Amasyalıdır. Amasya kethüdâsı Rus Hamza Bey’in oğludur. Seksen altı bölükte mukayyed yeniçeri olup “Seksen Altının Bekir Ağa” denirdi. Tûl-i müddet yasakçı, ya’nî inzibât me’mûru, 1064’de Amasya serdârı oldu. 1066 saferinde hasta olup senesinde vefât etdi. Yirmi yıl kadar kır serdârı olup livâ-yı devr ve teftîş, eşkiyâyı te’dîb ve tenkîl etmiş bir merd-i cesûr idi. Oğlu Ahmed Ağa’dır.
Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL
Ebûbekir Ağa — Rusoğlu
Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 6, p. 88 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Recep Orhan ÖZEL - Doç. Dr. Metin HAKVERDİOĞLU
Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)
Our Research Article
Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk
In Modern English
He was a native of Amasya, the son of Rus Hamza Bey, kethüda of Amasya. Because he was a janissary registered in the eighty-sixth company, he was called "Bekir Ağa of the Eighty-Sixth." For a long time he served as yasakçı, that is, as a public-order officer; in 1064 [1653-54] he became serdar of Amasya. In Safer 1066 [1655] he fell ill and died the same year. For some twenty years he had toured and inspected the sanjak as field serdar, and he was a brave man who brought the brigands to order and did away with them. His son was Ahmed Ağa.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- kethüdâ: here the kethüdâyeri, who looked after the affairs of the sipahis in the sanjak
- mukayyed: registered
- tûl-i müddet: for a long time
- yasakçı: a janissary in charge of public order in the provinces; the text itself explains it as "inzibat memuru" (police officer)
- serdâr: here, the head of the janissaries in a town
- kır serdârı: the official responsible for the security of the roads and villages outside the town
- livâ-yı devr ve teftîş: to tour and inspect the sanjak
- te'dîb ve tenkîl: to bring to order and do away with, to punish severely
- merd-i cesûr: a brave, courageous man
His Father Rus Hamza Bey
Hüsameddin describes Ebûbekir Ağa's father in a separate entry. Rus Hamza Bey was freed while a slave of Hacı Beyzâde Mehmed Pasha of Amasya and was enrolled in the seventy-third of the silahdar companies. He rendered service in the wars against the brigands, in 1023 [1614] took over the administration of the waqfs of Hoca Sultan, in 1025 [1616] was removed from this post and sent on the Baghdad campaign. In 1032 [1622-23] he became a sanjak governor by fighting against Abaza Mehmed Pasha, and in 1038 [1628-29] he died in the battle of Baghdad. In the section where Hüsameddin narrates the events of 1017 [1608], too, Rus Hamza Ağa is counted among the influential sipahi ağas of Amasya. It might be thought that the nickname "Rus" points to the origin of Hamza Bey, a freedman; but this is an inference and is not stated explicitly in the source. It is also noteworthy that Ebûbekir Ağa became a janissary although his father had risen from the sipahi class.
Yasakçıs, Serdars and Field Serdars
The titles Ebûbekir Ağa bore show who held public order in Anatolian towns in the seventeenth century. According to Mustafa Akdağ's finding, after the rebellion of Prince Bayezid in the time of Süleyman the Magnificent, groups of janissaries were stationed all over Anatolia under the name "yasakçı" or "korucu," so that security in the provinces was taken from the timar-holding sipahis and left to the members of the corps. The duty of catching offenders and bringing them to court, which had earlier belonged to the sanjak governors and their subaşıs, passed in time to the yasakçıs, and the income sanjak governors drew from fees on crimes and homicides also fell into their hands. This led to complaints between the sanjak governors and the yasakçıs.
In the Ottoman state the word serdar was used mostly for viziers and beylerbeyis appointed to a campaign. But the prominent officers of the senior and retired janissaries, called "korucu" and "oturak," whom the janissary ağa sent to small places for public order, were also called "janissary serdars." Those assigned to the security of the roads between towns were called "field serdars." That Ebûbekir Ağa served some twenty years as field serdar and finally rose to the serdarship of the town is a typical career showing that public order in Amasya was in the hands of local janissary ağas. Hüsameddin's book also contains other Amasya janissaries who served as serdar of Amasya and field serdar in the same period.
No information about Ebûbekir Ağa was found in other sources.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 88. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 4, "Mehmed Paşa" (Çakalzâde) entry; vol. 9, "Hamza Bey-Rus" entry.
Academic studies
- Abdülkadir Özcan, "Serdar", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/serdar).
- Mustafa Akdağ, "Yeniçeri Ocak Nizamının Bozuluşu", article (dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2152433).