Yûsufefendizâde Abdullah Hilmî Efendi was one of the best-known scholars of Qur'anic recitation (kıraat) and hadith in eighteenth-century Istanbul. He taught Sahîh al-Bukhârî at the palace, presented the great commentary he wrote on that work to Mahmud I, and served as chief of the reciters (şeyhülkurrâ) at the Sultan Ahmed Mosque and as tutor at the palace. His grandfather was Yûsuf Efendi, chief reciter from Amasya, from whom the family took its name. He is known to have written poems in Turkish, Persian and Arabic under the pen name (mahlas) Hilmî; the only example of his poetry to survive is a na't (poem in praise of the Prophet) of two couplets, quoted by his pupil Müstakimzâde Süleyman Sâdeddin and reported to have been set to music. His birthplace is disputed: Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar insists that he was born in Amasya, while the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi accepts that he was born in Istanbul. This page includes him among the poets connected with Amasya, setting out plainly his ties to the city and the grounds of both views.

Hüsameddin's Entries

Hüsameddin devotes two separate entries to him in Amasya Tarihi: one among the poets in the ninth volume under the heading "Hilmi Abdullah Efendi-Yûsuf Efendizâde el-Hâc", and one among the calligraphers in the twelfth volume under the heading "Abdullah Hilmi Efendi-Yûsuf Efendizâde". The entry in the ninth volume begins as follows:

Amasyalıdır. Şeyhülkurrâ Amasyalı Yûsuf Efendizâde şeyhülkurrâ Mehmed Efendi'nin mahdûmudur. Amasya'da Fethiye Mahallesi'nde 1080'de doğdu. Amasya'da ceddînden hıfz-ı Kumes'eler'ân ederek bir müddet Allâme Hızır Efendi'nin dâmâdı el-Hâc Osmân Efendi'den ulûm-ı Arabiyye mukaddimâtını ahz ü tederrüs etdi. 1099 senesi recebinde Amasya vak'asında pederi ve ceddi ile beraber İstanbul'a nakl-i ikâmet edib...

In plain English: He was from Amasya, the son of Mehmed Efendi, chief reciter, of the family of Yûsuf Efendi, chief reciter of Amasya. He was born in 1080 in the Fethiye quarter of Amasya. He memorised the Qur'an in Amasya under his grandfather and for a time read the elementary Arabic sciences with Hacı Osman Efendi, son-in-law of the learned Hızır Efendi. In Receb 1099, during the troubles in Amasya, he settled in Istanbul together with his father and grandfather. The phrase printed in the edition as "hıfz-ı Kumes'eler'ân" is a typesetting error and has been read as "hıfz-ı Kur'ân", memorising the Qur'an. The rest of the entry describes the scholar's life in Istanbul, his works and his family.

Life

His father Mehmed Efendi was also a chief reciter and served as imam of the Nakilbent Mosque in Istanbul. After completing the memorisation of the Qur'an, Abdullah Efendi took his lessons in recitation from his father; according to Halit Özkan, who wrote his entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, his chain of licences (icazet) in recitation reaches Ibn al-Jazarî through his father and grandfather. He read Arabic, literature and Qur'anic exegesis (tefsir) with İbrâhim b. Süleyman el-Bektaşî, tutor of Musâhib Mustafa Paşa; exegesis, the principles of hadith, hadith and the rational sciences with Birgili Kara Halil Efendi; and the rational sciences with Ali b. Süleyman Mansûrî. He learned the sülüs and nesih scripts from the calligrapher Hocazâde Mehmed Enverî, known as "Karakız", and received his licence; this is why Hüsameddin lists him among the calligraphers in the twelfth volume. He joined the Cihangîriyye branch of the Halvetiyye order through Sakızlı İlyas Efendi; Müstakimzâde records that he corresponded with Niyâzî-i Mısrî.

Because he served as imam of the Bıçakçılar Mosque during his student years he was known as "the imam of Bıçakçılar". Hüsameddin writes that he came first in the ruûs examination and began teaching at the Fâtih Mosque. From 15 Şaban 1123 (28 September 1711) he taught Sahîh al-Bukhârî at the palace; in Muharrem 1131 (December 1718) he became chief reciter of the endowments of Ahmed I, and in 1134 (1722) chief reciter of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. In 1148 (1735) he was appointed tutor of the imperial palace. He taught exegesis at the Enderun Library, at the library of Mahmud I in Hagia Sophia and at the Amcazâde Hüseyin Paşa Madrasa, and for many years preached at the Fâtih Mosque. Among his pupils were Müstakimzâde Süleyman Sâdeddin, Râgıb Paşa and Mehmed Sâdık Erzincânî.

His connection with Amasya did not end in Istanbul. Hüsameddin writes that Zanalızâde Seyyid Ahmed Ağa of Amasya, one of the favourites of Mahmud I and later a pasha, was his pupil and gave his teacher a thousand gold pieces for the road when he set out on the pilgrimage. On the pilgrimage route many scholars of Damascus, the Hijaz and Egypt received licences from him; on his return he continued his teaching. Both of his sons-in-law were from Amasya. His waterside mansion (yalı) at Fındıklı had become a great library; when a fire that broke out nearby burned the mansion together with its books he was deeply shaken, and shortly afterwards, on 26 Zilhicce 1167 (14 October 1754), he died. He was buried outside Topkapı beside his father and grandfather. The chronogram composed for his death, "Tüvüffiye allâmetü'z-zemân" (the most learned man of the age has died), gives 1167.

On His Birthplace and Date of Birth

The sources disagree on where and when this scholar was born. His pupil Müstakimzâde says in Tuhfe-i Hattâtîn that he was "şehrî", that is, from Istanbul, and records his birth with the words "sâat-i saâdet", giving the date 1066. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi follows this record: Abdullah Efendi was born in 1066 (1656) in the Nakilbent quarter of Istanbul and died at the age of 101. The encyclopedia also notes that Osmanlı Müellifleri has him born in Amasya in 1085, and rejects this view on the grounds of the 1066 record and of his father's post as imam of the Nakilbent Mosque.

Hüsameddin takes the opposite view. Relying on the history of Vâsıf Efendi he gives the year of birth as 1080 (1669) and the place as the Fethiye quarter of Amasya, and openly treats Müstakimzâde's 1066 as wrong. His strongest evidence is the scholar's own signature: Hüsameddin writes that in all his licences he signed as "Abdullah bin Mehmed el-Amâsî eş-şehîr bi-Yûsuf Efendizâde", Abdullah son of Mehmed of Amasya, known as Yûsuf Efendizâde, that he saw this wording in the licence of Sirâceddîn Şirvânî, who died in Amasya, and adds that in this work Müstakimzâde made many provincials into townsmen. There is disagreement over his age too: Hüsameddin records that according to Şemdânîzâde he died at eighty-seven; Sicill-i Osmânî gives the age of eighty-two and the date 1161, which Hüsameddin regards as a typesetting error.

Hüsameddin's two entries do not fully agree with each other either. The ninth volume says that the family moved to Istanbul in Receb 1099 during the troubles in Amasya; the twelfth volume says that the grandfather settled in Istanbul in 1093 and the grandson followed him with his father and uncle. The date of the fire also appears in one entry as Zilhicce 1167 and in the other, on the authority of Şemdânîzâde, as the middle of Zilhicce 1161. With no decisive document at hand, the two views have been left side by side. The real knot of the dispute is the nisba "el-Amâsî": it may indicate a birthplace, but it may equally indicate the origin of a family whose grandfather came from Amasya. The entry on his uncle Hâfız Ahmed Efendi also states that the family went to Istanbul in 1099; this record supports Hüsameddin's date for the move, but on its own it does not settle Abdullah Efendi's birthplace.

Works

His greatest work is Najâh al-qârî li-Sahîh al-Bukhârî. Written on the basis of the Bukhârî commentaries of al-Aynî and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalânî, this commentary runs to thirty volumes according to the TDV and was completed on 21 Rebîülâhir 1163 (30 March 1750). Hüsameddin, however, speaks of it as twenty volumes, writes that its composition took twenty-eight years, and that when it was presented to Mahmud I in 1148 the author was rewarded with a thousand gold pieces, a robe of honour and a sable fur. The copy in the author's own hand was endowed to the library of the Fâtih Mosque; the work is still in manuscript today. The commentary he began on Sahîh Muslim remained unfinished. His work on the readings of the Qur'an, al-I'tilâf fî vujûh al-ikhtilâf, was printed several times in Istanbul and Cairo; besides these he wrote glosses on the exegesis of al-Baydâwî and on the glosses of Hayâlî and Kara Dâvud, and many treatises on recitation.

Poetry

Müstakimzâde says that his teacher could speak the "elsine-i selâse", the three languages Arabic, Persian and Turkish, and had "hezâr âsâr ve eş'âr", a thousand works and poems. Sicill-i Osmânî records that he wrote hymns (ilahi) and ghazals; the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi states that some of his poems appear in Âdâb-ı Zurafâ, Râmiz's tezkire, or collection of poets' lives. Sadık Erdem's edition of this tezkire could not be consulted during this work; the poems in it could not be included on this page.

The only example we have today is the na't that Müstakimzâde quotes with the words "Çend beyit bu na't-ı şerîf âsâr-ı kalemlerinden serzede ve beste dahi olmuşdur": this na't of a few couplets came from his pen and was also set to music. Hüsameddin gives it in Arabic script. These two couplets, in which Persian and Arabic are mixed, carry the pen name "Hilmî", and three of their four lines end with the refrain "seyyidinâ Mustafâ" (our master Mustafa). The original Arabic-script text, a Latin-letter reading and a commentary are brought together on the page devoted to the na't.

Family

His grandfather Yûsuf Efendi, according to Hüsameddin, was one of the scholars of Amasya and was known as chief reciter. His uncle Hâfız Ahmed Efendi went to Istanbul with his father in 1099, taught at the Hagia Sophia Mosque and died as chief reciter in Cemaziyelahir 1119. According to the entry in the twelfth volume, Abdullah Efendi succeeded his uncle in 1123 as head of the school of recitation (darülkurrâ) of Çorlulu Ali Paşa, which his uncle had led. His sons Yûsuf, Ahmed Hâlid and Mehmed Saîd Efendi also belonged to the learned profession; the TDV also mentions a son named Abdülhalim. One of his sons-in-law was Hacı İbrâhim Efendi of Amasya, of the Kibâr Madrasa. The other was Hacı Mustafa Efendi of Amasya, known as "Abdî Efendi Yeğeni", nephew of Abdî Efendi; his son was the chief of the scribes (reîsülküttâb) Abdullah Berrî Efendi. Hüsameddin's entry on Hâfız Ahmed Efendi is published under the heading Hâfız Ahmed Efendi-Yûsuf Efendizâde.

Chronology

1066 (1656) or 1080 (1669): Birth; the first date follows Müstakimzâde and the TDV, the second Vâsıf Efendi and Hüsameddin.

1093 or 1099 (1682 or 1688): The family's move from Amasya to Istanbul (according to Hüsameddin's two entries).

15 Şaban 1123 (28 September 1711): Begins teaching Sahîh al-Bukhârî at the palace.

1134 (1722): Chief reciter of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque.

1148 (1735): Tutor of the imperial palace.

21 Rebîülâhir 1163 (30 March 1750): Completion of Najâh al-qârî (according to the TDV).

26 Zilhicce 1167 (14 October 1754): Death in Istanbul.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources