Composer, nay player, calligraphist, poet and
statesman (B. 1801, Tosya
/ Kastamonu – D. 16th November 1876, Istanbul). His father was Tosyalı
Bostanizade Mustafa Aga and his mother was one of the grandchildren of İsmail
Rumi Efendi, who was the founder of the Kadirî Dervish Convent in
After Sultan Abdülmecit acceded to the throne, Mustafa İzzet Efendi requested for the duty of
oratorical in the Mosque of Eyüp. Sultan Abdülmecit went to the Eyüp Mosque on
a Friday, he very liked the khutbah read by Mustafa Efendi and he made him the
second imam. He worked as the kadi of Salonika,
Mustafa İzzet Efendi was a very kind, very knowledgeable, gentleman, mature
and social man of middle height, with a beautiful gracious face and blue-eyes,
with ruddy cheeks and white beard, and he was loved by everybody. At that
period, he was called as “Kazasker Efendi” among the calligraphists
and the ones who loved music. He educated very
valuable calligraphists. Mustafa İzzet Efendi, who was one of the most
successful calligraphists of our calligraphy, didn’t do writing works on
Saturdays and he told “I would recognize
the writings I made on Saturdays from their nape even if forty years pass” because
the calligraphists should work every day. He also corrected the writings of
Sultan Mecit who was also a good calligraphist.
Mustafa İzzet Efendi also wrote a Koran with the calligraphy of ta'liq
in his youthfulness. In his work named “Son
Hattatlar”, İbnülemin Mahmut Kemal erroneously attributed this Koran to
Yesarîzâde. However, this writing was the only Koran written by Kazasker in
ta’liq and was decorated with a careful rococo ornamentation. Mustafa İzzet
Efendi, who was one of the most important and biggest representatives of the
science, art and politics world of the
Kazasker
Efendi produced mostly calligraphy works in the types of naskh, thuluth and jeli thuluth. He has a unique style in the
jeli writing type. Among his most famous calligraphy works, there was:
the verse of “Nur” in the band of the cupola and the panel of “Hulefay-ı Raşidîn” in Haghia Sophia
that was the biggest made until that day, the epigraph of ta’liq that is on the
door of the Istanbul University (the old Daire-i Umür-ı Askeriye) and on the
side that faces the garden, the two big panels in the Bursa Ulu Mosque, the
panels in Hırka-i Şerif Mosque and Kasımpaşa Mosque, the verse of “Nur” in the
Yahya Efendi Mausoleum, the “Süre-i
Dehr” and ta’liq date on the Kavalalı Mehmet Ali Paşa Mausoleum in
Egypt, sixteen Koran, fifteen Delailu'l-Hayrat, thirty “En’am” and kasaid, more than two hundred and fifty hilya and many
panels.
Kazasker Efendi produced mostly calligraphy works in the types of naskh,
thuluth, jeli thuluth and jeli ta’liq thuluth. As Uğur Derman says: “There is no music lover as good as Kazasker
among calligraphists. No calligraphists as good as Kazasker is seen among music
lovers”. It is told that an anonymous person told “Seigneurs! What you are entombing here is an education chest” while
he was buried in the cemetery of the dervish convent where his ancestor Şeyh
İsmail-i Rumi was entombed. His son Ata Bey worked very hard to get his picture
done, however his father opposed. The son of his daughter Tahsin Bey told that
he said the followings: “I don’t accept
that my image stays after I die. I won’t give my blessing if you make my
picture.”
He spent his last years in his seaside residence in Bebek. He lost his
life on 16th November 1876 and he was buried in the Cemetery of the
Kadirî Dervish Convent in Tophane. His gravestone was the work of his student
Muhsinzade Abdullah Hamdi Efendi.
WORKS:
The panels of caliph and the writing under
the cupola in Haghia Sophia Museum, the epigraph of ta’liq on the inside of the
door of the current Istanbul University, the old Daire-i Umür-ı Askeriye, the “Süre-i
Dehr” and date written with ta’liq calligraphy on the Mehmet Ali Paşa Mausoleum
in Egypt, works written in the types of naskh, thuluth, jeli thuluth
and jeli ta’liq thuluth, the two big panels in the Bursa Ulu Mosque and Hırka-i
Şerif Mosque, the writings carved to stone in Kasımpaşa Büyük Piyale Mosque and
even in the monument of Washington, the song in the bestenigâr maqam and on the tempo of ağır aksak and
the song in the maqam of segah and on the tempo of ağır aksak semai, two ağır aksak songs on the
mode of mâye that is one of our less used mode and two songs in the
maqams of bestenigar and
ferahnak, he also wanted to create works of instrumental music and he composed
a prelude on the mode of tarz-ı cedid, he composed two durak and one
hymn as religious musical works, he was the inventor of the mode named ‘Tarz-ı
Cedîd’ belonging to the science of Avâmil-i Muarrebî and Keşfü’l-İ’râb Musiki
and the prelude of this maqam belonged to him.