Ottoman madrasa architecture is built largely on a rectangular courtyard and a symmetrical row of rooms. The Kapıağası Madrasa, standing on the bank of the Yeşilırmak in Amasya, falls outside that scheme. Its courtyard is octagonal, its rooms are arranged around the eight sides, and the lecture hall rises at the southern end of the plan as a mass taller than the other units. The madrasa was commissioned in the late fifteenth century by Hüseyin Agha, gate agha (kapı ağası) to Bayezid II. For nearly four hundred years it trained teachers and students as one of the highest-ranking teaching institutions in the city; it was abandoned and left to decay in the twentieth century, and returned to use through a repair carried out by the Foundations Administration. Today it serves as a Qur'an course. The long lists of professors that Amasya's older historians attached to the building are as much a part of its story as its surviving stones; they show in some detail how a provincial madrasa was tied into the learned world of the Ottoman Empire.

Location and Names

The madrasa stands in the Şamlar quarter of Amasya, on the bank of the Yeşilırmak. Official descriptions place it on the Şamlar side of the Künç Bridge, south of the Kışla building at Saraydüzü. Writing in the early twentieth century, Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar describes it as standing in the Şamlılar quarter, by the road at the head of the vineyards known as "Bahçeler İçi" (Among the Gardens), and records that it was raised in the northeastern corner of the quarter, among orchards and gardens. The district still bears the name Bahçeleriçi today. According to Hüsameddin, the Şamlılar quarter once held the mosque and tomb of the Danishmendid Melik Gazi Bey. When these fell into ruin, two gate aghas of Bayezid II revived the quarter: Ayas Agha built a mosque, school and madrasa, and Hüseyin Agha built this great madrasa.

The building appears in the sources under several names. Kapı Ağası or Kapıağası Madrasa comes from its founder's title. The name Büyük Ağa (Great Agha) Madrasa arises from its being paired with the Küçük Ağa (Little Agha) Madrasa in the same quarter. Hüsameddin explains the pairing through the nicknames of the two founders: Hüseyin Agha was known as the "Great Gate Agha," while Ayas Agha, who came after him, was called the "Little Gate Agha." The third name, Medrese-i Hüseyniyye, carries Hüseyin Agha's own name. According to Hüsameddin, the common people called the building the Büyük Ağa Madrasa and the learned called it the Medrese-i Hüseyniyye; in Ottoman biographical sources and in accounts of the life of Taşköprizâde Ahmed Efendi the madrasa appears under this second name, as the Hüseyniye Madrasa of Amasya. In the list of Osman Fevzi Olcay, who wrote his memoirs in the mid-twentieth century, there is a building called the "Gazanfer Ağa Madrasa," placed directly after the Şamlar Madrasa. Olcay writes that it stood in ruins on the right of the road running parallel to the Şamlar quarter from the Künç Bridge, that it was also called the "Firuzağa Madrasa," and that after the last earthquake it had become impossible to repair. The editors of his book note that this must be Hüseyin Agha's Büyük Ağa Madrasa. The founding date of 768 (1366) and the founder's name given by Olcay, however, do not agree with the other sources and cannot be verified.

The Founder, Gate Agha Hüseyin Agha

According to its inscription, the madrasa was commissioned in the reign of Bayezid II by the gate agha Hüseyin Agha, that is, Hüseyin son of Abdülmuîn. In the Ottoman palace the gate agha headed the Gate of Felicity (Babüssaade) and the Enderun, the inner palace, and was among the officials closest to the sultan. The position gave him great influence as well as considerable wealth that he could direct towards charitable works. The name of the office is not always given in the same way. One encyclopedia entry, relying on the inscription, calls him agha of the Abode of Felicity (Darüssaade), a foreign source describes him as the chief of the harem eunuchs, and an older encyclopedia of Istanbul counts him among the white eunuch aghas of Bayezid II's palace. What they all share is that Hüseyin Agha was a high-ranking official at the court of Bayezid II.

In the biography he devotes to him among the notables of Amasya, Hüsameddin relates that Hüseyin Agha was a Bosnian, that he was brought up in the palace at Amasya as a slave of Bayezid II, that he was freed when he came of age, and that he rose to become Bayezid's gate agha in Amasya. According to the same writer, Hüseyin Agha, "a man of extraordinary influence and wealth," went to Istanbul after building his madrasa and kept his standing there as agha of the Gate of Felicity. In the biography of Ayas Agha it is recorded that when Hüseyin Agha left for Istanbul in 890 (1485), Ayas Agha became gate agha of the Amasya palace. Since Bayezid ascended the throne and left Amasya in 1481, it is also possible that Hüseyin Agha spent part of his Amasya service at the court of Prince Ahmed; the sources leave this detail open. In the endowment records Hüsameddin used, Hüseyin Agha appears as "rikâbdâr-ı şehriyârî," the sultan's stirrup-holder.

In Istanbul, Hüseyin Agha's name lives on with the Küçük Ayasofya. Hüsameddin writes that he converted the church known as "Küçük Ayasofya" into a mosque by adding a minaret, a pulpit and a mihrab. The Church of Sergius and Bacchus, built by Justinian in the Byzantine period, was turned into a mosque at the beginning of the sixteenth century by Hüseyin Agha, gate agha of Bayezid II, and a dervish lodge and the founder's tomb were added beside it. The octagonal tomb north of the mosque holds two cenotaphs, one of which belongs to Hüseyin Agha. Ayvansarâyî reports that Hüseyin Agha lost his life by execution; on a plaque placed in the tomb by local people his name is written as "Kesikbaş Hüseyin Ağa," Hüseyin Agha the Beheaded. It is also recorded that the couplet "Saati vâhidedir ömr-i cihan / Saati taate sarfeyle heman" (The life of this world is but a single hour; spend that hour at once in devotion) was written on the wall of the tomb. Among Hüseyin Agha's endowments in Istanbul is the Çardaklı Bath, one of the city's great market baths, and there is also a mosque bearing his name at Çarşıkapı near the old slave market; the double bath near the Küçük Ayasofya appears to have been built in 909 (1503-1504). İrem Gündüz Polat's master's thesis on the Küçük Ayasofya endowment gives Hüseyin Agha's death as 1508 and examines his property transactions in the Balkans and in the Province of Rum, together with the lands granted to him by the sultan, as signs of his closeness to Bayezid. Hüsameddin states plainly that the founder of the Amasya madrasa and the endower of the Küçük Ayasofya were the same man; Semavi Eyice also treated the works in both cities together in his long article "Kapu Ağası Hüseyin Ağa'nın Vakıfları," in which the text of the madrasa's inscription was published as well.

The sources differ over the founder of the second madrasa in Şamlar, the Küçük Ağa Madrasa. The provincial governorate's list of madrasas states that the small complex of mosque, school and madrasa built by Melik Gazi was repaired after its collapse in 1495 by Hüseyin Agha, gate agha of Bayezid II. Hüsameddin and the Ayas Ağa Külliyesi entry of the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, however, attribute these buildings to the gate agha Ayas Agha in 900 (1494-1495). Hüsameddin's distinction between a "great" and a "little" agha also supports the view that the Küçük Ağa Madrasa was the work of Ayas Agha.

Endowments and the Bedesten

The survival of a madrasa depended on the endowment revenues that sustained it. Hüsameddin says that the endowments of this madrasa were "vast and abundant," and that chief among them was Amasya's famous bedesten, the covered market hall. Hüseyin Agha built a second bedesten in the middle of the city, adjoining the Yakut Pasha Bedesten on its west, and in 890 (1485) endowed it for the needs of his madrasa. Hüsameddin records that the bedesten stood in the Kazancı quarter, formerly called the Kaya Paşa quarter, and that the Agha of the Girls, Firuz Agha, built another bedesten beside it. The same inscription as on the madrasa gate could be seen above the bedesten, except that there the date was carved as 888 (1483). According to the endowment records, the endowed estate of the village of Eymir in Argoma, today part of Suluova, was also among the madrasa's revenues.

