Köprülüdür. Sadr-ı esbak Köprülü Mehmed Paşa bin Hüseyin Ağa’nın büyük mahdûmudur. Sadr-ı müşârün-ileyhin ikinci zevcesi olan Köprülü Hacı Yûsuf Ağa bin Ahmed Bey’in kerîmesi Ayşe Hânım’dan Köprü kasabasında 1045 senesinde doğdu. Pederi bu esnâda mîr-livâ idi.
Mukaddimât-ı ulûmu Köprü’de olduğu müddetce ora ulemâsından Sâlih ve Amasya’da Müftü Yeğenzâde el-Hâc Mehmed, Amasya ulemâsından Hacı Efendizâde Mustafa Efendilerden ve İstanbul’da meşhûr Kara Çelebizâde Abdulaziz Efendi’den ahz ü ikmâl edib ondan mülâzım ve 1062’de silsile-i ulemâya dâhil olarak müderris, 1069’da tuğrât-ı mahdûmâne ile Sahn’a vâsıl oldu.
Yedi yıl zarfında sahna kadar gelmesi ulemâ arasında hayli dedikoduya bâdî olduğuna pederi münfâ’il olup [548] 1069 zilhiccesi evâhirinde uhdesine Rumeli Beylerbeyliği pâyesiyle Erzurum valiliğini tevcih etdirdi. Bu esnâda henüz yirmi dört yaşında bir genç idi. Sadâret ağalarından Erzurumlu Timur Paşazâde Osmân Ağa’yı kendisine kethüdâ nasb ederek gönderdi.
1071 senesi muharreminin üçüncü günü rütbe-i vezâretle Şam vâlîsi olup Suriye kıtasına gitdi. Orada birkaç yıldan beri devam eden Dürzi isyânını kökünden kesip kurutacak derecede harben ve sulhen teskîn etmeğe muvaffak olarak büyük bir yararlık ve varlık gösterdi.
Bu muvaffakiyet üzerine sene-i mezbûre zilka’desinde İstanbul kâim-makâmı olup Şam’dan geldi. Pederi de Sultân Mehmed Hân-ı Râbi ile beraber Edirne’ye gitdiğinden bir müddet sonra hasta olup yatağa düştü. Dördüncü Sultân Mehmed Hân’ı endişeye düşürdü.
1072 senesi saferinin evâ’ilinde Edirne’ye celb edilip rikâb-ı hümâyûn kâ’im-makâmı oldu. Pederinin rebîülevvel ayının yedinci gecesinde vefâtı üzerine ta’rif ve tavsiyesiyle [549] yirmi yedi yaşında sadr-ı a’zam oldu.
Onbeş yıl, beş ay, on dokuz gün devam eden zaman-ı sadâretinde, Girit, Macar, Nemçe, Rus üzerine ilân-ı harb ederek serdâr-ı ekrem olup yaptığı muhârebelerde galibiyet kazandı. Nice kaleler fethederek eyâletler aldı. Devlet ve milletin yüzünü güldürdü.
Çünkü devlet ve milleti pek fâzılâne ve hakimâne idâre ederek Türk teb’ası olan bütün milletlerin pek samimî muhabbetlerini kazandı. Ufak bir isyân ve ihtilâle meydân vermedi. Bütün millet kendisini candan sever, her emrine boyun eğerdi. Bu sûretle Avrupa’yı hükmüne râm etdi. Türklüğü göklere çıkardı.
Ne yazık ki müskirâta pek düşkündü. Bundan dolayı bedenine ârız olan za’f ü nehâfet son günlerinde ziyâdeleşti. Nihayet müskirâtın te’sirâtıyla 1087 senesi şa’bânının yirmi altıncı günü dâr-ı bekâya irtihâl etdi. Çenberlitaş civârında pederinin yaptırdığı Dâru’l-Hadîsi önünde pederinin sol tarafında medfûndur. [550]
Âlim, müdebbir, muhârib, hâkim, sahî, âlî-himmet, mücâhîd hayr-hâh, şecî’, metîn, “Fâdıl Ahmed Paşa” demekle meşhûr bir vezîr-i âlî-şân idi. Şerîk-i saltanat olduğunu iddia edenler de vardır. Lâkin bu iddi’a sadr-ı müşârün-ileyhin bütün harekât ve ef’âliyle merdûddur.
Fütûhât ve muhârebâtını irâ’e etmek üzere kethüdâsı Osmân Ağa’nın yazdığı menâkıb-nâmesi, Köprülüzâdelerin sülâlesini ve hayat-ı siyâsiyyelerini tahrîr eden İbrâhim Behcetî Efendi’nin silsile-nâmesi İstanbul kütübhânelerinde mevcûtdur. İbrâhim Behcetî Efendi’nin Köprülü Mehmed Paşa’yı ve Köprülüzâdeleri Rumelideki Köprülü kasabasından göstermesi bütün tevârihe ve kuyûd-ı resmiyyeye muhâliftir. Sülâlesini de yanlış kaydetmişdir. Köprülü Mehmed Paşa tercemesinde tashîh olunur.
Pederinin sefk-i dimâya olan meylinden ziyâde kendisinin tedbir ve ihsan ile kalıp enâmı celb ve teshîr etmesi sadr-ı müşârün-ileyhin hayat-ı siyâsiyyesinde şanlı bir muvaffakiyet, yüksek bir faziletdir. Bunun için pederinin sadâretine itirâz edenler kendisine ifâ-yı teşekkür etmişlerdi. [551]
Vatanı olan Köprü’de bir medrese-i âlîye, İstanbul’da mükemmel bir kütübhane, Girit’in Kandiye şehrinde ve Rumeli’de Uyvar Kalesinde bir câmii şerîf yaptırdı. Bu hayrâtını idâre edecek pek çok musakkafât, arazi ve mezârî’ vakfederek nâmını bu sûretle de ibkâ etdi.
Sadr-ı müşârün-ileyh bilâ-veled vefât eylediğinden vakfiyesini birâderi Fâzıl Mustafa Paşa tanzim etdirdi. Kuyûd-ı vakfiye idâresinde vakfiyesi müseccel ve kütübhanesine vakfetdiği binlerce kitaplar mukayyeddir. Kıymetdâr kitâbları vardır. Müşârün-ileyhin kethüdâları aşağıda Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa diye gelecek tercemesi zeylinde arz edilir.⁵⁸
In Modern English
He was from Köprü. He was the eldest son of the former grand vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha son of Hüseyin Ağa. He was born in the town of Köprü in 1045 [1635-36] to Ayşe Hanım, daughter of Köprülü Hacı Yusuf Ağa son of Ahmed Bey and second wife of the said grand vizier. At that time his father was a mîr-livâ (sanjak governor).
He took the first steps of learning while he was in Köprü from Sâlih, a scholar of that place, and in Amasya from the mufti Yeğenzâde Hacı Mehmed and from Hacı Efendizâde Mustafa Efendi, one of the scholars of Amasya, and in Istanbul he completed his studies under the famous Kara Çelebizâde Abdülaziz Efendi; he became a mülâzım (candidate madrasa professor) under him, entered the scholarly hierarchy in 1062 [1651-52] as a madrasa professor, and in 1069 [1658-59], by imperial tuğra, reached the Sahn (the rank of the Sahn-ı Semân madrasas).
When his advance to the Sahn rank within seven years caused considerable gossip among the scholars, his father was disturbed by this and, toward the end of Zilhicce 1069, had his son given the governorship of Erzurum with the rank of beylerbeyi of Rumelia. At that time he was still a young man of twenty-four. He sent along as his kethüda (steward) Osman Ağa son of Timur Pasha of Erzurum, one of the ağas of the grand vizierate.
On the third day of Muharrem 1071 he became governor of Damascus with the rank of vizier and went to the region of Syria. There he showed great service and strength, pacifying by both war and peace the Druze rebellion that had lasted several years to the point of eradicating it at the root.
After this success, in the month of Zilkade of the same year he came from Damascus and became kaymakam of Istanbul. Since his father had gone to Edirne with Sultan Mehmed IV, he fell ill after a while and took to his bed. This worried Sultan Mehmed IV.
Early in the month of Safer 1072 he was summoned to Edirne and became the sultan's kaymakam. When his father died on the seventh night of the month of Rebiülevvel, he became grand vizier at the age of twenty-seven, on his father's recommendation and proposal.
During his grand vizierate, which lasted fifteen years, five months and nineteen days, he declared war on Crete, Hungary, the Nemçe (Austrians) and the Russians, became commander-in-chief, and won victories in the wars he fought. He conquered many fortresses and took provinces. He made the state and the nation smile.
For he governed the state and the nation with great maturity and wisdom and won the sincere affection of all the nations that were Turkish subjects. He allowed no small rebellion or disorder. The whole nation loved him dearly and obeyed his every command. Thus he brought Europe under his rule and raised Turkishness to the skies.
Unfortunately he was very fond of drink. Because of this, the weakness and frailty seen in his body increased in his last days. At last, under the effect of drink, he passed to the hereafter on the twenty-sixth day of the month of Şaban 1087. He lies near Çemberlitaş, in front of the Dârülhadîs built by his father, to the left of his father.
He was a vizier of exalted renown: a scholar, prudent, a warrior, a judge, generous, of high aspiration, charitable, brave, sturdily built, known as "Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha." There were also those who claimed that he was a partner in the sultanate. But this claim has been refuted by all the actions and deeds of the said grand vizier.
The menâkıbnâme (a work narrating virtues and achievements) written by his kethüda Osman Ağa to show his conquests and wars, and the silsilenâme (genealogy) by İbrahim Behcetî Efendi, which records the lineage and political lives of the Köprülüzades, exist in the libraries of Istanbul. İbrahim Behcetî Efendi's presentation of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha and the Köprülüzades as coming from the town of Köprülü in Rumelia is contrary to all histories and official records. He also recorded their lineage wrongly. This is corrected in the biography of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha.
More than his father's inclination to shed blood, it was his own drawing and binding of the people to himself through prudence and generosity that was a glorious success and a lofty virtue in the political life of the said grand vizier. For this reason, those who had objected to his father's grand vizierate thanked him.
In Köprü, his homeland, he had a lofty madrasa built; in Istanbul a splendid library; and in the city of Candia in Crete and in the fortress of Uyvar in Rumelia a mosque each. To run these charitable works he endowed buildings, lands and fields yielding abundant income, and thus kept his name alive in this way too.
Since the said grand vizier died childless, his brother Fâzıl Mustafa Pasha had his endowment deed drawn up. The deed is entered in the waqf records administration, and the thousands of books he endowed to his library are recorded in it. There are valuable books. His kethüdas are described at the end of the biography that will come below under "Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha."
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- sadr-ı esbak: former grand vizier
- sadr-ı müşârün-ileyh: the said grand vizier
- mîr-livâ: sanjak governor
- mülâzım: candidate for a professorship, a madrasa graduate in the waiting list
- silsile-i ulemâ: the scholarly ranks through which scholars rose step by step
- Sahn: the Sahn-ı Semân madrasas in Istanbul; a high madrasa rank
- tuğra: the sultan's signature, an imperial decree
- kâim-makâm: deputy, kaymakam
- rikâb-ı hümâyûn: the sultan's retinue and camp
- serdâr-ı ekrem: commander-in-chief
- müskirât: drink, intoxicating things
- dâr-ı bekâ: the hereafter
- musakkafât: income-yielding buildings (shops, inns, etc.)
- mezâri': cultivated fields
- bilâ-veled: childless
- vakfiye: waqf deed
Birth, Education and First Posts
Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha was born in 1045 (1635-36) in the town of Köprü (today Vezirköprü), attached to Amasya; Hüsameddin and present-day sources give the same year. His mother was Ayşe Hanım, daughter of Yusuf Ağa, the voivode of Köprü. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi writes that at the age of seven he went to Istanbul with his father and became a mülâzım under Karaçelebizâde Abdülaziz Efendi. Hüsameddin, besides these teachers, also lists teachers from Köprü and Amasya: Sâlih of Köprü, the mufti of Amasya Yeğenzâde Hacı Mehmed, and Hacı Efendizâde Mustafa Efendi. We could not find these three names in another source; they are known only from Hüsameddin.
After teaching for nearly ten years, Ahmed Pasha left the scholarly career for the administrative one, at his father's direction, because of the rivalry and gossip among the scholars. Hüsameddin tells the event in the same way: his so rapid rise to the Sahn had caused gossip, and his father appointed him to the governorship of Erzurum. The governorships of Erzurum and Damascus begin from 1069 (1659). In Damascus he won the people's affection with some tax reductions, and he subdued the Şihâb and Ma'noğlu families, well-known families of the region, and made them pay taxes to the state. Whether the event Hüsameddin calls the "Druze rebellion" also covered these families is not clear in the sources.
His Grand Vizierate
When Köprülü Mehmed Pasha fell ill, Ahmed Pasha first became kaymakam of the grand vizierate, and with his father's death he was appointed grand vizier on 8 Rebiülevvel 1072 (1 November 1661). Hüsameddin says "the seventh night of the month of Rebiülevvel"; the date given by the TDV is the eighth of the month. The one-day difference may arise from the night being counted with the previous day; this is an inference.
Hüsameddin gives the length of the grand vizierate as fifteen years, five months and nineteen days. The period from Rebiülevvel 1072 to the end of Şaban 1087 by the Hijri calendar matches this figure; that is, the number appears to have been worked out by Hijri reckoning up to the day of his death.
In this period the capture of Uyvar (24 September 1663), the Treaty of Vasvár (9 August 1664) and the surrender of Candia (6 September 1669) took place. According to the TDV, Köprülüzâde himself composed a chronogram for the conquest of Uyvar with the line "Allah muîn oldu fetheyledik Uyvar'ı" (1074). The surrender terms of Candia were set in eighteen articles, and the greater part of Crete, Candia included, passed to the Ottomans. Where Hüsameddin speaks of a declaration of war on "Crete, Hungary, the Nemçe, the Russians," the word "Russians" does not clearly match the campaigns found in the TDV; the TDV mentions the Polish campaign of 1672. This point could not be verified.
His Death and Its Cause
According to the TDV, Ahmed Pasha died on the night of 26 Şaban 1087 (3 November 1676) at the Karabiber Farm in the village of Karasinit, between Çorlu and Karıştıran, while traveling to Edirne; after the funeral prayer was performed there, his body was brought to Istanbul and buried in his father's tomb at Çemberlitaş. Hüsameddin gives the same day and the same burial place. As the cause of death Hüsameddin mentions fondness for drink; the TDV, however, states that the cause of death was the disease istiskā (cirrhosis). The two accounts may point to the same disease; but the sources do not say so explicitly.
Charitable Works and His Library
The library and mosques that Hüsameddin lists also appear in the TDV: the library he had built beside the mansion that had passed from İpşir Mustafa Pasha and his wife Ayşe Sultan at Çemberlitaş, and the valuable books endowed to it; mosques and waqfs in Uyvar, Candia and Kamaniçe; and an inn in İzmir whose construction was completed later. A library was also established in the mosque in Candia. Hüsameddin writes that the endowment deed was drawn up by Fâzıl Mustafa Pasha; the TDV, on the other hand, states that, on his father's will, the waqfs in Anatolia, the unfinished institutions in Rumelia and the facilities at Çemberlitaş were completed. The mosque in Kamaniçe is not in Hüsameddin's count.
When his seal-keeper Hasan Ağa died in 1672, it appears that his rich library passed to Ahmed Pasha. Separate works were written about Ahmed Pasha's campaigns; for example, Mehmed Necâtî and Tâib Ömer wrote on the Uyvar campaign, and the seal-keeper Hasan Ağa wrote a book on the Candia campaign. Whether the menâkıbnâme written by his kethüda Osman Ağa, which Hüsameddin mentions, is the same as these works could not be determined from the sources.
The Behcetî Question
Hüsameddin finds wrong İbrahim Behcetî Efendi's presentation of the Köprülüs as coming from a Köprülü town in Rumelia. Present-day sources prove him right: Köprülü Mehmed Pasha was born in the village of Rudnik in Albania, attached to the sanjak of Berat, was levied through the devshirme and brought to Istanbul, later went to the town of Köprü (Vezirköprü), attached to Amasya, and married Ayşe Hanım, and was known as Köprülü because he was there. The work Silsiletü'l-âsafiyye by Behcetî Seyyid İbrahim (d. after 1151/1738) narrates the lives of the statesmen who came from the Köprülü family. It appears that Hüsameddin left the correction to the entry on Köprülü Mehmed Pasha.
The Ahmed Efendi in the Footnote
The footnote attached to the last sentence of the entry describes an Ahmed Efendi, son of Şeyh Hüsâmeddin Efendi of Amasya: because he was a calligrapher he became a clerk of the divân-ı hümâyûn and was seen in this post in 1071. The footnote does not explicitly say that this man was one of Köprülüzâde's kethüdas.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 171–172. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies