AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

İlyâs Fakîh-Mevlânâ Şücâeddîn

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 7, p. 341 • Edited by: Prof. Dr. Safi ARPAGUŞ- Prof. Dr. Ahmet Hakkı TURABİ

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Amasyalı Mehmed oğludur. Meşâhir-i ulemâdan tahsîl-i ulûm edib Amasya‘da ders-i âm ve bir müddet Halfet Gâzi müderrisi oldu. 645 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi. Meşâhir-i ulemâdan olup mahdûmu eş-Şeyh Bedreddîn Mahmûd [255] Çelebi’dir.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was the son of Mehmed of Amasya. After studying with well-known scholars he gave public lessons in Amasya and for a time served as müderris of the Halfet Gâzi Madrasa. He died after 645 [1247-48]. He was among the famous scholars; his son was Şeyh Bedreddîn Mahmûd Çelebi.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • fakîh: a scholar of Islamic law
  • meşâhir-i ulemâ: famous scholars
  • tahsîl-i ulûm: acquiring learning
  • ders-i âm: a public lesson
  • müderris: a teacher who gives lessons in a madrasa

The Halfet Gâzi Madrasa

The "Halfet Gâzi" of the text is Halîfet Gazi, whom people today call Hilfet Gazi. The madrasa stands in the Şamice quarter of Amasya on Torumtay Street. Its inscription shows it was built in 606 [1209-10]; the madrasa endowment deed of its founder Halîfet Gazi, dated 622 [1225], also survives. Halîfet Gazi was one of the Danishmendid emirs; when the principality came to an end he entered Seljuk service, became governor of Amasya in 1222, was later made governor of Erzurum, and in 1232 fell as a martyr in a campaign against the Georgians and was buried in his tomb in Amasya. The tomb adjoins the madrasa on the east.

The south wall and eastern part of the madrasa partly stand today. After the earthquake of 1647 Müderris Hasan Efendi rebuilt the collapsed parts in wood, and in 1888 the mufti of Amasya, Hacı Osman Hilmi Efendi, had the whole building thoroughly repaired. According to the Danişmendname the building was converted from a church into a madrasa; Albert-Louis Gabriel shares this view. The date in the text does not conflict with the founding of the madrasa: the 645 [1247-48] given as İlyâs Fakîh's death is a year after both the founding of the madrasa and the death of Halîfet Gazi.

No information was found in the sources read on İlyâs Fakîh's identity, his teachers, or his son Bedreddîn Mahmûd Çelebi.

Bibliography

Volume 7 contents