Amasyalıdır. Ümerâdan Şeyhî Bey bin Hasan Bey bin Mûsâ Bey’in mahdûmu ve el-Hâc Abdurrahman Bey’in birâderidir. Züamâdan olup sudûr-ı ilmiyyeden Kazasker Amasyalı Abdurrahman Efendi’nin kethüdâsı olarak İstanbul’da teayyün etdi.
969’da müşârün-ileyh ile beraber Mısır ve Hicâz’a gitdi. Avdetde efendisi yine Rûmeli Kazaskeri oldukda ikbâli parladı. Kudât ve müderrisînin merci’i olup 983 senesi rebîülevvelinde efendisinin vefâtından beş, altı ay sonra vefât etdi. Mahdûmları Ahmed, Abdurrahman, Abdurrahim Efendiler kibâr-ı ulemâ ve mevâlîdendir. [106]
In Modern English
He is from Amasya. He was the son of Şeyhî Bey, one of the beys; Şeyhî Bey was the son of Hasan Bey, and Hasan Bey the son of Mûsâ Bey. He was the brother of Hacı Abdurrahman Bey. He was among the zeamet holders. He distinguished himself in Istanbul as kethüda to Abdurrahman Efendi of Amasya, kazasker and one of the leading men of the learned class.
In 969 [1561-62] he went to Egypt and the Hijaz together with his aforementioned master. On their return, when his master became kazasker of Rumeli again, his fortunes rose. He became the point of appeal for judges and madrasa professors. He died in Rabi al-Awwal of 983, five or six months after the death of his master. His sons Ahmed, Abdurrahman and Abdurrahim Efendi were among the great scholars and mevâlî.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- ümerâ: beys, emirs
- züamâ: zeamet holders, the mounted military class holding fiefs of high annual revenue
- sudûr-ı ilmiyye: the leading men of the learned class
- kazasker: high judicial official who heard military and learned-class cases and handled the appointment of judges and madrasa professors
- kethüdâ: assistant, steward
- teayyün etmek: to emerge, to distinguish oneself, to become known
- ikbâl: rising fortune, advancement
- kudât: judges
- müderrisîn: müderris, madrasa professors
- merci': the office or person to whom one appeals
- mevâlî: the great judges, those in the upper ranks of the learned class
The Kazasker and His Kethüda
The office of kazasker became an institution under Fâtih Sultan Mehmed and, in the last year of his reign, was divided into the kazaskerships of Rumeli and Anatolia. When the office was divided, the kazasker of Rumeli was regarded as the first kazasker and looked after the affairs of the learned class in Rumeli, while the kazasker of Anatolia looked after those in Anatolia and Arabia. The kazaskers' main duty was to carry out the appointment, dismissal, transfer and promotion of the judges and madrasa professors of the country, and to hear sharia cases in the Imperial Council. Until the end of the sixteenth century kazasker appointments were made on the recommendation of the grand vizier; after that this authority passed to the şeyhülislam. Hüsameddin's remark that he "became the point of appeal for judges and madrasa professors" is probably connected with this power of appointment. The sources record that kazaskers, and even high-ranking judges, had kethüdas, and that expressions such as "kazasker kethüdası" and "neighborhood kethüda" have been in use since the fifteenth century. Kazaskers were given has revenues as income, and a daily allowance in akçe was set for those dismissed; in the early sixteenth century the has of the kazasker of Anatolia consisted of four villages, a market-inspection tax and the tax on twenty-one mills, totaling 122,519 akçe. When kazaskers came to the Imperial Council they were received together with the viziers and defterdars, and one of the three tables set after the council was reserved for them. On certain days of the week they held their own courts at their residences and heard cases, and the deputies at the residence helped them by hearing minor cases.
Abdurrahman Efendi of Amasya
The sources examined give no firm information on the identity of Hüsameddin's kazasker master. A list of the kazaskers of Rumeli contains the following record for a kazasker named Abdurrahman Efendi: he became kazasker of Rumeli in Shawwal 958 (October 1551), was dismissed on 20 Shawwal 964 (16 August 1557), later became kazasker of Rumeli again in Muharram 981, was dismissed in Rabi al-Awwal 983, and died three days later. This record appears consistent with Hüsameddin's statement that "his master became kazasker of Rumeli again" and with the date Rabi al-Awwal 983; however, the list does not say that this man was from Amasya, and the order of deaths does not match Hüsameddin's: while Hüsameddin places the kethüda's death five or six months after his master's, in the record the master's death already falls in Rabi al-Awwal 983. For this reason it could not be verified that the two records point to the same person.
İskender Bey's Circle
İskender Bey's father Şeyhî Bey and his forebears, his brother Hacı Abdurrahman Bey, and the nickname "Begtemuroğlu" could not be found in other sources. From Hüsameddin's counting his sons among "the great scholars and mevâlî," it appears that the children of a zeamet-holding father entered the learned profession. It is known that one could pass from the madrasa path into the military class and become a zeamet holder; this record shows the opposite direction, children from a zeamet family rising in the learned class. The sources examined contain no detail on the journey to the Hijaz and Egypt.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 296. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies