AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · BİRİNCİ BÂB · ONUNCU FASIL · AMASYA TÂRÎHİ'NDEN ÜÇÜNCÜ DEVRE BAKİYYESİ

İshâk Pasha

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Remainder of Volume 4, p. 648–649 • Edited by: Prof. Dr. Mehmet ARSLAN

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Ahıshalıdır. Gürcü vüzerâdan olup 1157 rebî'ulâhirinin on ikisinde Amasya mutasarrıfı ve Anahdar ağası Hacı Mehmed Ağa Amasya mütesellimi oldu. Çünkü İshâk Paşa gâyet pîr olduğundan Amasya'ya gelemedi. Cemâziyelevvel gurresinde Fazlıoğlu'nun azliyle Hoca Paşazâde Hacı Ömer Ağa bin Osmân Bey şehir kethüdâsı oldu. Bu ayda mutasarrıfa Çıldır eyâleti verildi.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was from Akhaltsikhe (Ahıska). He was one of the viziers of Georgian origin. On the twelfth of Rebiulahir 1157 [1744] he became mutasarrıf of Amasya; the keeper of the keys, Hacı Mehmed Ağa, became mütesellim of Amasya, since İshak Pasha was very old and could not come to Amasya. On the first day of Cemaziyelevvel, Fazlıoğlu was removed from office and Hoca Paşazade Hacı Ömer Ağa bin Osman Bey became city kethüda in his place. In the same month the mutasarrıf was given the province of Çıldır.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • vüzerâ: viziers
  • gâyet pîr: very old
  • eyâlet: the large administrative unit governed by a beylerbeyi, made up of several sanjaks

The Elder İshak Pasha of the Atabegs of Akhaltsikhe

The vizier of whom Hüsameddin says that "he could not come to Amasya because he was very old" is İshak Pasha, from the Atabeg family of Georgian origin (the atabegs of Samtskhe) that governed Akhaltsikhe and Çıldır for generations. When the province of Çıldır was founded in 1579, its first beylerbeyi was Menûçihr, a member of this family who had become Muslim and taken the name Mustafa; the province also remained mostly in the hands of the same family in the following centuries. İshak Pasha's beylerbeyiship of Çıldır began in 1695 and, with interruptions in between, continued until 1748, that is, for more than fifty years. Mehmet Kazdal notes that during this long term of rule İshak Pasha grew into a regional figure through his relations first with local and then with western Georgian principalities such as Açıkbaş (Imereti). This information plainly confirms Hüsameddin's describing the pasha in 1744 as "very old."

According to local sources İshak Pasha served as governor of Çıldır between 1701 and 1737, and since the administration of the province of Tiflis was also given to him, he governed both provinces from Çıldır. Between 1737 and 1744 the province was governed by his son, the vizier Yusuf Pasha; in 1744 İshak Pasha became governor of Çıldır again and remained in this post until 1748. Hüsameddin's title "former governor of Tiflis" and his record that he passed to Çıldır right after Amasya agree exactly with this sequence. The same sources also record that he died after passing the age of a hundred; this figure could not be verified by a document, but the governorship of more than half a century shows that he really lived a very long time.

A Confusion of Names

In a study based on archival documents, among the pashas placed in 1744 under the orders of Ahmed Pasha, serasker of Kars, "Vizier İshak Pasha, governor of Trabzon" is also counted. It is possible that İshak Pasha, who held Amasya, was also associated with Trabzon within the same year, but there is not enough information to say this with certainty. The name of this family has misled historians elsewhere too. The İshak Pasha who built the famous İshak Pasha Palace at Doğubayazıt is another person who lived long after our vizier, in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Küçük İshak Pasha, one of the grandsons bearing the same name, was briefly governor of Çıldır in 1790. These namesakes have been confused with one another in some works; recent research based on archival documents has shown that İshak Pasha, governor of Çıldır, and İshak Pasha, sanjak bey of Bayezid, are separate persons.

No information was found in other sources about Hoca Paşazade Hacı Ömer Ağa and the keeper of the keys Hacı Mehmed Ağa, named in the entry.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, 4. Cildin Bakiyyesi, p. 648–649. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

Other sources

Remainder of Volume 4 contents