AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · ESER VE YAZAR HAKKINDA · 2. AMASYA TARİHİ HAKKINDA

2.1. Reason for Writing

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Introduction: The Work and Its Author, p. 38 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Songül KEÇECİ KURT

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

O dönemde İstanbul, Edirne, Bursa gibi şehirler dışındaki diğer önemli şehirlerin husûsî bir tarihinin bulunmayışı, Amasya gibi tarih sayfalarında çokça yer alan ve yetiştirmiş olduğu önemli şahsiyetleri ile Osmanlı Devleti’nde meşhur beldelerden sayılan bu şehrin her yönü ile ele alınmış bir tarih kitabının olmayışı Amasya Tarihi’nin te’lif sebebidir. Müellif kendi tâbiriyle işte bu aziz vatana nâçîzâne bir hizmet, İslâm tarihinin Amasya ile olan ilgisi ve meçhul yönlerinin keşfine gayret etmek amacıyla “Amasya Sancağı”nda yaşanan olaylar, ya da buradan yetişen devlet adamı, âlim, şair, şeyh, hayır ve sanat sahiplerini mümkün mertebe soyları ve eserlerini yazmaya çalışmıştır.⁶⁷

Eser 25 yıl boyuca İstanbul, Amasya, Bursa, Hicâz, Suriye ve diğer Osmanlı şehirlerinde bulunan kütüphanelerdeki eski eserler, mecmualar, tarih kitapları, mahkeme sicilleri, vakıf kayıtları, Osmanlı Devleti Dönemi’ne ait arazi ve tımar kayıtları, kitabeler gibi eski eserler mütalaa edilerek yazılmıştır.⁶⁸

Footnotes

  • 67 Amasya Tarihi, c. 1, s. 5.
  • 68 Amasya Tarihi, c. 1, s. 7.
Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

At that time, cities other than Istanbul, Edirne and Bursa had no special history. The reason for the writing of Amasya Tarihi is that there was no history book treating Amasya in all its aspects, although Amasya, which appears much in the pages of history and was counted among the famous settlements of the Ottoman state through the important figures it raised. In the author's own words, as a humble service to this dear homeland, with the aim of trying to discover the relation of Islamic history to Amasya and its unknown aspects, he tried to write, as far as possible together with their lineages and works, the events that took place in the "Sanjak of Amasya" or the statesmen, scholars, poets, sheikhs and men of charity and art raised from there.

The work was written over 25 years by reading old documents such as old works, journals, history books, court registers, waqf records, land and timar records of the Ottoman period, and inscriptions, in the libraries found in Istanbul, Amasya, Bursa, the Hejaz, Syria and other Ottoman cities.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • te'lif: writing and producing a work
  • husûsî: special, belonging to one subject or place
  • beldeler: cities, settlements
  • nâçîzâne: as a worthless, small job; an expression of modesty
  • meçhul: unknown
  • sancak: a subdivision of the province in Ottoman administration; the "Sanjak of Amasya" covers the city and its surroundings
  • mütalaa: reading and studying
  • tımar: the assignment of a part of state revenue to a military official in return for service; timar records are the registers of this system

Why a City's History Was Written

The author's rationale also shows the state of Ottoman city historiography at that time. What was common were histories written for the capital and the former capitals; an independent history for Anatolian cities was rare. In Amasya this gap had earlier, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, been filled to some extent by the mufti Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi's (1763-1831) book called Belâbilü'r-Râsiye; Vâzıh is therefore regarded as the pioneer of city historiography in Amasya. Hüsâmeddin's work is much broader.

The scope of the work is greater than the book says. According to the encyclopedia entry Amasya Tarihi is not only a history of a city and region, but also deals with general Turkish history. The first volume is devoted to the religious and cultural institutions of Amasya, the second volume to general Turkish history; the later volumes describe the period of the beyliks and the Ottomans, and the scholars, sheikhs and statesmen raised in Amasya. The author's aim of recording "together with their lineages and works" is particularly marked in the biography volumes. According to what Köksal reports, the author in the preface designed his work as two bâbs, assigning the first bâb, which takes up five volumes, to history and the remaining part to biographies.

Sources

The kinds of documents listed in the second paragraph sum up the nature of the sources the author consulted: court registers, waqf records, inscriptions, gravestones. The sources describing the author's life report that he found this material in Istanbul, Salonica, Chania, Damascus, the Hejaz, Amasya and Bursa. I could not verify the statement "25 years" here with an independent source; it is the book's own statement. The author's not having cited some of his sources is a separate subject of debate and is described in the previous entry.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Introduction: The Work and Its Author contents