Ahmed Efendi kept the accounts of a mint for many years, appears in 995 (1587) as secretary of the sanjak divan, and had learned the various scripts from calligraphers; as a poet he used the pen name Hamdî. His career was spent, in all likelihood, in the chancery of the sanjak of Amasya. His father is named only as "Mahmûd of Amasya", with no title or family name; the son studied the sciences and joined the secretaries of the sanjak. He died in 1009 (1600-01). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar gives him a four-line entry in Amasya Tarihi and describes him as a secretary, calligrapher, poet and man of letters. No other record of him has been found.

Hüsameddin's Lines

Amasyalı Mahmûd'un oğludur. Ulemâdan tahsîl-i ilm ü irfân ve hattâtlardan hutût-ı mütenevvi'ayı ahz ü temmeşşük ederek ketebe-i livâdan oldu. Hayli müddet darb-hâne kâtibi olup 995'de kâtib-i divân-ı livâ görüldü. 1009'da vefât etdi. Kâtib, hattât, şâir, edîb idi.

In English: He was the son of Mahmûd of Amasya. He learned knowledge and learning from scholars, took the various scripts from calligraphers and practised them, and became one of the secretaries of the sanjak. He worked for a long time as clerk of the mint and in 995 was seen as secretary of the sanjak divan. He died in 1009. He was a secretary, calligrapher, poet and man of letters.

Life

Only one place name appears in the entry, and it is his father's home town. It is not stated outright that Ahmed Efendi himself was from Amasya; but his place among the "ketebe-i livâ", the secretaries of the sanjak, and Hüsameddin's inclusion of him among the people of Amasya indicate that he served as secretary in the sanjak of Amasya. Since the sanjak is not named, this is a reading drawn from the context of the text.

The phrase "for a long time clerk of the mint" describes a post keeping the accounts of a mint where coin was struck. Hüsameddin does not say in which town the mint stood. The words "in 995 he was seen as secretary of the sanjak divan" suggest that he appears with this title in some document, most probably a court register or a defter; Hüsameddin uses the same verb in other entries for information he found in a register ("seen in the Teşrifât-ı İlmiyye Defteri", for instance), but here he does not name his source. The secretary of the sanjak divan was the man who drafted the sanjak governor's correspondence and the decisions taken in his council.

His date of birth is not given. Since he held a senior post in 995, he must have been past middle age when he died in 1009.

Other Amasya Men with the Same Pen Name

In the ninth volume of Amasya Tarihi several men with the pen name Hamdî follow one another, and they are easily confused. Immediately after Ahmed Efendi's entry come Hamdî Mehmed Efendi of Merzifon, expense clerk to Kara Mustafa Paşa, Vâsî Çelebizâde Hamdî Ahmed Efendi, trustee of the Pervâne Bey endowment, and Müftüzâde Hamdî Mehmed Efendi of Lâdik. The nearest to Ahmed Efendi, however, is Hamdî Hamdullah Çelebi, who lived a little before him and served as nişancı (chancellor) to Prince Mustafa. Both earned their living by the pen in Amasya and both were calligrapher-poet secretaries. No kinship between them is known; sharing a pen name does not, on the known records, point to a family tie.

Poetry

Nothing of his verse has reached us. Hüsameddin's "şâir, edîb" comes with no example, and Metin Hakverdioğlu, counting the poets of Amasya Tarihi volume by volume, simply records him among those of the ninth volume as "Hamdi Ahmed Efendi-Kâtib". Even if a poem signed "Hamdî" were to turn up in some anthology, so many men of Amasya used that pen name that giving it to Ahmed Efendi would take more than the signature. Hüsameddin's four lines, with a glossary, stand under the title Hamdi Ahmed Efendi-Kâtib.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources