Ahmed Ağa — Mîr-i Alem

In Modern English

He was a native of Amasya. He was the brother of Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha, who rose from the mirahurship (master of the stable) of Sultan Selim Han to the vizierate. In his youth he was an extremely strong wrestler; it is famous that he went under a tall camel and lifted it. Because he was the wrestler of Sultan Ahmed, he had fallen from favour in 918 [1512]. Later, through his strength and valour, he rose and became mîr-i alem. He gained fame by taking part in many battles. He died around 940 [1533-34]. He was called "Sekbân-ı rüzgâr" (the sekban of the age). He was a wrestler among the masters of the archers; his name is famous in the treatises on archery.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• mîrahor: head of the palace stables
• pehlivân: wrestler, a strong and sturdy champion
• menkûb: fallen from favour, struck by misfortune
• şecâat: valour, courage
• mîr-i alem: palace ağa in charge of the sultan's banner, horsetail standard and military band
• sekbân: originally a class of soldiers who tended hunting dogs and were later attached to the Janissary corps; here meaning a valiant soldier
• rüzgâr: time, era, age
• tîrendâzân: arrow shooters, archers
• risâle: small book, treatise

His Elder Brother Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha

Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha, shown as Ahmed Ağa's brother, is among the commanders who stood out most in the eastern conquests of the time of Yavuz Sultan Selim. Present-day sources say that nothing is known of his origin and early years, that it has been claimed he belonged to the Akkoyunlu, and that he was probably of kul (slave-soldier) origin and trained in the Enderun. Hüsameddin's calling both brothers "of Amasya" is therefore a record not found in other sources. Mehmed Ağa, who was mirahur when Yavuz came to the throne, was sent as vanguard against Prince Ahmed and rendered great service at the Battle of Yenişehir on 15 April 1513. During the Çaldıran campaign he took Bayburt and Kiğı, in 1515 he took part in the conquest of Kemah Fortress, and then he played the leading role, together with İdrîs-i Bitlisî, in the conquest of the Diyarbekir region. The people of Diyarbakır still remember him as the conqueror of their city; the Fâtih Pasha Mosque he had built there, known as the Kurşunlu (Leaded) Mosque because its dome is covered with lead, still stands. According to his gravestone inscription he died on 24 Muharram 928 (24 December 1521).

These sources mention as Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha's brother only Üveys Pasha, who was beylerbeyi of Baghdad and Aleppo in 1533-1534 and was killed in 1547 by a brigand called Pehlivan Hasan. No brother named Ahmed Ağa is mentioned. That Ahmed Ağa fell from favour in 918 because he was Prince Ahmed's wrestler is noteworthy: while his elder brother was fighting on Selim's side, he himself was in the service of the rival prince. If Hüsameddin's record is correct, his brother's standing with Yavuz may have contributed to his later rise; but this is a conjecture.

His Relation to the Famous Archer Mîrialem Ahmed Ağa

A wrestler known in Ottoman archery history as "Mîrialem Ahmed Ağa" is counted among the most renowned archers of the sixteenth century. According to the entry in Reşad Ekrem Koçu's İstanbul Ansiklopedisi, this Ahmed Ağa was among the içoğlans (palace pages) of Süleyman the Magnificent in his princely days; when Süleyman came to the throne, he brought him from Manisa and placed him among the ağas of the Has Oda (Privy Chamber) in the palace, and from there sent him out of the palace as mîrialem. On the Okmeydanı, at the lodos (south-wind) range that no one had reached since the famous Tozkoparan İskender, he set a stone marker with a record shot beyond thirty-five gez, using an arrow made by Hasan Çelebi, author of the treatise of the archers, and a bow made by Usta Ali of Edirne. It is told that as a young champion in Manisa he lifted a donkey loaded with firewood into the air by its legs, carried a camel calf on his shoulder, and carried two slaughtered sheep hung from his little fingers. It is also reported that at the siege of Rhodes he threw an iron cannonball by hand over the fortress wall, and that after he passed seventy, when someone in the bowmakers' market said to him "you have grown old now," he answered by holding a chain on horseback and hauling himself up together with his horse.

In more popular accounts it is added that this Ahmed Ağa was of Bosnian origin, that he broke his record in 1532 with 1271 gez, and that he received the captaincy of Gelibolu as a reward; these details could not be verified by an academic source. Between Hüsameddin's Ahmed Ağa and this famous archer there are both similarities and clear contradictions. Both are mîr-i alem, both have extraordinary strength told through stories of lifting animals, both names appear in the archery treatises, and both lived in the early years of Süleyman's reign. On the other hand, Hüsameddin's hero is from Amasya, was Prince Ahmed's wrestler, and died around 940; the archer in the İstanbul Ansiklopedisi was Süleyman's içoğlan in Manisa and lived past seventy. It is possible that Hüsameddin merged two different persons, and equally possible that different traditions formed about the same person. With the sources at hand there is no definite answer to this question.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 130–130. amasya.bel.tr
• "İnsan ejderhası: Mirialem Ahmed Ağa", Tarih Arşivi. https://tariharsivi.org/icerik/2578/insan-ejderhasi-mirialem-ahmed-aga.html

Academic studies

• "Bıyıklı Mehmed Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/biyikli-mehmed-pasa

Books

• Reşad Ekrem Koçu, "Ahmed Ağa (Mîrialem)", İstanbul Ansiklopedisi. https://istanbulansiklopedisi.org/handle/rek/3299