Hacı Rif'at Mehmed Efendi was a scholar, secretary and poet of the Gürcüzâde family of Amasya who lived at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. He studied in the madrasas of Amasya, served as a secretary at the Sublime Porte under the patronage of his cousin Gürcüzâde Osman Paşa, and after the pasha's execution in 1218 (1803) returned to Amasya, where he taught until his death. The one source for what we know of him is the entry in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi. His divan was in his son's hands but is unknown today; his single ghazal, copied from a poetic anthology in an Istanbul library and sent to Hüsameddin, is given on a separate page.

Hüsameddin's Account

Hüsameddin describes the poet in the tenth volume under the heading "Rıfat Mehmed Efendi-Gürcüzâde el-Hâc":

Amasyalıdır. Amasya alaybeyisi ve Gürcüzâde es-Seyyid Halîl Paşa'nın yeğeni Ahmed Bey'in mahdûmudur. Amasya'da Çelebizâde el-Hâc Hüseyin, Gümüşhâneli es-Seyyid Ebûbekir, Ürgüblü el-Hâc Ahmed Efendilerden ahz-ı ulûm ve ikmâl-i tahsîl ederek birkaç sene ders-i âm oldu. Ba'dehû ammizâdesi Gürcüzâde Osmân Paşa'nın himmetiyle İstanbul'a gidip Bâb-ı âlîye girdi. Orada bir müddet hulefâdan olup kethüdâ kitâbetiyle temâyüz etdi. Buradan azlinde Osmân Paşa'nın kâtib-i dîvânı olup Rûmeli vâlîliğinde hâcegân-ı dîvân-ı hümâyûndan oldu. 1218'de Osmân Paşa'nın i'dâmında Amasya'ya gelip ihtiyâr-ı tekâ'üd etdi. Sânîyen tedrîs-i ulûma devâm edib 1228 senesi zilhiccesinde vefât etdi. Fâzıl, ulûm-ı Arabiyye ve edebiyyede mâhir, ulûm-ı şer'iyyede bahse kâdir, tevârih u muhâzarâta vâkıf, edîb, şâir, münşî, muhibb-i fukarâ, hâzır cevâb, kerîm bir zât olduğu "Kitâbu'l-Mecmû"da yazılıdır. Dîvân-ı eş'ârı olup mahdûmu el-Hâc Lutfullâh Efendi'dir.

In English: He is from Amasya. He is the son of Ahmed Bey, alaybey (district cavalry commander) of Amasya and nephew of Gürcüzâde Seyyid Halil Paşa. In Amasya he studied with Çelebizâde Hacı Hüseyin, Seyyid Ebubekir of Gümüşhane and Hacı Ahmed Efendi of Ürgüp, completed his education and taught for some years. Then, through the good offices of his cousin Gürcüzâde Osman Paşa, he went to Istanbul and entered the Sublime Porte. There he served for a time as a senior clerk and distinguished himself as secretary to the steward. On leaving that post he became Osman Paşa's council secretary and, during the pasha's governorship of Rumelia, received the rank of hâcegân of the imperial council. When Osman Paşa was executed in 1218 he came to Amasya and chose retirement. He took up teaching again and died in Zilhicce 1228. It is written in the "Kitâbu'l-Mecmû'" that he was learned, skilled in Arabic and literature, able in debate on the religious sciences, versed in history and conversation, a man of letters, a poet, a master of prose, a friend of the poor, quick-witted and generous. He has a divan of poems, which is with his son Hacı Lutfullah Efendi.

Hüsameddin then explains where he obtained the poet's single ghazal: the teacher Kilisli Rıfat Efendi copied it from an anthology of selected poems in the Rıza Paşa library in Istanbul and sent it to him.

Life and Family

Rif'at Mehmed Efendi's life is bound up with the rise and fall of the Gürcüzâde family at the end of the eighteenth century. His father, Yeğen Hacı Ahmed Bey, was alaybey of Amasya and nephew of Gürcüzâde Seyyid Halil Paşa. The poet's whole career in Istanbul was spent in the shadow of Gürcüzâde Hacı Osman Paşa, whom Hüsameddin calls his "ammizâde", cousin: through him he entered the offices of the Porte, became his council secretary and rose to the rank of hâcegân during his governorship of Rumelia. When the pasha was executed in 1218 (1803), this career too came to an end, and Rif'at Efendi withdrew to his home town. In this respect his life follows the familiar path of provincial secretaries raised in the household of a great pasha.

That he took up teaching again on his return to Amasya shows that he was in fact a secretary of learned background. Hacı Ahmed Efendi of Ürgüp, named among his teachers, also appears in other entries of Hüsameddin, for instance as teacher of Rûmî Osman Efendi, mufti of Köprü, and of Rûmî Mehmed Efendi, mufti of Merzifon, as a professor teaching in Amasya. Rif'at Efendi died in Zilhicce 1228, that is, in November-December 1813. The entry gives no explanation of the work "Kitâbu'l-Mecmû'" that Hüsameddin cites as his source.

Connection with Amasya

Rif'at Mehmed Efendi was born in Amasya, studied and taught there, and spent the last ten years of his life there. His family had become one of the city's leading notable families in the eighteenth century by taking over the administration of the Torumtay endowment. The information rests on a single source, but that source is the city's own historian, who also describes the other members of the family in detail.

His Poetry

Hüsameddin writes that Rif'at Efendi had a divan and that it was in the hands of his son Hacı Lutfullah Efendi; but he seems not to have seen it himself. No copy of the divan is known today. The only poem left by the poet is the five-couplet ghazal whose pen-name couplet speaks of one "mad with love, like Rıfat". The ghazal reached Hüsameddin through Kilisli Rıfat's copy from an anthology in the Rıza Paşa library and has a separate page in this category.

Chronology

1218 (1803): Gürcüzâde Osman Paşa is executed; Rif'at Efendi returns to Amasya and retires.

Zilhicce 1228 (November-December 1813): Dies in Amasya.

Bibliography

Online sources