"Kâmil" was the name under which Seyyid Emîn Mehmed Efendi wrote poetry; by profession he was a calligrapher, from the Fazlızâde family, a lineage that supplied Amasya with clerks and endowment officials. Born in 1219 (1804-05) in the Pervâne Bey quarter, he began his career as a court clerk; his life then took him into exile in Samsun, through district directorships in the Çorum and Samsun region, and closed with his death in Amasya in 1280 (1863-64). All of this is known from the brief notice Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar gives him in his seventh volume; Hüsameddin calls him "maârif-âşinâ, kâtib, şâir, hattât", records his pen name, and yet gives not one of his couplets. The entry, with its archaic words explained and notes on the exile episode, is also published separately as Emîn Mehmed Efendi-Fazlızâde es-Seyyid.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Amasya eşrâfından es-Seyyid el-Hâc Abdülfettâh Efendi bin es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ahmed Efendi bin el-Hâc İsmâil Efendi bin el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi mahdûmudur. 1219'da Pervâne Bey Mahallesi'nde tevellüd etdi. Ulemâdan ders-i âm-ı meşhûr İbikli el-Hâc Ömer Efendi'den tahsîl-i maârif edib mahkeme kâtibi, 1260'da meclis-i idâre a'zâsı oldu. 1263'de Doktor vak'asında Samsun'a nefy edildi. Ba'dehû avdetle Zünnûnâbâd, İskilip, Sâz, Köprü kazâlarına sırasıyla müdür olup 1275'de ma'zûlen Amasya'ya geldi. 1280'de vefât etdi. Maârif-âşinâ, kâtib, şâir, hattât idi. Şiirde mahlası "kâmil" idi. Mahdûmları es-Seyyid İsmâil Hakkı, Osmân Remzi Efendilerdir. Hamamcı İsmâil Hakkı Efendi 1305'de ve Amasya icrâ me'mûru es-Seyyid Osmân Remzi Efendi de 1335'de vefât etdi. Osmân Efendi'nin mahdûmları vardır.

Translated into modern English: his father was Seyyid Hacı Abdülfettâh Efendi, one of the notables of Amasya; on his father's side the line goes back through Hacı Ahmed, Hacı İsmâil and Hacı Mehmed Efendi. His birth fell in 1219, in the Pervâne Bey quarter. He studied with the well-known teacher İbikli Hacı Ömer Efendi, became a court clerk and in 1260 (1844) was elected to the administrative council. In 1263 (1846-47), in what was called the "Doctor affair", he was exiled to Samsun. On his return he served in turn as director of the districts of Zünnûnâbâd, İskilip, Sâz and Köprü; in 1275 (1858-59) he came back to Amasya after being dismissed, and died in 1280. He took an interest in learning and education, and was a clerk, poet and calligrapher; his pen name in poetry was "Kâmil". His sons were Seyyid İsmâil Hakkı and Osman Remzi Efendi. İsmâil Hakkı Efendi, known as Hamamcı, died in 1305 (1887-88), and Seyyid Osman Remzi Efendi, an enforcement officer in Amasya, in 1335 (1916-17); Osman Efendi had sons.

A Calligrapher from a Family of Clerks

The Fazlızâde family took its name from the seventeenth-century calligrapher Fazlullah Efendi, and through the eighteenth century tried to keep the clerkship of the Amasya court in its hands from one generation to the next. Emîn Mehmed's father Abdülfettâh Efendi was himself a clerk with a fine hand, holder of many endowment posts and a member of the council of notables. His grandfather Seyyid Hacı Ahmed Efendi had been made court clerk three times; he had been taken from his house at night together with the scholars who objected to the tax collection of Canikli Tayyâr Bey, exiled to Samsun, and made clerk again on his return. Along this line, Emîn Mehmed's start as a court clerk was the family's usual path. His calligraphy belonged to the same tradition: the founder of the family was a master of the pen, and his father a clerk whose writing was called "hoş-nüvîs", elegant.

The article Fazlızâdeler, which covers the family in all its branches, also includes two relatives of the same name. His uncle Emîn Sıdkı Mehmed Efendi rose in the finance offices in Istanbul and died in 1257 (1841); in Hüsameddin his entry comes a few entries earlier, and since the headings are almost identical the two men are easily confused. An older Emîn Mehmed Efendi served at the end of the seventeenth century in Istanbul as a secretary of the imperial council and accountant of the treasury. Another member of the family remembered for poetry is Âgâh Mehmed Efendi, who lived in the eighteenth century; Hüsameddin says that he, too, could not find his poems.

Exile and District Directorships

The turning point in Emîn Mehmed's life was the "Doctor affair" of 1263. Hüsameddin nowhere explains what this event was, but other entries mention exiles under the same name. Yeğenzâde İbrâhim Âsım Bey was sent to Samsun in 1254 in the "First Doctor Affair", and Kapancızâde Hâfız Ahmed Efendi was exiled to Sivas in 1261. The affair looks like a recurring disturbance, aimed at the city's notables, that broke out at least twice. Emîn Mehmed had joined the administrative council in 1260, and he may have been punished three years later together with its other members, but the source does not say so.

That a clerk returning from exile should become director first in Zünnûnâbâd and then in İskilip, Sâz and Köprü must mean that he was among the new officials placed at the head of districts in the early years of the Tanzimat. According to the first volume of Hüsameddin, Zünnûnâbâd was an old district whose centre was the village of Elvan Çelebi, and around 1263 it was attached to Mecidözü. These provincial posts, which lasted about twelve years, ended with his dismissal in 1275; Emîn Mehmed spent his last five years in Amasya.

The State of the Sources: A Shared Pen Name

The pen name "Kâmil" was used by more than one poet in Amasya. The Turkish poems of Mecdîzâde Abdurrahman Kâmil Efendi, who served as mufti of Amasya in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, were gathered in a small divan under the same name. Hüsameddin's annals also mention Hâfız Mehmed Kâmil Efendi, preacher of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, "poet and singer", who died in 1177 (1763). For this reason, an unsigned poem in an anthology or a folk manuscript bearing only the pen name "Kâmil" would need further evidence before it could be attributed to Fazlızâde Emîn Mehmed. Hüsameddin writes "kâmil" in lower case, which might lead a reader to take it as an epithet; the wording of the sentence ("Şiirde mahlası 'kâmil' idi", his pen name in poetry was Kâmil) shows plainly that it was a pen name.

His Poetry

None of his poems has survived in any source we could reach. Although Hüsameddin knew his pen name, he recorded no example, and no divan or anthology is mentioned. No information was found either about panels or inscriptions he wrote as a calligrapher.

Chronology

1219 (1804-05): Born in the Pervâne Bey quarter of Amasya.

1260 (1844): While a court clerk, becomes a member of the administrative council.

1263 (1846-47): Exiled to Samsun in the "Doctor affair".

1263-1275 (1847-1859): Serves as director of the districts of Zünnûnâbâd, İskilip, Sâz and Köprü.

1275 (1858-59): Dismissed, returns to Amasya.

1280 (1863-64): Dies in Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources