Hoca Osman Efendi

Hoca Osman Efendi was an Ottoman scholar born in the Ahıska region of the Caucasus who later came to Istanbul. Family memories relate that in his youth he took part in wars in his homeland, then came to Istanbul with his father’s permission to pursue scholarly study, bringing his sword with him.

Osman Efendi studied in the Fatih madrasas in Istanbul and over time rose to become a madrasa professor and dersiâm of Fatih Mosque.

His son Hafız Süleyman Sürûrî Efendi served as imam of Atikali Paşa Mosque. Hoca Osman Efendi’s family also produced important figures in the Republican period. Ayşe Hümeyra Ökten, one of Turkey’s well-known women physicians, was Osman Efendi’s second-generation granddaughter.

Ahıskalı Hoca Osman Efendi died on the Gurra-i Rajab 1307, that is, 1 Rajab 1307 (21 February 1890). It is related that before his death he told his son, “They have given me a room in Fatih,” and that, while his funeral was about to be taken elsewhere, he was buried in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery upon an imperial order from Sultan Abdülhamid II.