All that is known of Râmî Ramazân Efendi's life took place in a single village: Hakala, north of Amasya, today the village of Yolpınar in Suluova. Born and raised there, he served as imam and madrasa teacher before becoming both sheikh and endowment administrator of the Seyyid Yahyâ Zaviyesi inherited from his father. The lodge was one of the old centres of the Rifa'i order in Anatolia. His death can be dated only approximately, to some time after 1235 (1819-20). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar describes him in two words, "âlim, şâir", a scholar and a poet; no example of his poetry has come down to us.

What Hüsameddin Records

The entry headed "Râmî Ramazân Efendi-Şeyhzâde es-Seyyid" comes directly after a page that the author left blank once he had set out the lineage of Râmî Hüseyin Pasha:

Amasya kurbunda Hakala köyünde kâ'in Seyyid Yahyâ zâviyesi şeyhi ve vakfı mütevellîsi es-Seyyid eş-Şeyh Mustafa Efendi'nin oğludur. Ulemâdan tahsîl-i ulûm edib 1207'de Hakala'da Kâsım Bey mescidi imâmı ve 1218'de orada Mehmed Bey Medresesi müderrisi, ba'dehû Seyyid Yahyâ zâviyesi şeyhi ve mütevellîsi olup 1235 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi. Âlim, şâir idi.

Rendered into English: His father was Seyyid Şeyh Mustafa Efendi, sheikh of the Seyyid Yahyâ lodge in the village of Hakala near Amasya and administrator of its endowment. He studied the sciences under scholars; in 1207 he became imam of the Kâsım Bey masjid at Hakala, in 1218 teacher at the Mehmed Bey Madrasa there, and afterwards sheikh and administrator of the Seyyid Yahyâ lodge. He died after the year 1235. He was a scholar and a poet.

A Life at Hakala

Every place named in the entry lies in the same village. Hakala, as Hüsameddin relates in his first volume, had once been "a very prosperous town" and the seat of the district. Necmeddîn Yahyâ er-Rufâ'î, one of the Rifa'i sayyids, founded the great lodge in the village in 764 (1362-63) and set out its endowments in 771; in Hüsameddin's time his tomb was still a place of pilgrimage. Ramazân Efendi's father, Seyyid Şeyh Mustafa Efendi, was sheikh and administrator of this lodge. That the father too bore the title "es-Seyyid" suggests that the family descended from the Rifa'i sayyids who founded the lodge; the entry stops short of saying so.

The steps of Ramazân Efendi's career were the village's own institutions. In 1207 (1792-93) he became imam of the Kâsım Bey masjid, and in 1218 (1803-04) he was appointed teacher at the madrasa of the same village. After his father's death, at a date not given, the sheikhdom of the lodge and the administration of its endowment passed to him. Here the source leaves a question open: the known madrasa of Hakala is the Kasım Bey Madrasa built in 867 (1462-63) by Kâsım Bey of the Âbâdoğulları family. In Ramazân Efendi's entry, however, the masjid is attached to Kâsım Bey and the madrasa to a certain Mehmed Bey. It is also known that Ayşe Hâtun, daughter of Hacı Mehmed Bey of the same family, built a mosque in the village. The names of the two buildings may have been swapped; perhaps there was a second madrasa in the village bearing the name of Mehmed Bey. Which is right cannot be settled from the book.

The State of the Sources

We know Ramazân Efendi only from this short record by Hüsameddin. His year of birth, the names of his teachers and the exact date of his death are missing; the phrase "after the year 1235" suggests that the last document in the author's hands belonged to that year. Nothing allows us to decide whether "Râmî" was a pen name or part of his name. Râmî Hüseyin Pasha, who precedes him in the book, belonged to the Emîr Hacıoğulları family of Amasya, and no link is drawn between him and Ramazân Efendi.

His Poetry

Ramazân Efendi's poems have not been found. Hymns for dhikr gatherings are the kind of text one would expect from the sheikh of a Rifa'i lodge; still, no such hymn of his appears in the records. Hüsameddin grants him the epithet "şâir" and goes no further: he quotes no poem and does not say that his verse survived in an anthology or a cönk.

Chronology

1207 (1792-93): Becomes imam of the Kâsım Bey masjid at Hakala.

1218 (1803-04): Becomes teacher at the madrasa of Hakala.

After 1235 (1819-20): Dies as sheikh and administrator of the Seyyid Yahyâ lodge.

Bibliography

Online sources