AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL

İbrâhim Ağa — Hasan Ağazâde

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 6, p. 30–31 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Recep Orhan ÖZEL - Doç. Dr. Metin HAKVERDİOĞLU

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Amasyalıdır. Yeniçeri Ağası Hasan Ağa’nın mahdûmudur. Birâderi Yeniçeri Ağası Mustafa Bey’dir. Pederi Hasan Ağa Amasya’da Çelebi Sultân Mehmed Hân devrinde sekbanbaşı ba’dehû yeniçeri ağası olmuşdu. Sâhib-i terceme de İstanbul fethinde zağarcıbaşı, ba’dehû sekbanbaşı olarak Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî ile 860’ta Amasya’ya geldi. 871 sâline doğru vefât eyledi. 868 târîhli evrâk-ı resmiyede Amasya’da sekbanbaşı görüldü.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was a native of Amasya. He was the son of Hasan Ağa, janissary ağa. His brother was the janissary ağa Mustafa Bey. His father Hasan Ağa had become sekbanbaşı in Amasya in the time of Çelebi Sultan Mehmed Han, and later janissary ağa. The subject of this entry, at the conquest of Istanbul, was zağarcıbaşı and then sekbanbaşı, and came to Amasya with Sultan Bayezid II in 860 [1455-56]. He died around 871 [1466-67]. In official documents of 868 [1463-64] he appears in Amasya as sekbanbaşı.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • sekbanbaşı: commander of the sekban units
  • zağarcıbaşı: in the janissary corps, the high-ranking officer at the head of the unit that looked after the hounds used in hunting
  • yeniçeri ağası: commander of the janissary corps
  • sâhib-i terceme: the person whose biography is written
  • evrâk-ı resmiyye: official documents

Sekbans and Zağarcıs

The sekbans were a military class of devshirme origin organized in the time of Murad I for the sultan's hunting parties; their main duty was to feed the hounds used in the sultan's hunts and to accompany him on the hunt. Until 1451 (851) they remained a class separate from the janissaries. When the janissaries rose in revolt for a gratuity on returning from the Karaman campaign, Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror incorporated them into the corps. The sekbanbaşı was counted among the highest-ranking officers after the ağa; when the ağa was not in Istanbul he deputized for him and was responsible for the security of the city. The zağarcıbaşı, for his part, was counted among the grand ağas of the corps, together with ranks such as the kul kethüdası and the başçavuş.

Hüsameddin narrates the subject of the entry along a line running from the conquest of Istanbul to Amasya. That Bayezid II's arrival in the sanjak of Amasya after the conquest is dated to 860 agrees with the sources that write that the prince was assigned to this sanjak as a child. Because the phrase in the text, "his father was sekbanbaşı in the time of Çelebi Sultan Mehmed", refers to a period before the sekbans joined the janissary corps (1451), it may be thought that the title here is not exactly identical to its later meaning. This is an inference; the text does not explain it.

No information was found in any other source on Hasan Ağa and his sons.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, p. 30–31. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

Other sources

Volume 6 contents