“Sarı Mehmed Paşa” demekle meşhûrdur. 1079 senesi muharreminin beşinde Amasya Mutasarrıfı olup sipâhi müteneffizânından Amasya Kethüdâyeri Geygellili Hasan Ağa Amasya mütesellimi ve rebîülevvel gurresinde Mehmed Efendi Amasya kadısı oldu.
Rebîülevvelin sekizinci cuma günü kaba kuşluk vakti Amasya ve mülhakâtında müthiş ve sürekli bir zelzele olup yerler yarıldı. Korkunç sesler işitildi. Halk meydanlara açık yerlere kaçtı. Kalenin duvarları, Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii’nin kubbeleri, meydan kapısı, kârgir hâneler, ekser câmiin kubbeleri, bedestenin çok yerleri yıkıldı.
Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii’nin sağındaki minaresi şimâle doğru devrildi. Solundaki minaresi kıbleye müteveccihen eğrildi. Pek çok hâneler çöktü. Zelzele fasılalarla günlerce devam etdiğinden ahâli meydanlara kurulan çadırlar altında kaldı. Hayli kimseler vefât etdi.
Rebîülevvelin onuncu günü lâkaydâne hareketten dolayı şehir kethüdâsı el-Hâc Mehmed Ağa’nın azliyle yerine Kâl’a-i Bâlâ Dizdârı Mûsâ oğlu Hamza Ağa şehir kethüdâsı oldu. Çünkü bir takım edânî, zelzeleden istifade etmeye kalkışıp çok kimseleri mutazarrır etmişlerdi.
Bundan dolayı hâdiseler, şikâyetler çoğaldı. Kadı Mehmed Efendi de azledilip şevvâlin gurresinde Abdülbâkî Efendi Amasya kadısı ve yedisinde Merzifonî İbrâhim Ağa Sultân Bâyezîd evkâfı mütevellîsi oldu.
Zilka’de evâilinde Mehmed Bey’in ref‘inden Kadızâde Hüseyin Bey alay [153] beyi oldu. Bu sene evâhirinde tatlı sadâsıyla halkı meftûn eden şâir mûsıkîşinâs Hâfız Mehmed Çelebi vefât etdi.⁶⁶⁸ Şâkirdi Bülbül Ahmed Çelebi yerini tutdu.
Senenin sonunda mutasarrıf Hacı Mehmed Paşa da gidip Amasya sancağı Kars Beylerbeyi Murtezâ Paşa’ya tevcîh edildi.
In Modern English
He was known as "Sarı Mehmed Pasha." On the fifth of Muharram 1079 [June 1668] he became governor of Amasya. Geygellili Hasan Ağa, city steward of Amasya and one of the influential sipahis, became mütesellim of Amasya, and at the beginning of Rabi' al-Awwal Mehmed Efendi became kadı of Amasya.
On the eighth day of Rabi' al-Awwal, a Friday, in the advanced hours of the forenoon, a terrible and prolonged earthquake occurred in Amasya and its surroundings. The ground split and frightful sounds were heard. The people fled to the squares and open places. The walls of the castle, the domes of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, the market gate, the masonry (stone and brick) houses, the domes of most of the mosques, and many parts of the bedesten collapsed.
The right-hand minaret of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque toppled toward the north, and the left-hand minaret leaned toward the qibla. Many houses collapsed. Since the earthquake continued at intervals for days, the people stayed in tents set up in the squares. A good number of people died.
On the tenth day of Rabi' al-Awwal, because of the indifference he showed, the city kethüda el-Hâc Mehmed Ağa was dismissed; Mûsâoğlu Hamza Ağa, warden of the Upper Castle, became city kethüda in his place. For a number of villains had tried to take advantage of the earthquake and had harmed many people.
For this reason incidents and complaints multiplied. Kadı Mehmed Efendi was also dismissed; at the beginning of Shawwal Abdülbâkî Efendi became kadı of Amasya, and on the seventh of the month İbrâhim Ağa of Merzifon became trustee of the Sultan Bayezid waqfs.
At the beginning of Dhu al-Qa'da, when Mehmed Bey was dismissed, Kadızâde Hüseyin Bey became alaybeyi. Toward the end of this year the poet and musician Hâfız Mehmed Çelebi, who held the people spellbound with his sweet voice, died; his pupil Bülbül Ahmed Çelebi took his place.
At the end of the year the governor Hacı Mehmed Pasha also left, and the sanjak of Amasya was given to Murtezâ Pasha, Beylerbeyi of Kars.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- müteneffizân: persons of influence, those whose word carries weight
- kaba kuşluk: the advanced hours of the forenoon, approaching noon
- mülhakât: places attached to a center, the surroundings
- zelzele: earthquake
- kârgir: built of stone or brick
- şimâl: north
- müteveccihen: facing toward a direction
- lâkaydâne: indifferently, heedlessly
- Kal'a-i Bâlâ dizdârı: the garrison commander of the Upper Castle
- edânî: the base, contemptible persons
- mutazarrır: harmed, having suffered damage
- meftûn: enamored, spellbound
- mûsıkîşinâs: one who understands music, a musician
- ser-müezzin: chief muezzin
The Great North Anatolian Earthquake of 1668
The earthquake that Hüsameddin describes in a few sentences is one of the greatest earthquakes in the written history of Anatolia. The date given in the book, the eighth day of Rabi' al-Awwal 1079, a Friday, corresponds in the Gregorian calendar to the middle of August 1668. Today's sources place the earthquake on 17 August 1668; that day is indeed a Friday. In some local sources the date appears as 16 August; considering that a one-day difference is usual in Hijri-Gregorian conversions, the two records do not contradict each other. There is also complete agreement on the hour of the earthquake: Hüsameddin says "kaba kuşluk vakti," that is, the late morning hours approaching noon; international records also state that the earthquake took place in the "late morning" hours.
According to present-day estimates the magnitude of the earthquake is between 7.8 and 8.0, and it is considered the strongest earthquake recorded in Turkey. A section of the North Anatolian Fault estimated at between 380 and 600 kilometers ruptured, and the damage extended from Bolu in the west to Erzincan in the east. About eight thousand people are reported to have died, eighteen hundred of them in Bolu, which was almost completely destroyed, and six thousand in the region between Merzifon and Niksar. Foreshocks were felt at the western end before the earthquake, and aftershocks in Tokat lasted at least six months. According to the history of earthquakes published by the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, the entire fault line between Niksar and Bolu ruptured in this earthquake.
Hüsameddin's record is a local testimony showing the Amasya face of this great catastrophe. The sentence "the earthquake continued at intervals for days, the people stayed in tents set up in the squares" describes, in the language of today's seismology, a long series of aftershocks. The collapse of the castle walls, among the sturdiest structures of the city, of the domes of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, and of the bedesten shows the intensity of the shaking.
The Sultan Bayezid Mosque and Its Repair
Semavi Eyice, in the entry on the Amasya Bayezid Complex, based on Hüsameddin's findings, writes that the mosque was also damaged in the earthquake of 999 (November 1590), that its domes and arches and the domes of the imaret were partly destroyed and immediately repaired. According to him, in the earthquake of 1079 [1668-69] the destruction was far greater: the domes collapsed, the minarets on both sides were bent, and the domes of the imaret and the tabhane fell in. Hüsameddin's saying in this entry that the right-hand minaret "toppled" toward the north and the left-hand one leaned toward the qibla draws a somewhat graver picture than the phrase "both minarets were bent" in Eyice's account.
A piece of information given by Eyice makes a small appointment in the entry meaningful: all the mosque's damage was repaired within a year by its trustee, İbrâhim Ağa of Merzifon. Hüsameddin records that the same İbrâhim Ağa was appointed to the trusteeship of the Sultan Bayezid waqfs about two months after the earthquake, on the seventh of Shawwal. This appointment appears to have been made for the repair of the complex, ruined by the earthquake. Nor was this İbrâhim Ağa's first time in the post; Hüsameddin had mentioned him in 1070 as trustee of the same waqf. The Bayezid Mosque did not escape earthquakes in later centuries either: it was damaged again in the earthquake of 1684, and in the earthquake of 1939, which caused great destruction in Amasya, some arches and domes of its last-congregation portico collapsed.
After the Earthquake
The second half of the entry is a brief but clear record of the social consequences of the catastrophe. That a number of persons took the earthquake as an opportunity and harmed the people led to the city kethüda's being accused of indifference and dismissed within two days, and then, as complaints multiplied, to the replacement of the kadı as well. That the new city kethüda was the warden of the Upper Castle suggests that a military man was thought necessary to restore order.
Hâfız Mehmed Çelebi, mentioned at the end of the entry, his pupil Bülbül Ahmed Çelebi, and Hacı Mustafa Medhî Çelebi, chief muezzin of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, whom Hüsameddin describes in a footnote as "a poet and musician who gave life to souls," show that mosque music in seventeenth-century Amasya had a living tradition. No information was found in other sources about these three. About Sarı Mehmed Pasha himself, too, nothing more than Hüsameddin gives could be found.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, p. 591. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
Official sources
Other sources