The reason Şirvânîzâde Enver Ahmed Efendi is known today is that one of his pupils became Amasya's greatest historian. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar studied Persian with this teacher while in the third year of the Amasya rüşdiye (middle school), worked through with him a reading list that ran from Sa'di's Bustan to Firdawsi's Shahnameh, and by his own account his wish to write the lives of Amasya's notable men grew in part out of these readings. Born in 1278 (1861-62) in Amasya's Gümüşlüzâde quarter, Enver Ahmed Efendi taught for at least sixteen years at the Amasya rüşdiye and then at its successor, the idadi (high school), and word came of his death in 1338 (1919-20). Hüsameddin calls him "âlim, şâir, edebiyyâta merâkı zâ'id", a scholar, a poet, a man with a great love of literature; he gives no example of his verse. The study Enver Ahmed Efendi-Şirvânîzâde takes up the Şirvânî family name and the Gümüşlüzâde quarter.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Amasya fuzalâsından Şirvânî el-Hâc Mustafa Efendi'nin mahdûmudur. 1278'de Gümüşlüzâde Mahallesi'nde doğdu. Rüşdiye Mektebi'nde fünûn-i lâzimeyi gördükten sonra pederinden tahsîl-i ulûm edib 1298'de irtihâl eden pederinin yerine Rüşdiye Mektebi üçüncü mu'allimi oldu. Onaltı yıl mu'allim-i sâlis sıfatıyla Rüşdiye Mektebi'nde şâkirdâna ta'lîm-i me'ârif etdi. 1314'de Rüşdiye Mektebi idâdî derecesine çıkarıldıkda Edebiyyât-ı Fârisiyye mu'allimi oldu. 1338'de vefât etdiği işitildi. Âlim, şâir, edebiyyâta merâkı zâ'id idi. Fârisiyyâtı bu zâttan okudum.

Put into modern English: his father, Şirvânî Hacı Mustafa Efendi, was one of the learned men of Amasya. He was born in 1278 in the Gümüşlüzâde quarter. After taking the required subjects at the rüşdiye he studied with his father, and when his father died in 1298 (1880-81) he took his place as the school's third teacher. For sixteen years he taught the pupils in that capacity. In 1314 (1896-97), when the rüşdiye was raised to the rank of an idadi, he became teacher of Persian literature. It was heard that he died in 1338. He was a scholar, a poet and a great lover of literature. I studied Persian with him.

His Father, Şirvânî Hacı Mustafa Efendi

Enver Ahmed's father was one of the teachers who trained the largest number of students in the madrasas of Amasya in the second half of the nineteenth century. In the first volume, where he describes the city's institutions of learning, Hüsameddin lists him, together with Caniklizâde Hacı Mehmed, Payaslızâde Hacı Abdülhalîm and İbikli Hacı Hasan Efendi, among the teachers who kept the old madrasa tradition alive and were "fevkalâde benâm", exceptionally renowned, adding that "their pupils are now spreading learning". In the book's biographies those trained in his lessons appear one by one: among them are Hilmi Osman Efendi of Batum, later mufti of Amasya, Cemâleddîn Ahmed Efendi of Köprü, Hüseyin Efendi of İlarslan, whose family came from Akhaltsikhe, and one of the sons of the Naqshbandi sheikh İsmâil Sirâceddîn Şirvânî. Mustafa Efendi also taught at the rüşdiye, and when he died in 1298 his son took his place.

The family name recalls another Şirvânî family in Amasya, that of the grand vizier Şirvânîzâde Mehmed Rüşdü Pasha. Hüsameddin draws no kinship between the two. That the pasha's brother studied with Mustafa Efendi suggests that he was a scholar who had come from Shirvan to Amasya independently, not a member of that family; but this too is nowhere stated in the source.

Years at the Rüşdiye and the Idadi

The Amasya rüşdiye had opened in 1282 (1865-66), and Enver Ahmed studied there in one of its first generations. When he succeeded his father he was not yet twenty; he worked for sixteen years as "third teacher". When the rüşdiye was raised to an idadi in 1314 he was appointed teacher of Persian literature. The article The Rise of Education in Amasya follows the school's transformation and its teaching staff. Nothing is known of Enver Ahmed's years after 1314. Hüsameddin's phrase "it was heard that he died" suggests that he may have spent his last years outside Amasya.

Hüsameddin's Teacher

In the first volume of his book, where he explains how he set about writing the history of Amasya, Hüsameddin describes his own education in detail. While in the third year of the rüşdiye he lodged in a room on the upper floor of the fatwa office next to the Abdüllatif Efendi Library and read Persian with Enver Ahmed Efendi:

Mektebin üçüncü sınıfında iken "Abdullatîf Efendi Kütübhânesi" ittisâlinde bulunan fetvâhâne fevkindeki hücrede beytûtet ederek "Şirvânîzâde Ahmed Enver Efendi"den "Bostân-ı Sa'dî", "Yûsuf ve Zelîhâ-yı Câmi" manzûmelerini kırâ'at ve lugât-ı Fârisiyye'den "Şu'ûrî ve Nâsırî" ferhenglerini, "Burhân-ı Kâtı'"ı ve ba'dehû "Pendnâme-i Attâr"ı, "Mantıku't-Tayr"ı, "Hâfız-ı Şîrâzî Dîvânı"nı, Acem şu'arâsının müntehabât-ı eş'ârını, "Harâbât-ı Ziyâ Paşa"yı ve "Şehnâme-i Firdevsî"yi mütâla'a eyledim.

That is, he read Sa'di's Bustan and Jami's Yusuf and Zulaikha, worked through the Persian dictionaries of Şuûrî and Nâsırî and the Burhan-i Qati', and then studied Attar's Pandnama and Mantiq al-Tayr, the divan of Hafiz, selections from the Persian poets, Ziya Pasha's Harabat and Firdawsi's Shahnameh. The list shows what could be taught in the private lessons of a rüşdiye teacher: the principal texts of classical Persian literature, the dictionaries needed to understand them, and the anthology Ziya Pasha compiled from three languages. In the same place Hüsameddin relates that the stories of the ancient kings of Iran in the Shahnameh, together with the biographical works he read, awakened in him the wish to gather the scholars of Amasya and write their lives, and that in 1305 he began visiting the city's leading scholars for this purpose. In his youth the historian also wrote poetry under the pen name Asrî.

His Poetry

No poem of his has survived. Hüsameddin is content to record that his teacher was a poet and quotes not a single couplet from him. The placing of "Enver" before his given name in the heading of the entry raises the possibility that it was a pen name, but Hüsameddin does not call it one; in his own autobiography he refers to his teacher as "Ahmed Enver Efendi".

Chronology

1278 (1861-62): Born in Amasya, in the Gümüşlüzâde quarter.

1298 (1880-81): His father Şirvânî Hacı Mustafa Efendi dies; he becomes the rüşdiye's third teacher in his place.

About 1302 (1884-85): Hüsameddin, in the third year of the rüşdiye, reads Persian with him.

1314 (1896-97): When the rüşdiye becomes an idadi, he becomes teacher of Persian literature.

1338 (1919-20): News of his death is received.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources