Ebûbekir Ağa — Beyzâde

In Modern English

He was a native of Amasya, one of the notables, the son of Bekir Beyzâde Osmân Bey and the son of Ömer Pasha's brother. A sipahi, he rendered many services. As Ömer Pasha's kethüda he went about various lands with him. After the Pasha's death he became cizye collector of the province of Sivas, several times kethüda of Amasya, voyvoda of Tokat and beytülmal emini of Amasya. In 1136 [1723-24] he was sent to the Iranian war and became Türkmen ağası at the conquest of Hamadan. Around 1141 [1728-29] he died in the Iranian wars.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• eşrâf: the noble and leading families of a town
• birâderzâde: brother's son, nephew
• sipâhî: a mounted soldier holding a fief
• cizye muhassılı: the official who collected the head tax (cizye) levied on non-Muslims
• voyvoda: the official who managed the tax revenues and public order of a place
• beytü'l-mâl emîni: the official who managed on behalf of the state the property of those who died without heirs and ownerless property
• Türkmen ağası: as the name indicates, a commander given the head of the Turkmen cavalry in the army
• hudûdunda: around, in the vicinity of (for a date)

The Bekir Beyzâde Family

Ebûbekir Ağa belongs to the Bekir Beyzâde family, whose name appears frequently in Hüsameddin's annals from the second half of the seventeenth century. The career of his uncle Ömer Pasha can be followed from these annals. Bekir Beyzâde Ömer Bey is counted among the beys who went from Amasya to the Vienna campaign; then, in the time of Grand Vizier Kara İbrâhim Pasha, he became kapıcılar kethüdası. Around 1099 [1687-88], in the seyyid disorder that burned and ruined Amasya, he is mentioned among the notables who were forced to hide as "the seyyids' greatest enemy"; after the disorder was suppressed he was given the sanjak of Divriği. At the beginning of 1100 [1688-89] he was trustee of the sultan's waqfs at Amasya. In 1109 [1697-98] he appears as "Beylerbeyi of Mosul, Bekir Beyzâde Ömer Pasha of Amasya," and his son Osmân Bey was at that time chief âyan of Amasya. The annals also record that he was governor of Anatolia with the rank of vizier.

The entry says that Ebûbekir Ağa, as his uncle's kethüda, "devr-i bilâd" — that is, went around the places of duty with him; the governorships of Mosul and Anatolia may have been stops on this travelling; the source gives no detail. His cousin Ömer Paşazâde Osmân Bey, on the other hand, served for a long time as chief âyan at Amasya and held this post in 1128 [1715-16] too. In the same volume there is also the biography of Giridlizâde Hacı Ebûbekir Efendi, who entered the ayan council during this Osmân Bey's term as chief âyan.

The Conquest of Hamadan

The Iranian war mentioned in the entry is the war the Ottoman state opened against Iran in 1723, in the years when the Safavid state was unravelling under Afghan attacks. In this war, together with Tiflis, Erivan and Tabriz, one of the main targets was Hamadan. The city was one of the most important centres on the Silk Road route between Qazvin and Tehran and Baghdad. On the death of the governor of Baghdad, Hasan Pasha, in the spring of 1724, his son-in-law Ahmed Pasha was appointed serasker; the governors of Mosul, Maraş, Karahisar, Kırşehir and Cizre and the provincial troops were placed under his command. Ahmed Pasha besieged Hamadan on 29 June 1724. After breaches were opened in the walls by mines, a general assault took the city and fortress completely on 1 September 1724. The news of victory reached Istanbul on 16 September and three days of festivities were held.

These dates fall in the last months of the Hijri year 1136; the year Hüsameddin gives agrees exactly with the date of the siege. In the siege the cavalry of the Kurdish beys had surrounded a section of the fortress; Ebûbekir Ağa's Türkmen ağalık was probably the command of a unit of this kind of provincial cavalry. According to Hüsameddin's annals, the miralay of Amasya Kara Hüseyin Bey, who showed great merit in the same conquest, became guardian of Hamadan fortress with the rank of mirlivâ; the author calls this man "ceddim," that is, my ancestor. A few years earlier, in 1128, the annals also record that the Türkmân ağalığı was given to the alaybeyi of Amasya, Kürd Seyyid İbrâhim Ağa; it is seen that this post had been given before to the military notables of Amasya.

The Ottoman state took definitive control of the city with the Treaty of Hamadan of 1727 and continued in the following years to reinforce it militarily; in 1729-1730 in particular, levend infantry and cavalry were sent from Kilis, Diyarbakır and Mardin. That Ebûbekir Ağa died around 1141 [1728-29] "in the Iranian battles" falls in these troubled border years after the peace. No information about the place and manner of his death was found in other sources.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 91. amasya.bel.tr
• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4 (events of the years 1099-1109, 1128 and 1138).

Other sources

• "Hemedan Kuşatması (1724)" entry (tr.wikipedia.org).
• "Osmanlı-İran Savaşı (1723-1727)" entry (tr.wikipedia.org).