Rüşdü İbrâhim Efendi, who bantered and traded verses with poets of his day such as Turâbî Mustafa Efendi, grew up in a calligrapher's house. Dede Çelebizâde Hüseyin Efendi, his father, was one of the most skilled calligraphers of Amasya at the end of the sixteenth century; İbrâhim carried on that pen and wrote poetry besides. He served as clerk at the Amasya mint and, once the mint was closed, at the endowments of Sultan Bayezid, taught calligraphy to students for many years and died childless in Şevval 1039 (May-June 1630). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar calls him "edîb, şâir, âlim, hattât-ı meşhûr", a man of letters, poet, scholar and famous calligrapher. Not a line remains either of those exchanges or of his own poems.

Hüsameddin's Entry

In his entry "Rüşdü İbrâhim Efendi-Hattâtzâde", Hüsameddin sends the reader back to the father's biography in volume nine:

Amasyalıdır. Hattât-ı meşhûr Dede Çelebizâde Hüseyin Efendi'nin mahdûmudur. Tercemesi yukarıda (cild. 9, sahîfe 30) yazılan pederinden hutût-ı mütenevvi'ayı ve ulemâdan ulûm-ı edebiyye ve şer'iyyeyi ahz u tahsîl edib darb-hâne kâtibi oldu. Amasya darb-hânesi ilgâ edildikden sonra Sultân Bâyezîd evkâfı kâtibi olup hayli müddet bu kitâbette kaldı. Bu sâyede ta'lîm-i şâkirdâna hasr-ı evkât edib 1039 senesi şevvâlinde bilâ-veled vefât etdi. Edîb, şâir, âlim, hattât-ı meşhûr idi. Turâbî Mustafa Efendi gibi asrı şu'arâsıyla mutâyebe ve müşâ'aresi vardı.

In today's English: Amasya was his home, and the famous calligrapher Dede Çelebizâde Hüseyin Efendi his father. From his father, whose biography is written above (vol. 9, p. 30), he learned the various scripts, and from scholars the literary and religious sciences, and became clerk of the mint. After the Amasya mint was abolished he became clerk of the endowments of Sultan Bayezid and remained in this post for a long time. Thanks to this he devoted his time to training students and died without issue in the month of Şevval 1039. He was a man of letters, a poet, a scholar and a famous calligrapher. He used to banter and exchange verses with the poets of his age, such as Turâbî Mustafa Efendi.

His Father and a Family of Calligraphers

His father Hüseyin Efendi was the son of Ramazân Çelebi, son of Dede Ali Çelebi. According to Hüsameddin's entry in the ninth volume, he served the famous calligrapher Hayreddînzâde Mehmed Çelebi and learned script and learning from him and then from Derviş Ali Efendi, sheikh of the Pîr Sinan lodge in the Şehreküstü quarter. As calligraphy master of the Sultan Bayezid school he trained some fifty students in Amasya and died after 1003 (1594-95). Hüsameddin counts him "the unique master of his age" in the various scripts, especially in celî and nesih, and records with regret that an En'âm-ı Şerîf he wrote in 991 (1583) burned while it was the ornament of his own house. The last sentence of the same entry introduces his son: "Mahdûmu İbrâhim Rüşdi Efendi'dir."

İbrâhim Efendi grew up in this house and learned calligraphy from his father. He also carried on his father's tradition of training students; Hüsameddin notes specifically that thanks to his endowment clerkship he devoted his time to "ta'lîm-i şâkirdân", teaching calligraphy to pupils. Father and son were links, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in the calligraphic tradition of Amasya that had continued since Şeyh Hamdullah.

From the Mint to the Endowment Office

İbrâhim Efendi's first post was a clerkship at the Amasya mint. The date of the mint's closure is missing from this entry. With its abolition İbrâhim Efendi moved to the clerkship of the endowments of the Sultan Bayezid complex and stayed in that office for a long time. The phrase "bu sâyede" (thanks to this) indicates that the endowment clerkship gave him both a regular income and enough time to teach.

Verse Contests with Turâbî

The last sentence of the entry is the only window onto İbrâhim Efendi's literary circle. "Mutâyebe" means bantering and "müşâ'are" the exchange of verses, a kind of poetic contest. Alîzâde Turâbî Mustafa Efendi, whom Hüsameddin names as an example, is regarded as the best-known poet of Amasya at the beginning of the seventeenth century and was one of the poets called "the four elements of letters". Turâbî died in Safer 1040 (September-October 1630); the two poets passed away within the same year, a few months apart. The words "such as Turâbî" show that he had more than one partner in these contests, but no other name is given.

His Poetry

Rüşdü İbrâhim Efendi's poems remain untraced. Nor does the other side of the contests help: the only qıt'a of Turâbî to survive was addressed to someone else, and Hüsameddin quotes none of the couplets the two poets exchanged. That his father's entry calls the same man "İbrâhim Rüşdi Efendi" leaves open whether Rüşdü was his pen name or simply part of what he was called. Two more natives of Amasya bearing it follow him on the same page, both men of a century later: İmâmzâde Rüşdü Ahmed Efendi, who died in 1142, and Şeyh Alizâde Rüşdü Ahmed Efendi, who wrote a continuation of Abdî Efendi's anthology.

Chronology

991 (1583): His father Hüseyin Efendi writes an En'âm-ı Şerîf.

After 1003 (1594-95): His father Hüseyin Efendi dies.

Şevval 1039 (May-June 1630): Rüşdü İbrâhim Efendi, clerk of the endowments of Sultan Bayezid, dies childless.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources