Alacahisarlıdır. 1107 senesi saferinin gurresinde Alacahisar’a ilhâken Amasya mutasarrıfı olup yine Kethüdâyerî Mehmed Ağa Amasya mütesellimi ve saferin yirmi altısında Çorumlu Vezîr Dursun Mehmed Paşa Sivas Vâlisi oldu.
Rebîülâhirde Amasya Müftüsü Mustafa Efendi, Nakîb Emîr Hacı ile Şehir Kethüdâsı Yeğen es-Seyyid el-Hâc Hasan Ağa’nın nüfûz ve müdahalesinden bîzâr olduğundan fetvâ ve tedrîsten istifa etmekle yerine kibâr-ı fuzalâdan [222] Müftüzâde Abdullah Efendi Amasya müftüsü ve Sultâniyye müderrisi oldu.
Cumâdelûlâ gurresinde vüzerâdan Rakka Vâlisi Amasyalı Kadızâde Hüseyin Paşa vefât eylediği haberi dersaâdete vâsıl olduğundan silahdâr ağası olan Amasyalı Kadızâde Ahmed Ağa Rakka eyaleti beylerbeyi oldu. Müteâkiben Amasya sancağı eşkıyâ tâkibine me’mûr olan Çakırcıbaşı Yûsuf Ağa’ya tevcîh edildi.
In Modern English
He was from Alacahisar. On the first day of the month of Safer 1107 [1695], in addition to Alacahisar, he became mutasarrıf (governor) of Amasya; again Kethüdâyeri Mehmed Ağa became mütesellim (deputy governor) of Amasya. On the twenty-sixth of Safer Vizier Dursun Mehmed Pasha of Çorum became governor of Sivas.
In the month of Rebîülâhir the mufti of Amasya, Mustafa Efendi, weary of the influence and interference in his affairs of the Naqib Emîr Hacı and the City Steward Yeğen es-Seyyid el-Hâc Hasan Ağa, resigned from the muftiship and the professorship. In his place Müftüzâde Abdullah Efendi, one of the great scholars, became mufti of Amasya and professor of the Sultâniyye (Sultan Bayezid Madrasa).
On the first day of Cemâziyelevvel the news reached Istanbul that, of the viziers, Kadızâde Hüseyin Pasha of Amasya, governor of Raqqa, had died; thereupon Kadızâde Ahmed Ağa of Amasya, who was chief of the silahdars, became beylerbeyi of the province of Raqqa. Then the sanjak of Amasya was given to the chief falconer (çakırcıbaşı) Yûsuf Ağa, who was charged with pursuing bandits.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- ilhâken: by being added to another post
- bîzâr olmak: to grow weary, to be sick of
- fetvâ ve tedrîs: the muftiship and the professorship
- kibâr-ı fuzalâ: the elders among the scholars
- dersaâdet: Istanbul
- vâsıl olmak: to arrive
- tevcîh: granting a post to someone
A Sanjak Governed from the Frontier
Bektaş Pasha is one of the pashas who governed Amasya without ever coming to it. According to the previous entry, on the last day of Muharrem 1107, that is, in early September 1695, Amasya was given, with the rank of beylerbeyi and as an additional post, to Bektaş Bey, bey of Alacahisar and guardian of Yanova in the province of Temesvár. Alacahisar is the Ottoman-period name of the city of Kruševac in present-day Serbia. According to Feridun Emecen's entry, the city, which definitively entered Ottoman administration in 1455, kept its military importance in the seventeenth century as well and, in the period when Evliya Çelebi saw it, was a district center with nine quarters, nine mosques, one madrasa, three inns and 150 shops. In the heaviest years of the Austrian wars, giving a frontier bey behind the front the revenue of a sanjak in Anatolia was a means resorted to in order to meet the expenses of fighting commanders. The day-to-day affairs of Amasya in this period remained again in the hands of the mütesellim from Amasya, Kethüdâyeri Mehmed Ağa.
About Bektaş Pasha, and about Vizier Dursun Mehmed Pasha of Çorum, who was brought to the governorship of Sivas, no information was found in other sources.
The Mufti's Resignation
The most vivid detail of the entry is the resignation of the mufti Mustafa Efendi. Hüsâmeddin plainly writes that the mufti was "weary of the influence and interference" of the deputy of the naqib al-ashraf Emîr Hacı Abdüllatif Çelebi and the city steward Yeğen es-Seyyid el-Hâc Hasan Ağa. These two names are persons who were also frequently dismissed and brought back in earlier entries; Yeğen Hasan Ağa, in Hüsâmeddin's phrase, is the son of the sister of Deli Emîr Pasha and represents the seyyids' power in the city. In later pages of the book it will be seen that Emîr Hacı too was dismissed for "interfering a great deal in the affairs of the mütesellim and the notables." It is understood that the contest of influence that Fâzıl Mustafa Pasha wanted to prevent with his councils of notables had reached the point, a few years later, of emptying even the office of the muftiship.
Müftüzâde Abdullah Efendi, brought in his place, is the person whom Hüsâmeddin had earlier counted among the best-known scholars of Amasya and regarded as on the level of Tefsîrî Mehmed Efendi of Sivas in the rational and the transmitted sciences. In the biographical volumes of the book there is an entry titled "Abdullah Efendi-Müftüzâde"; it says here only "he is the son of Mehmed Efendi, mufti of Merzifon," and the editors note that the author left this biography incomplete. That Hüsâmeddin, narrating the events of 1076, writes that upon the death of the mufti of Merzifon Mehmed Efendi, Müftüzâde Abdullah Efendi, professor of the Merzifon Sultâniyye, became mufti of Merzifon suggests that these two records may belong to the same person. According to Hüsâmeddin's records Abdullah Efendi will be brought to the muftiship of Amasya once more later.
The Death of Kadızâde Hüseyin Pasha
The news of the death of Kadızâde Hüseyin Pasha, who opened the fourth period in Amasya, is this time true. According to Hüsâmeddin the news reached Istanbul on the first day of Cemâziyelevvel 1107, that is, in early December 1695. A mühimme record of Şevval 1107 (May 1696), used in Bekir Gökpınar's study on Topal Yûsuf Pasha, shows that a hassa silahşor (palace guardsman) sent to confiscate the property in Zile of "the deceased Kadızâde Hüseyin Pasha" oppressed the people by throwing them in prison, and that the matter of punishing this person was referred to Yûsuf Pasha. Thus the date of the pasha's death and the existence of his wealth in Zile are confirmed by another document as well. According to the same study, in 1107 the governor of Raqqa, Hüseyin Pasha, together with the governor of Baghdad, Ali Pasha, and the voivode of Diyarbekir, was sent against the rebels in Basra but could not succeed; the pasha's last duty must be this campaign.
That in place of the deceased pasha a Kadızâde again, Ahmed Ağa, who had served in Amasya as mütesellim by tax-farm, was brought to the beylerbeyilik of Raqqa shows that the family kept its standing with the state. The chief falconer Yûsuf Ağa, to whom the sanjak of Amasya was given right after, is the commander who for nearly two years had been pursuing bandits in the areas of Amasya, Canik and Karahisar-ı Şarkî; the next entry tells of his governorship.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, p. 617–617. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 9-12, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, e-book p. 562. https://amasya.bel.tr/uploads/e-kitap/kitap/9-12/files/basic-html/page562.html
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 1-4, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, e-book p. 590, 618, 625.
Academic studies