Amasyalıdır. Amasya beylerbeyi Hacı Şâdgeldi Paşazâde Devâtdâr Ahmed Paşa’nın dâmâdı olan Eretnazâde Mehmed Bey bin Ali Bey bin Mehmed Bey bin Sultân Eretna Hân’ın mahdûmudur. Ceddi Sivas ve Kayseriye hükümdârı olan Alâeddîn Ali Bey, kesret-i cevârî ve cimâ’ından dolayı halk arasında Horoz Bey diye meşhûr olmuşdu. [372]
Pederi 782’de Kadı Burhân’ın Sivas’ı istilâsında kaçıp Amasya Emîr-i Kebîri Hacı Şâdgeldi Paşa’ya sığınmıştı. Kendisi Devâtdâr Ahmed Paşa’nın kerîmezâdesi olup Amasya’da doğdu. Çelebi Sultân Mehmed Hân’ın evâ’il-i hükûmetinde züamâdan, ba’dehû ümerâdan olarak Tokat sancağı beyi oldu.
Sultân Murâd Hân-ı Sânî devrinde Sivas sancağı beyi olup hayli müddet orada kaldı. 837’de vefât edib Tokat’ın Meydân Köprüsü başında peder ve ceddi türbesinde defnedildi. Meşâhîr-i ümerâdan idi.
Mahdûmları Pîr Ahmed, Mehmed Beylerdir. Kerîmeleri de Bula, Fâtıma hâtunlar ve Selçuk Paşa’dır. 827 târîhli vakfiyesi müseccel olup pederinden kendisine intikâl eden Amasya’da Kızlar Sarayı altında Helkis kapısı kurbunda kâin konağını vakfetdiği vakfiyesinde mezkûrdur. Bir kerîmesi de Hundî Şâh olup 848’de vefât etdi.
Birâderi Yûsuf Bey de Amasya ümerâsından olup 838’de vefât etdi. Bunun da mahdûmu Mehmed Bey’dir. [373]
Vakfiyesinde “Kudvetü’l-e’âzım melîkü’l-ümerâ el-emîri’l-mu’âzzam Zahîreddîn Ahmed Bey bin Mehmed Bey bin Ali Bey” diye yazılıdır. Ezinepazarı nâhiyesinde Gürüp, Sarıalan, Bât, İmek nâm-ı diğer mezra’-ı Kara İbrâhim köylerini vakfetmişdi.
In Modern English
He was from Amasya. He was the son of Eretnazâde Mehmed Bey, who was son-in-law of Devâtdâr Ahmed Pasha, son of Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, beylerbeyi of Amasya; Mehmed Bey was the son of Ali Bey, Ali Bey the son of Mehmed Bey, and Mehmed Bey the son of Sultan Eretna Han. His grandfather, Alâeddîn Ali Bey, ruler of Sivas and Kayseri, had become famous among the people as "Horoz Bey" (Rooster Bey) because of the great number of his concubines and his fondness for women.
His father, when Kadı Burhân took Sivas in 782 [1380-81], had fled and taken refuge with the great emir of Amasya, Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha. He himself was the son of the daughter of Devâtdâr Ahmed Pasha and was born in Amasya. In the first years of the reign of Çelebi Sultan Mehmed Han, first as one of the holders of zeamets and then as one of the beys, he became sanjak governor of Tokat.
In the time of Sultan Murad II Han he became sanjak governor of Sivas and remained there a long time. He died in 837 [1433-34] and was buried in the tomb at the head of the Meydan Bridge in Tokat, where his father and grandfather lie. He was one of the famous beys.
His sons were Pîr Ahmed and Mehmed Beys. His daughters were Bula and Fâtıma Hatuns and Selçuk Pasha. His waqf deed of 827 [1423-24] is entered in the register; in this deed it is written that he endowed his mansion in Amasya, which had passed to him from his father, below the Kızlar Sarayı near the Helkis Gate. He had one more daughter, Hundî Şah; she too died in 848 [1444-45].
His brother Yûsuf Bey was also one of the beys of Amasya and died in 838 [1434-35]. His son, too, is Mehmed Bey.
In his waqf deed his name is written as "leader of the great, sovereign of the beys, exalted emir Zahîreddîn Ahmed Bey bin Mehmed Bey bin Ali Bey". He had endowed the villages of Gürüp, Sarıalan and Bât, and İmek, whose other name was the mezra Kara İbrâhim, in the nahiye of Ezinepazarı.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- kesret-i cevârî ve cimâ': the great number of concubines and sexual indulgence
- istilâ: seizing by force
- emîr-i kebîr: great emir, the chief administrator of the region
- kerîmezâde: daughter's son, grandson
- evâ'il-i hükûmet: the early years of a reign
- züamâ: holders of zeamets (large timars)
- ba'dehû: after that
- ümerâ: beys, emirs
- meşâhîr: the famous
- müseccel: entered in the kadı's register
- intikâl: passing by inheritance
- kurb: near, vicinity
- kudvetü'l-e'âzım: leader of the great
- melîkü'l-ümerâ: sovereign of the beys (a title of respect)
- mezra': land that is sown and reaped but has no settled village on it
The Last Links of the Eretnid Line
Horozoğlu Ahmed Bey comes from the ruling family of the Eretna Principality, founded with the dissolution of Ilkhanid authority in central Anatolia. The information Kemal Göde gives on the Eretnids confirms the chain of descent Hüsameddin sets out. When Gıyâseddin Mehmed Bey, son of Alâeddin Eretna, was killed, his thirteen-year-old son Ali Bey was proclaimed sultan with the title "Alâeddin". The sources present him as an incapable ruler: in his time Hacı Şadgeldi in Amasya, Mutahharten in Erzincan, Sheikh Necib in Tokat and other emirs began to act on their own in their regions. The nickname "Horoz Bey" that Hüsameddin relays does not appear in these sources; but it is a popular name that coincides with the general opinion about the ruler's distance from affairs of state.
