Merzifonludur. Sultân Fâtih devrinde kâtib-i sultânî ve re’isü’l-küttâb-ı divânî olan Ahmed Çelebi bin Ahi Toy ibn-i Ahmed el-Merzifonî ahfâdından Ahmed Efendi bin Bedreddîn Mahmûd Çelebi bin kâtib-i sultânî Ahmed Çelebi mahdûmudur.
Amasya’da Hatîb Kâsımzâde Muhyiddîn Mehmed Efendi’den ikmâl-i tahsîl edib ders-i âm, Sultâniyye-i Merzifon [244] müderrisi, ba’dehû müftü ve kadı olarak devr-i bilâd etdi. 967 senesi hilâlinde dâr-ı bekâya gitdi. Âlî Bey Künhü’l-Ahbâr’ında ulemâ-yı kudâtdan olup Sultân Süleyman devrinde vefât etdiğini yazıyor.
Mahdûmları el-Hâc Mehmed, Receb Efendilerdir. Hacı Efendizâde Emîrî Receb Efendi meşâhîr-i şu’arâ ve ulemâdan olup İstanbul’da vefât etdi. Receb Efendi kibâr-ı mevâli-i devriyyeden olup mahdûmu Mehmed Efendi de kudâtdandır. Bunun oğulları Receb, Musliheddîn Mustafa, İbrâhim Efendilerdir. Bunlara “Recebzâde” dendi. Kaz’asker Musliheddîn Mustafa Efendizâde kudâttan Mehmed Efendi mahdûmu Nedîm Ahmed Efendi şâir-i meşhûrdur. Receb Efendizâde Mehmed Efendi de ulemâdandır.
In Modern English
He was from Merzifon. He was the son of Ahmed Efendi, a descendant of Ahmed Çelebi son of Ahi Toy son of Ahmed el-Merzifonî, who was the sultan's scribe and head of the Divan scribes (reisülküttâb) in the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror. Ahmed Efendi was the son of Bedreddin Mahmud Çelebi, and Bedreddin Mahmud Çelebi was the son of Ahmed Çelebi, the sultan's scribe.
After completing his studies in Amasya under Hatib Kâsımzâde Muhyiddin Mehmed Efendi, he became a ders-i âm (a müderris who gives lectures open to all in a mosque); he served as müderris of the Merzifon Sultaniye, then as mufti and judge (kadı), moving from city to city. He passed to the eternal world in the year 967 [1559-60]. Âlî Bey writes in his work Künhü'l-Ahbâr that he was among the scholars who served as judges and that he died in the reign of Sultan Süleyman.
His sons were Hacı Mehmed and Receb Efendi. Hacı Efendi's son Emîrî Receb Efendi was among the famous poets and scholars and died in Istanbul. Receb Efendi was among the foremost of the great judges known as the "rotating mollas" (devriye mollaları), and his son Mehmed Efendi was also among the judges. His sons were Receb, Muslihuddin Mustafa and İbrahim Efendi. They were called "Recebzâde." The son of the military judge (kazasker) Muslihuddin Mustafa Efendi, Nedim Ahmed Efendi, the son of the judge Mehmed Efendi, is a famous poet. Receb Efendi's son Mehmed Efendi was also among the scholars.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- kâtib-i sultânî: the sultan's scribe, palace scribe
- re'isü'l-küttâb-ı divânî: head of the scribes of the Imperial Council (Divan-ı Hümayun), reisülküttap
- ahfâd: grandchildren, descendants
- mahdûm: son
- ikmâl-i tahsîl: completing one's studies
- ders-i âm: a müderris authorized to give lectures open to all in the great mosques
- ba'dehû: after that
- devr-i bilâd: traveling from city to city in the course of one's duties
- hilâlinde: within, during
- dâr-ı bekâ: the eternal world, the hereafter
- ulemâ-yı kudât: scholars who served as judges
- meşâhîr-i şu'arâ: famous poets
- kibâr-ı mevâli-i devriyye: the leading figures among the high-ranking scholars who served in turn as judges of the great cities
- kudât: judges
- kaz'asker: kazasker, the highest judicial officer of Rumelia or Anatolia
A Scholarly Family from Merzifon
This short entry of Hüsameddin's is a summary of a family stretching from the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror to the eighteenth century. At the head of the chain stands Ahmed Çelebi, the Conqueror's scribe; at its end, Nedim, the poet of the Tulip Era. Hatib Kâsımzâde Muhyiddin Mehmed Efendi, named as the teacher of Ebussuud Efendi, the subject of the entry, is one of the well-known scholars of Amasya. According to his biography, he was born in Amasya on 27 Şaban 864 (17 June 1460), served as müderris in the madrasas of Amasya, Bursa and Istanbul, tutored Prince Ahmed in the reign of Bayezid II, rose as far as the Sahn madrasas, and died in 940 (1534). That a student who died in 967 had studied under this teacher is chronologically plausible. The Amasya branch of the same family appears in the entries on Ebu'l-Kâsım Abdullah and Ebuloğlu, treated separately in this volume.
In searches for Ahmed Çelebi son of Ahi Toy, regarded as the founder of the family, other people with similar names turned up (for example Ahi Çelebi, a physician of the reigns of the Conqueror and Bayezid II); no information was found in other sources on a Merzifon-born Ahmed Çelebi as the Conqueror's reisülküttab. Hüsameddin's reference to Âlî's Künhü'l-Ahbâr could also not be checked directly.
The Merzifon Sultaniye
The Merzifon Sultaniye, where Ebussuud Efendi served as müderris, is the madrasa built by Çelebi Sultan Mehmed between 817 and 820 (1414-1417). According to the inscription on the entrance iwan, construction began by the sultan's order in 817 and was completed in 820; its architect was Ebû Bekir b. Muhammed el-Müşeymeş, from a family of Damascene craftsmen. Its plan, with an open courtyard and four iwans, recalls the pre-Ottoman madrasas of Anatolia; the local people called the building the "Merzifon Sultaniye." Eminent scholars such as Ferîdüddin-i Dîvânî and Seydî Şemseddin Ahmed-i Kırîmî taught here. Its scholarly life ended after 1844, when the professorship began to pass from father to son; for a time it was used as an arms depot. The brick clock tower above the entrance iwan was built in 1282 (1865) by Ziyâ Pasha, the mutasarrıf of Amasya. The building was repaired in the Republican period and is today set aside for cultural activities.
Hüsameddin mentions the Recebzâdes elsewhere in the book as well. Among the teachers of Ebûbekir Efendi, who was educated in Merzifon, "Recebzâde el-Hâc Mehmed, müderris of the Merzifon Sultaniye" is listed; and the chronicle records that in Safer of 1076 [1665] Recebzâde Mehmed Efendi, mufti of Merzifon, died. This Mehmed Efendi is probably the "Receb Efendizâde Mehmed Efendi" mentioned at the end of the entry, but the text does not make this identification explicit. It thus appears that one branch of the family remained in Merzifon and continued local offices such as the Sultaniye professorship and the muftiship.
The Family's Most Famous Descendant: the Poet Nedim
The most striking piece of information in the entry is that Nedim, the great name of divan poetry, descended from this line. Present-day biographies confirm the chain Hüsameddin gives. Nedim's real name is Ahmed; he was probably born in Istanbul in 1092 (1681). His father was the judge Mehmed Efendi, and his grandfather was Mustafa Muslihuddin Efendi of Merzifon, a military judge (kazasker) of the time of Sultan İbrahim. His mother, Sâliha Hatun, was of the Karaçelebizâde family, which had been in state service since the conquest of Istanbul. Nedim died in 1143 (1730).
The story of his grandfather cast a heavy shadow on the family. The kazasker Mustafa Efendi, because of rivalries within the scholarly establishment and his unconventional inclinations, was called by ugly nicknames among the ulema and the janissaries, and so became known as "Mülakkab Mustafa" (Mustafa the Nicknamed). On 18 Receb 1058 (8 August 1648), the day Sultan İbrahim was deposed, he was lynched in front of the Sultanahmed Mosque. Some poets, such as Osmanzâde Tâib, referred to Nedim as "Mülakkabzâde" because of these nicknames. In Nedim's biographies the family appears under the name "Mülakkabzâde"; the name "Recebzâde" and the family's Merzifon root reaching back to the Conqueror's time emerge from Hüsameddin's record. In this respect the entry is a valuable link added to Nedim's genealogy from the Amasya region.
There is also a small discrepancy of names among the records. Hüsameddin calls the grandfather "Muslihuddin Mustafa Efendi"; one Nedim biography writes "Mustafa Muslihüddin Efendi," another "Mustafa bin Muslihiddin Efendi." On the second reading, Muslihuddin would be the name of the kazasker's father. Hüsameddin, however, gives Mustafa Efendi's father as Mehmed Efendi; so it seems more fitting that "Muslihuddin" was his own epithet.
An Uncertain Point in the Text
Two different Receb Efendis appear in the third paragraph: Receb, son of Ebussuud Efendi, and the poet Emîrî Receb, son of Hacı Mehmed Efendi. Which of them the sentence "Receb Efendi is among the foremost of the rotating mollas" refers to cannot be established with certainty from the text; that later generations are counted as descended from this Receb also explains the family's name "Recebzâde." No information was found in other sources on the poet Emîrî Receb Efendi; since other poets in the biographical dictionaries of poets use the same pen name, he must not be confused with them.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 82–83. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 4, entry "Mehmed Paşa" (events of 1074-1076), p. 588–589; vol. 6, entry "Ebûbekir Efendi-Hacı Müderris", p. 89.
Academic studies
Books