Ebu'l-Feth Bey — Emîr Necmeddîn

In Modern English

He was a native of Amasya. He was the son of Umur Han, son of Mahmud Bey, son of Feth Gazi Bey, one of the Seljuk emirs. He served the Seljuk princes who governed Amasya and so entered the ranks of the emirs. In 616 [1219-20], because he showed allegiance to the Seljuk Sultan Alâeddin Keykubad, he became emir of Tokat. He then took part in the Georgian wars. In 637 [1239-40] he fell a martyr in the revolt of Baba İshak. He was one of the great emirs. He is among the witnesses of the Halfet Gazi endowment deed.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• ümerâ: emirs, lords
• vülât: governors, administrators
• şehzâde-gân-ı âl-i Selçuk: the princes of the Seljuk dynasty
• inkıyâd: submission, showing allegiance
• muhârebât: wars
• kibâr-ı ümerâ: the great ones among the emirs
• şuhûd: witnesses

The Year 616 and Alâeddin Keykubad

The year 616, in which Ebu'l-Feth Necmeddin Bey was appointed emir of Tokat, is the year Alâeddin Keykubad came to the throne. Keykubad had been sent to Tokat as melik when his father Gıyâseddin Keyhusrev I returned to the Seljuk throne in 601 (1205). After his father's death he did not recognize the sultanate of his elder brother İzzeddin Keykâvus, besieged Kayseri, and in the end surrendered in Ankara Castle and was imprisoned (608/1212). On Keykâvus's death he was released from prison and proclaimed ruler in Sivas (616/1220), and then was ceremonially enthroned again in Konya. The allegiance Hüsameddin calls "inkıyâd" was most probably the emirs of the Danishmend region joining the new sultan on his accession. The tie of Tokat with Keykubad's melikdom in his youth also makes this appointment meaningful.

The Georgian Campaigns

The Georgian wars, mentioned briefly in the entry, fall in the last years of Keykubad's reign. In 629 (1232) a Mongol detachment came plundering as far as the vicinity of Sivas; when it was concluded that this raid had been instigated by the Georgian Queen Rusudan, the Seljuks, together with the subaşı of Erzurum, Mübârizüddin Çavlı, entered Georgian lands; after some fortresses were taken, peace was made, and it was decided that Rusudan's daughter would be married to Keykubad's son Gıyâseddin Keyhusrev. The famous emir of Amasya, Halîfet Gazi, also fell as a martyr in the Georgian campaign of 1232 and was buried in his tomb in Amasya. It is likely that the wars in which Necmeddin Bey took part were these campaigns; but his name does not appear in the sources read.

The Halfet Gazi Endowment Deed

The most concrete piece of information Hüsameddin gives is that Necmeddin Bey appears as a witness in the Halfet Gazi endowment deed. Halîfet Gazi, called Hilfet or Halfet Gazi among the people, was a Danishmend emir who entered Seljuk service after the extinction of the principality. He was appointed to command the Black Sea coast by İzzeddin Keykâvus I, who conquered Sinop in 1215, and in the time of Alâeddin Keykubad to the governorship of Amasya (619/1222). It has been established that his father's name was Tulf and his grandfather's Türkanşah. The endowment deed of his madrasa in Amasya, dated 622 (1225), has survived. If Necmeddin Bey is a witness in this document, he was among the leading emirs in Amasya in 1225.

The group of buildings to which the deed belongs is on Torumtay Street in the Şamice neighborhood of Amasya. According to its inscription the madrasa was built in 606 (1209-10); its south wall and eastern section partly stand, the parts that collapsed after the earthquake of 1647 were renewed in wood, and in 1888 the mufti of Amasya, Hacı Osman Hilmi Efendi, had the building thoroughly repaired. In the two-story tomb adjoining the madrasa stands a marble sarcophagus of the Roman period.

The Babai Revolt and Amasya

The year 637 (1240), in which Necmeddin Bey fell a martyr, is the year of the greatest Turkmen uprising in the history of Anatolian Seljuk history. Baba İlyas-ı Horasânî, a Vefâiyye sheikh, had gathered a great many disciples around him in his lodge (zaviye) in the village of Çat near Amasya, and had left the actual conduct of the uprising he was preparing against Gıyâseddin Keyhusrev II to his deputy Baba İshak. The Babais, who at first succeeded in southeastern and central Anatolia, suffered their first defeat in Amasya. Baba İlyas, who had taken refuge in Amasya Castle, was cornered and captured by the forces of Mübârizüddin Armağanşah and executed. The other wing, under Baba İshak, marched on Konya but was defeated on the plain of Malya near Kırşehir by the Seljuk army, which included mercenary Frankish soldiers, and Baba İshak was killed.

Hüsameddin names the event "the revolt of Baba İshak"; present-day research puts forward Baba İlyas as the real leader of the movement and uses the name "Babai uprising." It is not known whether Necmeddin Bey died in the fighting in Amasya or on the plain of Malya. On the other hand, Hüsameddin writes in the first volume that the families descended from Baba İlyas grew in time to nearly one tenth of the people of Amasya and produced many statesmen; the traces of the revolt in Amasya were not limited to the war records alone.

No information was found in other sources on Necmeddin Bey himself, his father Umur Han, or his grandfather Feth Gazi Bey.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 83–83. amasya.bel.tr
• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 1, Mukaddime (Amasya dynasties), p. 179–186.

Academic studies

• Faruk Sümer, "Keykubad I", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/keykubad-i
• Aynur Durukan, "Hilfet Gazi Medresesi ve Türbesi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 18, 1998. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/hilfet-gazi-medresesi-ve-turbesi
• "Türkiye Selçukluları Devrinin Ünlü Gazisi Mübarizü'd-din Halifet Gazi", Selçuk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/sefad/article/171724
• Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, "Baba İlyas", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 4, 1991. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/baba-ilyas