Hocazâde

Hocazâde, whose real name was Mustafa bin Yûsuf bin Sâlih, was born in Bursa; the date of his birth is not known. He is counted among the leading Ottoman scholars of the era of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. His father, a merchant possessing great wealth, opposed his son's choosing the path of learning and gave him only one akçe a day. For this reason the young Hocazâde, having no money to buy books, would purchase the cheapest paper and study by writing out his lessons himself. He studied methodology (usûl), rhetoric (meânî), and eloquence (beyân) under Kâdı Ayasuluğ; he learned the rational and transmitted sciences with Hızır Bey bin Celâl. Hızır Bey appointed him as assistant teacher (muid), after which he was appointed kadi of Kestel. He taught for six years at the Esediyye Medrese in Bursa, and during this period he examined the Şerh-i Mevâkıf from beginning to end and memorized it. When he heard of the affection that Sultan Mehmed showed to scholars, he set out; he covered his travel expenses with eight hundred akçe borrowed from one of his students. In the discussions he held with Molla Seyyid Ali and Molla Zeyrek in the imperial tent, he demonstrated his scholarly superiority and gained esteem. He held the offices of military judge (kazasker) of Edirne, mufti of Istanbul and İznik, and professor (müderris); he taught at the Bursa Sultaniye and Istanbul Sahn-ı Semân medreses. He was reconciled with his father, who came to Edirne to visit his son who had become a kazasker, after the great banquet he gave. Toward the end of his life both his feet and his right hand were paralyzed; he was able to write with his left hand, and in this condition, by order of Bayezid II, he was writing a gloss (hâşiye) on the Şerh-i Mevâkıf. He took pride in being a professor rather than in holding office. According to the sources, when Fâtih asked Ali Kuşçu, 'How did you find Hocazâde?', he replied, 'He has no equal in Rum or in Persia,' and the sultan said, 'He has no peer even among the Arabs.'