The pen name Sârim passed from Hâfız Mustafa Efendi to his son Mehmed and so lived on for another generation among the Emîr İmâmzâdes. Mustafa Efendi was a scholar and poet descended from Emîr İmâm Abdüllatîf Efendi, first imam of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, and he served in his ancestor's library in Amasya. Sa'dullâh Efendi, whose son he was, died in 1213 (1799), and the post of hâfız-ı kütüb of the library was then shared among Mustafa and his brothers Hükmî Mehmed and Tâhir Abdullah. The Amasya Tarihi has no heading for him, and nothing of his verse is left. According to the record Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar wrote for his son, he died in Şaban 1226 (August-September 1811), and Sârim Mehmed Efendi, carrying his father's pen name, went on to serve in the same library.

His Traces in Hüsameddin

Listing Sa'dullâh Efendi's sons, the father's entry names him "Mustafa Sârim". Hükmî Mehmed Efendi's entry writes that the library post was given to the three brothers together and that all of them were poets:

Birâderleri de şâir olduklarından bunlarla müşâere ve müzakere-i ulûm ederdi.

Its sense in English: Since his brothers were poets too, he exchanged verses with them and discussed learned questions. The most detailed information about Mustafa Efendi, however, is in his son's entry. The entry "Sârim Mehmed Efendi-Emîr İmâmzâde es-Seyyid" in the eleventh volume introduces Sârim Mehmed as the son of "Hâfız es-Seyyid Mustafa Efendi bin es-Seyyid Sadullah Efendi, one of the scholars of Amasya", and says that "on his father's death in Şaban 1226", and when his uncle Hâfız Abdullah Efendi gave up the post, he became keeper of the library and trustee of the Sazdoğmuş estate endowment. That Mustafa Efendi was a hafız, that he was counted among the scholars, and the date of his death are all learned from this sentence.

Family and Pupil

Mustafa Efendi's son Sârim Mehmed, like his uncle Hükmî, completed his studies with Payaslı Hacı Mehmed Efendi, taught for many years and died childless in Safer 1258 (March 1842); with his death the library posts passed out of the family. The pen name "Sârim", handed down from father to son, shows that poetry continued in the family for another generation, but Hüsameddin gives no specimen of the son's verse either. Sârim Mehmed's entry can be read in its Ottoman wording, in Turkish, under the heading Sârim Mehmed Efendi-Emîr İmâmzâde es-Seyyid.

A record from another branch of the family introduces a pupil of Mustafa Sârim. According to his entry in the tenth volume, Rıfat Mustafa Efendi, son of the Sultan Bayezid madrasa teacher and calligrapher Kâtibzâde Ahmed Kâmil Efendi, was born in 1229 (1813-14) in the Kurşunlu quarter and studied and memorised the Qur'an with "his maternal uncle Emîr İmâmzâde es-Seyyid Mustafa Sârım" and Kabartalı Hacı Mehmed Efendi. Rıfat Efendi later became imam of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque and, in 1282 (1865-66), second imam to the sultan in Istanbul. The word "dayı", maternal uncle, shows that Rıfat Efendi's mother was a daughter of Sa'dullâh Efendi; Hüsameddin does not give her name. For the full text of the record on Rıfat Efendi, in Turkish, see Rıfat Mustafa Efendi-Kâtibzâde es-Seyyid el-Hâc.

The State of the Sources

The two records do not agree. According to his son's entry Mustafa Efendi died in 1226; Rıfat Efendi, however, was born in 1229 and studied with him. Either the date of death is miswritten, or the "Mustafa Sârım" who taught Rıfat Efendi was really his son Sârim Mehmed. In the second case Sârim Mehmed would be Rıfat Efendi's cousin on his mother's side, and one has to accept that the word "dayı" was used loosely. Which record is correct cannot be settled from the information Hüsameddin gives. The outline of his life given here, and the chronology, follow the date 1226 given in the son's entry.

Sârim Mustafa Efendi (Sarı Müderris), whose entry stands in the eleventh volume of Hüsameddin's work, came of another line altogether: he descended from Müezzinzâde Hacı Süleyman Efendi, took over the Ya'kûb Paşa madrasa in 1232 (1816-17) and was no kin of the Emîr İmâmzâde Mustafa Sârim. With the entries lying side by side in that volume, it is easy to fold the two namesakes into one.

Poetry

Sârim Mustafa Efendi's poems have not survived. Neither a divan nor an anthology of his is mentioned, and not one couplet is quoted from the verse exchanges of which Hükmî's entry speaks. The family's long tie to the library is told on a wider canvas in the biography of Hükmî Mehmed Efendi (Emîr İmâmzâde) and in The Hâcezâdes.

Chronology

Zilkade 1213 (April 1799): His father Sa'dullâh Efendi dies; the keepership of the library is given to the three brothers.

Şaban 1226 (August-September 1811): Sârim Mustafa Efendi dies; his post passes to his son Sârim Mehmed.

1229 (1813-14): His nephew Rıfat Mustafa Efendi, named as his pupil, is born.

Safer 1258 (March 1842): His son Sârim Mehmed Efendi dies childless.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources