Amasyalıdır. Köprülü Mehmed Paşa’nın ağalarından Hacı Beyzâde Halil Ağa’nın mahdûmudur. 1088 senesi muharreminin yirminci günü Amasya sancağı beyi olup harbe me’mûr olduğundan kethüdâyeri Hatîbzâde Küçük Mehmed Ağa Amasya mütesellimi oldu.
Rebîülevvel evâilinde Müftü Şeyhî Mehmed Efendi, Amasya fetvâsından azl edilip Sultâniyye Müderrisi Îydî Bayram Efendi Amasya müftüsü ve on beşinde Nâib Mahmûd Efendi’nin yerine Ahmed Efendi Amasya nâibi ve yirmisinde Taşçızâde Ahmed Ağa’nın ref‘inde Nasûhzâde el-Hâc Hamza Ağa şehir kethüdâsı oldu.
Şevvâlde Amasya Beyi Ahmed Bey’e Adana Beylerbeyiliği tevcîh edildiğinden Amasya sancağı, Girit Muhâfızı ve Resmo sancağı Mutasarrıfı Vezîr Ankebût Ahmed Paşa’ya has arpalık olmak üzere tahsis edildi. [169]
In Modern English
He was a native of Amasya. He was the son of Hacı Beyzâde Halil Ağa, one of the ağas of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha. On the twentieth day of Muharram 1088 he became sanjak governor (sancak beyi) of Amasya. Since he was assigned to war, the city steward Hatîbzâde Küçük Mehmed Ağa became mütesellim of Amasya.
At the beginning of Rabi' al-Awwal, Mufti Şeyhî Mehmed Efendi was removed from the muftiship of Amasya, and Îdî Bayram Efendi, professor of the Sultâniyye (the Sultan Bâyezîd Madrasa), became mufti of Amasya. On the fifteenth of the month Ahmed Efendi became naib of Amasya in place of Naib Mahmûd Efendi; on the twentieth Taşçızâde Ahmed Ağa was dismissed and Nasûhzâde el-Hâc Hamza Ağa became city kethüda.
In Shawwal, since the Bey of Amasya Ahmed Bey was given the beylerbeyilik of Adana, the sanjak of Amasya was assigned as a has arpalık to the Vizier Ankebût Ahmed Pasha, Warden of Crete and Governor of the sanjak of Resmo.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mahdûm: son
- sancak beyi: mîrlivâ, the bey who governed a sanjak and did not hold the rank of pasha
- harbe me'mûr: charged with going to war
- fetvâdan azl: removal from the muftiship
- Sultâniyye müderrisi: professor of the Sultan Bâyezîd Madrasa
- ref‘: dismissal from office
- has: a high-revenue dirlik (revenue grant) given to viziers and beylerbeyis
- arpalık: a source of income assigned to great statesmen in addition to, or in place of, a salary or pension
An Error in the Date
In the text Ahmed Bey's sanjak governorship is placed on "the twentieth day of Muharram of the year 1088." Yet the previous entry tells that Deli Murtezâ Pasha came to Amasya on the first day of Muharram 1089 and, when he died nineteen days later, the sanjak was given to the mütesellim Ahmed Ağa; in 1088 the sanjak was first in the hands of Deli Emîr Mehmed Pasha and after Ramadan of Muruloğlu Mehmed Pasha. Accordingly the correct date should be 20 Muharram 1089 [March 1678]. This date, which corresponds exactly to the day of Murtezâ Pasha's death, also agrees with the rest of the entry: the appointment of Ankebût Ahmed Pasha in Shawwal is given in the next entry as 7 Shawwal 1089. Whether the error arose from Hüsameddin's pen or during printing is not known.
Ahmed Bey and the Hacı Beyzâdes
Ahmed Bey is the Ahmed Ağa who was introduced in the previous entry as the paternal cousin of Murtezâ Pasha and kethüda of the gatekeepers of Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha. That his father Hacı Beyzâde Halil Ağa was one of the ağas of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha shows that the family was raised at the Köprülü household for two generations. His passing directly from the mütesellimship to the sanjak governorship on Murtezâ Pasha's death secured the sanjak's staying within the family; but since he himself was sent to war, he left the administration to another mütesellim. His rank is not that of pasha but of sanjak governor; he left Amasya when he rose to the beylerbeyilik of Adana in Shawwal.
The Hacı Beyzâdes are an old family of Amasya, told through many generations in Hüsameddin's biographical volumes. It is written that Beylerbeyi Veli Pasha, son of Hacı İlyas Bey, and his son İlyas Pasha, who was in the retinue of Prince Mustafa, became mîrlivâ of the sanjak of Amasya in 977 [1569-70], and after the beylerbeyiliks of Kefe, Basra, and Lahsa died in Lahsa in 983 [1575-76]; that another member of the family, İlyas Bey, died in the bandit war of 1016 [1607], and another in the Polish campaign of 1030 [1621]. No information was found in other sources about Ahmed Bey's beylerbeyilik of Adana.
Has Arpalık
The giving of the sanjak of Amasya to Ankebût Ahmed Pasha as "has arpalık" shows that the sanjak was by now assigned less as an administrative post than as a source of income. Arpalık was originally a word for the barley money given for the animals of great statesmen and cavalry soldiers; over time it took on the meaning of income assigned in addition to a salary or in place of a pension. In the seventeenth century arpalıks covering one or several sanjaks were given to high-ranking administrators and viziers when they were dismissed, retired, showed merit in war and in the maintenance of order, or were charged with the protection and repair of a place or fortress. Ankebût Ahmed Pasha's case appears to fit the last: the pasha, who was charged with protecting Resmo in Crete, drew Amasya's revenue from there, while the sanjak was administered through a mütesellim.
Mufti, Naib, and City Kethüda
Îdî Bayram Efendi's return to the muftiship shows how the muftiship of Amasya changed hands in these years. Bayram Efendi, of Merzifon, had become mufti in Dhu al-Hijja 1085 and, when he went to Istanbul in Rabi' al-Awwal 1087, Şeyhî Mehmed Efendi had succeeded him. Bayram Efendi, who becomes mufti again here, will according to 4-79 be dismissed once more in 1091 "because he meddled in everything."
The biography of Nasûhzâde el-Hâc Hamza Ağa, appointed city kethüda, is in another volume of Hüsameddin. He is the son of el-Hâc Süleyman Ağa, one of the notables of Amasya and kapıcıbaşıs of the Sublime Porte, and son-in-law of the former mufti of Amasya, Hâbilzâde Vâiz Mehmed Efendi. According to the biography he became city kethüda in 1085, was dismissed a year later, became kethüda a second time in Safar 1089, was dismissed again in Shawwal 1093, took office a third time in 1095, and left office in the "affair of the Amirs" of 1098. There is a difference of one month between the biography's "Safar 1089" and this entry's "twentieth of Rabi' al-Awwal." He came from a deep-rooted family living in the Acem Ali quarter.
Bibliography
Primary sources
Academic studies