Râzî Yûsuf Efendi's life began in Amasya, passed through the madrasas of Istanbul and, on the road of the judiciary, reached from the deputy judgeship of Bursa as far as the judgeship of Baghdad. When he died in 1145 (1732-33) he was, in the words of Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, "âlim, fâzıl, şâir, edîb": learned, virtuous, a poet and a man of letters. His father was Mütevellîzâde İlyas Efendi, who had taught at the Hâtuniye madrasa of Tokat, and the author tells how he first learned this father's name and death date in a dream and confirmed them years later in the archives.

Life

The entry, which follows Râtib Mehmed Efendi and precedes Râsih Mehmed Efendi in the tenth volume, runs to a few sentences:

Amasyalıdır. Meşâhîr-i fuzalâdan olup 1111'de vefât eden Hâce İlyâs Efendi'nin mahdûmudur. Amasya'da mukaddimât-ı ulûmu görüp İstanbul'a gitdi. Oranın fuzalâsından ikmâl-i tahsîl edib ders-i âm ve müderris oldu. Kibâr-ı müderrisînden olduğu esnâda ba'zı bilâd-ı mühimmeye kadı ve Bursa nâibi olup sonra Bağdâd Mollası oldu. 1145'de vefât etdi. Âlim, fâzıl, şâir, edîb idi.

Its sense in English: Amasya was his home town, and his father was Hoca İlyas Efendi, one of the renowned scholars, who died in 1111. Having studied the elementary sciences in Amasya, he went to Istanbul. There he completed his education under the city's scholars and rose to ders-i âm and madrasa teacher. While he was among the senior teachers he became kadi of some important towns and deputy judge of Bursa, and then molla of Baghdad. He died in 1145. He was learned, virtuous, a poet and a man of letters.

The entry traces Râzî's career without dates. An education completed in Istanbul and his teaching there carried him to the upper ranks of the learned hierarchy: the phrase "kibâr-ı müderrisîn" shows that he taught in madrasas of high grade. The deputy judgeship of Bursa was a post in which one conducted the judicial business on the kadi's behalf. The judgeship of Baghdad was one of the great city judgeships, conferred with the high rank known as mevleviyet. The towns Hüsameddin lumps together as "ba'zı bilâd-ı mühimme", some important towns, the years of his posts and the place of his death all go unrecorded.

His Father İlyas Efendi and a Dream

The father called "Hâce İlyâs Efendi" in Râzî's entry has an entry of his own in the seventh volume, under the heading İlyâs Efendi-Mütevellîzâde. He was the son of Ali Ağa, a sipahi; he studied in Amasya in the circle of Müfessir Hızır Efendi, became a ders-i âm and, in the middle of Cemaziyelevvel 1106 (January 1695), was appointed teacher at the Hâtuniye madrasa in Tokat. In Zilkade 1107 (June 1696), when the former teacher was restored in his place, he returned to Amasya, was granted a retirement stipend, and died in Zilhicce 1111 (May-June 1700). Hüsameddin describes him as a meticulous scholar expert in the principles and branches of law, and closes the entry with this sentence: "Mahdûmu Râzî Yûsuf Efendi kibâr-ı mevâlîdendir", his son Râzî Yûsuf Efendi was among the great mollas.

The lines that follow are among the most personal pages of the book. In Zilkade 1307 (June-July 1890) Hüsameddin saw in a dream Müftîzâde Ömer Efendi, known by the nickname "Dersi tamâm", and asked him who his teacher had been. Ömer Efendi said that his teacher was İlyas Efendi, told the story of his life in brief and the date of his death, and showed his grave in front of the window facing the street in the garden of the Sultan Bayezid school. In the dream the author also saw the gravestone and the date carved on it, but since there was in reality no grave in that garden he cautiously left this man out of his book. Twenty-six years later, in 1333 (1914-15), while examining the papers in the vaults of the Ministry of Pious Endowments, he came upon finance and retirement registers belonging to Tokat. In them were found, in the name of "Mevlânâ İlyas Efendi bin Ali", an appointment as teacher of the Hâtuniye in 1106 and a retirement entry of 1107 noting him as "resident in Amasya", and above them a note that he died in Amasya in Zilhicce 1111. Hüsameddin says that on returning home he wrote the entry just as he had learned it in the dream, and gave thanks to God.

Family

İlyas Efendi's entry gives his father as "Ali Ağa bin İsa Çelebi bin Ali Ağa" and ties him to the Mütevellîzâde family, which administered the endowment of the Çeribaşı mosque for generations. Hüsameddin writes that this family descended from İlyâs Çelebi, of the line of Çeribaşı Emîneddîn Mehmed Çelebi, founder of the mosque. A member of the same family, the Amasya mufti Mütevellîzâde Hacı Ahmed Efendi, completed his education, according to his own entry, under "Hâtuniye-i Tokat müderrisi olup 1111'de Amasya'da vefât eden el-Hâc İlyas Efendi", the teacher of the Hâtuniye of Tokat who died in Amasya in 1111. Râzî thus grew up in a household where both his father and his father's pupils were known in the learned circles of Amasya.

Here "Hâcezâde", the name in the title of the entry, means "son of the teacher" and comes from the father's being called "Hâce İlyas Efendi". It shows no connection with the Hâcezâde family descended from the teacher Mehmed İlmî Efendi, nicknamed "Küçük Hâce"; Hüsameddin does not link the two families.

State of the Sources

The date 1111 in the first sentence of the entry belongs to the father and has been taken in some lists for Râzî's own death year; Râzî's own death is given plainly as 1145 at the end of the entry. A further chance of confusion arises from a namesake. The Râzî Yûsuf Efendi of the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Names in Turkish Literature) was a teacher and poet born in Vardar Yenicesi, who served as kadi of Medina and Bursa and died in Istanbul on 5 Şevval 1027 (25 September 1618). His name, pen name and post in Bursa overlap with those of Râzî of Amasya, but more than a century separates them and they are two different people. The same entry notes that many poems with the pen name Râzî survive in anthologies and that it is hard to determine which of them belongs to which Râzî.

Poetry

Râzî Yûsuf Efendi's poems have not reached us. One of the poems surviving in anthologies under the pen name Râzî may be his; until a record shows this, none can be attributed to him. Hüsameddin, for his part, counts him a poet and quotes no couplet.

Chronology

1106 (1694-95): His father İlyas Efendi becomes teacher at the Hâtuniye madrasa of Tokat.

1107 (1696): His father retires and returns to Amasya.

Zilhicce 1111 (May-June 1700): His father dies in Amasya.

1145 (1732-33): Râzî Yûsuf Efendi dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Books

Online sources