The son of an Amasya tradesman known as Mumcu Bâlî, Bâlî the chandler, Resîm Ahmed Efendi was a secretary, prose stylist and calligrapher. He studied literature with Abdî Efendi, the compiler of an anthology of the city's poets, travelled for years from town to town as divan secretary to a vizier, and died in Amasya in 1112 (1700-01) while secretary of the endowments of Sultan Bayezid. The one source that mentions him is the short entry in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi. From him Hüsameddin quotes a six-couplet ghazal that he had seen in the now lost biographical anthology of poets (tezkire) of his teacher Abdî Efendi. This ghazal is Resîm's only known poem, and it also appears in the article Abdî Efendi: The Lost Tezkire of Amasya's Poets and Its Poems.

Hüsameddin's Record

Hüsameddin's entry in volume ten is brief:

Resîm Ahmed Efendi-Bâlîzâde Amasyalıdır. Mumcu Bâlî'nin oğludur. Amasyalı şu'arânın tezkiresini yazan Abdullah Paşa müderrisi Abdî Efendi'den edebiyât-ı Arabiyye ve Fârisiyyeyi tahsîl ve Fazlullah Efendi'den hutût-ı mütenevvi'ayı ahz ü temeşşuk etdi. Bir müddet Amasya beytü'l-mâl kâtibi oldu. Ba'dehû Deli Emîr Mehmed Paşa'nın kâtib-i dîvânı olup ma'iyyetinde devr-i bilâd etdi. Müşârün-ileyhin vefâtında Amasya'ya gelip Sultân Bâyezîd evkâf kâtibi olduğu hâlde 1112'de vefât eyledi. Kâtib, münşî, hattât idi. Şu gazeli Abdî Efendi tezkiresinde görüldü.

In modern terms: a native of Amasya, son of Mumcu Bâlî. He studied Arabic and Persian literature with Abdî Efendi, teacher at the Abdullah Paşa madrasa, who wrote the anthology of the poets of Amasya, and learned the various scripts from Fazlullah Efendi. For a while he was secretary of the public treasury (beytülmal) in Amasya. Then, as divan secretary to Deli Emîr Mehmed Paşa, he travelled from town to town in his retinue. When the pasha died he came back to Amasya, and he died in 1112 while secretary of the endowments of Sultan Bayezid. He was a secretary, a prose stylist and a calligrapher. The following ghazal was seen in Abdî Efendi's anthology.

Life

The source does not give Resîm's year of birth; to estimate his age we have the dates of his teachers' deaths. Abdî Efendi died in 1087 (1677); his calligraphy teacher Fazlullah Efendi, according to Hüsameddin's records on the Fazlızâde family, was a famous calligrapher, preacher and orator of the Hâtuniye Mosque who died around 1080 (1669-70). That Resîm studied with these two teachers shows that he was a youth in the 1660s at the latest; at his death in 1112 he must have been over sixty. This is an estimate worked out from the dates.

His secretarial career began in Amasya with the post of secretary of the public treasury. Then, as divan secretary to Deli Emîr Mehmed Paşa, he travelled to the pasha's various posts. Hüsameddin writes that Hâfız Hasan Efendi, son of his teacher Fazlullah Efendi, also travelled from town to town as divan secretary to the same pasha; that two young secretaries passed from the same circle of calligraphy into the same divan shows that Fazlullah's pupils found work in the chanceries of Amasya-born viziers. After the pasha's death Resîm returned to his home town and spent the end of his life as secretary of the endowments of Sultan Bayezid, one of the largest pious foundations of Amasya.

About Resîm's family the entry gives only his father's name and nickname. The nickname "Mumcu Bâlî" suggests that the father was a tradesman who made or sold candles.

Connection with Amasya

Resîm was from Amasya, and apart from the years when he travelled as divan secretary his whole life was spent there. His teacher Abdî Efendi was the author of the anthology that brought together the poets raised in Amasya; that Resîm's ghazal entered this anthology shows that the teacher counted his own pupil among the city's poets. The anthology covered the years between 1000 and 1081; Resîm must have been a young poet who caught the end of this period.

Poetry

Resîm's only known poem is a six-couplet ghazal beginning with the line "İdüb azm-i sefer cânâ esîr-i mihnet oldum ben". Built on the refrain "oldum ben", "I have become", the ghazal carries the voice of a lover who has set out on a journey and been parted from his homeland, longs even for a greeting from the beloved, and in the end withdraws into seclusion. Hüsameddin says he saw this ghazal in Abdî Efendi's anthology; since the anthology is lost, the ghazal is known only through Hüsameddin's quotation. The text, with an English rendering and commentary, is given on its own page. One may think that the theme of exile matches Resîm's years of travel from town to town in a pasha's retinue; but it is not known whether these journeys had begun by the time the ghazal entered the anthology, that is, before Abdî Efendi's death.

Chronology

Around 1080 (1669-70): His calligraphy teacher Fazlullah Efendi dies.

1087 (1677): His literature teacher Abdî Efendi dies; Resîm's ghazal had been included in his anthology.

1112 (1700-01): Resîm Ahmed Efendi dies in Amasya while secretary of the endowments of Sultan Bayezid.

Bibliography

Online sources