Amasyalıdır. Saraçhâne hatîbi el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi’nin mahdûmu ve es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ömer Efendi’nin birâderidir. İstanbul’a gelip Müftü Es’ad Efendi Medrese-i cedîdesinde ikâmetle bir tarafdan tahsîl-i ulûma gayret ve diğer tarafdan Kettânîzâde Ali Efendi’den hutût-ı mütenevvi’ayı ahze himmet etdi.
Üstâdından ketebe vaz’ına icâzet alıp bütün şürekâ ve akrânına tefevvuk etdi. Medrese-i mezkûrede sâkin ü ta’lîm-i hatt ile müşteğil iken 1168’de vefât etdi. Âlim, kâtib bir hattât-ı meşhûr idi.
Müstakîmzâde Süleyman Sa’deddîn Efendi “Tuhfetü’l-Hattâtîn” adlı eserinde diyor ki: “Anadolu’da Ereğli nâm kasabadandır. Hatîpzâde derlerdi. İstanbul’a geldikde zümre-i talebede suhte-i medrese-nişîn-i hamûl olup Kettânîzâde Ali Efendi’den te’allümle sülüs ve nesihde vaz’-ı ketebeye [162] me’zûn olup isti’dâd-ı ezelîsinden nâşî bi’l-cümle şürekâsına tefavvuk ile “menem diğer nist” vâdîsinde zamânının üstâdlarından kat’-ı nazar-ı sad nâ-şinâsâne “Ez-nefes-i pîr be-ters ey cevân” pendiyle bend olmayıp pîrân-ı kudemâya dâhi zebân-dırâz-ı tekebbür idi. Müftü Es’ad Efendi medrese-i cedîdesinde sâkin iken vakt-i kühûlette letame-i te’dîb-i tâ’un ile hâmuş olduğunu bu mısra ile ifâde eylemişlerdir. Mevt-i nârı yakdı İbrâhimi bâd-ı âhdan 1168”
Hattât-ı müşârün-ileyhin 1161’de yazdığı Şifâ-yı Şerîf enderûn kütübhânesinde manzûrum olup bu kitabın âhirinde “Ketebehü ez’afü’l-ibâdi es-Seyyid İbrâhim el-Amâsî min telâmizi’l-meşhûri bi-Kettânî hüve min-telâmizi’l-kâmilü’l-ma’rûf bi-ebci” yazmıştır. İnce nesîh olup fevkalâde güzel ve şâyân-ı ziyâretdir. Binâen aleyh: Hattât es-Seyyid İbrâhim Efendi “Anadolu’da Ereğli nam kasabadan” değil, Anadolu’da Amasya şehrindendir.
1168’de Amasya’da Saraçhâne hatîbi olan birâderi Hatîbzâde es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ömer Efendi, hattât-ı müşarün ileyhin bilâ-veled vefâtına binâen li-ebeveyn birâderi olmak hasebiyle muhallefâtına vâris olduğu da müsecceldir. Bir hattâtı Amasyalı [163] yapmak gayretiyle değil, bir hakîkati tenvîre hizmet emeliyle bu terceme yazıldı. Amasya’nın yüzünü güldüren hattâtlarımız pek çokdur.
In Modern English
He was from Amasya. He was the son of el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi, preacher of the Saraçhane, and the brother of es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ömer Efendi. He came to Istanbul and stayed at the Yeni Madrasa of Mufti Es'ad Efendi; while striving to acquire learning, he also tried to learn various scripts from Kettânîzâde Ali Efendi.
He obtained from his teacher the icazet (licence) to write, and surpassed all his friends and peers. While living in the said madrasa and busy teaching writing, he died in 1168 [1754-55]. He was a scholar, a scribe, and a famous calligrapher.
Müstakîmzâde Süleyman Sa'deddîn Efendi says in his work "Tuhfetü'l-Hattâtîn": "He is from the town called Ereğli in Anatolia. They called him Hatîpzâde. When he came to Istanbul he was a quiet and modest resident of the madrasa among the madrasa students. Having learned from Kettânîzâde Ali Efendi, he received the licence to write in the sülüs and nesih scripts. Thanks to his innate talent he surpassed all his friends. Seized by the passion of 'there is no one but me', he disregarded the masters of his time a hundred times over and did not heed the counsel 'Young man, fear the breath of the old'; he even wagged an arrogant tongue against the old masters. While living in the new madrasa of Mufti Es'ad Efendi, in the prime of life, he was silenced by the slap of plague's discipline. They told of it in this line: 'The fire of death burned İbrâhim with the wind of a sigh, 1168'."
I saw the Şifâ-yı Şerîf that the said calligrapher wrote in 1161 [1748] in the Enderun library. At the end of the book he wrote: "The weakest of servants, es-Seyyid İbrâhim of Amasya, wrote this; he is one of the pupils of the one famous as Kettânî, who in turn is one of the accomplished pupils known as 'Ebcî'." It is a fine nesih hand, extremely beautiful, and worth seeing. Therefore: the calligrapher es-Seyyid İbrahim Efendi is not "from the town called Ereğli in Anatolia", but from the city of Amasya in Anatolia.
It is also recorded that in 1168 his brother Hatîbzâde es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ömer Efendi, preacher of the Saraçhane in Amasya, inherited the estate of the said calligrapher, who had died childless, because he was his full brother. This biography was written not out of an effort to make a calligrapher an Amasyan, but with the aim of clarifying a fact. The calligraphers who have made Amasya's face smile are very many.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- hatîb: the official who delivers the sermon in a mosque
- Hatîbzâde: son of a hatib; a family nickname
- hutût-ı mütenevvi'a: various types of script
- ketebe vaz'ı: writing, the work of calligraphy
- icâzet: licence to teach an art or a branch of learning, a diploma
- şürekâ ve akrân: friends and peers
- sülüs, nesih: the two basic scripts of Ottoman calligraphy
- zebân-dırâz: wagging the tongue, speaking disrespectfully
- telâmiz: pupils
- muhallefât: the property left by the deceased, inheritance
- li-ebeveyn birâder: full brother (same mother and father)
A Dispute over a Calligrapher's Hometown
In this entry Hüsameddin takes up his pen to correct the error of another author. Müstakîmzâde's "Tuhfetü'l-Hattâtîn", a work on calligraphers, counts Hatîbzâde İbrahim Efendi as "from the town of Ereğli in Anatolia". Hüsameddin, on the other hand, relies on the note at the end of the 1161 copy of the Şifâ-yı Şerîf he saw in the Enderun library; there the calligrapher introduces himself as "el-Amâsî", that is, of Amasya. Because the writer himself used the word nisba (place of origin), this evidence is stronger than another person's report. Another document Hüsameddin records is that his brother Ömer Efendi inherited the estate, that is, that the records mention İbrahim Efendi together with his family in Amasya.
In Müstakîmzâde's statements a harshness towards the dead calligrapher stands out: he finds him arrogant and interprets his death as a "slap of plague". Hüsameddin does not object to this judgement; he makes his correction only on the matter of the hometown.
The Saraçhane Mosque
The Saraçhane Mosque, where his father and brother served, still stands in Amasya today. According to the Kültür Portalı, its first name is Şadgeldi Pasha Mosque; it was built in 1372 by Şadgeldi Pasha, emir of Amasya. Because of the saddler shops around it, it has been called the Saraçhane Mosque since the time of Çelebi Mehmed. It was a square-plan, single-domed building, but a section was later added and it was turned into a rectangular plan; it has been repaired many times. According to the text, the calligrapher's father and brother were preachers of this mosque.
No information on Mufti Es'ad Efendi's Yeni Madrasa or on Kettânîzâde Ali Efendi was found in other sources during this study.
Bibliography