Three times appointed mufti of Amasya between 1184 and 1198, Kara Müftü Hacı İsmâil Hâtif Efendi was born in Çorum, completed his education in Amasya and became the first teacher of the city's newly built Sungurlu Madrasa. This eighteenth-century scholar died during his third term, on the Night of Berat in 1198 (4 July 1784). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, who describes him in Amasya Tarihi, presents him as a master of jurisprudence and theology, a poet well versed in literature, and says that he left poems. The only verse of his to survive is a chronogram couplet he composed for the birth of his son, the poet and historian Mustafa Vâzıh, which Vâzıh entered in his own Dîvânçe. For the full text of the entry, with its obsolete vocabulary explained, see the study İsmâil Hâtif Efendi-Kara Müftü el-Hâc.

Hüsameddin's Entry

In volume seven, Hüsameddin's entry records, more than his life, the dates of his terms as mufti and the passing of the endowment his family administered from hand to hand:

Çorumludur. Dâmâdoğlu Mustafa Efendi bin Ahmed'in mahdûmudur. Amasya'ya gelip Iydîzâde el-Hâc Mustafa Âkif Efendi'den ikmâl-i tahsîl ederek mücâz oldu. Esnâ-yı tahsîlinde Hâce Laz İbrâhim, Çorumlu Müftü es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ali, şeyhü'l-imâre Müftüzâde el-Hâc Mehmed Efendilerden de istifâdeler etdi.
Ders-i âm-ı meşhûr olup Şâh Bula Hâtun Vakfının mütevellîsi Hâfız es-Seyyid Mehmed Ağa'nın kerîmesini tezevvûc etdi. 1163'de Sungurlu el-Hâc Mehmed Ağa'nın Amasya'da binâ etdiği Sungurlu Medresesine ilk müderris olup fezâil-i ilmiyesiyle iştihâr etdiğinden 1184 senesi saferinin on dördünde Amasya Müftüsü oldu.
1186 senesi zilhiccesinde azledilip 1189 senesi muharreminin onbeşinde sâniyen Amasya Müftüsü oldu. İki yıl makâmını muhâfaza edib 1191 senesi muharreminin evâhirinde azledildi. 1198 senesi muharreminde sâlisen Amasya Müftüsü olduğu halde şa'bânının on beşinci gecesi dâr-ı bekâya irtihâl etdi.
Fâzıl, usûl-ı fıkıh ve kelâmda mâhir, gâyet fakîh, kâmil, edebiyât ve muhâzarâta vâkıf, şâir, vecîh bir zât idi. Eş'ârı ve emsile-i Fârisiyyesi vardı. Mahdûmları Mehmed, Mes'ûd, Süleyman, es-Seyyid Ahmed, es-Seyyid Mustafa Vâzıh Efendilerdir. Bunlara Kara Müftüzâdeler dendi.
Kayın pederi Hâfız es-Seyyid Mehmed Ağa 1192'de bilâ-veled-i zükûr vefât eylediğinden kerîmesinden mütevellîd mahdûmu es-Seyyid Ahmed Efendi Şâh Bula Vakfına mütevellî oldu. 1212'de es-Seyyid Ahmed Efendi de vefât edib diğer mahdûmu es-Seyyid Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi mütevellî oldu. 1237'de Vâzıh Efendi'nin kasr-ı yed ile büyük mahdûmu es-Seyyid Abdurrahman Efendi ve 1247'de bunun da vefâtıyla küçük mahdûmu es-Seyyid Nimetullah Efendi mütevellî oldu.

In plain English: He came from Çorum; his father was Dâmâdoğlu Mustafa Efendi bin Ahmed. He came to Amasya, completed his studies under İydîzâde Hacı Mustafa Âkif Efendi and received his licence (icazet); during his studies he also benefited from Hâce Laz İbrâhim, Çorumlu Müftü Seyyid Hacı Ali and Müftüzâde Hacı Mehmed Efendi, sheikh of the public kitchen. He became a well-known public teacher (ders-i âm) and married the daughter of Hâfız Seyyid Mehmed Ağa, administrator of the Şâh Bula Hatun endowment. In 1163 he became the first teacher of the Sungurlu Madrasa built in Amasya by Sungurlu Hacı Mehmed Ağa; as he became famous for his learning, he was appointed mufti of Amasya on 14 Safer 1184. He was dismissed in Zilhicce 1186 and became mufti a second time on 15 Muharrem 1189. He held the office for two years and was dismissed again at the end of Muharrem 1191. In Muharrem 1198 he became mufti for the third time, and he died on the fifteenth night of Şaban of the same year. He was a virtuous man, a master of the principles of jurisprudence and of theology, an excellent jurist, accomplished, versed in literature and the art of conversation, a poet and a man of standing. He left poems and Persian paradigms. His sons were Mehmed, Mes'ûd, Süleyman, Seyyid Ahmed and Seyyid Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi; they were called the "Kara Müftüzâdeler". When his father-in-law died in 1192 without male issue, the administration of the endowment passed to his daughter's son Seyyid Ahmed Efendi, and on Ahmed's death in 1212 to Vâzıh.

His Life in Amasya

No date of birth is recorded for him. In the entry on his teacher İydîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi, Hüsameddin lists "Çorumlu Kara Müftü İsmail Hâtif" among Âkif's pupils together with Seküköylüzâde Kâşif Mehmed, Laz Hacı İbrâhim and Fenercizâde Hacı Evliyâ Halîl Keşfî. The last of these is the man appointed mufti of Amasya on İsmâil Efendi's death; the two muftis came out of the lessons of the same teacher. Çorumlu Müftü Seyyid Hacı Ali Efendi, from whom he benefited as a student, must be the "former mufti and teacher of the Ayas Pasha madrasa, Çorumlu Hacı Alî Efendi" whose death in Receb 1171 (March 1758) the chronicle reports.

The Sungurlu Madrasa was built by Hacı Mehmed Ağa, one of the notables of the district of Sungurlu, west of the Burmalı Minare Mosque in the Pervâne Bey quarter. In the first volume, where the madrasas are listed, and in İsmâil Efendi's own entry, it is stated that the madrasa was built in 1163 (1749-50) and that its teaching post was given to him. The chronicle of events in the fourth volume, however, gives the same news among the events of 1171: "Şa'bânda Sunkurluoğlu Hacı Mehmed Ağa'nın Amasya'da yapdırdığı medresesi hitâm bulduğundan Çorumlu Hacı İsmâ'il Hâtif Efendi ilk müderris oldu." (In Şaban, as the madrasa built in Amasya by Sunkurluoğlu Hacı Mehmed Ağa was completed, Çorumlu Hacı İsmâil Hâtif Efendi became its first teacher.) According to this record his first teaching term began in Şaban 1171 (April-May 1758). Whether the eight-year gap arises from a lengthy construction or from an error in one of the dates cannot be determined. İsmâil Efendi remained teacher of this madrasa until his death.

Hüsameddin names two more of his pupils. One is Râik Mehmed Efendi, teacher of the Torumtay Madrasa and a preacher; the other is the judge Tevfîk İbrâhim Efendi, whom Hüsameddin calls "âlim, şâir" and who died in 1228 (1813). Both completed their studies with him.

The State of the Sources

The different volumes of the book do not agree on İsmâil Efendi's death and on his successor at the madrasa. The seventh volume has him die during his third term as mufti. The chronicle of the fourth volume names the man who died on the Night of Berat in 1198 as "Sunkurlu müderrisi Kara Müftü Hacı İsmâ'il Hâtif Efendi", teacher of the Sunkurlu madrasa, and adds that on his death Fenercioğlu Hacı Halîl Keşfî Efendi became mufti of Amasya; the appointment of a new mufti agrees with the statement that İsmâil Efendi held the office at the time. On the successor at the madrasa, three different names occur: according to the first volume his son Hâfız Mehmed Efendi became teacher in his place, according to the chronicle of the fourth volume "Kara Müftüzâde Hacı Ahmed Efendi"; the entry Süleyman Efendi-Kara Müftüzâde in the tenth volume, for its part, writes that Süleyman Efendi took up the post on his father's death. Which is correct cannot be settled from these sources.

His Çorum origin is also told in two ways. Hüsameddin plainly introduces him as "Çorumludur", from Çorum. Giyasi Babaarslan, who published his son Vâzıh's Dîvânçe, believes that the confusion over counting the son as a native of Çorum arises from the fact that the father, "aslen Amasyalı", originally of Amasya, was born in Çorum. When the father came to Amasya is not recorded.

His Poetry

Hüsameddin's sentence "Eş'ârı ve emsile-i Fârisiyyesi vardı" says that İsmâil Efendi left a body of poems and a work on Persian. "Emsile" is the name for the paradigms of word forms read at the start of morphology teaching in the madrasas; "emsile-i Fârisiyye" must be such a book of paradigms, or a collection of examples, prepared for Persian. The whereabouts of neither is known today. "Hâtif" is very probably his pen name, though Hüsameddin never marks it as such. The "Hâtifî" mentioned in the first volume, in the list of Amasya's poets, right after the poets of Süleyman the Magnificent's reign and side by side with Kelâmî, is to judge from his place in the sequence an earlier poet.

The only piece in our hands today has survived thanks to his son's record. Mustafa Vâzıh opens the chronograms section of his Dîvânçe with a couplet headed "Peder-i merḥūm lisānından tārīḫ-i vilādet-i faḳīr-i ḥaḳīrdir": the chronogram by his late father giving the year of his own birth, 1177 (1763-64). The couplet appears in this category on a separate page with its original text, a modern rendering and commentary; the same couplet is also published, as part of Vâzıh's Dîvânçe, in Vâzıh's category. Vâzıh also wrote a chronogram poem on his father's death, recording the night of his death with the line "On beşinci gecesi idi meh-i Şa'bānıñ"; it can be read on Vâzıh's Chronogram 23 page.

His Family

Hüsameddin lists his sons as Mehmed, Mes'ûd, Süleyman, Seyyid Ahmed and Seyyid Mustafa Vâzıh and says the family was known as the "Kara Müftüzâdeler". Vâzıh, like his father, became mufti of Amasya, wrote a history of the city and left a dîvânçe; according to Babaarslan his mother was the daughter of Hâfız Seyyid Mehmed Ağa, administrator of the Şâh Bula Hatun endowment. Süleyman Efendi, according to his entry in the tenth volume, served some muftis of Amasya as drafter and secretary of fatwas and died in Muharrem 1240 (August-September 1824) of fright during the great earthquake. The administration of the endowment passed first to Seyyid Ahmed Efendi, on his death in 1212 (1797-98) to Vâzıh, in 1237 (1821-22), when Vâzıh withdrew, to his elder son Seyyid Abdurrahman, and in 1247 (1831-32) to his younger son Seyyid Nimetullah.

Chronology

1163 (1749-50): The Sungurlu Madrasa is built; İsmâil Hâtif Efendi becomes its first teacher (according to the chronicle of the fourth volume, Şaban 1171, April-May 1758).

1177 (1763-64): His son Mustafa Vâzıh is born; İsmâil Efendi composes a chronogram couplet for the birth.

14 Safer 1184 (9 June 1770): Becomes mufti of Amasya for the first time.

Zilhicce 1186 (February-March 1773): Is dismissed.

15 Muharrem 1189 (18 March 1775): Becomes mufti a second time.

End of Muharrem 1191 (March 1777): Is dismissed again.

Muharrem 1198 (November-December 1783): Becomes mufti a third time.

Night of 15 Şaban 1198 (4 July 1784): Dies in Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

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