Amasyalıdır. Vezîr-i meşhûr Kayabaşılı Örümcek, Ankebut Ahmed Paşa’dır. 1089 senesi şevvâlinin yedisinde Amasya sancağı mutasarrıfı olup kendisi Resmo’da ikâmet eylediğinden Evkâf-ı Sultâniyye Mütevellisi Murâd Beyzâde Ahmed Ağa Amasya sancağı mütesellimi oldu.
Zilka’de gurresinde Abdülbâkî Efendi’nin yerine Ali Efendi Amasya kadısı oldu. Bu sene esbak Amasya müftüsü mevâlîden Ebussu’ûd Efendi ve fuzalâdan şâir-i meşhûr Amasya müverrihi ve Abdullah Paşa Müderrisi Abdî Efendi dâr-ı bekâya irtihâl etdi.
1090 senesi gurre-i muharreminde Amasya Alaybeyi Kadızâde Hüseyin Bey’e sadrâzamın himmetiyle Bolu sancağı tevcîh edildiğinden Boyacızâde Mahmûd Bey bin İbrâhim Bey Amasya alaybeyi oldu.
Rebîülevvelde şıkk-ı sânî defterdârı olan Merzifonî Hüseyin Ağazâde Hasan Efendi başdefterdâr ve hâs odadan çıkarılan Amasyalı Şa’bânzâde Şa’bân Ağa bin Mehmed Ağa şıkk-ı sânî defterdârı ve müteâkiben tezkire-i evvel Merzifonî Mustafa Efendi reîsü’l-küttâb oldu.
Zilkade gurresinde Kadı Ali Efendi’nin yerine selefi Hâfız Ahmed Efendizâde Abdülbâkî Efendi yine Amasya kadısı oldu. Bu sene ulemâ-yı fuzalâdan Ganîzâde Abdülfettâh Efendi bin el-Hâc Bünyâd Çelebi bin Mustafa Efendi vefât etdi.
1091 senesi muharreminde esbak şehir kethüdâsı iken Amasya’dan ihraç ve kalebend edilen Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa mazhar-ı afv-ı âlî [170] olup Amasya’ya geldi. Yeniçeri ocağında silahdâr ağası olan Amasyalı Ebûbekir Ağa evkâf-ı Sultâniyye mütevellîsi oldu. Kibâr-ı fuzalâdan üstâdu’l-küll Hızır Paşa Müderrisi Pîrîzâde el-Hâc Hüseyin Efendi dâr-ı naîme intikâl etdi.
Safer evâilinde Serdâr Ahmed Ağa’nın ref‘iyle yeniçeri ocağı çavuşlarından Amasyalı Çuçu Mustafa Ağa bin Ahmed Ağa yeniçeri serdârı oldu. Amasya müftüsü ve Sultâniyye Müderrisi Îydî Bayram Efendi her işe karışdığından rebîülevvelde fetvâdan azliyle kibâr-ı ulemâdan Pîrî Mehmed Efendi Amasya müftüsü oldu.
Cumâdelâhire gurresinde Köprülü Mehmed Paşazâde Fâzıl Mustafa Bey’e vezâret verilip kubbe nişîn ve Merzifon Müftüsü Mehmed Efendi Erzurum mollası oldu.
Şa’bânda mevlevîhâne şeyhi urefâ-yı ümmetten pîr-i muhterem Hasan Kudsî Dede Efendi vefât edib sâdât-ı Aleviye’den es-Seyyid Alâeddîn Dede Efendi Amasya Mevlevihânesi şeyhi oldu. Bu sene ulemâdan Osmân Efendizâde Abdurrahman Efendi ve mîrâhûr-ı sânî Merzifonî Ali Ağa vefât etdi.
1092 senesi Girit serdârı ve Amasya Mutasarrıfı Vezîr Ankebut Ahmed Paşa, Resmo’da vefât edib orada câmii köşesinde defnedildi. Kerîmesi Ümmühânî Hanım, zevci Amasyalı Ali Efendi ile İstanbul’a geldi. Amasya sancağı da Çorum Beyi Mahmûd Bey’e verildi. [171]
In Modern English
He was a native of Amasya. He is the renowned vizier Kayabaşılı Örümcek, that is, Ankebût Ahmed Pasha. On the seventh of Shawwal 1089 [1678] he became governor of the sanjak of Amasya. Since he himself resided in Resmo, Murâd Beyzâde Ahmed Ağa, trustee of the Sultan waqfs, became mütesellim of the sanjak of Amasya.
On the first day of Dhu al-Qa'da Ali Efendi became kadı of Amasya in place of Abdülbâkî Efendi. This year the former Mufti of Amasya Ebussuûd Efendi, one of the high-ranking kadıs, and Abdî Efendi, one of the learned, a renowned poet, historian of Amasya, and professor of the Abdullah Pasha Madrasa, passed to the eternal world.
On the first day of Muharram 1090 [1679], since the sanjak of Bolu was given, with the help of the grand vizier, to the Alaybeyi of Amasya Kadızâde Hüseyin Bey, Boyacızâde Mahmûd Bey bin İbrâhim Bey became alaybeyi of Amasya.
In Rabi' al-Awwal, Merzifonlu Hüseyin Ağazâde Hasan Efendi, who had been şıkk-ı sânî defterdarı (defterdar of the third branch of the treasury), became chief treasurer (başdefterdar); Şa'bânzâde Şa'bân Ağa bin Mehmed Ağa of Amasya, who had been brought out of the has oda, became şıkk-ı sânî defterdarı. Then the first tezkireci Merzifonlu Mustafa Efendi became reisülküttap.
On the first day of Dhu al-Qa'da, in place of Kadı Ali Efendi, the kadı before him, Hâfız Ahmed Efendizâde Abdülbâkî Efendi, again became kadı of Amasya. This year Ganîzâde Abdülfettâh Efendi bin el-Hâc Bünyâd Çelebi bin Mustafa Efendi, one of the learned scholars, died.
In Muharram 1091 [1680], Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, who earlier, while city kethüda, had been driven out of Amasya and imprisoned in a fortress, came to Amasya having received the sultan's pardon. Ebûbekir Ağa of Amasya, who was silahdar ağa in the janissary corps, became trustee of the Sultan waqfs. Pîrîzâde el-Hâc Hüseyin Efendi, professor of the Hızır Pasha Madrasa, one of the great scholars, regarded as everyone's teacher, passed to the eternal world.
At the beginning of Safar the commander Ahmed Ağa was dismissed and Çuçu Mustafa Ağa bin Ahmed Ağa of Amasya, one of the çavuşes of the janissary corps, became janissary commander. Since the Mufti of Amasya and professor of the Sultan Bâyezîd Madrasa Îdî Bayram Efendi meddled in everything, he was removed from the muftiship in Rabi' al-Awwal, and Pîrî Mehmed Efendi, one of the great scholars, became mufti of Amasya.
On the first day of Jumada al-Thani Fâzıl Mustafa Bey, son of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, was given the rank of vizier and made a dome vizier; the Mufti of Merzifon Mehmed Efendi also became molla of Erzurum.
In Sha'ban the sheikh of the Mevlevîhâne, the venerable pir Hasan Kudsî Dede Efendi, one of the gnostics of the community, died; es-Seyyid Alâeddîn Dede Efendi, one of the sayyids descended from Hz. Ali, became sheikh of the Amasya Mevlevîhâne. This year Osmân Efendizâde Abdurrahman Efendi, of the ulema, and the second master of the stables Merzifonlu Ali Ağa also died.
In 1092 [1681] Vizier Ankebût Ahmed Pasha, commander in Crete and Governor of Amasya, died in Resmo and was buried in a corner of his mosque there. His daughter Ümmühânî Hanım came to Istanbul with her husband Ali Efendi of Amasya. The sanjak of Amasya was given to Mahmûd Bey, Bey of Çorum.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- ankebût: spider (Arabic)
- mevâlî: scholars of the rank of great kadılık
- fuzalâ: the learned, knowledgeable persons
- müverrih: historian
- dâr-ı bekâya irtihâl: to die, to depart to the eternal world
- himmet: help, support
- şıkk-ı sânî defterdârı: defterdar of the second (in time counted as the third) branch of the treasury
- hâs oda: the room in the palace in the sultan's private service
- tezkire-i evvel: the grand vizier's first tezkireci
- reîsü'l-küttâb: head of the divan secretaries, the official who also conducted foreign affairs
- selef: the person who left a post before another
- kalebend: one shut up in a fortress as punishment
- mazhar-ı afv-ı âlî: one who received the sultan's pardon
- üstâdü'l-küll: everyone's teacher
- kubbe-nişîn: a vizier who sat under the Dome, a member of the divan
- urefâ: gnostics, people of Sufism
- sâdât-ı Aleviyye: sayyids descended from Hz. Ali
- kerîme: daughter
- zevc: husband
Ankebût Ahmed Pasha
Ankebût Ahmed Pasha, who came to the sanjak of Amasya for the sixth and last time, is one of the best-known statesmen that Amasya produced in the seventeenth century. According to the broad record in Hüsameddin's biographical volumes, he was from the Kayabaşı quarter in the southwest of the city and the son of Pehlivânzâde Mehmed Bey, a zeamet holder. Because he was sturdily built and a master archer and wrestler, he was taken into the has ahır (imperial stables) service in his youth by Murad IV, learned reading and writing in the Enderun, became has ahır kethüdâsı during Bayram Pasha's grand vizierate, and in 1049 [1640] second master of the stables. In 1054 he was sent to the Cretan War as sanjak governor of Amasya; for his successes there he became beylerbeyi of Sivas and commander of Anatolia, and several times received the sanjak of Amasya as has. In 1060 he was appointed warden of the Bosphorus with the rank of vizier, in 1064 governor of Buda, and in 1067, while Köprülü Mehmed Pasha was on campaign, became deputy grand vizier, but was removed from Istanbul with the governorship of Konya, it being said that he tried to take Köprülü's place. In 1071 he became commander and warden of Crete and lived for years in Chania; he rendered services in the conquest of Candia on 6 September 1669, but the serdâr-ı ekrem Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha accused him of laxity and sent him to Resmo. After Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha's death he regained standing in Kara Mustafa Pasha's time and was appointed to the governorship of Crete.
Research on Ottoman Crete also records that after the conquest of Candia Ankebût Ahmed Pasha was appointed to the beylerbeyilik of the province and that in the Aya İleya quarter of the city there is a mosque bearing his name. According to Hüsameddin he had mosques, schools, and waqfs in Chania, Candia, and Resmo, and in his home Kayabaşı a mosque and school; he had endowed his Kayabaşı mâlikâne for the expenses of these charities. This mosque, which appears in the waqf records as "Ahmed Pasha Mosque in the village of Pehlivan," stood at the center of the Kayabaşı vineyards. It is also known that in Hierapetra in the south of Crete there was a mosque bearing his name, later converted into the church of St. John.
His Death and His Mosque in Resmo
In this entry Hüsameddin gives only the year; in the biography he records the date of death as 21 Muharram 1092 [February 1681]. As to the place of his grave, the entry says "in a corner of his mosque," the biography "at the foot of the minaret of the mosque he built." Hüsameddin tells in bitter words that he visited the grave himself and copied the inscription on the gravestone, but that these notes burned.
The building known in today's Resmo (Rethymno) as the "Ankebût Ahmed Pasha Mosque" is in fact a three-aisled church built toward the end of the Venetian period by Dominican friars in the name of Santa Maria Maddalena. It is told that after the conquest Hüseyin Pasha, seeing that the congregation overflowed the church, had it converted into a mosque, and the mosque took the name of his successor, Ankebût Ahmed Pasha. The upper part of the minaret added beside the north aisle was soon demolished, and the minaret was called among the people "Kutsotrulis" (the cut stump). After being used as a mosque for two and a half centuries, the building was converted back into a church in 1917, dedicated to the Virgin Mary (Mikri Panagia), and a bell tower was added in 1920; it is one of the five old mosques of Resmo that can be visited today as churches. The difference between Hüsameddin's expression "the mosque he built" and the building's having been converted from a church can be explained by the fact that the word "to build" could in that period also include repairing and rearranging; the foot of the minaret where the Pasha was buried was most likely beside this building. This last point is an inference; no trace of the grave was found today.
Ümmühânî Hanım
The life of the Pasha's daughter Ümmühânî Hanım is told separately in Hüsameddin's biographical volumes. She was born while her father was governor of Amasya, married the Pasha's divan secretary Ali Efendi, and lived in her father's palace in Resmo. According to the biography, on her father's death in 1092 she went with her husband to the Hejaz, and after her husband's death endowed her property and died in 1114 [1702]. She assigned duty stipends in Amasya to the preacher of the Saraçhane Mosque and the professor of its madrasa, and also made a waqf to the Oruç Gazi Mosque in Istanbul. The entry's record "came to Istanbul" and the biography's record "went to the Hejaz" can be reconciled as the family's going first to Istanbul and from there to the Hejaz. For her husband Ali Efendi two different identifications are given: in the Pasha's biography "Hacı Nebîzâde Şeyhü'l-harem Ali Efendi bin Ahmed Ağa," and in the footnote in Ümmühânî Hanım's biography "Ali Efendi bin Osman, known as Kapancı Ali Pasha." This contradiction cannot be resolved from the text.
Abdî Efendi and His Tezkire
Abdî Efendi, whose death is recorded in the entry, holds an important place among Hüsameddin's sources. According to the introduction of the work, Abdî Efendi, who served as professor at the madrasa of the Abdullah Pasha complex, also known as the Darülhadis or Sofular, wrote a tezkire of poets collecting the lives and poems of the poets who had arisen in Amasya between 1000 and 1081, and added to this work earthquakes and events recorded nowhere else. Hüsameddin writes that he found the work in Amasya as an incomplete copy, but that this copy too burned. His descendant Rüşdü Ahmed Efendi wrote a supplement (zeyl) to his grandfather's tezkire, adding the poets of his own time, and his son Şeyh Ali Efendi kept the register of the sayyids of Amasya in 1110.
There is an inconsistency in the work about Abdî Efendi's year of death: this entry counts him among those who died in 1089, while his own biography says he died in Dhu al-Hijja 1087. A point that could mislead the reader concerns the name. Hüsameddin's epithet "Abdîzâde" does not come from this Abdî Efendi; according to the introduction of the work, the author's lineage goes back to his grandfather Abdî Ağa, who died in 1269 [1852-53], and the family was called "Abdî oğulları."
Differences in the Death Records
Two more of the death records in this entry do not agree with Hüsameddin's own biographical volumes. In the biography of Ganîzâde Abdülfettâh Efendi it is written that he retired from the kadılık of Trabzon and died around 1079; here he is among those who died in 1090. The biography of Pîrîzâde el-Hâc Hüseyin Efendi, professor of the Hızır Pasha Madrasa, says that he died on the Raghaib night of 1098; here he is shown as dying in 1091. Hüsameddin mentions this Hüseyin Efendi as one of the pupils of the Exegete Hızır Efendi, a great teacher whose pupils' lineage continued in Istanbul for about two centuries, and notes that "he is among the men of our exalted chain," that is, among the great figures of his own chain of learning.
Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa's return to Amasya in 1091 after being pardoned is also noteworthy. In the biography of the Exegete Hızır Efendi, Hüsameddin had written that Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, who had slandered Hızır Efendi, was executed around 1071. Yet in this entry and in the later entries Mumcuzâde Seyyid Ahmed Ağa is seen to be active in Amasya with the nakîbship and other posts. Either the person executed is someone else or the record in the biography is wrong.
Appointments in Istanbul
Fâzıl Mustafa Bey's vizierate agrees exactly with present-day research: Fâzıl Mustafa, son of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, became seventh vizier under the Dome in Jumada al-Thani 1091 [July 1680] at the wish of his brother-in-law Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha. He himself will serve as grand vizier between 1689 and 1691.
In the record of the reisülküttaplık, however, there is a problem. According to Hüsameddin's own biographical volumes, Köse Ahmed Efendi came to this post in 1089 with the dismissal of Reisülküttap Mustafa Efendi, managed the state's foreign affairs for about four years, and died in Dhu al-Qa'da 1092. A study on the reisülküttaps also states that Köse Ahmed Efendi became reisülküttap in 1676 and died in 1681. In that case the record of Merzifonlu Mustafa Efendi's becoming reisülküttap in 1090 does not agree with the others; Mustafa Efendi's tenure may belong to before Köse Ahmed Efendi. No information was found in other sources about Merzifonlu Hüseyin Ağazâde Hasan Efendi, who was appointed chief treasurer. The prominence of persons of Merzifon and Amasya origin in all these appointments is a reflection of the years of Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha's grand vizierate.
The Amasya Mevlevîhâne
The Amasya Mevlevîhâne stood in the Saraçhane quarter, on the bank of the Yeşilırmak; it is known that it was founded in 1314 by Pervâne Bey, burned in 1602, and in 1637 was rebuilt by Bayram Pasha, together with a caravanserai, when he brought water to the city. The deceased sheikh Hasan Kudsî Dede, according to Hüsameddin, was among the Mevlevi deputies and had become sheikh around 1070 on the death of Mahmûd Adnî Dede. His müşâare, that is, exchange of verse, with the Mevlevi poet Şeydâ Ahmed Çelebi, who knew Arabic and Persian literature, was famous; the jests and conversations of the poet Memi Dedezâde Burhâneddîn İbrâhim Efendi with him and with Mufti Hızır Efendi were also on people's lips. Alâeddîn Dede, who succeeded him, according to Hüsameddin died in 1112 [1700]. In an article listing the sheikhs of the Mevlevîhâne with the help of Hüsameddin, after Mahmud Dede the names of Abdülkadir Dede and Alâeddîn Dede are given and the name of Hasan Kudsî Dede does not appear; the records of this entry and the earlier entries fill the gap in that list. According to the same article the Mevlevîhâne was located in the area the old people called Selağzı, around today's Yavuz Selim Square, and must have been demolished after the closure of the tekkes in 1925; the author puts this forward as a guess.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, pp. 597–598. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, same edition, Introduction, pp. 12–15 (the author's family), pp. 55–60 (Tezkire-i Abdî); vol. 4, pp. 584–586 (Hasan Kudsî Dede's sheikhship); vol. 6, pp. 175–176 (Ankebût Ahmed Pasha, Köse Ahmed Efendi); vol. 7, p. 352 (Ümmühânî Hanım), p. 416 (Memi Dedezâde Burhâneddîn İbrâhim Efendi), p. 421 (Bilâl Efendi); vol. 9, p. 31 (Pîrîzâde Hüseyin Efendi), p. 117 (Müfessir Hızır Efendi); vol. 10, p. 211 (Rüşdü Ahmed Efendi); vol. 11, p. 424 (Şeydâ Ahmed Çelebi), p. 522 (Ganîzâde Abdülfettâh Efendi); vol. 12, p. 593 (Müderris Abdî Efendi).
Academic studies
- Ersin Gülsoy, "Kandiye", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kandiye
- Abdülkadir Özcan, "Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Mustafa Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kopruluzade-fazil-mustafa-pasa
- "Bir Devlet Adamı Olarak Reisülküttapların Klasik Türk Şiirindeki İzleri", https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/2331506
- İlhan Şahin, Feridun Emecen, "Amasya", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/amasya
Other sources