AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

İshak el-Ummâsî — Şerîfüddîn Ebû Harun

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 7, p. 282 • Edited by: Prof. Dr. Safi ARPAGUŞ- Prof. Dr. Ahmet Hakkı TURABİ

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

[62] “El-Gurafü’l-aliyye”de yazıldığı üzere Ummâsiyelidir (Amasya). Ali bin Abdullah’ın mahdûmudur. Evâ’il-i hâlinde pederiyle Şam’a gidip orada tahsîl-i ulûma çalışdı. İkmâl-i tahsîl etdikden sonra ders-i âm olup sonra müderris olarak Haleb’e gönderildi. Burada tedrîs-i ulûm ederek 767’de vefât etdi. Ulemâ-yı Hânefiye’den bir zât olup (me’nûf) demekle meşhûr idi.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

As written in the work "al-Ghuraf al-ʿAliyye", he was an Ummâsî (a man of Amasya). He was the son of Ali bin Abdullah. In the early part of his life he went with his father to Damascus and worked there to acquire learning. After completing his studies he gave public lessons and was then sent as müderris to Aleppo. Teaching the sciences there, he died in 767 [1365-66]. He was one of the Hanafi scholars and was famous for being called (me'nûf).

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • Ummâsî: a man of Amasya; the name by which Amasya is related to a person in Arabic sources
  • mahdûm: son
  • peder: father
  • evâ'il-i hâl: the early part of life, the youthful years
  • tahsîl-i ulûm: acquiring learning, studying
  • ikmâl-i tahsîl: completing one's studies
  • ders-i âm: the authority to give public lessons
  • tedrîs-i ulûm: teaching the sciences
  • ulemâ-yı Hânefiyye: scholars of the Hanafi school
  • me'nûf: given in parentheses in the text as a nickname; its meaning and the reason for the nickname could not be verified in the sources we read

The Work Cited

Hüsameddin says he took the information from a work called "al-Ghuraf al-ʿAliyye". This is "al-Ghuraf al-ʿAliyye fî terâcimi müteahhiri'l-Hanefiyye", in which Şemseddin İbn Tolun, a Mamluk-period scholar and historian of the sixteenth century who lived in Damascus, collected the biographies of Hanafi jurists. İbn Tolun wrote it as a supplement to al-Jawâhir al-Mudiyya by Abdülkadir el-Kureşî, the most famous tabaqat book of the Hanafi school; he filled the gaps in Kureşî's biographies and added the lives of Hanafi jurists who were left out because they lived in the same age as Kureşî or after him. The work can be read in a three-volume edition that Ali es-Seyyid Abdüllatif prepared as a master's thesis in 2015 and that the Centre for Islamic Studies (İSAM) later prepared for publication.

This information shows that the source Hüsameddin cites really is a dictionary of Hanafi scholars, and that it is possible for a fourteenth-century müderris from Amasya to be mentioned among the Hanafi scholars around Damascus and Aleppo. However, we could not reach the entry on this İshak in the work; the going to Damascus, the müderris post in Aleppo and the death in 767 reported in the entry therefore rest only on Hüsameddin's account and could not be verified.

The same work is also mentioned in the introduction to Hüsameddin's book. There, to show that Arab sources write Amasya in the form "Amâsıyye", "al-Ghuraf al-ʿAliyya" is cited for its entries "Şemseddîn Muhammed el-Amâsî" and "Şerîfeddîn el-Amâsî", and the work is attributed to Abdülkadir el-Kureşî. The İSAM publication record, however, says that the work is not Kureşî's but was written by İbn Tolun as a supplement to his book. This difference suggests that Hüsameddin erred over the author's name when citing the work, or confused two works; but this is an inference. That the entry in the seventh volume bears the name Şerefeddîn (Şerîfüddîn) appears to connect with the "Şerîfeddîn el-Amâsî" of the introduction.

Scholars Who Left Amasya

Amasya is a centre of learning that the sources call "Bağdâdü'r-Rûm" and "city of madrasas". It is therefore not unusual for scholars raised in the city to go to Mamluk cities such as Damascus and Aleppo to study and to take up posts there. The nisba Ummâsî shows how these scholars were known in Arabic sources. Hüsameddin's book has similar examples: Şemseddîn Ahmed Çelebi, sheikh of an Amasya lodge, after studying in Amasya went to Egypt and Damascus and completed his studies there, then became famous by teaching in Amasya on his return; he is written to have died in 771 [1369-70]. Cemâleddîn İbrâhim Aksarayî had also been in Damascus and Egypt. These show that İshak's going to Damascus was a usual path for scholars of Amasya in that period.

No information was found in other sources on this İshak's father, Ali bin Abdullah, or on the son's teachers.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 282–282. amasya.bel.tr
  • Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, 2022, vol. 1, section "Mukaddime (1)".
  • Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, 2022, vol. 6, entry "Ahmed Çelebi-Mevlânâ eş-Şeyh Şemseddîn", p. 114; vol. 8, entry "Cemâleddîn İbrâhim Aksarâyî", p. 521–522.

Books

Volume 7 contents

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