Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · İKİNCİ BÂB · BİRİNCİ FASIL
Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Volume 7, p. 316 • Edited by: Prof. Dr. Safi ARPAGUŞ- Prof. Dr. Ahmet Hakkı TURABİ
Köprü yeniçerilerinden alemdâr Ali Ağa’nın oğludur. Bu da yeniçeri olup Rumeli muhârebâtında bulunarak Tırnova’da ikâmet etdi. Sonra orada fevkalade [171] nüfûz ve teayyün kazanıp Tırnova Voyvadası oldu.
Umûr-ı mâliyede hıdemâtı ve umûr-ı idârede liyâkatı takdîr edilerek kapıcıbaşılık rütbesiyle taltîf edildi. İki yıl kadar Sofya mütesellimi olup 1181 senesi hudûdunda vefât etdi. Gâyet zî-nüfûz ve servet bir kimse idi. Mahdûmu el-Hâc İbrâhim Ağa’dır.
He was the son of Ali Ağa, a standard-bearer of the janissaries of Köprü. He too became a janissary, took part in the Rumeli wars and settled in Tırnova. There he later gained extraordinary influence and standing and became Voyvoda of Tırnova.
His services in financial affairs and his ability in administration were appreciated, and he was honored with the rank of kapıcıbaşı. He served for about two years as mütesellim (deputy governor) of Sofia and died around 1181 [1767-68]. He was a man of great influence and wealth. His son was Hacı İbrahim Ağa.
A voyvoda was a collector of large tax revenues. The main thing that distinguishes him from the muhassıl and the mütesellim is that he could collect not only timar and zeamet revenues but also taxes belonging to the central treasury and to waqfs. Voyvodas who collected taxes on behalf of the treasury were also responsible for sending the revenue to the spending areas the treasury designated; sending the salaries of fortress troops, procuring provisions and animals and, from the middle of the eighteenth century, dispatching troops were among these tasks. In extraordinary war conditions they could also be expected to meet expenses from their own fortunes. It is argued that mütesellimlik and voyvodalık played a part in the emergence of powerful and wealthy families in the provinces. Hüsameddin's statement that İsmâil Ağa was a man of "influence and wealth" fits this framework.
In the Ottoman period (1393-1878) Tırnova was the center of a district (kaza) in the sanjak of Niğbolu, and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it had a large Muslim Turkish population. According to a waqf survey register prepared in 1710, the city was the waqf of Gülnûş Emetullah Sultan, mother of Mustafa II and Ahmed III, and 506 Muslim and 411 Christian adult males were recorded at that time. The avarız register of 1164 [1751] shows 886 households in fourteen Muslim quarters and 314 households in seven Christian quarters, with a population of about 5,500 to 5,700. Silk-making had developed in the city, and wine production formed the base of its economy. İsmâil Ağa's rise to influence and the voyvodalık in Tırnova are conceivable within this large Muslim community; which waqf or revenue his voyvodalık concerned is not clear from the text.
In the later centuries the kapıcıbaşılık was also granted as a rank or title, and was conferred even on some ayan; kapıcıbaşıs could also be given tasks such as tax collection and carrying provisions and money for the army. Hüsameddin's phrase "honored with the rank of kapıcıbaşı" fits this practice.
Which place "Köprü" refers to is not clear from the text; no information was found in the sources read on the identity of Köprülü İsmâil Ağa, his voyvodalık in Tırnova, his post as mütesellim of Sofia or his son Hacı İbrahim Ağa.