Resmî Ahmed Efendi left the bench to become a master of calligraphy teaching at a pious endowment (waqf); he was one of the calligrapher-poets of the eighteenth century. His father was one of the judges of Anatolia. He himself went to Istanbul in his youth to study the sciences and calligraphy, served for years as a judge in Rumelia and died in Damascus in 1198 (1783-84). All we know of him comes from the short entry in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi. Hüsameddin calls him "âlim, şâir, hattât-ı meşhûr", a scholar, poet and famous calligrapher, but gives not a single example of his poetry; the couplet in the entry is a chronogram composed on his death. His poems have not come down to us. Hüsameddin's records in other volumes also raise a serious question of identity concerning a second calligrapher of the same name.

Hüsameddin's Record

The entry, in volume ten, reads:

Resmî Ahmed Efendi-Çukadârzâde Amasyalıdır. Anadolu kudâtından Çukadârzâde Mehmed Efendi'nin mahdûmu olup gençliğinde İstanbul'a gitdi. Orada ulûmu Kız Mustafa ve hüsn-i hâtt-ı sülüs ve nesihi de Kâtibzâde Mustafa Efendilerden ahz edib ta'lîm günlerinde üstâdına vekâlet ü mu'âvenet ederdi. İbtidâ ders-i âm ve tarîk imtihânını kazanıp Rûmeli kudâtından oldu. Yıllarca Rûmeli bilâdını devr edib kerîmesini İstanbul fuzalâsından Amasyalı Kâtibzâde el-Hâc İsmâ'îl Efendi'ye verdi. Ba'dehû terk-i kazâ edib Re'îsü'l-küttâb Mustafa Efendi vakfından meşk hâcesi vazîfesi üstâdının mahlûlünden kendisine verildi. Dâmâdı İsmâ'îl Efendi, 1197'de Şâm mollası oldukta beraber gidip 1198'de orada irtihâl eyledi. Âlim, şâir, hattât-ı meşhûr idi. "Mesâhif-i Şerîfe" ve "Delâ'il-i Münîfe" ve "Tefsîr-i Celâleyn" ve "Emsâl-i Meydânî" gibi çok kitâblar yazdı. Müstakîmzâde Süleyman Sa'deddîn Efendi "Tuhfe"sinde âdeti vechile bunu da "şehrî", ya'nî İstanbullu diye yazmışdır. Hâlbuki pederi ve bütün akrabâsı Amasyalı olup sülâlesi yakın vakitlere kadar Amasya'da yaşamışlardı.

Put simply: a native of Amasya, he was the son of Çukadârzâde Mehmed Efendi, one of the judges of Anatolia, and went to Istanbul in his youth. There he learned the sciences from Kız Mustafa Efendi and the sülüs and nesih scripts from Kâtibzâde Mustafa Efendi, and on teaching days he would deputise for his master and assist him. He first passed the examinations of public lecturer and of the judicial career and became one of the judges of Rumelia. For years he travelled from town to town in Rumelia; he married his daughter to Hacı İsmâil Efendi of the Kâtibzâde family, an Amasya man among the learned of Istanbul. Later he gave up the judgeship, and the post of calligraphy master in the endowment of the chief scribe (reisülküttâb) Mustafa Efendi, vacated by the death of his own teacher, was given to him. When his son-in-law İsmâil Efendi became chief judge (molla) of Damascus in 1197 he went with him, and he died there in 1198. He was a scholar, a poet and a famous calligrapher. He wrote many books such as Mesâhif-i Şerîfe, Delâil-i Münîfe, Tefsîr-i Celâleyn and Emsâl-i Meydânî. Müstakimzâde Süleyman Sâdeddin Efendi, as was his custom, recorded him too in his Tuhfe as "şehrî", that is, from Istanbul; yet his father and all his relatives were from Amasya, and his line lived in Amasya until recent times.

The works that Hüsameddin lists under "he wrote many books" are copies from a calligrapher's pen: copies of the Qur'an, prayer books of the Delâilü'l-hayrât kind, the Celâleyn commentary on the Qur'an and Meydânî's collection of Arabic proverbs. The titles themselves show that these were not Resmî's own compositions but books he copied; we have found no information on which libraries hold them today.

Life and Connection with Amasya

Resmî's date of birth is not given. His life was a career divided between the judiciary and calligraphy. Following his father, he entered the judicial career and served in various towns of Rumelia; then he left that path and returned to writing, his true art. That the teaching post vacated by his master was given to him seems the natural outcome of his having trained with the same master and deputised for him in his lessons. His last journey was also tied to family: he went to Damascus during his son-in-law's judgeship and died there.

Hüsameddin takes particular care to defend his connection with Amasya. Müstakimzâde counted him as a native of Istanbul; Hüsameddin says that this came from Müstakimzâde's habit of writing "şehrî" for everyone living in Istanbul, and that Resmî's father and all his relatives were from Amasya. Kâtibzâde İsmâil Efendi, to whom he married his daughter, was also from Amasya. The entry, however, contains nothing to show that Resmî himself lived in Amasya; the connection runs through the family.

Hüsameddin closes the entry with a chronogram couplet composed on Resmî's death:

Şâmda azm-i behişt etdikte târîhin didim
Eyledi toksan sekizde cennet-i firdevsi cây

"When he set out for paradise in Damascus I spoke his date: in ninety-eight he made the paradise of Firdevs his dwelling." The couplet gives the year not by the abjad reckoning but openly in words; "toksan sekiz", ninety-eight, is a short way of saying 1198. Who composed the couplet is unknown; the one who says "târîhin didim" (I spoke his date) is the poet who made the chronogram and cannot be Resmî himself.

The State of the Sources: Two Resmî Ahmed Efendis

Immediately after this entry Hüsameddin gives a second short entry headed "Resmî Ahmed Efendi-Kâtibzâde": this Resmî too is from Amasya, the son of the famous calligrapher Hâfız Ahmed Efendizâde Mehmed Efendi and the father of Seyyid Mehmed Emîn Efendi, known as Köse Hattat (the beardless calligrapher). Hüsameddin keeps the two men apart. Yet in the seventh volume, in his entry on Köse Hattat Mehmed Emîn Efendi, he says this about his father, "the famous calligrapher Resmî Ahmed Efendi son of Mehmed Efendi": Köse Hattat went to Istanbul "after the death of his father in Damascus in 1198".

The lives of the two Resmî Ahmed Efendis thus meet at the same point: both were from Amasya and famous calligraphers, both had fathers named Mehmed, both were connected with the Kâtibzâde family, and according to Hüsameddin's records both died in Damascus in 1198. The calligraphy teacher of Çukadârzâde Resmî was Kâtibzâde Mustafa Efendi, and his son-in-law was Kâtibzâde İsmâil Efendi. These similarities suggest that Hüsameddin may have recorded the same person under two separate headings. On the other hand, the fathers' family names differ in the two entries: one reads "Çukadârzâde Mehmed Efendi, one of the judges of Anatolia", the other "Hâfız Ahmed Efendizâde Mehmed Efendi". With the sources available to us it is not possible to tell whether the two records belong to the same person or to two related calligraphers who lived in the same years. If Müstakimzâde's entry in Tuhfe-i Hattâtîn can be consulted, the answer to this question should be sought there.

Another famous name of the same years could add to the confusion: the historian Ahmed Resmî Efendi, author of Halîkatü'r-rüesâ, a collection of biographies of chief scribes, died in 1197 (1783). Hüsameddin uses this work in other volumes as a source under its other common title, Sefînetü'r-rüesâ, and does not connect its author with the calligrapher of this entry. Only one year separates their deaths. That the historian's teacher and father-in-law was the chief scribe Mustafa Efendi also makes an odd coincidence with Çukadârzâde Resmî's post as calligraphy master in an "endowment of the chief scribe Mustafa Efendi". There is no record showing that these coincidences link the two names.

Poetry

Hüsameddin calls him a "şâir" and opens the entry with the name "Resmî"; this name must be the pen name (mahlas) he used in poetry. Even so, the entry contains no couplet of his, and no poem of his has been found in any other source. The poems of Resmî Ahmed Efendi have not come down to us.

Chronology

1197 (1782-83): His son-in-law Kâtibzâde İsmâil Efendi becomes chief judge of Damascus; Resmî goes with him to Damascus.

1198 (1783-84): Resmî Ahmed Efendi dies in Damascus.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources