He was born to the family of “Avdeti” Hanuş Hanım and Receb Efendi (Paşarel) Bey, a merchant and one of the key figures in establishing the Terakki schools. The family house was located in the famous Sabbatean neighborhood of Salonica, Kadı Abdullah Efendi, He had one sister, Atiye Hanım (the wife of İsmail Hakkı Efendi) and three brothers: Emin Receb, who married a British woman and died in Manchester; Refik Receb; and İsmail Receb (1853–1913), who also married a British woman and died in England. All the brothers were in the textile business.

Mehmet Esat received his early education from a Dönme teacher. According to the account that he shared with his students, Esat had a dream during his childhood that changed the course of his life. In the dream, he saw himself as having fallen into a dark pit. The prophet Muhammed came and rescued him from the pit, upon which he was “ennobled with the glory of Islam.” During this time, he turned to Sufism and became a disciple of Sheikh Osman Efendi of the Bedevi order. He was subsequently initiated into the Mevlevi order, and then, at the age 23 in 1864, sought his fortune in Istanbul where he became one of the most influential Mevlevi sheikhs at the turn of the twentieth century. He became a disciple of Osman Selahaddin Dede, the Sheikh of the Yenikapı Mevlevi Lodge. And eventually was appointed the sheikh of the Yenikapı lodge and subsequently the Kasımpaşa Mevlevihane. He also went to pilgrimage twice and visited cities like Konya and Jerusalem on the way. According to Tatci, “In 1893, he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and taught for a while at the Haram-i Sharif. After returning to Istanbul in 1894, he went on another pilgrimage with his disciple, Tahir al-Mevlevi. During this trip, he received licenses in various Sufi orders, including the Chishti from Imdadullah Thani of India, the Idrisiyya from Ismail Nawwab of Mecca, and the Shadhiliyya from Tunisian Mustafa Efendi. Despite reports of his death in the Hejaz in 1900, he returned to Istanbul afterward…Esad Dede, who married briefly in Salonica, passed away on August 9, 1911, and was buried at the Mevlevi Lodge.” (Mustafa Tatci, “Mehmet Esad Dede”, DIA Encyclopedia of Islam). Once the lodge was turned into a school, his grave was later moved to another Mevlevi lodge, the Tahir Ağa Tekke in Fatih. Referring to Huseyin Vassaf’s unpublished book on Esad Efendi, Esadname, Tatci writes, “The work also includes letters about Esad Dede written by notable Mevlevis of the time, such as Hulûsîzâde Osman Nûri, Sheikh Seyfeddin Efendi, Ahmed Remzi Dede (Akyürek), Mehmed Ziyâ Efendi, Âdil Abdurrahman Efendi, Abdülbâki Dede (Baykara), Seyyid Hâfız Tahsin Efendi, Ahmet Avni (Konuk), and Mehmed Cemal Bey.”
Some of his students were Hüseyin Vassaf, Ahmed Avni Konuk, Mehmed Akif Ersoy, and Tahir ül- Mevlevi. He taught poetry, Arabic, and Persian in different mosques and madrasas, and wrote extensive commentaries on Ibn Arabi’s Fusus’l Hikem and Rumi’s Mesnevi, and came to be known as Mesnevihan (the one who reads and explicates Mesnevi). Not surprisingly, his name was included not only among the holy men (evliya) of the order but also in the bibliographical dictionaries of religious scholars (ulema), since he attended madrasas both in Salonica and Istanbul Mehmet Esat never disconnected from his family. One of the descendants of his family, Pamir Bezmen, relates that Esat continued to pay monthly visits to the office of his grandfather, Halil Ali Bezmen, to receive his “pocket money.”

Author: Cengiz Şişman