Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL
Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 7, p. 296 • Edited by: Prof. Dr. Safi ARPAGUŞ- Prof. Dr. Ahmet Hakkı TURABİ
Amasyalıdır. Kudâtdan Hızır Çelebi bin Seydî Ali Çelebi mahdûmudur. Bakiyye-i nesebi mahdûmu İsfendiyar Çelebi tercemesinde geçti. Şehzâde Sultân Mustafa’ya Amasya vâlisi iken intisâb ederek defterdârı oldu.
960 senesi şevvâlinde Müşârün-ileyhin şehâdetinde Sivas defterdârı, ba’dehû Amasya darbhânesi emîni olup hayli müddet bu me’mûriyette kaldı. 986 senesi hilâlinde vefât etdi. Umûr-ı hisâbiyede mâhir idi. Mahdûmları Ahmed, Şa’bân, Pîr Veli, İsfendiyar, Ya’kub Çelebilerdir.
He is from Amasya. He was the son of Hızır Çelebi, one of the judges, who was the son of Seydî Ali Çelebi. The rest of his lineage is given in the biography of his son İsfendiyar Çelebi. While Prince Sultan Mustafa was governor of Amasya he attached himself to him and became his defterdar.
In Shawwal 960, when the aforementioned prince was put to death [1553], he became defterdar of Sivas, and afterward warden (emin) of the Amasya mint, remaining in that post for a long time. He died in early 986 [1578-79]. He was skilled in accounting. His sons were Ahmed, Şa'bân, Pîr Veli, İsfendiyar and Ya'kub Çelebi.
Prince Mustafa, the eldest son of Süleyman the Magnificent, served as sanjak bey at Manisa from 1533 to 1541 and at Amasya from 16 June 1541 until his death. At Amasya he is said to have won a reputation as a patron of poetry and learning, a protector of the people and a dispenser of justice. When he was transferred to Amasya his annual income was considerably increased; his son Prince Mehmed was born in Amasya in 1546 and his daughter Şah Sultan around 1547. In 1548, when Süleyman set out on his Iranian campaign, he summoned him from Amasya and kept him by his side for several days. The prince was executed on 6 October 1553 in the camp near Ereğli, in Konya, during Süleyman's Nakhchivan campaign; his tomb is in the Muradiye Complex in Bursa. This is the event Hüsameddin refers to with the word "şehâdet," and the Shawwal 960 he gives fits this date. Until the middle of the sixteenth century Amasya was one of the principal centers where princes gained administrative experience; after Mustafa was killed, the importance of the princely sanjaks closer to Istanbul grew, Amasya lost this character because it was far from the capital, and Manisa came to the fore as the only princely sanjak. According to the account of a traveler who came to the city in 1555, the prince's palace was a simple one-story brick building with a garden around it at the foot of the mountain, and the city then had eleven mosques. At the end of the sixteenth century Amasya still had fifty-five neighborhoods and its population had reached about 10,000.
The defterdar is the official responsible for financial affairs; Hüsameddin's remark that İskender Çelebi was "skilled in accounting" is consistent with the defterdarship and wardenship he lists. The mint warden is the person who audits the accounts of coinage. Ottoman mints were generally farmed out, that is, their operation was awarded to a tax farmer. The farming term (tahvil) was three years; the striking of gold, silver and copper coin counted as separate mukataas, and if no one bid, the mint was run on trust by the state. Officials called "emin" could be appointed by the state alongside the tax farmer's clerks to check the accounts. Coinage at Amasya is old: under the sons of Yıldırım Bayezid coins were struck at Amasya together with Bursa, Edirne, Serres and Ayasuluk. Hüsameddin says İskender Çelebi remained in this post "for a long time"; however, because the sources examined contain no detail on when, and with what coins, the Amasya mint operated in the sixteenth century, the scope of the post cannot be known. The Amasya Museum preserves many Ottoman-period coins, including gold coins from the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent, but it is not stated that these belong to the Amasya mint.
No information was found in other sources on the life of İskender Çelebi, his father Hızır Çelebi or his grandfather Seydî Ali Çelebi. No external confirmation was found that İskender Çelebi served as defterdar of Prince Mustafa, then as defterdar of Sivas and warden of the Amasya mint; this information rests on Hüsameddin's record.
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