Dede Halife

Dede Halife is one of the famous Ottoman scholars who lived in the sixteenth century. It is stated that in his youth he occupied himself with trade and leather tanning (tanning craft), that until the age of twenty he was not engaged in learning and had not attended the discourse of any person of knowledge. It is related that while he was tanning leather in Amasya, he was taken to a garden to host a mufti who had come to the city; and that there, upon hearing the words the mufti spoke about him, he experienced a powerful transformation toward seeking knowledge. According to the sources, it is recounted that he approached the mufti and expressed his desire to learn, and that while praying he placed his face upon the ground and passed into a state of ecstasy. It is stated that under the mufti's guidance he began the pursuit of knowledge and advanced with great diligence. In Bursa he worked as a teaching assistant (muid) under Professor Sinanüddin at the Sultan Murad Madrasa; thereafter he served as a professor for a long time in various madrasas. He finally retired from the Süleyman Pasha Madrasa in İznik and was given the office of mufti. It is recorded that he possessed deep knowledge in the sciences of exegesis and jurisprudence; that he wrote a gloss (hashiya) on a commentary of one of Taftazani's works; and that he also had a poem (manzuma) on jurisprudence and treatises on various sciences. It is stated that he died in 1565 (973 AH).