Judges came and went in mid-eighteenth-century Amasya, but Taşâbâdîzâde Hacı Mehmed Emîn Efendi stayed in its court: he rose from clerk to chief clerk and served again and again as the city's deputy judge (naib). His father was Taşâbâdî Hacı Hâfız Ahmed Efendi, who came to Amasya as a child from the Erbaa district and was three times mufti of the city. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar describes him as "âlim, fakîh, edîb, şâir, ta'lîk-nüvîs": a man versed in law and devoted to letters, who wrote verse and had a skilled hand in the ta'lik script. He quotes not a single line of his verse. Hüsameddin's entry can also be read, with notes on its archaic vocabulary and on his father and teacher, in the study Emîn Mehmed Efendi-Taşâbâdî el-Hâc; this page places him among the poets of Amasya and gathers the traces he left in the annals section of the book.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Amasyalıdır. Amasya Müftüsü Taşâbâdî el-Hâc Ahmed Efendi'nin büyük mahdûmudur. Üçler Mahallesi'nde doğdu. Pederinden ve Iydîzâde el-Hâc Mustafa Âkif Efendi'den ikmâl-i tahsîl ederek ders-i âm ve Abdullah Paşa müderrisi oldu. 1176 zilhiccesinde Amasya mahkemesi başkâtibi ve ba'dehû mükerreren Amasya nâibi olup on iki yıl kadar mevkiini hüsn-i muhâfaza etdiği halde 1188 senesi rebîülevvelinde dâr-ı bekâya irtihâl etdi. Âlim, fakîh, edîb, şâir, ta'lîk-nüvîs idi. Mahdûmları Ahmed Esad, Numân Sabit Efendiler ve birâderi İbrâhim Efendi'dir.

In plain English: he came from Amasya and was the elder son of the Amasya mufti Taşâbâdî Hacı Ahmed Efendi, and was born in the Üçler quarter. He completed his studies with his father and with Iydîzâde Hacı Mustafa Âkif Efendi, became a ders-i âm, that is, a teacher licensed to hold public classes, and was appointed müderris of the Abdullah Pasha Madrasa. In Dhu al-Hijjah 1176 (June-July 1763) he became chief clerk of the Amasya court, then several times deputy judge of Amasya; he kept his position well for some twelve years and died in Rabi' al-Awwal 1188 (May-June 1774). He was a scholar, jurist, man of letters and poet, and wrote the ta'lik script. His sons were Ahmed Esad and Numân Sâbit Efendi, and his brother was İbrâhim Efendi.

A Life Spent in the Court

The period that the entry passes over as "some twelve years" stretches over a much longer span in the annals section in the fourth volume of Hüsameddin's book. His name first appears there in Dhu al-Hijjah 1168 (September 1755): Judge İbrâhim Efendi, leaving for Istanbul, left "the court clerk" Mehmed Emîn Efendi behind as his deputy. He had thus found a place in the court while his father was still alive. In Rabi' al-Awwal 1173 (October-November 1759), when an inspection sent from Istanbul led to the dismissal of the mufti, deputy judge, clerk, city steward and syndic all together, it was again he who was made court clerk in the new line-up. His teacher Iydîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi died in Rajab of the same year; the annals record that the city lived through "a great day of mourning".

The date of his move to chief clerk differs in two places. The entry gives Dhu al-Hijjah 1176, while the annals say that the chief clerk Fazlıoğlu Hacı İsmâil Efendi died in Muharram 1177 (July 1763) and that Taşâbâdîzâde Hacı Mehmed Emîn Efendi then became chief clerk. The gap is a matter of weeks, and both must describe the same change. Hacı İsmâil Efendi belonged to the Fazlızâde family, who held this office almost as an inheritance; Mehmed Emîn's tenure falls in the years when the clerkship passed for a time out of their hands.

In the years that followed, Mehmed Emîn Efendi served as deputy to nearly every judge appointed to Amasya. The annals list them one by one: he was deputy to Birgili Süleyman Efendi, judge of Amasya for the second time in Dhu al-Qa'dah 1177, to Hacı Osman Efendi of Amasya in Muharram 1186, and to Şerîf Mehmed Efendi in Dhu al-Hijjah of the same year. This was a system in which the judgeship went to men appointed from Istanbul who often never came to the city, while the actual work of justice was done by a local deputy. That the chief clerk who kept the court's records also took on the deputyship shows that Amasya's religious-legal business passed through his hands for a long time. Early in 1188 the annals note that "since the court's chief clerk Hacı Mehmed Emîn Efendi had died", his son Ahmed Efendi became clerk and müderris of the Yörgüç Pasha madrasa.

Father and Sons

The life of his father, Taşâbâdî Hacı Hâfız Ahmed Efendi, is told in detail in Hüsameddin's sixth volume. The son of Halîl bin İbrâhim from the village of Bidevî in the district of Taşâbâd (Erbaa), Ahmed Efendi memorised the Qur'an at the Sultan Bayezid school, studied with Çorumlu Hâfız Seyyid Mehmed Efendi and married his teacher's daughter, became müderris of the Abdullah Pasha madrasa in 1147 and mufti of Amasya in 1151. Because of the quarrels among the notables he was made mufti three times and dismissed three times, and he died in Rabi' al-Awwal 1169 (December 1755). His son's post at the Abdullah Pasha madrasa was thus in a school where the father had also taught for years. Among Ahmed Efendi's pupils was Servahdî Mustafa Efendi of Kırşehir. Servahdî also studied with Iydîzâde, and the annals name him beside Mehmed Emîn in 1186, the one as deputy judge and the other as hacıbaşı. The two poets studied with the same teachers, worked in the same circle of the court and died a year apart.

The next generation of the family is remembered for a grim event. Mehmed Emîn's son Seyyid Ahmed Esad Efendi became, after his father's death, müderris of the Yörgüç Pasha madrasa, court clerk and deputy judge of Amasya, but according to Hüsameddin he was killed in 1194 (1780) for having lent himself to the misdeeds of the Caniklizâde family. One of the grandsons, Hıfzı Ahmed Efendi, served as judge in small towns such as Lâdik and Köprü; Hüsameddin writes that he was also called "Müftüzâde", the mufti's son, because his great-great-grandfather Taşâbâdî Ahmed Efendi had been mufti of Amasya.

The State of the Sources

Two entries give Mehmed Emîn's sons differently. In his own entry his sons are Ahmed Esad and Numân Sâbit. His father's entry, however, counts Numân as Ahmed Esad's son, and in the ninth volume the entry on Hıfzı Ahmed Efendi builds the lineage as "Numan Efendi bin es-Seyyid Esad Ahmed Efendi bin es-Seyyid el-Hâc Mehmed Emin". Since two sources make him a grandson, it seems more likely that Numân was Mehmed Emîn's grandson; the order in his own entry may have skipped a generation. His father's entry also gives him the title "es-Seyyid". Ahmed Efendi was not a seyyid but had married a seyyid's daughter; the title perhaps came through his mother's side; the book is silent on the point.

His Poetry

His poems are lost. Hüsameddin calls him a "şâir", a poet, but mentions no divan, anthology or chronogram. Since his skill in the ta'lik script is recorded, documents or inscriptions in his hand may one day surface in an archive; none has come to light so far.

Chronology

Dhu al-Hijjah 1168 (1755): While court clerk, becomes deputy to Judge İbrâhim Efendi.

Rabi' al-Awwal 1169 (1755): His father Taşâbâdî Hacı Hâfız Ahmed Efendi dies.

Rabi' al-Awwal 1173 (1759): Becomes court clerk in the line-up formed after the inspection.

1176-1177 (1763): Succeeds Fazlıoğlu Hacı İsmâil Efendi as chief clerk of the court.

1177-1186 (1764-1772): Appears as deputy to the judges Birgili Süleyman, Hacı Osman and Şerîf Mehmed Efendi.

Rabi' al-Awwal 1188 (1774): Dies while chief clerk; his son Ahmed Esad Efendi succeeds him.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources