He was born in Tokat in 1075 (1664). A significant part of the information about his life comes from the works of Seyyid Yahya, one of his followers, which he started to write and completed by Hasib Üsküdârî. MenâkıbnâmeIt is based on the . Mehmed Emin, who spent his youth in Tokat, went to Istanbul in 1110 (1698) and settled in the Piri Pasha Madrasa in Zeyrek, where his fellow countrymen lived. During the years he stayed here, he studied religious sciences with Sheikh-ul-Islam Mirzazade Sheikh Mehmed Efendi. He studied the thuluth and naskh scripts from Yedikuleli Hâşimizâde Seyyid Abdullah Efendi and received his ijazah. He was also a master in ta'lik and other types of calligraphy (Müstakimzade, Tuhfe, p. 400). When he started to give lessons to the son of Ali Efendi, the chief clerk of the Ruznâmçe-i evvel, he attracted the attention of some statesmen and was appointed as the clerk of the reîsülküttâb office. While he continued in this position, he started to teach some students the divan of Hâfız-ı Şîrâzî in the Şehzadebaşı Mosque and in the house that Kesedar Ali Efendi had reserved for him. Statesmen such as İzzet Ali Pasha and Yeğen Mehmed Pasha also attended his lessons. When Kesedar Ali Efendi was assigned to Edirne in 1114 (1702), he took him with him to teach his son.

Here he met music masters Buhûrîzâde Mustafa Itrî Efendi, Küçük Muezzin Mehmed Efendi and Yahya Nazim Çelebi and began taking music lessons. However, when Ali Efendi’s son passed away a few months later and he was left free, the sheikh of the Qadiri Lodge, Mehmed Efendi, advised him to go on a pilgrimage and told him to send his greetings to the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi sheikh Ahmed Yekdest-i Juryani in Mecca. Mehmed Emin Tokadî went to Cairo by sea from Istanbul and from there reached the Hijaz (Rajab 1114 / November 1702). After his first morning prayer at the Kaaba, Mehmed Emin joined the dhikr circle of a dervish group that caught his attention and learned that the sheikh of the gathering was Ahmed Yekdest-i Juryani. Thereupon he became a follower of him and stayed with him for about three years. At the end of the hajj season of 1117 (1706), with the permission of his sheikh, he stayed in Cairo for three months and met with the Azhar scholars and sheikhs in the region, then returned to Istanbul. Mehmed Emin, who had taken the letter of his sheikh to the house of Hazinedar Kımıl Mehmed Bey upon his request, gave lessons in the Şehzadebaşı Mosque during these years. He attended the talks of the Halveti sheikh Îsâ Mahvî Efendi and Nureddin Sünbülî.

When Kimil Mehmed Bey was appointed to Abyssinia in 1122 (1710) as a governor, and then to the governorship of Jerusalem, he was with him as a scribe. When Kimil Mehmed Bey went to Mecca for his duty, he stopped by Medina and, as his sheikh had previously informed him, he met with one of his caliphs, Abdurrahim-i Bukhari, and received the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi caliphate from him. He met and became friends with the Darussalam Agha, Haji Bashir Agha, during this time. Mehmed Emin Tokadî, who stayed in Mecca until 1129 (1717), when Kimil Mehmed Bey was called to Istanbul, received the hadith license from Muhaddis Ahmed b. Muhammad en-Nahlî during this period. Mehmed Emin, who was first appointed as the Agha of the Darüssaâde in Istanbul and then continued to serve in the staff of Kımıl Mehmed Bey, who became the ruznâmçe-i evvel, got married after his death (1132/1719-20).

For a while, he was a tomb keeper at the Eyüp Sultan Tomb. He continued his guidance activities for many years without a dervish lodge sheikh. When the sheikh of the Emir Buhârî Lodge in Ayvansaray, Tokadi's patron Kırımlı Ahmed Efendi, passed away in 1156 (1743), Şeyhülislam Mustafa Efendi offered him the sheikhship of this lodge. Mehmed Emin accepted this offer on the condition that he would not reside in the lodge, and after serving as the sheikh of the lodge for about two years, he died on 15 Şâban 1158 (12 September 1745) and was buried in the Piri Pasha (Soğukkuyu) Mosque Cemetery in Zeyrek. On his tombstone inscription written in ta'lik script by Kâtibzâde Mehmed Refi, there is the following historical couplet by one of his disciples, Müstakimzâde Süleyman Sâdeddin Efendi: “The planet of unity reads its history from the pure secret of its secret / And the soul of the Trustworthy has become one who has recited the words of Allah.”

According to legend, one of his teachers, Ahmet Yekdest Cüryani, told him to bury him in a ruined place when he died, and Mehmet Emin Tokadi did so.

source : https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mehmed-emin-tokadi 

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