Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL
Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 7, p. 286 • Edited by: Prof. Dr. Safi ARPAGUŞ- Prof. Dr. Ahmet Hakkı TURABİ
Köprülüdür. Enderûn Sarayı’nda Bostancılar Ocağı’na girip tedrîcen terakkî ederek Odabaşı, ba’dehû Hasekî oldu. 1058 senesi recebinde cülûs vak’asında azledilip taşra çıkarıldı. Buradan Hicâz’a gitdi.
Avdetde devr-i hidemât ederek Kapıcıbaşı, 1075 cemâdelûlâsında Silahdâr Ağası, 1077’de Sipahiler Ağası olup Sadr-ı a’zam Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa’yı gücendirdiğinden 1078’de azledilip Boğaz Hisarı’na gönderildi. Ba’dehû vefât etdi.
He was from Köprü. Entering the Bostancı Corps in the Enderun Palace and rising gradually, he became odabaşı and then haseki. In the month of Receb of the year 1058 [August 1648], at the incident of the sultan's accession, he was dismissed from his post and sent out to the provinces. From there he went to the Hejaz.
On his return, serving in the posts in turn, he became kapıcıbaşı, in Cemâziyelevvel 1075 silahdar ağası, and in 1077 sipahiler ağası; because he had offended the grand vizier Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha, in 1078 [1667-68] he was dismissed and sent to Boğaz Hisarı. Then he died.
The word haseki was used in several senses in the palace organization; it occurs both for the women favored by the sultan and for military officials. The title İshak Ağa bore was that of the bostancı hasekis, a leading class of the Bostancı Corps who served in the outer part of the palace. About sixty of them were in the sultan's retinue and accompanied him when he went anywhere. The haseki who carried the grand vizier's written summaries to the sultan was called "vezir karakulağı". There were also hasekis who conveyed the sultan's secret orders to provincial governors. Among the bostancı hasekis, chosen from literate and capable men, some rose to high offices, even to the grand vizierate. Hüsameddin writes that İshak Ağa entered the Bostancılar Ocağı "in the Enderun Palace"; in the source read, the bostancı hasekis are described as a class serving in the outer (bîrun) part of the palace. The reason for this difference could not be determined.
The incident in which İshak Ağa was dismissed is the accession of Mehmed IV. Because of Sultan İbrahim's erratic behavior, his grandmother Kösem Sultan, with the consent of statesmen and Janissaries, had the seven-year-old Mehmed IV placed on the throne on 18 Receb 1058 [8 August 1648]. Because of the sultan's youth, power in the first eight years was shared among his grandmother, his mother and their supporters; the country was left in disorder in these years. The reason for İshak Ağa's dismissal is not stated in the sources; the date coincides with the beginning of this turbulent period.
In 1077, while sipahiler ağası, İshak Ağa offended the grand vizier Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha. Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha was born in 1635-36 in the town of Köprü (Vezirköprü), attached to Amasya, and was the son of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha; he served as grand vizier for more than fifteen years, spending about nine of them at the front. In his youth Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha had been a madrasa professor for nearly nine years. The reason for the offense is not mentioned in the sources. İshak Ağa too is "Köprülü", that is, from the same region as the grand vizier. There is no record of kinship or closeness between the two.
The kapıcıbaşıs were the second great officers of the gatekeepers, who handled the appointment, promotion and retirement of the gatekeepers. Besides the Divan and the sultan's services, they communicated beylerbeyi appointments, collected taxes and carried provisions and money to the army; they usually went out to provincial service as sanjak beys, sometimes as provincial governors. In the grand vizierate of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha the number of palace gatekeepers was reduced. The years in which İshak Ağa held this office are not stated by Hüsameddin.