Amasyalıdır. Bayburdluoğlu Yeğen Osmân Paşa’nın oğlu ve Boyacızâde Veli Paşa’nın hemşirezâdesidir. 1099 senesi recebinin dördüncü günü beylerbeyi pâyesiyle Amasya mutasarrıfı oldu.
Fakat ne sinn ü sâlî, ne vukuf u iktidârı bir livâyı idâre edecek derecede olmadığından dayızâdesi olan Velî Paşazâde Mahmûd Bey Amasya mütesellimi oldu.
Bu esnada Amasya Alaybeyi Kara Hasanzâde Mustafa Bey, sipâhi kethüdâyeri Kuloğlu Halil Ağa, yeniçeri serdârı Seksen Yedinin İsmâil Ağa idi. Yine bu esnada Amasyalı Çuçu Mustafa Ağa yoluyla kul kethüdâsı olmuş, sâbık kul kethüdâsı Sevincerli Ömer Paşazâde Ebubekir Ağa, Amasya’ya gelmişdi.
Lâkin Yeğen Osmân Paşa’nın etbâı vardığı yerlerde âdeta yağmagîrliğe kalkışıp halkı soymaya başladılar. Bunları gören erbâb-ı şekâvet, kendisine güvenen ashâb-ı şirret, her taraftan başkaldırıp Yeğenli oldular.⁶⁷⁵ [192]
Mutasarrıf Hüseyin Paşa, genç olmakla beraber pederinden ziyâde müstebit ve serkeşdi. Amasya’ya gelmesiyle beraber Kal’a-i Bâlâ’da mahpus olan azgın seyyidlerden Koca Emîr, Saçlı Emîr, Mumcu Deli Seyyid ağaları kendi iradesiyle salıvermiş, seyyidleri kendisine ısındırmışdı.
Hüseyin Paşa’nın nüfûz ve istibdâdından yüz bulan seyyidler, müteseyyidler, kendilerini tâhir, mutahhar-ı âl-i Resûl sayan emîrler, mukaddemen kendilerini hapis ve te’dîb etdiren a‘yân ve halk aleyhine kıyâm ederek ahz-ı intikâm sevdasına düşdüler. Bunlara ulemâdan Zanalı es-Seyyid Ahmed Efendi, Ortaköylü es-Seyyid Abdülvehhâb Efendi, Ilgazlı es-Seyyid Yûsuf Efendi de uymuşlardı.
Bir taraftan türedîlerin mezâlim ve tecâvüzâtı, diğer taraftan seyyidlerin harekâtı, ulemâ ve a‘yâna dehşet veriyor, halk ise köylerde, yollarda, bağ ve bahçelerde kan ağlıyor; merkez-i hükûmetle beraber her taraf, her yer, zorbaların tahakküm ve istibdâdı altında eziliyordu.
Silahdâr Mehmed Ağa Târihi’nde diyor ki: “Bu esnada sekbân ve saruca eşkıyâsı kul üzerine gâlip gelmekle beşer yüz ve biner ve ikişer bin olup bölük bölük gezip yolları belleri zabt edib bulduklarının ayaklarına nal kakıp başlarına kızmış tas geçirip âyende ve revendenin kat‘â murûr u ubûra mecâli olmayıp…”
Yine bu esnada Bolu Mutasarrıflığında yaptığı mezâlim ve tecâvüzâtından dolayı azl edilen Mumcuzâde Seyyid Ahmed Paşa da Amasya’ya geldiğinden seyyidlerin nüfûz ve şirreti son haddîni bulmuşdu. Deli Emîr Paşazâde [193] es-Seyyid Mustafa Bey bunlara nisbetle Hacı Nebi sayılırdı.
Sâdâtın a‘yânı evkâf tevliyetlerine musallat olup her biri Sultân Bâyezîd, Yörgüç Paşa, Mehmed Paşa, Abdullah Paşa, Hüseyin Ağa, Hoca Sultân, Fağfûr Paşa tevliyetlerini elde etmişler, bâ-fermân-ı âlî mütevellîleri de haklarını müdafaaya koyulup acıklı münâzaalara sebebiyet vermişlerdi.
Recebin yirmi yedinci Miraç Gecesi’nde gerek kazâen ve gerekse kasten Eski Kethüdâ Mahallesinde korkunç bir yangın çıktı. Rüzgârın şiddetiyle her tarafa dehşet verdi. Bu gecenin seherinde İçerişehir’de Hâtuniye Mahallesinden de bir yangın daha parladı. Amasya Şehri’nin üçte ikisini yakıp mahvetdi.
Yangınların Eski Kethüdâ ve Hâtuniye mahallelerinden zuhûru halk arasında seyyidlerin eser-i intikâmı telâkki edildiğinden dedikodulara fevkalâde revaç verdi. Çünkü Amasya’nın bu iki mahallesi, o zamanlarda a‘yân mahalleleri sayılırdı.
Bekir Beyzâde Ömer Bey, Hoca Paşazâde Gâzi İbrâhim Bey, Bağdatlıoğlu Kara Mehmed Ağa, Şamlıoğlu Rahtuvan Mehmed Ağa, Hacı Efendizâde İbrâhim Efendi, Kaya Ali Ağa, bu mahallelerde ikâmet ederlerdi.
Bununla beraber yangından kurtarmak için kırlara, boş yerlere taşınmış olan ve taşınmakta bulunan eşya-yı beytiye, serseriler, yağmagirler tarafından aşırılıyor, yağmacılar arasında müteseyyidler de bulunuyordu.
A‘yân ve halkı en ziyade kızdıran, işte bu yağmacılık oldu. [194] Tabii herkes, yangını unutup yangından kaçırabildikleri hâne eşyasını muhafaza kaydına düşdü. Bu yüzden yangın büyüdü. Halk ile emîrler, seyyidler arasında bir mukatele kıyâmeti koptu.
Bir taraftan ateş Amasya’yı yakıyor, diğer taraftan kılıç, kama, hançer, bıçak, balta gibi kesici aletler Amasyalıları mahvediyordu. İdâre-i hükûmet eden türediler ise bu acıklı felaketlere seyreyliyordu. Seyyidlerin en ziyade hasmı olan Bekir Beyzâde Ömer Bey, Rahtuvân Mehmed Ağa, Mutasarrıf Hüseyin Paşa ile Seyyid Paşa’nın kendilerine karşı fena vaziyetlerini anlayıp gizlenmişlerdi. Bunun için ne yangınları söndürecek ne de kıtâli bastıracak bir kuvvet yoktu.
Çünkü Hüseyin Paşa’nın ve taraftarlarının maksatları, kendi nüfûz ve kudretlerini tahkim için kendilerine karşı koyabilecek a‘yân ve halkı sindirmek, bu suretle zebûn düşürmekti. Bunun için harîk ile kıtâle seyirci olmuşlardı.
Nihayet a‘yân, ulemâ ve halkın kendilerine feryat, istimdâd, istirhâm ve ilticâ etmeleri sâyesinde kıtâl ve harîkin önü alındı. Fakat nüfûz ve kuvvet, sulta ve hükûmet, tamamiyle türedilere intikâl etdiğinden receb gâyesinde türediler, Amasya’nın üçüncü devre-i târihiyyesine hitâm verdiler.⁶⁷⁶ [195]
Amasya sancağı (vilâyeti), üçüncü devre-i târihiyye mebâdîsinde gayr-ı Türklerin tahakküm ve istibdâdına, zulüm ve istikbârına karşı Türkler tarafından tertib edilen ihtilâl-i milliye bir sâha-i şu’ûr olduğundan büyük hasârate, maddi ve manevi zâyiâta uğradı.
Fakat feyz-i irfâniyle yetişdirdiği erleri sâyesinde o hasârat ve zâyiâtını büyük gayretlerle telâfî ederek kendisini gayr-ı Türkler’in idâre-i cebbârânesinden kurtardı. Gayr-ı Türkler’in açtıkları yaralarını Türk elleriyle sardı.
Amasya, bu devre-i şu’ûrunda kendisinin yetişdirdiği paşalar, beyler, kadılar, müftüler, alaybeyleri, ağalar ellerinde güzel bir idâre gördü.
Bağrında açtığı irfan müesseselerinde, kahraman ocaklarında besleyip büyüttüğü şanlı erler, inkırâza doğru sürüklenen Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nu değil, deli ve kızıl cahil padişahların delice ve çocukça hareketlerinden istifadeye kalkışan vatansızların ihtirâsât-ı iblisânesi yüzünden pek korkunç bir uçuruma doğru giden Türk varlığını başında tutup kurtardıktan başka, Türklüğün en yüksek bir çağı olan Devr-i Kânûnî’deki ikbâline erdirdi.
Şirâze-i intizâmı bozulan yeniçerileri demir pençesiyle inzibat altına [196] alan, zorbalığa hitâm veren Köse Mehmed Ağa gibi bir yeniçeri ağasını Türklüğü ölüm yatağından kaldırıp göklere kadar çıkaran Köprülü Mehmed Paşa gibi bir sadrâzamı Amasya yetişdirdi.
Köprülü Mehmed Paşa, Arnavut Belgradı kazâsına tâbî “Ruznik” adlı köyden devşirilmiş bir kuloğlu olduğu halde Amasya’nın Köprü kasabasında, Türk muhitinde doğdu. Türk anasının sütüyle beslendi. Türk kafasıyla büyüdü. Amasyalıların himmetleri sâyesinde yükseldi.⁶⁷⁷ Türklüğü korkunç uçurumdan kurtaran bir hârika-i fıtrat oldu.
Türkiye târihinde hâdisâtı güzel tâkip edenler bilirler ki 929 senesinde Frenk İbrâhim Paşa’nın sadâretinden itibaren 1020 târihine kadar Türkler vezâret-i uzmâdan, hatta vezâretten, Rumeli ve Anadolu beylerbeyilerinden, başkumandanlıktan mahrum edilerek bütün şu’abât-ı idâreyi gayr-ı Türkler inhisâr altına almışlardı.
Türkler, bu inhisara karşı 1007 senesi zilhiccesinde ihtilâl ve isyan bayrağını kaldırdılar. Kanlarıyla bu inhisarı yıkıp vezârete, sadârete, başkumandanlığa Türkleri getirdiler. Bundan sonra gayr-ı Türklerle müsâvâta erdiler.
Şâyân-ı dikkatdir ki, Köprülü Mehmed Paşa’nın sadâretinden itibaren mesned-i sadâret ekseriyetle Anadolu Türkleri’ne nasip oldu. Gayr-ı Türkler’in zamanlarındaki rezâletler görülmedi. Çünkü Köprülü Paşa, Enderun Mektebi’nden gayr-ı [197] Türkleri birer suretle atıp yerlerine Anadolu Türklerini yerleşdirmişdi.
Bu devrede Amasya’nın eski şerefi, Amasya’dan çıkan ve yetişen erlerle tazelendi. Amasya’nın irfan ocaklarından erişen fâzıllar, kâmiller, âlimler, ikinci devreye tefevvuk edecek parlak meziyetler gösterdi. Bunlar sâyesinde Amasya’nın ictimâî, ilmî, sınâî, iktisâdi hayatları büyük bir inkişafa mazhar oldu.
Bu devrede Amasya’nın yetişdirdiği kalem ve halk şâirleri de pek şâyân-ı dikkatdi. Kalem şuarâsından Kelâmî, Türâbî, Abdî, Remzî, Câmî, Zühdî, Şevkî, Hıfzî, Dâniş gibi fuzalâ ve halk şâirlerinden Cihâdî, Hüznî, Seyfî, Izzî gibi zevât Amasya’nın edebiyatına revnak veren erlerdi.
Amasya’nın halk şâirleri pek âşık, yaptıkları mânilerle ezgiler pek yanıktı. Bu yanık mâniler, zamanımıza kadar nakl u muhafaza edilmişlerdi. Bunları zamanımızda en çok bilen, güzel bağlama şâiri olan Abdal Ağasızâde İsmâil Hakkı Efendi idi.
Bu devrede Amasya’nın sanayi-i bedîasından olan hat ve hattâtlık, öteden beri Amasya’nın yüzünü güldürecek, medâr-ı şerefi olacak bir derece-i mükemmelliyette idi. Hutût-ı mütenevvianın her şubesinde erbâb-ı ihtisas vardı.
Bunlardan Kâmil Mustafa, Kâtipzâde İsmâil, Ramazân Dedezâde Hüseyin, La‘lî Ali, Abdülcelîl, Derviş Ali, Hatîb Fazlullah, Müderris Ahmed Efendiler, Nefîszâde İbrâhim, Kadızâde Sıdkî Mustafa [198] paşalar pek meşhûr idiler.
Kâmil, La‘lî, Nefiszâde İsmâil efendiler, İstanbul’un ve diğerleri Amasya’nın âb-ı rûyi sayılırlardı. Hele hattât İbrâhim ve Sıdkî Mustafa paşalar, hem hattât, hem şâir hem de âlim vezîrlerdi. Nefiszâde Hattât İbrâhim Paşa’nın mütekâid olduğu halde 1060 senesi saferinin on sekizinde vefât eylediği evkâf mahzeninde mahfuz “defter-i zevâid hûrân-ı selâtîn-i kirâm” kaydıyla müsbeddir.
Müderris Ahmed Efendi’nin hürde kırması, Derviş Ali Efendi’nin ta‘lîkı, Kâtip Ahmed Efendi’nin sülüsü, Fazlullah Efendi’nin dîvânî ve reyhânîsi, hele Ramazânzâde Hüseyin Efendi’nin sülüs kırması enfestir. Bunların âsâr-ı nefîsesi Amasya ve İstanbul kütübhânelerinde vardır.
Yine bu devrede Amasya iktisâdiyâtı ve sanâyii pek parlaktır. Tabakhâneleri, kumaş tezgâhları, demirhâneleri, dökümhâneleri, simkeşhâneleri ve kuyumcuları vardı. Amasya ve mülhakâtının her hânesinde mutlaka culfalık bulunur, hâne halkının bütün giyecekleri bu tezgâhlarda dokunurdu. Amasya’nın ipliği, kumaşları, keten bezleri, sahtiyanları pek latîf, metîn, nârin olurdu.
Amasya’nın kumaşı, sahtiyanı ve sirâc işleri, Amasya’nın elması kadar nefis ve meşhûr olduğundan her tarafta pek makbul idi. Bunlar, her büyük ve yüksek yerlere hediyelik takdîm edilirdi.
Dördüncü Sultân Murâd Hân, 1045’te Amasya’ya geldikte kendisine hediye olarak top top güzel Amasya kumaşları, Amasya [199] sahtiyanları takdîm edilmiş, fevkalâde istihsan buyurulmuşdu. Amasyalılar’ın o zamanki servet ü sâmânları, Amasya iktisâdiyâtının yüksek derecesini gösterecek bir halde idi.
Bu kıymetli ve nefis hediyelere mevâdd-i ibtidâiyeyi yetişdiren Amasya bağları, Amasya böcekhâneleri, Amasya davarları pek mükemmeldi. Bu devrede Amasya’nın ma‘mûriyeti cennet gibi bağlarının letâfeti, muazzam sarayları, dilnişîn köşkleri, paşalarının, beylerinin ağalarının şâhâne konakları 1058’de Amasya’yı ziyaret eden seyyâh-ı meşhûr Evliyâ Mehmed Çelebi’nin bile nazar-ı hayret ve takdîrini celbederek bunları Seyahatnâme’sinin ikinci cildinde kemâl-i ehemmiyetle pek harâretli bir surette kaydetmiş, Amasya’nın servet ve ihtişamını göstermişdi.
Amasya’yı bu kadar yükselten, tabiidir ki Amasya’nın kendisi değildir. Belki Amasya’nın yetişdirdiği ulemâsı, ricâli, a‘yânı, halkıdır. Bu devre-i târihiyede Amasyalılar da ahlâk, mesâî, rûh-i milliyet, adl ü hakkaniyet düşüncesi, pek yüksekti. Hüftâdî Aynalı Mağara, Cündî Ali Bey vak’aları, şu hisâl-i memdûhanın Amasya’da ne kadar yüksek ve şâyân-ı ehemmiyet olduğunu ispata birer misaldir.
Bu devre-i târihiyede Amasya’nın yetişdirdiği vüzerâ, ümerâ, sudur, mevâlî, ricâl-i devlet, Anadolu diyarına nisbetle gıbta edilecek kadar çoktu. Bunların menâkıbı, ne suretle tefeyyüz etdikleri, târihimizin terâcim kısmı olan ikinci babında görülür.
Bu devrenin mebâdisinde Amasyalı Gonca Beyzâde Vezîr Hızır Paşa [200] nın ve dârü’s-saâde ağası Habeşî Hacı Mustafa Ağa’nın himmetleriyle ve kendi fâzıleti ve hüsn-i beyânı sâyesinde muallim-i sultânî olan Amasyalı Ömer Efendi, bunun yetişdirdiği Sadr-ı a’zam Hüsrev Paşa, Lâdikli Kurd Ağazâde Bayram Paşa, Yeniçeri Ağası Amasyalı Köse Mehmed Ağa, Hacı Efendizâde İbrâhim Paşa, Reîsülküttâb Amasyalı Sıdkı Mustafa Paşa, Defterdâr Nefiszâde Hattât İbrâhim Paşa, Sadr-ı a’zam Lâdikli Tayyar Mehmed Paşa, Amasya ricâlini himaye ve i‘lâ eden zevât idiler.
Amasyalılar’ın besleyip büyüttüğü mimârbaşı Yanyalı Kasım Ağa’nın, sadâret kethüdâsı Amasyalı Salih Ağa’nın bunların himmetleriyle sadârete kadar yükselen Köprülü Mehmed Paşa’nın, Merzifonî Kara Mustafa ve Bayburdluoğlu Kara İbrâhim paşaların uluvv-i himmetleri şâyân-ı şükrândır.
Amasya a‘yânı, ulemâ ve halka karşı pek inâyetkâr birer hâmî, gayet misafirperver, hâneleri açık birer hânedan idiler. Hariçten Amasya mutasarrıfı ve beyi olup gelen ricâle karşı halkı pek ziyâde himâye ederlerdi. Bunun için mütesellimler, ekseriyetle Amasya a‘yânından olurlardı.
In Modern English
He was a native of Amasya, a son of Bayburdluoğlu Yeğen Osman Pasha and a son of the sister of Boyacızâde Veli Pasha. On the fourth day of the month of Receb 1099 [1688] he became mutasarrıf (governor) of Amasya with the rank of beylerbeyi.
But since neither his age nor his knowledge and ability was at a level fit to govern a sanjak, his maternal uncle's son Velî Paşazâde Mahmud Bey became mütesellim (deputy governor) of Amasya.
At this time the alaybeyi (commander of the timar-holding cavalry) of Amasya was Kara Hasanzâde Mustafa Bey, the sipahi kethüdayeri (representative of the sipahis) was Kuloğlu Halil Ağa, and the janissary commander was Seksen Yedinin İsmail Ağa. Also at this time, the former kul kethüdası (steward of the slaves of the Porte), Sevincerli Ömer Paşazâde Ebubekir Ağa, who had become kul kethüdası through the mediation of Çuçu Mustafa Ağa of Amasya, had come to Amasya.
However, Yeğen Osman Pasha's men, wherever they arrived, set about something very like plunder and began robbing the people. Seeing them, the bandit bands and the self-confident villains rose up from every side and became "Yeğenlis."
Governor Hüseyin Pasha, though young, was more tyrannical and headstrong than his father. As soon as he came to Amasya he released of his own will the unruly seyyids Koca Emîr, Saçlı Emîr and Mumcu Deli Seyyid and the ağas who had been imprisoned in the Upper Fortress, and won the seyyids over to himself.
Emboldened by Hüseyin Pasha's influence and arbitrary rule, the seyyids, those who passed themselves off as seyyids, and the emirs who counted themselves of the pure lineage of the Prophet took to rising up against the notables (ayan) and the people, who had earlier had them imprisoned and punished, in a passion for revenge. Among the ulema, Zanalı es-Seyyid Ahmed Efendi, Ortaköylü es-Seyyid Abdülvehhâb Efendi and Ilgazlı es-Seyyid Yusuf Efendi had joined them.
On one side the oppression and attacks of the upstarts, on the other the excesses of the seyyids, threw the ulema and the notables into terror; the people wept tears of blood in the villages, on the roads, in the vineyards and gardens, and together with the seat of government everywhere was crushed under the pressure and oppression of the ruffians.
The History of Silahdar Mehmed Ağa says: "At this time the sekban and saruca bandits, having overcome the soldiers of the Porte, roamed in companies of five hundred, a thousand, two thousand men, held the roads and the passes, nailed horseshoes to the feet of those they caught and put red-hot bowls over their heads; there was no way left for travelers to pass along the road at all..."
Also at this time Mumcuzâde Seyyid Ahmed Pasha, who had been dismissed because of the oppression and attacks he had committed during his governorship of Bolu, came to Amasya, and the influence and wickedness of the seyyids reached their limit. Deli Emîr Paşazâde es-Seyyid Mustafa Bey remained beside them like a Hacı Nebi.
The leading seyyids had fastened upon the administratorships (mütevelli) of the waqfs; each of them had seized the administratorship of one of the waqfs of Sultan Bayezid, Yörgüç Pasha, Mehmed Pasha, Abdullah Pasha, Hüseyin Ağa, Hoca Sultan and Fağfur Pasha. The administrators appointed by imperial decree also began to defend their rights and caused painful disputes.
On the night of the twenty-seventh of Receb, the Night of the Ascension (Miraç), whether by accident or on purpose is not known, a terrible fire broke out in the Eski Kethüda Quarter. The strength of the wind spread terror everywhere. At dawn of the same night another fire broke out in the inner city, in the Hatuniye Quarter, and burned and destroyed two thirds of the city of Amasya.
Because the fires starting in the Eski Kethüda and Hatuniye quarters were interpreted among the people as the seyyids' revenge, rumors spread extremely widely. For these two quarters of Amasya were then regarded as the quarters of the notables.
Bekir Beyzâde Ömer Bey, Hoca Paşazâde Gazi İbrahim Bey, Bağdatlıoğlu Kara Mehmed Ağa, Şamlıoğlu Rahtuvan Mehmed Ağa, Hacı Efendizâde İbrahim Efendi and Kaya Ali Ağa lived in these quarters.
Moreover, the household goods that had been carried and were being carried to the fields and open places to be saved from the fire were being stolen by vagabonds and plunderers, and among the plunderers were also some who passed themselves off as seyyids.
It was this plundering that angered the notables and the people most. Naturally everyone forgot the fire and fell to the trouble of protecting whatever household goods they had managed to save from it. For this reason the fire grew. A battle like the Day of Judgment broke out between the people and the emirs and seyyids.
On one side the fire was burning Amasya, on the other cutting tools such as swords, daggers, poniards, knives and axes were destroying the people of Amasya. The upstarts who held the government watched these tragic disasters. Bekir Beyzâde Ömer Bey and Rahtuvan Mehmed Ağa, the greatest foes of the seyyids, had understood the ill disposition of Governor Hüseyin Pasha and Seyyid Pasha toward them and gone into hiding. For this reason there was no force to put out the fires or to suppress the slaughter.
For the aim of Hüseyin Pasha and his partisans was to cow the notables and the people who could resist them, and thus leave them powerless, in order to consolidate their own influence and power. For this they had stood by as spectators to the fire and the slaughter.
In the end, thanks to the notables, the ulema and the people crying out to them, begging for help, pleading and taking refuge, the slaughter and the fire were stopped. But since influence and power, authority and administration had passed completely into the hands of the upstarts, at the end of the month of Receb the upstarts brought the third historical period of Amasya to an end.
Because at the beginning of the third historical period the sanjak (province) of Amasya had been a conscious stage of the national uprising organized by the Turks against the oppression and tyranny, injustice and arrogance of non-Turks, it suffered great damage and material and moral losses.
But through the brave men it raised with its learning, it made up for these damages and losses with great effort and freed itself from the tyrannical rule of non-Turks. It bandaged with Turkish hands the wounds opened by non-Turks.
In this conscious period Amasya saw good administration under the pashas, beys, kadıs (judges), muftis, alaybeyis and ağas it had raised itself.
The glorious men it nourished and raised in the institutions of learning and the heroic hearths it opened in its bosom did not so much hold up the Ottoman Empire, which was being dragged toward collapse, as keep standing and save the Turkish existence, which was heading toward a truly frightful abyss because of the diabolical ambitions of the stateless who tried to exploit the mad and childish conduct of insane and thoroughly ignorant sultans; and beyond saving it, they carried it to its prosperity in the age of Kanuni (Süleyman the Magnificent), the highest age of Turkishness.
Amasya raised a janissary commander such as Köse Mehmed Ağa, who brought the disordered janissaries under discipline with his iron claw and put an end to ruffianism, and a grand vizier such as Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, who raised Turkishness from its deathbed and lifted it to the skies.
Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, though a kuloğlu (slave-born) levied from a village called Ruznik in the district of Albanian Belgrade, was born in the town of Köprü in Amasya, in a Turkish environment. He was nourished with a Turkish mother's milk, grew with a Turkish mind, and rose thanks to the efforts of the people of Amasya. He became a wonder of creation who saved Turkishness from the frightful abyss.
Those who follow events in Turkish history carefully know that from the grand vizierate of Frenk İbrahim Pasha in 929 [1522-23] until 1020 [1611] the Turks were kept away from the grand vizierate, even from the vizierate, from the beylerbeyiliks of Rumeli and Anatolia and from the supreme command, and non-Turks had taken all branches of administration into their monopoly.
The Turks raised the banner of revolution and revolt against this monopoly in Zilhicce 1007 [1599]. With their blood they broke this monopoly and brought Turks to the vizierate, the grand vizierate and the supreme command. After this they came to be on an equal footing with non-Turks.
It is worth noting that from the grand vizierate of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha on, the post of grand vizier mostly fell to Anatolian Turks, and the disgraces of the time of the non-Turks were not seen. For Köprülü Pasha, finding some way, removed non-Turks from the Enderun School and placed Anatolian Turks in their places.
In this period Amasya's old honor was renewed by the brave men who came out of Amasya and were raised there. The virtuous, mature and learned persons raised in Amasya's hearths of learning showed brilliant qualities that surpassed the second period. Thanks to them Amasya's social, scholarly, industrial and economic life showed great development.
In this period the divan poets and folk poets raised by Amasya were also very remarkable. Among the divan poets such virtuous persons as Kelâmî, Türâbî, Abdî, Remzî, Câmî, Zühdî, Şevkî, Hıfzî and Dâniş, and among the folk poets such figures as Cihâdî, Hüznî, Seyfî and İzzî were the brave men who gave brilliance to Amasya's literature.
The folk poets of Amasya were very passionate, and the mânis (folk quatrains) and tunes they sang were very plaintive. These plaintive mânis had been handed down and preserved up to our time. The one who knew them best in our time was Abdal Ağasızâde İsmail Hakkı Efendi, a master bağlama poet.
In this period calligraphy and the art of the calligrapher, among Amasya's fine arts, had long been at a degree of perfection that would make Amasya smile and be a source of honor. There were masters in every branch of the various script types.
Among them the efendis Kâmil Mustafa, Kâtipzâde İsmail, Ramazan Dedezâde Hüseyin, La'lî Ali, Abdülcelil, Derviş Ali, Hatib Fazlullah and Müderris Ahmed, and the pashas Nefiszâde İbrahim and Kadızâde Sıdkı Mustafa were very famous.
The efendis Kâmil, La'lî and Nefiszâde İsmail were counted as the pride of Istanbul, the others as the pride of Amasya. Above all, the calligrapher pashas İbrahim and Sıdkı Mustafa were at once calligrapher, poet and learned vizier. That Nefiszâde Hattat İbrahim Pasha, though retired, died on the eighteenth of Safer 1060 [1650] is established by the entry in the "register of those receiving more revenue than due from the sultans' waqfs" kept in the waqf archive.
Müderris Ahmed Efendi's hurde kırması, Derviş Ali Efendi's ta'lîk, Kâtip Ahmed Efendi's sülüs, Fazlullah Efendi's dîvânî and reyhânî, and above all Ramazanzâde Hüseyin Efendi's sülüs kırması are very beautiful. Their valuable works are found in the libraries of Amasya and Istanbul.
Also in this period Amasya's economy and industry were very brilliant. It had tanneries, cloth looms, ironworks, foundries, gold-thread workshops and goldsmiths. In Amasya and the places attached to it every house certainly had a weaving loom, and all the clothing of the household was woven on these looms. Amasya's yarn, cloths, linens and morocco leather were very fine, sturdy and elegant.
Because Amasya's cloth, morocco leather and saddlery were as beautiful and famous as Amasya's apple, they were very much in demand everywhere. They were presented as gifts to great and high offices.
When Sultan Murad Khan IV came to Amasya in 1045 [1635], bolts of fine Amasya cloth and Amasya morocco leather were presented to him as gifts, and the sultan liked them very much. The wealth and possessions of the people of Amasya at that time were such as to show the high level of Amasya's economy.
The vineyards, silkworm houses and animals of Amasya, which produced the raw material of these valuable and beautiful gifts, were excellent. In this period Amasya's prosperity, the beauty of its paradise-like vineyards, its great palaces, its heart-opening pavilions, the magnificent mansions of its pashas, beys and ağas drew the admiration and praise even of the famous traveler Evliya Mehmed Çelebi, who visited Amasya in 1058 [1648]; he recorded them with great importance and with much enthusiasm in the second volume of his Seyahatname, showing Amasya's wealth and splendor.
It is of course not Amasya itself that raised Amasya so high; it is the ulema, statesmen, notables and people that Amasya raised. In this historical period the morals, industriousness, national spirit and sense of justice and fairness of the people of Amasya were very high. The Hüftâdî Aynalı Cave and Cündî Ali Bey incidents are each an example proving how high and important these praiseworthy qualities were in Amasya.
In this historical period the viziers, beys, grand viziers, great ulema and statesmen raised by Amasya were enviably numerous compared with other places in Anatolia. Their life stories and how they rose are found in the second chapter (bâb) of our history, which is the biographies part.
At the beginning of this period, those who protected and raised the notables of Amasya were: Ömer Efendi of Amasya, who became the sultan's tutor through the support of Vizier Hızır Pasha, son of Gonca Bey of Amasya, and of the chief black eunuch Habeşî Hacı Mustafa Ağa, and through his own virtue and fine speech; Grand Vizier Hüsrev Pasha, whom he raised; Bayram Pasha, son of Lâdikli Kurd Ağa; the janissary commander Köse Mehmed Ağa of Amasya; Hacı Efendizâde İbrahim Pasha; the chief secretary Sıdkı Mustafa Pasha of Amasya; Treasurer Nefiszâde Hattat İbrahim Pasha; and Grand Vizier Lâdikli Tayyar Mehmed Pasha.
The high efforts of the chief architect Yanyalı Kasım Ağa, raised by the people of Amasya, of the steward of the grand vizierate Salih Ağa of Amasya, and of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, who rose to the grand vizierate through their support, and of the pashas Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa and Bayburdluoğlu Kara İbrahim, deserve gratitude.
The notables of Amasya were patrons who looked after the ulema and the people very much, households extremely hospitable and with doors open to all. They protected the people greatly against statesmen who came from outside as governors and beys of Amasya. For this reason the deputy governors (mütesellim) were mostly from among the notables of Amasya.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- hemşirezâde: sister's son; dayızâde: maternal uncle's son
- sinn ü sâl: age; vukuf u iktidar: knowledge and ability
- livâ: sanjak
- erbâb-ı şekâvet: bandit bands; ashâb-ı şirret: persons inclined to wickedness
- müstebit, serkeş: tyrannical, headstrong
- müteseyyid: one who passes himself off as a seyyid without being one
- sekbân, saruca: paid musketeers kept in the retinue of pashas and sanjak governors, who later also took part in banditry
- âyende ve revende: travelers coming and going
- tevliyet: waqf administratorship (mütevelli office)
- harîk: fire; kıtâl, mukatele: slaughter, fighting
- eşyâ-yı beytiye: household goods
- gayr-ı Türk: non-Turk
- inhisar: monopoly
- Enderûn Mektebi: the school in the palace that trained statesmen
- hurde kırması, ta'lîk, sülüs, dîvânî, reyhânî: script types in the art of calligraphy
- culfalık: weaving; simkeşhâne: workshop where gold thread is drawn; sahtiyan: fine worked goatskin; sirâc: saddlery, saddle and harness work
- böcekhâne: place where silkworms are raised
- terâcim: biographies
The Yeğenlis and Hüseyin Pasha
According to Hüsameddin's footnote, the name "Yeğenli" became a nickname given to those who committed oppression and banditry to the utmost without regard for anyone, and they were also called "Tigenli." The power Yeğen Osman Pasha attained in 1688 is also evident from his own name turning into the name of a type of bandit. Meryem Kaçan Erdoğan, who studied this period, tells that instead of punishing Yeğen, the state gave him the sanjak of Karahisar and a serçeşme post and in 1687 added him to the army together with several thousand "upstart levends"; that Yeğen levied tribute on the regions where he was, and that in the end a "nefîr-i âm" (general mobilization) was declared against both him and his man Gedik Pasha, who governed Sivas, and the other upstarts.
No information was found in other sources about Yeğen's son Hüseyin Pasha, who was made governor of Amasya. Hüsameddin introduces him as the nephew of Boyacızâde Veli Pasha; Kaçan Erdoğan also writes that the beylerbeyilik of Rumeli was given to Yeğen's "relative Deli Veli." The two accounts show that the family distributed offices within a network of kinship extending from Rumeli to Anatolia.
The Fire of 1688 and Hüsameddin's Sources
The most important part of the entry is the fire said to have started on the Night of the Ascension, 27 Receb 1099 (end of May 1688), in the Eski Kethüda and Hatuniye quarters and burned two thirds of the city. The date Hüsameddin gives is also supported by another source: it is known that the Hüsâmiye Madrasa, built in 1453 by Kubalızâde Sheikh Hüsâmeddin, one of Amasya's old madrasas, was damaged in the fires that broke out in 1602 and 1688 and was repaired again in 1713. The details that the fire was intertwined with a bloody clash between the seyyids and the notables, however, rest solely on the documents that Hüsameddin relays.
In his footnote Hüsameddin explains that in narrating these events he drew on two manuscript documents. The first is the petition to the grand vizier, written by Veli Bey, the administrator of the Hoca Sultan Waqf, who witnessed the events, against Zanalı es-Seyyid Ahmed Efendi, who had forcibly seized the waqf's administratorship, and which describes the "affair of the emirs" in detail; the author found a copy of it among scattered papers in the house of Sheikh Alizâde Abdullah Efendi. The second is the twenty-one-page chronicle that the poet Kâtipzâde Hıfzı Abdurrahman Efendi, also a witness to the events, wrote in his own hand and called "Felâketnâme" (Book of Calamity); this too came out from among papers kept in a sack in the house of Fazılzâde Mustafa Âkif Efendi, the preacher of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque. Hüsameddin says he made copies of both and incorporated their summaries into his book. In the searches made, no record was found of where these two documents are today. For this reason the entry's account of the fire and the slaughter is the only surviving summary of local testimonies whose originals may have been lost.
Of the Amasya sharia court registers belonging to this period, register no. 19 covers the years H. 1100-1101 (1688-1690) and contains 328 documents. According to Neşe İnak's finding, some pages of the register have been damaged by damp, and no thesis has yet been done on this register. This register is the most natural place in which to research the official reflections of the fire and of the affair of the seyyids.
Silahdar Mehmed Ağa and the Banditry of the Period
The historian Hüsameddin quotes is Silahdar Fındıklılı Mehmed Ağa, who was born in 1658 in the Fındıklı district of Istanbul and raised in the palace. His work, which begins where Kâtib Çelebi's Fezleke left off, is called Zeyl-i Fezleke but is better known as the Silahdar Tarihi; it is a chronicle narrating events year by year. The phrase "nailing horseshoes to their feet and putting red-hot bowls over their heads" in the quotation is testimony to how the sekban and saruca companies destroyed the safety of the roads in 1688.
The Birthplace of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha
Hüsameddin asserts that Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, though a kuloğlu levied from the village of Ruznik, was born in the town of Köprü and raised among the people of Amasya. Present-day research departs from him on this point. Köprülü Mehmed Pasha was born in the village of Rudnik (Ruznik) in the sanjak of Berat in Albania, was levied and brought to Istanbul, was trained in the Enderun and took a post in the imperial kitchen. After being assigned to one of the cavalry companies, he went to the town of Köprü (today's Vezirköprü), attached to Amasya, married Ayşe Hanım there, and became known as "Köprülü" because he was in this town. Hüsameddin himself says in a footnote that he will give the basis of these sentences later in Köprülü's biography; for this reason the entry's wording should be read as an interpretation stressing the town's share in the upbringing of the Köprülü family.
The entry's passages built on "Turk" and "non-Turk" should also be assessed in the same light. The views that state administration remained entirely in the hands of non-Turks between 929 and 1020, that the Turks rose against this situation in 1007, and that Köprülü opened the Enderun to Anatolian Turks reflect the national-history outlook of the early twentieth century, when the work was written. These assessments belong to Hüsameddin; it must be remembered that the Ottoman devshirme system and the internal conflicts of the seventeenth century are treated in a much more complex picture in present-day research.
The Calligraphers of Amasya and Nefeszâde İbrahim
Nefiszâde (Nefeszâde) İbrahim, whom Hüsameddin praises as a "calligrapher, poet and learned vizier," is the author of the work called Gülzâr-ı Savâb, regarded as one of the main sources of the art of calligraphy. There is not enough information about his life; his father is Mustafa Nefeszâde of Amasya, a madrasa professor and calligrapher descended from Hasan and Hüseyin. He practiced sülüs and nesih first with his father and then with the calligrapher Demircikulu Yusuf Efendi and received his license (icazet). It is noted that the work's original title is Kitâb-ı Küttâbiye ve Risâle-i Midâdiye ve Kırtâsiye and that it was presented to Murad IV. His death date appears in the sources as 1060 (1650), which agrees with the date of 18 Safer 1060 that Hüsameddin relays from the waqf register.
By contrast, no record that Nefeszâde İbrahim was a pasha or treasurer was found in the other sources; he introduces himself in the preface of his work as "the scribe İbrahim." It is also noted that no writing sample showing his level in calligraphy could be found and that no calligraphic work of his has survived. Hüsameddin's statement that these calligraphers' valuable works are found in the libraries of Amasya and Istanbul could not be verified, at least for Nefeszâde İbrahim. His father Mustafa Nefeszâde, while a professor at the Süleymaniye, was transferred to the Hâkâniye Madrasa and died in 1011 (1602); it is recorded that he practiced his script with Şükrullah Halife, son-in-law of Sheikh Hamdullah.
Most of the other calligraphers Hüsameddin mentions do not appear in the list of calligraphers of Amasya that Mustafa Aslan prepared based on Müstakimzâde's Tuhfe-i Hattâtîn. For example, the name Derviş Ali appears in this study not as a man of Amasya but in another context within the chain of calligraphers. For this reason, the Amasya origin of some of the names on the list is Hüsameddin's own determination. In the poets' section of the book, it becomes clear that the "Şevkî" on the list is Hâcezâde Şevkî Mehmed Efendi, who practiced various scripts with the Amasya calligrapher Fazlullah Efendi, was a master of ta'lîk, and died around the year 1100; Hüsameddin bases this information on the biographical anthology (tezkire) of the madrasa professor Abdî Efendi and on Müstakimzâde.
Amasya's Economy and Evliya Çelebi
What Hüsameddin says about Amasya weaving and trade is also supported by other sources. In the sixteenth century Amasya had a dye-house, a candle-house and a mint; silk weaving was widespread, and since the city lay on the Azerbaijan-Bursa road it was an important market for Iranian silks. It is clear from documents that within ten months in 1554-1555 the amount of silk that entered the city through official channels and was weighed reached about 15 tons. In the seventeenth century Evliya Çelebi writes that Amasya had some 1060 shops and busy, rich bazaars; he also records that the wealthy of the city hid their valuables in the fortress against Celali attacks. Evliya's description of Amasya is in the second volume of the Seyahatname. In these years Evliya went to Erzurum in the retinue of Defterdarzâde Mehmed Pasha (September 1646) and returned to Istanbul in 1648 upon his father's death; the date 1058 (1648) that Hüsameddin gives for his visit to Amasya could not be verified with another source in this research.
The record that Murad IV came to Amasya in 1045 is likewise related to that year's Revan campaign. During this campaign the sultan reached Kars on 1 Safer 1045 (17 July 1635) and took Revan after an eleven-day siege. The information that he stopped at Amasya on the campaign road and was presented with Amasya cloths and morocco leather rests on Hüsameddin's local records.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, p. 606–609. amasya.bel.tr
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Books