Amasyalıdır. Sekbân Ali Ağa mahdûmu olup “Sekbânzâde” demekle meşhûrdur. 1116 senesi cumâdelâhiresinin sekizinci günü Amasya beyi olup Mütesellim Yeğen Ali Ağa ibkâ edildi. Receb evâilinde Müftü el-Hâc Ömer Efendi’nin yerine Zanalı es-Seyyid el-hâc Ahmed Efendi ikinci def‘a Amasya müftüsü ve Çerkes Mehmed Paşa Sivas vâlisi oldu.
Şevvâlin gurresinde Mesnevîhânzâde es-Seyyid Abdülkâdir Efendi yine Amasya kadısı olup baş a‘yân ile nakîb-i sâbık Emîr Hacı’nın araları açıldığından sâdât ve a‘yân iki fırka olmuşdu.
1117 senesi gurre-i muharreminde dergâh-ı âlî kapıcıbaşılarından ve [238] a‘yândan Selâmzâde Mehmed Bey bin Sâdullâh Bey baş a‘yân ve Deli Yûsuf Ağazâde el-Hâc Mahmûd Ağa Amasya mütesellimi ve kethüdâyeri oldu.
Ramazânın gurresinde Emîr Hacı Abdüllâtîf Çelebi nakîb kâ’im-makâmı olduktan bir hafta sonra Müftü Zanalı es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ahmed Efendi azl olunup selefi Hacı Efendizâde el-Hâc Ömer Efendi yine Amasya müftüsü oldu.
Şevvâlin gurresinde Avkatlı İbrâhim Ağa’nın da azliyle esbak Amasya Mütesellimi Kürd Ahmedzâde es-Seyyid Ebûbekir Ağa’nın mahdûmu Kürd es-Seyyid İbrâhim Ağa Amasya alaybeyi ve zilka’de gurresinde Şa’bân Ağa kethüdâyeri ve müteâkiben Amasya mütesellimi oldu.
Bu sene ekâbir-i ulemâdan müftü-i esbak Merzifonî el-Hâc Mustafa Efendi, Sekü Köylü el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi, a‘yândan Çorakçızâde el-Hâc Halil Ağa, Lâdik müftüsü ve Şeyhülislâm Medresesi müderrisi Ayntâbî el-Hâc Yûsuf Efendi vefât etdi.
1118 senesi gurre-i muharreminde Küçük Alizâde Yeğen Ali Ağa baş a‘yân olup Abdi Paşa Sivas vâlisi ve safer evâilinde Amasyalı Kadızâde Mustafa Paşa vezâretle Konya vâlisi ve Amasya Beyi Ahmed Bey de Mar’aş beylerbeyi oldukda Amasya sancağı esbak Karahisar-ı Şarkî Mutasarrıfı Ali Paşa’ya tevcîh edildi.
In Modern English
He was a native of Amasya. A son of Sekban Ali Ağa, he is known as "Sekbanzâde." On the eighth day of Cemaziyelahir 1116 [8 October 1704] he became bey of Amasya; the mütesellim (deputy governor) Yeğen Ali Ağa was left in his post. In the first days of Receb, in place of the mufti el-Hâc Ömer Efendi, Zanalı es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ahmed Efendi became mufti of Amasya for the second time, and Çerkes Mehmed Pasha became governor of Sivas.
On the first day of Şevval Mesnevîhânzâde es-Seyyid Abdülkâdir Efendi again became kadı (judge) of Amasya. At this time, since a rift had opened between the head notable (baş a'yân) and the former naqib (head of the seyyids) Emîr Hacı, the seyyids and the notables had divided into two groups.
On the first day of Muharrem 1117 [25 April 1705] Selâmzâde Mehmed Bey, son of Sâdullah Bey, one of the palace kapıcıbaşıs (heads of gatekeepers) and of the notables, became head notable, and Deli Yûsuf Ağazâde el-Hâc Mahmûd Ağa became mütesellim and kethüdâyeri (the sipahis' steward) of Amasya.
On the first day of Ramazan Emîr Hacı Abdüllâtîf Çelebi became deputy of the naqib. A week later the mufti Zanalı es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ahmed Efendi was dismissed, and Hacı Efendizâde el-Hâc Ömer Efendi, who had held this post before him, again became mufti of Amasya.
On the first day of Şevval Avkatlı İbrâhim Ağa was also dismissed; Kürd es-Seyyid İbrâhim Ağa, son of Kürd Ahmedzâde es-Seyyid Ebûbekir Ağa, former mütesellim of Amasya, became alaybeyi (commander of the timar-holding cavalry) of Amasya. On the first day of Zilkade Şa'bân Ağa became kethüdâyeri and then mütesellim of Amasya.
This year, among the great scholars, the former mufti Merzifonlu el-Hâc Mustafa Efendi and Sekü Köylü el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi, of the notables Çorakçızâde el-Hâc Halil Ağa, and the mufti of Lâdik and professor of the Şeyhülislam Madrasa, Ayntablı el-Hâc Yûsuf Efendi, died.
On the first day of Muharrem 1118 [15 April 1706] Küçük Alizâde Yeğen Ali Ağa became head notable, and Abdi Pasha governor of Sivas. In the first days of Safer, when Kadızâde Mustafa Pasha of Amasya became governor of Konya with the rank of vizier and the Bey of Amasya, Ahmed Bey, became beylerbeyi of Maraş, the sanjak of Amasya was given to Ali Pasha, who had earlier been governor of Karahisar-ı Şarkî (Şebinkarahisar).
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mahdûm: son
- ibkâ edilmek: to be left in one's post
- gurre: the first day of the month
- evâil: the first ten days of the month, its first days
- sâdât: the seyyids, those descended from the Prophet
- nakîb / nakîb kâ'im-makâmı: the representative of the naqib al-ashraf who looks after the affairs of seyyids in the city / his deputy
- a'yân, baş a'yân: the notables of a city / their head
- fırka: group, side
- dergâh-ı âlî kapıcıbaşısı: one of the palace's heads of gatekeepers; a palace title often assigned to posts in the provinces
- mütesellim: the deputy whom a sanjak governor leaves in the sanjak
- kethüdâyeri: the official who looks after the affairs of the timar-holding sipahis in a sanjak
- alaybeyi: commander of the timar-holding sipahis in a sanjak
- selef / esbak: the one who held the post before him / previous, former
- ekâbir-i ulemâ: the great scholars
- vezâretle: with the rank of vizier granted
- tevcîh edilmek: to be given to a post, to a person
- mutasarrıf: the person who holds the administration and revenue of a sanjak
Sekbanzâde and "Serçeşme" Ahmed Bey
In the previous entry Hüsameddin writes that Hüseyin Pasha was sent in Cemaziyelahir 1116 to the guardianship of Bursa with a vizierate and that the sanjak of Amasya was given to "Serçeşme Ahmed Bey." The Sekbanzâde Ahmed Bey of this entry is the same person. The word "serçeşme" in his epithet is an important clue to the milieu from which he was raised. The saruca and sekban troops that emerged in the period of the Ottoman army's decline gathered on the eve of a campaign in companies of forty to fifty men under their company commanders and dispersed after the war. These company commanders were in turn attached to a chief company commander called "serçeşme."
The sekbans in the provinces were soldiers gathered as volunteers from the people when needed, also called "yerli kulu" (local slaves of the Porte), who received pay only while in service. These musket-armed groups taken to the Habsburg wars at the end of the sixteenth century turned to banditry when left unpaid after the war, and some of them formed the manpower of local power centers. From the seventeenth century these soldiers who entered the retinue of beylerbeyis and sanjak governors were called "saruca-sekban." That his father is called "Sekban Ali Ağa" and that the son rose from the serçeşme post to the sanjak governorship suggests that the family came from this provincial military milieu; but this is an inference, and no separate document on the family was found. Ahmed Bey's governing Amasya as a "bey" rather than a pasha, and then rising to the beylerbeyilik of Maraş, is also a typical step in this career. About Sekbanzâde Ahmed Bey no information was found in other sources.
The Muftiship Passing Between Two Scholars
A point in this two-year record that should draw the reader's attention is the muftiship of Amasya going back and forth between two persons. In the previous entry Hüsameddin had written that on the second day of the Feast of the Sacrifice of 1115 Zanalı es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ahmed Efendi was dismissed and Hacı Efendizâde el-Hâc Ömer Efendi, professor of the Torumtay Madrasa, was brought in his place. In this entry in Receb 1116 Zanalı Ahmed Efendi becomes mufti again, in Ramazan 1117 is dismissed once more, and Ömer Efendi returns to the post. When these changes, repeated at short intervals, are read together with the news that in the same period the seyyids and the notables had divided into two groups, they suggest that the muftiship too was not outside the factionalism of the city.
Hacı Efendizâde Ömer Efendi's family is one of the deep-rooted learned dynasties of Amasya. In the biographical volumes of Hüsameddin's book there is the translation (biography) of his son, Müftüzâde es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ebûbekir Efendi: Ebûbekir Efendi studied with Çorumlu Hâfız es-Seyyid el-Hâc Mehmed and Ayntablı el-Hâc Mustafa Efendi, became son-in-law of his teacher Ayntablı Efendi, and then, while professor of the Yakub Pasha Madrasa and a member of the council of notables, died at the end of 1155. Ömer Efendi himself will die in Şevval 1118, as told in the next entry.
The Governors of Sivas
The life of Çerkes Mehmed Pasha, named in the entry, can be followed in detail in present-day research. The pasha, of Circassian origin, rose as far as the stewardship of the gatekeepers, in 1695 became small master of the stables (küçük imrahor), in 1697 great master of the stables (büyük imrahor), and in 1112 [1700] was appointed to the governorship of Aleppo with the rank of vizier. He later served in the governorships of Jerusalem and, for a second time, Aleppo, and in 1116 [1704] became governor first of Urfa and a short time later of Sivas. After staying in Sivas some two years, he moved in 1118 [1706] to the governorship of Anatolia. This information agrees with Hüsameddin's record: Mehmed Pasha came to the governorship of Sivas in Receb 1116 and left his place to Abdi Pasha in Muharrem 1118. Among the pasha's later posts are counted the governorships of Mosul, Van, Sivas for a second time, Bender and Konya. About Abdi Pasha, who came to the governorship of Sivas, no other record from this period was found.
Not Confusing Kadızâde Mustafa Pasha with Another Pasha
About Kadızâde Mustafa Pasha of Amasya, who became governor of Konya with a vizierate in Safer 1118, no information could be found in other sources. There is a point to be careful about because of the similar name: the vizier of Amasya introduced in Hüsameddin's biographical volumes under the name "Sıdkı Mustafa Paşa-Kadızâde" served four times as reisülküttab, became governor of Temesvár, and died in Muharrem 1073 [1662]. Since the Kadızâde Mustafa Pasha of this entry took office more than forty years after him, he is a different person.
Yeğen Ali Ağa and the Dynasties of Amasya
The mütesellim Yeğen Ali Ağa, whom Ahmed Bey left in his post, appears again in Muharrem 1118 as head notable with the epithet "Küçük Alizâde." In the footnote of the previous entry Hüsameddin states that he is the ancestor of the Yeğenzâde family in Amasya, that he was also called "Yeğen Ali Bey," and that he was the nephew of Küçük Ali Beyzâde Hüseyin Pasha, governor of Amasya. That Hüsameddin builds this statement in the present tense shows that the Yeğenzâdes were a family still known in Amasya in his own years. Like the Şehir Kethüdâsıoğulları named in the previous entry, this family too traces its root to the notable cadres of these years.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, p. 623–623. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 4, p. 623 (entry "Hüseyin Paşa" and its footnotes).
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 6-8, entry "Ebûbekir Efendi-Müftüzâde". https://amasya.bel.tr/uploads/e-kitap/kitap/6-8/files/basic-html/page94.html
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 9-12, entry "Sıdkı Mustafa Paşa-Kadızâde". https://amasya.bel.tr/uploads/e-kitap/kitap/9-12/files/basic-html/page442.html
Academic studies
Official sources