Amasya ulemâsından Taşköprülü el-Hâc Abdullah Efendi Tekkesi imâmı ve Dârü’l-hadîs-i Osmân Çelebi müderrisi Dizdârzâde el-Hâc Osmân Efendi’nin mahdûmudur. Bade’t-tahsîl 1236’da pederinin vefâtından münhal olan mezkûr Dârü’l-hadîs [213] müderrisi oldu.
Ba’dehû Mecâlis-i Hâciyâna ve a’yâna âzâ ve 1256’da son şehir kethüdâsı olduğu halde 1271 senesi evâilinde vefât etdi. Gerek selefi Hâfız el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi’nin ve gerekse bunun şehir kethüdâlıkları merâsimden ibâret idi. Kibâr-ı a’yândan âlim, müşekkel, mehîb, vakûr bir zât idi. Birâderi Ahmed Efendizâde İsmâil Efendi de 1293’de vefât etdi.
In Modern English
He is the son of Dizdârzâde Hacı Osman Efendi, one of the scholars of Amasya, imam of the Taşköprülü Hacı Abdullah Efendi Lodge and müderris of the Osman Çelebi Dârülhadis. After completing his studies he became müderris of that Dârülhadis in 1236 [1820-21], when it fell vacant on the death of his father.
Afterwards he became a member of the councils of the hajjis and of the council of notables. In 1256 [1840-41], while he was the last city steward (şehir kethüdası), he died in the early part of 1271 [1854-55]. The stewardships of his predecessor Hâfız Hacı Mehmed Efendi and of this man alike consisted of ceremonies. He was one of the great notables, a scholar, handsome, awe-inspiring and dignified. His brother Ahmed Efendizâde İsmail Efendi also died in 1293 [1876].
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- Dârü'l-hadîs: a madrasa where the science of hadith is taught
- münhal: left vacant
- Mecâlis-i Hâciyân: the councils of notables who bore the title Hacı
- a'yân: the notables of a town
- şehir kethüdâsı: the official who represented the townspeople before the state and mediated in the distribution of taxes and obligations
- kibâr-ı a'yân: the senior notables
- müşekkel: handsome, well-formed
- mehîb: awe-inspiring
- vakûr: dignified, grave
When the City Stewardship Became a Ceremony
Hüsameddin's most striking sentence is that the city stewardships of İsmail Efendi and of his predecessor "consisted of ceremonies." According to an encyclopedia entry, the city steward was an administrator who, in towns serving as district centers, usually took office by election, mediated between the people and the state, and took part in distributing and collecting taxes. By the middle of the nineteenth century a large part of these officials' duties had been taken from them; tax collection had been left directly to the district müdürlüks and new administrators had appeared. The same entry states that records of 1859 and 1866 are the latest known documents on this office. Hüsameddin's calling him "the last city steward" fits this general picture; when the office actually ended is not clearly established in the sources.
The Taşköprülü Lodge and the Dârülhadis
In the first volume Hüsameddin writes that Taşköprülü Hacı Abdullah Efendi in 1228 [1813] had the Kağnı Mosque and its zaviye, which had been lost in the fire of 1143, rebuilt, and added a fountain in front of it. The bath, mosque and zaviye together were known as the Kağnı Bath, the Kağnı Mosque and the Kağnı Lodge. The lodge where İsmail Efendi's father served as imam may be this complex; this is an inference, since the entry does not mention a quarter. Hüsameddin also notes that he could not tell whether the site of the new mosque and zaviye is the same as that of the old one.
About the Osman Çelebi Dârülhadis, Hüsameddin writes in the first volume that there were four dârülhadises in Amasya and that one of them bore the name of Osman Çelebi. This madrasa was built in 933 [1526-27] by the judge Hacı Osman Çelebi and stood in the Pirinççi quarter, level with the Hacı Hamza Mosque. The madrasa burned and was rebuilt several times. In the sequence of its müderrises, 1253 comes directly after 1231 and Dizdârzâde Hacı Osman Efendi is not mentioned; yet the entry in the seventh volume says that the post fell vacant with the death of his father in 1236. Two places in the book therefore do not agree on this point. One of the four dârülhadises Hüsameddin lists is the building that Hacısinanbeyzâde Abdullah Pasha had built in the Sofular quarter at the end of the fifteenth century; this building, used today only as a mosque, is a separate institution from the Osman Çelebi Dârülhadis of the text.
No information about İsmail Efendi himself was found in other sources.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 328–328. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 1, section on the Kağnı Mosque (p. 138-139) and "Dârü'l-Hadîs Medresesi" (p. 289).
Other sources
- "Şehir Kethüdası", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 38.