Among the poets who won the admiration of the notables in Amasya's literary gatherings was a judge, Ziyâüddîn Mehmed Efendi. He lived in the eighteenth century and wrote under the pen name "Ziyâ". His grandfather Nu'mân Ağa had been one of the ağas of Ömer Paşa of Amasya, and the family name "Nu'mânzâde" comes from him. After studying the sciences and letters he took up the judicial career, gained skill as a deputy judge and became a judge, dying after 1151 (1738-39). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar remembers him as a learned poet and good company; of his poetry nothing has come down to us.

The Text of the Record

Ziyâüddîn Mehmed Efendi-Nu'mânzâde. Amasyalı Ömer Paşa'nın Ağalarından Nu'mân Ağa'nın oğlu oğludur. Tahsîl-i ilim ve edeb edib kazâya sülûk etdi. Kazâ niyâbetlerinde kesb-i meleke ederek kadı oldu. Amasya mecâlis-i edebiyyesinde a'yânın nazar-ı takdîrini celbedip hayli iştihâr ve 1151 sâlinden sonra azm-i dârü'l-karar etdi. "Ziyâ" mahlasıyla eş'ârı vardır. Âlim, şâir hoş-sohbet, edîb idi.

Paraphrased, the record reads: He was the grandson of Nu'mân Ağa, one of the ağas of Ömer Paşa of Amasya. Having studied the sciences and letters, he entered the judicial profession. He gained experience as a deputy judge and became a judge. In the literary gatherings of Amasya he drew the appreciation of the notables and became quite famous, and after the year 1151 he departed for the abode of permanence. He has poems under the pen name "Ziyâ". He was a scholar, a poet, pleasant in conversation and a man of letters.

From Deputy to Judge

The entry traces Ziyâüddîn's career in a single line: "entering" the judiciary, "acquiring skill" in deputyships, and finally the judgeship. A nâib was a deputy who heard cases in place of a judge or alongside him. Hüsameddin's word "meleke" describes how Ziyâüddîn rose to the judgeship through the experience gained in these deputyships, learning the work by practice. In which districts he served as deputy and judge, and for how many years, the entry does not say.

Which Ömer Paşa

Who the "Ömer Paşa of Amasya" served by the family was is not clear. Several viziers and governors-general in Hüsameddin's work fit that description. One is Hacı Efendizâde Ömer Paşa, governor of Egypt from 1074 to 1077 (1664-1667), who died in 1102 (1690-91). Another is the vizier Ömer Paşa, a former governor of Anatolia; Osmân Bey, son of this family known as Bekir Beyzâde, was one of the chief notables of Amasya at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The grandfather of a man who died after 1151 could well have been a pasha's ağa in the second half of the seventeenth century; both pashas fit that period. Since the source does not say which it means, the question remains open.

The Literary Gatherings of Amasya

Ziyâ seems to have owed his fame less to his judgeship than to the "literary gatherings of Amasya". Hüsameddin's words show that in these gatherings the notables listened to the poets, judged them and brought forward those they liked. The best known gathering of this kind in Amasya in his lifetime was that of Rahtuvan Paşazâde İlmî İbrâhim Bey, who received the city's scholars and poets in his mansion once a week; İbrâhim Bey died in exile in 1143 (1730-31). Whether Ziyâ took part in this gathering is not recorded, but the phrase "the appreciation of the notables" places him within that circle.

His Poetry

Ziyâ's poems have not been found. Still, Hüsameddin puts his sentence in the present tense: "eş'ârı vardır", he has poems. The wording may suggest that in his own day the poems survived in an anthology or in a collection in his hands; yet he took none of them into the entry and did not say where they were. Listing the poets of Amasya Tarihi, Metin Hakverdioğlu records him with the pen name in brackets, as "Ziyâüddîn Mehmed Efendi-Nu'mânzâde (Ziya)".

Bibliography

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