Like his father before him, Kâtibzâde İsmâil Efendi was a clerk of the Islamic court of Amasya. A scholar and ta'lik calligrapher of the first half of the seventeenth century, he also taught in several madrasas, acted as deputy judge (naib) on behalf of judges, and died some time after 1053 (1643-44). The family descended from Fağfûr Paşazâde İshak Bey, one of the beys of Prince (Şehzade) Ahmed in Amasya. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar describes him as "âlim, şâir, edîb, ta'lik-nüvîs bir hattât", a scholar, poet and man of letters, a calligrapher who wrote ta'lik. The source does not explain whether "Kâtibî", added after his name in the heading of the entry, is a mahlas, a poet's pen name, or a nickname derived from the family's profession. A modern Turkish rendering of the entry appears under the title İsmâil Efendi-Kâtibzâde Kâtibî.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Fağfûr Paşazâde İshak Bey'in ahfâdından Amasya mahkemesi kâtibi İbrâhim Efendi bin Mehmed Çelebi'nin mahdûmudur. Amasya'da hutût-ı mütenevviayı hattât-ı meşhûr Ramazânzâde Hüseyin ve ulûm-ı edebiyye ve şer'iyyeyi Turâbî Mustafa Efendilerden ahz ve ikmâl etdi.
Ba'dehû ders-i âm ve Mahkeme-i Şer'iyye Kâtibi, ba'zı medârise müderris oldu. Ba'zı kudât tarafından Amasya nâibi de olup 1053 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi. Âlim, şâir, edîb, ta'lik-nüvîs bir hattât idi. Oğulları Ali, Hasan Çelebilerdir. Fağfûr Paşa vakfına mütevellî de olmuşdu.

In modern terms: His father was İbrâhim Efendi, clerk of the Amasya court and one of the descendants of Fağfûr Paşazâde İshak Bey; İbrâhim Efendi was the son of Mehmed Çelebi. In Amasya he learned and perfected the various scripts under the famous calligrapher Ramazânzâde Hüseyin, and the literary and legal sciences under Turâbî Mustafa Efendi. He then became a teacher giving public lessons (ders-i âm), clerk of the Islamic court and teacher in several madrasas. Some judges also made him deputy judge of Amasya. He died after the year 1053. Scholar, poet and man of letters, he was also a calligrapher who wrote ta'lik. His sons were Ali and Hasan Çelebi. He had also served as administrator (mütevelli) of the Fağfûr Pasha endowment.

His Life

When he was born the source does not say, but one of his teachers provides an approximate frame. Turâbî Mustafa Efendi, with whom he read the literary and legal sciences, died in Safer 1040 (September 1630); İsmâil Efendi's years as a student fall before that date. Hüsameddin, in the entry on Celâleddîn Ahmed Çelebi, counts his writing master Ramazânzâde Hüseyin among the best-known calligraphers trained in Amasya; he belonged to a branch that traced the city's line of calligraphy back to Celâleddîn Amasî, remembered as the "şerîk", the fellow student, of Hayreddîn Efendi. The order of İsmâil Efendi's posts as public teacher, court clerk and madrasa teacher cannot be worked out from the single sentence of the entry; it is clear, however, that the clerkship passed from father to son. He also served as deputy judge, giving rulings in place of judges with their authority. For the year of his death only a lower limit is given: after 1053 (1643-44).

The Line of Fağfûr Pasha

According to Hüsameddin, the father of İshak Bey, the man regarded as the family's ancestor, was Abdullah Bey bin Ali Bey bin Fağfûr Paşa, one of the emirs of Amasya. İshak Bey was among the beys in Prince Ahmed's retinue, was bey of Niksar, and died in 917 (1511) in the battle against the Shiites. He had three sons, Mehmed, Ali and Hasan Beys. From which of the three İsmâil Efendi descended is not recorded. More than a century later the Fağfûr Pasha endowment was still in the family's hands, as İsmâil Efendi's administratorship shows.

The eighth volume contains the entry of a contemporary of the same line. According to the record headed "Hasan Efendi-Mevlânâ Kâtibî", the father of Hasan Efendi was Kâtibzâde Mehmed Efendi bin Hasan Efendi, a descendant of Fağfûr Pasha; in 1043 (1633-34) Hasan Efendi moved from the teaching post of the Atabeg madrasa to become estate officer (kassâm) and judge of Amasya, served as judge in places such as Sivas and Canik, and died in Muharrem 1054 (March 1644), having been dismissed from the judgeship of Amasya. The "Kâdı Çeşmesi", the Judge's Fountain, near the post station in Amasya was his. Both entries carry the family name "Kâtibzâde" and the epithet "Kâtibî"; both men are linked to the line of Fağfûr Pasha, and their deaths fall in the same years. Hüsameddin does not state how they were related. As their fathers' names differ, they were not brothers; they may have been cousins, but this is not documented. The appearance of "Kâtibî" with two people at once suggests that it was a name given to the family rather than a pen name.

His Poetry

Not a single couplet survives in the records to support Hüsameddin's word "şâir": the entry gives no example and mentions no divan or source in which his poems were collected. Whatever he wrote is lost.

Chronology

917 (1511): His ancestor Fağfûr Paşazâde İshak Bey dies in battle against the Shiites.

Safer 1040 (September 1630): His teacher Turâbî Mustafa Efendi dies.

After 1053 (1643-44): İsmâil Efendi dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources