Çotalıdır. 1104 senesi şevvâlinin yirmisinde Amasya mutasarrıfı olup, Mütesellim-i Sâbık Kaya Ali Ağa yine Amasya’nın mütesellimi olduğu emri Amasya’ya geldi. Zilka’dede Müftü Mustafa Efendi ile nakîb es-Seyyid Emîr Hacı’nın azliyle fuhûl-i ulemâdan Çorumlu Ahmed Efendi Amasya müftüsü ve Sultâniyye müderrisi ve Nakîb-i Sâbık es-Seyyid Osmân Ağa nakîb’ül-eşrâf kâ’im-makâmı oldu.
Fakat mutasarrıf Hüseyin Paşa’nın vefâtı hilâf-ı vâki‘ olduğundan Çotalı Ahmed Paşa’nın azliyle sancağı selefi Hüseyin Paşa uhdesinde ibkâ edildi.
In Modern English
He was from Çota. On the twentieth day of the month of Şevval 1104 [1693] he became mutasarrıf (governor) of Amasya, and the order that the former mütesellim (deputy governor) Kaya Ali Ağa had become mütesellim of Amasya again reached Amasya. In the month of Zilkade the mufti Mustafa Efendi and the Naqib es-Seyyid Emîr Hacı were dismissed; Çorumlu Ahmed Efendi, one of the foremost of the scholars, became mufti of Amasya and professor of the Sultâniyye (Sultan Bayezid Madrasa), and the former naqib es-Seyyid Osmân Ağa became deputy of the naqib al-ashraf.
But since the news that Governor Hüseyin Pasha had died proved contrary to fact, Çotalı Ahmed Pasha was dismissed and the sanjak was left in the charge of the governor before him, Hüseyin Pasha.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mütesellim-i sâbık: the former mütesellim
- fuhûl-i ulemâ: the foremost of the scholars
- hilâf-ı vâki': contrary to fact, groundless
- ibkâ: leaving in a post, keeping in place
- uhde: the post that rests on someone
A One-Month Governorship
The entry is the record of a mistake made in an age when news traveled slowly in Ottoman provincial administration. At the end of the previous entry Hüsâmeddin writes that it was reported that Kadızâde Hüseyin Pasha, who had been bedridden for two months, had died, and that the sanjak was given to the former governor of Malatya, Ahmed Pasha. Çotalı Ahmed Pasha was appointed on 20 Şevval 1104, that is, at the end of June 1693; in the next entry it is said that Hüseyin Pasha was brought back to the sanjak on 20 Zilkade 1104, a month passing between his departure and his return. Ahmed Pasha does not seem to have come to Amasya in this short time; affairs were run by Kaya Ali Ağa, who was again made mütesellim.
Hüseyin Pasha recovered from this illness and moved to the beylerbeyilik of Raqqa the following year. His actual death would come only in 1107. In a study on Topal Yusuf Pasha, a mühimme (imperial order) record of 1696 shows that a hassa silahşor (palace guardsman) sent to confiscate the property in Zile of "the deceased Kadızâde Hüseyin Pasha" oppressed the people by throwing them in prison, and that the matter of punishing him was referred to the inspector of Anatolia. That the pasha had property and estates in Zile, neighboring Amasya, points to the family's deep-rooted wealth in the region.
About Çotalı Ahmed Pasha, who gives the entry its name, about which place the "Çota" attribution (nisba) points to, and about the pasha's later life, no information was found in other sources. Çorumlu Ahmed Efendi, who was brought to the muftiship, was counted in the previous entry among the best-known scholars of Amasya; Hüsâmeddin records in later pages that he resigned from issuing fatwas in Receb 1106.
Bibliography