Sabri Mustafa Efendi, the Amasya calligrapher and poet who rose to the sheikh's seat of the Emîr Buhârî lodge in Istanbul, had learned to write from his father, Hacı Hâfız Halil Efendi, teacher of the Balcı school. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, too, memorised the Qur'an as a boy at that school under the same teacher; the name "Balcızâde" comes from there. Born in 1283 (1866-67), Sabri went to Istanbul in 1306, became sheikh of the lodge in which he had been trained in the Nakşibendi path, and after it burned died at Anadolu Hisarı. Two separate entries by Hüsameddin give different dates of death: one says 1338 (1920), the other 1340 (1922).

Life

In the section of Amasya Tarihi devoted to poets, Hüsameddin gives him this entry:

Amasya'da Balcı mektebi muallimi hattât-ı meşhûr Hacı Hâfız Halil Efendi bin Sâlih mahdûmudur. Dârüsselâm Mahallesi'nde 1283'de doğdu. Pederinden yazı öğrendi. Rüşdiye mektebinde okudu. Ba'dehû 1306'da İstanbul'a gidip Emîr Buhârî Tekkesi'nde ikâmet ve ders-i âm, Taşköprülü Mehmed Efendi'nin dersine mülâzamet ederek ikmâl-i tahsîl ve tekke şeyhi Halil Efendi'den de Nakşîbendiyye tarîkinden ahz-ı hilâfet etdi. 1328'de Şeyh Halil Efendi'nin vefâtı üzerine Köprülü Fâzıl Arif Mehmed Efendi'nin gayreti ve Şeyhülislam Ürgüplü Mehmed Hayri Efendi'nin himmetiyle mezkûr tekke şeyhi ve câmii imâm ve hatîbi ve 1330'da meclis-i meşâyih a'zâsı oldu. Hayfâ ki, 1334'de zuhûr eden müdhiş bir yangında tekke, câmi ve havâlîsi kâmilen yandığından Anadolu Hisarı'nda kendisi için tedârik edilen bir hânede ikâmet ve âyin-i tarîkatı icrâ etmekte iken 1338 şâbânında vefât etdi. Âlim, şâir, hattât idi. Hüsn-i ahlâkıyla tanınmış mücerred bir halde yaşamıştı.

In translation: The famous calligrapher Hacı Hâfız Halil Efendi bin Sâlih, teacher of the Balcı school in Amasya, was his father. He was born in the Dârüsselâm quarter in 1283. He learned writing from his father. He studied at the rüşdiye (middle school). Then in 1306 he went to Istanbul and lived in the Emîr Buhârî lodge; attending the lessons of Taşköprülü Mehmed Efendi he completed his studies and qualified to give public lessons as a ders-i âm, and from the lodge's sheikh Halil Efendi he received the licence to act as deputy (hilafet) in the Nakşibendi order. In 1328, on the death of Sheikh Halil Efendi, through the efforts of Köprülü Fâzıl Arif Mehmed Efendi and with the support of the Şeyhülislam Ürgüplü Mehmed Hayri Efendi, he became sheikh of that lodge and imam and preacher of its mosque, and in 1330 a member of the Meclis-i Meşâyih. Alas, when the lodge, the mosque and their surroundings burned down completely in a terrible fire that broke out in 1334, he lived in a house found for him at Anadolu Hisarı and was holding the rites of the order there when he died in Şaban 1338. He was learned, a poet and a calligrapher. Known for his fine character, he had lived unmarried.

His Father and the Balcı School

His father, Hacı Hâfız Halil Efendi, came from the village of Karaağaç near Erbaa, where his father Sâlih bin Ömer lived. According to Hüsameddin's entry in the ninth volume, he was born in 1256 (1840-41), came to Amasya in 1268 and memorised the Qur'an, studied the various scripts with Hâfız Hasan Hüsnü Efendi and received his calligrapher's licence, and after reading Arabic and the religious sciences became a ders-i âm. When he became teacher of the children's school at the Balcı school in 1297 (1879-80), he came to be known as "Balcı Hoca". At the school he taught calligraphy to his pupils, various subjects to students of the religious sciences and Qur'an reading to children, training many memorisers; in 1305 he gave up teaching, withdrew into seclusion, and died in 1327 (1909-10).

The school owed its name to Seyyid İsmâil Efendi, who had taught there before Halil Efendi and had the building restored with the help of some notables. In the introduction to his work, describing the school in the Acem Ali quarter, Hüsameddin mentions his own teacher as well: "El-Hâc Hâfız Halîl Efendi, the teacher of this humble author, was also called Balcı Hoca because he taught at the Balcı school." In the father's entry he writes that he memorised the Qur'an under this teacher, who recited the whole Qur'an from memory every three days. Sabri was thus the son of Hüsameddin's teacher and a fellow townsman two or three years his senior. Halil Efendi's sons were Mustafa Sabri, Hâfız Mehmed Nâmi, who retired as chief clerk of the religious court in 1338, and Hüseyin Efendi.

The seventeenth-century calligrapher and poet Şehrî İsmail Efendi also appears in Hüsameddin as "Balcızâde". More than two hundred years separate the two men, and Hüsameddin draws no connection between their families.

The Emîr Buhârî Lodge in Istanbul

Istanbul had three Nakşibendi lodges named after Emîr Buhârî: in Fatih, in Ayvansaray and at Otakçılar outside Edirnekapı. Hüsameddin does not say which one he means, but his details point to the lodge in Fatih. According to M. Baha Tanman, the last of the nineteenth-century sheikhs named for the Fatih Emîr Buhârî lodge is Sheikh Halil Cemal Efendi, and the lodge disappeared "probably as a result of the fire of 1918". It is likely that "the lodge's sheikh Halil Efendi" from whom Sabri received his licence and Halil Cemal Efendi are the same person. The year 1334 given by Hüsameddin also corresponds to 1918 in the Rumi calendar; read as a Hijri year it would be 1915-16. This identification is an inference resting on the agreement of the two available sources.

Köprülü Fâzıl Arif Mehmed Efendi, named among those who secured the sheikhship for Sabri, also appears in another of Hüsameddin's entries among the teachers from whom Mecdîzâde Sabri Mehmed Efendi of Amasya benefited. The sheikhship of the lodge together with the post of imam and preacher of its mosque, and membership of the Meclis-i Meşâyih, the council that supervised the lodges of Istanbul, show the place a calligrapher from Amasya had won in the Sufi life of the capital.

Differences Between the Two Records

At the end of the entry on his father Halil Efendi, Hüsameddin adds a short note on Sabri:

Hattât-ı meşhûr Mustafa Sabri Efendi İstanbul'da tahsîl-i ulûm ve tekmîl-i sülûk edib 1331'de Emîr Buharî Tekkesi şeyhi olup 1340 senesi ramazânın on birinci salı günü Anadolu hisarında vefât etdi.

According to this note, the famous calligrapher Mustafa Sabri Efendi studied the sciences and completed his spiritual training in Istanbul, became sheikh of the Emîr Buhârî lodge in 1331, and died at Anadolu Hisarı on Tuesday, the eleventh of Ramazan 1340. One must therefore choose between 1328 and 1331 for the sheikhship, and between Şaban 1338 (April-May 1920) and 11 Ramazan 1340 (May 1922) for his death. Both records place his death at Anadolu Hisarı. The second date, which gives the day and the weekday, is the more detailed, but no other record that might settle the question could be found.

Poetry

Hüsameddin calls him "learned, a poet, a calligrapher" but quotes no couplet, while the father's entry stresses only his calligraphy. The poems of Balcızâde Sabri have not been found, and where any panels or Qur'an copies from his hand are today is unknown as well. On the same page Hüsameddin quotes a ghazal that the other Sabri, Mecdîzâde Sabri Mehmed Efendi, presented to him, which may cause confusion: that ghazal belongs to Mecdîzâde, not to Balcızâde. If his poems ever come to light, as the work of a poet who died in 1920 or 1922 they will carry no copyright restriction.

Chronology

1283 (1866-67): Born in the Dârüsselâm quarter of Amasya.

1306 (1888-89): Goes to Istanbul and settles in the Emîr Buhârî lodge.

1327 (1909-10): His father Hacı Hâfız Halil Efendi dies.

1328 (1910-11) or 1331 (1912-13): Becomes sheikh of the Emîr Buhârî lodge.

1330 (1911-12): Becomes a member of the Meclis-i Meşâyih.

1334: The lodge, the mosque and their surroundings burn down; he moves to Anadolu Hisarı.

Şaban 1338 (April-May 1920) or 11 Ramazan 1340 (May 1922): Dies at Anadolu Hisarı.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources