After the Battle of Ankara it was far from clear whether the Ottoman state would survive. Sultan Bayezid was a prisoner of Timur, the army had scattered, Bursa had been plundered, and the sons of the dynasty had begun to divide the realm among themselves. If a center was eventually rebuilt out of this confusion, a large share of the credit belongs to Amasya and to Bayezid Pasha, the lala who stayed at the side of Prince Mehmed Çelebi in that city. In 1413, after the Interregnum had closed, the Pasha became grand vizier to Mehmed I, and in 1421 he was killed on the campaign against Düzmece Mustafa (the "False" Mustafa). He left behind a dervish lodge on the bank of the Yeşilırmak that still stands, an endowment deed carved into stone, and a mesnevi written in his praise by a poet of his own day.

Identity and Origins

Many people in Ottoman history bore the name Bayezid. The man discussed here appears in the sources as "Bayezid Pasha of Amasya" and "Vezîr-i Kebîr Bayezid Pasha": the statesman who served as lala (tutor-guardian) to Çelebi Mehmed and held the office of grand vizier from 1413 until his death. He must not be confused with the patron of the Sultan Bayezid II Complex (külliye) in Amasya, who was a sultan reigning about a century after this pasha. His date of birth is unknown. The most comprehensive scholarly study of his life, Mustafa Çağhan Keskin's 2016 article, notes that he is regarded as a native of Amasya but that his family origin is disputed.

The firmest document linking him to Amasya is his own endowment deed. In the deed drawn up for the imaret he had built in Amasya, his father's name is recorded as Yahşi Bey. Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar, author of the twelve-volume Amasya Tarihi, writes that Yahşi Bey was a native of Amasya and a descendant of Emir Seyfeddin Sungur, who died in the early fourteenth century. Sungur appears to have been a member of the post-Seljuk ruling elite active around Amasya. This genealogy cannot be verified with documents. Even so, the fact that Çelebi Mehmed was given him as lala during his princehood has been read as a sign that the Pasha may have belonged to one of the region's important families.

The sources do not agree on his origin. The contemporary Greek historian Doukas describes him as a slave of Albanian origin. In the nineteenth century Mustafa Vazih Efendi, who compiled the fatwas and the first city history of Amasya, records that he belonged to a Bosnian dynasty. The Sicill-i Osmânî says that he was trained in the Enderûn. These accounts point to a devshirme background, whereas the father's name "Yahşi" in the endowment deed suggests that his father at least may have been a Muslim. The entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi likewise says that he is called Amasyalı because he was born in Amasya, while adding that Albanian origin is also probable; how the two statements fit together has not been shown by any document. In the endowment documents for his buildings in Amasya, dated 820 (1418), 821 (1418) and 823 (1420), his name appears only with the title "Celâleddin." In the repair inscription of the Orhan Imaret in Bursa, by contrast, the title "vezîr-i kebîr" is found.

Lala and Prince

Bayezid Pasha's political life began when he was appointed lala to Çelebi Mehmed, the son of Bayezid I (Yıldırım). A lala was an experienced statesman who trained a prince in administration, soldiering and manners, and who carried the burden of governance at his side in the sanjak. According to the TDV entry, the Pasha had been raised in the palace, had held certain military posts under Bayezid I, and then joined the close entourage of Çelebi Mehmed during his governorship at Amasya. Keskin reports that he was well educated and knew Persian well enough to read mesnevis. He fought alongside the prince at the Battle of Ankara.

1402: From Ankara to Amasya

When Bayezid I was defeated and captured by Timur, the Ottoman army disintegrated. According to Doukas, Bayezid Pasha carried the still-childlike prince out of the battlefield on his back and brought him to Amasya, begging and collecting bread from villages along the way. The sources give the prince's age as 14 or 15; the uncertainty stems from the fact that Çelebi Mehmed's year of birth is not known with precision. Details such as carrying him on his back and begging rest on a single contemporary witness and have a legendary flavor. That the prince reached Amasya safely is certain.

What followed was a long wait. The head of the state was in Timur's hands, Süleyman held sway in Edirne, İsa operated around Bursa, and Musa was pursuing his own designs in Rumelia. In Amasya there remained Mehmed Çelebi and his lala. Bayezid I, back in his own princehood at Kütahya, had met poets such as Ahmedî and Şeyhî and had carried the entertainment gatherings of court life into the Ottoman milieu. During the Interregnum this tradition continued within the dynasty, and Amasya became one of its provincial stops.

The Interregnum

The struggle for the throne among Süleyman, İsa, Musa and Mehmed Çelebi lasted about eleven years and is known as the Interregnum (Fetret Devri). Bayezid Pasha never left Mehmed Çelebi's side during this period. According to Keskin, by remaining with the prince during the critical period when he was dealing with local forces around Amasya, he played an important part in re-establishing Ottoman authority in the region. Doukas records that in these years the Pasha struck up a friendship with Theologos, a Byzantine nobleman from Alaşehir, and that the two often met and dined together. Keskin thinks that Theologos worked as an interpreter at the Byzantine court and probably gathered intelligence for the Pasha as well. Another account, relying on Hoca Sadeddin, reports that during Çelebi Mehmed's struggle with Musa Çelebi he sent the Pasha as an envoy to the Serbian Despot. This assignment suggests that he knew one of the Balkan languages in addition to Persian. A Greek anonymous Ottoman chronicle says that the Pasha was also sent to Istanbul as an envoy by Düzmece Mustafa, but no other source confirms this.

The anonymous Ahval-i Sultan Mehemmed bin Bayezid Han (The Tales of Sultan Mehmed, Son of Bayezid Khan) narrates Mehmed Çelebi's activities from Ankara to the end of the Interregnum. Halil İnalcık believes that the text was written drawing on Çelebi Mehmed's own account and that it may be the work of the poet Ahmedî, who was in Amasya at the time. According to Keskin, the fact that the text particularly emphasizes some of the Pasha's successes and the sultan's trust in him suggests that he too may have had a hand in its composition. This is a historian's conjecture and does not rest on any document. A detail passed on by Solakzâde concerns Amasya directly: at a drinking gathering (işret meclisi) held in Amasya, Musa Çelebi obtained Çelebi Mehmed's permission and set out to fight Emir Süleyman Çelebi. In these years the city was as much a gathering place for princes and poets as it was a military base.

In 1413 Mehmed Çelebi met his brother Musa Çelebi in battle. The Battle of Çamurlu (5 July 1413, near Sofia) ended in Musa's defeat and death, and the Interregnum came to an end. Relying on Hoca Sadeddin, Keskin writes that Bayezid Pasha took command of the army in this battle. The TDV entry also notes that in the same year the Pasha played a part in the killing of Musa Çelebi.

Grand Vizier: 1413-1421

After the Interregnum, Sultan Çelebi Mehmed appointed Bayezid Pasha vizier. The TDV states that the Pasha was made grand vizier and beylerbey of Rumelia in 1413, while Keskin reports that the rank of beylerbey of Rumelia was granted as a reward for his success in the Karaman campaign of 1415. This difference, which remains a minor discrepancy in the sources, shows that no firm date can be given for when the post was completed.

The Karaman Campaign and Şeyhî

According to Keskin, during the campaign against the Karamanids in 1415 (AH 818) the sultan fell ill and Bayezid Pasha took over command of the army. The Pasha defeated and captured Karamanoğlu Mehmed Bey. The TDV records that he made Mehmed Bey accept a treaty whose terms were heavy for the Karamanid side. Hoca Sadeddin says that the celebrated physician and poet Şeyhî was summoned to treat the sultan, and attributes the suggestion to one of the beys in the sultan's retinue, without naming him. Şeyhî came to the sultan in Ankara, judged that he should not go on campaign, and Bayezid Pasha took the army in his place. Keskin reasons that the man who recommended Şeyhî may have been the Pasha, who was on good terms with poets, since no one benefited from the physician's arrival more than he did; this is a possibility, not a document. After the campaign the Pasha rose to the position of the most powerful man after the sultan.

The campaign also has a link to a building in Kütahya. According to its famous Turkish stone endowment deed of 1414, the imaret of the Germiyanid Yakup Bey II in Kütahya had stood idle for more than two years after the Karamanid occupation, five months after its construction, and went back into service only with Çelebi Sultan Mehmed's permission after the Ottomans defeated the Karamanids. Keskin argues that the Pasha may have been in contact with Yakup Bey II while Şeyhî was being summoned from Kütahya, and so may have heard of or even seen this stone deed. He regards it as the possible inspiration for the stone endowment deed in Amasya described below.

The Şeyh Bedreddin Movement

The Pasha is among those who took part in suppressing the movement of Şeyh Bedreddin. According to Keskin, together with Prince Murad he put down the revolt of Torlak Kemal and Börklüce Mustafa around Aydın and Manisa, and then crossed to Rumelia and captured Şeyh Bedreddin. The TDV places these events in 1420 and notes that Bedreddin had by then settled in the Deliorman region and gathered followers around him. Hafız Halil, Bedreddin's grandson and the author of his verse hagiography, writes that the sultan had pardoned Bedreddin and that he was executed at Bayezid Pasha's instigation, and he lays the responsibility on him. This account rests on a single source. Authors who interpret the Bedreddin affair as a socialist movement have for this reason been harsh toward the Pasha. Nâzım Hikmet refers to him in strong language in his Epic of Sheikh Bedreddin, Son of the Kadi of Simavne, and Hilmi Yavuz devoted a separate section to the Pasha in his poems on Bedreddin. The character of the movement remains disputed today; because the sources date the event anywhere between 1416 and 1420, no definite year can be given.

The Repair of the Orhan Imaret

The repair of the Orhan Imaret in Bursa, which was damaged when the Karamanids occupied the city in 1413, was entrusted to the Pasha. The inscription of the imaret records that, at the sign of Sultan Mehmed, the grand vizier Bayezid Pasha ordered the repair in 820 (1417-1418), after the burning by the Karamanid. Keskin suggests that the task may have been given to him because of the builders at his disposal.

A Death Concealed for Forty Days

In 1421 Çelebi Sultan Mehmed died in Edirne. On the sultan's instruction, Bayezid Pasha concealed the news of his death for about forty days until his son Prince Murad reached the city, and in this way prevented the disorder that was likely to arise. The TDV also names a political reason for the concealment: Mustafa, who was held hostage in Byzantium, was to be released under the treaty upon the sultan's death. The episode is also depicted in a miniature in Seyyid Lokman's Hünername, completed in the sixteenth century. Keskin says that the bearded figure in a green caftan standing in the middle of the miniature must be Bayezid Pasha, and that the attendant behind the sultan, who lies on the bed, is moving the body so that the death will not be noticed. Murad II took the throne in May 1421 and kept the Pasha in office.

The Work in Amasya: The Bayezid Pasha Zawiya

The Pasha's mark on Amasya is still standing. The Bayezid Pasha Mosque, which rises on the eastern bank of the Yeşilırmak opposite the Künç Bridge in the Beyazıtpaşa neighborhood, is a multi-purpose building called a "zawiya" in scholarly literature and an "imaret" in the endowment deed. It is the first example around Amasya of the early Ottoman tabhâneli (zawiya-type, inverted-T plan) mosque. In his entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Semavi Eyice counts it among the finest examples of this type and writes that it is an ambitious and valuable work that reconciled Central Asian building traditions with the new artistic taste of its age. When Evliya Çelebi came to Amasya around 1646, he described the mosque as "bâğ-ı İrem-misâl," a garden like the Garden of Iram.

Inscriptions and Dates

The Arabic building inscription above the entrance states that the building was commissioned in the time of Sultan Mehmed by Bayezid Pasha, "the great emir, the worthy and honored vizier," in the month of Muharram of the year 817 (March-April 1414). The endowments were drawn up in 820 (1418). The original Arabic endowment deed, which is incomplete at the beginning, is dated 11 Dhu al-Hijjah 820 (19 January 1418) and is held in the Başvekâlet Archive; it has supplements dated 821 (1418) and 823 (1420). The five-domed last-congregation porch was added about five years after the construction, in 822 (1419). Ekrem Hakkı Ayverdi treats one of the inscriptions on the porch as a repair record and links it to the earthquake of 818 (1415), which caused great damage in the region. Eyice states plainly that this view rests only on conjecture.

Plan and Architecture

The building consists of a domed central hall, a domed mosque iwan joined to it from the south, two domed rooms each to the east and west, two windowless cells on either side of the entrance to the north, and a five-domed porch. Eyice stresses that these side rooms are the tabhâne spaces that earn the building its "zawiya" designation, with hearths and, on either side of each hearth, small shelf niches with plaster decoration like those in the houses of the period. The endowment deed calls these units "winter rooms." The central hall is covered by a dome about 8.70 meters in diameter with a lantern at its crown. It was conceived as a kind of closed courtyard and most likely had a şadırvan (ablution fountain) in the middle; in later years it was incorporated into the prayer space. The main prayer space is one step higher and is covered by a lower, flatter dome. The stone mihrab is covered in rich carving and relief; Eyice finds it skilled work but overcrowded. A narrow stone staircase between the tabhâne rooms on the right leads to the upper-floor maksûres (private galleries) and formerly to the minaret, and a latrine for the tabhâne's guests is located in the same place. This interior latrine, which is not found in comparable Ottoman buildings, has led some scholars to think that this part may have been a residence for princes.

The porch arcade, with five pointed arches, rests on heavy, thick piers. White marble and red stone are laid together in the arches, and rosettes in the shape of nail heads are worked between them; inside the two middle rosettes the name Muhammad appears four times in interlocking Kufic script. The outer face of the arcade is adorned with muqarnas eaves and bands of geometric ornament, and the interior of the central dome is decorated with muqarnas and lozenges. Fountain pools on the right and left of the porch platform are a feature seen in no other mosque. The muqarnas hood of the entrance, the niches on either side of it, and the wooden door leaves with geometric joinery and carved inscriptions are counted among the outstanding examples of Turkish woodwork. The plan and scale recall the Yıldırım Zawiya in Bursa. According to Keskin, the entrance section sits inside a deep iwan, the narrow passage behind the crown portal on the upper floor links the balconies on either side of the iwan, and a variation of the plaster wall covering in the side units is seen around Amasya only here; these repeat the Yıldırım Zawiya. This resemblance suggests that the architectural team may have been brought in from the Bursa area.

Architects and the Pasha's Slaves

According to the inscription at the entrance, the architect of the building is "the muallim Abu Bakr, son of Muhammad, known as the son of Müşeymeş of Damascus." Abu Bakr was the father of Ahmed, architect of the Karacabey Zawiya in Ankara, and himself the architect of the Çelebi Sultan Mehmed Madrasa at Merzifon near Amasya. His uncle Ali ibn Müşeymeş al-Dimashqi built the Aydınoğlu İsa Bey Mosque at Selçuk in 776 (1375). Keskin presents this family as a line of masters of Syrian (Damascene) origin and says that the choice of such an architect shows the Pasha was selective about the building that would bear his name.

Five inscriptions in various parts of the building name the masters and architects who took part in the construction. Eyice writes that no other Ottoman-period Turkish work carries so many craftsmen's signatures, and that the actual meaning of the titles "mimar" and "muallim" has not been fully clarified. Gabriel suggests that those with the title architect, unlike modern architects, supervised the construction, whereas muallims may have been foremen or site chiefs. The inscriptions on the porch name three architects: Zeynüddin son of Zekeriya, and two masters who appear to have been converts. One of them, Fuka Togan son of Abdullah, calls himself in his inscription "freedman of Bayezid Pasha," and Yakup son of Abdullah, in his inscription dated 822, calls himself "one of the slaves of Bayezid Pasha." Ottoman histories tell of a skilled architect who was among the prisoners taken from a Byzantine fleet that came to plunder the coast of Yalova, and who was freed and employed on the Şehadet Mosque and the Hüdâvendigâr Complex in Bursa. Keskin thinks that Togan and Yakup too may have been captured non-Muslims, and concludes that the Pasha gathered around him, besides poets and musicians, his own construction team. From his inscription it can be seen that Togan also worked in 823 (1420) on the mosque that Hacı İvaz Pasha had built at Dimetoka in the name of Çelebi Sultan Mehmed. Keskin adds that there may have been rivalry in building activity between the Pasha and Hacı İvaz Pasha, who was also known as an architect.

The Endowment Written in Stone

What makes the building exceptional is that its endowment deed was inscribed on the wall. On the outer facade of the porch, beneath the crowning molding, a band of writing 20 centimeters high and 25.5 meters long carries the text of the deed; it was read by Ali Yardım with the help of scaffolding. On the opposite bank of the Yeşilırmak, beyond the bridge, an eight-line summary of the deed was also carved into a rock face leveled to a height of two meters; Eyice places this rock inscription near Kuşköprüsü. Endowment deeds were generally kept as documents on paper. Here the working of the endowment was put on display for everyone to see. Keskin notes that this practice was not common in early Ottoman architecture, that the one close example, a few years earlier, is the stone deed of 1414 on the Germiyanid Yakup Bey II Imaret in Kütahya, and he proposes that the idea may have come from there; this is a conjecture.

According to the deed, the zawiya distributed food to the poor, lodged travelers, and provided worship services. A staff of seventeen worked there: a sheikh, an imam, a muezzin, a naqib, five hafizes, a doorkeeper, a supervisor, a collector, a donkey driver, a cook and his assistant, and a baker and his assistant, with each one's duties and pay set out in detail. Many mills, farmland, gardens, shops and a bathhouse were endowed to provide income. The presence among the witnesses in the deed of many persons with the nisba "al-Rifâ'î" suggests that the building was used by followers of the Rifa'i order, which has had a presence in Amasya since the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and that the Pasha himself may have belonged to that order; this is not certain information.

The courtyard wall of the mosque and the soup kitchen-imaret on one side of it have not survived. A four-couplet verse inscription in ta'lik script in the left inner corner of the qibla wall points to a major repair carried out in 1305 (1887-1888) by a benefactor named Mazhar.

His Works in Bursa

The Pasha's building activity was not limited to Amasya. He had a madrasa built in Bursa, of which only a section of wall stands today. There is also a rebuilt mosque, a tomb he had built for himself opposite the madrasa, and the Yoğurtçu Han, which he built to provide income for the madrasa. The tomb has not survived; the Bursa scholar Kamil Kepecioğlu saw its foundations, and among Mary Adelaide Walker's sketches of 1866 there is also a building she labels as the Pasha's tomb. Keskin notes that these buildings responded directly to the educational and economic needs of the city, and that the Amasya zawiya likewise took on social functions such as feeding the poor, lodging travelers and worship. In this way the Pasha contributed to the rebuilding of the state after Ankara both in Bursa and in Amasya.

Patron of Literature and Music

The Pasha's portrait is not confined to that of a commander and builder; his patronage of literature leaves as strong a mark as his generalship and his buildings. The Halîlnâme of Abdülvasi Çelebi (a verse life of the Prophet Abraham in Turkish) is the main source showing him to be a reader, a friend of poets and a patron. What is known about Abdülvasi Çelebi consists of his work alone; his name appears in no tezkire (biographical anthology of poets). Because the historical section appended to the work ends with the passage on Musa Çelebi's defeat, it can be understood that the book was completed at the end of the Interregnum, when the Pasha's political career was at its peak.

According to the work, Bayezid Pasha asked, while reading the Persian mesnevi Vîs u Râmîn, that it be written in Turkish. Many poets around him were eager to fulfill this wish; the Pasha assigned the task to Ahmedî, one of the most famous poets of the age, and promised a gold coin for every couplet. Abdülvasi Çelebi compares this promise to Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni offering Firdawsi a gold coin for every couplet of the Shahnameh. Whether the Pasha had the means to pay it is disputed, but the statement shows the value he attached to literary works. Ahmedî died a few months later before finishing the translation. The task fell to Abdülvasi Çelebi, who judged Ahmedî's illegible draft of a few couplets too slight to build on and decided instead to write the life of the Prophet Abraham. In his own account: "Biş altı ay ana meşgul olmış / Hüner dibacesin düzmemiş ölmiş."

In the passage in which he praises the Pasha, Abdülvasi Çelebi writes these lines: "Anun fikri ile oldı il 'imaret / Kapusında ayrılmasun emaret." The same passage contains a description of a vizier who protects men of skill and gathers poets around him. The poet says that he has known the Pasha since early childhood; from these couplets Keskin concludes that Abdülvasi may have been among those who had a part in the Pasha's education. The text is a work of praise, and the author's tendency to exalt his patron is evident. Even so, as a contemporary testimony it shows that the Pasha was a statesman who knew Persian, read widely, and supported poets. Abdülvasi Çelebi also heard from the Pasha a request to write the work once more; Keskin thinks this may have been for the Pasha's personal collection. In the same period Umur Bey, son of Timurtaş Pasha, possessed a book collection of 126 works in a total of 306 volumes that he endowed in Bursa; the formation of private libraries by members of the ruling elite was a known practice of the time.

The addition to the Halîlnâme of a historical section narrating Çelebi Mehmed's struggle with his brothers was probably also the Pasha's idea. In an age when Ottoman historiography was not yet well developed, and examples were limited to the short Ottoman history Ahmedî appended to his İskendernâme and a few other texts, such an undertaking is remarkable. In writing this section Abdülvasi Çelebi must have drawn on the Ahval-i Sultan Mehemmed, which was being composed at the time, and on the Pasha's account or his own testimony. Keskin sees these praises in the Halîlnâme as an early example of the behavior, widespread in the sixteenth-century court, of using patronage as a means of "image making."

Alongside books, the Pasha's circle had music and entertainment gatherings. Abdülvasi Çelebi writes lines that invite him to sing songs with the şeşta, the ney and the çeng, and to travel among the makams of Neva, Uşşak, Hicaz, Rehavi, Hüseynî and Irak. His command of this terminology shows that the poet was acquainted with professional musicians; the earliest known music books in the Ottoman milieu date from the reign of Murad II, and the poet knew this field before them. The tradition of the işret meclisi goes back to the Seljuks, and the first to hold such gatherings among the Ottomans was Bayezid I; Emir Süleyman Çelebi and Çelebi Mehmed carried it on. The Pasha both attended the sultan's gatherings and established his own. At the tables where, according to Doukas, he dined with Theologos, foreign guests were evidently present as well.

Ahmedî had moved to Amasya after Emir Süleyman's death in 1411, at about eighty years of age. According to Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî, even Timur had shown him respect after the Battle of Ankara. Şeyhî was his close friend too. Thus in the years of the Interregnum Amasya went beyond being a mere military base and became a small literary center bearing the traces of the Germiyanid court and the Timurid tradition of patronage. Keskin compares the circle of poets, musicians and craftsmen around the Pasha to the patron elites of Renaissance Italy and of the Timurid centers, and especially to Baysungur Mirza.

The Last Campaign: Düzmece Mustafa and Sazlıdere

When Murad II took the throne (1421), someone appeared in Thessaloniki claiming to be Prince Mustafa, the son of Bayezid I who had vanished during the Battle of Ankara, and gathered a large crowd around him in Rumelia. Ottoman historians call him "Düzmece Mustafa." The TDV entry says that he was the Mustafa held hostage in Byzantium and that he was released when the sultan's death became known. Sultan Murad assigned Bayezid Pasha, whom his father had trusted greatly, to put down the revolt.

The aged vizier crossed over to the Rumelian side from the Bosphorus with a small number of soldiers and met Mustafa's forces at Sazlıdere near Edirne. When the great majority of his soldiers went over to the other side, he was forced to surrender. Mustafa first received him with interest; then, at the instigation of İzmiroğlu Cüneyd Bey, with whom he had long been at odds, the Pasha was killed. According to the TDV this happened the next day. Ottoman historians write that the Pasha had not betrayed anyone, that his going over to Mustafa's side was a ruse, and that he was massacred when this was understood.

The same sources say that the Pasha was sent on this campaign, which was bound to fail from the start, at the insistence of the envious other viziers. Aşıkpaşazade reports that the viziers İbrahim Pasha and Hacı İvaz Pasha said to him: "You are the beylerbey of Rumelia, you have eaten its honey until now, now you too go and make the bride's wedding ready." Hoca Sadeddin and Solakzâde draw a similar picture. This is the shared interpretation of the chroniclers and rests on narrative, not on documents.

The sources diverge on the date of his death. Some give July 1421. The clearest information, which Keskin cites, belongs to Hafız Halil: the Pasha was killed one day before the month of Ramadan, which Keskin calculates as 29 August 1421. Hafız Halil writes that a tomb was built at Sazlıdere, and the TDV also states that the grave is there; however, no grave has yet been found in this village, which is attached to the Keşan district of Edirne. Ayvansarâyî, for his part, says that the body "was transferred to Erdel Yenicesi and buried." There is no information that it was moved to his tomb in Bursa.

His Family and Aftermath

After his death his family continued to prosper in Bursa. Keskin writes that this continuity shows that Sultan Murad too did not accuse the Pasha of treason. His brother Hamza Bey was one of the sea beys during his viziership. In 1417, when the Venetian fleet entered the Dardanelles and bombarded Lapseki, he resisted the Venetians on land with more than 10,000 men; during the conquest of Istanbul he was also appointed commander of the fleet in place of Baltaoğlu Süleyman Bey. According to Keskin, in later years he eliminated Cüneyd Bey, who had caused his elder brother's death, in a kind of revenge. The Pasha's son İsa Bey had a complex of a mosque, madrasa and imaret built at Hisar and endowed it with rich revenues.

Character and Legacy

The TDV describes the Pasha as a man of harsh temperament, cautious and authoritarian, and counts him among the greatest of the Ottoman grand viziers. He had rendered great services especially during Çelebi Mehmed's efforts to restore the state and had won high standing; this standing aroused the jealousy of viziers of Turkish origin such as Çandarlı İbrahim Pasha and Hacı İvaz Pasha. Keskin sees in the Pasha's circle traces of Germiyanid court culture and the Timurid tradition of patronage; he says that this vizier, who formed his own construction team and protected poets and musicians, was a precursor of the Ottoman ruling elites that became institutionalized in the classical period. The other side of this statesman, whom the Ottoman chronicles mention only in a political context, has become visible only through the Halîlnâme and his buildings.

For Amasya, the real importance lies in the fact that the Pasha was a statesman whom this city both raised and left something to. The zawiya on the bank of the Yeşilırmak, the summary of the deed carved into the rock, and the name of the Beyazıtpaşa neighborhood still recall him today.

Chronology

1402: Battle of Ankara; Bayezid Pasha brings Prince Mehmed to Amasya (according to Doukas).

5 July 1413: Battle of Çamurlu; Musa Çelebi is defeated and the Interregnum ends. Bayezid Pasha becomes vizier.

1413: The Karamanids occupy Bursa; the Orhan Imaret is damaged.

March-April 1414 (AH 817 Muharram): Building inscription of the zawiya at Amasya.

1415 (AH 818): Karaman campaign; Karamanoğlu Mehmed Bey is captured; the Pasha is rewarded with the rank of beylerbey of Rumelia (Keskin).

1417-1418 (AH 820): Repair of the Orhan Imaret; the endowments of the Amasya zawiya are drawn up (deed dated 19 January 1418).

1419 (AH 822): The last-congregation porch of the Amasya zawiya is added.

1420: Suppression of the Şeyh Bedreddin movement (TDV; the date is given differently in the sources).

1421: Çelebi Mehmed dies in Edirne; the Pasha conceals the news for about forty days; Murad II takes the throne.

1421: He surrenders to Düzmece Mustafa at Sazlıdere and is killed (July or 29 August; the sources diverge).

Sources

Primary sources

  • Abdizâde Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, I (as cited by Keskin).

Academic studies

  • Mustafa Çağhan Keskin, "Bayezid Paşa: Vezir, Entelektüel, Sanat Hamisi," Osmanlı Araştırmaları / The Journal of Ottoman Studies, XLVIII, 2016, pp. 1-37 (dergipark.org.tr).
  • Aydın Taneri, "Bayezid Paşa," TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, V, 1992, pp. 242-243 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Semavi Eyice, "Bayezid Paşa Camii," TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, V, 1992, pp. 243-244 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr

Official sources

  • Republic of Türkiye Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, "Bayezid Paşa Camii" (amasya.ktb.gov.tr).

Books

  • Abdülvasi Çelebi, Halîlnâme, ed. Ayhan Güldaş, Ankara 1996 (as cited by Keskin).
  • Doukas, Tarih; Hoca Sadeddin, Tâcü't-Tevârih; Aşıkpaşazade, Tevârih-i Âl-i Osman; Solakzâde, Solakzâde Tarihi (via Keskin's article).

Online sources