Amasya a’yânından Gümüşlüzâde Abdullah Bey bin Mahmûd Bey bin Nişâncı Ahmed Paşa’nın mahdûmudur. Amasya’da tahsîl-i ma’arifden sonra vâlî bulunan Sultân Bâyezîd Hân-ı Sânîye intisâb ederek kâtib-i dîvânî, ba’dehû defterdârı oldu.
886’da sultân-ı müşârün-ileyhin cülûsunda İstanbul’a gelip baş-defterdâr oldu. Ancak rükabâ-yı ikbâli tarafından Sadr-ı a’zam Amasyalı İshâk Paşa’yı, vezîr-i sâlis Hızır Paşazâde Mehmed Paşa’yı, bunu ve re’isü’l-küttâb Amasyalı Pîr Ahmed Çelebi’yi, da’va-yı saltanatla kıyâm eden Şehzâde Sultân Cem tarafdârı gösterilmişdi. 889’da İshâk Paşa Selânik’e, Mehmed Paşa bin Hızır Paşa Amasya’ya, sâhib-i terceme Dimetoka’ya, Pîr Ahmed Çelebi de İnegöl’e nefyedilerek azledildi. Çünkü sâhib-i terceme, Dimetoka’da kâin çiftliklerini 888’de vakfetmiş, Amasya’da müceddeden binâ etdiği câmiinin kapısı bâlâsında mahkûk olan ebyâtı vakfiyesine derc etdirmişdi. [389]
890’da Amasya’da kâin ceddînin câmii arsası üzerine müceddeden ve tevsi’an mükemmel bir câmi-i şerîf yaptırdığını kapısı bâlâsına hakk etdirdiği “İbtidâ-yı în binâ ba-hayr-ı Ahmed Bey be-hân lik târîhiş bûd kadtemme câmi’ün-kebîrun-890” beytinden anlaşılır. Ya’ni 888’de binâsına mübâşeret ve 890’da ikmâl edildi, demek olur.
Defterdâr müşârün-ileyh Dimetoka’da 891 senesi evâilinde vefât edib²² orada Sultân Bâyezîd-i Evvel Câmiinin şimâlinde kâin kabristan içinde medfûndur. 1308’de Dimetoka’ya gidip kabrini araştırdım. Bu kabristân içinde bir defterdârın medfûn olduğu söylendi ise de kabrini ma’alesef bulamadım. Gösterilen yerde yere gömülmüş ufak ve kara bir taş gördüm. Yazı yokdu.
In Modern English
He was the son of Gümüşlüzâde Abdullah Bey, one of the notables of Amasya; Abdullah Bey was the son of Mahmûd Bey, and Mahmûd Bey the son of Nişancı Ahmed Pasha. After completing his education in Amasya, he entered the service of Sultan Bayezid II, who was governor there, and became first a divan clerk and then his defterdar (treasurer).
In 886 [1481], when Sultan Bayezid ascended the throne, he came to Istanbul and became başdefterdar (chief treasurer). However, those jealous of his rise portrayed the Amasya-born Grand Vizier İshâk Pasha, the third vizier Hızır Paşazâde Mehmed Pasha, the subject of this entry, and the Amasya-born reisülküttâb (chief of the clerks) Pîr Ahmed Çelebi as supporters of Prince Cem Sultan, who had risen in revolt claiming the throne. In 889 [1484] İshâk Pasha was exiled to Salonica, Hızır Pasha's son Mehmed Pasha to Amasya, the subject of this entry to Dimetoka, and Pîr Ahmed Çelebi to İnegöl, and they were removed from their posts. This was because the subject of this entry had endowed his farms in Dimetoka as a waqf in 888 [1483], and had also had the couplets he carved above the door of the mosque he rebuilt in Amasya written into his waqf deed.
That in 890 [1485] he had a perfect mosque built on the plot of his grandfather's mosque in Amasya, renewing and enlarging it, is understood from the following couplet he had carved above its door:
İbtidâ-yı în binâ ba-hayr-ı Ahmed Bey be-hân
lik târîhiş bûd kad temme câmi'ün-kebîrun - 890
The meaning of the Persian couplet is this: "Read the beginning of this building as the good work of Ahmed Bey; its date was the words 'a great mosque was completed.'" That is, its construction began in 888 and was completed in 890.
The said defterdar died at the beginning of 891 [1486] in Dimetoka and was buried in the cemetery north of the Sultan Bayezid I Mosque there. In 1308 [1890-91] I went to Dimetoka and searched for his grave. Although it was said that a defterdar was buried in this cemetery, I unfortunately could not find his grave. At the place pointed out I saw a small black stone buried in the ground; there was no inscription on it.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- a'yân: the notables of the city
- intisâb etmek: to enter someone's service or retinue
- kâtib-i dîvânî: divan clerk
- defterdâr: the official in charge of financial affairs; baş-defterdâr: the state's highest finance official
- cülûs: accession to the throne
- rükabâ-yı ikbâl: rivals jealous of someone's rise
- vezîr-i sâlis: the third vizier
- re'îsü'l-küttâb: head of the divan clerks, reisülküttâb
- da'va-yı saltanat: a claim to the throne
- nefyetmek: to send into exile
- sâhib-i terceme: the person whose biography is written, the subject of the entry
- müceddeden ve tevsi'an: anew and by enlarging
- ebyât: couplets; derc etmek: to write, to put inside
- hakk etmek: to carve
- mübâşeret: beginning; ikmâl: completion
- evâil: the beginnings, the first days
The Gümüşlü Mosque
The mosque that Defterdar Ahmed Bey rebuilt is Amasya's Gümüşlü Mosque, which is still open for worship today. The mosque, located in the quarter formerly called Gümüşlüzâde and today called Gümüşlü, is also known by the names "Tâciye" and "Defterdar Ahmed Bey." To its west lies Yavuz Selim Square and to its north the Yeşilırmak. The first building was built in 1325, when Amasya was under Ilkhanid rule, by Gümüşlüzâde Tâceddin Mahmud Çelebi; after the city passed to Ottoman administration it was damaged in the earthquake of 1419 and repaired by Gümüşlüzâde Ahmed Pasha. After a fire, the mosque, which had been of wood, was rebuilt in masonry by Defterdar Ahmed Bey, a minaret was added to its northwest, and its waqfs were organized. The date in the door inscription is 1485.
The chronogram line in the inscription can be checked by the abjad reckoning: the sum of the letter values of the phrase "kad temme câmi'un kebîr" (قد تم جامع كبير) is 890, which confirms the date that Hüsameddin read. There is disagreement, however, over the start of construction. While Hüsameddin interprets the beginning as 888 [1483], some sources write that construction began in 1481. It is understood that in interpreting the inscription Hüsameddin took into account Ahmed Bey's endowing his Dimetoka farms in 888 and having these couplets written into the waqf deed.
The later history of the mosque long kept its tie to Ahmed Bey's family. After the fire of 1603, Beylerbeyi Şemseddin Pasha, one of Defterdar Ahmed Bey's grandsons, had the building repaired and its waqfs reorganized; after several earthquakes, in 1688 Gümüşlüzâde İbrahim Pasha repaired it and expanded its waqfs. After the fire of 1720, the mosque was repaired in 1721 by the mütevelli Hacı Mustafa Ağa, and was repaired again in 1953 and between 1985 and 1989.
The Gümüşlüzâdes
The Gümüşlüzâdes are a family that has had a say in both the political and the Sufi life of Amasya. It is noted that those who gave the family its name were known as Gümüşlüoğlu because they originally came from the Gümüş district of Amasya. The Gümüşlüoğlu Tekke, the first tekke of the Khalwatiyya in Amasya, was built by Hâce Celâl Çelebi, a relative of Pîr İlyâs, who returned to Amasya in 1406 after Timur's death. Among the repairs of Amasya Castle is counted the repair made in 1319 by Gümüşlüzâde Tâceddin Mahmud Çelebi. The building Hüsameddin calls "his grandfather's mosque" is the mosque of this Tâceddin Mahmud Çelebi; however, it is not clear whether Tâceddin Mahmud and the Mahmûd Bey in the subject's chain of descent are the same person.
The Charge of Supporting Cem Sultan
The purge Hüsameddin describes matches the court rivalries of the early years of Bayezid II's reign. Grand Vizier İshak Pasha was one of those who secured Bayezid's accession after Mehmed the Conqueror's death; he relied on the Janissaries through his son-in-law Gedik Ahmed Pasha. Bayezid acted cautiously toward him and kept him in the background in the campaign against Cem. İshak Pasha, whose power was broken by the execution of Gedik Ahmed Pasha, according to Kemalpaşazâde withdrew from the grand vizierate in the summer of 888 [1483], citing old age and illness, was sent to the sanjak of Salonica, and died in 892 [1487]. Hüsameddin places the event in 889 and narrates it as an exile; contemporary sources give this departure as a retirement and appointment to a sanjak.
Hüsameddin calls İshak Pasha "from Amasya." Yet according to the information in his waqf deed, İshak Pasha was from İnegöl and was buried in the tomb he had built in İnegöl. It is also known that two different İshak Pashas living in the same period are often confused in the sources. As for Hızır Pasha's son Mehmed Pasha, according to the Ottoman chronicles he rose to the vizierate in 888 [1483] and in 890 [1485] was dismissed and sent to Amasya as lala to Prince Ahmed. This is another face of the information of "exile to Amasya" that Hüsameddin gives. No information was found in another source about the reisülküttâb Pîr Ahmed Çelebi.
Dimetoka and His Death
Dimetoka, where Ahmed Bey was sent, is the city where Bayezid II was born in 1448. In a footnote Hüsameddin also notes that there is a rumor in Amasya that Ahmed Bey was killed, and that his waqf deed for Dimetoka is registered in the administration of waqf records. Hüsameddin went to Dimetoka in 1308 [1890-91], about twenty years before writing his book, to look for the grave; this visit shows that he also resorted to on-site research while gathering information. No information was found that Ahmed Bey's grave can be identified today.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 124. amasya.bel.tr
Official sources
- "Amasya Kalesi", Amasya Belediyesi Kent Rehberi (kentrehberi.amasya.bel.tr).
Books
- Selim Özcan, "Gümüşlü Camii", Online Türkiye Turizm Ansiklopedisi, 2019 (turkiyeturizmansiklopedisi.com/gumuslu-camii).
- Kadir Özköse, "Amasya'da Bulunan Halvetiyye Tekkeleri", Akademiar, 5, 2018, p. 91-118.
- "İshak Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 22, 2000, p. 537-538.
- Mustafa Çağhan Keskin, "II. Bayezid Dönemi Amasya Çevresinde Yerel Bir Bani: Hızır Paşa Oğlu Mehmed Paşa", Art-Sanat, 5, 2016.
- Şerafettin Turan, "Bayezid II", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 5, 1992, p. 234-238.