A judicial career that began at Gelgiras and ran by way of Köprü, Zile and Merzifon to Çorum hardly took Hâkî Ali Efendi, in the middle of the seventeenth century, beyond the towns around Amasya. Serving in some places as judge (kadı), in others as deputy judge (naib), this jurist-poet became judge of Çorum in 1058 (1648), and after his dismissal he returned home and died in Amasya in 1061 (1650-51). Hüsameddin counts him among the judges whose names are mentioned with praise, as "âlim, şâir, müstakîm", that is, learned, a poet and upright. His father was one of the notables of the inner city, a gazzâz, a silk merchant.

His Life

The entry Hüsameddin devotes to him in the ninth volume, Hâkî Ali Efendi-Gazzâzoğlu, gives the steps of a judge's career in order:

Amasyalıdır. İçeri şehirde Câmi-i Enderûn Mahallesi eşrâfından Gazzâz Abdulbâkî Çelebi mahdûmudur. Kâdızâde Hocâ Mehmed İlmî Efendi'den ulûm-ı edebiyye ve şer'iyyeyi ahz ve ikmâl-i tahsîl ederek mücâz ve ders-i âm oldu. Sonra silk-i kudâta girib Gelgirâs kâdısı olarak rü'yet ve istikâmetle iştihâr etdi. Ba'dehû kâh nâib ve kâh kâdı olarak Köprü, Zile, Merzifon gibi kazâları devr edib 1058 senesinde Çorum kâdısı oldu. Buradan ma'zûlen 1061'de Amasya'da vefât etdi. Kudât-ı sütûde-simâtdan âlim, şâir, müstakîm bir zât idi.

In English: He was from Amasya, the son of Gazzâz Abdülbâkî Çelebi, one of the notables of the Enderun Mosque quarter in the inner city. He took the literary and religious sciences from Kâdızâde Hoca Mehmed İlmî Efendi, completed his studies, received his licence and became a teacher of public lessons. He then entered the ranks of the judges and, as judge of Gelgiras, became known for his competence and integrity. Thereafter, serving now as deputy judge, now as judge, he went the round of districts such as Köprü, Zile and Merzifon, and in the year 1058 became judge of Çorum. Dismissed from there, he died in Amasya in 1061. He was one of the praiseworthy judges, a learned man, a poet and upright.

Köprü is today's Vezirköprü; Gelgiras, Zile and Merzifon are likewise districts in the near surroundings of Amasya. On a map, the places Hâkî served trace a narrow circle around his home town. A naib was a deputy judge acting in the judge's stead. The judgeship of Çorum was the highest step on this path through the small provincial districts; there is no information that he received a new post after being dismissed from it. Details such as his date of birth, his family and his children did not find their way into this short entry either.

His Teacher

Kâdızâde Mehmed İlmî Efendi, under whom he read the literary and religious sciences, was known in Amasya as "Küçük Hâce" (the Little Master); madrasa teachers, judges and poets came out of his teaching circle. According to Hüsameddin's records, the pulpit sheikh of the İbadullah Mosque Hayretî İbrâhim Efendi (d. 1076) and the sheikh of the Müftüzâde lodge Hüdâyî Ahmed Efendi (d. 1089) were also trained in that circle; of the three, Hâkî was the first to die. The master's own household was no stranger to poetry: his sons Hocazâde Ahmed Efendi and Remzî Abdullah Efendi were madrasa teachers who wrote verse.

The Gazzâz Family

"Gazzâz" is the name given to tradesmen who worked or sold raw silk and silk cloth. That Hüsameddin counts his father Gazzâz Abdülbâkî Çelebi among the "notables" shows that the family was a respected merchant household of the inner city. Among the yearly events in the fourth volume of the Amasya Tarihi there appears a Gazzâz Ahmed Ağa bin Abdülbâkî, bearing the same father's name: this Ahmed Ağa, one of the imperial messengers (dergâh-ı âlî çavuşları), was appointed trustee of the endowments of Sultan Bayezid in the years 1047, 1053 and 1054. The identical father's name and family name suggest that Ahmed Ağa may have been Hâkî Ali Efendi's brother; Hüsameddin does not connect the two men.

The entry Hasan Ağa-Gazzâzzâde in the eighth volume also describes a family known by the same name: Hasan Ağa, who rose as high as chief of the sword-bearers, was the son of the cavalryman Mehmed Ağa, brother of Ahmed Bey, one of the notables of the Hâtuniye quarter, who was killed in 1058, and his father too was unjustly executed. If this Ahmed Bey is Gazzâz Ahmed the endowment trustee, and if the trustee was Hâkî's brother, then 1058, the year Hâkî became judge of Çorum, would be the year his brother was killed. Each link in this chain is a possibility only: the names of the quarters differ (Enderun Mosque and Hâtuniye), and the source nowhere counts the three men as one family.

His Poetry

The pen name "Hâkî" means "of the earth, made of dust" and is one of the pen names expressing humility often found in Sufi poetry. No poems by Hâkî Ali Efendi have come down to us; Hüsameddin neither says where his information came from nor puts a single sample line into the entry. Since Abdî Efendi's lost anthology covered the poets of Amasya who grew up between 1000 and 1081, Hâkî, who died in 1061, falls within its period; whether his name appeared in it is unknown. Metin Hakverdioğlu, who reads Hüsameddin's work as an anthology of poets, lists him among the poets of the ninth volume who have a biography. The same pen name appears in the entries right beside his in the ninth volume, borne by two men of nineteenth-century Amasya: the madrasa teacher Hâkî Ahmed Efendi of Çay village (d. 1220) and Hâkî Mehmed Efendi, sheikh of the Çevikce lodge (d. 1246); Hüsameddin does not call either of them a poet.

Chronology

1047, 1053, 1054: Gazzâz Ahmed Ağa bin Abdülbâkî is recorded as trustee of the endowments of Sultan Bayezid.

1058 (1648): Hâkî Ali Efendi becomes judge of Çorum.

1061 (1650-51): Dismissed from the judgeship of Çorum, he dies in Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources