For some twenty-five years in the first half of the nineteenth century Hasan Efendi appears as nakîb and muîd of the Torumtay Madrasa, one of the oldest madrasas in Amasya, while in the same years he was serving as a judge in town after town. His father was the Amasya mufti Seyyid Mehmed Efendi. He died in 1251 (1835-36), a few months after handing his madrasa post to his brother-in-law. The pen name "Enverî" comes from the heading of his entry in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi, which describes him as "meşâhîr-i kudâttan edîb, şâir", a man of letters and a poet among the noted judges. Not a single line of his verse has come down to us. Where the pen name does survive is in his son's name: Seyyid Mehmed Sa'îd Efendi, judge of Kedağra in the same year, is called "Enverîzâde" in another of Hüsameddin's entries.

Hüsameddin's Entry

The entry stands among the Enverîs under the letter "elif" in volume seven, directly after a namesake who lived in the fifteenth century:

Amasya Müftüsü es-Seyyid Mehmed Efendi'nin mahdûmudur. Taşköprülü Hâfız Abdullah Efendi'den ikmâl-i tahsîl ederek fâzıl-ı müşârün-ileyhe dâmâd ve ders-i âm ve 1226'da kayınpederinin kasr-ı yediyle Medrese-i Torumtay nakîbi ve mu'îdi oldu.
Ba'dehû silk-i kudâta girip devr-i bilâd ederek 1251'de nekâbet-i mezkûreyi bacanağı olan Malatyalı Sofu Mehmed Efendi'ye kasr-ı yed ve ferâğat ve birkaç ay sonra vefât etdi. Meşâhîr-i kudâttan edîb, şâir bir zât idi. Mahdûmu da kudâttan es-Seyyid Mehmed Sa'îd Efendi'dir.

In English: His father was the Amasya mufti Seyyid Mehmed Efendi. He completed his studies with Taşköprülü Hâfız Abdullah Efendi, became that scholar's son-in-law, received the rank of ders-i âm, and in 1226 (1811-12), when his father-in-law withdrew from the post, became nakîb and muîd of the Torumtay Madrasa. Later he entered the ranks of the judges and served in a number of cities. In 1251 (1835-36) he gave up the said office of nakîb to his brother-in-law Malatyalı Sofu Mehmed Efendi and died a few months later. Among the well-known judges, he was a writer of refinement and a poet. His son, also a judge, is Seyyid Mehmed Sa'îd Efendi.

Life

Hasan Efendi's year of birth is not known. Although his father is named as a mufti, no separate entry on this Seyyid Mehmed Efendi turned up among Hüsameddin's muftis; the epithet "Müftüzâde" shows only that the family was known by that office. The man who really shaped his life was his teacher and father-in-law, Taşköprülü Hâfız Abdullah Efendi. Hüsameddin gives him a long entry in volume twelve under the heading "Abdullah Efendi-Şeyh Nakşîbendî": a scholar who came from Taşköprü to study in Amasya, became professor at the Halfet Gâzi Madrasa in 1222 (1807-08) and briefly mufti of Amasya in 1223-1224, led about a thousand madrasa students to the Russian war, received a Naqshbandi licence in Mecca, built a lodge and a small mosque beside his house near the Kağnı market, and later turned down the office of mufti when it was offered to him again. When the order abolishing the Janissary corps reached Amasya in 1241 (1826), he is said to have opposed the killing of all the Janissaries and to have had the punishment confined to the guilty. This entry dates his death to Şevval 1244 (April 1829); his son's entry gives 1241.

The last sentence of the same entry also explains the man Enverî calls his "brother-in-law": the sheikh's "halîfesi ve dâmâdı Malatyalı Sofu Mehmed Efendi meşâhîr-i ulemâdan idi", his deputy and son-in-law Sofu Mehmed Efendi of Malatya was among the noted scholars. Enverî and Mehmed Efendi of Malatya, then, had married two daughters of Taşköprülü Abdullah Efendi. The madrasa records in the first volume and the entry on the sheikh's son Ârif Mehmed Efendi show how the three passed posts in Amasya's madrasas to one another: in 1238 the sheikh left his share in one madrasa to his son-in-law Mehmed Efendi of Malatya, and his son Ârif Mehmed Efendi, who had inherited the Halfet Gâzi professorship from his father, handed it in 1247 (1831-32) to "his sister's husband", the same Mehmed Efendi. Enverî's taking over the posts of nakîb and muîd at Torumtay in 1226 through his father-in-law's "kasr-ı yed", his voluntary withdrawal from the office, and his leaving the same post to his brother-in-law in 1251 form one link in this chain. The sheikh's lodge at the Kağnı market must be the same place as the Kağnı Mosque and lodge which, according to the first volume, Taşköprülü Abdullah Efendi restored in 1228 (1813).

At the Torumtay Madrasa and on the Bench

The Torumtay Madrasa is the Seljuk building known today as the Gökmedrese Mosque. Named Gökmedrese in Seyfeddin Torumtay's endowment deed of 665 (1266-67), it served for a long time as both mosque and madrasa. Of the two titles Hasan Efendi held there, the muîd was the assistant who went over the professor's lessons with the students. The nakîb's office appears in the book as an endowed madrasa post that could be passed from one holder to another; Hüsameddin does not explain its exact duties.

What stands out in the entry is two careers running side by side. From 1226 to 1251 Hasan Efendi held the title of nakîb, yet he also entered the judiciary and practised "devr-i bilâd", serving in turn as judge of various towns and cities. The places are not named. Who carried out the Torumtay duties during his years on the bench is likewise passed over in silence.

His Son and the Name Enverîzâde

Hüsameddin closes the entry with his son's name: "Mahdûmu da kudâttan es-Seyyid Mehmed Sa'îd Efendi'dir." The son turns up once more in volume seven, in quite another context. In the entry on Emîne Hâtun Sultân, wife of Murad II, the details of her tomb and endowment at Kedağra Castle are said to come from "an audit made on 7 Rebiülâhir 1251 during the judgeship of the Kedağra judge Enverîzâde Mehmed Said Efendi". So in the year of his father's death the son was serving as judge of Kedağra and was recorded officially as "Enverîzâde". This line is the only witness that the pen name in the heading was actually in use, or at least that the family was known by it.

The Other Amasya Poet of the Same Name

Hüsameddin lists two Amasya poets named Enverî one after the other. The other is Enverî Pîr Hasan Çelebi-Şeyhîzâde, son of Abdülkerîm Çelebi: a fifteenth-century scholar who presented poems and odes to Bayezid II while the prince was governor of Amasya, was sent to Tokat as a professor after the upheaval of 883 (1478-79), and died after 890 (1485). Since both men were called Hasan, they are easily confused; three and a half centuries separate them, and nothing suggests that they came from the same family.

Poetry

None of his poems has been found. Hüsameddin's "edîb, şâir" comes with no example, and he does not say whether Enverî left a divan or whether any of his verse passed into anthologies. A judge-poet of an age when chronograms were everywhere may well have left lines in inscriptions in Amasya or the towns where he served, in the Islamic court registers or in miscellanies. No such text has yet been published.

Hüsameddin's entry has a page of its own, Enverî Hasan Efendi-Müftüzâde es-Seyyid, where the original text appears with a glossary and notes on the Torumtay Madrasa.

Chronology

1226 (1811-12): Succeeds his father-in-law Taşköprülü Hâfız Abdullah Efendi as nakîb and muîd of the Torumtay Madrasa.

1244 (1829): His father-in-law Taşköprülü Abdullah Efendi dies (1241 according to his son's entry).

1247 (1831-32): His brother-in-law Ârif Mehmed Efendi hands the Halfet Gâzi professorship to Malatyalı Sûfî Mehmed Efendi.

7 Rebiülâhir 1251 (1835): His son Enverîzâde Mehmed Sa'îd Efendi is judge of Kedağra.

1251 (1835-36): Hands the Torumtay post to his brother-in-law; dies a few months later.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources