Amasya ümerâsından ve birinci Melik İsmâil Gâzi ahfâdından el-Hâc Bayram Bey bin Süleyman Gâzi bin Melik Yunus Gâzi Bey’in mahdûmudur. Ceddi Melik Gâzi vakfına mütevellî ve Çelebi Sultân Mehmed Hân devrinde ümerâdan olup 818’de Amasya Vâlisi olan Şehzâde Sultân Murâd’ın vezîri ve lalası oldu.
Amasya hükümdârı el-Hâc Şadgeldi Paşa’nın dâmâdı olan el-Hâc Osmân Paşa bin Selamiş Bey’in kerîmesi Sitti Paşa Hâtun ile evlendi. Çelebi Sultân’ın mu’temedi olup Amasya vilâyetini idârede Sultân Murâd’a muîn oldu. 822 [119] senesi cumâdelâhiresinin ikinci günü kırk iki yaşında vefât etdi.
Âlim, âkil, müdebbir bir zât-ı necîb idi. Amasya‘da zâviyesi, mescidi ve evkâfı vardır. Mahdûmları Ahmed, Yûsuf, Yunus Beylerdir. Melik Ahmed Bey kendisinden sonra 825 senesi şa’bânında onbeş yaşında vefât edib yanında medfûndur. Kerîmeleri İhsan Paşa, Hüsnâ Paşa, Şâhruz Hâtunlardır.
Bu zâtın vakfı mütevellîsi Sünbülzâde el-Hâc Mehmed Tâhir Efendi ceddi olan Gâzi Bey’in türbesini Yörgüç Paşa İmâreti ittisâlinde kâin mezârlığın şarkında zâviyesi ittisâlinde göstermişti. Gösterilen kabrin bir kitâbesi olmadığı cihetle pek de i’timâd edemedim.
1323 senesi rebîülevvel’nde bir gece âlem-i ma’nâda uzunca boylu, takrîben kırkbeş yaşlarında gâyet yakışıklı, eski kıyafetli bir zâtı Halfet Gâzi Türbesi’nin şarkında kâin arsada gördüm. Bana beşûşâne iltifât ederek, “Melik Gâzi kabrini bulabildin mi?” diye sordu. “Hayır” cevabını verdim. Kendisinin Melik Gâzi olduğunu beyân ederek; “benim kabrim [120] işte buradadır” dedi. Mezkûr arsanın garb tarafında geniş bir dâire çizdi. “Bu arsa zâviye ve mescidimin arsasıdır” diyerek gözümün önünden gâib oldu. Müteâkıben hayretle uyandım. Sabah ezânı okunuyordu.
Derhal yatakdan kalktım. Sultân Bâyezîd câmi-i şerîfine gitdim. Namazı edâdan sonra hâneme gitmeden biri kazmacı ve diğeri kürekci olarak iki rençber tuttum. Beraberce o zâtın bana gösterdiği arsaya gitdim. Çizdiği dâireyi kazdırdım.
Takrîben bir metre derinlikde bir kabir taşı bulundu. Bu kabrin her tarafını eşdirdim. Kabri meydana çıkardım. Taşda mahkûk olan şu kitâbeyi buldum. Tam aradığım Melik Gâzi’nin türbesi olduğunu anladım. Kitâbe şudur:
Kabrin üst taşı üzerinde:
نزلنا هاهنا ثم إرتحلنا كذا الدنيا نزول و ارتحال¹¹⁵
Baş tarafında;
هذا مرقد العالم الكبير الوزير الخطير ملك إسماعيل بن حاجى بيرام بك¹¹⁶
Yan tarafında;
قد وصل الوزير المرحومملك إسماعيل الى رحمة ربه وهو ابن اثنى واربعين زيدت [121] رحمته¹¹⁷
Ayak tarafında;
قد اقدم بنقل دار الفناء الى دار البقاء في ثانى جمادى األخرة سنة اثنى و عشرين وثمانمائة¹¹⁸
Sübhanallah! Bu kabir, Melik Gâzi’nin rüyâmda tam ayak bastığı yerin altında çıktı. Bu kabrin sol tarafında mahdûmu Melik Ahmed Bey’in kabri bulundu. Kitabesi şudur:
Üst kapağı üzerinde:
کوديد كه در عمر تو نمناك نشد
تا جست كه در خاتم تو چاك نشد
سوکند بجان تو از بشت زمين
مثل تو شهى در شكم خاك نشد¹¹⁹
Baş tarafında;
وصل الشاب المعصوم ملك أحمد وهو ابن خمسة عشر سنة¹²⁰
Yan tarafında;
من دار الفناء الى دار البقاء نقل الى رحمة هللا تعالى فى شهر شعبان سنة خمس و عشرين و ثمانمائة¹²¹
Melik Gâzi’nin kabri etrafında diğer evlâdının kabri de olması melhûz olduğundan hafriyâta devam edilirken define aradığım hükûmete ihbâr edilmiş, gelen polisin [122] müdâhalesiyle hitâm verilmişdir.
Melik İsmâil Bey’in diğer mahdûmu Melik Yûsuf Bey de 837’de vefât etmişdir. Öbür mahdûmu Melik Yunus Bey kibâr-ı ümerâdandır. Bunun mahdûmu da Melik Ahmed Bey’dir. Tercemesi yukarıda yazılan kâdı’l-haremeyn Melik es-Seyyid Ahmed Efendi bin Mazlum Melik es-Seyyid Abdal Mehmed Çelebi bunun hafîdidir.
In Modern English
He was from Amasya. He was the son of el-Hâc Bayram Bey son of Süleyman Gâzi son of Melik Yunus Gâzi Bey, one of the emirs of Amasya and a descendant of the first Melik İsmâil Gâzi. He was administrator of the waqf of his grandfather Melik Gâzi. In the time of Çelebi Sultan Mehmed Khan he was one of the emirs, and in 818 [1415-16] he became vizier and lala of Prince Sultan Murâd, who was governor of Amasya.
He married Sitti Pasha Hatun, daughter of el-Hâc Osmân Pasha son of Selamiş Bey, who was the son-in-law of el-Hâc Şadgeldi Pasha, ruler of Amasya. He was a trusted man of Çelebi Sultan and helped Sultan Murâd in governing the province of Amasya. He died at the age of forty-two on the second day of Cumâdelâhire 822 [1419].
He was a learned, wise, prudent and noble man. He has a zâviye, a mosque and waqfs in Amasya. His sons were Ahmed, Yûsuf and Yunus Bey. Melik Ahmed Bey died after his father, in Şa'bân 825 [1422], aged fifteen, and is buried beside him. His daughters were İhsan Pasha, Hüsnâ Pasha and Şâhruz Hatun.
The administrator of this man's waqf, Sünbülzâde el-Hâc Mehmed Tâhir Efendi, had pointed out the tomb of his ancestor Gâzi Bey in the cemetery adjoining the Yörgüç Pasha Imaret, to the east of it, next to his zâviye. Since the grave pointed out had no inscription, I could not quite trust it.
In the month of Rebîülevvel 1323 [1905], one night in a dream I saw a tall, roughly forty-five-year-old, very handsome man in old-fashioned clothes on the plot of land east of the tomb of Halfet Gâzi. Greeting me warmly, he asked, "Have you been able to find the grave of Melik Gâzi?" I answered, "No." Saying that he was Melik Gâzi, he said, "My grave is right here." On the west side of the plot he drew a wide circle. Saying "This plot is the site of my zâviye and mosque," he vanished from before my eyes. Immediately afterwards I woke in amazement. The morning call to prayer was being recited.
I got up from bed at once. I went to the Sultan Bâyezîd Mosque. After performing the prayer, without going home, I hired two workmen, one with a pickaxe and the other with a shovel. Together we went to the plot that man had shown me. I had the circle he had drawn dug up.
At a depth of about one metre a gravestone was found. I had every side of this grave dug out. I uncovered the grave. I found the following inscription cut into the stone. I understood that this was exactly the tomb of Melik Gâzi that I was looking for. The inscription is as follows:
On the upper stone of the grave:
"We stayed here, then moved on; the world is likewise a place of lodging and departure." The Arabic phrase meaning this.
At the head:
"This is the resting place of the great scholar, the mighty vizier Melik İsmâil son of Hacı Bayram Bey." The Arabic phrase meaning this.
On the side:
"The late vizier Melik İsmâil, may his mercy be abundant, reached the mercy of his Lord at the age of forty-two." The Arabic phrase meaning this.
At the foot:
"On the second day of Cumâdelâhire in the year 822 he passed from the abode of perishing to the abode of permanence." The Arabic phrase meaning this.
Glory be to God! This grave was found exactly under the spot where Melik Gâzi had stepped in my dream. To the left of this grave the grave of his son Melik Ahmed Bey was found. Its inscription is as follows:
On the upper lid, a Persian quatrain whose meaning is as follows:
Whoever followed behind your seal, his eye did not remain dry.
I swear by your life that the soil of the earth has not taken in a ruler like you.
At the head:
"The innocent young man Melik Ahmed arrived, at the age of fifteen." The Arabic phrase meaning this.
On the side:
"He passed from the abode of perishing to the abode of permanence; he was committed to the mercy of God in the month of Şa'bân in the year 825." The Arabic phrase meaning this.
Since the graves of his other children were expected to lie around Melik Gâzi's grave, while the excavation was continuing it was reported to the government that I was searching for treasure; the excavation was ended by the intervention of the police who came.
Melik İsmâil Bey's other son, Melik Yûsuf Bey, also died in 837 [1433-34]. His other son, Melik Yunus Bey, was one of the great emirs. His son was Melik Ahmed Bey. Kadı of the Two Holy Cities Melik es-Seyyid Ahmed Efendi son of Mazlum Melik es-Seyyid Abdal Mehmed Çelebi, whose life is written above, is his grandson.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- ümerâ: emirs, beys
- ahfâd: grandsons, the continuation of a line
- mütevellî: the person responsible for managing a waqf
- lala: the responsible tutor and vizier who stayed beside a prince for his upbringing and for affairs of government
- mu'temed: a trusted person
- muîn: helper
- zâviye: a small lodge where dervishes and travellers stayed
- evkâf: waqfs
- âlem-i ma'nâ: the world of dreams
- kitâbe: text carved in stone
- rençber: day labourer
- hafriyât: excavation
- hafîd: grandson
Prince Murad and Amasya
The "Şehzâde Sultân Murâd" of the text is the prince who would later ascend the throne as Murad II. He was born in Amasya in June 1404; that his mother was the daughter of Divitdâr Ahmed Pasha, one of Amasya's notables, we know as information passed on from Hüsameddin's own work. When he turned twelve he was sent to Amasya with the administration of the province of Rum, which covered the regions of Amasya, Tokat, Sivas, Çorum and Osmancık. The year of his appointment is given differently in the sources: one source says 1414, twelve years of age counted from his birth falls around 1416, and Hüsameddin writes 818 [1415-16]. The difference of a year or two may relate to how the prince's age was reckoned.
The young prince had been given Yörgüç Pasha as his lala. A year later Murad was sent with the Amasya forces towards Saruhan and İzmir to put down the Börklüce Mustafa rebellion, and the Mongol nomads around Amasya caused disorder in his absence. Between 1417 and 1421, together with his new atabeg, the beylerbeyi of Rum Hamza Bey, he took Samsun from İsfendiyaroğlu. In the sources the name that stands out as the prince's lala is Yörgüç Pasha; Hüsameddin's also calling Melik İsmâil "vizier and lala" shows that this office is also asserted for a local bey. No other source was found confirming this office of Melik İsmâil.
Who Is Melik Gazi?
In Amasya the name Melik Gazi is attached to two different people. The first is Melik Gazi of the Danişmendid dynasty; the mosque he had built just east of the city's castle, on the site of today's Şamlar Mosque, is pointed to as Amasya's oldest Turkish building. The second is the Melik İsmâil of the early fifteenth century whom Hüsameddin describes here and counts among "the descendants of the first Melik İsmâil Gâzi". The phrase in the text "the waqf of his grandfather Melik Gâzi" says that the family administered this old waqf. The two people must not be confused; no separate record confirming this line of descent was found in the sources.
Şadgeldi Pasha and the Marriage Tie
Hüsameddin reports that Melik İsmâil's wife was the daughter of the son-in-law of Hacı Şadgeldi Pasha. Şadgeldi was an emir, a son of Kutlu Şah, who ruled Amasya from 1359 to 1381; he gave Amasya fountains, bridges, mosques and madrasas, and was killed in a battle with Kadı Burhâneddin. Melik İsmâil's death at forty-two in 822 [1419] puts his birth around 1377-78; that is, he must have been born only a few years before Şadgeldi's death (1381). This calculation shows that the figures Hüsameddin gives do not contradict one another.
The Account of the Discovery of the Tomb
The most striking part of the text is the dream Hüsameddin says he saw around 1905 and the excavation that followed. Because the account transmits the inscriptions in full, it has the value of a document. Hüsameddin first writes that he did not trust an uninscribed grave pointed out by the waqf's administrator; on the plot indicated by the figure he saw in the dream, two gravestones come to light at a depth of about one metre. The inscriptions on the stones report that Melik İsmâil died at 42 in 822 and his son Melik Ahmed at 15 in 825; these agree exactly with the dates given at the start of the text. The inscriptions are known only through Hüsameddin's transmission. No other source was found on the present state and location of the graves, so it cannot be said whether they are accessible today. The Halifet Gazi Madrasa and Tomb, which Hüsameddin mentions as a landmark, stands in the Şamice quarter; Halîfet Gazi became governor of Amasya in 1222 and fell as a martyr in a battle against the Georgians in 1232.
The Yörgüç Pasha Imaret
The Yörgüç Pasha Imaret, which appears in the text as a landmark, is part of the complex that the beylerbeyi of Rum, Yörgüç Pasha, had built in Amasya. Yörgüç Pasha had a mosque, a madrasa, an imaret and two baths built in Amasya; when he died in 1442 he was buried in the tomb of the mosque he had built. His mosque stands today.
What Could Not Be Verified
In searches about the life of Melik İsmâil Gâzi, his marriage to Sitti Pasha Hatun and his children, no record other than Hüsameddin's was found. The discovery of the tomb and the inscriptions are known through Hüsameddin's transmission; no independent confirmation was found.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, pp. 300–301. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies