Starting out as a clerk of the poll tax (cizye kâtibi) in Amasya, Fazlızâde Âgâh Mehmed Efendi went on to become divan secretary (divan efendisi) of the Amasya-born vizier Ak Hasanzâde Hacı Halîl Paşa and spent years travelling from post to post with him; this man of the pen returned to his city after the pasha's death and died in 1208 (1793-94). Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar names him in Amasya Tarihi as "kâtib, şâir", secretary and poet, says that he saw a petition Âgâh wrote to the Sublime Porte on the pasha's behalf, but plainly adds that he could not find his poems. A modern Turkish rendering of the entry with notes on its vocabulary is found on this site in the study Âgah Mehmed Efendi-Fazlızâde; the other members of his family are described in The Fazlızâdes.

Hüsameddin's Record

In the sixth volume, among the people of Amasya whose names begin with the letter "elif", the record runs to only a few lines:

Âgah Mehmed Efendi-Fazlızâde Amasyalıdır. Fazlızâde el-Hâc Sa'id Ahmed Ağa bin el-Hâc Ali Efendi mahdûmudur. Tahsîl-i ilm ü kitâbet edib Amasya'da cizye kâtibi oldu. Badehu Ak Hasanzâde el-Hâc Halîl Paşa'ya intisab ederek dîvân efendisi olup devr-i bilâd etdi. 1200'de Hacı Halîl Paşa'nın vefâtında Amasya'ya gelip Recep Mahallesi'nde ikâmet ederek 1208 senesi hilâlinde vefât eyledi. Kâtib, şâir, fenn-i inşâya vâkıf idi. Halîl Paşa tarafından Bâb-ı âlîye yazdığı Niyâz-nâmesi görüldü, münşiyâne idi. Fakat eş'ârı bulunamadı.

In English: A man of Amasya, he is the son of Fazlızâde Hacı Saîd Ahmed Ağa bin Hacı Ali Efendi. He learned scholarship and the secretarial art and became clerk of the poll tax in Amasya. Later he attached himself to Ak Hasanzâde Hacı Halîl Paşa, became his divan secretary and travelled from city to city. On Hacı Halîl Paşa's death in 1200 he came to Amasya, settled in the Recep quarter and died in the course of the year 1208. He was a secretary and a poet, versed in the art of elegant prose (inşâ). His "Niyâz-nâme", which he wrote to the Sublime Porte on behalf of Halîl Paşa, has been seen; it was written in an ornate prose style. His poems, however, could not be found.

In the Service of Halîl Paşa

The longest stretch of Âgâh's life was shaped by the career of the pasha he served. According to Hüsameddin's entry in the ninth volume, Ak Hasanzâde es-Seyyid el-Hâc Halîl Paşa was a janissary and serdar of Amasya, born in the Eski Kethüda quarter of the city. In 1184 (1770-71) he went to the Russian war with volunteers he had gathered, and became a vizier in 1187 for his success in the defence of Tutrakan. In the following years he held the governorship of Şehrizor, the sanjaks of Niğde, Alaiye and Çorum, and twice the governorship of Adana; in 1195, because of a rising in Adana, his vizierate was withdrawn and he was exiled to Kütahya, and in 1196 he came to Amasya as an exile. He died in the middle of Receb 1200 (May 1786) while commander of İbrail and governor of the sanjak of Salonica. The phrase "he travelled from city to city" in Âgâh's entry describes this wandering. In which year Âgâh attached himself to the pasha, however, and at which of his posts he was with him, is not written in the source.

A divan secretary was the man who ran a pasha's correspondence and drafted official letters in his name. The "Niyâz-nâme" that Hüsameddin saw is the product of such work: a letter of request written on the pasha's behalf to the government in İstanbul. Hüsameddin gives neither its contents nor the year and occasion of its writing; he says only that it was composed "münşiyâne", in the style of ornate prose. The present whereabouts of the text are likewise a mystery.

His Poetry

Hüsameddin's record ends with the words "his poems could not be found", and the verdict still holds: not one poem by Âgâh has come to light. The only work seen by the author who counted him a poet was a prose text. "Âgâh" may have been a pen name (mahlas); even so, the entry gives no statement that he used this name in his poems.

Family

Âgâh belonged to the Fazlızâde family descended from the calligrapher Fazlullah Efendi; his father was Hacı Saîd Ahmed Ağa and his grandfather Hacı Ali Efendi. In the Recep quarter, where he settled after Halîl Paşa's death, stood one of the family's homes in the city. Hüsameddin says nothing of a marriage or of children.

Chronology

Receb 1200 (May 1786): Hacı Halîl Paşa dies; Âgâh returns to Amasya.

1208 (1793-94): He dies in Amasya.

Bibliography

Online sources