Yusuf Ziyaeddin Efendi

Born in 1830 in the Tikveş district of the Salonica province, Yusuf Ziyaeddin Efendi completed his early education in his hometown and came to Istanbul in 1853. He studied with well-known scholars of the period and received his ijazah.

Yusuf Ziyaeddin Efendi began teaching at Fatih Mosque in 1860 and trained students there for nearly half a century. Among those who passed through his instruction were Mehmed Hâlis Efendi, buried immediately beside him in the cemetery, as well as Manastırlı İsmail Hakkı Efendi and Ödemişli Mustafa Fehmi Efendi.

He took part from 1866 onward in the Huzur Dersleri, the distinguished scholarly sessions of Sultan Abdülhamid II’s reign, and between 1874 and 1908 served as mukarrir, delivering Qur’anic commentary lessons before the sultan.

In 1877, Yusuf Ziyaeddin Efendi entered the first Ottoman Chamber of Deputies as an Istanbul deputy. In 1903, he chaired the advisory delegation sent to calm the disturbances in the Rumelian provinces.

When a phrase he used during the Huzur Dersleri was proposed for alteration, he refused on the grounds that the scholarly meaning would be harmed. This stance was appreciated by Sultan Abdülhamid II.

Described on his inscription as one of the authorized dersiâms of Fatih Mosque and as “Reisü’l-ulemâ,” Yusuf Ziyaeddin Efendi died in 1920 and was buried in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery.