In the spring months the garden of his house in the Hızır Paşa quarter filled with hyacinths and his friends gathered there; Amasya knew this seventeenth-century imam, who used the pen name (mahlas) "Tâlibî" in his poems, as "Hâfız Bahâr". After serving as assistant teacher (muîd) at the Hızır Paşa Madrasa and as keeper and Qur'an reciter at two tombs on Ok Meydanı, he became imam of the Hızır Paşa Mosque, where he taught the Mesnevî, the Gülistân and the Bostân to the madrasa students; he died around 1099 (1687-88). Part of what is known about him comes from the tezkire of Abdî Efendi, a biographical anthology of Amasya's poets that is now lost; Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar reports how that tezkire described him but gives not a single couplet. Hüsameddin's text in today's Turkish, along with notes on the Hızır Paşa complex, is given on the page Ebû Tâlib Efendi-Hâfız Bahâr.

The Entry in Amasya Tarihi

Amasya ulemâsından ve hâssaten müfessir-i meşhûr Amasya müftüsü Hızır Efendi'den tahsîl-i ilm edib Hızır Paşa Medresesi mu'îdi, Ok Meydânı'nda kâin Atik Ali Paşa ve Şerefeddîn Hamza Türbesi türbedâr ve cüz-hânı, ba'dehû Hızır Paşa Câmii imâmı olarak iştihâr etdi.
Câm'i-i mezkûrda Hızır Paşa Medresesi talebesine Mesnevî, Gülistân, Bostân gibi âsâr-ı sûfiyye ve edebiyye okutur; halka tefsîr ve hadîsden naklederek va'z u nasîhat eder; bahar mevsiminde Hızır Paşa Mahallesi'ndeki menzil ve bahçesi sünbülistân ve mahfel-i yârân olurdu. 1099 senesi hudûdunda vefât etdi.
Müderris Abdî Efendi Tezkire-i Şu'arâ-yı Amasya'sında bunu zikredib edebiyât-ı Arabî ve Fârisiyyede mâhir, latîf, şâir, beşûş, meclis-ârâ, her dem bahâr bir zât idi; şiirinde "Tâlibî" tahallüs ederdi. "Hâfız Bahâr" demekle iştihâr etmişdi, diyor. Mahdûmu Ali Efendi'ye "Bahâroğlu" dendi.

Rendered into English: Having studied with the scholars of Amasya, and especially with the famous Qur'an commentator and mufti of Amasya Hızır Efendi, he became known as muîd of the Hızır Paşa Madrasa, keeper and Qur'an reciter (cüzhan) of the tombs of Atik Ali Paşa and Şerefeddin Hamza on Ok Meydanı, and then imam of the Hızır Paşa Mosque. In that mosque he taught Sufi and literary works such as the Mesnevî, the Gülistân and the Bostân to the students of the Hızır Paşa Madrasa, and preached to the people with quotations from Qur'anic commentary and hadith. In spring his house and garden in the Hızır Paşa quarter became a garden of hyacinths and a gathering place for friends. He died around 1099. The professor Abdî Efendi mentions him in his tezkire of the poets of Amasya and says: he was skilled in Arabic and Persian literature, graceful, a poet, cheerful, the life of every gathering, a man always like spring; in his poetry he used the pen name "Tâlibî". He was known as "Hâfız Bahâr". His son Ali Efendi was called "Bahâroğlu".

Life

The likeliest candidate for the teacher described as "the famous Qur'an commentator and mufti of Amasya Hızır Efendi" is the Müfessir el-Hâc Hızır Efendi to whom Hüsameddin devotes a long entry in the ninth volume: a scholar born in 1006 in the Hacı İlyas quarter of Amasya, who became mufti of Amasya in 1058, was dismissed after clashing with Köprülü Mehmed Paşa, later returned to the post and taught several hundred students. Hüsameddin does not link the two entries; the identification rests on the agreement of titles and dates. Ebû Tâlib's date of birth and his father's name do not appear in the source.

All of Ebû Tâlib's posts were gathered around the mosque and madrasa founded by Hayreddin Hızır Paşa, the brother of Yörgüç Paşa. He first became the muîd who went over lessons with the students of the madrasa, then took on at the tombs of Atik Ali Paşa and Şerefeddin Hamza on Ok Meydanı both the keeping of the tombs and the daily reading of a section of the Qur'an required by the endowment, and finally became imam of the mosque. What he did as imam is set out in detail in Hüsameddin's sentence: he taught Mevlânâ's Mesnevî and Sa'dî's Gülistân and Bostân to the madrasa students in the mosque and preached to the people. That an imam taught these three books as lessons shows how closely he was at home in Persian and Sufi literature; Abdî Efendi's phrase "edebiyât-ı Arabî ve Fârisiyyede mâhir" points the same way.

The Nickname "Hâfız Bahâr"

The nickname has two parts. "Hâfız" is a title meaning one who knows the Qur'an by heart, and it also fits his post as reciter. "Bahâr", spring, is tied to his character. Abdî Efendi describes him as "her dem bahâr", always like spring; Hüsameddin also writes that in the spring months the garden of his house in the Hızır Paşa quarter turned into a garden of hyacinths where his friends gathered. The source does not say clearly whether the nickname arose from this garden or from his cheerful temperament; both explanations stand side by side in the same sentences. The name passed to his son, and Ali Efendi was known as "Bahâroğlu", son of Bahâr.

Poetry

According to Hüsameddin, Abdî Efendi's tezkire contained the poems and short biographies of the poets who grew up in Amasya between 1000 and 1081 (1591-1671); Tâlibî's poems were probably there as well. Hüsameddin found this work in Amasya in a "pek nâkıs", very incomplete, copy and took no example of Tâlibî's poetry into his entry. Not a single couplet by Tâlibî can be found today. The tezkire and Hüsameddin's quotations from it are discussed in the article Abdî Efendi: The Lost Tezkire of Amasya's Poets and Its Poems; no couplet by Tâlibî turns up there either.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources