Recorded in older documents under the name Mörek, Ormanözü is a village in the central district of Amasya, 29 kilometres from the provincial centre. Home today to 273 people, the village briefly gave its name to one of the four nahiyes (sub-districts) of the kaza of Amasya at the beginning of the twentieth century, and in the nineteenth century produced two different scholars both known as "Hasan Efendi of Mörek", who taught in the city's medreses and mosques. The descendants of these two scholars can be followed in Amasya for a hundred years as professors, Qur'an reciters, a printer and naval officers.

From Mörek to Ormanözü

Bekir Başalan's table of renamed settlements in the central district gives the old name of Ormanözü as Mörek. No explanation has been found of the year in which the new name was given or of what the word Mörek means. Nor does Mörek, or any similar village name, appear in the Amasya section of the accounting register of 1530; whether the village was then registered under another name or was founded later is therefore unknown. In Hüsâmeddîn's work the name always appears in the same form, "the village of Mörek of Amasya".

A Nahiye Centre

The only period in which Mörek stood out administratively is the beginning of the twentieth century. According to Sabit Genç's table, based on the State Yearbook (Devlet Sâlnâmesi), in 1903 the kaza of Amasya had only four nahiyes: Ezine Pazar, Zara, Alevi and Mörek. The number of nahiyes, which had risen to twelve ten years earlier, was reduced to four at this date, and Mörek became one of the four remaining centres. This did not last long, and Mörek was given no place in the list of 1912; Genç's lists do not show how many villages the nahiye covered, where its director resided or when it was abolished.

The Scholars of Mörek

In the biographical section of Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's history, the lives of two scholars from Mörek are told side by side; both were called Hasan and both lived in Amasya in the same years. The first is Hâfız Hasan Efendi, son of Mehmed, of the people of Mörek. He memorised the Qur'an in the circle of the city's chief reciter (şeyhülkurrâ), el-Hâc Hâfız Hasan Vehbî Efendi, studied the readings of the Qur'an, Arabic and the religious sciences, and became a public lecturer (dersiâm). In 1237 (1821-22) he was appointed to the teaching chair of the Pervane Bey Mosque, where he taught Qur'anic recitation and preached to the people, and he died in 1269 (1852-53). Hüsâmeddîn describes him as a chief reciter who was "learned, a master of recitation, loud-voiced".

The second is el-Hâc Hasan Efendi, son of Ahmed, of the people of Mörek. Born in 1212 (1797-98), he studied in Amasya with Canikli el-Hâc Mehmed, the hadith scholar Ali Şükrü of Zile and Kubartalı el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi, and in Istanbul with Abdurrahman Efendi of Harput, receiving a licence (icazet) from each. In 1243 (1827-28) he became professor of the Mehmed Paşa Medrese; after teaching for many years he served as deputy judge first in the kaza of Zünnunâbâd in 1257 and then in Havza. In 1263 he returned to his lessons as drafter and fatwa secretary to the mufti Caniklizâde Hâfız el-Hâc Mehmed Hilmî Efendi, began to teach Qur'anic exegesis and hadith, served on the judicial and administrative councils, and died in the month of Zilkade 1279 (1863). Hüsâmeddîn presents him as a dignified scholar skilled in the principles of jurisprudence and in theology. In the list of the medrese's professors the date of this appointment is given as 1247; the four-year difference between the biography and the medrese list is not reconciled within the work itself.

The Later Generations of the Two Families

Hâfız Hasan Efendi's son Ahmed Efendi was a man known by the nickname "Ber-Beşurum", whom Hüsâmeddîn calls "a little crazy"; his sons Abdullah and Hasan Efendi were known as the "Berbeşurumoğulları". Among the sons of Saatçi (the Watchmaker) Abdullah Efendi, Mehmed Rıfat and Ahmed Ziya Efendi became non-commissioned officers in the navy. Mehmed Rıfat Efendi also has a biography of his own: born in 1284 (1867-68) in the Câmi-i Enderûn quarter of Amasya, he finished the rüştiye (middle school), graduated as a non-commissioned officer from the Naval Arsenal school in Istanbul, in 1324 opened a printing press in a room he bought in the Vezir Han and prepared annual almanacs, in 1328 became harbour master of Rhodes, and lost his life in 1331 during an Italian bombardment.

The line of el-Hâc Hasan Efendi, on the other hand, stayed in the medrese. His son İsmail Efendi succeeded his father as professor of the Mehmed Paşa Medrese and died in 1316 (1898-99). His grandson Hâfız Ahmed Efendi was born in 1288 (1871-72); after studying at the rüştiye school he read Arabic, the law of inheritance, jurisprudence and its principles with Seyyid Mehmed Şükrü, Ömer Efendi of Erzurum and Osman Efendi of Arapkir, and received his licence from Müsevvidzâde Hâfız Mehmed Tevfik Efendi. On his father's death Ahmed Efendi became professor of the same medrese, a post which, as the medrese list shows, he took up in 1318; he later worked as a primary-school teacher and public lecturer. Hüsâmeddîn writes that he could not learn what became of him after the medreses were closed. A village family that came to the city from Mörek thus held the chair of the same medrese for three generations.

Population

The village record of 2012 shows that 542 people lived in Ormanözü in 1985, 512 in 1990 and 333 in 2000; the greatest loss came in the nineties. The same record notes that the village had a primary school, but it was not in use and pupils were bussed to school; there was no health post, but there was a drinking-water network, a sewerage system and a postal agency. In the address-based records the picture is surprisingly stable: the population, 273 in 2007, rose to 316 in 2014, then declined slowly over the following decade to stand again at 273 in 2025. In the latest count 136 men and 137 women were registered in the village. This series shows that the continuous decline seen in most villages of the central district came to a halt in Ormanözü after the 2000s.

Chronology

1212 (1797-98): el-Hâc Hasan Efendi of Mörek is born.

1237 (1821-22): Hâfız Hasan Efendi of Mörek becomes holder of the teaching chair of the Pervane Bey Mosque.

1243 (1827-28): el-Hâc Hasan Efendi becomes professor of the Mehmed Paşa Medrese.

1279 (1863): el-Hâc Hasan Efendi dies; the medrese passes to his son İsmail Efendi.

1903: Mörek is one of the four nahiyes of the kaza of Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Other sources

Online sources