Amasyalıdır. Kibâr-ı kudâttan Tayyib Efendi bin Ubeydullâh Efendi bin Ahmed Çelebi bin Mevlânâ Tayyib Çelebi mahdûmudur. Amasya fuzalâsından Cum’a Efendi’den tahsîl-i ulûm edib ders-i âm ve Amasya’da Atabeg Gâzi müderrisi oldu.
Ba’dehû İstanbul’a gidip Amasyalı İsrâfîlzâde Fahreddîn Efendi’nin tilmîz ve dâmâdı olan Hâce-i Sultânî Atâullâh Efendizâde Molla Şemseddîn Ahmed Efendi’den mülâzim ve müderrisliğe müteheyyi’ iken Şeyhülislâm Ebussu’ûd Efendi’yi gücendirdiğinden yirmi beş akçe ile İçel müderrisliğine gönderildi. [373]
Orada tedrîs-i ulûm etmekte iken Ebussu’ûd Efendi’nin vefâtından sonra meslek-i kazâya girip İçel, Yenice-i Vârdâr, Siroz ve emsâli kasabât-ı celîleye kadı oldu.
1001’de Bostanzâde Mehmed Efendi meşîhat ma’zûlü olduğu hâlde sâlisen Rûmeli Kazaskeri olduğu esnâda ma’zûlen İstanbul’da bulunuyordu. Açılan Gelibolu Kazâsı kendisinden başkasına tevcîh edildikde şu kıt’ayı kazasker müşârün-ileyhe takdîm eyledi.
Bi-hamdillâh zamân-ı devletinde
Temeyyüz ehl ü nâ-ehl olunurken
Bu kâr-ı müşkili kime soralım
Serîr-i fazlda sen otururken
Geliboluda nâ-ehlin kazâsı
Acep câ’iz midir Ehlî dururken
Kazasker’in cevâbı
Tecâhül eyledik ey merd-i ârif
Suâl etdin cevâbını bilirken
Gel insâf eyle ne etsin kazasker
Efendi hatt-ı sultânî dururken
Bundan sonra birkaç livâya daha kadı olup 1009’da Cezîre-i Rodos mollası olduğu hâlde [374] 1010’da dâr-ı bekâya intikâl etdi. Nev’îzâde Atâyî Efendi “Zeyl-i Şakâyık”da şu tercemeyi yazdıktan sonra diyor ki:
“Mevlânâ-yı sâlifü’l-beyân ehl-i ilm ü irfân, sanâyi-i şi’riyyede Selmân ve Ehlî’ye bedel bedâyi-i ilmiyyesi revâbi’-i âsâr-ı bî-misâlle darbü’l-mesel bevâdi-i fezâ’ilin sâhib-i mişvârı sı’âb ve sehli arâ’is-i efkâr-ı sa’bü’l-menâlin sezâvârı ve hutbe-i kefâ’etin ehli idi.”
Merhûmun numûne-i cevâhir-i güftâr-ı âbdârından şunlar nakledildi:
Yolda eyler bizi görmezlenip eflâke nazar
Gitdi ol şâh-ı kerem eylemedi hâke nazar
Bu da onundur:
Desem hicrinde kan aglar gözüm ol mâh-ı âl anlar
Hilâle döndü ger cismim desem hod bir hayâl anlar
Bu da onundur:
Düzd alur mansıbın i’lâsını dogru almaz
Biz dahî alır idik olsa bir uğru almaz [375]
Bu da onundur:
Yâre anmışlar beni ol bî-vefâ çıkmış biliş
Sana âşıkdır demişler bilmezin anı demiş
Bu da onundur:
Gel elim öp diyecek lûtf ile bana o melek
Dedim ey şâh-ı cihân kankı elindir öpecek
Bu da onundur:
Ser-i kûyından ayrılmam felek bir yana salmazsa
Yolunda ölmedir kasdım eger Hakk cânım almazsa
Bu da onundur:
Kopar fitne kadem bassa o kadd-i ser ü bâğ üzre
Kıyâmet kâmetin görse cihân kalkar ayağ üzre
Bu da onundur:
Seri kodum yoluna almadı cânân eline
Gideyin başım alıp ben dahî hicrân eline
Gözedür sâ’id-i sîmînini cümle uşşâk
Fukarâ cümle bakarsın şeh-i hûbân eline
In Modern English
He was from Amasya. He was the son of Tayyib Efendi, one of the great judges; Tayyib Efendi was the son of Ubeydullâh Efendi, who was the son of Ahmed Çelebi, who was the son of Mevlânâ Tayyib Çelebi. He studied the sciences with Cum'a Efendi, one of the learned men of Amasya, gave public lessons, and became professor at the Atabeg Gâzi Madrasa in Amasya.
He then went to Istanbul and became a mülâzım (candidate for a professorship) under Molla Şemseddîn Ahmed Efendi, son of Atâullâh Efendi, the sultan's tutor, who was the pupil and son-in-law of Fahreddîn Efendi İsrâfîlzâde of Amasya. While preparing for a professorship he offended Şeyhülislâm Ebussu'ûd Efendi and was sent to a professorship at İçel at twenty-five akçe.
While teaching there, after the death of Ebussu'ûd Efendi, he entered the judicial career and served as kadı of İçel, Vardar Yenicesi, Siroz and similar large towns.
In 1001 [1592-93], when Bostanzâde Mehmed Efendi, dismissed from the office of şeyhülislam, was serving for the third time as Kazasker of Rumelia, he himself was in Istanbul, dismissed from his post. When the vacant judgeship of Gelibolu was given to someone other than himself, he presented the following quatrain to the said kazasker.
Bi-hamdillâh zamân-ı devletinde
Temeyyüz ehl ü nâ-ehl olunurken
Bu kâr-ı müşkili kime soralım
Serîr-i fazlda sen otururken
Geliboluda nâ-ehlin kazâsı
Acep câ'iz midir Ehlî dururken
Meaning: Thank God, in your time the competent are told apart from the incompetent; whom shall we ask about this hard matter, when you sit on the throne of learning? Is it permissible, I wonder, for an unfit man to hold the judgeship of Gelibolu while Ehlî stands there?
The kazasker's reply:
Tecâhül eyledik ey merd-i ârif
Suâl etdin cevâbını bilirken
Gel insâf eyle ne etsin kazasker
Efendi hatt-ı sultânî dururken
Meaning: O learned man, we feigned ignorance; you asked a question while knowing its answer. Come, be fair: what can a kazasker do, Efendi, when the sultan's own hand (his decree) stands?
After this he served as judge in several more sanjaks, and in 1009 [1600-01], while Mulla of the Island of Rhodes, he died in 1010 [1601-02]. After writing the following biography in the "Zeyl-i Şakâyık", Nev'îzâde Atâyî Efendi says:
"The aforementioned Mevlânâ was a man of learning and insight. In the arts of poetry his scholarly inventions were such as to stand in for Selmân and Ehlî, and through the spring meadows of his incomparable works he had become a proverb; he was a fit guide on the hard roads of the deserts of virtue, suited to reach the hard-won beauties of the brides of thought, and a master of the sermon of competence."
The following were transmitted as examples of the late man's brilliant words:
Yolda eyler bizi görmezlenip eflâke nazar
Gitdi ol şâh-ı kerem eylemedi hâke nazar
Meaning: On the road he pretends not to see us and looks at the heavens; that generous king has gone, and did not look at the dust (at us).
This too is his:
Desem hicrinde kan aglar gözüm ol mâh-ı âl anlar
Hilâle döndü ger cismim desem hod bir hayâl anlar
Meaning: If I say my eye weeps blood in your absence, that lofty moon understands it; if I say my body has become a crescent, it takes it for a phantom.
This too is his:
Düzd alur mansıbın i'lâsını dogru almaz
Biz dahî alır idik olsa bir uğru almaz
Meaning: The thief takes the high office, the honest man does not; we too would have taken it, if only a thief did not.
This too is his:
Yâre anmışlar beni ol bî-vefâ çıkmış biliş
Sana âşıkdır demişler bilmezin anı demiş
Meaning: They mentioned me to the beloved, saying "he is in love with you"; she proved faithless and said "I do not know him." (The first half of the second line could not be resolved with certainty; the sense is approximate.)
This too is his:
Gel elim öp diyecek lûtf ile bana o melek
Dedim ey şâh-ı cihân kankı elindir öpecek
Meaning: That angel-like beauty will graciously say to me "come, kiss my hand"; and I said, "O king of the world, which of your hands shall I kiss?"
This too is his:
Ser-i kûyından ayrılmam felek bir yana salmazsa
Yolunda ölmedir kasdım eger Hakk cânım almazsa
Meaning: I will not leave the head of your street unless fate casts me aside; if God does not take my life, my aim is to die on your road.
This too is his:
Kopar fitne kadem bassa o kadd-i ser ü bâğ üzre
Kıyâmet kâmetin görse cihân kalkar ayağ üzre
Meaning: Strife breaks out when that cypress-tall beloved sets foot in the garden; if the Last Day saw her stature, the world would rise to its feet.
This too is his:
Seri kodum yoluna almadı cânân eline
Gideyin başım alıp ben dahî hicrân eline
Gözedür sâ'id-i sîmînini cümle uşşâk
Fukarâ cümle bakarsın şeh-i hûbân eline
Meaning: I laid my head on your road and the beloved did not take it in hand; let me too take my head and go to the hand of separation. All lovers watch her silver forearm; all the poor look to the hand of the king of the beautiful.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- kibâr-ı kudât: great judges
- fuzalâ: learned men, scholars
- tahsîl-i ulûm: studying the sciences
- ders-i âm: one who gave public lessons, regarded as a teaching scholar
- mülâzım: a candidate queued for a professorship
- Hâce-i Sultânî: the sultan's tutor
- ma'zûl: dismissed from office
- meslek-i kazâ: the judicial career
- livâ: sanjak
- kıt'a: a short piece of verse
- hatt-ı sultânî: the sultan's handwritten order
- tercüme: life story, biography
- dâr-ı bekâ: the abode of eternity, that is, the afterlife
- sanâyi-i şi'riyye: the arts of poetry
The Source: Nev'îzâde Atâyî
The work on which Hüsameddin relies for Ehlî is Nev'îzâde Atâyî's biographical book "Hadâiku'l-hakâik fî tekmileti'ş-Şekâik". Atâyî was born in Istanbul in 1583; his father was Nev'î Yahyâ Efendi, a well-known poet and kazasker in the time of Mehmed III. Atâyî spent most of his life in judgeships in the Balkans. He finished the work in 1634 while kadı of Skopje, writing it as a seventy-six-year supplement to Taşköprizâde's "eş-Şekâik" covering the years 1558-1634; it describes the sheikhs, scholars and poets who rose in the Ottoman lands in that period. Ehlî's death falls within it. Atâyî was eighteen when Ehlî died, so it can be inferred that he collected his information about him later, from contemporaries or from records. This is an inference; the source read has no such information.
The two names in Atâyî's phrase "in place of Selmân and Ehlî" are most likely the famous Persian poets Selmân-ı Sâvecî and Ehlî-yi Şîrâzî. This identification is an inference; the text does not explain the names. The heavy, rhymed-prose language of the quotation is hard to resolve fully; the Turkish rendering follows the sense, and the wordplay could not be carried over.
Family and Posts
Hüsameddin ties Ehlî Mehmed Efendi to a four-generation family of judges and scholars, the "Tayyibzâde": Mevlânâ Tayyib Çelebi, Ahmed Çelebi, Ubeydullâh Efendi, Tayyib Efendi. No other record of this family was found in the sources read. His first post, the Atabeg Gâzi Madrasa in Amasya, is most likely Amasya's Atabey Madrasa; a study that mentions the Ata Bey Madrasa built in the Anatolian Seljuk period lists this name among the madrasas of Amasya. That the names refer to the same building is an inference.
Ehlî's career shows a professor moving into the judiciary: a provincial post that began with the professorship at İçel turns, after the death of Ebussu'ûd Efendi, into judgeships in towns such as Vardar Yenicesi and Siroz; at his death he is Mulla of Rhodes. Hüsameddin attributes his being sent to İçel to his having offended Şeyhülislâm Ebussu'ûd; this reason could not be confirmed in another source.
The Gelibolu Quatrain
The quatrain Hüsameddin quotes is as much a document of how judgeships were awarded as an example of Ehlî's poetry. The poet uses the word "ehil" (competent) together with his own pen name Ehlî: the Gelibolu judgeship has been given to the unfit, yet "Ehlî" is standing right there. The kazasker's answer is in the same tone and says that the post was given by the sultan's hand, that is, by direct imperial order. So the appointment lay outside the kazasker's own will. According to Hüsameddin this happened in 1001 [1592-93]; the offices held that year by Bostanzâde Mehmed Efendi, who is named in the episode, could not be separately confirmed.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 377-378. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies