Amasyalı Abdullah Çelebi mahdûmu olduğu Rûmeli Sadâreti Sicillâtında görüldü. Amasya’da türlü yazıları öğrendi. Tahsîl-i ilm ü irfân edib İstanbul’a gitdi. Defterdâr İskender Çelebi’ye intisâb ederek Mâliyye Dâiresine girdi.
Burada tedrîciyyen terakkî ederek Rüstem Paşa’nın sadâretinde Dîvân-ı Hümâyun Hâcegânından olup devr-i menâsıb eyledi. En sonra Ruznâmeci olup 978 senesi rebîülevvelinde vefât etdi. Kâtib, hattât, hıssa-mend-i meârif bir zât idi.
Merhûm hayır-perver bir zât olduğundan dört bin iki yüz akçe vakfedib iki bin akçesin Amasya’da Sofular Mahallesi’nde Abdullah Paşa Câmii mefruşatına ve bin akçesin Sofular’daki mekteb-i masalihine ve altışar yüz akçesin de Amasya’da Câmi-i Kebîr ve Kadı Mahallelerinin avârızına şart ve tahsîs edildiğini kerîmesi Fâtıma Hâtun Rumeli Sadâreti sicillâtına kayd ve tescîl etdirmişdir. Sicillât-ı mezkûrede aynen böyle görüldü. Dâmâdı züamâ ve ümerâdan Abdülmümin Bey bin Ali Bey’dir ki Mü’min Bey demekle meşhûr idi. Müstakîmzâde Süleyman Sa’deddîn Efendi “Tuhfetü’l-hattâtîn” adlı eserinde sâhib-i tercemeyi aynı senede vefât eden ve neslen Arnavut olan Ahmed Fevrî Efendi’yi birleşdirmiş olduğu tahkîkât ile anlaşıldı. İki hattâtın da bir yıl içinde vefât etmesi buna sebeb olmuşdur.
In Modern English
It was seen in the registers of the Rumeli kazaskership that he was the son of Abdullah Çelebi of Amasya. He learned various scripts in Amasya. After pursuing learning and culture he went to Istanbul. Entering the service of Treasurer İskender Çelebi, he joined the finance department.
Rising gradually there, during Rüstem Pasha's grand vizierate he entered the ranks of the hâcegân of the Imperial Divan and held various offices. Finally he became rûznâmeci and died in Rabi' al-Awwal 978 [August 1570]. He was a scribe, a calligrapher, a man who had his share of learning and culture.
Since the late man was a charitable person, he endowed four thousand two hundred akçe. His daughter Fatma Hatun had it recorded and registered in the registers of the Rumeli kazaskership that two thousand akçe of this was set aside for the furnishings and effects of the Abdullah Pasha Mosque in the Sofular neighbourhood of Amasya, one thousand akçe for the needs of the school in Sofular, and six hundred akçe each for the avarız tax of the Câmi-i Kebîr and Kadı neighbourhoods in Amasya. It was seen exactly so in the said registers. His son-in-law was Abdülmümin Bey, son of Ali Bey, one of the zeamet holders and beys; he was known as Mümin Bey. Our research made clear that Müstakimzâde Süleyman Sâdeddin Efendi, in his work "Tuhfetü'l-hattâtîn," merged this person, whose biography we are writing, with Ahmed Fevrî Efendi, of Albanian descent, who died in the same year. The two calligraphers' dying within one year caused this.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- sicillât: the record books of the courts of kadıs or kazaskers
- intisâb: entering someone's service and attaching oneself to him
- tedrîcen: gradually, step by step
- hâcegân: senior, ranked scribes in the divan chancelleries
- devr-i menâsıb: going round various offices
- rûznâmeci: the finance official who kept the treasury's daily income-and-expense register
- hıssa-mend-i ma'ârif: having one's share of learning and culture
- mefrûşât: furnishings such as carpets and mats
- mesâlih: needs, affairs
- avârız: the extraordinary tax paid by the people in common
- züamâ: holders of the large fiefs called zeamet
- sâhib-i terceme: the person whose biography is written
- neslen: by lineage
The Rûznâmçe Office
The rûznâmecilik, Ahmed Efendi's last office, was a post at the heart of Ottoman finance. Rûznâmçe, derived from the Persian word rûznâme meaning "daily," is the name of the registers in which the treasury's income and expenditure were entered. The Great Rûznâmçe Office, attached to the treasurer, carried out all the treasury's transactions, while the Small Rûznâmçe Office kept the accounts of those who received salaries from the state; the official who carried out the transactions was called rûznâmçeci, and the head of the bureau başrûznâmçeci. These bureaus and types of register are thought to have become standardised in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Ahmed Efendi's starting at the treasurer's side and rising from among the divan hâcegân to rûznâmecilik is a typical example of this financial career.
İskender Çelebi's Department
The department Ahmed Efendi entered was that of Treasurer İskender Çelebi, one of the most powerful financiers of Süleyman's time. İskender Çelebi, who rose to chief treasurer, acquired great wealth and influence, and patronised poets such as Hayâlî Bey, was dismissed on 24 October 1534 when he fell out with Grand Vizier İbrâhim Pasha during the Campaign of the Two Iraqs, and was executed in Baghdad four months and twenty days later. That Ahmed Efendi stayed in finance and rose after this event shows that the treasurer's fall did not drag down all his men.
The Two Calligraphers Müstakimzâde Confused
The source of the confusion Hüsameddin points out at the end of the entry is easy to understand. Ahmed Fevrî Efendi had also been trained in the department of Treasurer İskender Çelebi: of Croatian origin, he was born in Durrës (Draç), today in Albania, was levied as a boy and given to İskender Çelebi's department, and in Müstakimzâde's words was one of his freedmen. He practised sülüs and nesih with Şükrullah Halife and received an icazet, then passed to the ilmiye career and served as müderris in madrasas, and, while kadı of Damascus, died in Damascus in Dhu al-Qa'da 978 (April 1571). Thus the two Ahmeds have the same patron, the same calligraphy and the same year of death. The waqf record that Hüsameddin relates from the registers of the Rumeli kazaskership is the soundest document separating Ahmed Efendi of Amasya from this shared frame.
The Abdullah Pasha Mosque
The Abdullah Pasha Mosque, which received the largest share of the waqf, is also known as the Sofular Mosque or Dârülhadis Mosque. It was built as a mosque and dârülhadis by Beylerbeyi Hacısinanbeyzâde Abdullah Pasha (d. 896/1490-91), a notable of the time of Bayezid II, and its waqf deed was drawn up by his son Treasurer Abdülkerim Bey in 907 (1501-1502). On both sides of the closed courtyard are the dârülhadis cells, and to its south the prayer hall, also used as a lecture room; this plan is regarded as an original design with no other example in Ottoman architecture. The building, where famous hadith scholars taught throughout the Ottoman period, stands today and is used only as a mosque in the Sofular neighbourhood. The money Ahmed Efendi endowed was assigned to this mosque's furnishings, to the school in the same neighbourhood, and to the avarız tax of two neighbourhoods.
Bibliography
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