The most vivid detail about Huzûrî Mehmed Efendi is that he turned a tomb into a classroom. Content with the keepership of the Kemal Paşa tomb inherited from his father, this Amasya scholar taught inside the tomb for years and, according to Kara Müftîzâde Mustafa Vâzıh, had two of its cenotaphs removed because they got in the way of his lessons. He was known for his teaching of literature, wrote poetry, used to talk with the sheikh of the neighbouring Çevikçe lodge and had the hymns he wrote sung in that lodge. He died around 1191 (1777). What is known of him rests on the entry in the ninth volume of Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi; not one of his hymns is in hand.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Amasya'da Kemal Paşa türbedârı İsmail Efendi'nin mahdûmu olup Iydîzâde el-Hâc Akif Mustafa Efendi'den ulûm-ı fünûnu ahz ü tederrüs etdikden sonra Ya'kûb Paşa Mahallesi'nde ikâmet ve Kemâl Paşa Türbesinde tedrîs-i mülâzemet etdi. Pederinden intikâl eden türbedârlık vazîfesiyle kanâat ederek yıllarca ulûm-ı şer'iyye tedrîs etdi. En ziyâde müntesibi olduğu fünûn-ı edebiyyât tedrîsiyle be-nâm olup 1191 hudûdunda vefât etdi. Âlim, fünûn-ı edebiyyede kâmil, şâir, müteşerri' bir zât idi. Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi Belâbilü'r-Rasîye'sinde der ki: "Kemal Paşa Türbesinde iki sanduka var idi. Ders takrîrine mâni oluyor diye bu sândukaları Huzûrî Efendi kaldırdı." Bu zât civârında bulunan Çevikçe Tekkesi'ne çokça gider tekke şeyhi olan Mevlâna Hasan Sinan Efendi ile sohbetler eder. Yazdığı İlâhiyât'ını bu tekkede okuturdu.

In English: He was the son of İsmail Efendi, keeper of the Kemal Paşa tomb in Amasya. After studying the sciences with Iydîzâde el-Hâc Âkif Mustafa Efendi he settled in the Yâkub Paşa quarter and kept on teaching in the Kemal Paşa tomb. Content with the tomb-keeper's post inherited from his father, he taught the religious sciences for years. He became renowned for teaching the literary arts, to which he was most devoted, and died around 1191. He was a scholar, accomplished in the literary arts, a poet and a devout man. Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi says in his Belâbilü'r-Râsiye: "There were two cenotaphs in the Kemal Paşa tomb. Huzûrî Efendi removed these cenotaphs because they hindered the delivery of lessons." He often went to the nearby Çevikçe lodge and conversed with its sheikh, Mevlânâ Hasan Sinan Efendi. He had the hymns he wrote sung in this lodge.

The text with glossary notes is given separately under the title Huzûrî Mehmed Efendi-Türbedârzâde.

A Classroom in a Tomb

Huzûrî's teacher, Îdîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi, was a scholar and poet who served twice as mufti of Amasya and taught for forty-five years; he died in 1173 (1760). Having completed his studies in that circle, Huzûrî did not seek a professorship at a madrasa but stayed in the small post left him by his father. Hüsameddin calls this "kanâat", contentment. The Kemal Paşa tomb, according to the wording of another of Hüsameddin's entries, stood in the Aşağı Pirler cemetery; this ground, around today's Sofular quarter, was long used as a burial ground. Huzûrî did not merely look after the tomb there; he used it as a classroom.

The removal of the two cenotaphs reveals how seriously he took this use of the tomb. Cenotaphs were the wooden or stone symbolic coffins set over those buried in a tomb; moving them was no small matter for a tomb-keeper. Kara Müftîzâde Mustafa Vâzıh, who records the episode, was born in 1177 (1763-64) and was about fourteen when Huzûrî died. He presumably took the story from his own childhood memory or from what was told in the town. Vâzıh seems to add no judgement of his own and simply reports the incident; whose cenotaphs were removed is not stated either.

The Çevikçe Lodge and His Hymns

The Yâkub Paşa quarter where Huzûrî lived was a district thick with Halveti lodges. The neighbouring Çevikçe lodge, according to Hüsameddin, came back to life when Hasan Efendi of Çorum became its sheikh in 1180 (1766). Known as "Sinânî Hasan Efendi" from his attachment to the Sinâniyye branch, this sheikh filled the Yâkub Paşa Mosque when he preached, and on nights of devotion the lodge overflowed; he died in 1209 (1795). Huzûrî's conversations with "Mevlânâ Hasan Sinan Efendi" fall in the decade between the sheikh's appointment in 1766 and Huzûrî's death. A fuller account of the lodge and the town's Halveti milieu is given in Sufi traditions in Amasya.

Hüsameddin's most valuable piece of information is in his last sentence: Huzûrî had "the hymns he wrote" sung in this lodge. His poetry, then, was not confined to the literature of the madrasa; he also wrote ilahis to be sung in gatherings of remembrance (zikr). A teacher of literature writing hymns for a dervish lodge is a small instance of how easily men moved between madrasa and lodge in eighteenth-century Amasya. Half a century later the hymns of Hakkı İbrâhim Efendi, a disciple of one of Sinânî Hasan Efendi's deputies, would likewise be sung in his own lodge.

His Poetry

His poetry is lost. The hymns sung in the lodge and his other verse alike have left no example. Since the Çevikçe lodge was turned into a madrasa in 1843, nobody knows where the notebooks or anthologies holding the hymns sung there went.

Chronology

1173 (1760): His teacher Îdîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi dies.

1177 (1763-64): Mustafa Vâzıh, who will record the episode, is born.

1180 (1766): Sinânî Hasan Efendi becomes sheikh of the Çevikçe lodge.

c. 1191 (1777): Huzûrî Mehmed Efendi dies.

6 Şevval 1209 (April 1795): Sinânî Hasan Efendi dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources