Edîb Mustafa Efendi's father, Seyyid İbrâhim Efendi, was a judge of Amasya's Zanalızâde family. The son studied in Istanbul, passed through the careers of madrasa teacher (müderris) and judge (kadı), rose to the rank of the circuit judgeships (devriye mevleviyeti), returned to his native city after being dismissed from his last post as judge of Tokat, and died there in 1247 (1831-32). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar gives him a six-sentence entry in the seventh volume of Amasya Tarihi and, in the last sentence, calls him "âlim, şâir", a scholar and poet. He quotes not a single line of his verse. Hüsameddin's text, with a glossary, can be read in the study Edîb Mustafa Efendi-Kadızâde.

Hüsameddin's Entry

The entry stands in the section listing natives of Amasya whose names begin with the letter "elif", a few entries after that of Edîb Mehmed Efendi of Lâdik:

Amasyalıdır. Kudâtdan Zanalızâde es-Seyyid İbrâhim Efendi bin es-Seyyid el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi'nin mahdûmu ve kibâr-ı kudâtdan es-Seyyid Mehmed Efendi'nin birâderidir. İstanbul'da tahsîl-i ulûm edib müderris, kadı olarak devr-i bilâd etdi. Ba'dehû devriye mevâlîsinden olup Tokat kazâsından ma'zûlen Amasya'ya geldi. 1241'de ihtiyâr-ı tekâüd edib 1247 sâlinde vefât etdi. Âlim, şâir, tab'an latîf, mütekellim bir zât idi.

Rendered into English: A native of Amasya, born to the judge Zanalızâde Seyyid İbrâhim Efendi, and brother of Seyyid Mehmed Efendi, one of the senior judges; his father's father was Seyyid Hacı Mehmed Efendi. He studied in Istanbul and travelled from city to city as a teacher and judge. He then entered the ranks of the judges of the circuit grade and, on being dismissed from the judgeship of Tokat, came to Amasya. In 1241 he chose retirement, and he died in the year 1247. Learned and a poet, he was refined by nature and an accomplished speaker.

His Life

The entry records neither when he was born, nor his teachers in Istanbul, nor the madrasas in which he taught. Of his posts only the last, Tokat, is known. "Devriye mevâlîsi" refers to the high-ranking judges of the learned hierarchy who held the judgeships of the great cities in rotation; his admission to this class shows that his career rose above that of an ordinary small-town judge. After his dismissal from Tokat he sought no new appointment, settled in Amasya and, in 1241 (1825-26), took retirement of his own choosing. The six years that remained to him are a blank.

The two epithets in the last sentence need explaining. "Tab'an latîf" means refined and pleasant by temperament; "mütekellim" here means an eloquent, persuasive speaker, though it can also denote someone versed in kalam, scholastic theology. Which of the two is meant, the text leaves open.

His Family

His father, Seyyid İbrâhim Efendi, was a judge; Hüsameddin counts his elder or younger brother Seyyid Mehmed Efendi among the "kibâr-ı kudât", the senior judges. The epithet "Kadızâde" attached to his own name, "son of the judge", probably comes from his father's profession, though the entry stops short of saying so. The family name Zanalızâde, by contrast, points to a lineage that came from the village of Zana east of Amasya and, from the late seventeenth century, held a place among the city's scholars and notables. Hüsameddin places at the head of this lineage the mufti Zanalı Seyyid Hacı Ahmed Efendi, who died in 1140 (1728). Hüsameddin does not show how Mustafa Efendi's grandfather Seyyid Hacı Mehmed Efendi was related to this Ahmed Efendi.

The book contains one other place where the names "Kadızâde" and "Zanalızâde" appear together, and the two should not be confused. According to the entry İbrâhim Efendi-Kadızâde es-Seyyid el-Hâc in the sixth volume, the widow of Seyyid Mehmed Efendi, who died in 1268 (1851-52) while judge of Köprü, married Zanalızâde Seyyid Mustafa Efendi, known as the "Köşe Kadısı", and for this reason his descendants too came to be called "Kadızâde". That Mustafa Efendi belongs to a later generation than our poet, who died in 1247; the similarity of names conceals two different men.

His Poetry

Hüsameddin counts him a poet but quotes none of his verse and mentions neither a divan nor an anthology containing his poems; none of his poems has been recovered to this day. "Edîb" may be his pen name (mahlas) or part of his name; the entry is silent on the point. Hüsameddin arranges his entries by the name by which a person was known, and for poets he usually puts the pen name first. Edîb Mehmed Efendi, born in Lâdik, who appears in the same letter section, is a different person who lived in the early eighteenth century.

Chronology

1241 (1825-26): After his dismissal from the judgeship of Tokat, he chooses retirement in Amasya.

1247 (1831-32): Dies in Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources