Abdüssamed İsmet Efendi
Profile summary
Highlights
Abdüssamed İsmet Efendi was born in 1816. He was the son of Seyyid Selim.
İsmet Efendi spent his long professional life in foundation law, sharia court procedures and the ilmiye bureaucracy. The main center of his career was the Mahkeme-i Teftiş-i Evkaf. This court was a specialized court dealing with matters such as cases concerning pious foundations, the drafting of foundation deeds, and appointments to foundation posts.
Abdüssamed İsmet Efendi served there for a long time and held the office of mümeyyiz-i evvel, one of the first-ranking positions of authority in the court’s review and record processes.
He was also appointed as administrator of Âdile Sultan’s reading foundation at the Nakşidil Valide Sultan Tomb.
He was later appointed judge of Medina, and then became a member of the Meclis-i İdare-i Emvâl-i Eytâm. Established in 1874 within the Şeyhülislam’s office, this council was one of the higher institutions overseeing the property and funds of orphans.
Abdüssamed İsmet Efendi, honored with the Istanbul pâye, died in 1902 at the age of eighty-seven and was buried in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery.
Epitaph
He is the Eternal. A Fatiha for the soul of Hacı Abdüssamed İsmet Efendi, who served for a long time as First Member of the Pious Foundations Inspection Court, later as Judge of Medina and then as a member of the Council for the Administration of Orphans’ Property, was awarded the Istanbul rank, and died at the age of eighty-seven.
O my Lord! Your servant Abdüssamed rubs his face at Your threshold awaiting Your grace and generosity. Forgive his sins and faults on account of his old age. You have a ruling concerning the forgiveness of the elderly. He attained many of Your blessings in this world; grant him Your blessings in the hereafter as well. Let his eyes be dazzled by the light of Your aid so that he does not see the severe states of the hereafter. As a supplication coinciding with his death, it was written: "O Allah, let İsmet’s station be the Paradise of Your grace." Year 1902.
A Fatiha for his/her soul