Rif'at Ahmed Efendi, known in Istanbul by the nickname "Koç Rif'at Efendi", was a secretary and poet from Amasya who was trained in the offices of the finance department and rose to be superintendent of the timber customs. His father was Hindî Hasan Ağa, who passed from the post of coffee-master to Grand Vizier Râgıb Mehmed Paşa to that of collector of state revenues in Amasya and was counted among the wealthy men of the city. Rif'at died in office in 1218 (1803-04) and, like his father, was buried in Üsküdar. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar says of him only "he was a secretary and a poet"; no example of his poetry is known.

Life

For Rif'at himself the main record we have is the entry Rıfat Ahmed Efendi-Hindîzâde in the tenth volume:

Amasyalıdır. Meşâhîr-i ağniyâ ve erbâb-ı yesârdan Amasyalı Hindî Hasan Ağa bin Hüseyin Ağa'nın oğludur. İstanbul'da mektûbî-i mâliye kaleminde tahsîl ü terbiyye görüp "Koç Rıfat Efendi" demekle meşhûr oldu. Ba'dehû hulefâdan olup sonra muhâsebe kâtibi ve buradan kereste gümrüğü nâzırı olduğu hâlde 1218'de vefât etdi. Üsküdâr'da medfûndur. Kâtib, şâir idi.

In translation: Amasya was his city, and Hindî Hasan Ağa of Amasya (whose own father was Hüseyin Ağa), one of the well-known rich and prosperous men, was his father. He was trained in the correspondence office of the finance department in Istanbul and became known as "Koç Rif'at Efendi". He then joined the senior clerks (halifes) of the office, afterwards became secretary of an accounts bureau, and from there passed to the superintendence of the timber customs; he died in this post in 1218. He is buried in Üsküdar. He was a secretary and a poet.

The titles in the entry show Rif'at's career step by step: the mektubî office was the department that handled the correspondence of the Defterdarlık, "halife" was the name given to senior clerks in these departments, and the timber customs was the unit that collected the dues levied on the timber trade. Rif'at's year of birth, the accounts bureau he served and the date of his appointment as superintendent are not recorded. Nor is it explained why he was nicknamed "Koç"; the word means a ram and, figuratively, a sturdy, gallant man.

His Father Hindî Hasan Ağa

It was the father who tied the family to Istanbul. According to the entry Hasan Ağa-Hindî el-Hâc in the eighth volume, Hasan Ağa joined the silahdars (sword-bearers) in his youth and later entered the household of Râgıb Mehmed Paşa. During the pasha's vizierate he was one of his ağas, and during his grand vizierate his coffee-master. When Râgıb Paşa died in Ramazan 1176 (April 1763), he returned home as collector of state revenues (mukataa emini) of Amasya; in 1180 he was removed from this post, went to Istanbul and joined those receiving a retirement pension. Hüsameddin traced this period in the finance registers: in a register dated 1181 he appears as "Hasan Hüseyin Amasya an-silahdârân", and in one dated 1186 as "Hasan Hüseyin Amasya kahveci-i Râgıb Paşa". In 1188 he became tax-farmer of the Amasya revenues, died in 1191 (1777) and was buried at Seyyid Ahmed Deresi in Üsküdar.

The same entry gives the origin of the nickname: because his face was ruddy, Râgıb Paşa called him "Hindî Ağa", and for this reason his sons were called "Hindîzâdes". Hasan Ağa's sons were Ahmed Rif'at and Hüseyin Tâlib Efendi and Mehmed and Mustafa Ağa. It is reasonable to see a connection between the father's years in Istanbul and his sons' entry into the finance offices; Hüsameddin does not say so explicitly.

His Brother Tâlib Hüseyin Efendi

Rif'at's brother Hüseyin Efendi is called "Tâlib" in the heading of his entry and followed the same path as his brother. According to the entry Tâlib Hüseyin Efendi-Hindîzâde in the eleventh volume, he was trained in Istanbul and entered the mektubî office of the finance department, became chief clerk to Amasyalızâde Hacı İbrâhim Efendi when the latter was defterdar, then joined the hâcegân (senior scribes) of the Imperial Council, and died after 1222 (1807-08). In this entry the father is introduced as "Hindî Hasan Ağa, one of the kapıcıbaşıs of the imperial court and of the notables of Amasya", whereas the entry in the eighth volume describes him as a silahdar and coffee-master. The two titles may belong to different periods of the same man's life. Hüsameddin does not count Tâlib among the poets; he records him as one of the "erbâb-ı kalem", the men of the pen.

Hüsameddin's book contains another family bearing the name "Hindîzâde": the household of Küpceğiz quarter, descended from Hindî Ahmed Paşa, which produced the nineteenth-century poet Zühdî Abdülmecîd Efendi. No kinship is established between Hindî Hasan Ağa's line and this house; since the nickname was given to Hasan Ağa by Râgıb Paşa, the shared name is most probably a coincidence.

Connection with Amasya

All the known stages of Rif'at's life took place in Istanbul. His connection with Amasya is his family: Hüsameddin explicitly records both him and his father as "Amasyalı", and the years in which his father managed the revenues of Amasya and was counted among the city's wealthy men coincide with Rif'at's youth. Whether Rif'at was born in Amasya is not stated.

Poetry

Not a single couplet survives today to support Hüsameddin's "kâtib, şâir idi"; Rif'at Ahmed Efendi's poems have not come down to us. Neither a divan nor a poem bearing his name in any anthology is known. In the same volume, immediately after him, comes Rif'at Mehmed Efendi (Gürcüzâde), another man of Amasya who used the same pen name and one of whose ghazals is preserved in an anthology; the two poets were contemporaries, but no kinship between them is recorded. "Rif'at" means loftiness and is a common pen name among the secretary-poets of the eighteenth century.

Chronology

1176 Ramazan (April 1763): On Râgıb Paşa's death his father Hindî Hasan Ağa becomes collector of state revenues in Amasya.

1188 (1774-75): His father becomes tax-farmer of the Amasya revenues; he dies in 1191 (1777).

1218 (1803-04): Rif'at Ahmed Efendi dies as superintendent of the timber customs and is buried in Üsküdar.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources