Amasyalıdır. Bekir Beyzâde olup dîvân-ı [90] hümâyûn teşrîfâtçısı Âkif Mehmed Bey'in pederidir. 1168 recebinin yirmi dokuzuncu günü Amasya mutasarrıfı olup Hacı Efendioğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa yine mütesellim oldu.
Şa'bânın ibtidâsında mütesellimin kayınpederi ve müftü efendinin hısımı Çorumlu Hacı Zeynelâbidîn Ağa nakîb kâ'im-makâmı oldu. Buna "Zeynel Ağa" denirdi. Zeynel Oğulları'nın büyük atasıdır. Şa'bânın yedisinde baş defterdâr Amasyalı Hatîbzâde Nâ'ilî Abdullâh Paşa bin Halîl Ağa vezâretle sadr-ı a'zam oldu.
Zilhicce ibtidâsında Kadı İbrâhim Efendi İstanbul'a gidip Taşâbâdî Hacı Ahmed Efendizâde mahkeme kâtibi Mehmed Emîn Efendi Amasya nâ'ibi ve Gül Ahmed Paşa birâderzâdesi Hacı Feyzullâhoğlu Hacı Hüseyin Ağa bin Hacı İsmâ'il Efendi Amasya mütesellimi oldu.
Bu yıl, kul kethüdâlığından mîr-i mîrân olup Köprü'de menfiyyen mukîm olan Gürcü Mehmed Paşa ve Amasya mevlevîhânesi şeyhi Hacı Ahmed Dede vefât edip mesnevîhân İsmâ'il Dede şeyh oldu.
1169 muharreminde Hacı Efendioğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa baş a'yân olup onuncu günü müftü Hacı Alî Efendi'nin azliyle Torumtay müderrisi Köprülü Hacı Mehmed Efendi Amasya müftüsü ve saferde Sarıbeyzâde Mehmed Bey Amasya alaybeyi oldu. [91]
Cemâziyelevvel ibtidâsında enderûn ağalarından Amasyalı Ca'fer Ağa evkâf-ı sultâniyye ve şehzâdeler vakfı mütevellîsi olarak İstanbul'dan geldi. Receb ibtidâsında Çavuşzâde Feyzullâh Efendi bin İbrâhim Efendi Amasya kadısı, Fazlıoğlu Hacı Mustafâ Ağa sipâhîler kethüdâsı ve birâderi Hacı Alî Efendi nakîb kâ'im-makâmı oldu.
Çünkü Zaralıoğlu Mehmed Paşa Amasya'nın sâbıkâ tahsîlâtından zimmetine geçen mebâliğ-i mühimmeyi te'diye etmek şartıyla Sivâs vâlîsi olmuşdu. Bu aydan i'tibâren zimmet-i sâbıkasını bakâyâ nâmıyla tahsîle emr-i şedîd verdi. Fazlı Oğulları'nı tahsîle me'mûr edip Amasya alaybeyi Mehmed Bey'e kızını vermiş, onu da kendisine rabt etmişdi.
Mehmed Bey, bütün kuyûd-ı resmiyye ve şer'iyyenin gösterdiği üzere eben-an-ceddin Amasyalı bir zât idi. Bu esnâda Sivâs alaybeyi olup Amasya'dan Sivâs'a gitdiğinden kendini belâdan kurtardı. Yerine Yeğenoğlu Ömer Bey'in etbâ'ından Kürd Ebûbekir Bey alaybeyi oldu.
Mutasarrıf Ebûbekir Paşa Bender muhâfızı idi. Mütesellimi Hacı Hüseyin Ağa da vâlînin emr-i şedîdine karşı duramadı. Bu yüzden dedikodu çoğaldı. A'yân da halk ile berâber olup ağır şikâyetler bâb-ı âlîye yağdı. [92]
Vâlî Mehmed Paşa, gerek Sivâs ve gerek Amasya emvâlinden zimmetine geçen paraları ziyâdesiyle bütün vilâyet halkına garâmeten tevzî' ederek vilâyetin her tarafında bunları tahsîle koyuldu. Fakat köylerden kendisine güvenen yiğitler, levendler vâlînin irtikâbât ve tahsîlât ve mezâlimi yüzünden şekâvete kalkışdılar. Amasya, Zile, Tokad havâlîsinde köyleri basıyorlar, canları yakıyorlardı.
Amasya havâlîsinde şakîlik yapan levendler, Sarıkadıoğlu Pehlivân Mehmed adlı gâyet yiğit ve cür'etkâr bir sergerdenin emriyle hareket ediyorlardı. Bunların mikdârı ilk önce azdı. Gitdikçe çoğaldı. Bu esnâda İbekli Ömer Ağa'nın oğlu Mustafâ Ağa da Zaralıoğlu'nun zulmünden kaçıp levend eşkıyâsına karışdı. Buna "İbeklioğlu" denir. Gâyet yiğit ve pehlivân bir adamdı. Eşkıyâ sergerdesi Mehmed Pehlivân'ın kethüdâ-yı şekâveti oldu.
Bu yıl a'yândan Sa'atçioğlu Hacı Mehmed Efendi, Abdî Paşa birâderi ve kütübhâne sâhibi olan Sultân Bâyezîd Câmi'i imâm-ı evveli Emîr İmâm Hacı Abdullatîf Efendi, Hızır Paşa müderrisi Veliyyüddîn Efendi vefât etdi.
1170 muharreminde Yeğenzâde Ömer Bey baş a'yân, Hacıoğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa hacıbaşı, Hacı Abdulbâkî Ağa da nakîb kâ'im-makâmı olup Fazlı Oğulları'nın tahsîlâtı şiddetlendi. [93]
Bu yüzden eşkıyânın yollarda, bellerde ve köylerde irtikâb etdikleri işkenceler, yağmâ ve gâretler halkı tedhîş ediyor, Kürd Bekir Bey'in ta'kîbâtı Amasya havâlîsine münhasır kalıyor, halkın feryâdı yürekleri eziyordu.
Bundan müte'essir olan ulemâ, a'yân ve hâcıyân tahsîlâta i'tirâz ederek efkâr-ı umûmiyyenin galeyânını teskîne hizmet ve bir mahzar-ı umûmî ile dîvân-ı hümâyûna şikâyet etdi.
Receb ibtidâsında mevâlîden Osmân Efendi Amasya kadısı olup geldi. Şa'bân ayında Fazlı Oğulları'nın konakları halk tarafından taşlandı. On kadar tahsîldârlar fenâ döğüldü. Bunlardan biri dayak altında can verdi. Mes'ele büyüdü. Bir tarafdan Fazlı Oğulları'nın takımları, diğer tarafdan a'yân ile halk her tarafa şikâyetler yağdırdı.
Bu hâdiseler ve levend eşkıyâsının türemesi sırf vâlî olacak derebeyinin seyyi'ât ve mezâlimi yüzünden olduğu anlaşıldığından bâ-fermân-ı âlî Sivâs vâlîsi olan Çeteci Vezîr Abdullâh Paşa kuvvetiyle Zaralıoğlu Mehmed Paşa azl ve i'dâm edildi.
In Modern English
He is a native of Amasya. He is of the Bekir Beyzâdes and is the father of Âkif Mehmed Bey, teşrifatçı of the Imperial Council. On the twenty-ninth day of Receb 1168 [May 1755] he became mutasarrıf of Amasya; Hacı Efendioğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa again became mütesellim.
At the beginning of Şaban, Hacı Zeynelâbidin Ağa of Çorum, the mütesellim's father-in-law and a relative of the mufti efendi, became deputy naqib. He was called "Zeynel Ağa"; he is the great ancestor of the Zeyneloğulları. On the seventh day of Şaban [May 1755], the chief defterdar Hatibzâde Nâilî Abdullah Pasha bin Halil Ağa of Amasya became grand vizier with the rank of vizier.
At the beginning of Zilhicce [September 1755] the kadı İbrahim Efendi went to Istanbul. Mehmed Emin Efendi, court clerk and son of Hacı Ahmed Efendi of Taşabat, became naib of Amasya, and Hacı Hüseyin Ağa bin Hacı İsmail Efendi, son of Hacı Feyzullah and nephew of Gül Ahmed Pasha, became mütesellim of Amasya.
This year Gürcü Mehmed Pasha, who had risen from kul kethüdalığı to a beylerbeyiship and was living in exile at Köprü, and Hacı Ahmed Dede, sheikh of the Mevlevi lodge of Amasya, died; the mesnevihan İsmail Dede became sheikh.
In Muharrem 1169 [September-October 1755], Hacı Efendioğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa became chief notable. On the tenth of the month the mufti Hacı Ali Efendi was dismissed, and Hacı Mehmed Efendi of Köprü, professor at the Torumtay Madrasa, became mufti of Amasya; in Safer Sarıbeyzâde Mehmed Bey became alaybeyi of Amasya.
At the beginning of Cemaziyelevvel [February 1756], Cafer Ağa of Amasya, one of the Enderun ağas, came from Istanbul as mütevelli of the sultanic waqfs and the princes' waqf. At the beginning of Receb [April 1756], Çavuşzâde Feyzullah Efendi bin İbrahim Efendi became kadı of Amasya, Fazlıoğlu Hacı Mustafa Ağa kethüda of the sipahis, and his brother Hacı Ali Efendi deputy naqib.
The reason for this was as follows: Zaralıoğlu Mehmed Pasha had become governor of Sivas on condition that he pay the large sums he had embezzled from Amasya's earlier collection. From this month on he gave a harsh order to have his old embezzlement collected under the name "bakaya." He had charged the Fazlıoğulları with the collection, and had bound the alaybeyi of Amasya, Mehmed Bey, to himself by giving him his daughter.
Mehmed Bey, as all the official and sharia records show, was a man of Amasya from father and grandfather. At this time he was alaybeyi of Sivas, and since he had gone from Amasya to Sivas he spared himself this trouble. In his place Kürd Ebubekir Bey, one of Yeğenoğlu Ömer Bey's men, became alaybeyi.
The mutasarrıf Ebubekir Pasha was guardian of Bender. His mütesellim, Hacı Hüseyin Ağa, also could not stand against the governor's harsh order. For this reason gossip multiplied. The notables acted together with the people, and heavy complaints poured into the Sublime Porte.
The governor Mehmed Pasha distributed the sums he had embezzled from the revenues of both Sivas and Amasya, in excess, to all the people of the province as an epidemic levy, and set about collecting them throughout the province. But self-confident young braves from the villages, levends, took to banditry because of the governor's misappropriations, collections and oppressions. Around Amasya, Zile and Tokat they raided villages and made lives miserable.
The levends who committed banditry around Amasya acted on the orders of an extremely brave and daring ringleader named Sarıkadıoğlu Pehlivan Mehmed. Their number was at first small and gradually grew. At this time Mustafa Ağa, son of İbekli Ömer Ağa, also fled Zaralıoğlu's oppression and joined the levend bandits. He is called "İbeklioğlu." He was an extremely brave and strong man of wrestler's build. He became the kethüda of the bandit ringleader Mehmed Pehlivan in the band, that is, his deputy.
This year Saatçioğlu Hacı Mehmed Efendi, one of the notables; Emir İmam Hacı Abdüllatif Efendi, brother of Abdi Pasha, owner of a library and first imam of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque; and Veliyyüddin Efendi, professor at the Hızır Pasha Madrasa, died.
In Muharrem 1170 [September-October 1756], Yeğenzâde Ömer Bey became chief notable, Hacıoğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa hacıbaşı, and Hacı Abdülbaki Ağa deputy naqib, and the Fazlıoğulları' collection became harsher.
Because of this, the tortures, plunder and pillage the bandits committed on the roads, in the mountain passes and in the villages terrified the people; Kürd Bekir Bey's pursuit remained limited to the vicinity of Amasya, and the people's cry crushed hearts.
The ulema, notables and pilgrims, affected by this, objected to the collection and tried to calm the ferment of public opinion, and lodged a complaint with the Imperial Council by means of a collective petition (mahzar) signed by the townspeople.
At the beginning of Receb [March 1757], Osman Efendi, one of the mevâlî, that is, scholars of the rank of great judge, came as kadı of Amasya. In Şaban [April-May 1757] the mansions of the Fazlıoğulları were stoned by the people. Some ten tax collectors were badly beaten; one of them gave up his life under the blows. The matter grew. On one side the Fazlıoğulları' men, on the other the notables and the people, showered complaints everywhere.
Since it was understood that these events and the springing up of levend banditry arose solely from the evils and oppressions of this overlord of a governor, by imperial firman, with the force of the governor of Sivas, the vizier Çeteci Abdullah Pasha, Zaralıoğlu Mehmed Pasha was dismissed and executed.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- dîvân-ı hümâyûn teşrîfâtçısı: the official who ran the rules of palace and state ceremonies
- hısım: relative
- nâ'ib: the kadı's deputy
- menfiyyen mukîm: residing in exile
- mesnevîhân: in the Mevlevi order, the person who recites and expounds the Mesnevî
- evkâf-ı sultâniyye: the waqfs founded by sultans
- mebâliğ-i mühimme: large sums of money
- te'diye: paying a debt
- zimmet-i sâbıka: money embezzled earlier
- emr-i şedîd: harsh order
- eben-an-ceddin: from father and grandfather, through generations
- etbâ': men, retinue
- garâmeten tevzî': distributing a debt among the people as an epidemic levy
- irtikâb: bribery and misappropriation
- şekâvet: banditry
- sergerde: head of a band, ringleader
- kethüdâ-yı şekâvet: the ringleader's deputy in a band
- tedhîş: terrifying
- münhasır: limited
- efkâr-ı umûmiyye: public opinion
- mahzar-ı umûmî: a petition submitted with the collective signatures of the people
- mevâlî: high-ranking scholars who became kadıs of great cities
- seyyi'ât: evils
- bâ-fermân-ı âlî: by imperial firman
Chronology of the Uprising
This long entry relates one of the gravest crises of government that Amasya experienced in the eighteenth century and is the continuation of the first incident in 1752. As seen in the earlier entries, Zaralızâde Mehmed Pasha had been removed from the mutasarrıflık of Amasya in 1752 for embezzling Amasya's taxes, but had kept the governorship of Sivas. According to Hüsameddin, from Receb 1169 [April 1756] the pasha became governor of Sivas again on condition that he pay his debt, and set about having the same embezzled sum collected from Amasya, this time under the name "bakaya." Ahmet Önal's list, based on the appointment records, largely confirms this picture: Zaralızâde was brought from the governorship of Kars to the governorship of Sivas on 8 Şevval 1169 [6 July 1756], became governor of Anatolia on 16 Zilhicce 1169 [11 September 1756], returned to Sivas again on 4 Rebiülahir 1170 [27 December 1756], and was transferred from Sivas to Trabzon on 15 Cemaziyelahir 1170 [7 March 1757]. The month of Receb that Hüsameddin gives is about three months before the official appointment; the difference may arise from the interval between the decision of the appointment in Istanbul and its formal entry in the register.
On the pasha's end the sources generally agree with Hüsameddin. Relying on İlhan Ege's thesis, Önal records that Zaralızâde Mehmed Pasha was executed within the year 1757, in which his transfer to Trabzon was made; Hüsameddin too places the execution after the events of Şaban 1170 [April-May 1757]. However, Hüsameddin's saying that the execution was carried out with the force of Çeteci Abdullah Pasha, "who was governor of Sivas," does not agree with the appointment records. In Önal's list Çeteci Abdullah Pasha's governorship of Sivas belongs to the year 1169 [November 1755-July 1756]; in the spring of 1757 Abdurrahman Pasha was at Sivas, while Çeteci Abdullah Pasha was brought to the governorship of Aleppo in September of the same year. In that case it is possible that Çeteci undertook the execution by a firman outside the capacity of governor, or that Hüsameddin used his earlier title; this point could not be verified.
Levends and the Justice Decrees
The bandit groups Hüsameddin calls "self-confident young braves from the villages, levends" are one of the greatest security problems of eighteenth-century Anatolia. As Mücteba İlgürel explains, since forces such as the sekban, sarıca and volunteers kept at the gates of viziers and beylerbeyis had no permanent structure, they were left idle at the pasha's death or dismissal and were called "gateless levends" (kapısız levent). They roamed in groups of ten to fifteen or twenty to thirty and engaged in banditry; the state from time to time tried to pacify them by taking them into the army. İlgürel also recalls that the levends abandoned the battlefield in the Iranian campaigns of 1735 and 1745 and caused defeat. In Amasya, however, as Hüsameddin relates it, the source of the banditry is the villagers' taking up arms in the face of the governor's heavy taxes.
Yücel Özkaya's study of the justice decrees (adaletnames) shows that what happened in Amasya was part of a problem also known at the center. After 1740, many justice decrees were written to the governors in Anatolia for the abolition of the heavy and unlawful taxes called tekâlif-i şakka. One of them, sent to officials in Anatolia and Rumelia in mid-November 1757, shortly after Zaralızâde's execution, demanded that unlawful taxes not be levied, that the people not be harmed through bribery, that the âyan not enter excess akçe in the salyane and tax registers, and that the kadı, naib and âyan not frighten the people and make them leave their places. From similar decrees issued in later years Özkaya relays that the levends were cutting roads in groups of three to five hundred in many provinces, Sivas foremost, and that governors were feeding these levends at their gates.
The power of the Zaralızâde family in the region did not end with Mehmed Pasha's execution. According to what Önal relays, the pasha's brother Feyzullah first became mütesellim of Sivas, was brought to the governorship of Sivas with the rank of beylerbeyi in Cemaziyelahir 1171 [February 1758], and received the vizierate in July of the same year. The chronicler Hâkim writes that this vizierate was given especially for punishing the levends who were causing great harm in the region. Thus at one end of the levend question stands Mehmed Pasha's oppression, and at the other his brother's rise by suppressing these levends.
Nâilî Abdullah Pasha and Âkif Bey
Nâilî Abdullah Pasha, whom Hüsameddin introduces as Hatibzâde of Amasya, was one of the short-lived grand viziers of the time of Osman III. Fikret Sarıcaoğlu writes that he became grand vizier on 6 Şaban 1168 [18 May 1755]; the "seventh of Şaban" that Hüsameddin gives differs from this by one day. Some sources record that Nâilî Abdullah Pasha was born in Istanbul, became reisülküttab in 1747, was dismissed three months after the grand vizierate, on 24 August 1755, and sent to the governorship of Crete, and died in Medina in 1758 on his way to the governorship of Jeddah. This difference on the place of birth suggests that Hüsameddin's description "of Amasya" may rest on the family's origin; but this too could not be verified by a document.
There is an interesting tie between the Teşrifatçı Âkif Mehmed Bey, mentioned at the beginning of the entry, and the family of Nâilî Abdullah Pasha. As Erhan Afyoncu notes, when Âkif Bey was dismissed from the teşrifatçılık on 1 Cemaziyelahir 1179 [15 November 1765], Ebubekir Vahdetî Efendi, "the brother of the late Nâilî Pasha," was appointed in his place. The contradiction among the sources on Âkif Bey's life and the identity of his father Ebubekir Pasha was treated in the previous Ebubekir Pasha entry. As stated there, Afyoncu writes that Âkif Bey's father died in 1167 [1754]; Hüsameddin's showing him as mutasarrıf of Amasya and guardian of Bender in 1168 does not agree with this record.
The Mevlevi Lodge of Amasya
The Mevlevi lodge of Amasya, whose sheikh Hacı Ahmed Dede died this year, appears in the records as the "Mevlevihâne-i Pervâne" or the "Mevlevihâne-i merhum Alâeddin Pervâne." According to what Abdülhalim Durma relays on the basis of Hüsameddin, the first Mevlevi lodge was built in 1314 by Alâeddin Ali Pervâne Bey; the building burned in the bandit incidents of 1602 and was rebuilt in 1637 by Grand Vizier Bayram Pasha. The lodge stood on the bank of the Yeşilırmak near the Hükümet Bridge, east of the Saraçhane Quarter, and it is understood from the sharia court registers that sheikhs, among them one named Ahmed Dede, were buried in the large room inside it. Whether this Ahmed Dede is the Hacı Ahmed Dede whose death is recorded in the entry could not be determined. Durma notes that the building may have been demolished around 1925, when the tekkes were closed, during the opening of today's Yavuz Selim Square.
No information was found in other sources about Gürcü Mehmed Pasha, Sarıkadıoğlu Pehlivan Mehmed, İbeklioğlu Mustafa Ağa, Kürd Ebubekir Bey and Saatçioğlu Hacı Mehmed Efendi, named in the entry.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, 4. Cildin Bakiyyesi, p. 654–655. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
- Ahmet Önal, "Sivas Eyaleti Valileri ve Beylerbeyileri (1753-1792)", Tarihin Peşinde, 21, 2019. http://www.tarihinpesinde.com/dergimiz/sayi21/M21_02.pdf
- Mücteba İlgürel, "Levent", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 2003. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/levent
- Yücel Özkaya, "XVIII'nci Yüzyılda Çıkarılan Adalet-nâmelere göre Türkiye'nin İç Durumu", Belleten, 38/151, 1974.
- Fikret Sarıcaoğlu, "Osman III", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/osman-iii
Books
- Erhan Afyoncu, "Mehmed Âkif Bey'in Hayatı ve Târih-i Cülûs-ı Sultân Mustafa Han-ı Sâlis", Teşrifatçı Mehmed Âkif Bey, Târih-i Cülûs-ı Sultân Mustafa Han-ı Sâlis (facsimile), Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı Yayınları, İstanbul 2012.
Other sources