Called "şâir-i meşhûr", a well-known poet, in his brother's entry, Şevkî Mehmed Efendi has left us not a single line of verse. A member of the Hâcezâde family of Amasya, he was a ta'lik calligrapher who, in the second half of the seventeenth century, served as kadi in distant frontier provinces such as Uyvar, Crete, Kamaniçe and Hotin. He retired in 1097 (1685-86) and died around 1100 (1688-89). In his own entry Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar introduces him as "âlim, şâir, edîb, müstakîm, hattât-ı meşhûr" (learned, poet, man of letters, upright, a famous calligrapher). The other branches of his family are described separately in the article The Hâcezâdes.

Hüsameddin's Record

In the eleventh volume of Amasya Tarihi three Şevkîs follow one another: immediately after Kadi Şevkî Hüseyin Efendi and Müftîzâde Şevkî Abdullah Efendi, who used the same pen name, comes Hâcezâde Mehmed Efendi. The text of this entry is published here as Şevkî Mehmed Efendi-Hâcezâde:

Amasyalıdır. Amasya'nın meşâhîr-i fuzalâ ve şuarâsından "Küçük Hâce" demekle meşhûr Mehmed İlmî Efendi bin Abdullah Remzi Efendi'nin mahdûmudur. Amasya ulemâsından ve hâssaten "Uzun Müderris" demekle meşhûr Fâzıl Mehmed Efendi'den ikmâl-i tahsîl edib İstanbul'a gitdi. Köprülüzâde Fazıl Ahmed Paşa ile Amasya'da muârefesi olduğundan bir müddet ders-i âm olup sonra kudât silkine girdi. İbtidâ sancak sonra vilâyet merkezlerine ve hâssaten Uyvar, Girit, Kamaniçe, Hotin gibi eyâlât-ı meftûhaya kadı oldu. 1097'de ihtiyâr-ı tekâüd edib emlâk ve nukûdunu vakfederek Sultân Fatih Câmi-i şerîfinde eczâ-yı şerîfe vaz' ve bu vakfının tevlîyetini dâmâdı Amasyalı Sefer Ağazâde Mahmûd Çavuş'a ve bunun evlâdına şart etdi. 1100 senesi hudûdunda vefât etdi. Âlim, şâir, edîb, müstakîm, hattât-ı meşhûr idi. Ta'likde mahâreti vardı.

In English: He was a native of Amasya, the son of Mehmed İlmî Efendi bin Abdullah Remzî Efendi, known as "Küçük Hâce" (the Little Master), one of the celebrated scholars and poets of Amasya. He completed his studies under the scholars of Amasya, above all Fâzıl Mehmed Efendi, known as "Uzun Müderris" (the Tall Professor), and went to Istanbul. Because he had known Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha from Amasya, he served for a time as ders-i âm, a teacher lecturing from a mosque chair, and then entered the ranks of the kadis. He was kadi first in sanjak and then in provincial centres, especially in newly conquered provinces such as Uyvar, Crete, Kamaniçe and Hotin. In 1097 he chose retirement; he endowed his properties and cash so that sections of the Qur'an would be recited in the Mosque of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror (Fatih Mosque), and left the trusteeship of this pious endowment (waqf) to his son-in-law Sefer Ağazâde Mahmûd Çavuş of Amasya and his descendants. He died around the year 1100. He was a learned man, a poet, a man of letters, upright and a famous calligrapher; he was a master of the ta'lik script.

The rest of the entry is a note in which Hüsameddin weighs his sources; it is taken up below, in the section on his calligraphy.

Life

His teacher in Amasya was "Uzun Müderris" Fâzıl Mehmed Efendi; his year of birth is unknown. Hüsameddin writes that his brother Hâmid Ahmed Efendi also studied with their father and with "Uzun Mehmed Efendi", so the two brothers must have sat in the same classes. What carried him to Istanbul was an acquaintance with Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha dating from Amasya. Hüsameddin does not explain how this acquaintance began, but he links Şevkî's move into the judiciary, after a short spell as ders-i âm, to it.

The judicial career took him very far from Amasya. The four places Hüsameddin names, Uyvar (today in Slovakia), Crete, Kamaniçe (today in Ukraine) and Hotin, lay along the borders of the empire; Hüsameddin calls them collectively "eyâlât-ı meftûha", conquered provinces. Hüsameddin does not give the years he spent in each town. Retiring in 1097 (1685-86), Şevkî endowed his wealth for the recitation of the Qur'an in the Fatih Mosque in Istanbul. That he left the management of the endowment to a son-in-law from Amasya suggests that he did not lose touch with his fellow townsmen during his Istanbul years. His death falls around 1100 (1688-89); where he died and where he was buried is not stated.

His Calligraphy

The aspect Hüsameddin dwells on most is Şevkî's skill in ta'lik. He quotes these sentences from Tuhfe-i Hattâtîn, the biographical dictionary of calligraphers by Müstakîmzâde Süleyman Sâdeddin Efendi: "Mehmed Şevkî şehrîdir. Nefeszâde Seyyid İsmail Efendi şâkirdlerindendir (Muğnî). 1100 târihi hudûdunda rihlet eyledi." That is, Şevkî was a town-dweller, one of the pupils of Nefeszâde Seyyid İsmail Efendi, and died around 1100. Hüsameddin does not explain what the word "Muğnî" in brackets refers to.

Hüsameddin does not take the word "şehrî" as a statement of birthplace; "herhalde kuravî değildir demek olacakdır", he says, reading it as "not a villager, a townsman", and adds that there is no doubt that Şevkî was from Amasya. He relies on two biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire). The tezkire of Müderris Abdî Efendi, after naming Şevkî's father and grandfather and noting that he was known as "Hâcezâde", records that he learned the various scripts from Fazlullah Efendi, a calligrapher of Amasya. From this Hüsameddin concludes that Şevkî studied writing first in Amasya with Fazlullah Efendi and then in Istanbul with Nefeszâde Seyyid İsmail Efendi, who was also from Amasya. The tezkire of Sâlim Efendi states plainly that he was known as "Hâcezâde", that his deed of endowment describes him as a native of Amasya, and that his son-in-law was Sefer Ağazâde Mahmûd Çavuş of Amasya.

Family and the Contradiction in the Sources

In this entry Hüsameddin gives Şevkî's father as "Mehmed İlmî Efendi bin Abdullah Remzî Efendi". Other entries of the same work set the order the other way round. According to the entry Remzî Abdullah Efendi-Hâcezâde in the tenth volume, Remzî was the son of Kâdızâde Mehmed İlmî Efendi, known as "Küçük Hâce"; he died in Zilhicce 1063 (October 1653) while professor at the Hâtuniye of Tokat, wrote poetry in three languages, and his sons were "Şevkî Mehmed Efendi of the poets" and Hâfız Abdurrahmân Efendi, chief of the Qur'an reciters. The entry Hâmid Ahmed Efendi-Hâcezâde in the eighth volume likewise makes Hâmid a son of Remzî and says "birâderi şâir-i meşhûr Şevkî Mehmed Efendi'dir", his brother is the well-known poet Şevkî Mehmed Efendi. Since these two entries agree, Şevkî must have been the grandson of Küçük Hâce Mehmed İlmî Efendi and the son of the poet Remzî Abdullah Efendi; in the wording of this entry father and grandfather appear to have changed places.

In this entry Hüsameddin counts the grandfather, Küçük Hâce, among the "şuarâ", the poets, as well; Şevkî came from a house in which three generations wrote verse. The kaside (qasida) that his father Remzî presented to Sultan Murad when the sultan came to Amasya, together with his other poems, had come into Hüsameddin's hands but burned along with his own books. His brother Hâmid Ahmed Efendi, another poet, rose from the kadiship of Trabzon to the rank of devriye molla and died around 1103 (1691-92).

Poetry

Hüsameddin stresses Şevkî's poetry in two separate entries, but nowhere quotes a couplet; none of his poems has been found to this day. The tezkire of Abdî Efendi, the earliest source on him, is lost today; what is known from the incomplete copy that Hüsameddin used is gathered in the article on Abdî Efendi's tezkire. Hüsameddin's citation shows that the tezkire of Sâlim Efendi contains an entry on Şevkî. A piece or two of his verse may be preserved there, but since the text of that tezkire could not be consulted, this possibility could not be verified.

Chronology

Zilhicce 1063 (October 1653): His father Remzî Abdullah Efendi dies while professor at the Hâtuniye Madrasa of Tokat.

1097 (1685-86): Şevkî retires and founds an endowment for Qur'an recitation in the Fatih Mosque.

c. 1100 (1688-89): He dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources