Amasya mahkemesi baş-kâtibi Fazlızâde el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi’nin [174] mahdûmudur. Amasya’da hutût-ı mütenevvi’ayı ta’lîm edib ilm ü ma’rifet öğrendi. Ba’dehû İstanbul’a gidip bir müddet mektûbî-yi sadâret kaleminde çalışıp hulefâdan olmuşdu.
Sonra Amasyalı Sarızâde Mehmed Paşa’nın vezâretinde dîvân efendisi olup ma’iyetinde devr-i bilâd etdi. Vezîr-i müşârün-ileyhin ser-askerliğinde nâ’il-i rütbe-i hâcegânî olup 1183 saferinde Paşa’nın Bender’de vefâtı ve zabt-ı muhallefâtı üzerine Amasya’ya geldi.
Bu esnâda Hicâz’a gidip avdetde Cânikli Hacı Ali Paşa’ya intisâb ederek muşarün ileyhin kâtib-i dîvânı olduğu hâlde 1191’de vefât etdi. Oldukça âlim, hattât, işgüzâr idi. Mahdûmu Mehmed Sa’îd Efendi Amasya a’yânındadır.
In Modern English
He was the son of Fazlızâde el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi, chief clerk of the Amasya court. In Amasya he learned various scripts and acquired learning and knowledge. Then he went to Istanbul, worked for a time in the grand vizier's correspondence bureau (sadaret mektubî kalemi) and had entered the ranks of the halifes.
Later, during the vizierate of Sarızâde Mehmed Pasha of Amasya, he became divan efendisi and travelled with him from city to city in his retinue. Although he attained the rank of hâcegân in the period when the said vizier was serasker, when the Pasha died at Bender in Safar 1183 [1769] and the property left behind was seized, he came to Amasya.
At this time he went to the Hejaz and, on his return, attached himself to Canikli Hacı Ali Pasha and, while divan clerk of the said man, died in 1191 [1777-78]. He was quite learned, a calligrapher and an industrious man. His son Mehmed Sa'îd Efendi is among the notables of Amasya.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- hutût-ı mütenevvia: various kinds of script (calligraphic styles)
- mektûbî-yi sadâret: the bureau that conducted the grand vizier's correspondence
- hulefâ: halifes, here assistant clerks in a bureau
- dîvân efendisi: the clerk who looked after a pasha's divan correspondence
- devr-i bilâd: going round the cities
- müşârün-ileyh: the said, the aforementioned
- ser-askerlik: supreme command
- rütbe-i hâcegânî: the hâcegân rank of the men of the bureaus
- zabt-ı muhallefât: seizure on behalf of the state of the property left by a deceased person
- intisâb: attachment
- kâtib-i dîvân: divan scribe
- işgüzâr: hard-working, capable
The Path of a Bureau Man
From the information Hüsameddin gives, it can be understood that Fazlızâde İbrahim Efendi, as the son of a clerk of the Amasya court, learned the art of writing and moved to the grand vizier's bureau in Istanbul and from there into the retinue of a pasha. When this man died in 1191, Canikli Hacı Ali Pasha, to whom he was attached, had taken the sanjak of Amasya as malikâne in 1772 and in 1773 had been brought to the vizierate, the seraskerate of Crimea and the sanjak of Trabzon. Hüsameddin's phrase "divan clerk of Canikli Hacı Ali Pasha" does not contradict the pasha's position in those years.
No information was found in the sources I read about Sarızâde Mehmed Pasha's death at Bender and his vizierate; the "Sarızâde of Amasya" family also could not be verified. No source was found about this person's father, the chief clerk of the Amasya court, about himself, about Mehmed Sa'îd Efendi, or about his calligraphy. The part of the entry concerning the Pasha should therefore be read as information resting only on Hüsameddin.
Bibliography