Hâsim Mustafa Efendi passed the rüûs examination that opened the way to a professorship and chose the bench instead, moving for some thirty years from town to town in Anatolia as a judge (kadı). He came from a well-known family of scholars and poets in eighteenth-century Merzifon and had completed his education in Amasya. He descended from the Merzifon poet Abdî Efendi, from whom the name "Abdîzâde" comes. He died in Merzifon in 1208 (1793-94), out of office. In Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's words he was "learned, a poet, eloquent and lettered". His own entry is short; Hüsameddin's other entries on the same family, however, give him a definite place in the learned circle of Merzifon.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Merzifonludur. Şu'arâdan Abdî Efendi'nin evlâdından el-Hâc Abdurrahmân Efendi bin el-Hâc Mustafa Efendi'nin mahdûmu ve meşhûr 'Iydî Bayram Efendi'nin birâderi hafîdidir. Bu münâsebetle Amasya'ya gelip 'Iydîzâde el-Hâc Âkif Mustafa Efendi'nin halka-i tedrîsinde ikmâl-i tahsîl etdi. Bir müddet Merzifon'da tedrîs-i ulûm edib sonra İstanbul'a gitdi. Orada ru'ûs imtihânına girip kazandığı hâlde meşrebi kazâya mâ'il olduğundan kudât silkine girdi. Otuz yıl kadar devr-i bilâd ederek icrâ-yı kazâ edib 1208'de ma'zûlen Merzifon'da vefât etdi. Âlim, şâir, natûk, edîb bir zât idi.

In English: Of Merzifon. He was the son of Hacı Abdurrahman Efendi bin Hacı Mustafa Efendi, of the line of Abdî Efendi, one of the poets, and the grandson of the brother of the famous Iydî Bayram Efendi. Because of this connection he came to Amasya and completed his education in the teaching circle of Iydîzâde Hacı Âkif Mustafa Efendi. After teaching for a while in Merzifon he went to Istanbul. There he sat the rüûs examination and passed, but since his temperament inclined towards judgeship he joined the ranks of the judges. For about thirty years he moved from town to town serving as judge, and in 1208 he died in Merzifon, out of office. He was learned, a poet, eloquent and lettered.

Family Ties

The first sentence of the entry ties Hâsim Mustafa Efendi to two families at once. His father Hacı Abdurrahman Efendi was of the line of the poet Abdî Efendi; his grandfather Hacı Mustafa Efendi was a brother of the famous Iydî Bayram Efendi, who taught at the Sultaniye Madrasa in Amasya and later became molla of Tripoli in Syria. Iydî Bayram Efendi's son, Iydîzâde Hacı Âkif Mustafa Efendi, was a scholar and poet who twice served as mufti of Amasya and taught for forty-five years; he died in 1173 (1760). Hüsameddin explicitly ties Hâsim Mustafa's coming to Amasya to complete his studies under him to this kinship: the teacher was the son of his student's father's uncle. Âkif Mustafa Efendi's life and poems are gathered under Îdîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi.

Another of Hüsameddin's entries makes this line of descent clearer still. Eşref Abdurrahman Efendi-Abdîzâde, mufti of Merzifon, molla of Cyprus and poet, was the son of "Mustafa Efendi bin Mehmed Efendi bin Abdî Efendi", and Hüsameddin writes that he was a paternal cousin of Âkif Mustafa Efendi, son of Iydî Bayram Efendi. Eşref Abdurrahman Efendi died in 1151 (1738-39), and his sons Mustafa and Mehmed Efendi were called "Ammizâde". Hâsim Mustafa Efendi's father too was an Abdurrahman Efendi of Abdî Efendi's line whose father was named Mustafa, and he stands at the same degree of kinship to Iydî Bayram Efendi. This overlap suggests that Hâsim Mustafa's father was Eşref Abdurrahman Efendi and that he himself was Eşref's son Mustafa Efendi. Hüsameddin himself never cross-refers the two entries. The title "el-Hâc" given to the father in Hâsim's entry does not appear in Eşref's own entry, the same names recur often in these families, and in his section on the madrasas Hüsameddin calls Iydî Bayram Efendi "Merzifonî Mustafa Efendizâde"; the names in the genealogies do not always match. For these reasons the identification should be counted a strong possibility and taken no further. For Eşref Abdurrahman Efendi's life, works and poems, see the piece titled Eşref Abdurrahman Efendi.

Hâsim Mustafa Efendi's son also followed the judicial path. Hüsameddin introduces Sâbit Mehmed Efendi-Kâdızâde of Merzifon as "the son of Hâsim Mustafa Efendi, one of the judges of Anatolia". Sâbit Mehmed Efendi studied in Amasya with Âkifzâde Seyyid Abdurrahim Efendi, the son of his father's teacher, entered the ranks of the judges by examination in Istanbul, rose to the rotating professorships and to the judgeships of sanjaks, and died after 1238 (1822-23). The name "Kâdızâde" (son of the judge) most probably comes from his father's long years as a judge. His son's entry is reproduced under the title Sâbit Mehmed Efendi-Kâdızâde.

From Teaching to the Bench

There is a moment of choice in Hâsim Mustafa Efendi's career, and Hüsameddin records it deliberately. The rüûs examination he sat in Istanbul was the test that opened the path to madrasa professorships for those who had finished their studies. Although he passed it, he chose judgeship over teaching because "his temperament inclined towards the bench". This choice led him to thirty years of a restless life: Ottoman judges were appointed for fixed terms from one district to another and waited out of office (ma'zûl) between posts. The towns where he served go unnamed in the entry. It appears that at the end of his life he returned to Merzifon after leaving one of these posts and died there.

Name and Pen Name

In Hüsameddin's headings the pen name usually comes first, followed by the given name and the family name. By this pattern the word "Hâsim" in the heading "Hâsim Mustafa Efendi" may be a pen name. In his son's entry too the father is called in the same way, "Hâsim Mustafa Efendi". The entry says nothing explicit about a pen name; and since it is not known how the word rendered "Hâsim" in the edition's transliteration is spelled in the Arabic-script original, the possibility that the name should be read "Hâşim" cannot be ruled out either.

His Poetry

His poems are lost. "Poet" is the second of the four epithets in "âlim, şâir, natûk, edîb", yet nowhere in the entry is it borne out by a couplet, and no divan or anthology is mentioned. The short entry, in the Ottoman original with explanations, can be read under the title Hâsim Mustafa Efendi-Abdîzâde.

Chronology

1151 (1738-39): Eşref Abdurrahman Efendi-Abdîzâde, mufti of Merzifon and poet, dies.

24 Receb 1173 (March 1760): Hâsim Mustafa Efendi's teacher Iydîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi dies.

1208 (1793-94): Hâsim Mustafa Efendi dies in Merzifon, out of judicial office.

After 1238 (1822-23): His son Sâbit Mehmed Efendi-Kâdızâde dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources