A visitor walking through Amasya first sees the rocks, then the citadel and the bridges, and then the timber houses lined up along the Yeşilırmak. Another layer that shaped the city's daily life lies on the slopes and in the side valleys, behind the houses: vineyards, orchards, cherry and walnut trees, mulberries. In Amasya this green belt was never regarded merely as a place of production. It was a second home to which people moved for certain months of the year. The Misket apple is the best-known product of this culture and is treated in a separate article. What is described here is the valley in which that apple grows, the order of vineyards and gardens watered by the Yeşilırmak, and the habits that formed around it.

The Valley Strabo Described

The earliest and clearest description of Amasya's geography comes from Strabo, the geographer who was born in the city. In the twelfth book of his Geography he presents his native city as one "situated in a large deep valley," through which flows the Iris River, today's Yeşilırmak. In his view nature and human effort had worked together here to produce a place that served as both city and fortress. The city lies at the foot of a high rock that drops steeply to the river, enclosed by walls on two sides. Two bridges cross the river, one linking the city to the suburb and the other linking the suburb to the country beyond. The valley is not very wide where it begins at the river, but it opens out as it goes and becomes the plain Strabo calls Chiliocomum. Beyond it lie the districts of Diacopene and Pimolisene. Strabo calls all of this land fertile and says that it extends as far as the Halys, the present-day Kızılırmak.

This description still helps in understanding the city two thousand years later. It shows that the broad flats suitable for farming lay away from the city, upstream and downstream along the river, while the immediate surroundings consisted of the narrow valley floor, the suburban land and the slopes. The "proasteion" Strabo mentions, the outer quarter and the land around it, coincides with the belt where vineyards and gardens would later settle. It must also be added that the ancient author says nothing detailed about gardens or vineyards. There are studies reporting that fruit growing and viticulture were widespread across the region as a whole, but these cannot be tied directly to the gardens of the city of Amasya itself.

The Yeşilırmak and the Order of the Narrow Valley

The Yeşilırmak rises in the Köse Mountains near Suşehri in Sivas and, after flowing for 519 kilometres, empties into the Black Sea at Çarşamba in Samsun. The stretch within the borders of Amasya province is 129 kilometres long. The Çekerek stream joins it about fifteen kilometres south of the city, the Tersakan joins within the province, and the Kelkit meets the main branch on the Amasya-Tokat border. Floods occur at the end of winter and in spring, especially in March, April and May. The river's irregular character also shaped the history of settlement in the city.

According to the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Yeşilırmak runs through a narrow valley for about four kilometres inside the city. On the left bank the space between the citadel ruins and royal tombs on one side and the river on the other is so limited that settlement forms only a thin strip there. The main area of growth is the right bank. This narrow layout also explains why the garden culture spread to the slopes and the side branches of the valley. When houses were squeezed between water and rock, families who wanted larger gardens turned to the higher ground above the city, to the vineyards. The climate favours this as well. Amasya lies in a transitional zone between the Black Sea and Central Anatolian climates. Its summers are not as dry as a continental climate, its winters not as harsh, and the moderating effect of the valley is added to this. To a large extent this is why apples, cherries, grapes and walnuts can grow in the same surroundings. The alluvial soils the river has deposited on the valley floor also allow cherries and peaches, as well as cereals such as wheat, to be grown, and the year-round watering of gardens and fields depends on irrigation works built along the Yeşilırmak. No detailed history of these works appears in the sources at hand, but water has been the indispensable foundation of this garden economy.

Amasya's Fruit in Ottoman Records

Ottoman sources mention Amasya together with its fruit. İbrahim Solak, who studied fruit and vegetable production in Ottoman Anatolia through the tax registers, counts Amasya among the sanjaks and districts with the highest production in this field in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The tables in the same study show that in the sanjak of Amasya the revenues from vineyards, fruit, walnuts, almonds and market gardens were recorded separately. Because the grape was the most widespread fruit in Ottoman Anatolia, the tax on viticulture forms a separate heading in the registers, and Amasya appears under it.

In the third volume of his Seyahatname, Evliya Çelebi lists the fruits of Amasya one by one. According to him the city grows forty kinds of pear, ruby-coloured cherries, seven kinds of juicy grape, mulberries and seven kinds of bread quince. Quince perverde, he says, has no equal anywhere else. The quince perverde sherbet and the musk and amber-scented molasses sherbet that Evliya counts among the drinks also point to a food culture that began in Amasya's gardens. It is worth noting that in this sentence Evliya names pears, cherries, grapes and quinces but does not mention the apple. In that century the Amasya garden did not rest on a single fruit; it was a mixed order made up of various trees. The later identification of the apple with the name of the city is the story of one product that emerged from within this variety.

Çakallar and the Princes' Vineyards

The most frequently mentioned place in Amasya's vineyard geography is Çakallar. This belt of vineyards, stretching over a high hill that commands the city, is still known today as Amasya's summer-resort district. The account of how it got its name shows that the history of the city and the ownership of vineyards were intertwined. According to reports based on Abdizade Hüseyin Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi, the eastern parts of the Çakallar hill passed into the property of Süleyman the Magnificent. When Prince Mustafa was governor of Amasya he had a summer residence built on this hill and went up there to rest. Mustafa governed Amasya until he was put to death in 1553; a circle formed around him of the teachers and poets in his service, and the names of poets such as Hamdi, Zamani and Edayi are mentioned in that circle.

The same account says that Prince Mustafa gave a parcel of vineyard each to his lala Hamza Bey, to Gonca Geyvan, to Çiğdem Ali, to Çakalzade Gül Sinan Çelebi and to others around him, and transferred ownership to them. It is said that the place now called "Hamza Düzü" in Çakallar was the land given to the lala Hamza Bey, and the place known as "Goncalık" the land given to Gonca Bey. The hunting grounds of the princes were later sold to notables, and the largest share fell to Çakalzade Gül Sinan and Lale Ali Çelebi. The Çakalzades are the family descended from Bedrettin Mahmud Çelebi, known as "Çakal Kadı" (Judge Çakal). The vineyards were first called "Çakaloğulları Bağları," then "Çakallar Bağları," and finally simply "Çakallar." Since the source gives this chain of names with the qualification "most probably," it should not be taken as certain; it should also be kept in mind that the account has reached us in the compilation of a local writer and that the exact dates of the events have not been checked against primary documents. Even so, the account shows that the vineyard was not merely land that produced grapes, but a property that the prince gave as a gift to those around him and that was considered together with the hunting ground.

The name of the Şehre Küstü quarter is also linked to these vineyards. According to Osman Fevzi Olcay, the quarter was established on a hill commanding the city, at the southern end of the Çakallar vineyards in the direction of Karakaya, and for a long time it remained deserted. Today the Halkalı Evliya Tomb, said to date from the fifteenth century, stands in this district near Çeribaşı. Saru Hatun, the daughter of Şadi Bey, a grandson of the Emir of Amasya Şadgeldi Pasha, lies buried in the tomb. In the Kuba quarter on the Çakallar road is the tomb of Pir Şeyh Hüsameddin Kubavi. The list of pirs given by Olcay almost coincides with the geography of the vineyards: Akbilek Bahşi Halife lies on the road through the Akbilek vineyards, Havacei Tekirdağı opposite the Köle Mezarı vineyards, and Pir Muhammed Cui by the pool of the great stream of the village of Şeyhcui. In this respect the vineyard roads were also pilgrimage roads.

The Names of the Vineyards

Olcay's Amasya Hatıraları (Amasya Memoirs) contains a section that lists the city's vineyards one by one. According to the book's table of contents, this section deals under separate headings with the Ayvasıl, Dirabut, Frenkiller, Yenice, Kuz Kilise, Bahçeleriçi Mevki, Ters Dolap, Boğaz, Gezirlik, Köle Mezarı, Göllü, Değirmenaltı, Ziğere, Aynalı Mağara Önü, Upper and Lower Gölbaşı, Soğukpınar and Ayan, Kertiller-Kilekiller, Çay, Meydan, Akbilek and Şeyhcui vineyards. This list is in itself a map of the city. Some of the names seem to refer to water and landforms (Soğukpınar, Gölbaşı, Gezirlik, Boğaz), some to structures and trades (Değirmenaltı, Ters Dolap, Aynalı Mağara Önü), and some to personal and communal names (Frenkiller, Köle Mezarı, Kuz Kilise). Since the sources at hand give no explanation of the origin of each name, only the names themselves can be reported here.

On the other hand, Olcay's accounts of the quarters show that the vineyard and the city were not separate from one another. The Helkıs quarter, extending toward the road up to Harşena Castle, was, according to the witness of that time, a place of vineyards and gardens. People sat there in groups beneath great walnut trees. Likewise, Upper Meydan at the foot of the citadel extended on one side to Şeyhcui and on the other to the Akbilek vineyards. The small quarter opposite the Tomb of Pir İlyas had mulberry trees adorning its centre. The trees Evliya listed, quince, pear, cherry, mulberry and walnut, also appear in these descriptions of quarters. Considering that silk weaving has been widespread in the city since the sixteenth century, it is not surprising that mulberries stood in the neighbourhood squares.

Moving to the Vineyard

The most striking aspect of Amasya's vineyard culture is that in the summer months the vineyard turned into a second settlement. Olcay describes the Şeyhcui quarter as "the outing ground famed for Amasya's finest grapes and cherries." According to him the people moved in season to their pavilions there and enjoyed themselves in their vineyards. Neighbours invited one another to eat cherries beneath the cherry trees, saz music was played on one side, songs were sung. The cherry season lasted about a month, and then, as the heat set in, the regulars of the outing ground gradually went back down to the city. Most of them, however, returned to their vineyards in the grape season and stayed there, and the pleasures continued. Every morning milk and yoghurt were carried from the village of Şeyhcui to the pavilions in the vineyards.

The verb "göçmek" (to migrate) that Olcay uses shows that this movement was no ordinary excursion. The people who moved also carried their daily lives, their kitchens and their neighbourhoods with them. The same word is used elsewhere in Anatolia for going up to the summer pastures; in Amasya its counterpart is a summer life on the valley slopes. The sources do not give details such as the date on which people set out or how many days each family stayed in which vineyard. For this reason the custom appears less as a practice tied to a fixed calendar than as a flexible habit that followed the rhythm of the cherry and grape seasons.

The folk songs confirm the same thing. In a study of Amasya folk songs, of the 63 songs collected, the apple is mentioned in seven, the grape in three and the apple orchard in two, and the words vineyard and garden each occur three times. The authors say that anyone looking at this table would conclude, even without having seen Amasya, that it is a well-watered place with lofty mountains, full of vineyards and apple orchards. A well-known quatrain gives this feeling plainly: "Amasya's mountains / Its vineyards like emeralds / Give a person joy / The vineyards of Çakallar." Another song says that the river runs green and that one longs to go to the highland pastures. In Naci Gürses's poem Allah Deyu the coolness of Çakallar, the swaying of apple branches, the honey of the bees and the nightingales in the vineyards also appear. Turgut Önal's book Gönül Penceremden Amasya, in listing the city's places, mentions the Çakallar Vineyard, the Derbent Vineyards, Akdağ and the Şeyhcui Vineyards, and describes Amasya as a city known for apples, okra, quinces, cherries and pomegranates.

The Gardens of the Houses

That the difference between vineyard and town house was small is also shown by Amasya's classic type of dwelling. The Yalıboyu houses on the bank of the Yeşilırmak were built on the historic city wall using timber frames with mud-brick infill, in the hımış and bağdadi techniques. Most of those seen today belong to the nineteenth century; because of earthquakes, fires and the short life of timber, no older examples have survived. The houses generally have courtyards and gardens. In those arranged on the haremlik-selamlık plan the garden lies between the two sections and the house presents a closed face to the outside. The upper floors are mostly bay-windowed, which enlarged the narrow plot. Some houses have a kiosk section called a şahniş above the first or second floor.

In this plan the garden is an essential part of the house. In some accounts mulberry trees are described as scattered among the houses squeezed between the citadel and the Yeşilırmak. If we imagine a family living in the city that made do through the winter with a small garden in the courtyard of its house on the riverbank and moved in spring and summer to the pavilion in the vineyard, it becomes clear that Amasya's garden culture had two levels: the courtyard garden served daily needs, while the vineyard on the slope was both income and outing ground. This two-tier arrangement is an interpretation supported only by the sources and the descriptions of quarters; household budgets, vineyard sale records and detailed income accounts do not appear in the sources used here.

The Loss of the Vineyards and the Flood

Olcay records two events concerning the decline of the vineyard culture. The first relates to the years before the First World War. Until 1914 the Upper Savadiye quarter was Amasya's most select and most beautiful outing ground. After the declaration of war, the military garrison cut down every tree in the Soğukpınar vineyards in order to burn the lime needed to repair the ruins of the Palace of Bayezid II at Saraydüzü. Olcay speaks of this as "the destruction of that beautiful outing ground."

The second is the flood disaster of June 1948. According to the figures Olcay gives, the flood caused the deaths of eighty-eight people, the complete destruction of one hundred and forty-nine households, which were swept away into the Yeşilırmak, and damage to about five hundred houses. The author believes that had the trees of the Soğukpınar vineyards not been cut down, this disaster would not have occurred. This is the opinion of a witness; no source examining the causes of the flood in detail has been used here. Even so, the conviction of the old people of Amasya about how the tree cover of the slopes held the river and the city together shows that the belt of vineyards and gardens was valued not only for pleasure but also for the balance of the valley.

A Brief Return to the Apple

Among all this variety the apple stands out as the fruit that bears the city's name. The Misket apple tends to bear heavily one year and lightly the next, is recognised by a star-shaped core when cut across, and has a thin but hard and durable skin. The line "Amasya's apple / The finest of apples," as it appears in the folk songs, is the trace of this fame in popular memory. Since the history of the apple, its geographical indication, its image on the mosaic and its production figures are covered in another article, they are not repeated here. What matters from the standpoint of vineyard and garden culture is that the apple is part of this belt: the coolness of Çakallar and its apple branches are mentioned in poems together with the nightingales in the vineyards, and in the folk songs the apple orchard and the vineyard appear side by side. The apple is not only a product for sale but part of the local kitchen: the best-known example is the apple dessert of the city's sweet tradition, in which whole apples are cooked in syrup and served with clotted cream. It is also noted that the Amasya variety is counted among Turkey's native and standard apple cultivars, and that its genetic makeup and production traits have been the subject of agricultural research. The harvest season is remembered as a time when families received the reward of a year's labour and neighbourliness and festivity came to the fore; this account is general in nature and could not be tied to a specific record.

Chronology

Early 16th century: Silk weaving is widespread in Amasya; in 1525 the city has fifty-five quarters (TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam).

1553: In the years when Prince Mustafa governed Amasya until his death, the vineyards at Çakallar are, according to the account, distributed to people around the prince.

17th century: Evliya Çelebi lists the varieties of pear, cherry, grape, mulberry and quince in Amasya (Seyahatname, vol. 3).

After 1914: The trees of the Soğukpınar vineyards in Upper Savadiye are cut down after the declaration of the First World War.

June 1948: A flood disaster strikes the Yeşilırmak and its surroundings.

2009: Osman Fevzi Olcay's Amasya Hatıraları is published in the Amasya Municipality Cultural Publications series.

Sources

Primary sources

  • Strabo, Geography, XII.3.39 (LacusCurtius, Loeb translation): penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/strabo/12c*.html penelope.uchicago.edu
  • Doğancı, Kamil - Altın, Recep. "Strabon'a Göre Antikçağda Amaseia ve Çevresi". Karadeniz Araştırmaları 15/58 (2018), 1-25.
  • Olcay, Osman Fevzi. Amasya Hatıraları: Bildiklerim, Gördüklerim, İşittiklerim ile Amasya. Haz. Turan Böcekçi, Mehmet H. Seçkiner. Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2009. amasya.edu.tr
  • Çapanoğlu, A. Kadir. "Şehr-i Amasya'da Halkalı Evliya ve Çakallar Tepesi". Yozgat Gazetesi, 11 July 2020 (compilation based on Abdizade Hüseyin Hüsameddin, Amasya Tarihi): yozgatgazetesi.com yozgatgazetesi.com

Academic studies

  • Altun, Ergün. "Evliya Çelebi Seyahatnamesi'nde Meyve". Motif Akademi Halkbilimi Dergisi.
  • Solak, İbrahim. "Osmanlı İmparatorluğu Döneminde Anadolu'da Meyve ve Sebze Üretimi". Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi.
  • "Amasya Türkülerinde Şehir İmajına Yönelik Bir Değerlendirme" (Ilıcak - Aydınalp). RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi 15 (2019); and the studies on Turgut Önal and Naci Gürses in Amasya University, Sosyal Bilimler Araştırmaları 16 (October 2024).
  • "Amasya". TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi: islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/amasya islamansiklopedisi.org.tr

Official sources

  • Amasya Directorate of Culture and Tourism, Akarsular (Rivers): amasya.ktb.gov.tr

Other sources

  • "Amasya'nın Tarihi Evleri". Hürriyet Seyahat.

Online sources