İshak Efendi, Müftizâde

In Modern English

He was from Köprü. He was the son of Abdullah Efendi, son of the mufti Hacı İshak Efendi, whose biography is given. After studying in Köprü and Amasya, he gave public lessons in his own homeland and, while preacher at the Ganîzâde Mosque, died in 1193 [1779-80]. He was one of the scholars.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• tahsîl-i ulûm: studying the sciences
• ders-i âm: giving public lessons open to everyone
• vâiz: preacher; an official who gives religious talks to the public in a mosque
• vatan: in this text, the place where one was born and raised, one's home country
• Müftîzâde: son or grandson of a mufti

The Family Line

In this entry Hüsameddin refers back to the biography "İshak Efendi-Müfti el-Hâc" in the book. The mufti of Köprü, Hacı İshak Efendi, died in 1163 [1749-50]; his son Abdullah Efendi died before his father, and his grandson İshak Efendi is the subject of this entry. So there are two İshak Efendis with the same name: the grandfather, the mufti, and the grandson, a preacher and scholar who taught. The nickname "Müftîzâde" in the book's heading indicates that this grandson was descended from the mufti.

Teaching and Preaching

Dersiâm is the title of a scholar who gave lessons open to the public in a mosque. For someone to become a dersiâm he had to finish the sciences he was required to study and obtain an icazet (diploma), and also pass an examination; in later periods this examination was held once a year by a committee. A müderris, by contrast, is a teacher who instructs students in a madrasa. Madrasa graduates waited in line for posts as müderris and kadı (judge), and this waiting period was called mülâzemet. The fact that İshak Efendi studied in Köprü and Amasya and then taught "in his own homeland" shows that scholars trained in the provinces could serve without going to the great centres. In the Ottoman scholarly class, the position of müderris was one of three basic offices, together with those of kadı and mufti. In education the emphasis lay less on the building than on the teacher himself; for this reason the name of the madrasa does not appear in icazetnames, which record the lessons read, the books and the names of the teachers. After the middle of the 16th century the müderrisship was divided into particular grades: a candidate began in the lowest madrasa and rose through the twenty, thirty, forty and fifty grades. Appointments of müderrises were confirmed by a berat bearing the tughra, which stated the place of service, the salary and the starting date. The fact that İshak Efendi is mentioned only with "ders-i âm" and preaching suggests that he is remembered not as a müderris who had reached one of these grades but as a scholar who taught the public in a mosque; Hüsameddin, however, gives no detail on this. Preaching is, in addition, the duty of giving religious talks to the public in a mosque.

The Ganîzâde Mosque

No source was found in searches concerning the Ganîzâde Mosque, where İshak Efendi preached. Among the known Ottoman buildings of Vezirköprü are the Taşhan, the Taşmedrese, the Kale Mosque and the Tacettin İbrahim Pasha (Kurşunlu) Mosque. According to the Arabic waqf deed of the Kurşunlu Mosque, it was built in 1495 by İbrahim Pasha, son of Hacı Beyzâde Mevlânâ Safiyyüddin; in the 1943 earthquake its dome in front of the mihrab, its last-congregation portico and its minaret collapsed, the mosque was renewed in 1955, repaired by the Directorate of Foundations in 1989 and has recently been taken into restoration again. It is not clear whether the Ganîzâde Mosque is the same as this mosque. Reliable information about the location, founder and present condition of the Ganîzâde Mosque could not be obtained.

The Ottoman-Period Identity of Vezirköprü

The kaza of Köprü took its present name from the han, madrasa, mosque and bridge built by the grand vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha and his family. It is noted that some sources give the earlier name of the settlement as Gedikara or Gedegra. At the end of the 19th century the kaza of Köprü was one of the eight kazas attached to the sanjak of Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 286–286. amasya.bel.tr

Other sources

• "5 asırlık camiye restorasyon", TGRT Haber (İHA), 1 November 2025, https://www.tgrthaber.com/kultur-sanat/5-asirlik-camiye-restorasyon-3260464
• "Dersiam", https://www.biyografiler.com/bilgi/dersiam