Siyâmî Ali Efendi, recorded also as a calligrapher of the talik script, was a scholar and poet of the middle of the seventeenth century who taught in the madrasas of Amasya as müderris and then served as judge (kadı). He was the son of Gazi Oruç Bey and died in 1067 (1656-57). The anthology of Abdî Efendi, who collected the poets of Amasya, contained a detailed biography of him and his poems; but the anthology burned, and Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar could write into Amasya Tarihi only what remained in his memory. His only poem known today is a response ghazal (nazire) that Hüsameddin found in an anthology of poems that later came into his hands. Hüsameddin's few sentences on him are on the site under Siyâmî Ali Efendi-Oruçoğlu.

Hüsameddin's Record

The entry stands among the names under the letter "sin" in the eleventh volume:

Amasya'da Bâyezîd Paşa Mahallesi'nde çeşmesi olan Gâzi Oruç Bey'in mahdûmudur. Fâzıl-ı meşhûr Kadızâde Küçük Mehmed Efendi'nin dersinde ikmâl-i tahsîl edib tedrîs-i ulûma başladı. Amasya medreselerine müderris ve ba'dehû kadı olup 1067'de vefât etdi. Âlim, kâmil, şâir, ta'lik-nüvîs bir zât idi. Abdî Efendi "Tezkîre"sinde mufassal tercemesi ve eş'ârı vardı. Hayfâ ki yandı. Hâtıramda bu kadarı kalabildi. Yakın vakitlerde muhterem kardaşım Kilisli Ahmed Rıf'at Bey'in bana lutf etdiği eş'âr mecmu'asında Amasyalı Hızır Efendizâde Mehmed Efendi'nin bir gazeline şu nazîresi görüldü.

In English: He is the son of Gazi Oruç Bey, who has a fountain in the Bayezid Pasha quarter of Amasya. He completed his studies in the lessons of the famous scholar Kadızâde Küçük Mehmed Efendi and began to teach. He became teacher in the madrasas of Amasya and later judge, and died in 1067. He was a learned, accomplished man, a poet and a writer of the talik script. In Abdî Efendi's anthology there were his detailed biography and his poems; alas, it burned. This much is all that could remain in my memory. Recently, in an anthology of poems presented to me by my esteemed friend Kilisli Ahmed Rif'at Bey, his response poem to a ghazal of Hızır Efendizâde Mehmed Efendi of Amasya was seen.

In the footnote he places under the ghazal, Hüsameddin states that the original ghazal to which the response was written is given "below, in the biography of Muhyiddin Mehmed Efendi". That entry could not be found in the volumes of Amasya Tarihi published to date.

Life

What we know of Siyâmî's life amounts to a few sentences of Hüsameddin, and their source is the author's memory. His father Gazi Oruç Bey, as the title "gazi" shows, was a soldier who had taken part in campaigns, and he had a fountain built in the Bayezid Pasha quarter. The son chose the path of the learned class, was trained in Amasya, taught in the city's madrasas and then moved to the judiciary. The names of the madrasas where he served and the places where he was judge are not recorded. His date of birth is unknown; his death in 1067 is the only firm date Hüsameddin gives.

His teacher, Kadızâde Küçük Mehmed Efendi, recalls a name Hüsameddin mentions in another connection in the same volume: the Amasya statesman and poet Sıdkı Mustafa Pasha learned the sciences and calligraphy under his uncle Küçük Mehmed Ali Efendi, a "fâzıl-ı meşhûr", and was himself known as Kadızâde. The same by-name, the same epithet "famous scholar" and the same period suggest that the two pupils may have studied with the same teacher. Hüsameddin does not connect the two records; the link is not certain.

The Lost Anthology

Siyâmî's real record was in the anthology of Abdî Efendi, who in the seventeenth century collected the biographies of the poets of Amasya. Hüsameddin cites this work as a source in many entries and writes again and again that it burned and that he could pass on from it only what he remembered. The sentence in the Siyâmî entry, "Hayfâ ki yandı. Hâtıramda bu kadarı kalabildi" (alas, it burned; this much is all that remained in my memory), is one of the clearest expressions of this loss. The anthology and the poets of whom it left a trace are treated together on the site in the article Abdî Efendi: The Lost Anthology of Amasya's Poets and Its Poems; Siyâmî is mentioned in that article too, but the response poem given here is not included there because it comes from another anthology and not from the tezkire.

Poetry

Siyâmî's only known poem is a ghazal of five couplets with the refrain "diyemem" (I cannot call). Hüsameddin found it in an anthology of poems presented to him by Kilisli Ahmed Rif'at Bey; the name of the anthology and where it is today are not stated. The poem is a response to a ghazal by Hızır Efendizâde Mehmed Efendi of Amasya; since the original ghazal is unknown, it has not been possible to compare the two poems. The ghazal begins by refusing the customary comparisons made for the beloved, and in its last couplets turns into a poem of contentment and honesty that refuses to call the ignorant "learned" and to reveal its poverty to anyone. The full text of the ghazal, with a couplet-by-couplet commentary, is given on a separate page.

A Judge with the Same Pen Name

In Hüsameddin's book, immediately before the entry of Siyâmî Ali Efendi, there is the record of another scholar bearing the same pen name: "Siyâmî Efendi-Kâdı". This Siyâmî was from present-day Vezirköprü, which Hüsameddin calls "Kedağra (Köprü)". He studied in Amasya, taught at madrasas, served as judge in towns such as Köprü and Merzifon, had a madrasa built in Köprü, and died in the earthquake of 999 (1591). Hüsameddin does not speak of him as a poet and quotes no poem of his. More than half a century separates the two men, and the source establishes no kinship between them.

Bibliography

Online sources