Hacı İsmail Hakkı Efendi

Born in 1256 in the Hijri calendar (1840-1841), Hacı İsmail Hakkı Efendi was one of the late Ottoman scholars known by the nisba Dramalı.

İsmail Hakkı Efendi granted ijazahs three times at Fatih Mosque and participated as mukarrir in the Huzur Dersleri held before the sultan during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II. In the 1898 Huzur Dersi list, “Dramalı Hacı İsmail Hakkı Efendi” appears as the mukarrir of the fourth lesson.

The Huzur Dersleri were Qur’anic commentary lessons held in the palace during Ramadan; the scholar who delivered the lesson was called the mukarrir, while the scholars who took part in the scholarly discussion were called muhataps.

His scholarly legacy was not limited to his students. He wrote a commentary, or explanatory notes, on Mülteka’l-ebhur, one of the basic works used in Ottoman madrasas and legal circles. His work was printed under the title Haşiyeli Mülteka.

Hacı İsmail Hakkı Efendi, who at the time of his death was a member of the Meclis-i İntihâb-ı Hükkâm, the Council for the Selection of Judges, and the Meclis-i Mesâlih-i Talebe, the Student Affairs Council, died of heart failure on Wednesday, 6 Jumada al-Awwal 1319 (21 August 1901), and was buried in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery.

Hacı İsmail Hakkı Efendi’s grave inscription was written by Hulusi Yazgan, regarded as one of the most important names in late Ottoman calligraphy, whose panels are found in Sultanahmet Mosque, the Sultan Selim Tomb, and the Bâyezid and Merkez Efendi mosques.