Mehmed Efendi, known in poetry as Ehlî, was a madrasa professor, judge and poet of the Tayyibzâde, one of the old scholarly families of Amasya. He lived in the second half of the sixteenth century, served as judge in various towns of Rumelia and died in 1010 (1601-02) while molla (senior judge) of Rhodes. Âşık Çelebi, Kınalızâde, Beyânî and Nev'îzâde Atâyî each gave him an entry; Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar too records him as a native of Amasya in his Amasya Tarihi and tells his life with information taken from Atâyî. His pen name suits the games he plays in his poems between his own name and the word "ehl" (worthy, competent). His best-known poem is the kıta he wrote about a judgeship that was not given to him, which ends "Acep câ'iz midir Ehlî dururken".

Hüsameddin's Account

Hüsameddin begins his entry as follows:

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. 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.

Put into English: Ehlî is from Amasya, a son of Tayyib Efendi, one of the great judges, whose ancestors were Ubeydullah Efendi, Ahmed Çelebi and Mevlânâ Tayyib Çelebi. He studied with Cum'a Efendi, one of the scholars of Amasya, became a lecturer and was appointed professor at the Atabey Gazi Madrasa in Amasya. He then went to Istanbul and became an assistant (mülâzım) of the sultan's tutor Atâullah Efendizâde Molla Şemseddîn Ahmed Efendi, who was the pupil and son-in-law of İsrâfîlzâde Fahreddîn Efendi of Amasya. While he was preparing for a professorship he offended the Şeyhülislam Ebussuûd Efendi and was therefore sent to a madrasa in İçel with twenty-five akçes. While teaching there, after Ebussuûd's death (982/1574), he entered the judicial career and served as judge in İçel, Yenice-i Vardar, Siroz and similar large towns.

Hüsameddin then quotes the kıta that Ehlî presented in 1001 (1592-93) to the Rumelian chief judge (kazasker) Bostanzâde Mehmed Efendi, when, waiting unemployed in Istanbul, he saw the judgeship of Gelibolu given to someone else, together with the chief judge's reply in verse. The rest of the entry is short:

Bundan sonra birkaç livâya daha kadı olup 1009'da Cezîre-i Rodos mollası olduğu hâlde 1010'da dâr-ı bekâya intikâl etdi.

That is, he served as judge in a few more sanjaks and died in 1010 (1601-02) while molla of the island of Rhodes, a post he had held since 1009 (1600-01). Hüsameddin then gives the praise Atâyî bestowed on Ehlî in his Zeyl-i Şakâyık and chooses nine pieces of his poetry. Hüsameddin's text, with notes, is found on the page Ehlî Mehmed Efendi-Tayyibzâde.

Family

His father Tayyib Efendi, according to Hüsameddin's record in the eleventh volume, was a judge among the intimates of Prince Mustafa in Amasya. After the prince was killed in 960 (1553) he fell from favour for a while; the following year, when Süleyman came to Amasya, he was pardoned and made judge of Sivas, and he died around 975 (1567-68). In the same record Hüsameddin lists his sons: Ehlî Mehmed and Abdürrahîm Efendi "are among the scholars and poets", and another son is Lütfullah Efendi. This family and the problem of the "Tayyibzâde Lutfî Efendi" in Prince Mustafa's circle are treated in detail on our site on the page Tayyibzâde Lutfî Efendi.

The anthologies draw no new picture of the family, though they add a few details. Âşık Çelebi writes that Ehlî was a grandson of Kadı Remzî and the son of Molla İlmî's sister, and counts him as a relative of his own; he gives this closeness as the reason for keeping the entry short. Kınalızâde gives a separate entry to Ehlî's younger brother, the Tayyibzâde with the pen name Şeyhî, and says that his name too was Mehmed. That two brothers bore the same name is odd; whether it is an error of the anthologist or whether there really were two Mehmeds in the family could not be determined.

Life

The anthologies catch Ehlî at different stages of his career. Âşık Çelebi, who finished his anthology in 1568, knows him as a muîd, an assistant who repeated lessons, at the "medrese-i Sultâniyye"; he praises his intelligence and character and says that he kept away from the fondness for women and boys common among poets. According to Kınalızâde, writing in 1586, he passed to the judiciary while a professor at Edirne with twenty-five akçes; the anthologist openly writes that he was surprised a man of such learning chose the judicial path, and adds that in recent years he had also taken up Sufism. Beyânî in 1597 draws attention to the same point: "Nisâb-ı fezâ'ile mâlik iken tarîk-ı kazâya sâlik oldı." Hüsameddin's account, for its part, ties the posting to İçel, something like an exile, to a quarrel with Ebussuûd Efendi. That the twenty-five-akçe madrasa is in Edirne in Kınalızâde and in İçel in Hüsameddin is a clear divergence between the sources; Hüsameddin does not say where he took this information from.

The Gelibolu kıta is the document that shows most vividly the ups and downs of Ehlî's years as a judge. A judge waiting unemployed in Istanbul objects, playing on his own pen name, to a vacant post being given to someone "nâ-ehl", unworthy, and the chief judge answers with a reminder that the matter was settled by the sultan's command: a small but lively scene of judicial appointments in the period. The mollaship of Rhodes is the highest post Ehlî reached.

His Tie to Amasya

The source that says plainly that Ehlî was from Amasya is Hüsameddin. Hüsameddin places his education in Amasya with Cum'a Efendi and his first professorship at the Atabey Gazi Madrasa in Amasya; he also presents his father Tayyib Efendi in Prince Mustafa's circle in Amasya. The anthologies give no birthplace and do not mention Amasya. The family's long-rooted presence in Amasya and Hüsameddin's detailed genealogy make the tie strong.

His Poetry

Whether Ehlî ever gathered his poems into a divan the sources do not say. The couplets chosen by the anthologists partly overlap and partly differ, and taken together they make nineteen pieces: the Gelibolu kıta and four pieces found only in Hüsameddin, nine couplets from Âşık Çelebi and five further pieces added by Kınalızâde. Each of them is a separate article in this category. Âşık Çelebi says that the "dikkat-i tab'", the subtlety of his mind, made his peers envious and that he was able to find fresh words and say them well; Kınalızâde writes that he had "hoş-âyende eş'ârı ve nâzikâne güftârı", pleasing verses and refined speech. Atâyî compares him in the poetic arts to Selmân and to Ehlî; the Ehlî meant here is very probably the Persian poet Ehlî-i Şîrâzî.

Most of the couplets are ghazal couplets and rest on a short, witty delivery: plays of sound and sense such as kıyâmet and kâmet, âl and hayâl, doğru and uğru, ehl and nâ-ehl are frequent. Two pieces about office and appointment, the Gelibolu kıta and the couplet "Düzd alur mansıbın i'lâsını", carry a bitterness that comes from the poet's own career.

Chronology

Around 975 (1567-68): His father Tayyib Efendi dies.

1568: Âşık Çelebi mentions him as muîd at the Sultaniye madrasa.

982 (1574): Death of Ebussuûd Efendi; according to Hüsameddin, Ehlî then passes to the judiciary.

1001 (1592-93): When the judgeship of Gelibolu is given to another, he presents his kıta to the chief judge Bostanzâde Mehmed Efendi.

1009 (1600-01): Becomes molla of Rhodes.

1010 (1601-02): Dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources