Amasyalıdır. “Şemsi Paşazâde” demekle meşhûr olup Bağdat Muhârebe [87] sinde mecrûhan vefât eden Ali Bey’in mahdûmudur.⁶⁴⁵1052 senesi zilhiccesinin on dördüncü günü Amasya sancağı mutasarrıfı oldu.
Bu esnada sipâhi-i meşâhirînden İsmâil Ağa kethüdâyeri, Taşçıoğlu Sun‘ullah Ağa’nın ref‘inden Gözdâş Mehmed Ağa Amasya serdârı, Çavuşzâde Hüseyin Bey Amasya alaybeyi ve İstanbul’da Amasyalı Ahmed Ağa da mîrâhûr-ı sânî oldu.
1053 senesi gurre-i muharreminde Kâtipzâde Hasan Efendi Amasya kadısı, saferde Mutasarrıf Ahmed Paşa Girit Harbi’ne me’mûr olduğundan kethüdâyeri İsmâil Ağa Amasya mütesellimi ve mevkûfâtı Mehmed Efendi’nin birâderi Bağdatlıoğlu Osmân Ağa yine şehir kethüdâsı oldu.
Şa’bân evâilinde Mütesellim İsmâil Ağa da Girit Harbi’ne gitdiğinden Şâtır Ali Ağa mütesellim kâ’im-makâmı ve şa’bânın on yedisinde Amasyalı Gazzâz Ahmed Bey evkâf-ı Sultâniyye mütevellisi olup geldi.
Ramazânın yirmisinde üstâdu’l-fuzalâ, imâmu’s-sulehâ Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii imâm-ı sânîsi ve kürsü şeyhi Gürcü Hasan Efendi dâr-ı nâ‘ime irtihâl edib yerine mahdûmu Ders-i âm Mustafa Efendi imâm-ı sânî ve fuzalâ-yı meşâyihten Hüsâmeddîn Efendi kürsü şeyhi oldu.
Şevvâlde Mutasarrıf Ahmed Paşa Sivas beylerbeyi olduğundan Amasya [88] sancağı Sadr-ı a’zam Kara Mustafa Paşa müntesiblerinden sâbık Trablusşam Beylerbeyi Mehmed Paşa’ya tevcîh edildi.
In Modern English
He was a native of Amasya. He is known as "Şemsi Paşazâde"; he was the son of Ali Bey, who died of wounds received in the Baghdad War. On the fourteenth day of Zilhicce 1052 [1643] he became mutasarrıf of the sanjak of Amasya.
At this time İsmâil Ağa, one of the well-known sipahis, became kethüdâyeri (the local kethüda of the sipahis); with the dismissal of Taşçıoğlu Sun'ullah Ağa, Gözdâş Mehmed Ağa became serdar of Amasya (local commander of the janissaries) and Çavuşzâde Hüseyin Bey became alaybeyi of Amasya; and in Istanbul Ahmed Ağa of Amasya became second mirahur (second master of the palace stables).
On the first day of Muharrem 1053 [1643] Kâtipzâde Hasan Efendi became kadı of Amasya. In the month of Safer, because the mutasarrıf Ahmed Pasha was assigned to the Cretan War, the kethüdâyeri İsmâil Ağa became mütesellim (deputy governor) of Amasya, and Bağdatlıoğlu Osmân Ağa, brother of Mevkûfâtî Mehmed Efendi, again became city kethüda.
At the beginning of Şaban, because Mütesellim İsmâil Ağa also went to the Cretan War, Şâtır Ali Ağa became mütesellim kaymakamı (the deputy's deputy). On the seventeenth of Şaban, Gazzâz Ahmed Bey of Amasya came as mütevelli of the Sultanic waqfs.
On the twentieth of Ramazan, Gürcü Hasan Efendi, second imam and kürsü şeyhi (sheikh who preaches and teaches from the pulpit of the mosque) of the Sultan Bâyezîd Mosque, master of the scholars and leader of the righteous, died. In his place his son Mustafa Efendi, the ders-i âm (madrasa professor giving general lectures in the mosque), became second imam, and Hüsâmeddîn Efendi, one of the learned sheikhs, became kürsü şeyhi.
In the month of Şevval, because the mutasarrıf Ahmed Pasha became beylerbeyi of Sivas, the sanjak of Amasya was given to Mehmed Pasha, former Beylerbeyi of Tripoli of Syria, one of the men of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mecrûhan: wounded
- mahdûm: son
- serdar: here, the local commander of the janissaries in a city
- mîrâhûr-ı sânî: second master of the palace stables
- me'mûr olmak: to be assigned to a duty
- kâ'im-makâm: deputy, one who stands in for another
- evkâf-ı Sultâniyye: the waqfs belonging to sultans (here, to Bayezid II)
- kürsü şeyhi: the sheikh who preaches and teaches from the pulpit in a great mosque
- ders-i âm: the madrasa professor who gives lectures in a mosque open to everyone
- müntesib: attached to a great man, his man
Two Şemsi Paşazâdes
In his footnote Hüsameddin draws attention to an important distinction: in the same years there were two men called Şemsi Paşazâde Ahmed Pasha, one from Bolu, the other from Amasya. In Naîmâ's history the two are written as one person, but the telhises (summary reports that the grand vizier presented to the sultan) distinguish them. According to the information the author gives in his biographies of the emirs, Ahmed Pasha of Amasya was of the Gümüşlüzâde dynasty; his father Ali Bey fell as a martyr in the Baghdad War while sanjak governor of Bozok, and in 1048 Ahmed Bey received the sanjak of Bozok left vacant by his father. In 1051 he became beylerbeyi of Kars, at the end of 1052 he came to Amasya as mutasarrıf, and in Şevval 1053 he became beylerbeyi of Sivas. This was followed by the beylerbeyiships of Batum, Diyarbekir, Karesi, Şehrizor, Konya, Kefe and Bursa. Near the end of his life, in 1067, he went to the Dardanelles with Köprülü Mehmed Pasha as deputy kapudan pasha and took part in the recapture of Lemnos. The fact that each time he left office his return to Amasya is recorded one by one shows that he belonged to a long-established family of this city.
The Historical Problem of the Cretan War
The most striking point in the text is that Ahmed Pasha is said to have been assigned to the "Cretan War" in Safer 1053, that is, in the spring of 1643. According to studies of the reign of Sultan İbrahim, the real spark of the Cretan campaign was the plundering by Maltese corsairs of the ship of Sünbül Ağa, the former Chief Black Eunuch, who was travelling to Egypt; a study on Silahdar Yusuf Pasha dates this incident to the summer of 1644. Preparations for the campaign began after this, and the orders sent to the sanjaks belong to the beginning of 1055 (spring 1645). When the fleet left Navarino in June 1645 it was announced that the campaign was directed at Crete, and the siege of Hanya (Chania) began on 27 June 1645. Accordingly, an assignment to Crete dated 1053 does not agree with the known chronology. It may be that Hüsameddin is here calling some other naval or coastal assignment, after the fact, by the name of the Cretan War, or that there is a shift in the dates in this section; with the sources at hand it cannot be determined which.
The Staff of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque
The changes of imam, preacher and kürsü şeyhi in the entry show that the Bayezid II Complex remained the centre of the city's intellectual life in the seventeenth century as well. Hüsâmeddîn Efendi, who was appointed kürsü şeyhi, is Şeyh Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Efendi, whom Hüsameddin presents among the Halvetî sheikhs of Amasya. According to the author, in 1048 this man was appointed to the dersiye (a salaried hadith and tafsir lectureship funded by a waqf) that Mimar Kasım Ağa had founded in the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, and he died at the beginning of Zilhicce 1053. The next entry describes his death and funeral.
That family names such as Kâtipzâde, Bağdatlıoğlu and Çavuşzâde appear in offices that constantly changed hands fits the picture Turan Açık draws from the Amasya registers: in the first half of the seventeenth century the kapıkulu sipahis who had settled in the provinces became a local group that seized the city's administrative posts and monopolised tax-farming and state-revenue business. That Kethüdâyeri İsmâil Ağa is described as "one of the famous sipahis" is an example of this.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, pp. 567–567. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 6-8, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, entry "Ahmed Paşa-Şemsî Paşazâde", e-book p. 167; entry "Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Efendi-Halvetî Şeyhi", e-book pp. 579-580.
Academic studies
- Feridun Emecen, "İbrâhim", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/ibrahim--padisah
- Metin Menekşe, "17. Yüzyılda Osmanlı Devleti'nde Makbul İken Maktul Olan Bir Devlet Adamı: Kaptan-ı Derya Silahdâr Yusuf Paşa (1604-1646)", Stratejik ve Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, 5/3, 2021. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1942580
- Hasan Ali Cengiz, "Osmanlı Kaynaklarında Girit Seferi", Trakya Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 9/17, 2019, pp. 105-133.
- Turan Açık, "Kara Mehmed Ağa'nın Ardından: 17. Yüzyılın İlk Yarısında Amasya'da Bir Kapıkulu Sipahisinin Düşündürdükleri", Sosyal Bilimler Araştırmaları Dergisi, 11/1, 2016, pp. 1-46 (abstract).