Amasyalıdır. “Rahtuvân-ı Hacı Mehmed Paşa” demekle meşhûrdur. 1111 senesi zilhicce gurresinde Amasya mutasarrıfı olup Bağdad Harbi’ne me’mûr olduğundan Yeğen Ali Bey yine Amasya mütesellimi oldu.
Bu sene Sivas Müftüsü Fâzıl-ı meşhûr Tefsîrî Mehmed Efendi, Amasya fuzalâsından sâbık Hâtuniyye-i Tokat Müderrisi İlyâs Efendi zilhicce evâhirinde Amasya Mevlevîhânesi Şeyhi es-Seyyid Alâaddîn Dede Efendi, sâbık Kethüdâ-yı Sadr-ı Âlî el-Hâc Mustafa Ağa vefât etdi.
1112 senesi gurre-i muharreminde Türedizâde el-Hâc Hüseyin Ağa baş a‘yân olup saferinde Müftü es-Seyyid Ali Efendi’nin azline binâen fuhûl-i ulemâdan Merzifonî el-Hâc Mustafa Efendi Amasya müftüsü ve müteâkiben Emîr Hacı Abdüllatîf Çelebi de nakîb kâ’im-makâmı oldu.
Rebiülevvel gurresinde Amasya’da menfiyyen mukîm olan Kadızâde Ahmed Paşa Mar’aş beylerbeyi oldu. Amasya Mütesellimi Yeğen Ali Bey de azl edilip a‘yândan Hoca Paşazâde el-Hâc Mustafa Bey bin Ömer Bey Amasya mütesellimi oldu.
Bu esnada urbân kâfile-i huccâcı vurup yağma ve pek çok huccâcı ifnâ etdiğinden Şam vâlisi ve emîrü’l-hâc olan Elçi Mehmed Paşa, Şam’a vusûlünde azl u haps edildi. Sâbık Amasya Şehir Kethüdâsı el-Hâc Abdülkâdir Ağa da şehîden vefât etdi. [230]
Şa’bânda Şam Kalesi’nde mahbûs olan sâbık emîrü’l-hâc Elçi Mehmed Paşa’nın mâzereti şâyân-ı kabûl olduğundan vezâretinin ref‘iyle Amasya’ya menfiyyen gelip ikâmete me’mûr oldu.
Şevvâlde diğer Aşçı Mehmed Paşa Sivas beylerbeyi olup Amasya mutasarrıfı Rahtuvân Mehmed Paşa’nın me’mûr olduğu Bağdat’a bir an evvel vusûlü emr u te’kîd edilmişdi. Buna rağmen altı ay sonra gelmesi taksîr ve ihmâline mahmûl ve zâten serdâr Daltaban Mustafa Paşa kendisine muğber olduğundan Bağdat’a vusûlünde maktûl oldu. Amasya sancağı Çankırı Mutasarrıfı Ali Paşa’ya tevcîh edildi.
In Modern English
He was a native of Amasya. He is known as "Rahtuvan Hacı Mehmed Pasha." On the first day of Zilhicce 1111 [1700] he became mutasarrıf (governor) of Amasya. Since he was assigned to the Baghdad war, Yeğen Ali Bey again became mütesellim (deputy of the sanjak governor) of Amasya.
This year the Mufti of Sivas, the well-known scholar Tefsirî Mehmed Efendi; İlyâs Efendi, one of the virtuous scholars of Amasya and former professor of the Hatuniye Madrasa in Tokat; and, at the end of Zilhicce, the Sheikh of the Amasya Mevlevi Lodge, es-Seyyid Alâaddîn Dede Efendi, and the former steward of the grand vizierate el-Hâc Mustafa Ağa died.
On the first day of Muharrem 1112 [1700] Türedizâde el-Hâc Hüseyin Ağa became head notable (baş âyan). In Safer, upon the dismissal of the mufti es-Seyyid Ali Efendi, Merzifonlu el-Hâc Mustafa Efendi, one of the great scholars, became mufti of Amasya, and then Emîr Hacı Abdüllatîf Çelebi became deputy of the naqib.
On the first day of Rebiülevvel Kadızâde Ahmed Pasha, who lived in Amasya in exile, became beylerbeyi of Maraş. The mütesellim of Amasya, Yeğen Ali Bey, was also dismissed, and Hoca Paşazâde el-Hâc Mustafa Bey, son of Ömer Bey, of the notables, became mütesellim of Amasya.
At this time, because the Bedouin Arabs raided and plundered the pilgrimage caravan and killed very many of the pilgrims, the governor of Damascus and commander of the pilgrimage (emîrülhac), Elçi (the Envoy) Mehmed Pasha, was dismissed and imprisoned on reaching Damascus. The former City Steward of Amasya, el-Hâc Abdülkâdir Ağa, also fell a martyr in this event.
In Şaban, since the excuse of the former commander of the pilgrimage Elçi Mehmed Pasha, who was imprisoned in the Fortress of Damascus, was found worthy of acceptance, his vizierate was abolished and it was ordered that he come and live in Amasya in exile.
In Şevval another Mehmed Pasha, called Aşçı Mehmed Pasha, became beylerbeyi of Sivas. The governor of Amasya, Rahtuvan Mehmed Pasha, had been ordered to reach Baghdad, where he was assigned, as soon as possible, and this order had been repeated again and again. Despite this, since his arrival six months later was put down to fault and negligence, and since the commander (serdar) Daltaban Mustafa Pasha was already resentful toward him, he was killed on reaching Baghdad. The sanjak of Amasya was given to the governor of Çankırı, Ali Pasha.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- fâzıl-ı meşhûr: famous scholar
- fuzalâ: virtuous scholars
- fuhûl-i ulemâ: the foremost of the scholars
- menfiyyen mukîm: residing in exile
- urbân: Bedouin Arab tribes
- kâfile-i huccâc: pilgrim caravan
- ifnâ etmek: to destroy, to kill
- vusûl: arrival
- azl u habs: dismissal and imprisonment
- şâyân-ı kabûl: worthy of acceptance
- emr u te'kîd: ordering and repeating with insistence
- taksîr ve ihmâl: fault and laxity
- mahmûl: put down to, attributed
- muğber: resentful, offended
- maktûl: killed
The Rahtuvan Epithet and Family
The epithet "Rahtuvan" comes from the Ottoman palace's organization of the imperial stables. According to a study on the saddle-equipment treasury (raht hazinesi), those in the imperial saddle treasury who dealt with the sultan's saddle sets and prepared them and put them on the horse as needed were called "rahtvan aghas" or "rahtvân-ı hâs." It may be thought that Mehmed Pasha served in this duty in his youth and took his epithet from there; but Hüsameddin gives no detail on his service in the palace. In earlier entries the same person appears under the name "Şamlızâde Rahtuvan Mehmed Pasha" as governor of Karahisar-ı Şarkî, administrator of the waqf of the ağas Hüseyin and Fîruz, and former Beylerbeyi of Jeddah. Another record in Hüsameddin's biographical volume reports that a governor of Damascus in 1095 made "Rahtuvan Mehmed Ağa" mütesellim of Damascus; the attribution "Şamlızâde" also recalls the family's tie to Damascus.
The biography of the pasha's son İbrâhim İlmî Bey says more about the family. According to Hüsameddin, İbrâhim İlmî Bey, while his father was mütesellim of Damascus, took lessons together with his brother Osmân Bey from the scholars of Damascus and performed the pilgrimage during his father's beylerbeyilik of Jeddah and Abyssinia. After his father's death he returned to Amasya, became administrator of the waqfs of Yâkutiyye, Bâyezîd Pasha and Hüseyin Ağa, and served several times as head notable. İlmî Bey, son-in-law of Bekir Beyzâde Ömer Pasha, had a mansion that was a literary salon where scholars and poets gathered once a week. In the events of 1143 he was exiled with his friends to Samsun and died there the same year. In later centuries the family remained among the notables of Amasya under the name "Rahtuvan Paşazâdes," and the administratorship of the Taş Han and the waqfs of the Mahmud Çelebi Zâviye also passed to them.
His Death and Daltaban Mustafa Pasha
The commander Daltaban Mustafa Pasha, who ordered Mehmed Pasha's killing, is one of the harshest statesmen of the period. Born in Manastır, he was raised by attaching himself to Grand Vizier Kara İbrâhim Pasha, and served as janissary agha, governor of Bosnia and beylerbeyi of Raqqa. In 1700 he was brought to the governorship of Baghdad, and, with the seraskership of Basra also given to his charge, was assigned to retake places that had fallen into Iran's hands a few years earlier and to establish order in the region. In 1701 he recovered Qurna and Basra. The "Baghdad War" to which Rahtuvan Mehmed Pasha was assigned is this Basra operation.
