1094 does not appear in this list. Since other biographies also contain names such as Çorumlu Ahmed Efendi, who became müderris of this madrasa in 1099, it is understood that the list is not complete.
The office of kassam, to which Mehmed Efendi was appointed in 1098, is one of the second-rank offices of the Ottoman judicial organization. The word comes from the root kısmet, meaning "to divide." In Ottoman practice the kassam was the religious-law official who investigated inheritance cases, decided disputes and divided the estate among the heirs. They were divided into two kinds: the military kassam, who divided the inheritance of the ruling class on behalf of the kazasker, and the municipal or urban (beledî or şehrî) kassam, who divided the estates of the subjects (reaya) on behalf of the provincial and sanjak judges. Hüsameddin does not state in which of these two kinds Mehmed Efendi served. That Hızır Efendi had also once served as kassam suggests that the office was regarded in Amasya as a usual step in the careers of members of the scholarly class.
The year 1098, in which Mehmed Efendi was appointed kassam, falls just before or at the beginning of the disturbances that shook Amasya's scholarly institutions, which Hüsameddin calls "the dreadful incident of 1098" and "the incident of 1099."
That his son Abdullah Bedrî Efendi is known as "Kassâmzâde" is a nickname that remained from his father's office. No information was found in other sources on this poet; to avoid confusing him with other poets who use the same pen name, the nickname "Kassâmzâde" is a distinguishing clue.
Primary sources
Academic studies
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