After his brother Sârim Mustafa died, Hâfız Abdullah Efendi, also known as Tâhir, gave up his share in the family library to his nephew. He was one of three brothers who, at the start of the nineteenth century, belonged to the family that for generations ran the Emîr İmâm Abdüllatîf Efendi Library opposite the Sultan Bayezid School in Amasya. On the death of Sa'dullâh Efendi in 1213 (1799), the post of hâfız-ı kütüb of the library, the keeper who guarded its books and handed them to readers, went jointly to three of his sons: Abdullah, Hükmî Mehmed and Sârim Mustafa. No heading in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's work is given to Tâhir; it is from Hükmî's entry that we learn all three brothers were poets and exchanged verses with one another. Neither his birth nor his death is dated, and none of his verse remains.

His Traces in Hüsameddin

Tâhir Abdullah's name occurs in three entries of the History of Amasya. His father's entry lists the sons as "es-Seyyid Abdullah Tâhir, Mehmed Sa'îd, Mustafa Sârim Efendilerdir". His brother Hükmî's entry tells of the sharing of the library post and of the brothers' interest in poetry:

Esnâ-yı tahsîlinde ceddi kütübhânesi hâfız-ı kütübü pederinin 1213'de vefâtı üzerine cihet-i mezbûre birâderleri Tahir Abdullah ve Sârim Mustafa Efendilerle beraber uhdesine tevcîh edildi. [...] Âlim, edîb, şâir idi. Birâderleri de şâir olduklarından bunlarla müşâere ve müzakere-i ulûm ederdi.

Put into English: While he was still studying, his father, keeper of his great-grandfather's library, died in 1213, and the post was given to him together with his brothers Tâhir Abdullah and Sârim Mustafa Efendi. [...] He was a scholar, a man of letters and a poet. Since his brothers were poets too, he exchanged verses with them and discussed learned questions. The third record is the entry on his nephew Sârim Mehmed Efendi: Sârim Mehmed became keeper of the library after his father Sârim Mustafa died in Şaban 1226 (August-September 1811) and "with the relinquishment of his uncle es-Seyyid Hâfız Abdullah Efendi", that is, when his uncle gave up the post.

Life

The life that emerges from these three records is brief. Abdullah Efendi was a great-grandson of Emîr İmâm Abdüllatîf Efendi, first imam of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque; his father Sa'dullâh Efendi was born in 1153 (1741), taught at the Ebûbekir Paşa madrasa, served as imam of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque and was buried in the library garden. The title "Hâfız" shows that Abdullah Efendi knew the Qur'an by heart; the "es-Seyyid Hâfız Abdullah Efendi" of Sârim Mehmed's entry and the "es-Seyyid Abdullah Tâhir" of his father's entry are the same person, since no other Abdullah is mentioned in the family. The shared appointment of 1213 suggests that he was then an adult or nearly so. After his brother Sârim Mustafa died in 1226, he left his share in the library to his nephew; the year and reason of this relinquishment, and where and how long he lived afterwards, are not written in the entries. His brother Hükmî Mehmed Efendi died in 1251 (1835-36).

The library and the family tree can be followed through Hükmî Mehmed Efendi (Emîr İmâmzâde) and in The Hâcezâdes. Sa'dullâh Efendi's own entry can be read in its Ottoman wording, in Turkish, as Sa'dullâh Efendi-Emîr İmâmzâde, es-Seyyid.

Poetry

None of Tâhir Abdullah Efendi's poems is known today. Not a single couplet has been recorded from the verse exchanges between the brothers that Hüsameddin mentions. The word "Tâhir" is written after the name in his father's entry and before it in Hükmî's; like Hükmî and Sârim, it is probably a pen name. Lacking an entry, he has no line to himself in Metin Hakverdioğlu's list of poets either.

The State of the Sources

Among the poets of Amasya two other men carry the same name. Tâhir Abdullah Efendi (Müftîzâde), who has an entry of his own in the eleventh volume, was the eldest son of the Amasya mufti Şeyh Mehmed Efendi and brother of the mufti Hâfız Abdurrahman Efendi. Müezzinzâde Hâfız es-Seyyid Abdullah Efendi, who died in 1232 (1816-17), fathered the Sarı Müderris, the namesake of his brother Sârim Mustafa, and he too stood outside the Emîr İmâmzâde family. Everything known of this Tâhir Abdullah goes no further than what Hükmî's and Sârim Mehmed's entries say.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources