Gümüşlüdür. Oranın a’yânı el-Hâc Ahmed Ağa’nın mahdûmu ve Hacıköylüzâde el-Hâc Ebûbekir Ağa’nın birâderzâdesi ve esbak Çavuşbaşı Hacıköylü Mehmed Ağa’nın hemşîresi oğludur. İstanbul’da “Çavuşbaşı Yeğen” denirdi.
Gençliğinde İstanbul’a gelip dayısı Mehmed Ağa’nın himmetiyle Bâb-ı âlîde âmedî kalemine çırak oldu. Orada tahsîl-i ma’ârifet edib tefeyyüz ederek âmedî ser-halîfesi ve 1201’de âmedî-i divan-ı hümayun oldu.
1203’de azledilip hacca gitdi. Avdetinde sânîyen âmedî ve ba’de’l-azl 1213’de Anadolu muhâsebecisi olup devr-i menâsıbla baş-muhâsebeci oldu. 1219’da vefât etdi. Vatanı olan Gümüş müftülerinin azl ve nasbı ile pek ziyâde alâkadâr olduğu Defter-i Müftiyân’da görüldü.
In Modern English
He is from Gümüş. He was the son of Hacı Ahmed Ağa, one of the notables of that place, the nephew of Hacıköylüzâde Hacı Ebûbekir Ağa, and the son of the sister of the former çavuşbaşı Hacıköylü Mehmed Ağa. In Istanbul he was called "Çavuşbaşı's Nephew."
In his youth he came to Istanbul and, with the support of his maternal uncle Mehmed Ağa, entered the Âmedî Kalemi (the chancery of the Âmedî) at the Sublime Porte as an apprentice. There he improved his knowledge and manners; he became the chief halife (senior clerk) of the âmedî chancery and, in 1201 [1786–87], âmedci of the Divan-ı Hümayun.
In 1203 [1788–89] he was dismissed and went on the pilgrimage. On his return he became âmedci a second time; after being removed from office he became Anatolian accountant in 1213 [1798–99] and, moving around among offices, became chief accountant. He died in 1219 [1804–05]. It was seen in the Defter-i Müftiyân that he took a very close interest in the dismissals and appointments of the muftis of his home town, Gümüş.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- birâderzâde: a brother's son, nephew
- hemşîre: sister
- esbak: former, previous
- çavuşbaşı: head of the çavuşes of the Divan-ı Hümayun, a high official who ran the ceremonial and notification affairs of the divan
- himmet: help, support
- Bâb-ı âlî: the grand vizier's office, the Ottoman seat of government
- âmedî kalemi: the private chancery of the reîsülküttâb; the office in which correspondence between the grand vizier and the sultan was conducted
- çırak: (in a chancery) a newly entered trainee clerk
- tefeyyüz: developing by gaining knowledge and enlightenment
- ser-halîfe: head of the senior clerks of a chancery
- ba'de'l-azl: after being dismissed
- devr-i menâsıb: moving in rotation among offices
- Defter-i Müftiyân: the register in which mufti appointments were recorded
Gümüş and Hacıköy
Ebûbekir Efendi's home town, which Hüsameddin calls "Gümüşlü," is the town of Gümüş near the present-day Gümüşhacıköy district of Amasya. According to local records, the present district center was until 1891 a bucak (subdistrict) attached to Gümüş and called "Hacıköyü"; it became a municipality in 1890 and a district center in 1892, taking the name "Gümüşhacıköy." The Gümüş township still exists today as a separate settlement within the district. The name of the region comes from its old silver mines; according to what is cited from Hüsameddin's book, the place was called "Hacı Nazır's village" after the son of Hacı Mehmed Çelebi, who from 1491 lived here as supervisor of the silver mine; for a time the mine was given to Köprülü Mehmed Pasha as an arpalık (stipend assignment), and the pasha had a caravanserai, a bedesten, a mosque and a bath built here, completed in 1661. The name "Hacıköylüzâde" given to Ebûbekir Efendi's family shows the family's tie to this Hacıköy.
A Chancery Efendi in His Uncle's Shadow
Ebûbekir Efendi's life shows how a young man from the provinces entered the bureaucracy of the Sublime Porte with the help of relatives in the eighteenth century. That he was known in Istanbul as "Çavuşbaşı's Nephew" shows that at the start of his career his identity was defined by his uncle. In the same volume Hüsameddin also wrote an entry for another member of the family, Ebûbekir Efendi's uncle Hacıköylüzâde Hacı Ebûbekir Ağa; there it is told that this Ebûbekir Ağa was the son of Hacı Mehmed Ağa, one of the notables of Gümüş, and that he succeeded his father and gained considerable influence. In the volumes of the book that narrate the yearly events of Amasya, too, names of notables (âyân) and figures of the Porte from the Hacıköylü family appear; this shows that the family was established both in its home town and in Istanbul. No information on Ebûbekir Efendi or on his maternal uncle Çavuşbaşı Mehmed Ağa was found in other sources.
The Âmedcilik and Hâcegânlık
The office of âmedci to which Ebûbekir Efendi rose was one of the most important chancery posts of the period. According to Necati Aktaş, this official, also called Âmedî or Âmedî-i Dîvân-ı Hümâyun, was in effect the director of the private chancery of the reîsülküttâb, who was head of the divan scribes. The petitions (telhis) and memoranda the grand vizier wrote to the sultan and every kind of document written to foreign states were drafted and kept in the Âmedî Kalemi. The âmedci also attended the reîsülküttâb's meetings with representatives of foreign states and kept the records of the conversations. As the chancery's importance grew in time, the number of clerks under it rose from five or six to as many as sixty. It is also notable that the title Âmedî is encountered only in the last quarter of the eighteenth century: Ebûbekir Efendi's coming to this post in 1201 [1786–87] falls in the earliest period of the title's use.
The Anatolian accountancy and chief accountancy that he reached at the end of his career were upper ranks of the financial bureaucracy. According to Mehmet İpşirli, in the annual hâcegân appointments the büyük rûznâmeci, the chief accountant and the Anatolian accountant formed a second-tier group, while the first group consisted of the "menâsıb-ı sitte" (six great offices) made up of the defterdars, the nişancı, the reîsülküttâb and the defter emini. The âmedci, like the beylikçi, held the rank of hâcegân. What Hüsameddin calls "devr-i menâsıb" is the practice of changing places at intervals among these senior chancery posts. Ebûbekir Efendi's dismissal from the âmedcilik, his going on the pilgrimage, and his reappointment to the same post on his return are also an ordinary part of this system in which offices changed hands through annual assignments.
His Tie to His Home Town
The last sentence of the entry shows how Hüsameddin used archival records. That the Defter-i Müftiyân shows Ebûbekir Efendi closely involved in the dismissals and appointments of the muftis of Gümüş suggests that from his high post in Istanbul he took a hand in the affairs of his home town, perhaps even interceding in mufti appointments. This is an inference; Hüsameddin does not explain the nature of the interest. The same volume also contains the biographies of Hacıköylü scholars such as the mufti of Gümüş Hacı İsmâil Efendi and his son Müftüzâde İbrâhim Efendi; this suggests that the muftiship of Gümüş was an office that remained in the hands of local families.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 99–99. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
Official sources