Temennâyî Hacı Bayram Efendi was a madrasa teacher (müderris) and poet who grew up in the village of Alevî, north of Amasya, spent his life in the city's madrasas and died in 1026 (1617). People knew him as "Alevîköylü Hacı Bayram Efendi", Hacı Bayram Efendi of Alevî village. He took his pen name (mahlas) from the Temennâ quarter where he lived; the quarter itself owed its name to Temennâyî Ali Çelebi, a Persian poet who had come to Amasya and settled there some two hundred years earlier. The only source that names Bayram Efendi as a poet is the tezkire of Abdî Efendi, which no longer survives; Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar quotes one sentence from it, but gives no sample of his verse.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Hüsameddin's notice of him stands in the seventh volume of Amasya Tarihi:

Bayrâm Efendi-el-Hâc Temennâyî Amasya'nın kurb-i şimâlisinde kâin Alevî köyünden Alî bin Ahmed Kethüdâ mahdûmudur. Halk arasında Alevîköylü Hacı Bayrâm Efendi demekle meşhûrdur. Amasya'da hıfz-ı Kur'ân etdikten sonra "Tebyînü'l-Mehârim" mü'ellifi el-Hâc Sinâneddîn Yûsuf ve Bahşîzâde Fâzıl Necmeddîn Yahyâ Efendilerden ikmâl-i tahsîl etdi. Yıllarca ders-i âm olup tedrîs-i ulûma muvâzabet ederek nice şâkirdân-ı irfânı yetişti. Hızır Paşa, Ayâs Ağa, Hüseyin Ağa Medreseleri'ne sırasıyla müderris oldu. Bir kaç defa teklif edilen kazâyı reddederek tedrîs ve ifâde mesleğine devam etdi. Kendisi Temennâ Mahallesi'nde ikâmet etdiği münâsebetle "Temennâyî" mahlasını aldı. Fethiye Câmi-i şerîfinde Beyzâvî tefsîrine başladı. 1018'de Atabeg Gâzi Medresesi'yle mütekâ'id olup 1026'da tefsîri hatmetdikten bir kaç mâh sonra vefât etdi. Abdî Efendi Tezkiresinde diyor ki: Temennâyî el-Hâc Bayrâm Efendi, ulûm-i âkliyye ve nakliyyede mâhir, fakîh, müteşerri, fâzıl, edîb, vecîh bir zât idi.

In English: he was the son of Ali bin Ahmed Kethüda of the village of Alevî, just north of Amasya, and was known among the people as Hacı Bayram Efendi of Alevî village. After memorising the Qur'an in Amasya he completed his education under Hacı Sinâneddîn Yûsuf, author of the Tebyînü'l-Mehârim, and Bahşîzâde Fâzıl Necmeddîn Yahyâ Efendi. For many years he taught as a ders-i âm (licensed public teacher) and trained many students; he was appointed in turn müderris of the Hızır Paşa, Ayas Ağa and Hüseyin Ağa madrasas. He was offered a judgeship several times but declined and continued teaching. Because he lived in the Temennâ quarter he took the pen name "Temennâyî". He began teaching the Qur'an commentary of Beyzâvî in the Fethiye Mosque; in 1018 he retired while müderris of the Atabeg Gazi Madrasa, and in 1026 he died a few months after finishing the commentary. Abdî Efendi says in his tezkire that he was a master of the rational and transmitted sciences, a jurist, devoted to the sacred law, learned, cultivated and respected.

The full entry, together with research on the names in it, has its own page: Bayrâm Efendi-el-Hâc Temennâyî. That page also weighs the possibility that his teacher Sinâneddîn Yûsuf was the Amasya scholar known for his gloss on Beyzâvî, who died in 986 (1578), and sets out the history of the Fethiye Mosque and what is known of the madrasas.

Life

His year of birth is unknown. The two dates Hüsameddin gives point to a long teaching career: he retired in 1018 (1609-10) but did not give up his lessons, teaching Beyzâvî's commentary for seven or eight more years and completing it in 1026. Only a few months separate the end of the commentary from his death. If the teacher Sinâneddîn Yûsuf meant here is indeed the Amasya commentator who died in 986, Bayram Efendi's student years fall before the 1570s and his teaching life exceeded forty years. This reckoning agrees with Hüsameddin's words "for many years he taught as ders-i âm", but since the teacher's identity is not certain it remains an estimate.

His repeated refusal of a judgeship is the most distinctive detail in the entry. For a teaching müderris, a judgeship was an obvious step up in income and standing. Bayram Efendi evidently did not take that road and spent his whole career between four madrasas of Amasya and the commentary lessons in the Fethiye Mosque. When and on what occasion he made the pilgrimage is not recorded; the title "el-Hâc" only shows that he did.

His Pen Name and the Temennâ Quarter

Bayram Efendi's pen name comes from a quarter, and the quarter's name comes from another poet's pen name. In the eighth volume Hüsameddin describes Temennâyî Ali Çelebi of Shiraz: he came to the city in the last years of Hacı Şâdgeldi Paşa, ruler of Amasya, presented qasidas to him, later drew close to his son Devâtdâr Ahmed Paşa, and settled on the eastern bank of the stream in the Fethiye quarter. He competed in Persian poetry with Divriklizâde Yârî Ali Çelebi and died after 820 (1417). The place where he lived was called the "Temennâyî quarter", in time shortened to the "Temennâ quarter". Bayram Efendi, who lived in the early seventeenth century, thus took up again the pen name of a poet of the early fifteenth century through the quarter that bore his name. Hüsameddin treats the two men in separate entries and draws no family connection between them.

A third bearer of the same pen name appears in Latîfî's tezkire: a kalender dervish from near Kayseri, accused of Hurufism and belief in transmigration. Latîfî speaks of him in harsh terms. In Ali Çelebi's entry Hüsameddin says that this "heretic" Temennâyî must have been someone other than the Amasya poet. Bayram Efendi cannot be confused with this kalender: the tezkire, completed in 1546, describes that man in the past tense as someone who had lived and gone, whereas Bayram Efendi died seventy years later.

His Poetry

No poem of his survives. What lets us know him as a poet is the tezkire of Abdî Efendi, which Hüsameddin used and which is now lost. Hüsameddin quotes only its introductory sentence; whether Abdî gave a couplet of his is unknown. How the tezkire reached Hüsameddin and the other poets named in it are described in the article Abdî Efendi's tezkire. Abdî's description of him as "edîb" (a man of letters) and his having a pen name show that Bayram Efendi wrote poetry; how much he wrote and in which forms is unknown.

Family

According to Hüsameddin his sons were Hızır, Abdülhalîm and Abdülazîz Efendi, and the family was called the "Hacı Bayramzâdes". Hızır Efendi's son Mehmed Efendi served as a judge; Abdülazîz Efendi's sons Mehmed and Mustafa Efendi were also men of learning. Abdülhalîm Efendi, according to Hüsameddin's entry in the eleventh volume, was known as "Şârihü'l-Menâr" because of the commentary he wrote on the Menâr, a text on the principles of jurisprudence; his entry can be read on this site under the title Abdülhalîm Efendi-Şârihü'l-Menâr (in Turkish).

Hüsameddin also counts Abdülhalîm Efendi's son, "the famous historian Ahmed Efendi", among the grandsons. The name recalls Şârihülmenârzâde Ahmed Efendi, author of the lost work on which Naîmâ's history is based. Mehmet İpşirli's article "Naîmâ" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, however, introduces Şârihülmenârzâde as "the son of Kadı Mehmed Efendi, known by the nickname Şârihulmenâr". The father's name differs in the two sources; that the historian was Temennâyî's grandson therefore rests on Hüsameddin's record alone.

Chronology

After 820 (1417): Death of Temennâyî Ali Çelebi, who gave his name to the quarter.

1018 (1609-10): Bayram Efendi retires while müderris of the Atabeg Gazi Madrasa.

1026 (1617): He completes the commentary of Beyzâvî taught in the Fethiye Mosque and dies a few months later.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources