Resûl Sâmi Efendi's story begins in the Caucasus: the civil servant and poet was born in 1272 (1855-56) in Şeki, migrated to Amasya with his family at about the age of twelve and grew up there in the circle of Mîr Hamza Nigârî. His career, begun in the accounts office in Amasya, took him to Karbala, to the mountainous interior of Tripolitania and to the Hejaz; he spent his retirement in Bursa and Istanbul and died in Istanbul in 1937. The source is the entry in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi, and its information came straight from the poet himself. The poet sent him his biography together with an elegy (mersiye) he had improvised in Najaf during his years in Karbala. This elegy is Sâmi's only known poem.

Hüsameddin's Record

Hüsameddin gives the entry in the tenth volume under the heading "Resûl Sâmi Efendi-Dağıstânî el-Hâc":

Dağıstân Eyâleti dâhilinde Şekilidir. Hacı Mûsâ Kâzım Efendi bin Hacı Mehmed Sa'îd Efendi bin Ömer Efendi'nin mahdûmudur. 1272'de Şeki'de doğdu. Pederi ve birâderi Mustafa Vefâ'î Beyle beraber 1284'de Amasya'ya hicret etdi. Eş-Şeyh el-Hâc Hamza Nigârî Efendi'ye intisâb ve ondan edebiyât-ı Arabiyye ve Fârisiyye tedrîs etdi. İbtidâ muhâsebe kalemine girip bir müddet oraya devâm etdi. Ba'dehû Amasya kazâlarında sandık emîni, ba'dehû mâl müdürü oldu. 1308'de ma'zûlen İstanbul'a gidip Sultân Abdulhamîd-i Sânî kurenâsından Şirvânî Mehmed Emîn Bey'e çattı. Bunun sâye-i ikbâlinde 1309'da Kerbelâ sancâğı muhâsebecisi olup en ziyâde sevdiği yere gitdi. Dört yıl kadar orada kalıp 1313'de naklen Trablusgarb vilâyetinde Cebel-i garbî sancâğı muhâsebecisi oldu. On iki yıl kadar orada muhâsebeci ve senelerce mutasarrıf vekîli olduğu esnâda cihet-i askeriyyeye hizmeti ve bir askerî hasta-hâne inşâ etdirmesi takdîr edilerek Trablusgarb vâlîsi ve kumândânı Müşîr Receb Paşa'nın inhâsıyla tevârîh-i muhtelifede mütemâyiz rütbesi ve dördüncü Osmânî ve Mecîdî nişânlarıyla taltîf edildi. 1325'de terfî'an Cidde sancâğı muhâsebecisi ve 1326'da muhâsebecilik uhdesinde kalmak üzere Hicâz defterdârı vekîli olup îfâ-yı farîza-i Hâc ederek 1327 senesi evâsıtında me'zûnen İstanbul'a geldi. İstid'âsıyla tekâ'üde sevk edilip Bursa'da ve ba'dehû İstanbul'da ihtiyâr-ı ikâmet etdi. 1356 senesi ramazânının yirmi üçüncü cumartesi gününe mütesâdif 1937 teşrîn-i sânînin yirmi birinci günü vefât ederek ertesi pazar günü Sultân Bâyezîd câmiinde namâzı edâ ve Merkez Efendi mezârlığına defn edildi. Kâtib, ehl-i dâniş, iş-güzâr, hoş-sohbet, Hamzavî-meşreb, evlâd-ı Ali'ye meftûn, şâir idi. Mahdûmları Ali Dâver, Hüseyin Hâmî Beylerdir.

In plain English: he was from Şeki, which Hüsameddin counts as part of the province of Daghestan. He was the son of Hacı Mûsâ Kâzım Efendi, son of Hacı Mehmed Saîd Efendi; his great-grandfather was Ömer Efendi. He was born in Şeki in 1272. With his father and his brother Mustafa Vefâî Bey he migrated to Amasya in 1284. He attached himself to Sheikh Hacı Hamza Nigârî Efendi and studied Arabic and Persian literature with him. He first entered the accounts office and worked there for a while; later he became treasurer in the districts of Amasya and then director of finance. Dismissed in 1308, he went to Istanbul and reached Şirvânî Mehmed Emîn Bey, one of the intimates of Sultan Abdülhamid II. With his support he became accountant of the sanjak of Karbala in 1309 and went to the place he loved most. After about four years there he was transferred in 1313 as accountant to the sanjak of Cebel-i Garbî in the province of Tripolitania. During some twelve years as accountant there, and for years as acting governor of the sanjak, his services to the military and his building of a military hospital were appreciated; on the recommendation of Field Marshal Receb Paşa, governor and commander of Tripolitania, he was honoured at various dates with the rank of mütemayiz and the Osmanî and Mecidî orders of the fourth class. In 1325 he was promoted accountant of the sanjak of Jeddah, and in 1326 acting treasurer of the Hejaz while keeping his post as accountant; he performed the pilgrimage and in the middle of 1327 came to Istanbul on leave. At his own request he was retired, and he settled first in Bursa and then in Istanbul. He died on 21 Teşrinisani (November) 1937, corresponding to Saturday the twenty-third of Ramadan 1356; on the following Sunday his funeral prayer was performed in the Sultan Bayezid Mosque and he was buried in the Merkez Efendi cemetery. He was a secretary, a learned man, capable, pleasant in conversation, "Hamzavî" in disposition, devoted to the descendants of Ali, and a poet. His sons were Ali Dâver and Hüseyin Hâmî Beys.

Life

Resûl Sâmi's life traces the step-by-step rise, in the Ottoman provincial finance service, of the son of a family that migrated from the Caucasus to Anatolia in the second half of the nineteenth century. By Hüsameddin's dates the family came to Amasya in 1284 (1867-68); Sâmi must then have been about twelve. The reason for the migration is not given in the entry. It is known that Mîr Hamza Nigârî cut his ties with Shirvan and settled in Amasya in 1281 (1864-65), and that in the same years other families from Shirvan and Şeki gathered around him; it is plausible that Sâmi's family was part of this circle of migrants, but the source does not say so.

The career that began in Amasya took him to every corner of the empire. From 1309 (1891-92) he worked for about four years in Karbala, from 1313 (1895-96) for about twelve years in the sanjak of Cebel-i Garbî in Tripolitania, and between 1325 and 1327 (1907-1909) in Jeddah and the Hejaz. Hüsameddin's phrase for Karbala, "the place he loved most", gains meaning when considered together with Sâmi's devotion to the Prophet's family (Ehl-i Beyt). The military hospital in Tripolitania and the orders he received are among the few concrete achievements recorded in the life of this provincial official.

Hüsameddin gives the date of death in two calendars, and the two dates do not agree. By our calculation 23 Ramadan 1356 corresponds to Saturday, 27 November 1937; 21 November 1937, on the other hand, was a Sunday. Hüsameddin's "Saturday" and "on the following Sunday" agree with the Hijri date; there must be an error in the Gregorian date.

Connection with Amasya and His Circle

Sâmi was not born in Amasya; Amasya was the city where his family settled after migrating and where he spent his youth. His chief tie was his relationship with Mîr Hamza Nigârî, one of the best-known poet-sheikhs of nineteenth-century Amasya. He became Nigârî's disciple and read Arabic and Persian literature with him. Hüsameddin's description of him as "Hamzavî-meşreb" also points to this tie: Hüsameddin uses the same expression for other people of Amasya who attached themselves to Nigârî, and calls the beliefs of Nigârî's circle "Hamzavî". The description "devoted to the descendants of Ali" points to the same circle; Nigârî stressed love of Ali and the Prophet's family in his sermons and poems, and for this reason entered into a bitter dispute with the scholars of Amasya. The first steps of Sâmi's career, too, were taken in Amasya, as treasurer and director of finance in the districts of Amasya.

Poetry

Sâmi's only known poem is a seven-couplet elegy which he improvised in a month of Muharram, during his years in Karbala, when he went to Najaf, visited the tomb attributed to Ali and joined the mourning ceremony of the Iranians. The poem begins with the line "Mâh-ı aşûrâdur ey dil bil cihân ağlar bugün" and every couplet ends with the refrain "ağlar bugün", "weeps today". Hüsameddin writes that he received it together with the biography Sâmi himself sent him. The text of the elegy and a commentary on it are on a separate page. Hüsameddin calls him a poet but mentions no other poems or any divan.

Chronology

1272 (1855-56): Born in Şeki.

1284 (1867-68): Migrates to Amasya with his father and his brother Mustafa Vefâî Bey.

1308 (1890-91): Dismissed from the post of director of finance, he goes to Istanbul.

1309 (1891-92): Becomes accountant of the sanjak of Karbala.

1313 (1895-96): Transferred as accountant to the sanjak of Cebel-i Garbî in Tripolitania.

1325-1327 (1907-1909): Becomes accountant of the sanjak of Jeddah and acting treasurer of the Hejaz, performs the pilgrimage, returns to Istanbul and retires.

23 Ramadan 1356 (27 November 1937): Dies in Istanbul and is buried in the Merkez Efendi cemetery. Hüsameddin gives the Gregorian date as 21 November 1937.

Bibliography

Online sources