Amasyalıdır. Meşâhîr-i fuzalâdan Hâfızeddîn Mehmed bin Ahmed bin Âdil el-Berda’î mahdûmudur. Pederi Amasya’da Hüseyniyye müderrisi iken doğdu. Sonra pederiyle beraber İstanbul’a gidip orada tahsîl-i ulûm etdi. Pederinden mülâzım ve ders-i âm ve müderris oldu. [252]
957’de pederinin vefâtı üzerine Amasya’da Hüseyniyye müderrisi olup geldi. Amasya vâlisi Şehzâde Sultân Mustafa’ya tekarrub ederek cülûsunu dört gözle beklerken 960 şevvâlinde şehîden vefât etdiğini görüp müte’ellim oldu.
Ba’dehû kazaya rızâ verip hayli bilâda kadı olarak 983’de Filibe kadısı oldu. 985’de ma’zûlen İstanbul’a gelip 990’da vefât etdi. Ulemâ-yı kudâtdan olup Amasya kadısı da olmuş, Şehzâde Sultân Mustafa’nın vefâtı bütün ümitlerini kırmıştı.
In Modern English
He was a native of Amasya. He was the son of the well-known virtuous scholar Hâfızeddîn Mehmed bin Ahmed bin Âdil el-Berda'î. He was born while his father was müderris of the Hüseyniyye Madrasa in Amasya. He then went to Istanbul with his father and studied there. He came out from his father's side as a mülazım (a madrasa graduate awaiting appointment); he then became a ders-i âm and müderris.
When his father died in 957 [1550] he came to Amasya as müderris of the Hüseyniyye. Having gained closeness to the governor of Amasya, Prince Sultan Mustafa, and eagerly awaiting his accession to the throne, he fell into deep grief when he saw the prince put to death (martyred) in Şevval 960 [October 1553].
After this, resigned to fate, he served as judge (kadı) in many cities, and in 983 [1575-76] became judge of Plovdiv (Filibe). In 985 [1577-78], having been dismissed from office, he came to Istanbul, and he died in 990 [1582]. He was one of the scholars who served as judges; he had also served as judge of Amasya. The death of Prince Sultan Mustafa had shattered all his hopes.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- meşâhîr-i fuzalâ: well-known virtuous scholars
- tahsîl-i ulûm: studying the sciences
- mülâzım: a candidate who has finished the madrasa and, on the recommendation of a great scholar, enters the queue for a professorship or judgeship
- tekarrub: drawing close, gaining favor
- cülûs: accession to the throne
- müte'ellim: one who feels pain, grieving
- ba'dehû: after this
- bilâd: cities, lands
- ma'zûlen: having been dismissed from office
- ulemâ-yı kudât: scholars who took the path of the judgeship
His Father Hâfız-ı Acem
The nickname "Acemzâde" in the entry comes from his father. Hâfızüddin Muhammed b. Ahmed b. Âdil Pasha is most often called Hâfız-ı Acem in the sources; since he was born in the city of Berdaa in Arrān in the Caucasus, he bears the nisba Berdaî. Raised in Tabriz, he crossed into Ottoman lands with his brother Abdülfettah because of Shah İsmâil's pressures to spread Shiism, and came to Amasya in 907 (1501). Here he joined the circle of Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman Efendi of Amasya and received a license (icazet) from the Amasya calligrapher Şeyh Hamdullah. Passing through the madrasas of Ankara, Merzifon, Istanbul and İznik, he rose to a professorship at Hagia Sophia, retired in 948 (1541-42), and wrote many Arabic works on jurisprudence, theology (kelâm) and rhetoric. The authors of his time regarded him as the most learned müderris of his age.
Hüsameddin gives the father's death as 957. This is the date given by Taşköprizâde and Mecdî; but according to the dated calendar record of the period, Hâfız-ı Acem died on 23 Muharrem 958 (31 January 1551), and present-day research accepts this second date as more certain. The information that the father served as müderris of the Hüseyniyye in Amasya does not appear in other biographies; they give Hâfız-ı Acem's first post as the Ankara Madrasa.
The Son's Life in Other Sources
One of Hâfız-ı Acem's sons is Ebü'l-Meâlî, known by the nickname Hâfızzâde. From an ownership note on a copy of his father's work Risâle fî tasvîri'l-heyûlâ, it is understood that he served as judge in Ürgüp, was later dismissed from the judgeship of Plovdiv, and died in Istanbul in 990 (1582). This information, given by Atâî and the Sicill-i Osmânî, matches exactly the judgeship of Plovdiv, the dismissal and the date of death that Hüsameddin relates. It is also recorded that Hâfız-ı Acem had his sons read some of his encyclopedic works as textbooks.
The Hüseyniyye Madrasa
The Medrese-i Hüseyniyye is the building known in Amasya by the names Büyük Ağa or Kapı Ağası Madrasa. According to its inscription it was built in 894 (1489) by Hüseyin Ağa, chief gatekeeper (kapı ağası) of Bayezid II, in the Şamlar neighborhood on the bank of the Yeşilırmak. It is known for its octagonal plan, which has almost no parallel among Ottoman madrasas. Abandoned after 1940 and fallen into ruin, it was renovated in the 1980s by the Directorate of Foundations and today is used as a Qur'an course.
Hopes Tied to Prince Mustafa
The point Hüsameddin stresses most in this short entry is that Ebü'l-Meâlî had tied his future to Prince Mustafa. Mustafa, the eldest son of Süleyman the Lawgiver, was sanjak governor of Amasya from 16 June 1541 until his death and had won renown there as a prince who supported poetry and learning and was known for his justice. On 6 October 1553, in Hijri terms the end of Şevval 960, he was strangled in his father's tent in the camp near Konya Ereğlisi. The date "Şevval 960" that Hüsameddin gives agrees with these records. For a müderris close to the circle the prince had formed in Amasya, this death was a break that changed the direction of his career; it is meaningful in this respect that Ebü'l-Meâlî spent the following years not in professorship but in provincial judgeships.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 85–85. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
Books
Other sources