Amasyalıdır. Babazâde Ca’fer Çelebi bin İlyâs Çelebi bin Baba Mehmed Çelebi mahdûmudur. Amasya’da hıfz-ı Kur’ân etdikten sonra şeyhü’l-kurrâ Manisalı Sâdık Mehmed Efendi’nin tilmîzi Amasyalı Hâfız Muhyiddîn Efendi’den tecvîd, kıraat, mûsikî öğrendi. [362]
Savt ve edâsı pek güzel ve muhrik olduğundan Gümüşlüzâde Câmi-i Şerîfi imâmı oldu. Ancak müderrisînden Amasyalı İğnecizâde Ömer Efendi İstanbul’a giderken bunu beraber götürdü. Orada Eyüp Câmii Kebîri İmâm Şeyhü’l-kurrâ Mısırlı Ahmed Mesîrî Efendi’den vücûh-i kıraati ve Arap nağamâtı ahz ve te’allüm ederek tekemmül etdi.
İstanbul âfâkında savt ve edâsının şöhreti tanîn-i endâz oldukda Kara Ahmed Paşa Câmi-i imâm ve hatîbi olup oraları şenlendirdi. Bir taraftan ta’lîm-i kıraata devâm ve diğer taraftan tahsîl-i me’ârifi iltizâm edib hem şeyhülkurrâ hem de ders-i âm oldu.
1018’de Ayasofya Vâ’izi olan müşârün-ileyh Amasyalı Ömer Efendi şehzâdegân mu’allimi oldukda bunun şöhret-i kıraati, savt ve edâsı Sarây-ı Hümâyûn’a kadar aksederek Sultân Ahmed Hân-ı Evvel birkaç defa kendisini sarâya celbedip Kur’ân-ı Azîm okutup dinlemiş ve beğenmişdi.
1025 senesi zilhiccesinde Anadolu kazaskerliği pâyesi ve yevmî ikiyüz elli akçe vazîfesiyle İmâm-ı Sultânî olan [363] Hâfız Mustafa Efendi’nin irtihâli üzerine aynı rütbe ve aynı ma’aş ile def’aten İmâm-ı Sultânî oldu.
Yirmi yıl kadar dört pâdişâh-ı zî-şâna bi-lâ azl İmâm olup 1044’de Revân Seferi’ne giderken Sultân Murâd-ı Râbi’ ile beraber gitdi. Ancak yolda hastalandığından avdetine müsâ’ade buyurulup İstanbul’a vüsûlünden biraz sonra sene-i mezbûre zilka’desinde vefât etdi. Ebû Eyyûb Ensârî civârında türbe-i mahsûsasında medfûndur.
Şeyhî Mehmed Efendi “Zeyl-i Şakâyık”ta diyor ki: “Şeyh-i mezbûr, hüsn-i hâlle meşhûr, fenn-i kıraatte engüşt-i nümâ-yı âlem, ihyâ-yı mürde-i tâlibîn etmede Mesîhâ-dem, ilim ve ameli câmi’, muktediyât-ı nefs ve hevâ-yı kâmi’, halîm ve selîm, müşfik ve kerîm, mazınne-i kerâmet, dervîş-sîret idi.”
Mahdûmları Ahmed, Mehmed Efendilerdir. Dâmâdları Amasyalı Mehmed Efendi, Abdurrahmân Efendi, sudûrdan Seyrekzâde Yûnus Efendi’dir. Topkapı semtinde mahallesi ve câmii ve evkâfı vardır. Vakfının mütevellîsi Mehmed Efendi, ba’dehû Abdurrahmân Efendi olmuşdur.¹⁷⁴ Abdurrahmân Efendi’nin dâmâdı da [364] hattât-ı meşhûr Amasyalı Nefîszâde es-Seyyid İsmâîl Efendi’dir. Evlâdına Evliyâzâde ve hayrâtına Evliyâ Mescidi dendi.
Şâyân-ı dikkattir ki bütün Türkiye memâlik-i vâsi’asında ilm-i kırâaatta üstâdü’l-esâtize tanınmış, bütün silsile-i ilm-i kıraat, kendisinden teşe’ub ederek her tarafa kol salmışdır. Binâenaleyh: Bütün Türkiye’nin yegâne şeyhu’l-kurrâsı olmuşdur.
In Modern English
He was from Amasya. He was the son of Babazâde Ca'fer Çelebi; Ca'fer Çelebi was the son of İlyâs Çelebi, who was the son of Baba Mehmed Çelebi. After memorising the Qur'an in Amasya, he learned tajwid, recitation and music from Hâfız Muhyiddîn Efendi of Amasya, a pupil of the Sheikh of the Reciters Sâdık Mehmed Efendi of Manisa.
Because his voice and manner of reciting were very beautiful and stirring, he became imam of the Gümüşlüzâde Mosque. But İğnecizâde Ömer Efendi of Amasya, one of the müderris of that place, took him along when he went to Istanbul. There he learned the modes of recitation and the Arabic melodies from Mısırlı Ahmed Mesîrî Efendi, Sheikh of the Reciters and imam of the Great Mosque of Eyüp, and so reached maturity.
When the fame of his voice and recitation spread around Istanbul, he became imam and preacher of the Kara Ahmed Pasha Mosque and brought those quarters to life. While continuing to teach recitation on the one hand, he took on the study of the sciences on the other, and became both Sheikh of the Reciters and a müderris giving public lectures (ders-i âm).
In 1018 [1609-10], when the above-mentioned Ömer Efendi of Amasya became preacher of Hagia Sophia and then tutor of the princes, the fame of this man's recitation, voice and manner of reading echoed as far as the Imperial Palace. Sultan Ahmed I summoned him to the palace several times, had him recite the Great Qur'an, listened and was pleased.
In Zilhicce 1025 [December 1616-January 1617], on the death of Hâfız Mustafa Efendi, who had been İmâm-ı Sultânî with the rank of Kazasker of Anatolia and a daily stipend of two hundred and fifty akçe, he at once became İmâm-ı Sultânî with the same rank and the same stipend.
For about twenty years he served as imam of four great sultans without being dismissed. In 1044 [1634-35], when Sultan Murad IV set out on the Revan campaign, he went with him. But as he fell ill on the way, he was allowed to return, and a little after reaching Istanbul he died in the month of Zilkade of the same year [April-May 1635]. He is buried in his own tomb near Ebû Eyyûb el-Ensârî.
Şeyhî Mehmed Efendi says in his "Zeyl-i Şakâyık":
The said sheikh was famed for his good character, pointed out by the whole world in the science of recitation, one who with the breath of the Messiah revived the dead hearts of his students, a gatherer of knowledge and practice, one who restrained the demands of the self and of desire, mild and gentle, compassionate and generous, one in whom miracles were expected, a man of dervish temper.
His sons were Ahmed and Mehmed Efendi. His sons-in-law were Mehmed Efendi of Amasya, Abdurrahmân Efendi, and Seyrekzâde Yûnus Efendi of the upper ranks of the learned class. In the Topkapı quarter he has a neighbourhood, a mosque and endowments. The trustee of his waqf was Mehmed Efendi, and after him Abdurrahmân Efendi. The son-in-law of Abdurrahmân Efendi was the famous calligrapher Nefîszâde Seyyid İsmâîl Efendi of Amasya. His descendants came to be called Evliyâzâde and his charitable works the Evliyâ Mosque (Evliyâ Mescidi).
It is worth noting that throughout the wide lands of all Turkey he was known as the teacher of teachers in the science of recitation; the entire chain of the science of recitation branches out from him and has spread in every direction. For this reason he became the one sheikh of the reciters of all Turkey.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- hıfz-ı Kur'ân: memorising the Qur'an
- tecvîd: the rules for pronouncing the letters of the Qur'an correctly
- kıraat: the different transmitted ways of reciting the Qur'an; vücûh-ı kıraat, all of these ways
- şeyhülkurrâ: sheikh of the scholars of recitation, the Qur'an reciters
- tilmîz: pupil
- savt ve edâ: voice and manner of reciting
- muhrik: burning; one that stirs and moves the heart of the listener
- nağamât: melodies, recitation in maqam
- tanîn-endâz: resounding, ringing
- ders-i âm: a müderris who gives lectures open to all in a mosque; a scholarly rank
- vâ'iz: religious functionary, one who preaches
- şehzâdegân mu'allimi: tutor of the princes
- İmâm-ı Sultânî: the sultan's own imam
- kazasker: army judge; one of the two officials at the highest level of the learned hierarchy
- sudûr: the upper ranks of the learned class
- mütevellî: the person who administers a waqf
- hattât: calligrapher
- Zeyl-i Şakâyık: one of the continuations written to the biographical dictionary of scholars called Şakâyık-ı Nu'mâniyye
Traces in Istanbul
Places still bearing his name in Istanbul are attached to Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi. The Istanbul Encyclopedia introduces Hoca Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi, one of the scholars of the seventeenth century, as the builder of the Evliyâ Mosque near the Yenikapı Mevlevi Lodge, a şeyhülkurrâ and imam-ı sultânî. In the same place it is written that the Evliyâ Fountain opposite the Evliyâ Mosque at the Mevlevîhâne Gate, and the Evliyâ Çelebi quarter, were also the charity of the same person; the fountain was repaired in 1252 [1836-37] by the chief consort of Mahmud II, and its inscription was placed at that repair. For the demolished Evliyâhoca Mosque at Çavuşdere in Üsküdar it is written in "Hadîkatü'l-cevâmi" that its founder was Evliyâ Hoca Mehmed Efendi and that his grave lies beside the mosque; whether this mosque belongs to the same person is not clear. Hüsameddin, for his part, writes that he has a neighbourhood, a mosque and endowments in the Topkapı quarter and that he is buried in a tomb near Ebû Eyyûb.
On the Year of His Death
The Istanbul Encyclopedia writes that Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi fell ill at Konya while going on the Revan campaign with Murad IV and was allowed to return, and that he died the same year in Istanbul, in Hijri 1038 [1628], and was buried outside the Topkapı gate. Hüsameddin places the death in Zilkade 1044 [April-May 1635] and shows the grave around Eyüp. The account of the illness and the permission to return is the same in both sources; the year and the burial place differ. According to Hüsameddin he became İmâm-ı Sultânî in 1025 [1616-17] and remained in office "about twenty years"; by 1044 this period comes to nineteen years, by 1038 to thirteen. This calculation suits Hüsameddin's date better, but the disagreement between the two sources could not be resolved from the sources read.
The Teacher of Evliyâ Çelebi
According to the encyclopedia entry on the traveller Evliyâ Çelebi, his name probably comes from his epithet and must have been taken in relation to his teacher, the imam Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi. The same entry writes that Evliyâ Çelebi worked on memorising the Qur'an under his teacher Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi; the traveller tells that on the night, before setting out on the pilgrimage in 1671, when he visited Eyüp Sultan, he saw his father and his teacher Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi in a dream. No source was read that states outright that Hüsameddin's İmâm-ı Sultânî Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi and Evliyâ Çelebi's teacher are the same person; but since both are mentioned as imam and teacher of recitation in Istanbul, they are probably the same. This is an inference.
The Kara Ahmed Pasha Mosque
The Kara Ahmed Pasha Mosque, where he was imam and preacher, is the centre of a complex made up of a mosque, madrasa, primary school, fountain and tomb, on the inner side of Topkapı. Kara Ahmed Pasha, who rose to the grand vizierate under Süleyman the Magnificent, began to have it built; when the pasha was executed on 13 Zilkade 962 [29 September 1555], construction stopped for a time. The mosque is the work of Mimar Sinan; the surviving endowment deed is dated 2 Ramazan 962 [21 July 1555]. According to the account in "Hadîkatü'l-cevâmi", construction was resumed on 22 Şaban 972 [25 March 1565] and finished in seven years; the encyclopedia entry notes that, since Rüstem Pasha had died in 1561, the date of resumption cannot have been 1565. Hüsameddin's statement that Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi's neighbourhood too was in the Topkapı quarter shows that the mosque where he served and the quarter where he lived were the same.
His Beginnings in Amasya
The Gümüşlüzâde Mosque where Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi first served as imam is the Gümüşlü Mosque, known among the people as "Taciye". Around it stood the Gümüşlüoğlu Lodge, the first Halvetî lodge of Amasya; for more than two hundred years this complex was the home of the Gümüşlüzades. The mosque lies about a hundred and fifty metres from the tomb of Sultan Taceddin Altunbaş. No separate source could be found in searches for his teachers Sâdık Mehmed Efendi of Manisa, Hâfız Muhyiddîn Efendi, İğnecizâde Ömer Efendi and Mısırlı Ahmed Mesîrî Efendi, or for his sons-in-law Abdurrahmân Efendi and Seyrekzâde Yûnus Efendi and the calligrapher Nefîszâde İsmâîl Efendi. The name İğnecizâde may be the same as the family that appears in the Amasya Halvetî chain as "İğnecizâde Pîr Safiyyüddin Mahmûd"; there is no record confirming this inference.
The Waqf Record
Hüsameddin's footnote relays a record from the register of mukataât and mahlûlât: "From the waqf of the Erdebîlî house, in the charge of Mehmed Çelebi, Fâtıma Hatun and Ayşe Hatun, children of İmâm-ı Sultânî Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi, for the year 1054 [1644-45]: 400." The unit of the figure 400 at the end of the record is not written. Considered together with the information that Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi died in 1044, the record shows that in the years after his death these children ran a waqf house. The relation of the trustees named in the text, Mehmed Efendi and Abdurrahmân Efendi, to these children is not stated.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 373–374. amasya.bel.tr
- Müctebâ İlgürel, "Evliya Çelebi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/evliya-celebi).
Academic studies
- Semavi Eyice, "Ahmed Paşa Külliyesi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/ahmed-pasa-kulliyesi).
- İsmail İpek, "Amasya'da Halvetîlik ve Pir İlyas Şücâeddin'in Hayatı", Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı I, Amasya, 2017.
- Doğan Koşan, "Son Anadolu Selçuklu Meliki Taceddin Altunbaş'ın Amasya'daki Medresesi ve Türbesi", Gaziantep Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi.
- M. Baha Tanman, "Yâkub Paşa Tekkesi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/yakub-pasa-tekkesi).
Books
- Hakkı Göktürk, "Evliyâ Mehmed Efendi (Hoca)", "Evliyâ Çeşmesi", "Evliyâ Çelebi Mahallesi" and "Evliyâhoca Mescidi", İstanbul Ansiklopedisi (Reşad Ekrem Koçu), vol. 10, p. 5426–5429 (istanbulansiklopedisi.org/handle/rek/10517, 10507, 10508, 10515).