[129] Amasya‘nın Sığır Pazarı altında câmi-i şerîf binâ eden Hâce Pîr Mehmed Çelebi ahfâdından ve Amasya a’yânından el-Hâc Hüseyin Ağa bin el-Hâc Ahmed Ağa bin bâni-i câmi Hâce Pîr Mehmed Çelebi mahdûmudur. Pederinin hayâtında Sipâhi ve irtihâlinde ceddi vakfına mütevellî oldu.
Hayli muhârebâta iştirâk ederek terakkî görüp Amasya mukâtaât emîni, ba’dehû Tokat voyvadası ve Amasya beytü’l-mâl emîni, daha sonra Amasya Sancâğı mütesellimi oldu. 1010 senesinde Sivas Defterdârı olup Karayazıcı ihtilâlinde emvâl-i mîriyyeyi muhâfazaya çalışdı.
1013’de erbâb-ı ihtilâl ile hayli çarpışdı. 1016’da Trabzon Defterdârı olup Murâd Hânlular’ın zimmetlerine geçen emvâl-i devleti tahsîl ve müsâdere edilen emlâk ve emvâlin bey’inde müstakîmâne hareket ederek hizmet etdi. 1021’de tekâüd edilip beş yıl kadar Amasya‘da ikâmet ve 1026’da rihlet etdi. Erbâb-ı nüfûz ve servetten bir zât idi.
In Modern English
He is a descendant of Hâce Pîr Mehmed Çelebi, who built the mosque below the Sığır Pazarı of Amasya, and the son of el-Hâc Hüseyin Ağa, one of the notables of Amasya; Hüseyin Ağa was the son of el-Hâc Ahmed Ağa, who in turn was the son of the mosque's founder Hâce Pîr Mehmed Çelebi. He became a sipahi in his father's lifetime and, after his father's death, trustee of his ancestor's [grandfather's] waqf.
He rose by taking part in many battles. He became Amasya muqata'a steward, then voivode of Tokat and steward of the Amasya bayt al-mal, and afterwards deputy governor of the Sanjak of Amasya. In 1010 [1601-02] he became defterdar of Sivas and tried to protect the state's property during the Karayazıcı rebellion.
In 1013 [1604-05] he fought the rebels at length. In 1016 [1607-08] he became defterdar of Trabzon and recovered the state property that the Murâd Hânlular had taken possession of; he served by acting honestly in the sale of the confiscated estates and goods. In 1021 [1612-13] he was retired, lived in Amasya for about five years, and died in 1026 [1617]. He was a man of influence and wealth.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- ahfâd: grandchildren, continuation of a line
- a'yân: notables of a town
- cedd: ancestor, grandfather
- mütevellî: the person who administers a waqf
- mukâtaât emîni: official in charge of the units (muqata'as) into which state revenues were let out as a whole
- voyvoda: official responsible for the taxes and order of a district
- beytü'l-mâl emîni: official who managed the property of those without heirs and property reverting to the state
- mütesellim: deputy of a sanjak bey
- defterdâr: head of the financial affairs of a region
- erbâb-ı ihtilâl: rebels
- emvâl-i mîriyye: state property
- zimmetine geçirmek: to appropriate to one's own account
- müsâdere: seizure in the name of the state
- bey': sale
- tekâüd: retirement
- rihlet etmek: to die
Pîr Mehmed Çelebi and the Sığır Pazarı Mosque
The entry is headed İsmâil Ağa; the text does not name him directly but lists his lineage. At the head of the chain of four generations, Pîr Mehmed Çelebi appears in the account of the neighborhoods in the first volume as the son of Hoca Süleyman Çelebi, who built the Samanpazarı Mosque in 878 [1473-74]. Çelebi had a mosque with a minaret built on the east side, by the stream, below the "Sığır Pazarı", and arranged its endowments in 913 [1507-08]; his wife Kamer Hâtun also endowed parts (eczâ) to this mosque. In the cemeteries section of the same volume, it is written that in Selağzı, in a small walled graveyard west of the Sığır Pazarı Mosque, the mosque's founder "Pîr Hoca el-Hâc Mehmed Çelebi" and his wife Kamer Hâtun are buried, as is understood from court records. In a separate entry in the seventh volume, it is told that İskender Çelebi, who married Pîr Mehmed Çelebi's daughter, later became defterdar of Anatolia; a great fortune is said to have passed to him on his father-in-law's death. Pîr Mehmed Çelebi is counted in that entry among the "famous wealthy men". The description "a man of influence and wealth" that the text uses for İsmâil Ağa is consistent with this family background. The text does not say which ancestor's waqf the "waqf of his forebear" was, of which he became trustee; the waqf mentioned in the book may be the one Pîr Mehmed Çelebi arranged in 913, but this inference does not rest on the text.
The name Sığır Pazarı also appears in a study listing the bazaars and markets of Amasya in the mid-nineteenth century; the same study also lists a "Sığır pazarı Madrasa" among the madrasas with no recorded students or teaching staff. Which structure stands in this area today, or the link between the mosque and a present-day neighborhood name, could not be found in the sources searched.
The Karayazıcı Rebellion and Amasya
The event in which the text places İsmâil Ağa is the rebellion of Karayazıcı Abdülhalim. Abdülhalim, called Karayazıcı or Yazıcı in the sources, began as a cavalryman of the six divisions in the years when order broke down in Anatolia during the Ottoman-Austrian wars, became head of the local levies around Malatya, gathered bands of levends around himself, and is known as the first Celâlî to proclaim his sovereignty in Anatolia, under the title Halim Şah. He had a force of about 20,000 sekbans. Among the main Celâlî chiefs who gathered around him are counted his brother Deli Hasan and Deli Zülfikar of Amasya. When Karayazıcı was besieged at Urfa, on the promise that the sanjak of Amasya or Antep would be given to him, he handed his partner Hüseyin Pasha over to the government; he was later appointed bey of the sanjak of Çorum, and when he was accused of oppressing the people in Çorum, a force marched against him. Sokulluzâde Hasan Pasha defeated him at Sepetli near Elbistan on 12 Safar 1010 [12 August 1601]; Karayazıcı withdrew wounded to the Canik mountains, and news of his death reached Istanbul in Ramadan 1010 [February-March 1602]. His brother Deli Hasan took his place, and the rebellion was pacified by granting him a beylerbeylik.
The year 1010, in which İsmâil Ağa was defterdar of Sivas, falls right in the middle of these events. Hüsameddin touches on the same year elsewhere in the book: according to the entry Ahmed Paşa-Yularkısdızâde in the sixth volume, this Amasya-born pasha, who was governor of Sivas, was defeated and taken prisoner in Muharram 1010 when the Karayazıcı band attacked Sivas. It thus appears that these two men from Amasya were in the same city in the same year; the book draws no direct link between them. The encyclopedic entry that draws the general picture of the movement Hüsameddin calls the "Karayazıcı rebellion" ties the revolts to an economic background: the third and most destructive wave of the Celâlî revolts began at the end of the sixteenth century, the silver content of the akçe was cut by 44 percent in the great debasement of 1586, and the people's purchasing power fell by nearly half.
What Could Not Be Verified
No information was found in the sources read on İsmâil Ağa's battles in 1013, his defterdarship of Trabzon in 1016, or the goods the "Murâd Hânlular" appropriated. It also could not be understood which group the expression "Murâd Hânlular" refers to; it has been left as it stands in the text in the translation. No other written source was found either on the details of the Amasya muqata'a stewardship and bayt al-mal stewardship, or on the trusteeship of Pîr Mehmed Çelebi's waqf.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 303. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 1, pp. 116–123 (Mukaddime, Pîr Mehmed Çelebi Mosque) and pp. 137–141 (Mukaddime, Pîr Mehmed Çelebi Tomb); vol. 6, pp. 149–150 (Ahmed Paşa-Yularkısdızâde); vol. 7, pp. 294–295 (İskender Çelebi-Yenicelizâde).
Other sources
- "XIX. Yüzyıl Ortalarında Amasya Şehrinin Sosyo-Ekonomik Yapısı", online study (section on the bazaars and markets of Amasya).