Amasyalıdır. Hüseyin Çelebi bin İsfendiyâr Bey bin Seydî Ali Bey’in mahdûmudur. Küçük yaşında amcası olan Basra Beylerbeyi Ali Paşa’nın yanına gidip Basra’da ikâmet etdi. Amcazâdesi Hüseyin Paşa’nın zaman-ı vilâyetinde Basra Azebân ağası oldu.
1018’de ağalıkdan azledildiyse de Hüseyin Paşa Basra Beylerbeyi oldukda 1019 senesi şevvâlinde sâniyen azebân ağası ve kayınpederi olan Hüseyin Paşa’nın inhâsıyla l027’de Lahsa Beylerbeyi ve Paşa’nın vefâtında [245] Basra Beylerbeyi olup 1038 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi. Mahdûmları Hüseyin Paşa ile Hasan, Mehmed Beylerdir.
In Modern English
He is from Amasya. He is the son of Hüseyin Çelebi, son of İsfendiyâr Bey, son of Seydî Ali Bey. At a young age he went to his uncle Ali Pasha, the beylerbeyi of Basra, and settled in Basra. During the governorship of his uncle's son Hüseyin Pasha he became the azeb agha of Basra.
Although he was removed from the post of agha in 1018 [1609-10], when Hüseyin Pasha became beylerbeyi of Basra he became azeb agha for the second time, in the month of Şevval of the year 1019 [December 1610-January 1611]. At the proposal of his father-in-law Hüseyin Pasha he became beylerbeyi of Lahsa in 1027 [1617-18], and upon the Pasha's death he became beylerbeyi of Basra, and he died after the year 1038 [1628-29]. His sons are Hüseyin Pasha and Hasan and Mehmed Beys.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mahdûm: son
- beylerbeyi: provincial governor
- azebân ağası: commander of the military corps called azeb
- azl: removal from office
- sâniyen: for the second time
- amcazâde: paternal uncle's son
- inhâ: reporting, submitting upward
- Lahsa: the Ahsa region on the coast of the Persian Gulf
Uncertainties in the Text
In the text the same person is called both "amcazâde" and "father-in-law"; the chain of kinship is not explained. It may be assumed that the cousin, the father-in-law, and Hüseyin Pasha, beylerbeyi of Basra, are one person; this is an inference. However, it is not clear whether this man was the son of Efrasiyab Pasha's uncle or an older relative. The text also does not state in which years Hüseyin Pasha governed Basra; it shows only that he took office between the month of Şevval 1019 and the years that followed.
The Afrasiyab Family in Basra
In the sources, the government of Basra in the seventeenth century is mostly called that of the "Afrasiyab family." According to the account, in 1596 the Ottoman governor of Basra handed his post over to a local merchant named Afrasiyab, and Basra became a hereditary emirate in the hands of this family until 1668. It is not certain from the sources whether Afrasiyab was of Arab or Turkish origin. When the last ruler of the family, Hüseyin Pasha, refused in 1667 to acknowledge the sultan's suzerainty, the Ottomans launched a punitive expedition; Hüseyin Pasha moved the population into Iranian territory and offered the city to the Safavids, but the offer was not accepted, and in 1668 the governor of Baghdad took Basra under direct administration.
No connection between Hüsameddin's Efrasiyab Pasha and this family can be established from the sources read. The similarity of the names is striking; the names Ali Pasha and Hüseyin Pasha, which Hüsameddin mentions among the beylerbeyis of Basra, also occur in the Afrasiyab family. But the sources do not show the kinship ties in the form Hüsameddin gives; the equivalents in the Afrasiyab family of the relationships of uncle, cousin, and father-in-law are not known. In addition, the commander who defended Basra against Iranian attacks between 1624 and 1629 appears in the sources as Ali Afrasiyab, while Hüsameddin writes that Efrasiyab Pasha was at some point after 1027 beylerbeyi of Basra. How the two accounts fit together is not clear. For this reason no link between the two was drawn; it should only be noted that the same names occur.
The Eyalet of Lahsa
Lahsa, to which Efrasiyab Pasha was appointed in 1027 [1617-18], was an Ottoman province in a region that covers today's Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar, set up to protect Basra's trade with India from the Portuguese. It is reported that the beylerbeyilik was established in 1552, that its governor was raised to the rank of pasha in 1560, and that the province ceased to exist in 1670. In its first years Lahsa was administered as a district of Basra. No information was found in the sources read on the events during which Efrasiyab Pasha was in this province.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 338–338. amasya.bel.tr
Other sources