Alâeddin Ali Bey caught the plague on his second Amasya campaign, undertaken at the urging of Kadı Burhâneddin, and died in 782 [1380]. His seven-year-old son Mehmed II was placed on the throne; Kadı Burhâneddin, who seized power soon after, proclaimed his own sultanate in the autumn of 1381 and ended Eretnid rule. The Mehmed Bey of whom Hüsameddin says "his father fled when Kadı Burhân seized Sivas in 782 and took refuge with Hacı Şadgeldi Pasha" is this last Eretnid ruler, a child in age. That a child who had lost his throne took refuge with Şadgeldi Pasha, emir of Amasya and Kadı Burhâneddin's greatest rival, is politically understandable. His later marriage to a granddaughter of Şadgeldi Pasha also shows that this refuge turned into a family tie.
A Point on Which He Differs from Hüsameddin
Hüsameddin says that Ahmed Bey was buried in Tokat "in the tomb of his father and grandfather". But according to the information Göde gives, his grandfather Alâeddin Ali Bey was buried in Kayseri, in the domed tomb in the courtyard of the Köşkmedrese, where his father and grandfather also lie. In that case the tomb in Tokat must belong not to Ahmed Bey's grandfather but at most to his father Mehmed Bey and the branch of the family that settled in Tokat. Hüsameddin's word "ced" (ancestor) perhaps points to a more distant forebear or to the family as a whole.
The Horozoğlu Tomb and Zaviye in Tokat
In the Meydan Quarter of Tokat, south of the Meydan Mosque, there is a ruined building today called the "Pir Ahmet Bey Tomb" or "Horozoğlu Tomb". Since it has no inscription, it is not known exactly when or in whose name it was built. The sarcophagi inside, one of wood and twelve of marble, were moved to the Tokat Museum when the tomb showed danger of collapse, and later its vault of rubble stone collapsed. From the names and dates on the sarcophagi it is understood that the building is the family cemetery of Pîr Ahmed Bey and was built in the fifteenth century. It is a square-plan building in the style of an eyvan; today its upper cover and eyvan arch are entirely fallen.
Next to the tomb is another building known as the Horozoğlu Zaviye or Pîr Ahmed İmareti. This zaviye, which has no inscription, is believed to have been built by Pîr Ahmed Bey in the time of Çelebi Mehmed. According to Hüsameddin, Pîr Ahmed is the son of Ahmed Bey, the subject of our article. In local records, however, the Pîr Ahmed Bey in the tomb is presented as "the son of Alâeddin Ali Bey, one of the Eretna beys"; this information may arise from the generations being mixed up because the family name ("Horozoğlu") was carried down through generations. According to another view, the tomb belongs to Horozoğlu Ahmed Bey, one of the men of Çelebi Mehmed who died during the struggle for the throne with his brother Süleyman Çelebi. The death date of 837 [1433-34] that Hüsameddin gives does not fit this view; the throne struggles of the Interregnum ended when Çelebi Mehmed secured unity in the country in 1413. That Hüsameddin saw the waqf deed of 827 [1423-24] also shows that Ahmed Bey was still alive long after these struggles.
His Ties to Amasya
Ahmed Bey's mother was the daughter of Devâtdâr Ahmed Pasha. Elsewhere in his work Hüsameddin records that the mother of Sultan Murad II was also Şehzade Hatun, daughter of Devâtdâr Ahmed Pasha; this view is disputed in present-day research, and the general opinion is that Murad's mother was Emine Hatun of the Dulkadir dynasty. If Hüsameddin's own genealogical records are taken as the basis, Horozoğlu Ahmed Bey and Murad II are cousins through their mothers. This is a conclusion drawn from the information Hüsameddin gives; it has not been confirmed in another source.
The record that his mansion in Amasya was "below the Kızlar Sarayı, near the Helkis Gate" shows that this family of Eretnid descent lived in the distinguished quarter at the foot of the Amasya fortress. His endowing in 827 [1423-24] this mansion that came from his father is one of the last traces of the family's presence in Amasya before it settled in Tokat.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 119–119. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
- Kemal Göde, "Eretnaoğulları", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 11, İstanbul 1995. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/eretnaogullari
- Halil İnalcık, "Murad II", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 31, Ankara 2020. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/murad-ii
- Aydın Taneri, "Bayezid Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 5, İstanbul 1992. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/bayezid-pasa
Official sources
Books
Other sources