Hüsnî Yûsuf Efendi had a divan, yet not a single line of it has survived. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar closes his entry with the story of that loss: despite all his pleading and insistence, he could not obtain even one ghazal from the poet's younger brother. The middle son of Erzurumî Ömer Efendi, Amasya's renowned teacher of inheritance law (ferâiz), Hüsnî was born in the Üçler quarter in 1283 (1866-67), finished the Amasya rüşdiye school at the head of his class, went to Istanbul and entered military service, and there made a name for himself in the literary quarrels in which Muallim Nâcî was involved. Still only twenty-three or twenty-four, he died in 1307 (1889-90) on his way home, ill, to Amasya.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Amasyalıdır. Meşâhîr-i ulemâdan üstâd-ı ferâ'iz Erzurûmî Hâce Ömer Efendi'nin ortanca mahdûmudur. Üçler Mahallesi'nde Saka Sokağı'nda 1283'de doğdu. Sultân Bâyezîd Mektebi'nde hıfz-ı Kur'an etdikten sonra Rüşdiyye mektebine girdi. Orada fünûn-ı lâzimeyi tahsîl edib 1301'de mektebten birincilikle çıktı. Ba'dehû İstanbul'a gidip asker oldu. Mu'allim Nâcî Beyle mücâdele-i kalemiyye ve edebiyyede bulunarak oldukça kendisine bir şöhret-i edebiyye te'mîn etdi. Hayfâ ki müsrifâne hareket etdiğinden hastalandı. 1307'de Amasya'ya avdet ederken Alevî'ye vusûlunda vefât etdi. Orada medfûndur. Gâyet zekî, seriü'l-intikal, uzun boylu edebiyâta müntesib, şâir, hoş-gû bir zât idi. Mensûb olduğu ilmiyye mesleğinde tahsîlini ikmâl etseydi, fâzıl, cidden edîb bir zât olurdu. Dîvân-ı eş'ârı vardı. Küçük birâderi Emîn Alî Efendi'den ricâ ve ısrârıma rağmen bir gazelini bile alamadım.

In English: An Amasya man, he was the middle son of the well-known scholar and master of inheritance law, Erzurumî Hoca Ömer Efendi. He was born in 1283 on Saka Street in the Üçler quarter. After memorising the Qur'an at the Sultan Bayezid school he entered the rüşdiye, studied the required subjects there and in 1301 left the school first in his class. Then he went to Istanbul and became a soldier. Taking part in a struggle of pen and letters with Muallim Nâcî Bey, he won himself a fair literary reputation. Alas, because he lived extravagantly he fell ill. In 1307, while returning to Amasya, he died on reaching a place called Alevî and is buried there. He was very clever, quick of understanding, given over at length to literature, a poet and a fine talker. Had he completed his studies in the learned profession to which he belonged, he would have become a truly accomplished man of letters. He had a divan of poems. Despite my requests and insistence I could not obtain even a single ghazal of his from his younger brother Emîn Ali Efendi.

The meanings of the old words, together with the full entry, are given under the title Hüsnî Yûsuf Efendi-Erzurûmîzâde.

The Son of a Teacher of Inheritance Law

Hüsnî's father, Erzurumî Ömer Efendi, was the man Hüsameddin calls "the one master of ferâiz", Amasya's best-known teacher of inheritance law. Three of his sons are known. The eldest was Mustafa Ziya Efendi. The youngest, Emîn Ali Mehmed Efendi, was also a poet; a year after his brother, in 1302, he too left the rüşdiye first in his class, went on to graduate from the Mekteb-i Nüvvâb, served as a judge and died in 1337 (1918-19) while judge of Sinop. Hüsameddin finished the same school in 1304 and it is likely that he knew both brothers from its benches.

The family's path was the path of the ulema. Hüsameddin's words "had he completed his studies" do not hide his regret that Hüsnî left it. Unlike his brother, Hüsnî did not continue on the road of the madrasa and the teaching licence; after the rüşdiye he went to Istanbul and "became a soldier". Whether this means a military school or military service cannot be told from the entry.

A Battle of Pens with Muallim Nâcî

The early 1300s, when Hüsnî went to Istanbul, were the years when Muallim Nâcî stood at the centre of literary life. As Abdullah Uçman relates, Nâcî began editing the literary column of the newspaper Tercümân-ı Hakîkat in January 1883, and the hundreds of nazires and tahmises that young poets wrote on his old-style ghazals turned those columns into a rallying point for supporters of divan poetry. Then came his famous quarrel with Recâizâde Mahmud Ekrem; Nâcî's reply "Demdeme", published in the newspaper Saâdet in 1886, was halted by government intervention.

Hüsameddin's phrase "Mu'allim Nâcî Beyle mücâdele-i kalemiyye ve edebiyyede bulunarak" can be read two ways. "With" may describe writing against Nâcî, or joining the fray on Nâcî's side. A young man from Amasya who wrote ghazals and was attached to divan poetry might as easily have joined Nâcî's circle as crossed pens with him. Since it is not known in which paper or under what name Hüsnî wrote, the question remains open for now.

His Death

Hüsameddin explains his death in a harsh sentence: the poet fell ill because he lived "extravagantly". The illness is not named. The place he reached on his way home, and where he was buried, reads "Alevî" in the published text; which town or staging post this is has not been established. The word may be a place name misread from the Arabic-script original.

His Poetry

Not one of his poems is known today. Hüsameddin clearly records that a divan existed, but the copy stayed in his brother's hands and was never shown to the historian. Where Emîn Ali Efendi's papers went after his death in 1918-19 is not clear either. If Hüsnî published verse in the Istanbul press, its place is the literary columns of 1883-1889.

Chronology

1283 (1866-67): Born on Saka Street in the Üçler quarter of Amasya.

1301 (1883-84): Finishes the Amasya rüşdiye first in his class, then goes to Istanbul.

January 1883: Muallim Nâcî begins editing the literary column of Tercümân-ı Hakîkat.

1886: Nâcî's reply "Demdeme" to Recâizâde Ekrem is halted.

1307 (1889-90): Hüsnî Yûsuf dies on his way back to Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources