Amasya a’yânından Gürcüzâde es-Seyyid Mehmed Bey bin Mustafa Paşa bin el-Hâc İbrâhim Bey bin Mehmed Bey’in mahdûmudur. Amcası [200] es-Seyyid Halîl Paşa bin Mustafa Paşa’nın zaman-ı ikbâlinde hazînedârı ba’dehû kethüdâsı olup devr-i bilâd etdi. 1211 sâlinden sonra birkaç def’a baş-a’yân oldu.
1222 rebiülevvelinde ammizâdesi Hâfız Ali Paşa tarafından Amasya mütesellimi ve kapudanlığında kethüdâsı olup dergâh-ı âlî kapıcıbaşılığı rütbesini aldı. Kapudanlıkdan azlinde Bursa mübâya’acısı olup 1227 senesinde orada vefât etdi. Mahdûmları Şerîf Mehmed, Eşref Abdurrahman, Abdî Beylerdir. Şerîf Beyzâdelerden Sâlih Bey Torumtay vakfına mütevellî olmuşdu.
In Modern English
He was the son of Gürcüzâde Seyyid Mehmed Bey, one of the ayan of Amasya; Mehmed Bey was the son of Mustafa Pasha, who was the son of Hacı İbrâhim Bey, who was the son of Mehmed Bey. During the brilliant period of his uncle Seyyid Halîl Pasha bin Mustafa Pasha, he served him as treasurer and then as kethüda, and traveled through many lands. After 1211 [1796-97] he became chief ayan several times.
In Rabi al-Awwal 1222 [May 1807] he was made mütesellim of Amasya by his uncle's son Hâfız Ali Pasha; during Ali Pasha's term as grand admiral (kaptan-ı derya) he was also his kethüda and received the rank of kapıcıbaşı of the sublime court. When Ali Pasha was dismissed from the admiralty he became purchasing agent (mübayaacı) of Bursa, and he died there in 1227 [1812]. His sons are Şerîf Mehmed, Eşref Abdurrahman and Abdî Beys. Sâlih Bey, one of the Şerîf Beyzades, had become mütevelli of the Torumtay endowment.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- a'yân: the city's notables; baş a'yân: the official ayan who conducted affairs between the people and the state
- zaman-ı ikbâl: the brilliant period when fortune favored one and one held office
- hazînedâr: the man in charge of a pasha's money and goods
- kethüdâ: the deputy, steward, who conducted the affairs of a great state figure
- devr-i bilâd: traveling from land to land
- sâl: year
- ammizâde: the son of one's paternal uncle, cousin
- mütesellim: the official who governed a sanjak as deputy of the sanjak's holder
- kapudanlık: here kaptan-ı deryalık, the supreme command of the Ottoman fleet
- dergâh-ı âlî kapıcıbaşılığı: head of the palace gatekeepers; in this period also a rank given to provincial notables
- mübâya'acı: the official charged with purchasing grain and provisions on behalf of the state
- mütevellî: the administrator of a waqf
His Cousin Hâfız Ali Pasha
The person who is named in the entry and who determined the course of İbrâhim Bey's life is Hâfız Ali Pasha, the son of his uncle Halîl Pasha. In some lists of grand admirals this pasha's name is not found. But in the work Harîta-i Kapudânân-ı Deryâ, in which Râmizpaşazâde Mehmed İzzet Bey (d. 1853) collected the biographies of the Ottoman grand admirals, a separate entry is devoted to Hâfız Ali Pasha, and this entry confirms the information Hüsameddin gives. The work relates that the pasha was "from the people of Amasya", that after serving some viziers he became kapıcıbaşı, came to Istanbul and received the superintendency of the Ergani mines, and was then made governor of Trabzon with the rank of vizier.
According to the same work, Hâfız Ali Pasha became grand admiral in Jumada al-Thani 1225 [July 1810], in the reign of Mahmud II, in place of Çarkacı Ali Pasha, and sailed into the Black Sea with the fleet. After returning to Istanbul, because he fell prey to the passion of entering that prestigious kinship by marrying the high-ranking widow of the late Küçük Hüseyin Pasha, he was dismissed in the twelfth month and sent to the province of Vidin. In his place, in Shawwal 1226 [October-November 1811], Kara Mehmed Pasha, the former kethüda of Küçük Hüseyin Pasha, was brought. These dates agree with Hüsameddin's account: İbrâhim Bey became his cousin's kethüda during his roughly one-year admiralty, moved to the purchasing agency of Bursa after the pasha's dismissal in 1811, and died in Bursa in 1227 [1812].
From Ayan to Kapıcıbaşı
İbrâhim Bey's life shows the path followed by a member of one of Amasya's ayan families at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. He was first trained serving as treasurer and kethüda beside the family's elder, and on returning to the city was chosen chief ayan several times, and through a member of the family in state service was appointed mütesellim of Amasya. The mütesellimlik, as Yücel Özkaya notes, was in the eighteenth century a post that had largely passed into the hands of local dynasties; in some cases it was also given to the kapıcıbaşıs of the sublime court. İbrâhim Bey's receiving the rank of kapıcıbaşı in the same period fits this practice.
The Torumtay endowment named at the end of the entry is the endowment of Seyfeddin Torumtay, the governor of Amasya who had the tomb opposite the Gök Madrasa built in 1278; the tomb stands today. That Sâlih Bey, one of the grandsons, became mütevelli of this endowment shows that the Gürcüzades still took part in the administration of the city's old endowments in the nineteenth century. No information was found in other sources about the other members of the Gürcüzade family or about İbrâhim Bey's sons.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 6, pp. 69–70. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
- Yücel Özkaya, "Mütesellim", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mutesellim).
Official sources
- T.C. Amasya Belediyesi, "Torumtay Türbesi" (amasya.bel.tr).
Books
- Râmizpaşazâde Mehmed İzzet Bey, Harîta-i Kapudânân-ı Deryâ: Osmanlı Kaptanıderyaları (1352-1853), ed. Cemil Sağlam, Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı Yayınları, Istanbul 2021, pp. 183-184.