Caniklidir. Samsun ulemâsından Canikli Ali Efendi bin Mehmed’in mahdûmudur. Orada pederinden mukaddimât-ı ulûmu görüp 1262’de Amasya’ya geldi. İnepazarlı el-Hâc [225] İsmâil Hakkı, İskilipli el-Hâc Hüseyin, Caniklizâde Müftü el-Hâc Hâfız Mehmed, İbikli el-Hâc Hasan Efendilerden sırasıyla ulûm-ı akliyye ve nakliyyeyi ahz ü ikmâl-i tahsîl ederek Hacı Hasan Efendi’den mücâz ve Amasya’da ikâmetle ders-i âm oldu.
Takrîr ve ifâdesi güzel, hâfızası kuvvetli, ma’lûmatı yüksek olduğundan her tarafdan halka-i tedrîsine mülâzemet eden talebesi çoğaldı. Bir tarafdan tedrîs-i ulûm ederek neşr-i ma’ârife himmet, diğer tarafdan fünûn-ı muhtelifeden kitaplar mutâla’a ederek ma’lûmâtını tevsi’e gayret etdi. Dersi müfîd, talebesi çok olduğundan ulemâ arasında büyük bir şöhret kazandı. Bir cemm-i gafîre icâzet verdi.
1288’de Hâlidiyye halife hülefâsından ve Amasya meşâyih-i kirâmından Karabâgî eş-Şeyh el-Hâc Mir Hamza Nigârî Efendi cedd-i a’lâsı hazret-i Ali bin Ebî Tâlib’in gayretkeşliği sâ’ikasıyla ashâb-ı Rasulullah’dan olan Mu’aviye ve tarafdarları aleyhine şiddetle idâre-i lisân etdiği sırada usûl-i şer’iyye ve kavâ’id-i kelâmiyye dâ’iresinde ashâb-ı Rasulullahı müdafa’a ve makâlât-ı Hamzavîyeyi redd ü tekzîbe nasb-ı nefs etdi. Bu yüzden [226] halk ve ulemâ arasında şöhret-i i’tibârı artdı.
Ava pek ziyâde merâkı var idi. Kış günlerinde kar ve soğuğun te’siriyle 1295’de iki gözünün nûru zâ’il oldu. Üstâd-ı müşârün-ileyhin bu amâsı Şeyh Efendi’nin bed-du’âsına haml ve kerâmetinden addedildiğini iştidikde esnâ-yı va’zında “Şeyhi bî-huzûr eden dilimdir. Gözlerim değildir. Kerâmeti var ise dilimi tutsun. Gözlerime isâbet eden bir kazâyı kendiliğinden men’e muktedir değildir” cevabını verdi.
Bu esnâda Şeyh Efendi’nin ikâmet etdiği Pirinççi Mahallesi’ndeki muhteşem hânesi ricâl-i gaybiyye tarafından taşlandığı ve esâs-ı beytiyesi gözlerinin önünde yandığı ve bunların men’ine ne hükûmet ricâli ve ne de mürîdânı muktedir olamadığı görüldükde esnâ-yı va’zında bunu hikâyeden sonra “Kizb ü ihtilâkın cezâsı, recm ü ihtirâktır. Şeyh Efendi’nin da’vâ etdiği kerâmet şu cezâyı neden men’ edemiyor?” diyerek hasma ârız olan kazâda kerâmet iddi’âsının abes olduğunu anlatdı.
Şeyh Efendi, dîvânında matbu’ olan eş’ârıyla ulemâyı [227] ve hâssaten sâhib-i tercemeyi hicvetmişdi. Bunu işittikde yine esnâ-yı va’zında hicviyâtı okuttukdan sonra “ve’ş-şu’arâu yettebi’uhümu’l-ğâvûn elem terâ ennehum fi-külli vâdin yehîmûn ve ennehum yekûlûne mâ-lâ-yef’alûn”¹⁵ âyet-i kerîmesini kırâ’at ederek “ilme karşı hicv, ancak aczi ifâde eder.” demişdi.
Yörgüç Paşa Câmii vâ’izi ve medresesi müderrisi olup ömrünün sonuna kadar vazîfe-i tedrîs ve nasîhatı hüsn-i îfâ etdi. Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii şerîfinde va’z etdikçe cemâ’at va’zına koşardı.
Mahdûm-ı yegânesi Hâfız Mehmed Şükrü Efendi 1312’de bir cemm-i ğafîr ile Hicâz’a gidip Mekke-i Mükerreme’de vefât etdiğine pek ziyâde müte’essir oldu. Vefâtının ertesi günü sabâhında “Oğlum vefât etdi. Geline söyleyiniz pederinin hânesine gitsin.” diyerek büka ve ızhâr-ı te’essür etdi.
Bundan sonra iki yıl daha münzeviyâne yaşadı. İbâdât ü tâ’ât-ı ma’buduna hâsr-ı evkât ederek 1315 senesi muharreminin yirmi birinci çarşamba günü dâr-ı na’îme irtihâl etdi. Fâzıl, ulûm-i şer’iyye ve kelâmiyyede kâmil, bahhâs, münâzır, [228] hadîdü’l-mizâc, şedîdü’t-te’essür, âbid, zâhid, gâyet müteşerri’, kanû’, bünyesi nahîf, orta boylu, seyrek sakallı, buğday benizli bir zât-ı sütûde-simât idi.
In Modern English
He was from Canik. He was the son of Ali Efendi bin Mehmed of Canik, one of the scholars of Samsun. There he read the introductory lessons of the sciences with his father, and in 1262 [1846] he came to Amasya. Under İnebazarlı Hacı İsmâil Hakkı, İskilipli Hacı Hüseyin, Caniklizâde Müftü Hacı Hâfız Mehmed and İbikli Hacı Hasan Efendi, in turn, he took the rational and transmitted sciences and completed his studies; he received the icazet from Hacı Hasan Efendi, and settling in Amasya he became one of the professors who give lessons open to all.
Because his exposition and expression were fine, his memory strong and his knowledge high, the students who came from every direction and attended his circle of lessons grew in number. On the one hand he labored to spread knowledge by teaching, and on the other he tried to widen his own learning by reading books in various branches of knowledge. Because his lessons were useful and his students many, he gained great renown among scholars. He gave the icazet to a great many people.
In 1288 [1871-72], when Karabağlı Sheikh Hacı Mîr Hamza Nigârî Efendi, a deputy of the deputies of the Khalidi branch and one of the respected sheikhs of Amasya, out of devotion and zeal for his greatest ancestor, Ali bin Abi Talib, was saying harsh words against Muawiya and his partisans among the Companions of the Messenger of God, İbrâhim Efendi devoted himself, within the framework of the sharia method and the rules of the science of kalam, to defending the Companions of the Messenger of God and to refuting and denying Hamza Efendi's words. Because of this his fame and standing grew among the people and the scholars.
He was very fond of hunting. Through the effect of snow and cold on winter days, in 1295 [1878] the light of both his eyes went out. When he heard that the teacher's blindness was being attributed to the Sheikh Efendi's curse and counted as a miracle (keramet) of the sheikh, he gave this answer during his sermon: "What troubles the Sheikh is my tongue, not my eyes. If he has a miracle, let him hold my tongue. A misfortune that befell my eyes is something that cannot be prevented by itself."
At this time, when it was seen that the Sheikh Efendi's splendid mansion in the Pirinççi quarter, where he lived, was being stoned by the "men of the unseen," that the household goods were burning before their eyes, and that neither government officials nor his disciples could prevent this, İbrâhim Efendi, after relating this in his sermon, said, "The punishment for lying and fabrication is to be stoned and burned. Why does the miracle the Sheikh Efendi claims not prevent this punishment?" and thus explained that a claim of miracle is meaningless when a calamity befalls one's adversary.
The Sheikh Efendi had lampooned the scholars, and especially the subject of this biography, in the poems printed in his divan. When İbrâhim Efendi heard this, in another sermon he had these satires read out, and then recited the verses (Shu'ara 26/224-226) meaning, "As for the poets, it is the misguided who follow them. Do you not see that they wander bewildered in every valley, and that they say what they do not do?" and said, "Satire against learning only shows powerlessness."
He was preacher of the Yörgüç Pasha Mosque and professor of its madrasa, and until the end of his life he fulfilled the duty of teaching and giving counsel well. Whenever he preached at the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, the congregation would run to his sermon.
He was deeply shaken when his only son, Hâfız Mehmed Şükrü Efendi, went to the Hejaz in 1312 [1894-95] with a great crowd and died in Mecca. On the morning after the day his son died he wept, saying, "My son has died. Tell the daughter-in-law to go to her father's house," and revealed his grief.
After this he lived two more years in seclusion. Devoting his time to worship of and obedience to his Lord, he passed to the eternal world on Wednesday the twenty-first of Muharram 1315 [June 1897]. He was a virtuous man, mature in the sharia sciences and in kalam, fond of debate and disputation, sharp in temperament, quickly and deeply affected, devoted to worship, with no heart's attachment to the world, extremely bound to the rulings of religion, content with little, slight in build, of medium height, thin-bearded, wheat-complexioned, a person worthy of praise.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mukaddimât-ı ulûm: the introductory, beginning lessons of the sciences
- ulûm-ı akliyye ve nakliyye: the sciences based on reason (logic, kalam, etc.) and the sciences based on transmission (tafsir, hadith, fiqh)
- ahz ü ikmâl-i tahsîl: taking and completing one's education
- takrîr: exposition of a lesson; halka-i tedrîs: circle of lessons
- mülâzemet: attendance, constant participation in a teacher's lessons
- neşr-i ma'ârif: spreading knowledge; fünûn-ı muhtelife: various branches of learning
- cemm-i gafîr: a great crowd, very many people
- halife hülefâsı: the deputy of a sheikh's deputy
- idâre-i lisân: loosening the tongue, speaking harsh words
- kavâ'id-i kelâmiyye: the rules of the science of kalam
- makâlât: words, statements; redd ü tekzîb: refuting and denying; nasb-ı nefs: devoting oneself
- amâ: blindness; bed-du'â: curse
- ricâl-i gaybiyye: men of the unseen, invisible saints
- kizb ü ihtilâk: lying and fabrication; recm ü ihtirâk: stoning and burning
- münzeviyâne: in seclusion, alone
- bahhâs: fond of debate; münâzır: one who engages in disputation
- hadîdü'l-mizâc: sharp in temperament; şedîdü't-te'essür: deeply affected
- müteşerri': strictly bound to the rulings of religion
- zât-ı sütûde-simât: a person with praiseworthy qualities
The Dispute with Mîr Hamza Nigârî
At the center of the entry stands a religious dispute that occupied Amasya for years. The person opposite Hocazâde İbrâhim Efendi is the poet and mystic Seyyid Mîr Hamza Nigârî, born in 1805 in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, who attached himself to Sheikh İsmâil Sirâceddin Şirvânî of the Khalidi branch of the Naqshbandiyya and received a deputyship from him. Nigârî came to Amasya in 1839 with his spiritual guide and stayed here for a time, then returned to Karabakh to give guidance; under pressure from Tsarist Russia he crossed into Anatolia, and after living in Erzurum and Istanbul he settled in the Amasya region with his family in 1867. A very large crowd of disciples gathered around him.
The source of the dispute was that in his sermons and poems Nigârî brought to the fore love of Ali and of the Ahl al-Bayt and openly condemned the political authority that had wronged the Ahl al-Bayt. According to what Hüsameddin relates elsewhere in his work, Şirvânîzâde Mehmed Rüşdî Pasha, who was sent to Amasya in Sha'ban 1288 [October-November 1871], had a large mansion built for this deputy of his teacher in the Pirinççi quarter near the Dârülhadis-Osman Çelebi, and the "Ali-Muawiya question" arose at this time. Muawiya and the figures on his side in the battles of the Camel and Siffin were being openly branded unbelievers and cursed, and the scholars answered by defending the Ahl al-Sunna. After Rüşdî Pasha became grand vizier in 1290 [1873] the matter grew still larger; the scholars and notables began to regard Nigârî and his disciples as "Shia-i Alawiyya," and a great division arose among the people. Hüsameddin writes that both sides behaved excessively and that popular excitement rose for this reason. In this dispute Hocazâde İbrâhim Efendi stands as the spokesman of the scholars.
The satires in Nigârî's divan are also a product of this atmosphere. His Turkish divan was printed in Istanbul in 1301 [1884] and republished in Tiflis in 1908; Hüsameddin's phrase "the poems printed in his divan" points to this edition. According to Metin Hakverdioğlu's study, Nigârî's poems against Sufyan, Muawiya, Yazid and Marwan are the product of anger at the wrong done to the Ahl al-Bayt; Hakverdioğlu finds his being accused of Shiism in the Ottoman lands as meaningless as his being accused of Sunnism in Azerbaijan, and argues that Nigârî did not regard himself as belonging to any sect.
The Stoning of the Mansion and Chronology
The date of the mansion incident described in the entry calls for attention. Here Hüsameddin relates the event "at this time," after İbrâhim Efendi's blindness of 1295 [1878]. Yet in the place where he tells Nigârî's life he puts the stoning of the mansion in 1291 [1874]: that year the mansion in the Pirinççi quarter was stoned at night by unknown persons, and by day the belongings and clothes hidden in chests burned, and those who did this could never be found. Upon this Nigârî moved to a rented house in the Gümüşlüzâde quarter, and when the same things happened there, he went to Merzifon in 1292 [1875]. In that case the order of İbrâhim Efendi's two sermons may be the reverse of that in the text, or the teacher may have recalled an old event again after his blindness. What is common to both accounts is that the perpetrators of the stoning and the fires could not be found; İbrâhim Efendi mentions the event in mocking language with the "men of the unseen."
The dispute ended with Nigârî's removal from Amasya. Complaints that he was spreading Shia propaganda, cursing the Companions and acting against the state reached the Sublime Porte; to calm matters the Porte decided that the poet be expelled from Amasya together with his family and close circle. Nigârî went to Harput on 20 May 1885, died there in October 1886, and, by his will, his body was brought to Amasya and buried beside his son Sirâcî. The mosque built in 1895 on the site of his grave, known as the Şirvanlı Mosque or the Azeris' Mosque, still stands today. Considering that Hüsameddin gives İbrâhim Efendi's date of death as 1315 [1897], the teacher outlived his rival by about eleven years.
The Yörgüç Pasha Mosque
The Yörgüç Pasha Mosque and Madrasa, where İbrâhim Efendi served as preacher and professor until the end of his life, is part of a complex of buildings erected by Yörgüç Pasha, who stayed in Amasya as tutor (lala) of Prince Murad after Çelebi Mehmed appointed his son Prince Murad, at a young age, to the sanjak governorship of Amasya. The year the mosque was built is given as 1428 in some sources and 1431 in others. It is one of the inverted-T plan mosques frequently seen in Amasya; the red and white marble used here and there in its thick walls and window arches gives the building a colorful appearance, and the placement of the last-congregation area inside the main space of the mosque is also a notable feature. The building stands today in the city center, in Hacılar Square, north of the Torumtay Tomb.
No written work was found in other sources about İbrâhim Efendi's teachers İnebazarlı Hacı İsmâil Hakkı, İskilipli Hacı Hüseyin, Caniklizâde Müftü Hâfız Mehmed and İbikli Hacı Hasan Efendi, about his son Hâfız Mehmed Şükrü Efendi, or about İbrâhim Efendi's refutations.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 77–78. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
- Metin Hakverdioğlu, "Mir Hamza Nigârî ve Süfyânîler", Alevilik Araştırmaları Dergisi, year 6, no. 12, 2016, p. 115 ff. (together with the transmission of Hüsameddin's biography of Nigârî).
Official sources
- Amasya İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü, "Yörgüç Paşa Camii" (amasya.ktb.gov.tr).
- Kültür Portalı, "Yörgüç Paşa Camii - Amasya" (kulturportali.gov.tr).
Other sources
- Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, entry "Nigârî, Seyyid Mîr Hamza" (teis.yesevi.edu.tr).