AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

Ebûbekir Bey — Turhânzâde el-Hâc

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 6, p. 86 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Recep Orhan ÖZEL - Doç. Dr. Metin HAKVERDİOĞLU

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Amasya ümerâsından Turhân Bey bin Pîrî Ebûbekir Bey bin Bâyezîd Bey bin el-Hâc Îsâ Bey’in mahdûmu ve sadr-ı esbak Bâyezîd Paşa’nın ammizâdesidir. Sultân Murâd Hân-ı Sânî devrinde ümerâdan olup İstanbul fethinde bulundu. Ba’dehû kibâr-ı ümerâdan olup 864 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi. Oğulları Ömer, Mehmed, Abbâs Beylerdir.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was the son of Turhân Bey bin Pîrî Ebûbekir Bey bin Bâyezîd Bey bin Hacı Îsâ Bey, one of the emirs of Amasya, and the cousin (son of the paternal uncle) of the former grand vizier Bâyezîd Pasha. He was one of the emirs in the time of Sultan Murâd Han II and took part in the conquest of Istanbul. He later became one of the great emirs and died after 864 [1459-60]. His sons are Ömer, Mehmed and Abbâs Bey.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • ümerâ: emirs, lords
  • sadr-ı esbak: former grand vizier (vezîriâzam)
  • ammizâde: cousin, son of the paternal uncle
  • ba'dehû: after this
  • kibâr-ı ümerâ: great emirs

The Kinship with Bayezid Pasha of Amasya

The entry's most noteworthy information is that it shows Ebûbekir Bey as the cousin of Bayezid Pasha of Amasya, grand vizier of the time of Mehmed I. Bayezid Pasha was given as lala (tutor) to Çelebi Mehmed, son of Bayezid the Thunderbolt; after the Battle of Ankara in 1402 he rescued the young prince from the battlefield and brought him to Amasya, and in 1413 he became grand vizier and beylerbeyi of Rumelia. He had a mosque and a zaviye bearing his name built in Amasya, and was killed in 1421 on the campaign on which he was sent against Düzmece Mustafa, who had risen against Murad II. His brother Hamza Bey remained in Ottoman service for a long time, and his son İsa Bey had a complex consisting of a mescit, a madrasa and a soup kitchen built in Hisar.

Bayezid Pasha's origin, however, is disputed. In the endowment deed he had drawn up for his soup kitchen in Amasya, his father's name is recorded as Yahşi Bey. Hüsameddin writes that Yahşi Bey was from Amasya and descended from Emir Seyfeddin Sungur. By contrast, the Byzantine historian of the period Doukas presents him as a slave of Albanian origin, Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi of Amasya, who wrote in the nineteenth century, says he came from a Bosnian family, and the Sicill-i Osmânî records that he was trained in the Enderun. A recent study states that the lineage Hüsameddin gives could not be confirmed by documents.

This debate bears directly on the kinship information in the entry. If Ebûbekir Bey is Bayezid Pasha's cousin, his father Turhân Bey and Bayezid Pasha's father must be two brothers of the same generation; that is, Yahşi Bey must also be a son of Pîrî Ebûbekir Bey. No document showing this tie was found. The length of the generations is also noteworthy: Bayezid Pasha was Çelebi Mehmed's lala in 1402 and died in 1421; Ebûbekir Bey, said to be his cousin, took part in the conquest of Istanbul in 1453 and died after 1460. This is not impossible, but it requires a rather large age difference between the two cousins.

Not to Be Confused with Turahan Bey, Conqueror of Thessaly

Turahan Bey, the conqueror of Thessaly, who lived in the same years and whose name is also written Turhan Bey in some studies, is one of the well-known frontier lords of the time of Murad II; during the preparations for the siege of Istanbul he is recorded as having, with his sons Ahmed and Ömer, blocked aid that might come from the Morea, and as having been present at the siege. But his father is given as Paşa Yiğit Bey, and he probably belongs to the Turkmen groups sent from western Anatolia to Thrace. The father of Turhân Bey of Amasya, whom Hüsameddin mentions, is Pîrî Ebûbekir Bey. The similarity of the names, and of the name of one of the sons (Ömer), must be pointed out separately so that the two families are not confused.

No information was found in other sources on Ebûbekir Bey's role in the conquest of Istanbul or on his life after 864.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 86–86. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

Other sources

Volume 6 contents