Nâibzâde Hüsnî Hüseyin Efendi spent his life in the scribal offices of the Sublime Porte and ended it with an army on campaign. His father, Hacı Mehmed Efendi, was a notable of Amasya's Eski Kethüdâ quarter and had once served as deputy judge (naib) of Amasya. Trained in the office of the grand vizier's steward in Istanbul, he became divan secretary to Hatîbzâde Yahyâ Paşa and followed the pasha from province to province; when the pasha died he returned to the capital and rose to be mektupçu, head of the grand vizier's correspondence. When war was declared on Russia in 1182 (1768) he went to the front as treasurer (defterdar) of the army at Bender, and died there. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar describes him as a poet, a man of letters and a pleasant talker. His year of birth, when he took his pen name and the exact date of his death are not recorded.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Amasyalıdır. Eski Kethüdâ Mahallesi eşrâfından esbak Amasya nâibi el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi'nin mahdûmudur. Tahsîl-i ma'âriften sonra İstanbul'a gidip Bâb-ı âlîde kethüdâ kalemine girdi. Hatîbzâde Yahyâ Paşa'nın sadâret kethüdâlığında dâ'iresine erip vezâretinde kâtib-i dîvânı oldu. Müşârün-ileyhin ma'iyyetinde devr-i bilâd edib 1168'de vefâtı üzerine İstanbul'a gelip 1171'de kethüdâ kâtibi ba'dehû mektubî-i sadr-ı âlî oldu. 1182'de Ruslar'a i'lân-ı harb edildiğini müte'âkib Bender ordusu defterdârı olarak orduya gitdi. Orada vefât etdi. Şâ'ir, edîb, hoş-lehçe bir zât olup erbâb-ı ma'âriften idi.

In English: A native of Amasya, he was the son of el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi, a notable of the Eski Kethüdâ quarter and former naib of Amasya. After completing his education he went to Istanbul and entered the office of the steward (kethüda) at the Sublime Porte. He joined the household of Hatîbzâde Yahyâ Paşa while the latter was steward of the grand vizier, and became his divan secretary when he was made vizier. He travelled from town to town in the pasha's retinue; on the pasha's death in 1168 he came to Istanbul, and in 1171 he became secretary to the steward and then mektupçu of the grand vizierate. In 1182, after war was declared on the Russians, he went to the army as treasurer of the Bender army, and died there. He was a poet, a man of letters, a pleasant speaker and one of the learned.

The original text of the entry, with glosses, can be read under the title Hüsnî Hüseyin Efendi-Nâibzâde.

In Yahyâ Paşa's Household

Hüsnî Hüseyin's rise depended on patronage. In the Ottoman bureaucracy a young scribe often entered a statesman's "household" (daire), his retinue and staff, and rose as his master rose. Hatîbzâde Yahyâ Paşa was first steward to the grand vizier, his closest deputy, and later became a vizier and went out to the provinces. Hüsnî was his divan secretary in these years and took part in the journeys from governorship to governorship that Hüsameddin calls "devr-i bilâd". The pasha's death in 1168 (1754-55) brought that life to an end.

Another man from Amasya who travelled the same road shows what a door this household was for the town's young scribes. According to Hüsameddin's tenth volume, Hândân Ağazâde Sa'dullâh Efendi went to Istanbul through the favour of his kinsman Hatîbzâde Yahyâ Paşa, was trained at the Porte, became the pasha's divan secretary and returned to Istanbul on the pasha's death in 1168. He later rose in the finance offices, became chief accountant in 1182 and died early in 1184. The two scribes evidently held the same post with the same pasha, one perhaps succeeding the other or serving beside him; Hüsameddin does not connect them.

From the Grand Vizier's Chancery to Bender

Three years after his return, in 1171 (1757-58), Hüsnî Hüseyin became secretary to the grand vizier's steward; he then moved to the post of mektûbî-i sadr-ı âlî, which handled the grand vizier's official correspondence. This was one of the respected offices open to a man of the pen, and a measure of how far the son of a provincial deputy judge from Amasya could climb at the centre.

In the autumn of 1768 the Ottoman state declared war on Russia. According to Hüsameddin, Hüsnî Hüseyin was sent as treasurer of the army gathering for this war at Bender on the Dniester; the army's money and provisioning accounts were in his hands. Of his death Hüsameddin says only "he died there". Since the war lasted until 1774, his death falls within those years; no more exact date has been found.

Name and Family

The by-name "Nâibzâde", son of the naib, very probably comes from his father's service as deputy judge of Amasya. Other Amasya men in Hüsameddin bear the same by-name; one of them, Hıfzı Abdurrahman Efendi-Nâibzâde, owes it to the naib office of his father, the calligrapher Hasan Efendi. The source draws no family link between Hüsnî Hüseyin and these men.

The pen name Hüsnî was common in Amasya. In Hüsameddin's eighth volume four other men of that name stand around Hüsnî Hüseyin's entry: the judge Gökçekzâde Hüsnî İbrâhim Efendi, who died in 1074; the calligrapher Hızır Paşalı Hâfız Hüsnî Mehmed Efendi, who died in 1257; Yeğenzâde Hüsnî Mustafa Bey from the same quarter; and the poet Hüsnî Yûsuf Efendi-Erzurûmîzâde, who died at the end of the nineteenth century. Nâibzâde is a different man from all four.

His Poetry

No poem of his is known to survive. Behind Hüsameddin's words "poet, man of letters" the entry offers neither a couplet nor the name of a divan. Most scribes trained in the grand vizier's offices practised prose composition and poetry side by side; whether any of Hüsnî's verse survives in the anthologies of that milieu has not been investigated.

Chronology

1168 (1754-55): Hatîbzâde Yahyâ Paşa dies; his divan secretary Hüsnî Hüseyin returns to Istanbul.

1171 (1757-58): He becomes secretary to the steward, then mektupçu of the grand vizierate.

1182 (1768): War is declared on Russia; he goes to the front as treasurer of the Bender army and dies there.

Bibliography

Online sources