From chief ayan (provincial notable) of Amasya to exile on Bozcaada: such was the course of Yeğenzâde Hacı İbrâhim Âsım Bey's life in the first half of the nineteenth century. He governed the sanjak twice as mütesellim (deputy governor) and also wrote poetry under the pen name (mahlas) "Âsım". Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar places him above all the leading men of his day in Amasya Tarihi and calls him "the aynü'l-a'yân of Amasya", the very apple of its notables' eye. What is known of his poetry rests on a single source, the biographer Fatîn Dâvud, who knew him personally. Fatîn recorded a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets by him and judged his verse to be middling. Research notes on the events, together with Hüsameddin's entry, are collected in the article İbrâhim Âsım Bey-Yeğenzâde.

Hüsameddin's Account

The entry is placed among the people of Amasya named İbrâhim. Hüsameddin mentions the same man once more as "Âsım İbrâhim Bey" in the section arranged by pen names and refers the reader back to this entry. The opening and closing of the biography read as follows:

Amasya a'yânından es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ahmed İzzet Bey bin Ömer Paşa bin el-Hâc İbrâhim Bey bin Yeğen el-Hâc Ali Bey bin el-Hâc Ahmed Bey bin Küçük Ali Bey'in mahdûmudur. Amasya'da tevellüd ve neş'et, ulemâdan tahsîl-i ilm ü ma'rifet etdi. Ba'dehû Amasyalızâde Hacı İbrâhim Efendi'ye intisâb edib mektubî-i sadâret kalemine girmişdi. 1222'de efendisinin şehâdeti üzerine ihtifâ ve kalemi terk ederek Amasya'ya geldi. [...] Mîr-i müşârün-ileyh el-Hâc İbrâhim Asım Bey, âkil, müdebbir, gâyet nâfizü'l-kelim, şâir, edîb, vakûr, kerîm ü't-tab', servet ü yesâre mâlik, natûk, kâtib bir zât idi. Debdebe ve dârâtı düzgün, Eski Kethüdâ Mahallesi'ndeki konağı pek muhteşem, vezîrâne yaşar, emîrâne söyler, ulemâ ve fukarâyı severdi.

In English: He was the son of Seyyid Hacı Ahmed İzzet Bey, one of the notables of Amasya; his line went back through Ömer Pasha, Hacı İbrâhim Bey, Yeğen Hacı Ali Bey and Hacı Ahmed Bey to Küçük Ali Bey. He was born and raised in Amasya and studied under the scholars. Later he attached himself to Amasyalızâde Hacı İbrâhim Efendi and entered the correspondence office of the grand vizierate. When his patron was killed in 1222 (1807) he went into hiding, gave up the office and came back to Amasya. Hacı İbrâhim Âsım Bey was intelligent, prudent, a man whose word carried great weight, a poet and man of letters, dignified, generous, wealthy, eloquent and a fine writer. He kept a proper state; his mansion in the Eski Kethüda quarter was magnificent. He lived like a vizier, spoke like a lord, and loved the scholars and the poor.

His Life

His career in the Istanbul offices ended in 1807, when his patron was killed in the uprising directed against the statesmen of Selim III. Back in Amasya, Âsım Bey succeeded his father in 1234 (1818-19) as administrator (mütevelli) of the Hâtuniye endowments. Being the son-in-law of Benderlizâde Seyyid Hacı İbrâhim Pasha helped him: in 1236 (1820-21) he took over the government of the sanjak with the title of kapıcıbaşı of the imperial court and the position of chief ayan. The next twenty years were a life swinging between his power in the town and the suspicion of the capital. After the Janissary-Student affair of 1239 he was sent to Sivas; pardoned a few months later, he went on the pilgrimage. For his services in clearing the Janissaries out of Amasya in Zilkade 1241 (June 1826) he received the honorary rank of first master of the horse (mîrâhûr-ı evvel); in 1242 he became chief ayan again, and in 1244 (1828-29) mütesellim of Amasya.

His term lasted two years and ended with his dismissal in Rebiülevvel 1246 (August 1830) because of complaints from the townspeople. He was appointed to the same post a second time in Şevval 1248, but a few weeks later new complaints brought exile to Bozcaada. Rescue came from an old friendship: Mehmed Raûf Pasha, who became grand vizier in Ramazan 1248, had worked in the same office in his youth and obtained a pardon for his former colleague in Muharrem 1249. Âsım Bey stayed in Istanbul for a time, became acting mütesellim in Amasya in 1253 and was sent to Samsun in 1254 over what was called the "First Doctor Affair". Pardoned in 1255, he was invited to Istanbul as one of the provincial notables summoned to sit on the state council set up at the Sublime Porte. According to Hüsameddin he died there suddenly after an iftar in Ramazan 1255 (November 1839).

The date of his death was already disputed in Hüsameddin's time. Saraczâde Yaşar Mehmed Efendi, a notable of Amasya, used to say that Âsım Bey died in Amasya in 1269 and that he had seen the funeral with his own eyes. Hüsameddin answers that he "is no liar, but he is wrong": the man who died in 1269 was Yeğenzâde Seyyid Halîl Bey, a member of the administrative council. Hüsameddin himself follows the date in Fatîn's tezkire (biographical anthology of poets) and the Cihât registers that confirm it. The Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, also drawing on Fatîn, places the death in 1254 (1838-39) and says he was buried in Amasya. No record was found that reconciles the two; without seeing the edition of the tezkire itself one cannot say which is right.

His Connection with Amasya

Âsım Bey was born and raised in Amasya and spent most of his life governing the town. The Yeğenzâde line, which goes back six generations, is a family of notables that can be followed through separate entries in Hüsameddin's book. His father Ahmed Bey had also served at the Sublime Porte and passed the Hâtuniye trusteeship to his son; since the father's own entry puts his death in 1232, there is a small gap between that date and 1234, when the son is said to have taken over. Hüsameddin lists well-known notables of the time, Hacı Yûsuf Ağazâde Seyyid Hacı Ali Ağa, Fazlızâde Seyyid Hacı Mehmed Emîn Efendi, Ak Hasanzâde Hâfız Hasan Ağa and Köprülü Hacı Mehmed Es'ad Ağa, and ranks Âsım Bey above them all. Whether the "magnificent" mansion in the Eski Kethüda quarter still stands is not known.

His Poetry

No source mentions a divan or any other work by Âsım Bey. The only source for his poetry is Fatîn Dâvud's Hâtimetü'l-eş'âr, one of the last classical tezkires. Hüsameddin stresses that Fatîn wrote his notice after "seeing" him, which shows that the poet and the biographer met in person. Fatîn considers his poetry middling. The five-couplet ghazal in Ömer Çiftçi's edition of the tezkire is quoted in full in Yunus Kaplan's dictionary entry. Hüsameddin gives only the first two couplets and reads the first line of the second couplet differently.

The ghazal opens by likening the beloved's face to a rose garden, reminds the cupbearer of the feast of Cem, counts the musk of Khotan as worthless beside the scent of the beloved's locks, and in the pen-name couplet shows the poet as a Mecnun wandering from door to door on the path of love. The text of the ghazal and its commentary are in the article "Gülşen-i hüsnünde açmış lâle sünbül yâsemen"; no other poem by Âsım Bey has been found.

His Family

According to Hüsameddin, Âsım Bey's sons were Seyyid Ahmed Şâkir, Mustafa Hüsnî and Mehmed Ârif Beys. Ahmed Şâkir Bey's son Mustafa Hüsnî Bey and his son Ahmed Bey were also well-known figures in Amasya. Other members of the Yeğenzâde family appear in separate entries in different volumes of Amasya Tarihi.

Chronology

1222 (1807): His patron Amasyalızâde Hacı İbrâhim Efendi is killed; Âsım Bey leaves the office and returns to Amasya.

1234 (1818-19): He becomes administrator of the Hâtuniye endowments.

1236 (1820-21): As kapıcıbaşı and chief ayan he takes over the government of the sanjak.

1244 (1828-29): He becomes mütesellim of Amasya; he is dismissed in Rebiülevvel 1246.

1248 (1833): A few weeks after his second term as mütesellim he is exiled to Bozcaada.

Ramazan 1255 (November 1839): According to Hüsameddin he dies in Istanbul; TEİS places his death in 1254 (1838-39).

Bibliography

Primary sources

Books

Online sources