Resmî Ahmed Efendi’nin Sefînetü’r-Ru’esâ’sında mezkûr ve Sicillât-ı Şer’iyye’de mestûr olduğu üzere Amasyalıdır. Esbak Amasya mütesellimi ve Amasya’nın Fethiyye Mahallesi’nde çeşmesi olan Sefer Ağazâde Hasan Ağa’nın mahdûmu ve sadr-ı esbak Bayburdluzâde Kara İbrâhim Paşa’nın hemşîrezâdesidir. Amasya’da “Sefer Ağazâde” demekle meşhûrdur.
İbrâhim Paşa’nın ağalığında İstanbul’a gidip Bâb-ı âlîde [318] mektûbî-i sadâret kalemine yerleştirildi. Burada tahsîl-i ma’ârif edib 1095 senesi gurre-i muharreminde dayısı İbrâhim Paşa’nın sadâretinde mektûbî-i sadr-ı âlî ve 1097 senesi muharreminin yirmi üçünde Mustafa Efendi’ye yine re’isü’l-küttâb oldu.
1098 senesi şevvâlinde ordunun isyânı üzerine Sadr-ı ‘azam Süleyman Paşa ile İstanbul’a gelip azledildi. Ba’dehû 1100’de saniyyen re’isü’l-küttâb olup 1101 rebiülâhirinde rûz-nâme-i evvel oldu. 1103’de Arabacı Ali Paşa’nın sadâretinde azledildi. Müte’âkiben Resmo sancağı mutasarrıfı olarak Girid’e gönderildi.
Resmî Ahmed Efendi diyor ki: Resmo’da Mısırlı Arab askeri tarafından kendisine Ebû Kâvûk künyesi verilmiş olduğundan bu künye ile iştihâr etdi. Kavûğu büyük ve muhteşem olması bu künyeye sebebiyet vermişdi. Bu yüzden vüzerâ arasında “Ebû Kâvuk” künyesi ile yâd edildi.
Resmo’da dört yıl oturdu. 1107 senesi şevvâlinde isti’fâ ve İstanbul’a azîmetini rica eylediğinden Sadr-ı a’zam Elmâs Mehmed Paşa’nın lutfuna mazhar olup ricâsı kabûl edildi. [319] Bunun üzerine İstanbul’a gelip 1108’de muhâsebe-i evvel oldu.
1109 senesi muharreminde Ammizâde Köprülü Hüseyin Paşa sadr-ı a’zam olup İstanbul’a geldikde defter emîni ve müte’âkiben Rumeli beylerbeyliği pâyesi ile İrân sefîri olup Tahrân’a gitdi. 1110 senesi rebiülevvelinde İrân’dan avdet edib rebiülâhirin beşinci günü vezâretle Şâm vâlisi oldu. 1112’de Şâm vâliliği uhdesinde kalmak üzere emîrü’l-hac olup kâfile-i huccâc kumandanı olarak Hicâz’a gitdi. Avdetinde surre-i urbânı vermediği bahânesi ile urbân-ı bâdiyye-i Şâm âdetleri olduğu üzere kâfile üzerine hücûm etmişlerdi. Ma’iyyetindeki kuvvetin gayr-i kâfî olmasına binên eşkiyâ-yı urbân huccâcı gâret ve çoklarını şehîd etdi.
1113 senesi saferinde Şâm’a vusûlünü müte’âkib azl ve habs edilip birkaç ay devâm eden tahkîkâtda urbânın kesreti ve ma’iyetindeki kuvvetin adem-i kifâyeti anlaşılmakla ıtlâk edilerek maskat-ı re’si olan Amasya’da kâin çiftliğinde ikâmete me’mûr oldu. Amasya’da Dârü’s-selâm Mahallesi’ndeki konağında oturdu.
1114 rebiülâhirinde sadâretden isti’fâ eden amca [320] zâdesi Hüseyin Paşa’nın yerine sadr-ı a’zam olan dayısı Kara İbrâhim Paşa’nın ağalarından Bağdâd vâlisi Daltabân Mustafa Paşa’ya mühr-i sadâret Amasya’da sâhib-i tercemenin konağında vâsıl olduğundan sadr-ı müşârün-ileyhin emr ü da’vetiyle beraberce Edirne’ye hareket etdi.
Vusûlünde defterdâr olmak ta’mîm edildiği hâlde bilâ-fermân-ı hümâyûn avdeti hoş görülmediğinden Amasya’ya i’âdesi emr edildi. Fakat sadr-ı a’zamın ricâsı üzerine ibkâ-yı vezâretle Erzurum vâliliğine gönderildi. 1116 cumâdelâhirinde Adana vâlisi oldu.
1117’de Adana vilâyeti a’yânının şikâyetinden dolayı azliyle Malatya’da kâin çiftliğinde ikâmete me’mûr edildi. Az sonra Malatya sancağı verildi. 1118’de Kal’a-yı cedîde muhâfızı olup mensî bir hâlde kaldı.
1122 senesi rebiülâhirinde Sadr-ı a’zam Köprülüzâde Nu’mân Paşa’nın himmetiyle Trabzon vâlisi ve 1123’de Kıbrıs muhâfızı, 1126’da Hanya (Girid) vâlisi oldu. Senesinde azledilip Trablusşâm sancağıyla cerde başbuğu oldu. [321]
1127 senesinde haccâcı ma’iyet-i mevcûdesiyle istikbâl edib (Ula) mevki’ine vusûlünde vefât etdi. Orada medfûndur. Resmî Ahmed Efendi, müşârün-ileyhin terceme-i hâlini böyle zabt ediyor. Süreyyâ Bey de Sicill-i Osmânî’de: “1127’de Azâk cânibine me’mûr olup o sene Yeni Kale’de fevt olmuşdur. Sâlih, sâhib-i ma’rifet idi.” diyor.
Resmî Ahmed Efendi diyor ki: “Vezîr-i müşârün-ileyh erbâb-ı ma’ârifden muktedir bir zât olduğu münâsebetle vüzerâ kendisini istirkâb eyledi. Bu yüzden evâhir-i ömründe menâsıb-i sagîrede istihdâm edilir oldu. “Mahdûmları İbrâhim, Abdullah Beyler ma’rûfdur. Birâderi kibâr-ı cedîd demekle meşhûr Mustafa Efendi ve ammizâdesi Türk Mehmed Paşa’dır.
In Modern English
As stated in Resmî Ahmed Efendi's Sefînetü'r-Rüesâ and as written in the sharia court registers, he is from Amasya. He was the son of Sefer Ağazâde Hasan Ağa, former mütesellim of Amasya, who had a fountain in the Fethiyye quarter of Amasya, and the son of the sister of the former grand vizier Bayburtluzâde Kara İbrâhim Pasha. In Amasya he is known as "Sefer Ağazâde."
During İbrâhim Pasha's time as ağa he went to Istanbul and was placed in the office of the grand vizier's secretary (sadâret mektupçuluğu) at the Sublime Porte. Here he increased his knowledge and manners; on the first day of Muharrem 1095 [1683–84], during the grand vizierate of his maternal uncle İbrâhim Pasha, he became the grand vizier's secretary, and on the twenty-third of Muharrem 1097 [1685–86] reisülküttâb in place of Mustafa Efendi.
In Şevval 1098 [1686–87], on the revolt of the army, he came to Istanbul with Grand Vizier Süleyman Pasha and was dismissed. Then in 1100 [1688–89] he became reisülküttâb for the second time, and in Rebiülâhir 1101 [1689–90] rûznâmçe-i evvel (head of the first office, which kept the daily record books in the treasury). In 1103 [1691–92], during the grand vizierate of Arabacı Ali Pasha, he was dismissed. He was then sent to Crete as mutasarrıf of the sanjak of Resmo (Rethymno).
Resmî Ahmed Efendi says: in Resmo the Egyptian Arab soldiers gave him the kunya "Ebû Kâvuk" (father of the turban), and he became known by this kunya. His turban being large and showy was the reason for this kunya. For this reason among the viziers too he was called by the kunya "Ebû Kâvuk."
He stayed four years in Resmo. In Şevval 1107 [1695–96] he resigned and asked to be allowed to return to Istanbul; since he enjoyed the favor of Grand Vizier Elmas Mehmed Pasha, his request was accepted. Thereupon he came to Istanbul and in 1108 [1696–97] became muhâsebe-i evvel (chief accountant).
In Muharrem 1109 [1697–98], when Amcazâde Köprülü Hüseyin Pasha became grand vizier and came to Istanbul, he became defter emini, and then went to Tehran as ambassador to Iran with the rank of beylerbeyi of Rumelia. In Rebiülevvel 1110 [1698–99] he returned from Iran, and on the fifth day of Rebiülâhir he became governor of Damascus with the rank of vizier. In 1112 [1700–01], on condition of remaining governor of Damascus, he became emîrülhac and went to the Hejaz as commander of the pilgrim caravan. On his return the Bedouins of the Syrian desert, using as a pretext that the surre money paid to the Bedouins had not been given, attacked the caravan, as was their custom. Since the force with him was insufficient, the Bedouin brigands plundered the pilgrims and martyred many of them.
After he arrived in Damascus in Safer 1113 [1701–02], he was dismissed and imprisoned. When, in an inquiry lasting a few months, the great number of Bedouins and the insufficiency of the force under him were understood, he was released and assigned to live on his farm in Amasya, his birthplace. He lived in his mansion in the Dârüsselâm quarter of Amasya.
In Rebiülâhir 1114 [1702–03], in place of Amcazâde Hüseyin Pasha, who had resigned from the grand vizierate, the governor of Baghdad Daltaban Mustafa Pasha, who was one of the ağas of his maternal uncle Kara İbrâhim Pasha, became grand vizier. Since the grand vizier's seal reached Daltaban in Amasya, in the mansion of Mehmed Pasha whose life we are narrating, at the new grand vizier's order and invitation he set out with him for Edirne.
When he arrived in Edirne, although it was heard that he would become defterdar, since his return from Amasya without an imperial decree was not well received, it was ordered that he be sent back to Amasya. But at the grand vizier's request he was left with his vizierate and sent as governor of Erzurum. In Cemaziyelâhir 1116 [1704–05] he became governor of Adana.
In 1117 [1705–06], because of complaints from the notables of the province of Adana, he was dismissed and assigned to live on his farm in Malatya. Soon afterwards he was given the sanjak of Malatya. In 1118 [1706–07] he became guardian of Kal'a-i Cedîde (New Fortress) and remained forgotten.
In Rebiülâhir 1122 [1710–11], through the favor of Grand Vizier Köprülüzâde Nu'mân Pasha, he became governor of Trabzon, in 1123 [1711–12] guardian of Cyprus, and in 1126 [1714–15] governor of Hanya (Chania, Crete). In the same year he was dismissed and became, with the sanjak of Tripoli in Syria, cerde başbuğu, that is, commander of the unit that met the caravan returning from the pilgrimage with provisions and soldiers.
In 1127 [1715] he set out to meet the pilgrims with the force under him and died on reaching the place called Ula. He is buried there. Resmî Ahmed Efendi records the pasha's life thus. Süreyyâ Bey too says in the Sicill-i Osmânî: "In 1127 he was assigned to the Azak side and died that year at Yeni Kale. He was good-natured and learned."
Resmî Ahmed Efendi says: "Since the said vizier was a learned and capable man, the viziers saw him as a rival. For this reason, in the last part of his life he came to be used in minor posts." His sons İbrâhim and Abdullah Bey are known persons. His brother Mustafa Efendi is known by the nickname "Kibâr-ı Cedîd" (the new great ones), and his paternal cousin is Türk Mehmed Pasha.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mezkûr ve mestûr: mentioned and written
- Sicillât-ı Şer'iyye: the record books of the kadı court
- mütesellim: the official who ran the administration of a sanjak on behalf of the governor
- hemşîrezâde: a sister's child, nephew
- mektûbî-i sadâret: the head of the office that carried out the grand vizier's correspondence, the secretary
- gurre: the first day of the month
- re'isü'l-küttâb: head of the divan scribes; the office that also conducted foreign correspondence
- rûz-nâme-i evvel: the first rûznâmçeci, who kept the daily income-expenditure records in the treasury
- mutasarrıf: governor of a sanjak
- muhâsebe-i evvel: the chief accountant of the treasury
- defter emîni: head of the Defterhane, in which timar and zeamet records were kept
- emîrü'l-hac: commander of the pilgrim caravan
- surre-i urbân: money given to Bedouin tribes in return for the security of the road
- ıtlâk: release
- maskat-ı re's: birthplace
- sâhib-i terceme: the person whose life is narrated
- ibkâ: leaving in place
- mensî: forgotten
- cerde başbuğu: commander of the provisions-and-guard unit that met the caravan on the road on the return from the pilgrimage
- istikbâl: welcoming
- istirkâb: seeing as a rival, being unable to bear
- menâsıb-ı sagîre: minor posts
Resmî Ahmed Efendi's Source
Hüsameddin's main basis in this entry is the work in which Ahmed Resmî Efendi collected the biographies of the reisülküttâbs. The work begins with Haydar Çelebi and, with later additions, contains the lives of the reisülküttâbs down to 1765; Süleyman Fâik Efendi added those down to 1824 in a supplement. The two works were published in Istanbul in 1279 [1862–63] as a lithograph edition. In a study that drew up a new list of reisülküttâbs from archival documents, it is noted that Resmî's work was compiled largely from chronicles, and for this reason the aim is to prepare a sounder list based on appointment records. The office dates of Mehmed Pasha in the text, too, must be read as chronicle-based dates unless compared one by one with archive records.
His Maternal Uncle Kara İbrâhim Pasha
The beginning of Mehmed Pasha's career is closely tied to his uncle's rise. Kara İbrâhim Pasha was born in 1030 [1620–21] in the village of Handevrek in the district of Kelkit, attached to Bayburt, rose as kethüda of Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha, and, on the execution of Kara Mustafa Pasha after the Vienna debacle, became grand vizier on 6 Muharrem 1095 [25 December 1683]. Hüsameddin's nisba "Bayburtluzâde" agrees with this birthplace. That his nephew became the grand vizier's secretary at the beginning of Muharrem 1095 coincides with the days of his uncle's coming to the grand vizierate.
An even more noteworthy date is that of his appointment to the reisülküttâbship. Kara İbrâhim Pasha was dismissed from the grand vizierate on 21 Muharrem 1097 [18 December 1685], then his property was confiscated and he was exiled to Rhodes and killed there in Şaban 1098 [June–July 1687]. According to Hüsameddin the day Mehmed Efendi became reisülküttâb is 23 Muharrem 1097, that is, two days after his uncle's dismissal. His uncle's fall did not end the nephew's career; on the contrary, a higher office opened to him under the new grand vizier. This suggests that Mehmed Efendi's competence in the chancery was appreciated independently of his uncle's patronage; Resmî's describing him as "a capable person among the men of learning" is in this direction.
Daltaban Mustafa Pasha and the Mansion in Amasya
The text says that Daltaban Mustafa Pasha, who became grand vizier in 1702, was "one of the ağas of his maternal uncle Kara İbrâhim Pasha." This information is confirmed by present-day research: Daltaban, born in Manastir, attached himself while young to Grand Vizier Kara İbrâhim Pasha, was raised in his inner mehter band, and when İbrâhim Pasha became grand vizier became kapıcılar kethüdası. Appointed governor of Baghdad in 1700, Daltaban then became beylerbeyi of Anatolia for the second time and shortly afterwards was made grand vizier in place of Amcazâde Hüseyin Pasha. His appointment date is given in some sources as 4 September, in others as 27 September 1702; Hüsameddin's Rebiülâhir 1114 falls in these months. Daltaban's grand vizierate did not last long; by a plan set up by Râmi Mehmed Pasha and Şeyhülislam Feyzullah Efendi he was removed from office and killed on 10 Ramazan 1114 [28 January 1703]. The detail that the grand vizier's seal was handed to Daltaban in Amasya, in Ebû Kâvuk's mansion in the Dârüsselâm quarter, does not appear in the encyclopedia entries examined; this information rests on Hüsameddin's own sources.
The Pilgrimage Disaster of 1700
The gravest event in Mehmed Pasha's life is the attack by Bedouins on the caravan he led as emîrülhac. Ersin Kırca's study of the attacks on the Damascus pilgrim caravan gives the general framework of these events. According to it, in 1700 the Anaza and Bani Sakhr tribes attacked the Damascus pilgrim caravan, claiming that the surre owed to them had not been paid and that they had been wronged by the Sharif of Mecca, and a large number of pilgrims lost their lives; for the loss the study uses the expression "hundreds" in one place and "thousands" in another. The following year, in 1701, the attack of other Bedouin groups was far more devastating, and in the reports sent to Istanbul the number of dead was raised to as many as 30,000. Kırca writes that the failures of Mehmed Pasha and Hasan Pasha, who served in succession as emîrülhac, were harshly criticized, and that Hasan Pasha, held responsible for the losses in the caravan of 1701, was called by the nickname "Hacıkırdıran" (Slayer of Pilgrims) and sent into exile. In 1702 the state made a comprehensive arrangement, appointing Arslan Mehmed Pasha both governor of Damascus and emîrülhac, and taking the authority to distribute the surre from the Sharif of Mecca and giving it directly to the emîrülhac.
The event Hüsameddin narrates agrees with this picture in giving the nonpayment of the surre as the pretext for the attack, and it is very probable that the Mehmed Pasha Kırca mentions is Ebû Kâvuk Mehmed Pasha. However, this is an inference: in the readable summary part of Kırca's study the pasha's nickname does not appear, and in some lists of governors of Damascus the name Mehmed Pasha is not found in these years either. Moreover there is a shift of up to a year between the dates Hüsameddin gives and the years in this study. Hüsameddin's saying that in the inquiry lasting a few months the insufficiency of the force under him was understood and the pasha was released may be considered together with Kırca's account that in the 1702 arrangements the number of soldiers was considerably increased and the supply of camels, provisions and water was expanded.
On the Place of His Death
Hüsameddin reports two different places of death in the text and does not try to reconcile them. According to Resmî Ahmed Efendi, Mehmed Pasha went in 1127 as cerde başbuğu to meet the pilgrims and died at Ula on the pilgrimage road and was buried there. Süreyyâ Bey, however, writes that he was assigned that same year to the Azak side and died at Yeni Kale. Since the text's own course shows that his last post was the sanjak of Tripoli in Syria with the cerde başbuğluğu, Resmî's account looks more consistent; Süreyyâ Bey's record may have been confused with the pasha's guardianship of Kal'a-i Cedîde in 1118. This too is a guess. No information was found in other sources on Mehmed Pasha's fountain, mansion and sons in Amasya.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 104–105. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
Other sources