Amasyalıdır. Sivas Hükümdârı Eretna Hân’ın vezîri olan Amasyalı Hoca Ali Şâh bin Nûreddîn Kutlu Bey bin Cemâleddîn Fîrûz Bey bin Şemseddîn Mahmûd et-Tuğra’î bin Baba İlyâs Horasânî mahdûmu ve Sivas vâlisi Hacı İbrâhim Bey’in kardeşidir.
Birâderinin Sivas emâretinde müdebbir-i umûru ve ser’askeri olup onun vefâtında Mısır’a firâr etdi. 783’de bilâd-ı [357] Rûm’a avdetle Amasya’ya geldi. Hacı Şâdgeldi-paşazâde Devâtdâr Ahmed Paşa’nın Amasya emâretini takviyyeye hizmet ederek benâm olup 788’de himâye-i Osmâniyyeyi istihsâle çalıştı. 791’de Kosova harbinde vefât etdi.
Mahdûmları Ulu, Oğuz Beylerdir. Amasya dâhilinde Efte Çiftliği Ulu Bey’e, Moramul Çiftliği de Oğuz Bey’e intikâl etdiğine dâ’ir 892 târîhli bir hüccet-i şer’iyye görüldü. Ulu Beyzâde Sultân, Bâyezîd Beyler ümerâdandır. Sultân Beyzâde Bâyezîd Ata meşâyih-i kirâmdan olup Efte’de binâ etdiği zâviyesi kurbunda medfûndur. Oğuz Beyzâde Bâyezîd Bey’in de Moramul’da câmî’ ve mektebi var idi.
In Modern English
He was a native of Amasya. He is the son of Hoca Ali Şâh of Amasya, who was vizier to Eretna Han, ruler of Sivas, and the brother of Hacı İbrâhim Bey, governor of Sivas. Hoca Ali Şâh was the son of Nûreddîn Kutlu Bey; he of Cemâleddîn Fîrûz Bey; he of Şemseddîn Mahmûd et-Tuğrâî; and he in turn the son of Baba İlyâs-ı Horasânî.
He was manager of affairs and commander-in-chief in his brother's emirate of Sivas; upon his brother's death he fled to Egypt. In 783 [1381] he returned to Anatolia and came to Amasya. He became known by serving to strengthen the emirate of Amasya of Devâtdâr Ahmed Pasha, son of Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, and in 788 [1386] he tried to secure Ottoman protection. He died in the Battle of Kosovo in 791 [1389].
His sons are Ulu and Oğuz Bey. A sharia court document (hüccet) dated 892 [1486-87] was seen stating that within the borders of Amasya the Efte Farm passed to Ulu Bey and the Moramul Farm to Oğuz Bey. Ulu Bey's sons Sultân and Bâyezîd Bey were emirs. Bâyezîd Ata, son of Sultân Bey, was among the worthy sheikhs and is buried near the zawiya he built at Efte. Bâyezîd Bey, son of Oğuz Bey, also had a mosque and a school at Moramul.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- müdebbir-i umûr: manager of affairs
- ser'asker: commander-in-chief
- bilâd-ı Rûm: the land of Rum, Anatolia
- Devâtdâr: inkwell-bearer; the title of the palace official in charge of the ruler's writing affairs
- himâye-i Osmâniyye: Ottoman protection
- istihsâl: obtaining, securing
- intikâl: passing to someone by inheritance
- hüccet-i şer'iyye: an official document drawn up by a kadı's court
- kurb: near
A Vizier Family of the Line of Baba İlyâs
The genealogy Hüsameddin gives connects Ahmed Bey with Baba İlyâs-ı Horasânî, leader of the Babaî movement. Şemseddîn Mahmûd et-Tuğrâî, the first link of this chain, also appears as a son of Baba İlyâs in what Hüsameddin writes on the family of Baba İlyâs; he is said to have become vizier to the Seljuk sultan İzzeddin Keykâvus; the family thus entered state service as early as the thirteenth century. Ahmed Bey's father Hoca Ali Şâh was, a century later, vizier of the Eretna State.
Hoca Ali Şâh played a decisive role in the struggle for the throne after Eretna's death in 1352. According to what Hüsameddin tells in the political-history section of the book, the vizier Alâeddîn Ali Şâh, despite the objection of the kazasker İmâdeddîn Ömer Çelebi, had Eretna's elder son Ca'fer Bey imprisoned and put the younger son Nâsıreddîn Muhammed Bey on the throne. According to present-day research, however, after retaking his throne in 1355, Muhammed Bey set about struggling against Hoca Ali Şâh, from whom he had received great help, and eliminated him in 1358.
His Brother Hacı İbrâhim and Sivas
Hacı İbrâhim, the brother in whose service Ahmed Bey was, is mentioned together with Hacı Şadgeldi among the emirs who killed the Eretnid ruler Muhammed Bey, who had done away with his father, in Sivas in October 1365. After this state authority collapsed and the emirs began to act on their own. Present-day sources note that in the years when Hacı Şadgeldi ruled in Amasya and Şeyh Necîb in Tokat, Hacı İbrâhim, son of Hoca Ali Şâh, held Sivas. After the Karamanids took Kayseri in 1375, Hacı İbrâhim came to an agreement with Hızır Bey, chief of the Mongol Samagar clan, freed the imprisoned Kadı Burhâneddin, and imprisoned the Eretnid Sultan Alâeddin Ali Bey in Sivas. Since Ali Bey was later imprisoned again by Hacı Mukbil, a mamluk of "the late Hacı İbrâhim," Hacı İbrâhim must have died before 1378. Ahmed Bey's flight to Egypt after his brother's death falls in these turbulent years.
Return to Amasya and Ottoman Protection
Ahmed Bey's return to Amasya in 783 [1381] coincides with Hacı Şadgeldi's defeat and killing by Kadı Burhâneddin at Kazova in December 1381 and the accession of his son Fahreddin Ahmed Bey as emir of Amasya. The person Hüsameddin calls "Devâtdâr Ahmed Pasha" is this Fahreddin Ahmed Bey. According to present-day research, the emirs of Amasya, worn down by Kadı Burhâneddin's pressure, decided in 1386 to declare allegiance to the Ottoman sultan Murad I, and Murad, at Fahreddin Ahmed's request for help, sent Prince Bayezid to Amasya. Hüsameddin's assigning Ahmed Bey in 788 [1386] the role of working to secure Ottoman protection coincides with this development. Ahmed Bey's death at the Battle of Kosovo in 791 [1389] is also a detail showing that the emirs of Amasya joined the Ottoman army; but no other record confirming this was found.
Efte and Moramul
The hüccet dated 892 [1486-87] that Hüsameddin saw shows that Ahmed Bey's grandsons were still farm owners in Amasya at the end of the fifteenth century. No information was found in other sources on the Bâyezîd Ata zawiya at Efte or the mosque and school at Moramul. In some sources it is stated that the name of a village called Efte was later changed to Sarımeşe; this information could not be verified.
Bibliography
Primary sources
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