El-Hâc Seyfeddîn Şâdgeldi Pasha (2)

In Modern English

Hacı İbrâhim Bey, on the one hand, asked the notables of Amasya to intervene so that this coolness might be dispelled; on the other, he accused one of Hacı Şâdgeldi's slaves of that murder and wanted to seize him and take him away.

Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha objected to this strange attitude of Hacı İbrâhim Bey and spoke harsh words, and the coolness, instead of being dispelled, grew. Alî Bey found Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha in the right and sided with him. Hacı İbrâhim Bey was angered by this as well.

Thereupon Hacı İbrâhim Bey took only his retinue and Kadı Burhân and returned to Sivas, leaving Eretnazâde Alî Bey in Amasya. Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha provided for Alî Bey's travel preparations and needs, pleased him, and sent him to Kayseri.

When Hacı İbrâhim Bey reached Tokat, he gave the emirate of Kayseri to Kadı Burhân, on the condition that Alî Bey be dismissed and removed from the emirate, and sent him to Kayseri after Alî Bey. Kadı Burhân went swiftly, reached Kayseri before Alî Bey, and won the people of Kayseri over to his side.

Kadı Burhân, wary of Alî Bey's numerous troops, stalled for a time. The moment he found an opportunity, he attacked Alî Bey's palace, fought, and drove the poor man out of Kayseri. Alî Bey fled to the fortress of Berkûb and stayed there for a while. Kadı Burhân became emir of Kayseri (778 [1376-77]).

When Hacı İbrâhim Bey learned what had befallen Alî Bey, he went to Kayseri, alarmed by the raids of the Mongol tribes. He summoned Alî Bey and, with honor and courtesy, gave him the emirate of Kayseri. He took Kadı Burhân to Sivas.

But when a rumor spread that Hızır Bey, chief of the Samagarlu tribe, a supporter and partisan of Kadı Burhân, was coming with his troops to take Kayseri, Eretnazâde Alî Bey was thrown into alarm. He summoned Kadı Burhân and asked Hacı İbrâhim Bey for help.

Kadı Burhân came to Kayseri with permission and forces from Hacı İbrâhim Bey. After a staged dispute with Hızır Bey, Hızır Bey withdrew from the vicinity of Kayseri and went to his summer pasture. Seydî Hüsâm, who had come from Sivas at Alî Bey's call, also reconciled Kadı Burhân and Alî Bey.

But after a while Hacı İbrâhim Bey, to calm the people who complained about the situation and conduct of Alî Bey and Kadı Burhân, appointed Hâce Yâkût Bey, one of the emirs he trusted, as emir of Kayseri and sent him there (779 [1377-78]).

Hâce Bey watched the situation and conduct of both Alî Bey and Kadı Burhân and wrote all his observations to Hacı İbrâhim Bey. After a while, on orders and instructions received from Hacı İbrâhim Bey, he had Eretnazâde Alî Bey bound and sent to Sivas, and Kadı Burhân sent to prison.

Kadı Burhân's helpers and the Samagarlu tribe on one side, and Ali Pasha, chief of the Barambaylu tribe, a supporter of Eretnazâde Alî Bey, on the other, began to press Hacı İbrâhim Bey hard.

Left without recourse, Hacı İbrâhim Bey removed the governor Hâce Bey from office and took him to Sivas in chains together with Seydî Hüsâm. He released Kadı Burhân from prison and restored Alî Bey to the post of emir. He made Hızır Bey of the Samagarlu governor of Kayseri.

But Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, who was Hâce Bey's patron, said that Hâce Bey was innocent and asked Hacı İbrâhim Bey to pardon him. For Hâce Bey was the father-in-law of Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha's brother. As for Seydî Hüsâm, Alî Bey had interceded for him.

Hacı İbrâhim Bey forgave Hâce Bey and Seydî Hüsâm and released them both. He was looking for ways to ward off the calamity of the Barambaylu Mongol tribe, which was preparing to attack him, and was gathering his forces and making his preparations.

But Eretnazâde Alî Bey kept writing to the Barambaylu tribe calling for help and incited the tribal chief Alî Pasha against Hacı İbrâhim Bey. Kadı Burhân, too, supported these incitements of Alî Bey and worked to have his own partisans cooperate with the Barambaylus.

For this reason the Barambaylus and Kadı Burhân's partisans united and marched on Sivas. Hacı İbrâhim Bey, governor of Sivas, first sent his commander-in-chief Hasan Bey. Then he went himself with his troops. In the battle fought in the district of Tozanlu both were killed (780 [1378-79]).

Hâce Yâkût Bey was with Hacı İbrâhim Bey. He took the head of the slain poor man first to the fortress of Havik (Hafik), then to Sivas. But Ahmed Çelebi, the son of Kadı Burhân's maternal aunt, had brought news of this disaster to Sivas earlier, and they had shown joy.

Hacı İbrâhim Bey was the son of Hâce Alî Şâh, son of Kutlu Bey. His son Hayreddîn Halîl Bey and his slave Şerefeddîn Mukbil Bey grieved greatly at the death of their benefactor. Mukbil Bey rose at once, took Sivas in order to bring Halîl Bey to the post of emir, and bound Eretnazâde Alî Bey, the sole cause of this disaster, and threw him into prison.

Kadı Burhân tried to profit from this move of Mukbil Bey, and Alî Bey promised Kadı Burhân the vizierate if he would save him and seat him on the emirate's throne. Thereupon Kadı Burhân's men killed Hacı Mukbil Bey and raised Alî Bey to the emirate's throne. Kadı Burhân became Alî Bey's vizier in the month of Rebîülevvel 780 [1378-79].

During this confusion all of Hacı İbrâhim Bey's treasures and flocks, his goods and belongings were seized and plundered. His son Hacı Halîl Bey escaped with the help of his slaves and took refuge in Amasya. He became one of Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha's emirs.

Kılıç Arslan Bey, who had earlier been expelled from Amasya, came from Erzincan to Sivas and became a boon companion of Eretnazâde Alî Bey. Alî Bey's vizier Kadı Burhân knew how deeply Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha would be affected by the affair of Hacı İbrâhim Bey.

For this reason he suggested to Alî Bey that it was necessary both to offer condolences to Şâdgeldi Pasha and to gauge the pasha's movements and military strength, and urged him to go to Amasya. For he feared that Şâdgeldi Pasha would attack Sivas.

Thereupon Eretnazâde Alî Bey took his vizier Kadı Burhân, his adviser Kılıç Arslan, and his boon companion Seydî Hüsâm, and they came to Amasya with their military retinue. They were guests of Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha.

Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha had invited Seydî Hüsâm, Alî Bey's darling, to the fortress. But Seydî Hüsâm, while eating and drinking, drunkenly picked a quarrel with Şâdgeldi Pashazâde Emîr Ahmed Çelebi and began to utter harsh words. Ahmed Çelebi had him seized together with his servants and imprisoned.

Kadı Burhân was a man who could teach the devil a lesson. Seydî Hüsâm's quarrel had been arranged beforehand. The hidden aim was to seize Amasya and bring it under the yoke, and to take revenge on Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha. For Kadı Burhân thought Hacı Şâdgeldi's strength was weak against the Mongol soldiery with Alî Bey.

When Kadı Burhân heard what had befallen Seydî Hüsâm, hoping that what he had arranged would be carried out easily, he urged Alî Bey to go out of the city, besiege the fortress of Amasya, and rescue Seydî Hüsâm.

Alî Bey, already a captive of lust and fortune, fell for Kadı Burhân's incitements. As if turning back, he led his troops out of the city, and went out himself with his retinue. Suddenly he had the fortress besieged. He had it battered with catapults.

Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha had immediately understood that this condolence and visit was a devilish ruse. He made the necessary defensive arrangements, defended and protected Amasya and its fortress bravely against the Mongol vagabonds, and thwarted Kadı Burhân's hopes.

In the end, at the request of Kadı Burhân and Kılıç Arslan, Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha released Seydî Hüsâm from prison and sent him to Eretnazâde Alî Bey. Alî Bey and his retinue withdrew in despair and left.

After this the emir of Erzincan, Hüseyin Bey, died. Kılıç Arslan had stayed in Erzincan for years, and in the end, having fallen out with Hüseyin Bey, had come to Sivas. When he heard the news of Hüseyin Bey's death, he encouraged Alî Bey to seize Erzincan and appoint him to the emirate of Erzincan, and proposed this.

Yet the emirate of Erzincan had come under the influence of the Jalayirids who ruled in Iraq and had enjoyed the protection of Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, and the place of Hüseyin Bey had been taken by Mutahhereddîn Tayarten Bey of the Burâkzâdes (781 [1379-80]).

Alî Bey and his vizier Kadı Burhân accepted Kılıç Arslan's proposal and marched on Erzincan. Tuğrul Bey, of the Jalayirid line, learned of this campaign and asked for help from İbrâhim Bey of the Dulkadirids, emir of Elbistan, and from Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, son of Kutlu Bey, emir of Amasya.

Kadı Burhân, seeing the strength of the fortress of Erzincan and the fierce defense of its troops, tried to take the fortress by asking for reinforcements from Cüneyd Bey, emir of Kayseri.

Meanwhile, on one side İbrâhim Bey of the Dulkadirids, and on the other Seyyideddîn Muhammed Bey, the eldest son of Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, reached Erzincan with relief forces. They joined the Erzincan troops. They broke and scattered the troops of Cüneyd, who had come with reinforcements, and of Eretnazâde Alî Bey. Alî Bey turned back from there in despair.

Eretnazâde Alî Bey greatly desired to take revenge on Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, both for the earlier incident and for his protection of Erzincan. Shortly after coming from Erzincan to Sivas, he marched on Amasya with all his force.

Yet Alî Bey's total strength was not sufficient to take Amasya and bring it under the yoke. Moreover, plague was raging in Amasya. Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, learning of this move, gathered his usual forces and troops and prepared to meet him.

Eretnazâde Alî Bey came to Kazâbâd in great pomp. But the plague, an enemy worthy of him, seized him at once. Within a few days it finished him and took his life on Wednesday, the twenty-fifth of the month of Cemâziyelâhir 782 [1380-81]. It rid the people of his lust and his greed.

Kadı Burhân, Seydî Hüsâm, and Kılıç Arslan, the statesmen of Alî Bey, gave up the decision to conquer Amasya, apologized to Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, and turned back. For, knowing their own strength to be weak, they feared Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha.

Emir Alâ'eddîn Alî Bey was the second son of Eretna Bey. But he surpassed his father in immorality. Sometimes in Kayseri, sometimes in Sivas, he became emir many times. He was dismissed many times. There was no justice in his emirate and no merit in himself. He left behind a seven-year-old son named Muhammed Bey.

Kadı Burhân took Alî Bey's corpse, his troops, and his baggage, and they returned to Tokat. There they buried the corpse in its mausoleum and set out toward Sivas. But Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, with his military retinue, had set out from Amasya and marched on Tokat.

Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha was the foremost of the emirs in power and splendor, and the choicest of the scholars in prudence and virtue. Kadı Burhân appreciated this and feared him more than anyone.

Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha wanted to summon the beys and notables both within and around Sivas, win them to his side, and annex Sivas to his country. Hacı Şâdgeldi was by nature moderate, learned, and just. Some of the notables and people of Sivas were very close to him.

But the notables of the country who were partisans of Alî Bey, such as Seydî Hüsâm, wanted to raise Alî Bey's seven-year-old son Muhammed Bey to the throne of the emirate, yet could not bring themselves to dare it.

For Muhammed Bey was very young. They knew that if he came to the throne all the affairs of government would remain in the hands of Kadı Burhân, who held the vizierate, and they did not want that. For Kadı Burhân, besides his scholarly virtue, was by nature cruel, harsh, arrogant, and puffed up with grandeur. He approved of no one. For this reason there were many who disliked him. Even the people of Kayseri did not like him.

The moment Kadı Burhân understood these inclinations and feelings of the people and the notables, in order to turn the notables and the people from attaching themselves to Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, he praised Kılıç Arslan Bey to the people and the notables, proclaimed his lineage and descent, and seated him on the throne of the emirate with great respect and honor. He confronted the notables and people of Sivas with a fait accompli. Because of his lineage all the notables accepted his emirate.

Rükneddîn Kılıç Arslan Bey was the son of Mes'ûd Şâh, son of the Seljuk Sultan Altunbaş. Before moving to the post of emir, he accepted the conditions put forward by Kadı Burhân and left Kadı Burhân in the post of vizier.

Yet the conditions put forward were heavy. First, all affairs of government, and especially financial affairs, were to be left to Kadı Burhân's competence. Second, the emirate of Kayseri was to be given to him. Third, the fortress and land of Harsenus (Harşena) were to be set aside entirely for Burhân. None of these was practicable.

For by carrying out the first condition, Kılıç Arslan's emirate would have been nullified. Carrying out the second was not at all possible. For Cüneyd Bey, son of Ömer Bey, governor of Kayseri and one of the leading emirs of Kayseri, had seated the Elder Eretnazâde İzzeddîn Ca'fer Bey on the throne of the emirate and recognized no one. The third condition was the same.

After a while Kadı Burhân began to demand insistently that these conditions be fulfilled. Kılıç Arslan apologized, claiming that none of them was practicable for him. Kadı Burhân asked him to give him as private property a village within the borders of Komenat. Kılıç Arslan apologized again, saying that the province of Tokat was entirely in Hacı Şâdgeldi's hands.

Kadı Burhân's hidden aim was, after discrediting Kılıç Arslan and Şâdgeldi Pasha in the eyes of the people and binding the Mongol tribes called Samagarlu and Barambaylu entirely to himself, to kill the poor man and take his place.

Kadı Burhân began this work first with Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha. Spreading, in Kılıç Arslan's name, that Hacı Şâdgeldi's grandfather Kürt Bey had been a slave of Tâceddîn Altunbaş and that Hacı Şâdgeldi was a slave's son, he kept speaking of his own nobility and gentility.

Kadı Burhân, inventing more legends than necessary, turned the people cold toward Şâdgeldi Pasha. Then, going back over past events again, he incited Kılıç Arslan Bey against Hacı Şâdgeldi. His aim was to have Kılıç Arslan crushed.

Yet in governing the people the greatest requirements are justice, character, and diligence. Compared to these, noble lineage is nothing at all. In history, from many slaves and slaves' sons have come the greatest heroes; from many nobles and nobles' children, the greatest traitors.

See Kılıç Arslan's folly: without taking into account at all the virtue, justice, strength, and splendor of Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, he took the makeshift troops gathered at Kadı Burhân's incitement and marched on Tokat. He declared war on Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha.

Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha took his troops and came to Tokat at once. He met Kılıç Arslan. But Kılıç Arslan had understood from a letter received from Seydî Hüsâm the plots being laid against him in Sivas and regretted having declared war. Seeing the great number of the Amasya troops, he became still more afraid.

The poor Kılıç Arslan sent Yıldızlıoğlu Yûsuf Bey, Kadı Burhân's maternal uncle, as envoy to Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha to ask for peace, while his soldiers were plundering the villages of Tokat, showing that the war had begun.

Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, greatly enraged by the plundering, went to battle with Kılıç Arslan. Kılıç Arslan was badly beaten. His army was scattered. He fled disgracefully from the battlefield and took refuge in Sivas. He was left with no value or standing in the eyes of the people.

Kılıç Arslan Bey understood that the sole cause of the disgrace he had suffered was Kadı Burhân. Nevertheless he fell at once for every trick and trap of his. Yet Kadı Burhân, in order to reach the emirate of Sivas as soon as possible, was thinking of a way to kill Kılıç Arslan.

Âdil Dede, Sheikh of the Sivas Mevlevi lodge, regarded as the spiritual leader of Sivas at that time, was a partisan of Kadı Burhân. At Kadı Burhân's suggestion Âdil Dede called Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha "kölemen" (slave) and Kılıç Arslan "kahbezen" (a grave term of insult). He incited those who followed him against these two.

Kadı Burhân profited from these incitements and deceived a number of simple people. In the end Burhân came to an agreement with Emîr Şeyh Mü'eyyed, his sister's son, and invited Kılıç Arslan to a hunting ground. The moment he arrived there, he cut the poor man to pieces with the sword.

Kadı Burhân was not content with this murder. He put to the sword hundreds of Kılıç Arslan's partisans and supporters, and his uncle Keyhusrev. That after so many murders he sat at the banquet table set for Kılıç Arslan and ate his meal in perfect ease is among the things recorded by Bezm ü Rezm.

How astonishing it is that Kadı Burhân, claiming Seljuk descent on his mother's side and boasting of his nobility and gentility, mercilessly killed Kılıç Arslan, who was Seljuk from his paternal forefathers, and hundreds of his innocent partisans and supporters.

After finishing off Kılıç Arslan, Kadı Burhân returned from the hunting ground and entered Sivas in pomp and show. He seized the emirate's palace and sat on the throne of the emirate on the fourteenth day of the month of Zilkade 782 [1380-81]. He attained the goal he had pursued for five years.

Kadı Burhâneddîn Ahmed was the son of Şemseddîn Muhammed, judge of Kayseri, son of Sirâceddîn Süleyman, son of Celâleddîn Habîb, son of Muhammed, son of Resûl, son of Sevinc, of the Salur tribe of Turkmens. His mother was the daughter of Abdullah Çelebi, son of Yıldızlı Celâleddîn Mahmûd, müstevfî of Rûm (the official at the head of financial affairs). He was born in Kayseri on the third day of the month of Ramadan 745 [1344-45].

During the independence of Kutlu Şâh, in 757 [1356-57], he left Kayseri with his father and went to Damascus; after a hundred days he returned through Kutlu Şâh's pardon, and in 759 [1357-58] was expelled from Kayseri with his father. In this period he went with his father to Egypt and studied under Kutbeddîn Râzî; in 764 [1362-63] he went to the Hejaz, and on the return, since his father died on reaching the town of Maarra, he himself remained in Aleppo.

In 765 [1363-64] he came to Kayseri, where the government men were seen to be displeased at his return and the scholars pleased; his learning and maturity became evident as he taught, and, that is, after the killing of Hâce Alî Şâh, in 766 [1364-65], through the efforts of Eretnazâde Muhammed Bey, he was appointed judge of Kayseri.

In 767 [1365-66], when Muhammed Bey, son of Eretna, died, a general confusion arose and Turk and Mongol fell upon each other; he backed the Second Eretna Bey, and when the latter fled, he entered upon a long adventure with his brother Alî Bey, who took his place; he drove Alî Bey out of Kayseri, made his influence and character known to the people, was dismissed from the judgeship of Kayseri in 777 [1375-76] in the time of Hacı İbrâhim, and was taken to Sivas at the request of the people of Kayseri.

Kadı Burhâneddîn Ahmed was extremely intelligent, prudent, learned, steadfast, and industrious, yet also crafty, cruel, bloodthirsty, and of very high ambition for office and sovereignty. His gloss entitled "Tercîh" on "Telvîh," a work of Hanafi legal theory, shows the degree of his scholarly virtue. Though Turkish by descent, he was very close to the Mongols; he was, moreover, extremely conceited.

These murders and arbitrary acts of Kadı Burhân greatly frightened the self-respecting notables of Sivas and especially the people of Sivas. But because of the power of Kadı Burhân, and the evils of the self-seekers who supported him and of the Barambays, no one dared to object.

For this reason some of the notables and people of Sivas secretly sent letters of invitation to Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, ruler of Amasya, with cries and requests for help, asking him to take the province of Sivas and annex it to his country.

When Kadı Burhân heard of this, he all but went mad; he had the writers of these cries searched for, and hanged and cut down whoever he found, and said: "I took this emirate by my own effort and exertion. Who is Hacı Şâdgeldi that he should be a partner in this land and presume to oppose my sovereignty and independence?"

But İnebey, one of his intimates, understanding that these murders and acts were producing very bad effects on the people, advised Kadı Burhân to spread the claim that Kılıç Arslan had been killed out of love of homeland, because he would have handed the province of Sivas over to Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, and he spread it himself as well.

But such false rumors and legends invented about Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha's wickedness could not satisfy anyone or calm the very widespread agitation. Understanding this, Kadı Burhân anxiously watched the movements of Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha.

Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha had by this time fallen gravely ill and lay in despair. All the beys of Amasya were bound to Hacı Şâdgeldi in unity and solidarity. Even Halifetzâde Pîr Alî Bey, who had opposed the pasha over the emirate, would give his life for Şâdgeldi. He had given his daughter Îrân Hâtun to the pasha's son Seyyideddîn Muhammed Bey.

Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, on receiving the letters of lament, was gathering his troops and having his war materiel completed. At this time Kadı Burhân sent one of his relatives, a man named Ahi Îsâ Bey, as envoy to Hacı Şâdgeldi, whom he feared most. He was trying to learn the pasha's state of mind, his troops, and the condition of the beys of Amasya.

Hacı Şâdgeldi's troops were numerous. At the time the envoy came, soldiers were arriving from every side, and the interior and all parts of Amasya took on a fearsome appearance, striking the envoy with dread. Among the troops were Mongols called "Cavunkar" and Tatars called "Kara Tatar." "Cavunkar" is famous among the Turks as "Çongar."

Kadı Burhân, on the charge of partisanship toward Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha, had earlier imprisoned in Sivas Nebî, brother of Melik Ahmed Bey, bey of Karahisâr-ı Şarkî, and the Zünnûn Beys, relatives of Tayerten Bey, bey of Erzincan, and had exiled Seydî Hüsâm to Koyla Hisâr and had him put in a dungeon there.

On the return of the envoy Îsâ Bey, Kadı Burhân understood the unity of the Amasya beys, the multitude of his troops, and the strength and splendor of Hacı Şâdgeldi, and pardoned and rewarded the Beys Nebî, Zünnûn, and Seydî Hüsâm, whom he had earlier imprisoned.

He gave Nebî Bey the emirate of Karahisâr-ı Behrâmşâh (Bayramşâh) and sent him there. He would set him against his brother Melik Ahmed Bey and keep both of them occupied. For Melik Ahmed Bey was an aide and adherent of Hacı Şâdgeldi Pasha.

He showered Zünnûn Bey with gifts and sent him to Erzincan. He asked him to try to form an alliance with Emîr Mutahhareddîn Tayerten Bey. For because of the earlier incident Tayerten Bey was grateful to Şâdgeldi Pasha and very close to him. His adviser Tuğrul Bey was also close. He also summoned Seydî Hüsâm to Sivas and gave him his former post.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• bürûdet: coolness, estrangement between two sides
• tavassut: intervention, mediation
• hal' ve def' etmek: to dismiss and remove from office
• tevcîh: to grant a post to someone
• muhâsara: siege
• istîlâ: taking a place by occupying it
• serdâr: commander-in-chief
• nedîm: boon companion of a sultan or bey
• mancınık: catapult, a war engine that batters fortress walls with stones
• tâ'ûn: plague
• havâss-ı ümerâ: the most trusted of the emirs
• aşîret: clan, nomadic tribe
• sayd-gâh: hunting ground
• müstevfî: official at the head of the state's financial and register affairs
• hâşiye: a commentary written in the margin or at the end of a book; a commentary written on another work
• feryâd-nâme: a letter asking for help
• velî-ni'met: one whose bounty one has received, whose kindness one has eaten; master
• emr-i vâki': fait accompli

The Dissolution of the Eretna Principality

The entry narrates the last years of the Eretna principality: Alâeddin Ali Bey of the Eretna dynasty and the vizier Kadı Burhâneddin move back and forth between Sivas and Kayseri, Hacı İbrahim is killed at Tozanlu, Ali Bey dies of plague, and in the end Kadı Burhâneddin removes Kılıç Arslan as well and takes power into his own hands. Today's encyclopedia entries largely confirm this outline; there are differences in detail.

According to the entry on the Eretnids, Ali Bey fled to Sivas in 1375 when Karamanoğlu Alâeddin took Kayseri; Kadı Burhâneddin, who retook Kayseri, rose to the vizierate in May 1378, and Ali Bey, on Kadı Burhâneddin's suggestion, mounted campaigns against Amasya, Develi Karahisar, Niksar, Aksaray, and Erzincan. The entry on Kadı Burhâneddin gives the date of the vizierate as June-July 1378. Hüsameddin, for his part, writes that Kadı Burhâneddin became vizier in Rebîülevvel 780 [1378]. These three are close to one another; the date 776 [1374-75] given by Hüsameddin is also consistent for Karamanoğlu's taking of Kayseri.

On the death of Hacı İbrahim only Hüsameddin's information is available. No information on the battle of Tozanlu and the killing of Hacı İbrahim was found in other sources. In the entry on the Eretnids, however, Hacı İbrahim is counted among the emirs who killed Mehmed Bey and appears as one of the emirs acting independently in Sivas in Ali Bey's time. That is, the two accounts agree on his identity, while for the details of his death there is only Hüsameddin.

Ali Bey's Death and the Amasya Campaign

Hüsameddin writes that Eretnazâde Ali Bey marched on Amasya but was seized by plague at Kazâbâd and died on the twenty-fifth of Cemâziyelâhir 782. The entry on the Eretnids also reports that Ali Bey caught the plague during his second Amasya campaign and died in 1380. In this respect the two accounts coincide. The difference lies in where the body was buried: Hüsameddin writes that the corpse was taken to Tokat and buried in its mausoleum there; according to the encyclopedia entry, Ali Bey was interred in the tomb in the courtyard of the Köşkmedrese in Kayseri, where his father and grandfather are buried. Kazâbâd appears in the encyclopedia records as a district attached to the kaza of Tokat, within the present borders of Tokat.

Kılıç Arslan

According to Hüsameddin, Kılıç Arslan is the son of Mes'ud, son of Altunbaş. Altunbaş is a son of Gıyaseddin Mesud II, the last Anatolian Seljuk sultan; the Taceddin Madrasa and Tomb in Amasya are known by his name. The entries on the Eretnids and on Kadı Burhâneddin present Kılıcarslan as "of the Seljuk dynasty" and as a Turkmen bey, and write that in 1380 he was appointed regent to Ali Bey's son Mehmed II. This is consistent with Hüsameddin's account.

On his death there is a fine distinction between Hüsameddin and the encyclopedia entry. According to the entry on Kadı Burhâneddin, Kılıcarslan had married Ali Bey's widow and was preparing an assassination of Kadı Burhâneddin; when Kadı Burhâneddin learned of it he acted first and killed him. The date given is 14 Zilkade 782 / 9 February 1381. Hüsameddin, for his part, cites the date 14 Zilkade 782 as the day Kadı Burhân sat on the throne of the emirate. Hüsameddin's footnote says that in Kadı Burhân's eyes Kılıç Arslan's greatest crime was taking what Eretnazâde had left behind and becoming guardian of his son Muhammed Bey; this statement most probably points to the same event as the marriage to the widow in the encyclopedia entry. The additional details Hüsameddin offers (the invitation to the hunting ground, the killing of his uncle Keyhusrev, the banquet) were not found in other sources; they are attributed to Bezm ü Rezm.

According to the entry on the Eretnids, the power struggle that ended with Kılıcarslan's death concluded in 1381, and Kadı Burhâneddin became regent of Mehmed Bey in the same year. According to the entry, after a time Kadı Burhâneddin also eliminated his other great rival, Hacı Şadgeldi, emir of Amasya, and proclaimed his sultanate in the autumn of 1381. Hüsameddin's entry ends just before this last stage, with the notables of Sivas inviting Şadgeldi and Kadı Burhân sending an envoy to Amasya; there is no information on Şadgeldi's end in this entry.

Kadı Burhâneddin

The biographical details Hüsameddin gives largely coincide with the encyclopedia entry. Kadı Burhâneddin was born on 3 Ramadan 745 (8 January 1345); he belonged to the Salur tribe and came from a family of judges; his mother was a granddaughter of Celâleddin Mahmud Müstevfî, who was related to the Seljuk dynasty. In 1356 he went with his father to Damascus and then to Cairo, studied with Kutbüddin er-Râzî, went on the pilgrimage, remained in Aleppo on his return because his father died at Maarre, and returned to Kayseri in 1364. Hüsameddin writes that he came to Kayseri in 765 and became judge in 766, while the encyclopedia entry writes that on his return in 1364 he was appointed to the judgeship by Eretnaoğlu Mehmed Bey. Given the closeness of the years, this difference counts as a detail. His work "Tercîhu't-Tavzîh" is a gloss written against Taftazânî's "et-Telvîh" and was completed in the year 799 of the hijra (1397); this is the work Hüsameddin calls "Tercîh on Telvîh."

On Kadı Burhâneddin, the encyclopedia entry presents him as a man of sound character, able, learned, just, intelligent, a protector of scholars, a good soldier, and a courageous ruler; the sources note that in civil administration he refrained from imposing new taxes and cared for the safety of the roads. The difference from Hüsameddin's calling the same man "dessâs, gaddâr, kattâl" (a schemer, a tyrant, a killer) is noteworthy and is a result of the use of sources. Hüsameddin's main basis is the Persian work Bezm ü Rezm; according to the encyclopedia entry this work was written at Kadı Burhâneddin's command. According to Hüsameddin's own footnote, he himself introduced this work to the scholarly world from the copies found in the Ayasofya and Es'ad Efendi libraries in Istanbul.

The Erzincan Episode

Hüsameddin writes that on the death of Hüseyin Bey, emir of Erzincan, Mutahhereddîn Tayarten Bey of the Burakzâdes took his place, and he dates this to 781 [1379-80]. According to present-day sources, when the Eretna ruler of Erzincan, Pir Hüseyin, died in 1379, Mutahharten Bey took over the government, declared his independence the same year by having coins struck and the sermon read in his name, and repelled the forces sent by Ali Bey. Hüsameddin's account of the attack on Erzincan as a failure of Eretnazâde and Kadı Burhân is in agreement with this information. Mutahharten Bey later swore allegiance to Timur on his arrival in Anatolia, was captured at Erzincan by Bayezid the Thunderbolt in 1401, and died in 1403.

Other Names in the Text

No information was found in other sources on names such as Âdil Dede, Sheikh of the Sivas Mevlevi lodge, Hâce Yâkût, Seydî Hüsâm, the Barambays, the Samagarlu tribe, and Humuzoğlu Ahmed. According to Hüsameddin's footnote, the Barambays descend from Barambay, son of Sutay, governor of Diyarbekir; this information is only in his text. That Îrân Hâtun is buried inside a house in the Üçler quarter in Amasya is likewise reported only by Hüsameddin.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 3, p. 425–430. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

• Kemal Göde, "Eretnaoğulları", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 1995. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/eretnaogullari
• Abdülkerim Özaydın, "Kadı Burhâneddin", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 2001. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kadi-burhaneddin
• "Son Anadolu Selçuklu Meliki Taceddin Altunbaş'ın Amasya'daki Medresesi ve Türbesi", Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences.
• "Tokat", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/tokat

Other sources

• "Mutahharten Bey", Vikipedi. https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutahharten_Bey
• "Erzincan Beyliği", Vikipedi. https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erzincan_Beyliği