Azerbaijani Scholar Mullah Shamsuddin Ahmed Karabaghi in the Ottoman Empire

Abstract

A large number of Azerbaijani scientists were known as a linchpin to the emergence of socio-cultural relations between Azerbaijan and the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. One of these scholars was KharabaghiMullah Shamsuddin Ahmed Ansari who was among the ones that had been in senior positions such as muderris, kadive kazasker in the Ottoman Empire. Mullah Shamsuddin Ahmed, a descendant of Jabir b. Abdullah al-Ansari who was one of the famous sahabahs originally settled in Dizak, left for Istanbul after getting his fi rst education in Ganja and graduated from Sulaymaniyah madrasah here in 1562. Since 1570 he served as a professor at various madrasahs and began to work as kadi after the year 1581. His success in kadiluk paved the way for kazaskerluk; he became Anatolia Kazasker in 1584, and Rumeli Kazasker in 1592. Mullah Shamsuddin Ahmed, as an intellectual person, contributed signifi cantly to the development of the Ottoman shahnamachilig by supporting shahnamachi Sayyid Lokman Urmevi. Meanwhile, he was a teacher to those who wanted to write diwan poetry, and had a crucial role in the formation of poets such as Mani and Edain Recep Efendi. He was also a master in the fi eld of tafsir (Quranic interpretation) and interpreted diff erent suras of Quran in the form of risale. Not only migrants themselves who came from Azerbaijan to the Ottoman Empire in this period, but also their families played a signifi cant role in the establishment of these relations. Mullah Shamsuddin Ahmed's descendants got promotions in ilmiye class; his son Noah Efendi was fi rst a muderris, then kadi, after wards worked in Anatolia and Rumeli kazaskerluk.