Bozokludur. 1171 rebî'ulevvelinin beşinci günü Amasya mutasarrıfı oldu. Levend eşkıyâsının harbinde yararlığı görülen Millîoğlu Mûsâ Bey mütesellim olup Hasan Paşa eşkıyâ harbine gitdi.
Rebî'ulâhirde çukadâr-ı şehriyârî Zanalı Mîrzâ Paşazâde Ahmed Ağa menfî ve cemâziyelâhir ibtidâsında hazîne-i hümâyûn kethüdâsı Mehmed Ağa evkâf-ı sultâniyye ve şehzâdeler vakfı mütevellîsi olarak Amasya'ya geldiler.
Recebde sâbık müftü ve Ayâs Paşa müderrisi Çorumlu Hacı Alî Efendi vefât edip ulemâdan Hüseyin Efendi müderris oldu. Şa'bânda Sunkurluoğlu Hacı Mehmed Ağa'nın Amasya'da yapdırdığı medresesi hitâm bulduğundan [96] Çorumlu Hacı İsmâ'il Hâtif Efendi ilk müderris oldu.
Şevvâlde ağır şikâyetleri tahkîk ve mücrimleri tecziye etmek üzere bâ-fermân-ı âlî sâbık Gence vâlîsi vezîr Mehmed Paşa⁷¹⁴ Amasya'ya gelip Hacılar Meydânı'na indi. Ma'iyyetinde asker vardı.
Bu Mehmed Paşa birkaç gün sonra anlaşıldı ki kul kethüdâlığından ma'zûlen Îrân harbine giderek mîr-i mîrân ve sonra vezîr olan Amasyalı Hindî Ahmed Paşazâde'dir. Birâderzâdesi olan Hacı Ahmed Bey bin Alî Bey'i yanına alıp tahkîkâta başladı.
Fakat vâlînin iltizâm ve himâyesinde olan Fazlı Oğulları ile a'vân ve ensârı müfettiş paşayı iğfâl ederek vak'anın sebebleri ulemâ olduğunu iddi'â ve tedârik etdikleri adamlarıyla paşayı iknâ' etdiler.
Bütün töhmetler sâbık müftü Hacı Mehmed ve imâret şeyhi Hacı Mehmed, şeyhü'l-kurrâ Hacı İbrâhim Efendiler'e yükletildiğinden bîçâreler gece evlerinden kaldırılıp Kıbrıs'da Magosa kalesine nefy edildiler. Halkdan birkaç kimse kale-bend ve iki kimse i'dâm edildi.
Mehmed Paşa'yı iğfâle birinci bâ'is yeğeni Hindîoğlu Hacı Ahmed Bey, ikincisi de Amasya [97] a'yânının birbirine karşı vaz'iyyeti idi. Yeğenzâde Ömer Bey, nüfûz ve iktidârıyla a'yâna kendisini saydırmışdı. Müfettiş Paşa'nın en ziyâde dikkat nazarını çeken Ömer Bey'di.
Binâ'en-aleyh zilhicce ibtidâlarında Yeğenzâde Ömer Bey mîr-i mîrânlıkla Van vâlîsi olarak Amasya'dan kaldırıldı. Lâkin efkâr-ı umûmiyye müfettiş paşanın vak'a müsebbiblerini himâye etmesinden fevkalâde dilgîr olduğundan şikâyetler devâm etdi. Müfettiş de gitdi.
1172 muharreminde Rahtuvân Paşazâde Hacı Alî Bey baş a'yân, Fazlıoğlu Hacı Alî Efendi hacıbaşı ve nakîb oldu. Saferde efkâr-ı umûmiyyenin galeyânını teskîn edemeyen mutasarrıf da azl edildi.
In Modern English
He was a native of Bozok. On the fifth day of Rebiülevvel 1171 [November 1757] he became mutasarrıf of Amasya. Millioğlu Musa Bey, whose usefulness in the fight against the levend bandits had been seen, became mütesellim, and Hasan Pasha went to fight the bandits.
In Rebiülahir [December 1757] the sultan's çuhadar, Zanalı Mirza Paşazâde Ahmed Ağa, came to Amasya in exile, and at the beginning of Cemaziyelahir [February 1758] Mehmed Ağa, kethüda of the imperial treasury, came as steward of the sultan's waqfs and of the waqf of the princes.
In Receb [March 1758] Hacı Ali Efendi of Çorum, a former mufti and müderris of the Ayas Pasha Madrasa, died; Hüseyin Efendi, one of the ulema, became müderris. In Şaban [April 1758], since the madrasa that Sunkurluoğlu Hacı Mehmed Ağa had built in Amasya was completed, Hacı İsmail Hâtif Efendi of Çorum became the first müderris of this madrasa.
In Şevval [June 1758], by imperial decree, to investigate grave complaints and punish the culprits, the vizier Mehmed Pasha, a former governor of Ganja, came to Amasya and encamped at the Hacılar Square. He had soldiers with him.
A few days later it became clear that this Mehmed Pasha was the son of Hindî Ahmed Pasha of Amasya, who, after being dismissed from the kul kethüdalık, had gone to the Iranian war and become first a beylerbeyi and then a vizier. The Pasha took his nephew Hacı Ahmed Bey son of Ali Bey with him and began the investigation.
But the Fazlıoğulları, whom the governor favored and protected, together with their helpers and partisans, deceived the inspecting pasha, claimed that the cause of the incident was the ulema, and through men they had found convinced the Pasha of this.
Since all the blame was laid on the former mufti Hacı Mehmed Efendi, the imaret sheikh Hacı Mehmed Efendi and the şeyhülkurra Hacı İbrahim Efendi, these poor men were taken from their homes at night and exiled to the fortress of Famagusta on Cyprus. A few of the common people were imprisoned in fortresses, and two were executed.
The first reason Mehmed Pasha was deceived was his nephew Hindîoğlu Hacı Ahmed Bey, and the second was the attitude of the Amasya notables toward one another. Yeğenzâde Ömer Bey had made the notables respect him through his influence and power. It was Ömer Bey who most drew the inspecting pasha's attention.
For this reason, at the beginning of Zilhicce [August 1758], Yeğenzâde Ömer Bey was made governor of Van with the rank of beylerbeyi and removed from Amasya. Yet complaints continued, since public opinion was deeply aggrieved that the inspecting pasha had protected those truly responsible for the incident. The inspector also left Amasya.
In Muharrem 1172 [September 1758] Rahtuvan Paşazâde Hacı Ali Bey became chief notable, and Fazlıoğlu Hacı Ali Efendi became hacıbaşı and naqib. In Safer [October 1758] the mutasarrıf, who could not calm the agitation of public opinion, was also dismissed.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- çukadâr-ı şehriyârî: the servant who looked after the sultan's clothes and belongings, çuhadar
- menfî: exiled
- hitâm bulmak: to end, to be completed
- tahkîk: investigation
- mücrim: culprit
- tecziye: punishment
- ma'iyyet: the people in the company of a person of rank
- ma'zûlen: having been dismissed from office
- birâderzâde: brother's child, nephew
- iltizâm ve himâye: favoring and protection
- a'vân ve ensâr: helpers and partisans
- iğfâl: deceiving, misleading
- töhmet: accusation, charge
- imâret şeyhi: the head of a public kitchen and the charity institution attached to it
- şeyhü'l-kurrâ: head of the Qur'an reciters, teacher of recitation
- nefy: exiling
- kale-bend: a person punished by being confined in a fortress
- bâ'is: cause
- dilgîr: aggrieved, offended
- vak'a müsebbibleri: those responsible for the incident
The Inspecting Pasha and the Exiled Scholars
This entry recounts that the Zaralızâde and Fazlıoğulları affair, ongoing since 1752, closed with a bitter end. The inspector who came to investigate the complaints after the execution of Zaralızâde Mehmed Pasha is, according to Hüsameddin, Mehmed Pasha, son of Hindî Ahmed Pasha of Amasya. In a footnote Hüsameddin notes that this identity is written thus in the Amasya registers. In earlier parts of the book the same person is mentioned as "Hindizâde Mehmed Ağa son of Hindî Ahmed Pasha of Amasya", who in 1145 [1732-33] became kul kethüda in Istanbul; Hüsameddin writes that he was dismissed from this post the same year and came to Amasya, and afterward fought at Revan in the Iranian war as deputy of the janissary ağa. Thus the inspector is someone who knew Amasya and its notable families closely. Hüsameddin attributes the inquiry's turning against the ulema to two reasons: the nephew Hindîoğlu Hacı Ahmed Bey whom the Pasha took along, and the quarrel of the Amasya notables with one another. No information was found in other sources on Mehmed Pasha's governorship of Ganja and his inspectorship.
The exile of the ulema to Famagusta is a typical example of the penal practice of the period. According to Yunus Kırayit's study based on archival documents, the Ottoman state removed persons thought to disturb the social order through the penalties of exile and kalebend; an exiled person was sent to a place far from where he lived, while one sentenced to kalebend was held in a given fortress without being let out. Islands such as Cyprus, Rhodes, Chios, Lesbos and Lemnos were frequently used for this purpose, and Famagusta Castle, with its strong walls left from the Venetians, was among them. Kırayit lists among the offenses of those sent to Famagusta such acts as stirring up sedition among the people, banditry, oppression of the people and storming the court. In the incident Hüsameddin describes, laying the blame on the ulema meant covering up the governor's tyranny, which was the cause of the incident. This is why Hüsameddin stresses public opinion's resentment toward the inspector.
Yeğenzâde Ömer Bey's Governorship of Van
Hüsameddin writes that the inspector removed Yeğenzâde Ömer Bey, the most powerful of the notables, from Amasya by having him made governor of Van with the rank of beylerbeyi in Zilhicce 1171 [August 1758]. This appointment does not appear in Mehmet İnbaşı's study listing the governors of Van by archival records. According to this list, the province of Van was given at the end of Şevval 1170 [July 1757] to the former governor of Karaman, the vizier Şehsuvarzâde Seyyid Mustafa Pasha, and the Pasha was left in office again on 4 Şevval 1171 [11 June 1758] and in Şevval 1172. In that case it may be thought that Van was not officially given to Ömer Bey, that he was given only the rank of beylerbeyi and sent toward Van, or that the appointment was for some reason not carried out; with the sources at hand this question could not be resolved.
The Sungurlu Madrasa
The madrasa of Sunkurluoğlu Hacı Mehmed Ağa, reported in the entry as completed, is the building known in Amasya as the "Sungurlu Madrasa" or "Medrese-i Sunguriye". According to Aysun and Engin Kanbur's study on the madrasas of Amasya, the madrasa was built in the Pervane Bey quarter, west of the Burmalı Minare Mosque, by Sungurzâde Hacı Mehmed Ağa, one of the notables of the Sungurlu district. The madrasa had waqfs in Amasya, Tokat and Sungurlu. Its first müderris, as Hüsameddin also reports, was Hacı Kara İsmail Hâtif Efendi of Çorum; the Kanburs state that he died in 1784 and list the müderrises who followed. The madrasa burned in a fire in 1887, and afterward Yamukosmanzâde Hacı Müsevvid Ahmed Şükrü Efendi, one of the ulema, had only its north wing rebuilt.
On the date of construction, however, there is a discrepancy. The Kanburs write that the madrasa was built in 1750, whereas Hüsameddin records that it was completed in Şaban 1171 [April 1758] and that the first müderris was appointed then. Although the possibility exists that 1750 is the year construction began, no document was found reconciling the two dates.
The Hacı Ali Efendi of Çorum whom Hüsameddin calls here "müderris of Ayas Pasha" appeared a few entries earlier as "müderris of Ayas Ağa"; it is understood that the two expressions mean the same madrasa, that is, the madrasa at Şamlar of the Kapı Ağası Ayas Ağa. No information was found in other sources on Zanalı Mirza Paşazâde Ahmed Ağa, the exiled ulema and the Hacılar Square named in the entry.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, Supplement to Volume 4, p. 656–656. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vols. 1-4, e-book p. 644 (Hindîoğlu Mehmed Ağa). https://amasya.bel.tr/uploads/e-kitap/kitap/1-4/files/basic-html/page644.html
Academic studies
- Yunus Kırayit, "Osmanlı Devleti'nde Sürgün ve Kalebend Cezaları: Magosa Kalesi Örneği (18. Yüzyıl)", Şarkiyat, 15/1, 2023, p. 336-356. https://doi.org/10.26791/sarkiat.1247136
- Mehmet İnbaşı, "Van Valileri (1755-1835)", Atatürk Üniversitesi Türkiyat Araştırmaları Enstitüsü Dergisi, 29, Erzurum 2006.
Official sources