Çırçırlı Ali Efendi
Ali Efendi, known by the epithets "Çırçırlı" and "Haydarlı" in reference to the districts where he resided in Istanbul, was originally named Mehmed Ali. Although he was one of the remarkably powerful calligraphers of the Jali Thuluth script, very little information is available about his life. While serving as an apprentice clerk (hulefa) in the Bureau of Old Revenues at the Ministry of Finance, he was appointed assistant to the clerk of the Central Offices (Deva'ir-i Merkezî), from which post he eventually retired.
Possessing a reclusive and dervish-like character, he never married. When he faced financial hardship in his final years, he initially settled in a small bachelor's room near the New Mosque in Üsküdar. Later, at the invitation of Fahreddin Efendi—son of Necib Efendi, one of the sheikhs of the Sha'baniyya Order to which Ali Efendi belonged—he moved to the lodge (dargah) in Aksaray, where he passed away on 30 Rabi' al-Awwal 1320 AH / 7 July 1902 CE. In accordance with his last wishes, he was buried in the Karacaahmet Cemetery, on the left side of the street leading from Tunusbağı to the Shrine of Karaca Ahmed.
Ali Efendi, known by the epithets "Çırçırlı" and "Haydarlı" in reference to the districts where he resided in Istanbul, was originally named Mehmed Ali. Although he was one of the remarkably powerful calligraphers of the Jali Thuluth script, very little information is available about his life. While serving as an apprentice clerk (hulefa) in the Bureau of Old Revenues at the Ministry of Finance, he was appointed assistant to the clerk of the Central Offices (Deva'ir-i Merkezî), from which post he eventually retired.
Possessing a reclusive and dervish-like character, he never married. When he faced financial hardship in his final years, he initially settled in a small bachelor's room near the New Mosque in Üsküdar. Later, at the invitation of Fahreddin Efendi—son of Necib Efendi, one of the sheikhs of the Sha'baniyya Order to which Ali Efendi belonged—he moved to the lodge (dargah) in Aksaray, where he passed away on 30 Rabi' al-Awwal 1320 AH / 7 July 1902 CE. In accordance with his last wishes, he was buried in the Karacaahmet Cemetery, on the left side of the street leading from Tunusbağı to the Shrine of Karaca Ahmed.
