Amasyalıdır. Sultân Selîm Hân ile beraber Trabzon’a giden ümerâdan Mustafa Bey bin Kâsım Bey bin Hamza Bey bin İsa bin Yahşî Bey’in mahdûmudur. Yahşî Bey, sadr-ı esbak Bâyezîd Paşa’nın pederi olan zâtdır.
Pederinin vefâtında Sultân Selîm Hân-ı evvelin ma’iyyet-i ümerâsından olup Trabzon’a yerleşti. Müşârün-ileyhin cülûsunda Mîrlivâ olup Çaldıran harbinde ibrâz-ı şecâat ederek ağır zeâmetlerle taltîf edildi. Ba’dehû Trabzon beyi oldu.
923’de Erzincan beyi, 925’de Erzurum vilâyeti Beylerbeyi olarak nâil-i terakkî oldu. 926’da Trabzon, 929’da Sivas, 930’da yine Trabzon ve 933’de sâniyen Sivas Beylerbeyi oldu.
934’de yine Trabzon Beylerbeyi olarak avdet edib 936’da Trabzon’da binâ eylediği hayrâtının vakfiyesini tanzîm etdirdi. 942’de Trabzon’da [104] vefât etdi. Orada câmii hazîresinde medfûndur. Mahdûmu Mustafa Bey ve birâderi Yahşî Beyzâde Ahmed Paşa’dır.
In Modern English
He is from Amasya. He was the son of Mustafa Bey, one of the beys who went to Trabzon with Sultan Selim Khan; Mustafa Bey was the son of Kâsım Bey, Kâsım Bey the son of Hamza Bey, Hamza Bey the son of İsa, and İsa the son of Yahşî Bey. Yahşî Bey was the father of the former grand vizier Bâyezîd Pasha.
On his father's death he settled in Trabzon as one of the beys in the retinue of Sultan Selim I. At that sultan's accession he became mirliva (sanjak bey), and by showing valor at the Battle of Çaldıran he was rewarded with high-income zeamets. Later he became bey of Trabzon.
In 923 [1517-18] he rose to bey of Erzincan, and in 925 [1519-20] to beylerbeyi of the province of Erzurum. In 926 he became beylerbeyi of Trabzon, in 929 of Sivas, in 930 again of Trabzon, and in 933 for the second time of Sivas.
In 934 he returned once more as beylerbeyi of Trabzon, and in 936 [1529-30] he had the waqf deed drawn up for the charitable works he had built in Trabzon. He died in Trabzon in 942 [1535-36]. He is buried there, in the cemetery of the mosque. His son was Mustafa Bey and his brother was Yahşî Beyzâde Ahmed Pasha.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- ümerâ: beys, emirs
- mîrlivâ: sanjak bey
- zeâmet: a high-income grant of land revenue given in return for state service
- ibrâz-ı şecâat: to show valor
- taltîf: rewarding, granting a favor
- beylerbeyi: governor at the head of a province made up of several sanjaks
- hayrât: charitable works
- hazîre: cemetery, burial ground around a mosque
- medfûn: buried
The İskender Pasha Mosque in Trabzon
The mosque in what is today the İskenderpaşa neighborhood of Trabzon appears in the records under its first name, "Cami-i Merhum İskender Paşa." According to the building's inscription it was built in 936 (1529-30) by İskender Pasha, then governor of Trabzon; the date 936 given by Hüsameddin agrees with this, but the document he mentions is the waqf deed. Another study states that the waqf deed that survives today dates from two years after the mosque, 938 (1531), and that the mosque is first mentioned in the Trabzon tax register of 1553 as the "Mosque of the Late İskender Pasha." The dates in circulation for the construction also differ: besides 1529, based on the inscription, a study of the İskender Pasha buildings in Trabzon places the mosque in 1533. The mosque belongs to a complex that also included a fountain, a madrasa and a Dârülkurrâ (Qur'an-reciters' school), neither of which has survived. Built of cut stone, with a single-balcony minaret, it carries repair inscriptions dated 1291, 1300 and 1315 in the hijri calendar (1874-75, 1882-83, 1897-98). Among written sources, Âşık Mehmed describes the mosque in the 1590s as a stone building with a lead-covered, single-piece dome, and Evliya Çelebi in 1640 calls it a mosque with a single blue dome. The mosque is still open for worship today.
On the Years of His Governorships
The posts Hüsameddin lists do not fully match the account in a work on the history of Trabzon. According to a study that relies on that work, İskender Pasha was appointed governor of Trabzon four times: first between 1512 and 1513, then between 1518 and 1520 and between 1521 and 1523, and finally in 1526-33, a term he held until his death, and the mosque was built during that last governorship. Hüsameddin, by contrast, lists Erzincan and Erzurum and then Sivas, and places his death in 942 (1535-36). The sources examined confirm neither the Erzincan, Erzurum nor Sivas posts, nor do they state separately that this pasha of Trabzon was from Amasya; his tie to Amasya and his genealogy therefore rest, at this stage, on Hüsameddin's record alone.
Yahşî Bey and Bâyezîd Pasha
Bâyezîd Pasha, the son of Yahşî Bey at the head of the genealogy, was made grand vizier and beylerbeyi of Rumeli by Çelebi Mehmed in 1413. His father's name was Yahşî; because he was born in Amasya the sources call him Amasyalı, and an Albanian origin is also considered likely. He was among Çelebi Mehmed's close retinue during Mehmed's governorship of Amasya and remained loyal to him in the Interregnum. At Çelebi Mehmed's death he concealed it for forty days, as the sultan had willed, until his son Prince Murad arrived; after Murad II took the throne he was sent against Düzmece Mustafa and was killed near Edirne in 1421. The mosque, imaret and madrasa he built in Amasya have waqf deeds dated 1418 and 1420. The sources also mention his brother Hamza Bey as one of the sea beys, but it is not stated whether he is the same person as the Hamza Bey in the genealogy Hüsameddin gives.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 295–296. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
Official sources
Other sources