AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

İbrâhim Ağa — Gümüşoğlu el-Hâc

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 6, p. 75 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Recep Orhan ÖZEL - Doç. Dr. Metin HAKVERDİOĞLU

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Esbak Bostancıbaşı Amasyalı Gümüş el-Hâc Süleyman Ağazâde Ömer Ağa’nın oğludur. Enderûn sarayına girip orada tefeyyüz ederek Sultân Mahmûd Hân-ı Sânî’ye kahvecibaşı oldu. 1252’de azliyle Amasya’ya gönderildi. 1254 tahrîr nüfûsunda Bağ-ı Helkis Mahallesi’nde kırk beş yaşında olarak yazılmış olduğu nüfûs defterinde görüldü. 1262’de idâre a’zâsından olup 1271 hudûdunda vefât etdi. Gümüş, fidda ma’nâsına olan gümüşdür. Câmus ma’nâsına olan kömüş değildir.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was the son of Ömer Ağa, son of Gümüş el-Hâc Süleyman Ağa of Amasya, a former chief of the palace gardeners (bostancıbaşı). He entered the Enderun palace, was trained there, and became chief coffee-server (kahvecibaşı) to Sultan Mahmud II. In 1252 [1836-37] he was dismissed from his post and sent to Amasya. The census register shows that in the population count of 1254 [1838-39] he was recorded in the Bağ-ı Helkis quarter as forty-five years old. In 1262 [1845-46] he became a member of the administrative council, and he died around 1271 [1854-55]. The name "Gümüş" is the Turkish word for silver, corresponding to Arabic "fidda"; it is not "kömüş," which means water buffalo.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • esbak: former, previous (one who has left office)
  • bostancıbaşı: head of the Bostancı Corps (palace gardeners)
  • Enderûn: the inner section of Topkapı Palace and the palace school housed there
  • tefeyyüz: receiving benefit, being trained
  • kahvecibaşı: head of the palace servants who attended to the sultan's coffee
  • azl: dismissal from office
  • tahrîr-i nüfûs: population registration, census
  • idâre a'zâsı: member of the administrative council
  • fidda: silver (Arabic)
  • câmus: water buffalo (Arabic); "kömüş" in Turkish

The Gümüşoğulları

Hüsameddin tells the life of İbrâhim Ağa's grandfather Süleyman Ağa separately in another volume of his work. According to this account, Süleyman Ağa of Amasya, son of Ebûbekir, was among the men of the grand vizier Zanalızâde es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ahmed Pasha; during that vizierate he was taken into the Enderun and enrolled in the Bostancı Corps. Trained in the palace, he became haseki in 1165 [1751-52], steward of the bostancıs (bostancılar kethüdası) in 1171 [1757-58], and bostancıbaşı in 1175 [1761-62]. Because he was a friend of Mustafa Ağa of Amasya, the steward (kethüda) of Bâhir Mustafa Pasha, who was grand vizier for the third time, he too was removed from office when the grand vizier was dismissed and executed in Shawwal 1178 [1765]. Since no fault was found in his service, he was given the post of kapıcıbaşı of the exalted court and was sent to Amasya for the time being. He lived for about two years in the Helkis Garden in Amasya and married there; later he was employed on important business and in 1189 [1775] went to the Hejaz on an assignment. His sons were Ebûbekir Ağa and Ömer Ağa. In the same place Hüsameddin notes that "Kahvecibaşı İbrâhim Ağa," the son of Ömer Ağa, was still alive in 1262 [1846], and says that the family was called "Gümüşoğulları."

These two records complement each other. The family's place in Amasya must be the Helkis gardens where the grandfather settled during his years of exile; the grandson İbrâhim Ağa is likewise recorded fifty years later in the same district, the Bağ-ı Helkis quarter. The grandfather entered the palace as a bostancı, the grandson by being trained in the Enderun. In both entries Hüsameddin takes care to state that the name "Gümüş" means fidda, that is, silver, and should not be confused with the word "kömüş" for the buffalo; this suggests that the name was pronounced differently among the people.

The Post of Kahvecibaşı in the Enderun

From the mid-fifteenth century the Enderun was the palace school regarded as the most important official educational institution outside the madrasas, founded to train the civil and military administrators of the state. At the top of its ranks stood the Has Oda (Privy Chamber), established in the time of Mehmed the Conqueror, with about forty members. Officials who served directly at the sultan's side, such as the court muezzin, the private secretary, the turban-keeper (sarıkçıbaşı), the kahvecibaşı and the chief herald (başçavuş), were chosen from among the members of the Has Oda. Those who left the Has Oda were appointed to important posts according to seniority. İbrâhim Ağa's becoming kahvecibaşı to Mahmud II shows that he had risen to the sultan's innermost circle. Hüsameddin does not say why he was dismissed and sent to Amasya.

The Bağ-ı Helkis Quarter and the Census Records

In this entry Hüsameddin relies directly on an archival document: he saw İbrâhim Ağa recorded in the census register of 1254 [1838-39], in the Bağ-ı Helkis quarter, at the age of forty-five. By this reckoning İbrâhim Ağa was born around 1209 [1794-95]. In the Amasya census register of 1256 [1840] published by Selim Özcan, the quarter appears as "Bağıhelkıs," with 23 Muslim and 9 non-Muslim households. In the temettuat registers of 1260-1261 [1844-45] the same quarter appears with 21 Muslim and 9 non-Muslim households; the number of non-Muslim households did not change between the two counts. The quarter was evidently a small district in which Muslims and non-Muslims lived together. The register Özcan used dates from two years after the 1254 register Hüsameddin mentions; the register Hüsameddin saw has not been published separately.

Bibliography

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