Amasya’nın cenûbunda kâin Olus köyünde oturan Kürd aşiretlerinden Pehlüvanlı aşîreti re’isi Ahmed Bey bin Ebûbekir Bey’in oğludur. Genç iken züamâdan olup pederinin vefâtında aşîret re’isi olan İbrâhim Bey’in yanında kaldı. Ba’dehû ona dâmâd olarak ta’ayyün etdi.
İbrâhim Bey’in vefâtında Amasya’da ikâmet edib Mumcuzâde Seyyid Ahmed Paşa’ya intisâb ederek mûmâ ileyhin kethüdâsı ve Amasya mutasarrıflığında 1098’de Amasya mütesellimi oldu. 1101’de Seyyid Paşa’nın i’dâmında bir müddet menkûb olup 1110 sâlinden i’tibâren a’yân meclisine a’zâ olduğu hâlde 1117 sâline doğru vefât etdi. Mahdûmları es-Seyyid İbrâhim Paşa ile Sarı Mustafa Bey’dir. Bunlara ve bunların evlâdına “Kürd Bekiroğulları” [271] dendi. Es-Seyyid İbrâhim Paşazâde es-Seyyid Mustafa Paşa ve es-Seyyid Sarı Mustafa Beyzâde es-seyyid Ebûbekir Beydir.
In Modern English
He was the son of Ahmed Bey bin Ebûbekir Bey, chief of the Pehlüvanlı tribe, one of the Kurdish tribes living in the village of Olus, south of Amasya. As a young man he was one of the zeamet holders (züamâ); when his father died he stayed with İbrâhim Bey, who became tribal chief. Later he was designated as his son-in-law.
On İbrâhim Bey's death he settled in Amasya and, attaching himself to Mumcuzâde Seyyid Ahmed Pasha, became his kethüda; when the Pasha became mutasarrıf of Amasya, in 1098 [1686-87] he became mütesellim of Amasya. When Seyyid Pasha was executed in 1101 [1689-90], he fell from favour for a time. From 1110 [1698-99] he sat as a member of the ayan council, and he died around 1117 [1705-06]. His sons were Seyyid İbrâhim Pasha and Sarı Mustafa Bey. They and their children were called the "Kürd Bekiroğulları." The son of Seyyid İbrâhim Pasha was Seyyid Mustafa Pasha, and the son of Seyyid Sarı Mustafa Bey was Seyyid Ebûbekir Bey.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- cenûb: south; kâin: located
- züamâ: holders of zeamets (large fiefs), sipahis with fiefs
- ta'ayyün etmek: to be designated, to be chosen
- intisâb: entering the retinue of a great man, attaching oneself to him
- kethüdâ: the steward of a statesman, who ran his affairs
- mutasarrıf: governor of a sanjak; mütesellim: the deputy who governed the sanjak on his behalf when the mutasarrıf was absent
- menkûb: struck by misfortune, fallen from favour
- a'yân meclisi: the local administrative council made up of the notables of a town
- sâl: year; mahdûm: son
Olus Village and the Kurdish Villages of Amasya
The village that Hüsameddin writes as "Olus" is today the village of Oluz in the central district of Amasya. The village's name appears as Oluş in the 1928 records; it was later renamed Toklucak and has been registered again as Oluz since 2012. Bekir Başalan, who studied the altered place names in Amasya, also shows the old name of Toklucak as "Olus/Oluz." The village is about 33 kilometres from the town centre; the ancient settlement mound called Oluz Höyük is also near this village. Hüsameddin places the village south of the town; in reality the village lies to the southwest.
In the annals in the fourth volume of the same work, Hüsameddin calls this village "Ulus Köyü" and gives it as the birthplace of the mütesellim of Amasya, Seyyid Ebûbekir Ağa. As narrated there, the mütesellim, with men he gathered from the Kurds living around this village, acted in Amasya as he pleased, backed the seyyids in every kind of action, and silenced the people with these men. This record shows the political picture behind the short biography in the entry: Ebûbekir Ağa came to the town as the son of a tribal bey and put the force he had gathered from his own tribal circle into the service of the Mumcuzâdes.
Communities called Kurdish around Amasya have been known since the Ottoman tahrirs. According to Başalan's table, the old name of Ardıçlar village in the central district today was "Kürtler," and the old name of Karaçavuş village was "Kürtlerkayı." No further information was found in the sources read on the Amasya branch of the Pehlüvanlı tribe.
Mumcuzâde Seyyid Ahmed Pasha and the Quarrel of the Seyyids
Mumcuzâde Seyyid Ahmed Pasha, to whom Ebûbekir Ağa attached himself, appears in Hüsameddin's annals as one of the chief actors of the conflicts that shook Amasya in the second half of the seventeenth century. The family is among the ayan of the Pervâne Bey quarter; because their ancestor Kınalı Osmân was called "Kınalı Mumcu," his children became known by the name Mumcuzâde. Seyyid Ahmed first relied on Köprülü Mehmed Pasha as city kethüda, was several times expelled from Amasya and returned, and became head of the seyyids in the town. According to Hüsameddin, in Cemâziyelâhir 1098 the sanjak of Amasya was taken from Vizier Çelebi İbrâhim Pasha, who was going to the imperial army, and "in a strange way" given to Seyyid Ahmed Bey. The mütesellimlik in our entry begins with this appointment.
In the annals this period is seen narrated in harsh language: it is written that a number of men gathered in the name of the seyyids and the Kurds accused and punished the ayan and the people, that great injustices were done, and that the ayan and the people complained of the seyyids. Mumcuzâde Seyyid Ahmed Pasha and his brother Deli Seyyid are also counted among those responsible for the great fire and bloody clash that broke out in the town. In 1099 Seyyid Pasha was given the beylerbeyilik of Kastamonu and ordered to go urgently to the Rumeli war, and he left Amasya with his retinue.
On the date of the Pasha's execution there is a small discrepancy among Hüsameddin's own entries. This entry places the execution in 1101 [1689-90]; in the biography of the Pasha's nephew Abdülcelilzâde Seyyid Ahmed Ağa in the same volume, on the other hand, it says "at the execution of Seyyid Pasha in 1102." The reader should bear in mind that the two dates are close to one another and that the exact day cannot be determined from these sources.
The Kürd Bekiroğulları
The family's name comes from Ebûbekir (shortly Bekir) Ağa, the subject of the entry; the adjective "Kürd" recalls the tribal origin. In Hüsameddin's annals one of his sons, Seyyid İbrâhim, appears at the beginning of 1128 [1715-16], when ranks were being distributed to the soldiers of Amasya who had shown merit in the Morea war, as "Amasya alaybeyi Kürd Seyyid İbrâhim Ağa," who was given the "Türkmân ağalığı"; since his name is given in the entry as Seyyid İbrâhim Pasha, he evidently later rose to the pashalık. In the records of 1170-1171 [1756-58] the name of the alaybeyi "Kürd Bekir Bey," who went in pursuit of the levend brigands, is also seen. It is highly probable that this person is the grandson Seyyid Ebûbekir Bey mentioned at the end of the entry; but this link is not explicitly made in the source.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 90. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4 (events of the years 1098-1099, 1128 and 1170-1171); vol. 6, "Ahmed Ağa-Abdülcelilzâde" entry.
Academic studies
- Bekir Başalan, "Amasya İlinde İsimleri Değiştirilen Yerleşim Yeri Adları Üzerine Bir İnceleme", Folklor Akademi Dergisi, 7/3 (2024), pp. 1382-1391.
Other sources
- "Oluz, Amasya" entry (tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oluz,_Amasya).