Amasya a’yânından Hasan Bey bin Seydî Ali Bey’in mahdûmu olup Hızır Paşazâde Mehmed Paşa’nın ahfâdından Hüseyin Bey bin Ali Bey bin Mahmûd Bey bin Mehmed Paşa’nın kerîmesi Ayşe Hanım ile izdivâc ederek züamâdan, ba’dehû ümerâdan oldu.
1003’de Üsturgun Harbinde vefât etdi. Şecî’ bir mirlivâ idi. Mahdûmları Mustafa Paşa ile Mehmed, Ali Beylerdir. Mehmed Beyzâde Kurt Mehmed Bey Hızır ve Mehmet Paşa evkâfına mütevellî olmuşdu. Bunun evlâdı Kurtzâdelikle meşhûr olup tevliyet bu güne kadar bunlara tevcîh olunagelmektedir.
Diğer a’yândan Seydî Alizâde el-Hâc Ahmed Çelebi bin İskender Çelebi bin Hızır Çelebi bin Seydî Ali Çelebi de meşhûr olup Hâbilzâdelerdendir. Mükerreren Amasya’da Şehir Kethüdâsı oldu. 1004 hudûdunda vefât etdi. Oğulları Yahyâ, Şa’bân, Hâbil Çelebilerdir.
In Modern English
He was the son of Hasan Bey, son of Seydî Ali Bey, one of the notables of Amasya. By marrying Ayşe Hanım, daughter of Hüseyin Bey, son of Ali Bey, son of Mahmud Bey, son of Mehmed Pasha, one of the grandsons of Hızır Paşazâde Mehmed Pasha, he became one of the zeamet holders and then one of the beys.
He died in 1003 [1594-95] at the battle of Esztergom. He was a brave sanjak governor. His sons were Mustafa Pasha and Mehmed and Ali Beys. Mehmed Bey's son Kurt Mehmed Bey became steward (mütevelli) of the waqfs of Hızır Pasha and Mehmed Pasha. His line is known as the Kurtzades; the stewardship has been given to this family down to the present.
Seydî Alizâde el-Hac Ahmed Çelebi, son of İskender Çelebi, son of Hızır Çelebi, son of Seydî Ali Çelebi, another of the notables of Amasya, was also a well-known man and belonged to the Hâbilzades. Several times he was city steward (şehir kethüdası) in Amasya. He died around 1004 [1595-96]. His sons were Yahya, Şaban, and Hâbil Çelebis.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- a'yân: the notables of a city, its leading men
- kerîme: daughter
- izdivâc: marriage
- züamâ: holders of zeamets (large military fiefs)
- ümerâ: beys, sanjak governors
- Üsturgun: the fortress of Esztergom in Hungary
- şecî': brave
- mütevellî: the person who administers a waqf
- tevliyet: stewardship of a waqf
- tevcîh: the granting of an office to someone
- şehir kethüdâsı: the representative who dealt with the administration over the affairs of the townspeople and spoke for the guilds and the people
- hudûdunda: around, in the vicinity of
The Battle of Esztergom
The war Hüsameddin calls the "Battle of Üsturgun" is the siege of 1595 for the fortress of Esztergom on the Danube in Hungary. Esztergom had been taken by Suleiman the Magnificent's army on 10 August 1543 and had become a sanjak seat attached to the province of Buda. During the Ottoman-Habsburg wars that began in 1593 and lasted thirteen years, the fortress was first besieged in 1594 and was saved when Koca Sinan Pasha approached. A year later a larger army under Karl Mansfeld besieged the fortress again. The garrison resisted for a long time but, as the necessary relief did not arrive, was forced in September 1595 to surrender the fortress to Archduke Matthias, who had succeeded on Mansfeld's death. This date falls in the last days of the Hijri year 1003 and agrees exactly with the year of death given by Hüsameddin. Esztergom passed to the Ottomans again ten years later, on 3 October 1605.
It is not clear whether Ahmed Bey died among the garrison of the fortress or among the forces that came to relieve it. That a bey from a distant sanjak like Amasya should die in Hungary shows to what extent these long wars drew the fief holders of Anatolia to the western front. Present-day research attributes the breakdown of public order in Anatolia in the same years and the growth of the Celali revolts partly to the hardships these wars caused.
The Hızır Pasha Waqfs and the Kurtzades
The real importance of the entry is that it shows to which family the administration of one of Amasya's most deeply rooted waqfs passed. Hızır Pasha was the brother of Yörgüç Pasha, the lala of Murad II; in 870 (1465) he founded three waqfs in Amasya and had a mosque and a madrasa built. According to the waqf deed, farmland, vineyards, gardens, two inns, and a bath in Suluova, Doğantepe, Ladik, and the centre of Amasya were assigned to these institutions. His son Mehmed Pasha added to his father's waqf in 1493 thirteen villages, two mezras, seven mills, and other revenues. As can be understood from the accounting records, the waqf continued to exist until the Republican period.
According to Hüsameddin, Ahmed Bey married Ayşe Hanım, a great-granddaughter of Mehmed Pasha; through this marriage the stewardship passed to Ahmed Bey's grandson Kurt Mehmed Bey, and after him to the Kurtzades. Some sources, however, relying on the entries in the waqf deed of 896 in the Sivas Directorate of Waqfs, write that the Kurtoğlu and Kurt families living today in Amasya and Samsun descend from Mustafa Bey, son of Mehmed Pasha. Hüsameddin links the family to Mehmed Pasha through the female line, the other record through the male line; which is correct, or whether both paths are valid, can be understood only by comparing the waqf records. Hüsameddin's words "the stewardship has been given to these down to the present" show that the Kurtzades headed this waqf until the early twentieth century in which he lived. Today of the Hızır Pasha complex only the mosque and the bath are standing; the madrasa has not survived.
The Seydî Alizades and the City Stewardship
Ahmed Çelebi of the last paragraph of the entry belongs to another branch of the same Seydî Ali line. Hüsameddin's book also mentions a chief military judge belonging to this family, Seydî Alizâde Abdurrahman Efendi. That Ahmed Çelebi took on the city stewardship several times, and that these families appear across generations in offices such as judgeships, beyships, and waqf stewardship, suggests that a settled stratum of notables existed in Amasya at the end of the sixteenth century. No information on Ahmed Bey and Ahmed Çelebi was found in other sources.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 148–148. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
Official sources
Other sources