This secretary poet of the Yüzbaşızâde was the grandson of Karakulak Mustafa Paşa, who rose as high as the governorship of Sivas, and the son of Yüzbaşı Ali Bey, commander of the cavalry (alaybeyi) of Amasya; that is where the family's names "Yüzbaşızâde" and "Yüzbaşıoğulları" come from. Hacı Emrullah Efendi served as divan secretary to the vizier Hacı Mustafa Paşa and wrote verse under the pen name "Emrî". His date of death is known only as "after 1191 (1777-78)". No record of him was found beyond Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's short entry, and not a single specimen of his poetry is left.

Hüsameddin's Record

Amasyalıdır. Esbak Sivas vâlisi Amasyalı Kara Kulak Mustafa Paşazâde Yüzbaşı Ali Bey'in mahdûmudur. Hacı Efendizâde Emrullah Ağa'nın kerîmezâdesidir. Tahsîl-i maârif edib vüzerâdan Hacı Mustafa Paşa'nın dîvân kâtibi oldu. 1191 sâlinden sonra vefât etdi. Kâtib, şâir olup mahlâsı "Emrî" idi. Mahdûmları Mustafa, Hasan Efendilerdir.

In English: He is from Amasya. His father was Yüzbaşı Ali Bey, son of Karakulak Mustafa Paşa of Amasya, former governor of Sivas; his mother was the daughter of Hacı Efendizâde Emrullah Ağa. After his studies he became divan secretary of Hacı Mustafa Paşa, one of the viziers. He died after the year 1191. Secretary and poet, he used the pen name "Emrî". His sons are Mustafa and Hasan Efendi. The vocabulary of the entry is explained on the site's page Emrullah Efendi-Yüzbaşızâde el-Hâc.

This short record opens up a little when read together with the neighbouring entries of the same volume: Hüsameddin gives first two men named Hacı Efendizâde Emrullah Ağa, then this entry, and then the calligrapher Emrullah Vehbî Efendi, Emrî's grandson, one after another. The only post the entry mentions, the divan secretaryship, remains obscure; Hüsameddin does not say who the vizier Hacı Mustafa Paşa was or what office he held at the time.

Family

His grandfather Karakulak Mustafa Paşa appears in the fourth volume's chronicle as "Pervanezâde Karakulak Mustafa Paşa of Amasya": on 13 Muharrem 1110 (22 July 1698) he became beylerbey of Sivas in place of the vizier İsmâil Paşa, who was executed for his oppression. The name of his father Yüzbaşı Ali Bey is linked twice in the same chronicle with the post of alaybeyi of Amasya: in Zilhicce 1151 (March-April 1739) and in Safer 1155 (April-May 1742).

Who his maternal grandfather Hacı Efendizâde Emrullah Ağa was is not clear, because Hüsameddin gives two entries under this name. The first is a cavalryman who was kethüdayeri (commander of the timariot cavalry) of Amasya, one of the aghas of Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa and superintendent of the Gümüş silver mine, who rebuilt the mosque of the Eski Kethüda quarter in 1083 and died in 1099 (1687-88). The second is the Emrullah Ağa whose father Hacı Osman Ağa is also recorded as the son of a Hacı Emrullah Ağa, who rose from the palace corps of messengers (çavuş) to the rank of müteferrika and in 1161 to chief müteferrika, and who died in 1167 (1753-54). Since Emrî's father was alaybeyi in 1739-1742 and Emrî himself was alive after 1777-78, the grandfather named as the man whose daughter's son he was fits the dates better if he is the second Emrullah Ağa. Hüsameddin does not say so explicitly; the note on the entry on the site, on the other hand, takes the grandfather to be the same person as the first Emrullah Ağa.

His son Hasan Efendi was, according to Hüsameddin's next entry, the father of the famous calligrapher Emrullah Vehbî Efendi. Hasan Efendi died in 1225 (1810-11) while trustee of the endowment of Sekbân Timur, the family's ancestor, and the management of the endowment passed to his son. This grandson, who bore Emrî's name, received licences (icazet) from Maydonozcuzâde Hacı Hâfız Halil Zühdü Efendi and other calligraphers of Amasya, taught calligraphy for many years at the school of Sultan Bayezid, and died in 1278 (1861-62).

Another entry in the seventh volume also gives Emîn Mehmed Ağa, who rose to be Agha of the Janissaries, as the son of Yüzbaşı Ali Bey, son of Karakulak Mustafa Paşa. According to this record Emîn Mehmed Ağa, Emrî's brother, became Agha of the Janissaries in Şevval 1202 (July-August 1788), deputy governor (mütesellim) of Amasya in 1204, and died in 1212 (1797-98). The chronicle of the fourth volume, however, introduces the same man as Yüzbaşı Ali Bey's grandson, the son of Yüzbaşıoğlu Mustafa Ağa, serdar of Amasya, and says it learned this from the registers of the janissary corps. Which of the two records is correct could not be determined; consequently it is also unclear whether Emîn Mehmed Ağa was Emrî's brother or his nephew.

His Poetry

Among the Emrî entries of the same volume, this is the only one whose text gives the pen name outright, in the words mahlâsı "Emrî" idi. Even so, Hüsameddin quotes no couplet and does not show where he got his information; Emrî's poems have not been found. In the list of the seventh volume in Metin Hakverdioğlu's study his name appears as "Emrullah Efendi-Yüzbaşızâde".

He is not the only man of Amasya called Emrî in the book. In the same volume, after this entry and the intervening one on his grandson Emrullah Vehbî Efendi, come Emrî Ahmed Çelebi of the Hacı Beyzâde, who died in 1029 (1619-20), Emrî Ahmed Efendi of the Mecdîzâde, whose entry was left unfinished, and the judge Emrî Ali Efendi of the Çelebizâde, who died in 1136 (1723-24). No record links any of the four by kinship.

Chronology

13 Muharrem 1110 (22 July 1698): His grandfather Karakulak Mustafa Paşa becomes beylerbey of Sivas.

Zilhicce 1151 (March-April 1739): His father Yüzbaşı Ali Bey becomes alaybeyi of Amasya.

Safer 1155 (April-May 1742): Ali Bey becomes alaybeyi again.

After 1191 (1777-78): Emrî Emrullah Efendi dies.

1225 (1810-11): His son Hasan Efendi dies; the trusteeship of the Sekbân Timur endowment passes to his grandson Emrullah Vehbî.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources