İbrâhim Efendi, known in Amasya as "Hayretî Hoca", was a teacher who in the middle of the seventeenth century taught in three different places in the city: as pulpit sheikh (kürsü şeyhi) of the İbadullah Mosque he preached to the public, at the Mevlevî lodge (Mevlevîhâne) he taught the Mesnevî, and he taught literature to the children of the notable families and Persian to madrasa students. He died in 1076 (1665-66) while still holding these posts. When Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar introduces him, he bases his account on the anthology of poets compiled by Abdî Efendi of Amasya. That anthology is the only early witness to call Hayretî a poet, and since the work is lost, all that remains of it here is the handful of epithets Hüsameddin passed on.

His Life

The entry Hayretî İbrâhim Efendi-Kürsî Şeyhi in the ninth volume fits his life and character into a few lines:

Amasya yeniçerilerinden Kamaş Ahmed Ağa'nın oğludur. Fuzalâdan Kâdızâde Küçük Hoca Mehmed İlmî Efendi'nin halka-i tedrîsinde ikmâl-i tahsîl edib ders-i âm oldu. Ba'dehû İbadullah Câmii kürsî şeyhi olup Amasya Mevlevîhânesi'nde mesnevî okutur, eşrâf zâdegânına edebiyât öğretir. Halka vaaz ve talebe-i ulûma Farisiyyât talîm ederdi. Bu hâlde 1076'da vefât etdi. Âlim, tevârihe ve edebiyâta âşina, şâir, elsine-i selâseye vâkıf, halûk bir zât olduğu "Tezkîre-i Abdî"de mezkûrdur. Hayretî Hoca demekle meşhûr idi.

In English: He was the son of Kamaş Ahmed Ağa, one of the Janissaries of Amasya. He completed his studies in the teaching circle of the scholar Kâdızâde Küçük Hoca Mehmed İlmî Efendi and became a ders-i âm, that is, a teacher licensed to give public lessons. He then became pulpit sheikh of the İbadullah Mosque; he taught the Mesnevî at the Amasya Mevlevî lodge and literature to the sons of the notables. He preached to the people and taught Persian texts to students of the sciences. He died in this state in 1076. The Abdî anthology records that he was a scholar, familiar with history and literature, a poet, versed in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, and of a gentle disposition. He was known as "Hayretî Hoca".

A pulpit sheikh was a preacher who sat on the raised chair (kürsü) of a mosque, delivering sermons to the congregation and explaining religious matters to the public. İbrâhim Efendi held this post in the mosque named after its builder, İbadullah Çelebi. His father's being a Janissary places him among those who passed from a soldier's household into the path of learning. Abdî Efendi, the anthologist who recorded him, was likewise the son of a cavalryman (sipahi). His year of birth, his marriage and his children lie outside the entry.

His Teacher and Circle

His teacher, Kâdızâde Mehmed İlmî Efendi, known by the nickname "Küçük Hâce" (the Little Master), was a madrasa teacher who trained many students in seventeenth-century Amasya. In a list Hüsameddin gives for the year 1017 (1608), the name "Kadızâde Küçük Mehmed Efendi" is counted among the famous scholars of the city. His sons Hocazâde Ahmed Efendi and Remzî Abdullah Efendi were also madrasa teachers who wrote poetry. Hayretî belongs to the same generation as the poet judges and sheikhs who came out of that circle: according to Hüsameddin, the judge Hâkî Ali Efendi, who died in 1061 (1650-51), and the Halveti sheikh Hüdâyî Ahmed Efendi, who died in 1089 (1678-79), studied under the same master.

His Mesnevî lessons at the Mevlevî lodge are the only information that shows his tie to the dervish milieu. The lodge, burned in a bandit raid, had been rebuilt in 1047 (1637-38) through the efforts of Ârif Mehmed Dede, and the years in which Hayretî taught fall in the period that followed this refoundation. Whether he was himself a Mevlevî, or whether he attached himself to a sheikh, the entry does not say. Senâyî İbrâhim Efendi, who taught the Mesnevî in the same lodge a generation later, is also remembered as a poet.

His Poetry

Abdî Efendi's anthology collected, together with their verse, the poets who grew up in Amasya between 1000 and 1081 (1591-1671); Hayretî, who died in 1076, falls within this period, and the section devoted to him in the anthology may well have contained samples of his poems. The incomplete copy of the work that Hüsameddin owned, however, also burned, and Hüsameddin did not put even one couplet into the entry. No poems by Hayretî İbrâhim Efendi have come down to us. The note that he knew three languages might raise the thought that he also wrote poetry in Persian or Arabic; the source is silent on the matter. The list of poets Metin Hakverdioğlu drew up for the ninth volume also includes Hayretî İbrâhim Efendi.

In Sufism the word "hayret" denotes the bewilderment into which the seeker falls before the divine manifestations. A pen name chosen in this sense would suit a teacher of the Mesnevî; since Hüsameddin does not explain where the name came from, this remains only a possibility. The Hayretî who bore the same pen name and whose divan is known is Mehmed Hayretî of Vardar Yenicesi (d. 941/1534), a different poet who lived a century before İbrâhim Efendi of Amasya.

Chronology

1017 (1608): His teacher Kâdızâde Küçük Mehmed Efendi is named among the famous scholars of Amasya.

1047 (1637-38): The Amasya Mevlevî lodge is rebuilt.

1076 (1665-66): He dies while pulpit sheikh of the İbadullah Mosque and teacher of the Mesnevî at the Mevlevî lodge.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources