Merzifonludur. Birâderzâdesi olup Merzifon’da gördüğüm Dedezâde es-Seyyid Mehmed Hilmî Efendi’nin ta’rif ve beyânı üzere Köprülü Mehmed Paşa’nın kayın pederi Dede [304] Yûsuf Ağa’nın ahfâdından es-Seyyid el-Hâc Mehmed Ağa bin es-Seyyid Ebûbekir Ağa bin el-Hâc Mehmed Ağa bin el-Hâc Hüseyin Efendi’nin mahdûmu ve silahdâr-ı şehriyâri es-Seyyid Abdullah Ağa’nın hemşîrezâdesidir.
Dayısı müşârün-ileyh es-Seyyid Abdullah Ağa’nın delâletiyle genç yaşında enderûn mektebine girdi. Sarây-ı hümâyûnda tahsîl-i ilm ü kemâl ederek tefeyyüz edib 1224’de baş-kollukçu, 1233’de baş-çuhadâr-ı şehriyârî oldu. 1243 şevvalinde bu hizmetten afv edilip yine enderûnda kaldı.
1244 senesi rebiülevvelinde Sultân Mahmûd-i Sânî’ye kahvecibaşı, 1245 recebinin yirmi birinde hazîne-i hümâyûn kethüdâsı, 1247’de silahdârlık makâmının ilgâsıyla enderûn-ı hümâyûn nâzırı olarak Sultân Mahmûd’un fevkalâde teveccühlerini kazandı. 1250 senesi muharreminde pederi ve 1251 senesi ramazânında kendisi vefât etdi. Ebû Eyyüb Ensârî türbesi civârında medfûndur.
Âlim, âkil, sâdık, müttakî, kerîm olup Merzifon ve Hasankale’de hayrâtı, birer câmi ve mektebi, pederinin de Hacı Hamza kasabasında bir medresesi vardır. Bu medrese vakfiyesi 1249 târîhinde tanzîm edilip kuyûd-ı vakfiye idâresinde [305] müsecceldir. Bu vakfiyesinde pederi “es-Seyyid el-Hâc Mehmed Ağa bin es-Seyyid Ebûbekir Ağa bin Mehmed Ağa” diye mezkûrdur.
Birâderi es-Seyyid el-Hâc Hüseyin Ağa 1266’da vefât edib mahdûmu es-Seyyid Mehmed Hilmî Efendi meşâhîr-i şu’arâ-yı Merzifon’dan idi. 1330’da vefât etdi. Sâhib-i tercemenin mahdûmu erkân-ı harb kâ’im-makâmlarından es-Seyyid Mehmed Süheyl Bey 1293’de rakıdan vefât etdi. Sefîh, müskîrâta mübtelâ idi.
In Modern English
He is from Merzifon. According to what Dedezâde Seyyid Mehmed Hilmî Efendi, his brother's son, whom I met in Merzifon, related and explained, he is the son of Seyyid Hacı Mehmed Ağa, one of the descendants of Dede Yûsuf Ağa, father-in-law of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha. This Mehmed Ağa was the son of Seyyid Ebûbekir Ağa, who was the son of Hacı Mehmed Ağa, who was the son of Hacı Hüseyin Efendi. He himself was also the son of the sister of the sultan's silahdar Seyyid Abdullah Ağa.
Through the mediation of his maternal uncle, the said Seyyid Abdullah Ağa, he entered the Enderun school (the palace's inner-service school) at a young age. He was brought up gaining learning and maturity in the Imperial Palace; in 1224 [1809–10] he became baş-kullukçu, and in 1233 [1817–18] the sultan's chief çuhadar. In Şevval 1243 [April–May 1828] he was relieved of this service, but remained in the Enderun.
In Rebiülevvel 1244 [September–October 1828] he became kahvecibaşı to Sultan Mahmud II, on the twenty-first of Receb 1245 [6 January 1830] kethüda of the Imperial Treasury, and in 1247 [1831–32], with the abolition of the office of silahdar, as Enderun-ı Hümâyun nazırı (superintendent of the Imperial Enderun) he won the extraordinary favor of Sultan Mahmud. In Muharrem 1250 [May–June 1834] his father died, and in Ramazan 1251 [December 1835 – January 1836] he himself died. He is buried near the tomb of Ebû Eyyûb el-Ensârî.
He was a learned, intelligent, loyal, God-fearing and generous person. In Merzifon and in Hasankale he has charitable works, a mosque and a school in each; his father too has a madrasa in the town of Hacı Hamza. The waqf deed of this madrasa was drawn up in 1249 [1833–34] and is registered in the waqf records administration. In this deed his father is called "Seyyid Hacı Mehmed Ağa son of Seyyid Ebûbekir Ağa son of Mehmed Ağa."
His brother Seyyid Hacı Hüseyin Ağa died in 1266 [1849–50]. His son Seyyid Mehmed Hilmî Efendi was one of the famous poets of Merzifon and died in 1330 [1911–12]. The son of the subject of this biography, Seyyid Mehmed Süheyl Bey, a staff lieutenant colonel (kurmay kaymakam), died of rakı in 1293 [1876]. He was a spendthrift and fond of drink.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- birâderzâde: a brother's son, nephew
- ahfâd: grandchildren, descendants
- hemşîrezâde: a sister's son
- silahdâr-ı şehriyârî: the sultan's silahdar, one of the highest inner-service officials of the Enderun
- delâlet: mediation, guidance
- tefeyyüz etmek: to be brought up by gaining enlightenment
- baş-kollukçu, baş-çuhadâr: service ranks in the Enderun
- kahvecibaşı: head of the sultan's coffee service
- hazîne-i hümâyûn kethüdâsı: steward of the palace treasury
- ilgâ: abolition
- müsecceldir: is recorded, is registered
- erkân-ı harb kâ'im-makâmı: staff lieutenant colonel
- sefîh: spendthrift, one who lives without moderation
- müskirât: intoxicating drinks
Dede Yûsuf Ağa and the Köprülüs
Dede Yûsuf Ağa, to whom Hüsameddin links the family, was the father of Ayşe Hanım, wife of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha. In his youth Köprülü Mehmed Pasha went to the town of Köprü (today's Vezirköprü), attached to Amasya, married Ayşe Hanım and took the nickname Köprülü from there. The mother of his son Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha is likewise Ayşe Hanım, daughter of Yûsuf Ağa, voyvoda of the town. The descent of the Dedezâdes of Merzifon from this Yûsuf Ağa rests on the family's own account; Hüsameddin relays it from the mouth of Mehmed Hilmî Efendi and does not support it with another document.
A Palace Man Raised in the Enderun
Ebûbekir Efendi's rise in the palace is told with almost the same dates in a compilation on his tomb in Eyüp: head çuhadar in 1233, removal from that post in April 1828 and being kept at the mabeyn without a post, kahvecibaşı in September 1828, kethüda of the Imperial Treasury on 6 January 1830, and, with the abolition of the silahdarship in 1831, Enderun nazırlığı. His date of death is given there day by day as 22 Ramazan 1251 (11 January 1836). According to the same record, the tombs of Ebûbekir Efendi and his son Süheyl Bey are in Eyüp, in the cemetery on Bostan İskelesi Street opposite the imaret of Mihrişah Vâlide Sultan; Ebûbekir Efendi's sarcophagus, with a fez-topped headstone, bears an inscription of ten lines of verse. Hüsameddin's "near the tomb of Ebû Eyyûb el-Ensârî" agrees with this location.
The two sources differ on one point. Hüsameddin counts Ebûbekir Efendi as the son of the sister (hemşîrezâde) of Silahdar Seyyid Abdullah Ağa; the compilation in Eyüp shows his father Mehmed Ağa as Abdullah Ağa's brother. In Hüsameddin's entry for Silahdar Abdullah Ağa in volume 12, Abdullah Ağa is introduced as the son of the daughter of Dede Hacı Mehmed Ağa, one of the notables of Merzifon. In this case the family tie may have been formed through the mother's side as well; the exact degree of kinship cannot be resolved from the sources.
The Eyüp compilation adds two more pieces of information. The first is that, besides Merzifon and Hasankale, Ebûbekir Efendi also had a mosque and a school built in Erzurum, and a fountain in Balat in Istanbul that is no longer in place. The second is that it introduces him as a historian: according to this record, Ebûbekir Efendi narrated the events between 1182 and 1228 (1768–1813) in a short work called Vak'a-i Cedîde, which was printed in Istanbul in 1332 (1916) in 42 pages. The same record notes that from the expressions in the work it is understood that the author was a supporter of Mustafa IV. Hüsameddin never mentions this work. That the Ebûbekir Efendi who was the author of Vak'a-i Cedîde and the Enderun nazırı from Merzifon are the same person is put forward only in this compilation; it could not be verified with another source.
His Nephew, the Poet Hilmî Dede
Dedezâde Mehmed Hilmî Efendi, from whom Hüsameddin obtained information, is one of the well-known poets of Merzifon. According to the population record he was born in 1244 (1828) in the Sormasud quarter of Merzifon; his father was Hüseyin Efendi and his mother Hamide Hanım, which agrees with Hüsameddin's record of "son of his brother Hüseyin Ağa." He won the patronage of Ziya Pasha during his mutasarrıfship of Amasya, went to many places on official service, and at the end of his life received the rank of kaza nakibüleşraf (district head of the descendants of the Prophet). It is told that even in conversation he used rhymed and rhythmic speech, and that his sister was also a poet. He has an arranged divan and a mevlid; his poems were published in 1984 by Orhan Bilgin. His date of death is given in some sources as 1329 (May 1913); Hüsameddin's record of 1330 differs from this by about a year.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 100–100. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 12, entry "Abdullah Ağa-Silâhdâr es-Seyyid", Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022.
Academic studies
Official sources
Books