Ahmed Bey, Yeğenzade es-Seyyid

In Modern English

He was the son of Seyyid Hacı İbrahim Asım Bey, one of the notables and poets of Amasya; İbrahim Asım Bey was the son of Seyyid Ahmed Bey. In Amasya, while his father was still alive, he became census official, then divan efendisi, and in 1281 [1864-65] head of correspondence. After leaving office he died in 1289 [1872-73]. His was a household of good character, generosity and standing. His son was Seyyid Mustafa Hüsnü Bey. The latter's son was Seyyid Ahmed Bey, Director of Forests at İnegöl.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• a'yân: the notables of a town, families of standing
• şu'arâ: poets
• mahdûm: son
• nüfus nâzırı: official in charge of population registers
• divân efendisi: official in an administrative office who handled clerical work (the exact scope of the post could not be verified)
• tahrîrât müdürü: head of the office of official correspondence
• ba'de'l-infisâl: after leaving office
• sahî: generous
• sâhib-i haysiyyet: a person of standing, respected
• hânedân: a noble family

Population Officials and Provincial Clerical Offices

The three posts listed in the text are typical of the new staff positions created in the provinces after the Tanzimat. Modern population registration in the Ottoman state began with the census of 1831. To evaluate the results and run population affairs, the Ceride-i Nüfus Nezareti was founded, along with registry chiefships (defter nazırlıkları) attached to it in the provinces. The kaza was the basic unit of registration in this system. Population officials in the kazas were expected to record births, deaths and migrations and report them to Istanbul several times a year. In the first census only men were entered, and because the aim was to gather soldiers and taxes, no kinship ties were established between individuals. The post Hüsameddin calls "nüfus nâzırı" must be its counterpart in Amasya; the text, however, does not give the exact title or scope of the post.

The directorate of correspondence (tahrirat müdürlüğü) is the head of the office that handles official letters. At the kaza level, alongside the kaymakam there were the kaza administrative council, the naib, the finance director, the correspondence clerk, the population official, the treasury steward and the telegraph official. Since Amasya was a sanjak seat, the same staff worked here on a larger scale. İbrahim Asım Bey's appointment as head of correspondence in 1281 [1864-65] coincides with the years 1863-65, when Ziya Pasha served as mutasarrıf of Amasya; whether the two worked together could not be determined from the sources. It is known that provincial administration was reorganized step by step after the Tanzimat, and that the 1864 provincial regulation was one of the important stages of that process.

Turnover in District Posts

A study of provincial administrators reports that in the Akçadağ district of the Malatya sanjak, thirty-five kaymakams appointed from the center served within fifty years between 1870 and 1920, and that the frequency of departures and new appointments led to administrative instability. The study examines in detail the training of the kaymakams, their earlier posts, the procedures of appointment and transfer, their salaries, and the investigations opened against them. It may be supposed that local clerks and officials such as İbrahim Asım Bey mattered as people who kept up the knowledge of records and correspondence while the senior administrators changed often; this is an inference, and the text says nothing of the kind.

The Registration of Seyyid Families

The leading epithet of the entry is "es-Seyyid," which marks families descended from the Prophet. In the classical period the lineages of these families were entered in separate registers by the deputies of the nakîbüleşraf, and all members of a family, women included, were recorded according to descent. The frequent use of the title "seyyid" in Hüsameddin's book, sometimes with long chains of ancestors, may be related to this registration tradition; this is an inference. In this entry the chain runs through five generations, and the last appears in state service as Director of Forests at İnegöl; that is, the family stayed in official posts in later times as well.

The Family in Other Sources

No information could be found in other sources about the Yeğenzade family or about İbrahim Asım Bey, who is mentioned as a poet. These names do not appear in studies of population administration, provincial staff, or the administrative situation of Amasya in the nineteenth century. For this reason the origin of the family, the source of the nickname "Yeğenzade," and whether any of his poems survive could not be verified.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 234–234. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

• Adnan Çimen, article on the population registration system and its organization. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/287282
• Nazım Kartal, "Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyete Osmanlı'da Mülki İdare", İnönü Üniversitesi Akademik Yaklaşımlar Dergisi, 4/1 (2013), p. 1–24. https://abakus.inonu.edu.tr/items/7da1ee7a-cbc7-43a2-a289-d10be5243066
• Halil İnalcık, "Akyüz, Kenan: Ziya Paşa'nın Amasya Mutasarrıflığı Sırasındaki Olaylar" (book review), Belleten, 30/117 (1966). https://belleten.gov.tr/tam-metin/3252/tur

Books

• Danyal Tekdal, Osmanlı Son Döneminde Kaza İdare Yapısı ve İdarecileri: Akçadağ Kazası Örneği (1870-1920), İnönü Üniversitesi, 2022. https://abakus.inonu.edu.tr/items/e889cb10-b146-440c-8482-2a04d5aecbc3/full