Hıfzî Abdurrahman Efendi was a professor (müderris), judge (kadı) and poet of Amasya who lived in the second half of the seventeenth century. His father was Hasan Efendi, deputy judge (naib) of Amasya and a well-known calligrapher; he is therefore called Nâibzâde. He rose to the rank of molla of Tokat and to the judgeship of Sivas during the grand vizierate of Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa, and died in 1103 (1691-92). The only poem of his to survive is a ghazal of four couplets that Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar copied, and so saved, from the lost biographical anthology (tezkire) of Abdî Efendi of Amasya. The Hıfzızâdes, descended from his grandsons, became one of the known learned families of Amasya in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Hüsameddin's Entry

The people of Amasya who wrote as Hıfzî follow one another in the ninth volume of Amasya Tarihi; the entry on Nâibzâde reads:

Amasyalıdır. Amasya nâibi hattât-ı meşhûr Hasan Efendi bin İsmail Efendi'nin mahdûmudur. Amasya fuzalâsından İğnecizâde el-Hâc Ali ve Allâme el-Hâc Hızır ve Uzun Müderris el-Hâc Mehmed Efendilerden ikmâl-i tahsîl edib ders-i âm ve medaris-i mu'tâdeye müderris oldu. Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa ile hukûk-ı kadîmesi olduğundan müşârün-ileyhin sadâretinde Yörgüç Paşa Müderrisliğinden Tokat mollası, 1083'de Sivas kâdısı oldu. Bâ'dehû ba'zı eyâlâta kâdı olup 1097'de ihtiyarlığına binâen mütekâid olup 1103'de vefât etdi. Meşâhîr-i ulemâdan fâzıl, şâir, ulûm-ı edebiyyede mâhir, kâtib bir zât idi.

What the entry says, in modern English: Hıfzî was from Amasya, the son of Hasan Efendi son of İsmail Efendi, naib of Amasya and a famous calligrapher. He completed his studies under the scholars of Amasya İğnecizâde Hacı Ali, the learned Hacı Hızır and Uzun Müderris Hacı Mehmed Efendi, obtained the licence to teach (ders-i âm) and taught at the madrasas that came in turn. Because he had an old acquaintance with Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa, during the pasha's grand vizierate he passed from the professorship of the Yörgüç Paşa Madrasa to the post of molla of Tokat, and in 1083 became judge of Sivas. He then served as judge in other provinces, retired in 1097 on account of old age and died in 1103. He was a renowned scholar, virtuous, a poet, skilled in the literary sciences and a fine writer.

Life

Hıfzî's year of birth is unknown; he seems to have completed his education entirely in Amasya, with the city's own teachers. The turning point of his career was the old tie that Hüsameddin calls "hukûk-ı kadîme". Since Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa was grand vizier from 1661 to 1676, Hıfzî's post as molla of Tokat falls within those fifteen years, and his judgeship of Sivas in 1083 (1672-73). The source does not say where this acquaintance came from; the Köprülü family's link with the town of Köprü in the sanjak of Amasya comes to mind, but this is only a possibility.

Hıfzî retired in 1097 (1685-86) and probably spent his last years in Amasya; the place of his death is not written in the entry. The years before his death were a turbulent time for Amasya. The disorder of 1098-1099 in the city, which Hüsameddin calls the "emirler vak'ası", the affair of the emirs (sayyids), ended in fire and street fighting and threw the learned circles of Amasya into confusion; some families, such as the Yûsufefendizâdes, moved to Istanbul after these events.

The Felâketnâme and Kâtipzâde Hıfzî

In the fourth volume of his work, describing these events, Hüsameddin says he drew on two written testimonies. One of them is a short history of twenty-one pages, written in his own hand by "şuarâ-yı mevâlîden Kâtipzâde Hıfzı Abdurrahman Efendi", one of the poets of the high judicial rank (mevâlî), who saw the events with his own eyes, and to which he gave the name "Felâketnâme", the book of calamity. Hüsameddin found this text among papers kept in a bag in the house of Fazılzâde Mustafa Âkif Efendi, preacher of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, made a copy and included a summary in his work.

Whether this Hıfzî is the same person as Nâibzâde Hıfzî Abdurrahman Efendi is not certain. The name, the pen name, the poetry and a judgeship of mevâlî rank match in both records; the dates fit as well, since Nâibzâde retired in 1097 and died four or five years after the events. On the other hand the family names differ: the fourth volume has "Kâtipzâde", the entry in the ninth volume "Nâibzâde". In the entry in the ninth volume Hüsameddin makes no mention at all of the Felâketnâme, and Amasya Tarihi has no separate entry under the name Kâtipzâde Hıfzı Abdurrahman. That the two records belong to the same man therefore remains a possibility.

Poetry

Hıfzî's poems have not come down to us as a divan. Hüsameddin writes that he saw a ghazal (gazel) of his with the redif (refrain word) "olmaz mı" in the tezkire of the professor Abdî Efendi, who collected the poets of Amasya, and that because he copied it onto a leaf and placed it on the page of the poet's biography, the ghazal escaped the fire. Abdî Efendi's tezkire is lost today; the pieces surviving from it are brought together in the article Abdî Efendi: The Lost Tezkire of Amasya's Poets and Its Poems. The four couplets of the ghazal can be read on a page of their own, with an English rendering and a commentary.

What strikes the eye first in the ghazal is the internal rhyme that splits most of its lines down the middle, giving the poem the look of a musammat. The measure is the hezec pattern of four "mefâîlün" feet; Hüsameddin does not name the metre, and the pattern was worked out by us. The voice of the lover who longs for union, fears the rivals who come between, and at the end names himself "Hıfzî-i mehcûr", Hıfzî fallen into separation, stays within the familiar frame of the classical ghazal.

In the fourth volume Hüsameddin counts a Hıfzî among the pen poets who brought brilliance to the city's literature in what he calls the "third period" of Amasya's history, together with Kelâmî, Türâbî, Abdî, Remzî, Câmî, Zühdî, Şevkî and Dâniş. He does not say which Hıfzî he means; Amasya Tarihi records several people of Amasya who bore this pen name.

Family

At the end of the entry Hüsameddin follows Hıfzî's descendants down to the late nineteenth century. His sons were Hacı Hâfız Ali, Mehmed Fâik and Hasan Lütfi Efendi; Fâik Mehmed Paşa rose among the statesmen and the others became professors. Of Hâfız Ali Efendi's sons, Râik Abdurrahman Efendi was a judge and died childless. The sons of his other son, Hacı Fâik Osman Efendi, namely Seyyid Abdülkerîm, Abdurrahman and Abdülganî Efendi, were called the "Hıfzızâdes"; they died in 1172, 1181 and 1211 respectively. Abdülganî Efendi's line continued down to Hüsameddin's own time and took the name "Ganizâdes".

The best-known member of the family is Hıfzî's grandson Hacı Osman Fâik Efendi. Hüsameddin calls him "muhaddis-i meşhûr", a famous scholar of hadith, in the entry on his pupil Hacı Hasan Efendi, mufti of Köprü. It was he who in 1147 (1734-35) turned the upper floor of the tomb of the Burmalı Minare Mosque into a library; the books of this library were later dispersed. The story of the library is told at greater length in the article Burmalı Minare Mosque.

Chronology

1083 (1672-73): Judge of Sivas.

1097 (1685-86): Retirement on account of old age.

1098-1099 (1686-88): The "emirler vak'ası" in Amasya; the events described by Kâtipzâde Hıfzı Abdurrahman Efendi in the Felâketnâme.

1103 (1691-92): Death of Hıfzî Abdurrahman Efendi.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources