İskender Ağa (the Circassian)

In Modern English

He was a slave of Hacı Beyzâde Ahmed Pasha of Amasya, and when his master died he became a sipahi. He became famous by taking part in very many events and battles. For a time he was kethüda to Deli Zülfikâr Pasha. He died in 1031 [1621-22]. He was among the well-known sipahis.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• irtihâl: death, passing to the next world
• sipâhî: a mounted soldier in the Ottoman army; the name given both to one company of the kapıkulu cavalry and to mounted soldiers holding timars
• vak'a: event
• muhârebe: battle
• iştihâr: becoming famous
• kethüdâ: steward, an assistant who runs the affairs of a high official
• meşâhir: the well-known

What Becoming a Sipahi Meant

In the Ottoman state the word sipahi is used for two different groups. Among the kapıkulu cavalry the most esteemed of the six companies is the sipahi company; apart from these, mounted soldiers who held timars were also called sipahi and made up the largest part of the army. It cannot be understood from the text which group İskender Ağa, whom Hüsameddin records, belonged to. For the kapıkulu sipahis there is a clue: those who came from the service of a prominent person, and trained devshirme boys, could be admitted to the kapıkulu cavalry; this is a route consistent with a statesman's slave being enrolled as a sipahi after his master's death, but it cannot be said with certainty to be the same thing. The number of kapıkulu sipahis was 7,683 in 1609 and about 7,000 in the reign of Murad IV; unlike the janissaries they were allowed to marry, and their sons could be enrolled in the companies during their fathers' lifetime or after their death. Their salaries were paid in two forms, called sergili and taşralı; those in the provinces did not come to Istanbul at the salary distribution but handed their papers to colleagues or officers and received their pay through them. In peacetime they went out to collect state revenues such as the jizya, the sheep tax and mukataa dues. From the beginning of the seventeenth century the places where kapıkulu sipahis lived in the provinces spread to Morea, Salonica, Bosnia, Belgrade, Damascus, Amasya, Ankara and Kemah, and in the places where they lived they had officers called "sipah kethüda yeri."

Kethüda

The word kethüda has been used since the fifteenth century for the assistant of kazaskers, of neighborhood notables and of many state officials. For example, the kethüda of the kadı of Egypt was his secretary and attended the divan meetings together with his superior. Hüsameddin's record that he "was for a time kethüda to Deli Zülfikâr Pasha" suggests a similar post of trust, but the details of the post are not known.

The Year 1031

The year 1031, in which İskender Ağa died, has a place of its own in Ottoman history. In Rajab 1031 (May 1622) the young sultan Osman II was deposed by a rebellion of the janissaries and the learned class and was strangled at Yedikule. Rebellions by the kapıkulu sipahis were frequent in this period: the sipahis staged the Beylerbeyi Incident in 1589 and a new uprising in 1603, and rose again in 1648 and 1657. Because Hüsameddin does not state the cause of İskender Ağa's death, no connection with these events can be established; it can only be said that his death fell in these turbulent years.

What Could Not Be Verified

No information was found in other sources that İskender Ağa was of Circassian origin, that he was the slave of Hacı Beyzâde Ahmed Pasha of Amasya, or that he served as kethüda to Deli Zülfikâr Pasha. Searches for the identity of Hacı Beyzâde Ahmed Pasha and Deli Zülfikâr Pasha also gave no result; the records met under the name Zülfikâr Pasha belong to another period. The entry therefore remains limited to Hüsameddin's record.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 297. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

• "Sipahi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/sipahi
• "Kethüdâ", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kethuda