Mulla Effendi - Early Life and Family

Early Life and Family

Mulla Abu Bakr Effendi's family is traced back to a known family that emigrated from Iran along with other families during the 16th century at the time of Shah Ismail I Safawi of Iran and settled in Arbil. The reason for the emigration was due to differences between the chief leader of the family and the ruling Shah.

For several generations before him, his ancestors were famous scholars teaching Islamic studies at the Great Mosque at the Citadel of Arbil. They were widely known and respected throughout Kurdistan for their piety and knowledge. He was named "Küçük Mulla" or "Malla i Gichka" (that means "Little Mulla") after his grandfather Abu Bakr III Effendi (1778–1855) who was known by that name because he completed his study of Islamic sciences in a record period as no one had done before in that age.

Mulla Effendi received his education from his father, Hajji Omer Effendi, who was the speaker of the Great Mosque. Mulla Effendi's passion for study and learning led him to start teaching and writing when he was young. He was only twenty eight years when he took his father's place after his father's death in 1891.

In 1908, Mulla Effendi renovated the Great Mosque. He taught Islamic philosophy, Islamic history, science, mathematics, astronomy and ethics. Only he could issue Fatwas in Arbil and for nearby tribes and villages where he granted more than hundred scientific licenses for scholars from different parts of Iraq, Iran, and the Middle East in general.

Mulla Effendi's whole family were consumptive, and he lost two wives and three daughters through this complaint. He was married four times during his life, and left two sons and three daughters. In 1913, he moved from his house at the citadel to his new house in Badawa (3 km southeast of the citadel, at (36°10′14.04″N 44°02′12.13″E / 36.1705667°N 44.0367028°E / 36.1705667; 44.0367028), after its completion.


Read more about this topic:  Mulla Effendi

Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or family:

    ... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.
    George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)

    In the early forties and fifties almost everybody “had about enough to live on,” and young ladies dressed well on a hundred dollars a year. The daughters of the richest man in Boston were dressed with scrupulous plainness, and the wife and mother owned one brocade, which did service for several years. Display was considered vulgar. Now, alas! only Queen Victoria dares to go shabby.
    M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)

    —No, no thou hast not felt the lapse of hours!
    For what wears out the life of mortal men?
    ‘Tis that from change to change their being rolls;
    ‘Tis that repeated shocks, again, again,
    Exhaust the energy of strongest souls
    And numb the elastic powers.
    Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)

    I swear ... to hold my teacher in this art equal to my own parents; to make him partner in my livelihood; when he is in need of money to share mine with him; to consider his family as my own brothers and to teach them this art, if they want to learn it, without fee or indenture.
    Hippocrates (c. 460–c. 370 B.C.)