Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman Efendi was born in Amasya at the beginning of 1456 and died in the autumn of 1516. His sixty years span two phases of Ottoman learning: the fifteenth century, shaped by Mehmed II's madrasa system, and the early sixteenth, when the court and the learned class drew closer together under Bayezid II and Selim I. Abdurrahman Efendi stands between the two. In his youth he belonged to the circle of Şehzade Bayezid in Amasya, he spent his years of exile in the study circles of Shiraz, and on returning to Istanbul he rose as far as the judgeships of Anatolia and Rumelia. He left behind a body of fatwas, treatises on theology and logic, and a library that was large for its time. Kemalpaşazâde and Ebussuûd Efendi, both later shaykh al-Islam, and the great divan poets Zâtî and Necâtî are known to have enjoyed his patronage. Among the scholars of Amasya his life is one of the best documented, while his writings are still not read as widely as they deserve.

Family and Childhood in Amasya

Müeyyedzâde was born in Safar 860 (January 1456) in Amasya. His father, Alâeddin Ali Çelebi, was the son of Şemseddin Müeyyed Çelebi, a Kâzerûniyye shaykh from the Divriklizâde family, one of the city's well-known households. The name Müeyyedzâde comes from this grandfather. Some sources trace the family line back to Abu Ishaq al-Kazaruni (d. 1035), founder of the Kâzerûniyye order in Iran. Âşık Çelebi, who calls Müeyyedzâde his maternal grandfather, likewise writes that the family came originally from Iran. In Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar's Amasya Târihi it is stated that Müeyyedzâde's great-grandfather, Yâr Ali Çelebi, married the daughter of Shaykh Şemseddin Müeyyed Çelebi, known as Abu Ishaq al-Kazaruni. These accounts do not agree on the exact links of the lineage, but they draw the same picture of the household: a family of shaykhs in Amasya, known for its Sufi and scholarly circle and rooted in Iran.

Abdurrahman received a good education in this setting, thanks to his father, who was the shaykh of the Yâkut Paşa Zâviyesi. When Mehmed II's son Şehzade Bayezid was sent to govern Amasya (1461), a member of this family was appointed the prince's chancellor. Abdurrahman thus came into daily contact with the sanjak court while still young and joined the prince's close circle. According to Müstakimzâde, Müeyyedzâde learned fine calligraphy from Shaykh Hamdullah, one of Bayezid's companions in Amasya and later regarded as the founder of Ottoman calligraphy. The lessons he took from this master also laid the ground for the books he would later copy by his own hand.

A love story is also told about these years. It is said that there was an attachment between him and Mihrî Hatun, the well-known woman poet of Amasya, but most sources state that it rested on a pure affection and that her real interest lay with Sinanpaşazâde İskender Çelebi. This tale about his youth does not go beyond a literary anecdote.

Bayezid's Companion and the Flight from Amasya

His friendship with the prince cost Abdurrahman dearly. Those who envied him complained to Mehmed II that Müeyyedzâde had had a considerable part in drawing Şehzade Bayezid to wine and entertainment. The sultan issued a decree ordering the execution of Müeyyedzâde and of Hızırpaşazâde Hacı Mahmud, the prince's haseki. Şehzade Bayezid learned of it before the decree reached Amasya and helped his friend escape. In 884 (1479) Müeyyedzâde went to Aleppo, which was then held by the Mamluks. The flight changed the course of his life and took him to Shiraz, to the best-known study circle of the age.

The sources give no detail of the accusation; they record only the complaint and the death order. Whether Müeyyedzâde really led the prince astray therefore cannot be settled by documents. The one measure we have is the steady regard Bayezid showed him after his accession. That regard suggests that the prince did not neglect his friend and did not take the charge seriously.

The Shiraz Years and Dawwânî's Ijâza

After Aleppo, Müeyyedzâde went on to Shiraz and joined the study circle of Celâleddin ed-Devvânî, one of the most famous theologians and philosophers of the time. Shiraz was then the scene of lively theoretical debates among the scholars gathered around Devvânî and Sadreddin Deştekî, and Abdurrahman Efendi took part in these disputations. The length of his stay is not given uniformly in the sources. One account puts his years in Shiraz at nearly ten. Yet his flight to Aleppo is recorded as 1479 and his return to Amasya as October 1483. Taken together, these two dates show that once the time spent travelling and in Aleppo is subtracted, his actual study in Shiraz lasted less than ten years. The sources give no firm figure on this point.

What Müeyyedzâde studied in Shiraz is known today largely thanks to the ijâza Devvânî gave him. This document, which Judith Pfeiffer has examined in detail, shows both the chain of his teachers in the transmitted, rational and Sufi (khirqa) sciences and the range of the books he read. According to it, Müeyyedzâde read with Devvânî half of the discussion of existence in the Sharh al-Mawâqif, the whole of Kadızâde's Sharh al-Jâmî, and Nasîr al-Dîn al-Tûsî's recension of Euclid up to the tenth book, and he also studied Tûsî's commentary on the Ishârât and Qutb al-Dîn al-Râzî's Muhâkemât. The level of his training in the theoretical sciences such as theology, mathematics and astronomy is clear from this list. A copy of Tûsî's work on Euclid made by Müeyyedzâde in Shiraz survives today in the Beyazıt State Library.

Among those with whom he formed a friendship in Shiraz was Hâfız-ı Acem, who would later come to Ottoman lands. When Hâfız-ı Acem arrived in the Ottoman realm he entered Müeyyedzâde's circle and obtained a post through him. Müeyyedzâde played an important part in the spread of Devvânî's works and views in the Ottoman sphere. He also helped some of his teacher's students to cross into Anatolia and teach there.

Return: From Kalenderhâne to Sahn-ı Semân

When Mehmed II died and Şehzade Bayezid took the throne, Müeyyedzâde returned first to Amasya (October 1483) and some time later came to Istanbul. His friend's accession gave him strong protection. He began to teach at the Kalenderhâne Madrasa. On 17 Rebîülevvel 891 (23 March 1486), the day he married the daughter of Kestelî, he was appointed professor at the Sahn-ı Semân Madrasa in place of Efdalzâde Hamîdüddin Efendi. The Sahn was the group of madrasas Mehmed II founded in Istanbul and the highest rank in the learned hierarchy. To teach there meant that the road to a judgeship and to the office of military judge lay open.

Müeyyedzâde advanced step by step along this road. In 899 (1494) he was sent to the judgeship of Edirne, vacant after the death of Îsâ Fakih. In Rebîülevvel 907 (September 1501) he became military judge (kazasker) of Anatolia, and four years later, on the death of Hacıhasanzâde Efendi, he was appointed to the Rumelia judgeship. The military judges sat in the Imperial Council and were responsible for the judicial and educational establishment. During his years as a judge he is said to have followed scientific work around the Mediterranean closely, and in 1505 he reportedly asked Moses Galeano to translate Zacuto's astronomical book Almanach Perpetuum into Arabic.

The last years of his life passed in the shadow of the struggle for the throne. During the movement that the janissaries loyal to Şehzade Selim started against the statesmen who supported Sultan Ahmed, his mansion was plundered together with that of Tâcîzâde Câfer Çelebi. Under pressure from the janissaries he was dismissed from the Rumelia judgeship and retired (917/1511). When Selim I took the throne he was appointed judge of Karaferye and then once more military judge of Rumelia (919/1513). A year later he joined the Çaldıran campaign at the sultan's request. On the way back, during changes among the senior officials, he was dismissed a second time (920/1514). Soon afterwards, on 15 Shaʿbân 922 (13 September 1516), he died and was buried in the cemetery of the Eyüp Sultan shrine. One modern source gives Karaferye as his place of death, but other sources report that he died in Istanbul. He is recorded as having five sons and a daughter.

Teaching, Patronage and Students

Müeyyedzâde's influence on his age is measured less by what he wrote than by the people he trained and patronised. The atmosphere of debate he brought from Shiraz created a new climate in Istanbul and forged a strong bond between the learned class of Istanbul and the Shiraz circle. He patronised not only scholars arriving from Shiraz and its surroundings but also many craftsmen and learned men living in Istanbul. Kemalpaşazâde and Ebussuûd Efendi were formed in his circle, and both would later become shaykh al-Islam. Kemalpaşazâde wrote his history under Müeyyedzâde's influence and at the command of Bayezid II. Necâtî Bey presented him with an ode, compiled his divan in his name and praised him in its preface. Zâtî said that he asked for no post because he was supported by the gifts of Müeyyedzâde, then military judge of Anatolia, and of the chancellor Câfer Çelebi. Hâfız-ı Acem also obtained his post in the Ottoman realm through him. His grandson Âşık Çelebi speaks of his grandfather with respect in his Meşâirü'ş-şuarâ, and Sehî, Latîfî and Kınalızâde give him a place in their biographical dictionaries.

His most important contribution to his age was to secure the flow of knowledge and cultural contact between Safavid Iran and the Ottomans. He mediated the works that scholars such as Devvânî and Deştekî dedicated to Bayezid II, carried the philosophical agenda of Shiraz to Istanbul, and also carried the questions debated in the Ottoman lands back to Shiraz. Among the works he took to Devvânî as gifts was Hocazâde's Tahâfut. When the Safavids took control of Iran, this exchange came close to ending.

Selim I's remark about him shows his standing among his contemporaries. According to Âşık Çelebi and Uzunçarşılı, after recalling Müeyyedzâde's virtue and maturity the sultan said, "What a pity that we reached his last days."

Works and Ideas

Most of Müeyyedzâde's works exist as drafts and short treatises. The weight of his administrative duties kept him from reflecting the broad learning he acquired in Shiraz fully in his writings. What has reached us lies mostly in jurisprudence, theology and logic.

His most widely copied work is the Majmaʿ al-fatâwâ (Müeyyedzâde Cöngü). The copies recorded in libraries under various names, such as Mecmûʿatü İbni'l-Müʾeyyed, el-Fetâvâ, Mecmûʿatü'l-mesâʾil, el-Mesâʾilü'l-münteḫabe fi'l-fetâvâ, Muʿînü'l-ḳuḍât and el-Mecmûʿatü'l-fıḳhiyye, represent different arrangements of the work. They deal mainly with matters of transactions, that is, property and debt law, commercial law and family law, topics that touch everyday life. The work is said to have been taught in Ottoman madrasas and to have contributed to the training of later great jurisconsults such as Ebussuûd Efendi.

His other works include the Risâle fî taʿẓîmi'n-nebî, the Risâle fi'l-cüzʾi'lleẕî lâ yetecezzeʾ (the indivisible part), the Risâle fi'l-mevcûdâti'l-ḫâriciyye (existents in the external world), the Risâle fî ḥalli'ş-şübühâti'l-ʿâmme (the general doubt), the Risâle fî naḳżi'l-vużûʾ, the Risâle fî ḥikmeti't-taḥrîr, the Risâle fî müşkilâti mesâʾili ʿilmi'l-ferâʾiż, the Risâle fi'l-ḥac, written as a refutation of Molla Lutfi's treatise on the verse of pilgrimage, and glosses on the Sharh al-Mawâqif. A bulky commentary on al-Marghînânî's al-Hidâya, the Terġībü'l-lebîb, is also attributed to him. Since the manuscripts carry no information about the author, however, it is doubtful whether the work belongs to Müeyyedzâde.

The treatises show how far Müeyyedzâde entered into theoretical questions. In the treatise on the part, he takes up the contact argument used to prove or deny the atom, and uses the example of a sphere touching a surface to discuss the old problem of continuous and discontinuous quantity. He rejects Ibn Sînâ's idea that contact between two points is continuous by means of the example of the rolling sphere, and concludes that the sphere touches the surface along a discontinuous line. In the treatise on the general doubt he addresses the relation between motion and place, the ancient problem known as Zeno's paradox. In both works he lays out the history of the problem, seeks a solution, corrects some citations, and takes issue with the pioneers of the ancient world and of Islamic thought. This shows both the author's self-confidence and the weight of his learning. In the treatise on external existents he argues that universals, like particulars, have ontological reality in the external world.

In theology his attention is drawn to the divine attributes, especially the debate on the speech of God. He does not regard the question of whether eternal speech is originated or eternal as a problem for divine wisdom. In his view the discussions have concentrated on the origination of verbal speech, whereas the real matter is the nature of inner speech. He opens to debate Jurjânî's view that the eternity of originated things is possible but their coexistence with God's essence is impossible. He finds the coexistence of endless renewals with the divine essence conceivable, questions the Sunni characterisation of the non-existent as pure nothingness, and arrives at new concepts such as originated nothingness and eternal nothingness. He holds that divine knowledge is timeless and universal, that temporal knowledge is realised in particular form within the past, the present and the future, and that God knows particulars in the absolute sense. These writings are assessed as an example of the investigating scholar that grew stronger in Mehmed II's time, one that joined the Ottoman madrasa heritage with Devvânî's line.

On poetry and calligraphy the sources say he was accomplished. Many of his poems are included in various biographical dictionaries, and he is said to have written verse in Arabic, Persian and Turkish under the pen name Hâtemî. His chronogram poems composed on the deaths of certain important figures are also regarded as valuable in the sources. However, his divan has not been found, and we know his poetry only from scattered quotations.

His Library

The most distinctive feature that set Müeyyedzâde apart from his contemporaries was his library. The sources report that it held seven thousand volumes. This figure was considered quite exaggerated by the standards of the day, yet it was accepted that he owned a considerable number of books. According to a register in the Topkapı Palace Museum Archive, Selim I ordered the books dispersed after Müeyyedzâde's death to be gathered and recorded, and the count came to 2112 books. From the closing statements of the register it appears that his valuable books may have been taken into the sultan's private library in the palace. Modern research therefore puts the size of the library at roughly two thousand to seven thousand volumes.

The contents of the library reflect a far wider horizon than his own writings. While Müeyyedzâde's own works remained confined to jurisprudence and theology, his library held books in many fields beyond the religious sciences, such as geometry, mathematics, optics, mineralogy, alchemy, geography and astronomy. Judith Pfeiffer has published the list of mathematical and astronomical works in the inventory of this library.

Müeyyedzâde did not merely collect books; he copied a number of them with his own hand. A note at the beginning of the copy of Tûsî's Taḥrîru Uṣûli Öḳlîdis, held in the Beyazıt State Library in the Veliyyüddin Efendi collection under number 2304, shows that it was written by him in Shiraz. The copy of Ibn Sînâ's al-Mabdaʾ wa'l-maʿâd in the Topkapı Palace Museum Library (III. Ahmed, 1584) likewise came from his hand. Given that he learned fine calligraphy from Shaykh Hamdullah in Amasya, these copies are the product not only of a passion but of a sound training in the art of writing.

His Place in His Age

What places Müeyyedzâde in Ottoman intellectual history is less a single great work than his role as a point of connection. On one side stood the Sahn-ı Semân order founded by Mehmed II and the settled jurisprudential and theological tradition of the Ottoman madrasas; on the other stood the philosophical debates of Devvânî and Deştekî in Shiraz. Abdurrahman Efendi was among the most important people to link these two worlds. That figures such as Kemalpaşazâde and Ebussuûd were formed under his patronage shows that the link passed on to later generations as well.

Seen from Amasya, Müeyyedzâde is a product of the cultural accumulation that came from the city's being a prince's sanjak. Thanks to Şehzade Bayezid's circle in Amasya, poets, calligraphers and scholars had gathered in the city. Müeyyedzâde grew up in this milieu, went into exile because of his friendship with the prince, and on his return reached the summit of the learned class by means of the opportunity that same friendship provided.

Chronology

1456 (Safar 860): Born in Amasya.

1461: His father becomes chancellor to Şehzade Bayezid, governor of Amasya; Müeyyedzâde enters the prince's circle.

1479: Flees to Aleppo to escape Mehmed II's execution order, then goes to Shiraz and receives an ijâza from Devvânî.

1483 (Ramadan 888): On Bayezid's accession returns to Amasya and then Istanbul; begins teaching at the Kalenderhâne Madrasa.

1486 (17 Rebîülevvel 891): Marries the daughter of Kestelî; appointed professor at the Sahn-ı Semân.

1494 (899): Becomes judge of Edirne.

1501 (Rebîülevvel 907): Appointed military judge of Anatolia.

1505: Becomes military judge of Rumelia; in the same year asks for Zacuto's astronomical work to be translated into Arabic.

1511 (917): His mansion is plundered during the janissary movement and he is dismissed from the Rumelia judgeship.

1513 (919): Under Selim I, judge of Karaferye, then military judge of Rumelia again.

1514 (920): Joins the Çaldıran campaign; dismissed a second time on the return.

1516 (15 Shaʿbân 922, 13 September): Dies; buried in the cemetery of the Eyüp Sultan shrine.

Sources

Primary sources

  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâirü'ş-şuarâ; Kınalızâde, Tezkire; Latîfî, Tezkire; Müstakimzâde, Tuhfe-i Hattâtîn.

Academic studies

  • Hasan Aksoy, "Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman Efendi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 31, 2020, pp. 483-485: https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mueyyedzade-abdurrahman-efendi
  • Judith Pfeiffer, "Emerging from the Copernican Eclipse: The mathematical and astronomical Sciences in Müʾeyyedzade ʿAbdurrahman Efendi's Private Library", 1st International Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin Symposium on History of Science in Islam Proceedings Book, pp. 151-191.
  • Ahmet İnanır, "Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman Efendi'nin Hayatı ve Osmanlı Hukuk Geleneğindeki Yeri", Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı, Amasya 2017, vol. 1, pp. 347-356.

Other sources

  • Osman Demir, "Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahmân Efendi", İslam Düşünce Atlası: https://islamdusunceatlasi.org/mueyyedzade-abdurrahman-efendi/507
  • Judith Pfeiffer, "Teaching the Learned: Jalâl al-Dîn al-Dawânî's Ijâza to Mu'ayyadzâda Abd al-Rahmân Efendi and the Circulation of Knowledge between Fârs and the Ottoman Empire at the Turn of the Sixteenth Century", The Heritage of Arabo-Islamic Learning, Brill, 2016.
  • Osman Demir - Mehmet Arıkan, "Touching the Point: Mu'ayyadzâda 'Abd Al-Rahmân Efendi's Treatise on Juz' Alladhî Lâ Yatajazza'", Nazariyat, vol. 5, no. 1 (2019), pp. 135-194.
  • Tayyip Gökbilgin, "Müeyyed-zâde", İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 8, 1959, pp. 786-790. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr

Online sources