Birth, Lineage and Early Education in Karabakh

Seyyid Mîr Hamza Nigârî was born in the village of Cicimli, attached to the town of Bergüşad in the Zangezur district of Karabakh in Azerbaijan. Sources do not agree on the year of his birth. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam records all three of 1212 (1797), 1220 (1805) and 1230 (1815); the Dictionary of Turkish Literary Names takes 1805 as its basis. The Amasya historian Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn, who knew him personally, gives the year as 1224 (1809-10). His father was the scholar Seyyid Rükneddin Efendi, known as Mîr Paşa, and his mother was Hayrünnisâ (Kızhanım) Hanım. The family, a hereditary line known locally as the "Cicimli Seyyids", traced its descent to Seyyid Muhammed Şemseddin Akabâlî of the line of Hasan, the Prophet's grandson; Nigârî's title of seyyid rests on this genealogy.

The details of this lineage were already a matter of debate in Nigârî's own lifetime. Hüsâmeddîn relates that he personally saw and copied a genealogical scroll bearing the seal of the naqib al-ashraf, which was shown to him by his school friend Hâşim Efendi, the grandson of the sheikh's cousin. Comparing the document with endowment deeds and genealogical works, the author argues that some of its links do not hold up historically; in his own view Nigârî descended through the daughter of Seyyid İbrâhim el-Berküşâdî, a Naqshbandi sheikh who died in prison in the fortress of Alamut in 1086 (1675) on the orders of the Safavid shah. Hüsâmeddîn does not regard even this conclusion as certain, and leaves the matter to God with the phrase "el-ilmü indallah", knowledge belongs to God.

His childhood began with an early loss. He lost his father at the age of six months and grew up under his mother's care. According to an account relayed by Fatih Çınar, his father was killed after a dispute with a Dagestani, when Qizilbash lords incited certain officials against him; since no firm document exists, it cannot be said how far this account is true. According to the TDV, the young Hamza showed little interest in study as a child, preferring to ride horses and play with weapons. After the age of fifteen, at his mother's insistence, he left his village and studied with Mahmûd Efendi at Karakaş, and then read with Şikest Abdullah Efendi, who lived in the village of Dehne near Şeki. It is recorded that in centers of learning such as Şamahı and Şeki he mastered Arabic and Persian and read the madrasa curriculum up to the Mutavvel. These two languages laid the ground for the divans he would later write in both Turkish and Persian.

The Pen Name Nigârî

There are three different accounts of where his pen name came from. According to the TDV, Hamza took the name to repay a debt of gratitude to a lady named Nigâr who had helped him during his studies. The article in the Encyclopaedia Iranica states instead that the name derives from an ideal beloved (nigâr) he once saw in a dream, and that he began writing poetry only after entering the Sufi path. Hüsâmeddîn's account differs from both. In his telling, the young student began to write verse while studying with Şikestî Efendi of Dehne, and chose this pen name out of love for Nigâr Hanım, one of the beautiful ladies of Bergüşad. The author adds that no one would have refused him had he asked for her hand, yet he never asked, and in a footnote he offers his own guess as to why: the poet must not have wished to extinguish a love in which his soul took great delight. Nigâr Hanım later married Nigârî's kinsman Seyyid Ahmed Efendi and remained his wife until his martyrdom. The lines in the Divan, "Ne müdeddir Nigâr Nigâr dimekden / Kalmayubdur cânda ihtiyâr yeri", are among the pieces Hüsâmeddîn counts as his most sorrowful poems written in syllabic metre.

Discipleship under Şirvânî and the First Amasya Years

Having brought his madrasa studies to a certain point, Nigârî turned toward Sufism. He went to Kürdemir, a place known for the poets and Sufis of the Shirvan region, and met İsmâil Sirâceddin Şirvânî, one of the deputies of Mawlana Khalid al-Baghdadi. His real aim was to become a disciple of Mawlana Khalid himself, the great sheikh of this path; it is related that with this intention he travelled from Azerbaijan as far as Harput, and that on learning of Mawlana Khalid's death in 1827 he went on to Sivas and attached himself to Şirvânî. A legend recorded in the TDV tells that while he was still a student of Şikest Abdullah Efendi, the Caliph Ali appeared to him in a dream and ordered him to go to Sivas and become Şirvânî's disciple, and that when he came before the sheikh he was greeted with the words "Ne mutlu mürşidi şâh-ı velâyet olana", happy is he whose guide is the king of sainthood. The date and place of his initiation are uncertain. Since Şirvânî came to Anatolia in 1827 and spent four years in Amasya and then nine in Sivas, the TDV concludes that the initiation must have taken place some time after 1830.

Hüsâmeddîn's chronology reaches further back. According to him, Nigârî attended Şirvânî's lessons and in 1243 (1827-28) set out from Shirvan with his teacher and came to Amasya, where he stayed about two years at the Fâtıma Hâtun Madrasa and studied under him. In 1245 he went on the pilgrimage, and on his return in 1247 (1831-32) moved with his teacher to Sivas, where he completed his studies and at the same time finished his spiritual training. In 1256 (1840-41) he returned with his master to Amasya, formally received his licence and deputyship, and in 1257 left for Bergüşad. The TDV and other modern sources, on the other hand, write that Nigârî went to Amasya with his guide in 1839 and entered a period of ascetic retreat at the Gümüşlü Saraçhane Madrasa, that he went on the pilgrimage the same year and on his way back travelled through Basra, Baghdad, Aleppo and Damascus, that he completed a forty-day retreat at Rumi's tomb in Konya, and that he returned from Istanbul to Amasya and was sent to Karabakh in 1841 with the task of spiritual guidance.

Şirvânî is also an important figure in the history of Amasya, for he is buried in this city. Regarded as one of the spiritual leaders of the resistance to Russian expansion in the Caucasus and known as the guide of Sheikh Shamil, he stood at the head of a movement that Western and Russian historians called "Muridism". The political stance of Nigârî's later life cannot be separated from the influence of this circle. The year of Şirvânî's death appears in the sources in different forms, such as 1848 and 1853. The sheikh's words about his pupil are recorded in İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal's Son Asır Türk Şairleri: "Mîr Hamza has annihilated himself in divine love; his guide is love." This saying points to the center of Nigârî's understanding of Sufism. To burn with love and to melt in its fire is for him the true goal of the path; worship and moral principles have meaning to the extent that they are supported by sincerity. He embraced Ibn Arabi's doctrine of the unity of being and drew a link between love and the experience of unity. A couplet in his Divan expresses this view: "Tâlibe gûşe-i vahdet gibi mekteb olmaz, / Perveriş eylemeğe aşk gibi âb olmaz."

Spiritual Guidance in Karabakh and Migration to Anatolia

Returning to Karabakh after receiving his deputyship, Nigârî taught and guided the people until about 1852 in various parts of the region, including his native Cicimli and the village of Mirler, and in the madrasas of the village of Hanlıklar in the province of Kazakh. He gained a large following especially among the Karapapak (Terekeme) Turks. In these years he married; his son Sirâceddîn İsmâil was born, according to Hüsâmeddîn, in Bergüşad in 1271 (1854-55). Many disciples gathered at his lodge, and he is known to have used his own ghazals, qasidas and mukhammas in the gatherings of conversation and dhikr. Disciple-poets such as Ağa Rahim Ağa Dilbazi, Şahnigar Hanım Rencûr, Sadî Sânî Karabâğî and his son Sirâcî were products of this circle.

According to Hüsâmeddîn, the allegiance of the people of Dagestan and their devotion to his commands led the Russian administration to believe that Nigârî intended to revive the militant path of Sheikh Shamil. Seeing the pressure mount, Nigârî left Shirvan in 1271 (1854-55) for Iran, and crossed from there by way of Van to Erzincan; thousands of his disciples are said to have followed him to Anatolia. In Erzincan the marshal of the Fourth Army, Çırpanlı Abdülkerim Nâdir Paşa, showed him great respect and arranged for him to receive a salary of five hundred kuruş. Many sources state that when the Russians took Kars during the Crimean War, he went there with his disciples and fought against the Russians alongside the Ottoman army. In Çınar's view this active struggle places Nigârî in the same line as figures of the independence struggle such as his sheikh Şirvânî and Sheikh Shamil.

Between Erzurum, Istanbul and Bayburt

The decade after the war was spent in constant movement. In Hüsâmeddîn's sequence, he went to Erzurum in 1272 and stayed there about three years, moved to Istanbul in 1275, and a few months later came to Amasya for the second time, living in the madrasa near the Saraçhane Mosque. In 1276 he went to Sivas and forty-eight days later to Erzurum. During this brief stay in Erzurum he grew angry at a brawl caused by the zeal of his disciples, withdrew to Bayburt and lived there for two years. In 1278 he returned to Erzurum, collected his accumulated salary, and in 1280 (1863-64) went to Karabakh. The sources also record that he served as an official at the mosque in the Bakırcı quarter of Erzurum.

Little detail survives of his Istanbul years. The TDV records that he was in Istanbul between 1855 and 1858, that he met Mustafa Reşid Paşa, and that he was offered the leadership of the Emîr Buhârî lodge in Fatih, which he declined, securing instead the appointment of his deputy Mustafa Sabri Efendi; Mustafa Reşid Paşa's name appears in one of his poems. The Dictionary of Turkish Literary Names gives these years as 1859-1862 and writes that he met Sultan Abdülmecid; other accounts relay this meeting with the qualification "it is said". For his family these years were painful. Some sources write that his son Sirâcî died between 1860 and 1865 at the age of twenty-two. Hüsâmeddîn's information is different and is discussed below.

Settling in Amasya

The sources also differ on the date when Nigârî settled for good in Amasya. According to Hüsâmeddîn, he collected the family he had left in Shirvan, cut his ties there completely, and came to Amasya for the third time early in 1281 (1864-65), living for a while in the Yakutiye quarter. In the same year his cousin Mîr Hasan Efendi and Sirâceddîn Mehmed Efendi of Dehne also emigrated to the city, driven by Russian pressure and drawn by the presence in Amasya of Hacı Hamza Efendi, whom they "loved most". The TDV, by contrast, writes that he went to Amasya in 1866, soon settled in Merzifon and taught Qur'anic exegesis and hadith there until 1883; another account says that he settled in Merzifon with his family in 1867. Since Hüsâmeddîn's detailed record shows Nigârî moving back and forth between Amasya and Merzifon several times, some of these discrepancies may point to different stops within the same period; this is an inference.

The scholars and notables of the city began to visit him to benefit from his conversation, and students joined his teaching circle. Once it was understood that he was, in Hüsâmeddîn's words, one of "the famous learned men and scholarly seyyids", he won everyone's particular respect. He also had his salary transferred to Amasya. The Karapapak and North Caucasian disciples who migrated to Anatolia in large groups after the war of 1853 and settled across a wide area from Amasya to Muş and Kars further increased the sheikh's fame and influence. Years after his retreat at the Gümüşlü Saraçhane Madrasa, he had returned to the same city, this time as a spiritual guide.

The Patronage of Mehmed Rüşdü Paşa

One of the people who shaped Nigârî's position in Amasya was Mehmed Rüşdü Paşa, son of his sheikh Şirvânî. The pasha, who had served as minister of finance and of justice, was, according to Hüsâmeddîn, removed from office in Receb 1288 (September 1871) because of his activities against Grand Vizier Mahmud Nedim Paşa and his son's passion for gambling, and sent to Amasya. During his residence there he spent time in the company of his father's deputy Hacı Hamza Nigârî Efendi, completed the tomb and mosque his father had been building, and had a magnificent mansion built for Nigârî in the Pirinççi quarter, near the Osman Çelebi Darülhadis. Summoned to Istanbul in Cemaziyelahir 1289 (August 1872), the pasha left the city and shortly afterwards became grand vizier. According to Hüsâmeddîn, the dispute grew fiercer once this protection was gone.

The Ali-Muawiya Question and the Controversy in Amasya

While the pasha was in Amasya, the controversy Hüsâmeddîn calls the "Ali-Muawiya question" broke out. In his sermons and poems Nigârî constantly dwelt on love for the Caliph Ali and the Prophet's family, and harshly criticized those who had wronged them. In Hüsâmeddîn's account he openly cursed Muawiya, Amr ibn al-As and Marwan, who had risen against Ali, whom he regarded as his "noble ancestor", together with the participants in the battles of the Camel and Siffin. In one poem of the Divan, with the refrain "Siz Mervânî, biz Kur'ânî, siz bir taraf, biz bir taraf" (you are Marwanid, we are of the Qur'an; you on one side, we on the other), he sets himself against the partisans of Muawiya and Yazid. Some circles took him for an Alevi, others for a man of Shi'i leanings. Nigârî, however, described both himself and his disciples as free of sectarian labels; in his Divan he says that he has left behind the views of the four schools of law and is neither Sunni nor Shi'i but a pure Muslim.

According to Hüsâmeddîn, the scholars and notables of the city cooled toward him for this reason, began to regard the sheikh and his disciples as "Alevi Shi'is", and a deep division arose among the people. The scholars defended the Sunni position, and both sides, going to extremes, inflamed public feeling. The author writes at once that those who responded to abuse by recalling the oppression suffered by Ali and his descendants deserved understanding, and that abuse and cursing were nonetheless religiously and morally wrong. In his view the sheikh and his disciples carried this verbal retaliation to a point that threatened public morals, while the scholars, anxious to protect public morality, pushed their defence as far as bigotry. Modern researchers who have studied the subject likewise note that Nigârî's harsh language arose from his reaction to silence in the face of the injustices done to the Prophet's family.

The Opposition of the Amasya Scholars

Hüsâmeddîn's biographical volumes show how large this controversy loomed in the city's learned circles. Hocazâde İbrâhim Efendi of Samsun made it his task from 1288 onward to defend the Companions within the bounds of legal method and theology and to refute the "Hamzavi teachings", and his standing among the people and the scholars rose as a result. When the hoca, a keen hunter, lost the sight of both eyes in 1295 (1878) from the effects of the winter cold, people took this as the result of the sheikh's curse and a sign of his miraculous power. İbrâhim Efendi answered in a sermon: "It is my tongue that troubles the sheikh, not my eyes; if he has miraculous power, let him stop my tongue." In Merzifon, too, Hacı Bayramzâde Saîd Mehmed Efendi spent years trying to warn the people against the sheikh's claims. Süleyman Efendi of Tirebolu, a Naqshbandi sheikh who settled in Amasya in 1292, set himself against the attitude of "reviling and cursing" that Nigârî had started, founded a quiet Naqshbandi circle that stressed respect for all the Companions, and won the hearts of the people.

Even Nigârî's closest circle was divided on the matter. Hüsâmeddîn writes that the sheikh was openly at odds with Hacı İsa Efendi, his own sheikh's son-in-law and fellow student, with Şirvânî's son Seyyid Ahmed Hulûsî Efendi, and with another fellow student, Hacı Mustafa Efendi of Shirvan, none of whom cursed anyone and all of whom showed respect to the Companions. His cousin Mîr Hasan Efendi is also recorded as having kept a measured stance on this question during the sheikh's lifetime. In 1291 (1874) inexplicable events began at the mansion in the Pirinççi quarter: at night the house was pelted with stones, and by day the goods and clothes in the chests caught fire, and those responsible could never be found. Nigârî left the mansion and moved to a rented house in the Gümüşlüzâde quarter, and when the same things continued there, he went to Merzifon in 1293 and stayed six months.

The Sheikh's Satires

Nigârî did not remain silent toward the other side either. According to Hüsâmeddîn, the sermons defending the Sunni position from the pulpits weighed heavily on him, and he answered by satirizing the scholars without restraint. The following lines, printed in the Divan, come from these satires: "Dime şâir sözüdür sanma yalan / Vâ'ize yem gerek eşşege palân / Sûfiye lokma gerek zehr ide / Çerçiye pâra ılançıya ılan." Hüsâmeddîn explains that the preacher was Hocazâde İbrâhim Efendi, preacher of the Yörgüç Paşa Mosque, the donkey Hacıoğlu Mahmûd Efendi, known for his asceticism, the Sufi the mufti of Amasya, Sofuzâde Mehmed Hulûsî Efendi, and the peddler and the snake-charmer the scholars who defended the Sunni position. One of the author's comparisons also reveals the material background of the quarrel. The best paid of these scholars was the mufti, who drew a total of two hundred and fifty kuruş from the office of mufti and his teaching post, while the others lived on alms and the fitra. The sheikh who mocked them as peddlers, by contrast, received hundreds of liras from Shirvan and from his disciples in addition to the five hundred kuruş a month he drew from the treasury, and his house ran like a vizier's mansion.

The Dhikr Gathering and the Disciples

Returning to Amasya in 1294 (1877), Nigârî lived first in the mansion of Şirvânîzâde Ahmed Hulûsî Efendi in the Eski Kethüdâ quarter, then in the house of Payaslızâde Hacı Hakkı Efendi in the Devehane quarter, and finally moved to the house of Mecdîzâde Hâfız Mehmed Şerîf Efendi, imam of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, in the Çeribaşı quarter. Hüsâmeddîn's family also lived in Çeribaşı, and the author records that the sheikh was for a time their neighbour. This proximity left behind a closely observed description of the dhikr gathering at the Çeribaşı Mosque. The disciples formed a standing circle, leaving room for only two people in front of the mihrab. The sheikh would come there, take off his fez and turban, put on the Naqshbandi cap, and, starting from the right, step on the tip of each disciple's right foot, recite something into his ear and breathe upon him. According to Hüsâmeddîn, the disciple would at that moment fall into ecstasy and cry out. Then the sheikh would go round the circle with a long rosary in his hand reciting couplets, sometimes weeping bitterly; this dhikr, in which the disciples cried out with calls resembling the sounds of birds and animals and some fainted, lasted about two hours.

The disciples' devotion to the sheikh also caught the author's attention. They would stroke and kiss the places where the sheikh had stepped and sat, the tips of his feet and his shoes; a disciple who caught sight of him from afar would throw himself to the ground and go to him on hands and feet to kiss his shoe, and Hüsâmeddîn writes that he saw this even on muddy days. His disciples regarded the Divan as a book as sacred as the Qur'an and carried it about on their heads. His poems written in syllabic metre were sung to special melodies, and the listeners were carried away in ecstasy. The TDV also records that Nigârî's ghazals, koşmas and qasidas are still sung collectively today in various gatherings, with the rhythm kept by clapping.

The circle of disciples in Amasya brought together people from different parts of the city. Resul Sâmi Efendi of Şeki came to Amasya with his family in 1284, became Nigârî's disciple and studied Arabic and Persian literature with him. Bahâeddîn Mehmed Efendi of Dehne, after completing his studies with Mîr Hasan Efendi, turned to Nigârî and for a time devoted himself to dhikr. Hüsâmeddîn describes both as "of Hamzavi temperament". Koca Vaizzâde Derviş Mehmed Efendi, who preached during Ramadan at the Sultan Bayezid Mosque until the end of his life, had also become Nigârî's disciple. According to the memoirs of Osman Fevzi Olcay, most of the residents of the Mir Hamza Nigârî quarter, named after him, were the sheikh's disciples and admirers, his relatives and fellow countrymen from Shirvan; very few people who were not attached to the sheikh lived there. Olcay also names Tayip Efendi, chief clerk of the Finance Accounting Office, among Nigârî's disciples. Among the principal deputies listed by the TDV are Gazi Osman Efendi of Maraş, Hacı Mustafa Efendi of Erzurum (Şaşı Hoca), Hacı Zekeriyyâ Efendi of Tokat, Hacı Mahmud Efendi (Postlu Hoca), Hacı Mustafa Efendi of Taşova, Hacı Tayyib Efendi of Rize and Yesârîzâde Ahmed Hulûsî Efendi of Istanbul.

Household and Family

Hüsâmeddîn also recorded Nigârî's appearance: a large, rather tall, heavy-bodied man with a dark complexion and auburn hair and beard, imposing, with a compelling gaze, dignified and mostly silent. In the author's words he was a poet in three languages, deeply learned in Sufism, a Hanafi in law and a Khalidi by order; at the same time he was a man of a lover's temperament who could not bear injury to his friends and whose satire was fierce. He first married Şâhlık Hanım, the daughter of Ali Paşazâde, and after her death her sister Zeyneb Hanım, and a year later Emine Hanım. In Erzurum he married Zeliha Hanım, and in Amasya Lütfiye Hanım, daughter of Kemerbaşı Mustafa Efendi. His last three wives remained married to him until his death. Among the graves in the tomb enclosure are those of his wife Amine Harülnisa, who died in 1328 AH (1910), and his wife Lâtife Hanım, who died in 1327 AH (1909); it is highly likely that these names correspond to the Emine and Lütfiye mentioned by Hüsâmeddîn, but this is an inference.

None of his children outlived their father. By Emine Hanım he had Sirâceddîn İsmâil and a daughter named Hüsna, by Zeliha Hanım a son named Şemseddîn Mehmed, and by Lütfiye Hanım two daughters named Hayrünnisa and Büşra; in Hüsâmeddîn's words, "all of them died before him, and he left the world without issue". According to a story the author heard from the Naqshbandi sheikh Süleyman Efendi and from disciples, the sheikh had announced that the child to be born of Lütfiye Hanım would be a boy who would be the Mahdi; the girl who was born, Büşra, died at the age of three.

His Son Sirâcî

The best remembered member of the family is Sirâceddîn İsmâil Efendi, a poet like his father, known by his pen name as Mîr Sirâcî. The sources differ on the date of his death. Some write that he died between 1860 and 1865 at the age of twenty-two, while the TDV states that he died at twenty. According to Hüsâmeddîn, he was born in Bergüşad in 1271 (1854-55), came to Amasya with his father in 1281, attended the rüştiye school and continued his education with his father. During this time he fell in love with Fahrî Bey, son of the Amasya accountant; he tried to calm his passion through poetry but fell gravely ill and died early in Safer 1291 (March 1874), crying "Fahrî, Fahrî". This record agrees with the TDV's age of twenty. Hüsâmeddîn presents him as a very intelligent young man with a strong memory, who knew Fuzûlî's divan by heart and was much loved by the men and women of the disciples; the day of his death became a day of mourning for the Shirvanis, and everyone wept. He left a small divan and a well-known Sâkînâme, and "his wine was tea, with which he kept company everywhere". Sirâcî was buried in the Şamlılar Cemetery, and his bones were moved to his father's tomb in 1314 (1896-97).

His Removal from Amasya

In 1297 (1879-80) a murder was committed in the city. Hâfız Zekeriyyâ Efendi of Shirvan, steward of the household of Hacı İsa Efendi, chief clerk of the court and Şirvânî's son-in-law, was killed at night in front of his house in the Kocacık quarter by a bullet fired by Rüstem Şirvânî, one of the sheikh's disciples; Hüsâmeddîn places the event in 1296 in one passage and in 1297 in another. The murderer was caught near Hacı Hamza Efendi's reception rooms as he was about to mount a horse and flee; he was sentenced to death, the sentence was commuted to hard labour for life, and he was released after the proclamation of the Constitution. After this event Nigârî went to Merzifon again, stayed about a year and returned to Amasya in 1298. Early in 1301 (1883), Hacı İsa Efendi's wife was wounded by a bullet fired by an unknown person as she was leaving the mosque at Şirvânî's tomb after the night prayer. Hacı İsa Efendi and his wife's brother Seyyid Ahmed Hulûsî Efendi held the sheikh responsible for the attempt and suspected that the one who pulled the trigger was one of his disciples.

A rigorous investigation then began, and telegrams went out in every direction. According to Hüsâmeddîn, allegations that the sheikh had smuggled forbidden weapons from Russia, had letters written to call the Alevis in the villages to union, some of which were seized bearing his own seal, and that he would rise in revolt in the cause of his ancestor Mîr Haydar Şirvânî, were reported by telegram to Sultan Abdülhamid II. The author's own view of these allegations is measured. He regards the letters said to have been sent to the Shi'is in the villages as "probably a legend", and writes that there was no need to import weapons, since in the Hamidian era Circassians and Shirvanis already went about armed. On the other hand he adds that the sheikh's conduct and words were of a kind to encourage his disciples to act together, and that the open talk of some hot-headed disciples, "When the weapons work and the daggers flash, you will acknowledge the miracles of our sheikh", was not empty.

The sources look in different directions as to who stood behind this process. According to the TDV and Çınar, following rumours that the sheikh reviled the Companions, worked against the state and the nation, and might rebel at any moment with disciples ready to die for him, a petition demanding his removal from Amasya was sent to the Sublime Porte. To investigate the matter and calm the situation, the Porte decided that Nigârî should be removed from Amasya with his family and close circle and sent to Samsun, with a salary of 1,500 kuruş; the decision was communicated to the sub-governorate of Amasya and the district governorship of Merzifon. The Encyclopaedia Iranica gives the reason for his departure as a difference of opinion with the local mufti. Hüsâmeddîn, however, names the person chiefly responsible in another entry: the former chief judge Şirvânîzâde Ahmed Hulûsî Efendi, assigned to reside in Amasya in 1298, could never get along with Nigârî, his father's pupil and deputy; in 1301 he aroused the sultan's suspicions by attributing to him things he could not have done, and was single-handedly instrumental in having the sheikh exiled first to Istanbul and from there to Harput. According to the author, Ahmed Hulûsî Efendi thereby both placed the scholars of Amasya in his debt and won the sultan's favour; and when the mufti Sofuzâde Mehmed Hulûsî Efendi died in 1303, he had Osman Efendi, a Georgian from Batumi who had helped him in this affair, appointed mufti.

Exile in Harput and Death

The dates of the exile are given in two separate chronologies. According to Hüsâmeddîn, the sheikh, who had moved from Amasya to Merzifon in the face of the allegations, was sent from Merzifon to Samsun and from there to Istanbul by a coded order that arrived in Cemaziyelahir (around April 1884), after the sub-governor Mehmed Reşad Bey, who respected him, had been dismissed in mid-Cemaziyelevvel 1301 and replaced by Çeribaşı Hamdi Necib Paşa. In Istanbul he stayed as a guest in the house in Sarıgüzel, Fatih, of his disciple Mehmed İzzet Efendi of Erzurum, a telegraph official who met him on the steamer. The author records that the Divan was printed at this time through the mediation of Mehmed Emin Bey of Shirvan, an official of the palace secretariat, and his kinsman Ahmed Hamdi Efendi. The sheikh was then brought before the Şeyhülislam Uryânîzâde Ahmed Es'ad Efendi and asked why he cursed Muawiya and his like. His answer appears in Hüsâmeddîn as follows: "To hate and curse the men who rose against my ancestor is a prophetic duty that falls to me. It is not right for the people to follow me in this." When the answer was submitted to the sultan, he was sent to Harput in Muharrem 1302 (October-November 1884).

The TDV's more detailed chronology points to a year later. According to it, Nigârî left Merzifon with his family on 28 February 1885 and, after a few days in Samsun, went to Istanbul on a telegram from İzzet Efendi of Erzurum, who appears to have been an influential disciple. Kâzım Paşa, author of Mekālid-i Aşk, intervened with the Sublime Porte to have the exile stopped, but without result. On 30 April 1885 he was put on a steamer and sent to Samsun; he stopped in Amasya to take with him his wife, brother-in-law, nephew and his deputy Mahmud Efendi, who were exiled with him, and reached Harput by way of Tokat, Sivas and Malatya on 30 May 1885. The Dictionary of Turkish Literary Names gives the date of departure as 20 May 1885, and some sources date the exile decision to 1884. Hüsâmeddîn also quotes the poem the sheikh wrote in the carriage on the way from Merzifon to Samsun and had printed at the beginning of the Divan: "Çıkmadı sâhib-i da'vâ ne 'aceb / Açmadı bayrak-ı bâlâ ne 'aceb / Çıkdı çün fırka-i Deccâl velî / Çıkmadı Mehdî Mesîhâ ne 'aceb." The author reads these lines as a kind of interpreter of the hopes that passed through the sheikh's mind; this reading is Hüsâmeddîn's own.

In Harput he lived, in the phrase used in the title of Mustafa Kara's article, as "a dervish poet from Karabakh". His cousin Mîr Hasan Efendi was with him in exile. Hüsâmeddîn gives the date of his death as the afternoon of the third Monday of Muharrem 1304; Çınar gives it as 17 Muharrem 1304, that is, 16 October 1886. The TDV places his death in September 1886. His wish to be buried in Amasya was, according to Hüsâmeddîn, submitted to the sultan through the governor of Mamuratülaziz, and an order for the transfer was obtained through Mehmed Emin Bey of the palace secretariat; the TDV writes that permission was given by Hasan Paşa, governor of Harput. The body was embalmed and brought to Amasya, and buried in a house prepared in advance in the Bayezid Paşa quarter, in the words of the official introductory text in the back garden of the house. Thus the decision that had sent him away from the city was reversed after his death. Some sources write that he was buried beside the grave of his son Sirâcî; according to Hüsâmeddîn's record, however, Sirâcî's bones were moved to the tomb only in 1314.

The Tomb, the Şirvanlı Mosque and Mîr Hasan Efendi

The story of the complex built over the grave is also the story of the community of disciples after the sheikh's death. According to Hüsâmeddîn's record in the first volume, west of the Gâzi Bey Fountain, on the bank of the stream, there stood a distinct ensemble built in the name of "Karabâğî eş-Şeyh el-Hâc Hamza-i Nigârî Efendi": a mosque, an adjoining tomb, a wooden madrasa on the west side, a şadırvan in front and a lecture hall to the north. The foundations were laid in 1304 (1886-87), and the buildings, all of stone, were partly completed in 1310 (1892-93) with funds collected and sent by Veysî Efendizâde Sheikh Hacı Mahmûd Efendi, one of the deputies living in Shirvan, under the supervision of Mîr Hasan Efendi and with the labour of all the disciples; the other parts were finished over time. After Mîr Hasan Efendi's death the trusteeship passed to Sheikh Mahmûd Efendizâde Veysî and Mehmed Efendi; the façade of the mosque was completed by them in 1326 (1908), and sufficient endowments were arranged to sustain the complex. Hüsâmeddîn finds the building of the mosque and tomb elegant and its marble minbar and mihrab of very fine workmanship. Osman Fevzi Olcay, for his part, names the Şirvânî Hacı Mahmut Efendizâdes in his memoirs as the founders of the madrasa built in the name of Mir Hamza Nigârî, while adding that the money needed for the mosque and its dependencies is said to have actually been sent from Shirvan by the disciples, though he does not know how true this is. Among the regular students of the madrasa named by Olcay were Mahmut of Shirvan, Kör Yusuf of Shirvan, İlyas Efendi of Shirvan and Osman Faik Efendi, who was also the muezzin of the mosque; in the house facing the qibla side of the tomb and mosque lived Mîr Hasan Efendi and his son Mîr Sait Efendi.

Other sources give different construction dates. The TDV writes that the mosque was built in 1894, and some sources that it was added in 1895 in the Baroque style. An official tourism introduction spreads the construction over 1873-1895 and states that the donations came from Karabakh and Shirvan, from emigrants from these two regions living in Amasya, and from Sheikh Hacı Mahmut Efendi; the same text gives the year of Nigârî's death as 1866, an error that contradicts all other sources. The architecture of the building is the subject of a separate article; here it is enough to note that the tomb adjoins the east façade of the mosque, that it is entered through a large doorway from inside, and that it is of cut stone, covered by one large dome and four half-domes. According to Hüsâmeddîn there is an iron grille between the mosque and the tomb; inside lie Nigârî, beside him his son Sirâceddîn İsmâil Efendi, and beside him the deputy Mîr Hasan Efendi.

Mîr Hasan Efendi stands at the center of the complex and of the community of disciples after Nigârî. Hüsâmeddîn introduces him as the son of Mîr Yûsuf Efendi, one of the scholars of Bergüşad, and as Nigârî's cousin; in some sources he appears as his nephew, in others as a relative of Dagestani origin. Born in Bergüşad in 1245 (1829-30), he emigrated to Amasya with Hacı Hamza Efendi in 1281, became known for his depth in the rational sciences, and was granted a salary of two hundred kuruş at the start of Mehmed Rüşdü Paşa's grand vizierate. In 1302 he went to Harput with the sheikh and returned with the body in Muharrem 1304. When, after the sheikh's death, there was debate over who should be entrusted with the construction of the tomb and mosque, he declared himself sheikh of the Hamzaviyye, saying that he had seen Nigârî in a dream and received the deputyship from him. The large sums arriving from Shirvan were handed over to him, and he directed the construction. Mîr Hasan, who continued to teach next to the tomb, died on the night of Regaib, 1 Receb 1323 (September 1905), after the evening prayer, while in contemplation at his sheikh's tomb. When Sheikh Mahmûd Efendizâde Veysî, Mehmed and Ahmed Efendi objected to his burial in the tomb, a heated dispute broke out with the party of his nephew Hâşim Efendi; through the intervention of the sub-governor Ahmed Cevdet Bey he was buried beside Sirâceddîn, as the third grave in the tomb.

The Treatises on the Prophet's Family

The texts on the question of the Prophet's family that came from Mîr Hasan Efendi's pen show how Nigârî's line continued after his death. The treatise studied by Fatih Çınar was written at Nigârî's recommendation, is devoted to criticism of those who opposed Ali, is held in the National Library, and was copied in Amasya in 1889. In the library catalogue the author's name appears as "Mîr Hasan Nigarî", whereas the treatise belongs to his deputy, written at his request. The text reflects Nigârî's style and relies largely on Sunni sources such as Baydawi's commentary and the Rûhu'l-Beyân. Hüsâmeddîn, for his part, relates that in 1312 (1894-95), at the completion of the tomb and mosque, Mîr Hasan wrote a "Treatise on Tevellâ and Teberrâ" setting out Hamzavi beliefs and secretly sent it to Shirvan, and he includes the full Arabic text in his book. According to the author, the name "Hasan bin Yûsuf eş-Şirvânî" was originally written at the head of the treatise, but after a warning it was removed and the space left blank. According to his students, Mîr Hasan had said that he wrote the treatise at the request of the scholars of Shirvan. Given the difference in dates, it is unclear whether the copy studied by Çınar and the treatise mentioned by Hüsâmeddîn are the same text; nothing certain can be said on this point.

This treatise gave rise to a new conflict in Amasya. Mehmed Kemâl Bey of Istanbul, who came as sub-governor in Receb 1314, was himself a man of the Sufi orders and a lover of the Prophet's family, and showed great respect to Mîr Hasan. The mufti of Amasya, the Georgian Hacı Osman Efendi, however, found the treatise, wrote a commentary refuting it with legal proofs, and sent a copy to Mîr Hasan asking for a reply. Instead of a reply, on 21 Safer 1317 (June 1899) he was notified by the sub-governor of his dismissal from the office of mufti. Because the treatise left a bad impression among the scholars, Mîr Hasan was obliged to remove his name from it. Hüsâmeddîn writes that the treatise was unworthy of Mîr Hasan's pen, that the Ali-Muawiya question had no place in the foundations of the Naqshbandiyya, and that had love of the Prophet been put forward instead of love of Ali, the people would have been led onto a better path.

Poetry and Works

Nigârî's most important work is his Turkish Divan. Completed in Istanbul in 1883-84 and sent to press, it was printed in 1301 AH at the Süleyman Efendi Press in Istanbul and in 1326 (1908) in Tiflis, and was republished in later years by Muzaffer Akkuş, Azmi Bilgin, Kurtuluş Altunbaş and Nezaket Memmedli. Azmi Bilgin's edition contains 644 ghazals, 119 rubais, forty-eight kıtas, fourteen terci-bends, two terkib-bends, three müstezads, a Sâkînâme of twenty-eight stanzas of ten couplets each, five tahmis on Fuzûlî's ghazals, a letter and the 521-couplet Çaynâme; other counts raise the number of ghazals to 650 and of rubais to 129, and mention forty-nine poems in syllabic metre. The 210-couplet Menâkıb-ı Seyyid Nigârî, found after his death and added to the Tiflis edition, is also part of this corpus. The Persian Divan was printed in Istanbul in 1301 AH and 1329 (1911), and part of it was translated into Turkish with commentary by his nephew's son Mustafa Fahreddin Akabâlî.

The largest of his works is the 4,545-couplet Nigârnâme, printed in Istanbul in 1305 (1887-88). Here the poet makes his own heart fall in love with the beloved (nigâr) he saw in a dream in the spiritual world, and has his heart converse with lovers and gnostics in spiritual gatherings. Though the work resembles Fuzûlî's Leylâ vü Mecnûn and, in its mysterious descriptions, Şeyh Gâlib's Hüsn ü Aşk, it is original in many respects; the theme of the "journey", one of the basic motifs of Sufi masnavis, is foremost here. The cover of the book, printed in very few copies, does not bear Nigârî's name but the phrase "Bir pîr-i kâmilin eser-i âlîleridir", the exalted work of a perfect master. In the Çaynâme the poet offers Sufi interpretations while speaking of the samovar and tea, and by describing Karabakh and its notables gives an example of both a poem in praise of a homeland and a şehrengiz; the Encyclopaedia Iranica notes that this masnavi takes Fuzûlî's Beng ü Bâde as its model. Copies of the commentary on the Futûhât al-Makkiyya and of the work titled Hâtime-i Seyyid Nigârî mentioned by İbnülemin have not been located. The opening couplet of one of his ghazals recalls the region of his birth: "Cânıma çekmiş felek Bergüşad'ın dâgını / Sönmez âteşi ursan Hekeri ırmağını."

From a literary standpoint Nigârî is a poet who uses Azerbaijani and Anatolian Turkish together, giving room where appropriate to words from the Karabakh dialect. He is known to have followed Fuzûlî, admired Rûhî of Baghdad, praised his contemporary Nebâtî, and regarded Hafez, Khwaju Kermani and Saadi as masters; Nesîmî, Rumi, Yunus Emre and Jami are also counted among those who influenced him. The TDV notes that the technical terms of spiritual training of his own order are entirely absent from his poetry, and that divine love, love of the Prophet's family and the spirit of the Melâmî path are the basic elements of his personality. The line "Sana Kur'an demese ben sana insan demezem" (had He not called you the Qur'an, I would not call you a man), which expresses the reality of the Prophet, is a well-known example of this strain. Some researchers see him as one of the last great lodge poets to compile a divan after Şeyh Gâlib. In his Divan he openly reflects the social and political events of his time, and gives place in his poetry to the oppression of the Muslim people of the Caucasus by Tsarist Russia and to the struggle waged against it.

The judgement of his contemporary Hüsâmeddîn on his poetry is more mixed. He acknowledges that the Divan contains fine poems in praise of the Prophet, lofty ghazals and kıtas expressing burning, inward sorrows, that the poet had a path of his own and a lover's manner, and that he also composed sound poems in syllabic metre. On the other hand he writes that he also found poetic flaws and literary oddities that do not conform to the rules of the language. As an example of the sheikh's ecstatic utterances, the so-called "shatahat of the Sufis", he quotes these couplets: "'Aşkda bî-meselem vâhid-i bî-tâyem men / Bana mânend bulunmaz kime hem-tâyem men / Vahdete sıgmaz ene'l-Hak sözini söylemezem / Rabbi ernî dimezem matlab-ı Mûsâyam men." For Nigârî, who claimed to hold the rank of the Pole, the purpose of creation is to love God and the Prophet's family.

The Hamzavis and His Later Influence

Hüsâmeddîn closes his long entry on Nigârî with an expression of respect: "Hazret-i Mîr Hamza Nigârî is a blessed figure worthy of reverence. He is one of the learned sheikhs who possessed a Sufi way of his own. The followers of this way were called Hamzavi." In the continuation of the same sentence he adds that Muawiya and Marwan were not men to be sacrificed for his sake, making no secret of his own side in the dispute. The TDV likewise writes that although Nigârî was a Naqshbandi-Khalidi sheikh, he was a distinct personality outside this line, and was therefore regarded by his followers as the founder of an order, that is, as a pîr.

Wherever he went, Nigârî managed to form a literary and Sufi circle around himself. His influence in Erzurum continued through Hâce Hüseyin Efendi and Alvarlı Efe, and his influence in Istanbul was kept alive by poets such as Molla Mehemmed Hüznî, Sebatî and Giryan Kazakî. Under Tsarist Russia and the Soviets his name was erased from literary histories, yet in Azerbaijan he could not be forgotten. Various legends about him are told in Eastern Anatolia and northern Azerbaijan. Today he is the subject of publications and symposia in both Türkiye and Azerbaijan; foremost among these are the international Hamza Nigârî symposium titled "Karabağ'dan Amasya'ya Gönül Köprüsü" (A Bridge of Hearts from Karabakh to Amasya), the second symposium held in 2014 and the third held in Şamahı in 2017.

Chronology

1805: Born in the village of Cicimli in the Zangezur district of Karabakh (other dates such as 1797, 1809-10 and 1815 also appear in the sources).

1827: Death of Mawlana Khalid al-Baghdadi; Şirvânî comes to Anatolia. According to Hüsâmeddîn, Nigârî came to Amasya with his teacher in 1243 (1827-28).

1831-32: According to Hüsâmeddîn, moves to Sivas with his teacher.

1839: Comes to Amasya with Şirvânî and enters retreat at the Gümüşlü Saraçhane Madrasa; pilgrimage the same year.

1840-41: Receives his deputyship and returns to Karabakh to guide the people.

1854-55: Birth of his son Sirâceddîn İsmâil in Bergüşad; under Russian pressure, leaves Shirvan for Erzincan by way of Iran and Van.

1855-1863: Years spent between Kars, Erzurum, Istanbul, Sivas and Bayburt.

1864-65: According to Hüsâmeddîn, comes to Amasya for the third time with his family and settles in the Yakutiye quarter (other sources give 1866-67 and Merzifon).

1871: Mehmed Rüşdü Paşa arrives in Amasya; a mansion is built for Nigârî in the Pirinççi quarter.

1874: According to Hüsâmeddîn, death of his son Sirâcî; stone-throwing and fires at the Pirinççi mansion.

1879-80: Hâfız Zekeriyyâ Efendi is killed by a disciple; the sheikh goes to Merzifon.

1883-84: Attempt on the life of Hacı İsa Efendi's wife, investigation, and removal from Merzifon to Samsun and Istanbul.

1885: According to the TDV, leaves Merzifon on 28 February and reaches Harput on 30 May (according to Hüsâmeddîn, sent to Harput in Muharrem 1302, that is, late 1884).

1886: Dies in Harput in September or October; his body is brought to Amasya and buried in the Bayezid Paşa quarter.

1886-87: Foundations of the tomb and mosque laid.

1889: Mîr Hasan Efendi's treatise on the Prophet's family copied in Amasya.

1892-95: Tomb and Şirvanlı Mosque partly completed.

1896-97: Sirâcî's bones moved to the tomb.

1899: The mufti, the Georgian Hacı Osman Efendi, dismissed over the treatise controversy.

1905: Mîr Hasan Efendi dies at the tomb and is buried beside Sirâcî.

1908: The mosque façade completed and the endowments arranged.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • Çınar, Fatih. "Nakşî-Hâlidî Şeyhi Hamza Nigarî'nin İsteğiyle Yazılan Bir Ehl-i Beyti Müdafaa Risalesi". Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa University Journal of the Faculty of Theology, VII/1 (2019), 125-150.
  • Yerkazan, Hasan. "Ebü'l-Hasan el-Harakânî Silsilesinden Gelen Mîr Hamza Nigârî'nin Peygamber Tasavvuru". Kafkas University Journal of the Faculty of Theology, 4/Suppl. 1 (2017), 31-50.

Official sources

  • Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism. "Shirvanli Azerbaijanis Mosque". amasya.ktb.gov.tr.

Books

  • Bilgin, A. Azmi (ed.). Divan-ı Seyyid Nigârî. Istanbul: Kule İletişim Hizmetleri, 2003.

Other sources

  • Yazıcı, Tahsin. "Hamza Nigari". Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. XI, fasc. 6, pp. 648-649 (2003). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hamza-nigari/
  • Bayram, Parvana. "NİGÂRÎ, Seyyid Mîr Hamza". Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (TEİS), Yesevi University. teis.yesevi.edu.tr
  • Kültür Envanteri. "Mir Hamza Nigârî Türbesi". kulturenvanteri.com.
  • Wikipedia (Turkish). "Mir Hamza Nigârî". tr.wikipedia.org.

Online sources