Hulûsî Mehmed Efendi was a young poet born in 1288 (1871-72) in the inner town of Amasya who died at about twenty-three, forty days after the death of the girl he loved, in 1312 (1894-95). He was the son of a family of preachers (hatip) of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque in Amasya. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar tells his unfinished love as a story well known in Amasya and reports, on his father's word, that he left a divan (collection of poems). Hüsameddin asked for a few ghazals from this divan, but the father refused, and not a single line of Hulûsî's verse has reached us.

Hüsameddin's Entry

The entry, in the ninth volume of the Amasya Tarihi, bears the heading "Hulûsî Mehmed Efendi-Hatîbzâde" and, being short, is given here in full:

Amasyalıdır. Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii hatîbi Akif Mustafa Efendi bin Fâzıl Mehmed Efendi bin hatîb-i meşhûr Hâfız Ahmed Efendi'nin mahdûmudur. İçeri şehirde Ahî Sâdeddîn Mahallesi'nde 1288'de doğdu. Rüşdiye Mektebi'nde fünûn-ı lâzîmeyi tahsîl edib kibâr-ı müderrisînden Mecdizâde Hâfız Abdurrahman Kamil Efendi'nin halka-i tedrîsine mülâzemet etdi. Bu esnâda sahaf Gürcü Mehmed Emin Efendi'nin kerîmesine dildâde o da buna üftâde olduğundan aralarında hararetli muâşaka hâsıl oldu. Haddi zâtında şekl ü şemâili güzel olduğundan kendisine âşık olan diğer zevât var idi. Vâlidesinin inâdı ve pederinin istikbârı yüzünden Hacı Emin Efendi'nin muvâfakatına rağmen ma'şukasının visâlinden ümidi kesib her ikisi de esir-i firâş-ı hicrân oldu. 1312'de ma'şukasının vefâtından pek ziyâde müteessir olup kırk gün sonra kendisi de acıklı bir hüzn ü matem içinde terk-i hayat etdi. Her ikisi de Kübceğiz Mahallesi üstünde Kaşukpınarı denilen nüzhetgâhda yan yana defn edildi. Edîb, şâir, afîf, cemilü's-sûre bir genç idi. Hikâyât-ı aşıkâneleri Amasya'da pek meşhûrdur. Pederi Akif Mustafa Efendi, divân-ı eş'ârı olduğunu söyler ve ağlardı. Eş'ârından birkaç gazelini taleb ve ricâ etdim. Maalesef ricâmı bir türlü is'âf itmedi. Kendisi oldukça zengindi. Bu yüzden halîlesinin vefâtından bir ay sonra 1338 sene-i rûmîyesi şubatının yirmi dördüncü günü akşam üzeri hânesine giren hırsızlar tarafından ihnâk ve ba'zı nukûdu sirkât edildi.

In English: He is from Amasya. He is the son of Âkif Mustafa Efendi, preacher of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque; Âkif Mustafa Efendi was the son of Fâzıl Mehmed Efendi, and he of the famous preacher Hâfız Ahmed Efendi. He was born in 1288 in the Ahî Sâdeddin quarter of the inner town. After learning the necessary subjects at the rüşdiye (middle) school, he attended the lessons of Mecdîzâde Hâfız Abdurrahman Kâmil Efendi, one of the great teachers of the madrasa. At this time he lost his heart to the daughter of the bookseller Gürcü Mehmed Emin Efendi, she too fell for him, and a passionate love arose between them. Indeed, as he was handsome in face and figure, there were others who were in love with him. Although the girl's father Hacı Emin Efendi consented, because of his mother's obstinacy and his father's pride he lost hope of being united with his beloved, and both of them took to the bed of separation. In 1312 he was so shaken by his beloved's death that forty days later he too departed this life in pitiful grief and mourning. Both were buried side by side at the beauty spot called Kaşıkpınarı above the Küpceğiz quarter. He was a cultivated, chaste and handsome young man and a poet. Their love story is very well known in Amasya. His father Âkif Mustafa Efendi used to say that his son had a divan of poems, and would weep. I asked and begged for a few ghazals from his poems; to my regret, he never granted my request. He was quite rich. For that reason, a month after the death of his wife, on the evening of the twenty-fourth of Şubat (February) of the Rumi year 1338, he was strangled by thieves who broke into his house, and some of his money was stolen.

Life

Hulûsî's life consists of what Hüsameddin wrote and gives the two main lines of a short existence: a madrasa education begun in a family of preachers, and a love that began in the middle of that education. He first attended a rüşdiye school, one of the new institutions of the period, and then followed the lessons of Mecdîzâde Hâfız Abdurrahman Kâmil Efendi, one of the well-known teachers of Amasya. The family's calling is also clear: his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were preachers at the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, and the name of the famous preacher Hâfız Ahmed Efendi gave the family its by-name "Hatîbzâde" (son of the preacher).

The love Hüsameddin describes remained unfulfilled because the two families were not considered a match. The girl's father, the bookseller Gürcü Mehmed Emin Efendi, agreed to the marriage; the obstacle was the obstinacy of Hulûsî's mother and the "istikbâr", the self-importance, of his father. What emerges from the text is that a wealthy family of preachers did not think it fitting to marry their son to a bookseller's daughter; Hüsameddin does not say so outright, he merely names the causes. Both young people fell ill and took to their beds; the girl died in 1312 and Hulûsî forty days later. Hüsameddin gives the cause of death as "hüzn ü matem", grief and mourning; no illness is named.

Connection with Amasya

Hulûsî spent his whole life in Amasya. He was born in the Ahî Sâdeddin quarter, studied in the city's madrasas and was buried with his beloved at the Kaşıkpınarı pleasure ground above the Küpceğiz quarter. Hüsameddin's sentence "Hikâyât-ı aşıkâneleri Amasya'da pek meşhûrdur" (their love story is very well known in Amasya) shows that the story was still being told at the beginning of the twentieth century. We found no record of whether the site of the two graves is known today.

Hüsameddin was a close witness of this family. He met the father, Âkif Mustafa Efendi, asked about his son's divan and saw the father weep. According to the information at the end of the entry, Âkif Mustafa Efendi was strangled by thieves who broke into his house a month after his wife's death, on the twenty-fourth of Şubat of the Rumi year 1338, that is, in February 1922. The conversion of the Rumi date into the Gregorian calendar is our own calculation.

Poetry

The only witness to the existence of his divan is his father, and none of his poems is extant; Hüsameddin did not see the divan and could not obtain the few ghazals he asked for. Why the father would not give up the poems is unknown. Hüsameddin does not comment on it, only expressing his regret with the word "maalesef" (unfortunately). Nor is there any record of what became of the family's papers after the father's murder in 1922. The entry leaves open whether "Hulûsî" was a pen name (mahlas) or a name placed before his given name; Hüsameddin's headings do not distinguish between the two uses.

Chronology

1288 (1871-72): Hulûsî Mehmed Efendi is born in Amasya, in the Ahî Sâdeddin quarter.

1312 (1894-95): He dies forty days after his beloved; the two are buried side by side at Kaşıkpınarı.

24 Şubat 1338 Rumi (1922): His father, Âkif Mustafa Efendi, is strangled by thieves who break into his house.

Bibliography

Online sources