In this entry Hüsameddin writes that Mehmed Pasha was killed on reaching Baghdad because he arrived six months late despite the order. In his son's biography, however, he speaks of his father as "who died in the Baghdad war in 1113." The first account suggests a punishment, the second a death in battle; and the year of death, which by the entry's sequence should be the end of 1112, appears as 1113 in the biography. No other source was found to reconcile the difference between these two records. Daltaban's harshness is also attested in other sources: his harsh attitude toward those around him and his offensive conduct in the end led to his own grand vizierate being short and to his being slain on 28 January 1703.
The Plundering of the Pilgrimage Caravan
The fate of the 1700 Damascus pilgrimage caravan, headed by Elçi Mehmed Pasha, is known in detail through Ersin Kırca's research based on archival documents. On the return from Arafat, on 19 Muharrem 1112 (6 July 1700), the caravan was attacked by the Aneze and Banī Sakhr tribes; Mehmed Pasha, caught unprepared and without sufficient soldiers, could not meet the tribes' demand for the surre (pilgrimage subsidy) that had to be paid to them, the caravan was plundered and very many pilgrims were killed. Hüsameddin's biographical volume too writes that the Bedouins attacked "on the pretext that the surre of the Arabs was not given"; the two accounts coincide exactly on this point.
According to Kırca, both the Sharif of Mecca Sa'd and Mehmed Pasha were held responsible for the event. When the pasha returned to Damascus he was arrested on grounds of negligence, imprisoned in the Fortress of Damascus, stripped of his title of pasha and exiled to his farm in Amasya. This too fits Hüsameddin's record; the author adds that in the investigation in Damascus, as the great number of the tribes and the inadequacy of the force with the pasha became clear, he was released and lived in his mansion in the Dârüsselâm Quarter in Amasya.
This attack cost Amasya dearly. Besides the city steward Hacı Mansurzâde Abdülkâdir Ağa, according to Hüsameddin's biographical volume Hâfız Hasan Efendi, sheikh of the Nûh Bey Dârülkurrâ (school of Qur'an reciters) and professor of the Halfet Gazi Madrasa, also went to the Hejaz as imam to the pasha and fell a martyr on the return at the hands of the Bedouins. Abdülkâdir Ağa's son Ahmed Ağa was raised in Elçi Mehmed Pasha's household and later became his treasurer and steward.
Those Who Died This Year
The Mufti of Sivas Tefsirî Mehmed Efendi, whose death is recorded in the entry, is a well-known Qur'an commentator, also known as Ayıntâbî Mehmed Efendi. Born in Aintab, he settled in Sivas at the age of twenty and spent a scholarly life of some forty years there, and also served as mufti in Sivas. At the invitation of Şeyhülislam Minkârîzâde Yahyâ Efendi he attended the huzur lessons (lessons in the sultan's presence) in Istanbul, and at the wish of Mehmed IV prepared a Turkish commentary on the basis of Ezdî's commentary et-Tibyân. This work, known as the Tibyân Commentary, became one of the most widespread of Turkish commentaries. Ayıntâbî died in Sivas on 22 Rebiülevvel 1111 (17 September 1699); this date agrees with Hüsameddin's "this year" record.
The Hatuniye Madrasa in Tokat is a building built in 1485 in the name of Gülbahar Hatun, mother of Bayezid II, and also known as the Sultaniye and Meydan Madrasa; it stands today restored. The Amasya Mevlevi Lodge, for its part, was on the bank of the Yeşilırmak, near the Hükümet Bridge. The lodge, which burned in 1602, was rebuilt in 1637 by Grand Vizier Bayram Pasha. According to what Abdülhalim Durma relays, the sheikhs after this rebuilding were, in order, Mehmed Ârif Dede, Mahmud Dede, Abdülkâdir Dede and Alâeddin Dede; with the death of Alâeddin Dede in 1700, İbrâhim Çelebi became administrator and Bilal Efendi sheikh. This date coincides with Hüsameddin's record of Zilhicce 1111 (May-June 1700). The appearance of the name Alâeddin Ali Dede among the sheikhs buried in the Mevlevi lodge also fits this record.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, p. 620–620. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 6-8, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, entry "İbrâhim İlmî Bey-Rahtuvân Paşazâde", e-book p. 53; entry "Mehmed Paşa-Elçi", e-book p. 105-106; entry "Hasan Efendi-Şeyhü'l-Kurrâ", e-book p. 610; entry "Ahmed Ağa-Hacı Kadirzâde", e-book p. 192. https://amasya.bel.tr/uploads/e-kitap/kitap/6-8/files/basic-html/page53.html
Academic studies
Other sources