In the first quarter of the nineteenth century the post of the Ahî Darbhâneci Tekkesi, one of Amasya's oldest dervish lodges, was held by a Naqshbandi sheikh whose sermons and spiritual guidance had made him known in the town: Râkım İsmâil Efendi, whose father was Hamza Ağa. The title "es-Seyyid" in the heading of his entry counts him among the descendants of the Prophet. He became sheikh of the lodge in 1222 (1807-08), handed it over to his son-in-law towards the end of his life, withdrew from people and died in 1241 (1825-26). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar sums him up as "âlim, kâmil, şâir, zâhid": learned, accomplished, a poet and an ascetic. Not one line of that poetry has come down to us.

His Entry in the Amasya Tarihi

The record, only a few sentences long, stands in volume ten under the heading "Râkım İsmâ'îl Efendi-Hamza Beyzâde es-Seyyid eş-Şeyh":

Amasyalıdır. Hamza Ağa'nın mahdûmu olup ulemâdan tahsîl-i ulûm ve meşâyih-i Nakşîbendiyyeden Turhalî es-Şeyh Mustafa Efendi'den tekmîl-i sülûk ederek her iki taraftan me'zûn oldu. Evâ'il-i hâlinde ders-i âm olup sonra kürsî şeyhi ve vâ'iz oldu. 1222'de Ahî Darb-hâneci şeyhi olup tezkîr ve irşâd-ı halka muvâzabet ederek iştihâr etdi. Ba'dehû meşîhatı dâmâdı Sa'deddinzâde es-Seyyid Sa'deddîn Efendi'ye kasr-ı yed ü ferâgat ederek halktan münkatı' olduğu hâlde 1241'de vefât etdi. Âlim, kâmil, şâir, zâhid bir şeyh idi.

In plain English: A native of Amasya; his father was Hamza Ağa. He studied the sciences under scholars and completed the mystical path under the Naqshbandi sheikh Şeyh Mustafa Efendi of Turhal, receiving licences from both sides, that is, from the madrasa and from the order. Early in his life he became a ders-i âm, licensed to give general lessons; later he became a pulpit sheikh (kürsü şeyhi) and preacher. In 1222 he became sheikh of the Ahî Darbhâneci lodge and grew famous by persevering in admonishing and guiding the people. Afterwards he resigned the sheikhdom in favour of his son-in-law Sa'deddinzâde Seyyid Sa'deddîn Efendi and died in 1241 while living apart from people. He was a learned, accomplished sheikh, a poet who had renounced the world.

His Life

His year of birth is unknown. The entry says nothing more about his father Hamza Ağa; the family name "Hamza Beyzâde" suggests descent from an earlier Hamza Bey, but Hüsameddin does not trace the line. The source does not tell us whether "Râkım" was a pen name or belonged to his given name. Two contemporaries bearing the same name stand beside him on the same pages: Çavuşzâde Râkım Mehmed Efendi, who rose from chief astrologer to judge of Mecca and died in 1241, and the calligrapher Râkım Mustafa Efendi from the Zeytun district of Köprü. All three belonged to the same generation, but the book draws no kinship between them.

İsmâil Efendi's training followed two paths. He received a madrasa licence and became a ders-i âm, while also attaching himself to Şeyh Mustafa Efendi of Turhal and obtained the deputyship (hilafet) of the Naqshbandi path. The phrase "her iki taraftan me'zûn" in the entry refers to this double licence. A pulpit sheikh was the man who mounted the pulpit in a mosque to preach and read commentary to the congregation; in which mosque he served is not recorded. Among the disciples of Mustafa Efendi of Turhal in the Amasya region was also Hicâbî Abdülbâkî Efendi, the Crimean sheikh who founded a lodge at Ziyâre. That the two sheikhs drew on the same master points to a Naqshbandi circle stretching between Amasya and Ziyâre at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

At the Ahî Darbhâneci Lodge

The lodge of which he became sheikh in 1222 stood in the Pervâne Bey quarter, east of the Bâlî Bey Mosque. Its founder, called "Ahî Darbhâneci" because he was superintendent of the Amasya mint, built the zaviye and drew up its endowment deed in 836 (1432-33). In the first volume of the book the founder is named Şemseddîn Ahmed Çelebi, while in his own entry in the seventh volume he appears as Bedreddîn Mahmûd Çelebi. By Hüsameddin's day two houses occupied the site of the lodge and only its ruined masjid still stood.

Among İsmâil Efendi's predecessors on the post were familiar names. Seyyid Ali Efendi, son of Abdî Efendi, who compiled the biographical anthology of Amasya's poets, served as sheikh here, and on his death in 1127 the post passed to his son Rüşdü Ahmed Efendi, author of a continuation of that anthology. Râkım İsmâil Efendi took over the post some half a century after this family of poets. According to the entry, his sheikhdom was spent in preaching and guidance, and he made his name in the town through the admonitory gatherings called "tezkîr".

Some time before his death he handed the post to his son-in-law Seyyid Sa'deddîn Efendi. Hüsameddin's phrase "kasr-ı yed ü ferâgat" means withdrawing one's hand from an office of one's own accord and resigning it to another. In the same volume the name Sa'deddinzâde is given to the descendants of Şeyhzâde Seyyid Sa'deddîn Mehmed Efendi, who died in 1193; to which generation of that family the son-in-law belonged is left open. The sheikh spent his last years apart from people, in seclusion, and died in 1241. The site of his grave is not recorded.

His Poetry

No poem by İsmâil Efendi has been found. The only witness to his poetry is the word "şâir" among the epithets Hüsameddin gives him; the book names no couplet, hymn or title of a work by him. That he wrote mystical verse, as most Naqshbandi sheikhs did, seems likely, but with no concrete trace of it in the source this must stay a guess.

Chronology

1222 (1807-08): Becomes sheikh of the Ahî Darbhâneci lodge.

1241 (1825-26): Dies in seclusion after handing the post to his son-in-law Seyyid Sa'deddîn Efendi.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources