Sâdık Ebûbekir Efendi's life runs from the house of Ahmed, a tradesman who worked as a coppersmith in Amasya, through the madrasa to the judge's bench: he became a madrasa teacher, served as judge of Çorum and as inspector of the endowments of the province of Rûm, and wrote poetry as well. He retired in 1071 (1660-61) and died in 1075 (1664-65). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar calls him "learned, a man of letters, accomplished, a poet", and says that he took the date of his death from the tezkire of the madrasa teacher Abdî Efendi, who collected the city's seventeenth-century poets. That tezkire is lost today, and no example of Sâdık's verse survives.

His Record in Amasya Tarihi

The entry Sâdık Ebûbekir Efendi-Bakırcızâde brings together information Hüsameddin gathered from several different sources:

Amasya'da Bakırcı Ahmed'in oğludur. Kadızâde Küçük Mehmed Efendi'nin halka-i tedrîsinde ikmâl-i tahsîl edib ders-i âm oldu. Yıllarca tedrîs ile iştiğâl edib müteaddid medreselere müderris ve kadı oldu. Çorum kadısı ve Evkâf-ı Rûmîyye müfetdişi olduğu imzâsıyla görüldü. 1071'de mütekâid olup 1075'de vefât etdiği Abdî Efendi "Tezkîre"sinde yazılıdır. Âlim, edîb, kâmil, şâir idi. Amasya'da niyâbetde bulunmuş, ta'lik-nüvis olduğu yazısından anlaşıldı.

A plain translation: he was born to Ahmed the coppersmith in Amasya. He completed his studies in the teaching circle of Kadızâde Küçük Mehmed Efendi and became a ders-i âm. For years he taught, and he served as teacher in several madrasas and as judge. That he was judge of Çorum and inspector of the endowments of Rûm is known from his signature. Abdî Efendi's tezkire records that he retired in 1071 and died in 1075. He was learned, a man of letters, accomplished and a poet. He had served as deputy judge in Amasya, and his own handwriting shows that he wrote in the ta'lik script.

Life

The first sentence of the entry shows that Sâdık did not come from a family of the learned establishment. The name "Bakırcızâde", son of the coppersmith, derives from a trade. Ahmed was one of the coppersmiths of the Amasya market; the son carried the name into the madrasa and from there into the judiciary. He finished his education in the circle of Kadızâde Küçük Mehmed Efendi, that is, he attended this teacher's lessons and received his licence, and became a ders-i âm. The title meant the right to give public lessons. He then taught for many years and, as was common on the Ottoman scholarly path, moved after a time into the career of judge. Hüsameddin says that he taught in "müteaddid medreseler", several madrasas, but does not name them.

Two of the posts in Sâdık's career Hüsameddin draws from documents. He saw the judgeship of Çorum and the inspectorate of the "Evkâf-ı Rûmiyye" on papers that bore his signature. Rûm was the name of the Ottoman province centred on Sivas, and the inspector of its endowments was the official who audited the accounts and running of the pious foundations of that region. He had also served in Amasya as nâib, deputy of the judge. That he wrote in the ta'lik script Hüsameddin likewise establishes from his own handwriting, seen in a document. As far as these two notes show, much of the entry comes from Hüsameddin's work on the Islamic court registers and similar papers.

The dates of his retirement and death, on the other hand, come straight from Abdî Efendi. Sâdık became mütekâid in 1071, retiring from office on a pension, and died four years later in 1075. The year of his birth is unknown. Since by the time he retired he had a long career as teacher and judge behind him, he must have been well advanced in years when he died; this is a conjecture.

His Place in Abdî Efendi's Tezkire

Abdî Efendi, teacher at the Abdullah Paşa madrasa, had gathered into a tezkire the poems and short biographies of the poets who flourished in Amasya between the years 1000 and 1081. Hüsameddin found an incomplete copy of this work and used it for years in the poets' entries of Amasya Tarihi, until the copy was lost in a fire. Sâdık Ebûbekir Efendi died in 1075 and was therefore Abdî Efendi's contemporary; the news of his death must have been written into the tezkire in Abdî Efendi's lifetime. Because events in the city were also noted in the margins of the tezkire, this note is not conclusive on its own, but Hüsameddin's calling him "şâir" indicates that Abdî Efendi too may have counted him among the poets of Amasya. Thanks to Hüsameddin's quotations, a number of ghazals have survived from Abdî Efendi's tezkire, but none of them is by Sâdık.

Close to this entry Hüsameddin records other men who bore the name Sâdık. Immediately before it comes Sâdık Baba, a Nakşibendi dervish from Bukhara who lived in the Pîrî Baba lodge at Merzifon and died in 1180; immediately after it comes Sâdık Ahmed Efendi of the Müftîzâde family, who died in 1153. What puts these three Sâdıks side by side is Hüsameddin's alphabetical arrangement of names; no tie between them is shown, and they are separate men.

Poetry

Nothing of the coppersmith's son's verse has come to light; Hüsameddin quotes not a single couplet of his. The epithet "şâir" given to him most probably rests on Abdî Efendi's record. Since the tezkire also contained the poets' verses, a few of Sâdık's couplets may well have stood there. Hüsameddin, however, did not copy them into his own book, and with the loss of the manuscript they have become unreachable as well. Metin Hakverdioğlu, in an article published in 2024, also includes him among the people Hüsameddin counted as poets.

Chronology

1071 (1660-61): He retires.

1075 (1664-65): He dies, according to Abdî Efendi's tezkire.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources