Background
He was born in the Eyüp neighborhood of Istanbul as the son of Halit Efendi and Zehra Hanim.
He was born in the Eyüp neighborhood of Istanbul as the son of Halit Efendi and Zehra Hanim.
Later, he worked for the Istanbul Municipality Conservatory. He regularly performed on the kudüm drum at ceremonies commemorating Mevlana in Konya when the government lifted the restrictions for these occasions. He died in Eyüp. He started his musical studies under Ahmed Irsoy, from whom he learned over a thousand religious and nonreligious songs.
He learned the Ney from Hakkı Dede.
He was educated in the traditional school of Turkish music which was learned from teacher to student. He was against the theoretical approach formed by scholars Arel, Ezgi and Uzdilek (the so-called Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek system).
He composed over 15 songs and taught many important musicians, including Kâni Karaca, Aziz Bahriyeli, Hüseyin Top, and Ahmet Özhan.