Hüsameddin also records a complaint about the state of the endowment in later centuries. Although the bedesten was entirely a valid pious endowment, some of its shops were later taken into private ownership, and the middle bedesten had been leased for ten years to the Abranusyan Brothers on the sole condition that they repair it, yet had not been returned to the endowment for nearly twenty years; Hüsameddin notes this as "a matter worth investigating." The administration of the endowment long kept its ties to the palace circle. In 1203 (1789), in the months following the accession of Selim III, Yeşillizâde Hasan Agha of Amasya, then master of the falconers in the palace, is recorded as having been sent to Amasya as administrator of the "Hüseyin Ağa endowment." Muhammet Enes Yüksek's thesis on the madrasa likewise finds that the institution had an orderly administration and was attached to the Endowments of the Two Holy Cities (Haremeyn Evkafı).

Date of Construction

The building's date appears in the sources under different years. The Kapı Ağası Medresesi entry of the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, relying on the inscription, gives 894 (1489). A tourism encyclopedia entry, also working from the inscription, gives 1489. Most official culture and tourism publications, however, give the date as 1488. The one-year difference may have arisen because the hijri year 894 spans the end of 1488 and 1489, but no explanation documenting this exists. Several dates appear in Hüsameddin's own work as well. In the section on madrasas he dates the building to 894 on the strength of the inscription; in his chronicle he writes that in 890 (1485) the madrasas of Hüseyin Agha and Ayas Agha in the Şamlılar quarter were completed together with the hadith college of Hacı Sinanoğlu Abdullah Pasha and the mosque of Mehmed Pasha, so that "Amasya flourished"; and in Hüseyin Agha's biography he says the madrasa was finished in 888. These differences suggest that construction may have stretched over several years and that the inscription was set up after the building was completed, but no firm conclusion is possible.

The inscription is in Arabic, and its text is given in Hüsameddin's work. In the editors' translation, the inscription states that the building was erected in the year 894 "with the grant and favour of the sultan" by "Hüseyin Ağa b. Abdülmuîn, possessor of good works and founder of charitable institutions, known as Kapuağası in the palace of Sultan Bayezid Han." The wording indicates that the sultan directly supported the construction of the madrasa. The inscription is no longer in place. The panel that should stand above the arch of the gate was removed when the madrasa was abandoned and left to collapse after 1940, broken into several pieces, and taken to the Amasya Museum.

The Madrasa's Rank

In Ottoman madrasas the daily stipend paid to the professor, the pâye, indicated the standing of the institution. The rank of this madrasa is given differently in the sources. According to the TDV entry, the Kapı Ağası Madrasa was a "thirty" madrasa in its first years and stood among the "forties" in 963 (1556). Hüsameddin, however, writes that the madrasa was of the "sixty" rank in the hierarchy of madrasas, that it was counted among the first class in Amasya, that it was assigned to senior scholars, and that its professor was paid sixty akçe a day; official descriptions likewise count it among the Sixty Madrasas. Muhammet Enes Yüksek's thesis, on the other hand, places it in the class of the "fifty" madrasas in the Ottoman ranking. These figures very probably belong to different periods and reflect the madrasa's rise over time; the sources at hand, however, do not show in detail when that rise took place.

The Octagonal Plan

The most striking feature of the madrasa is its plan. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam notes that in arrangement and plan scheme it is a building with hardly any parallel in Ottoman madrasa architecture. The octagonal scheme had earlier appeared in Seljuk funerary monuments, and the sources record that it was applied here in a madrasa for the first time. The originality of the plan did not arise solely from a concern with form. The topography of the site also played a part in moving the courtyard away from the usual rectangle, and as a result the gate and the lecture hall of the madrasa do not lie on the same axis.

The entrance is through the gate on the northwest side. The great arch of the gate is a segmental arch. Inside are a small vestibule and two domed rooms on either side of it. The octagonal courtyard at the centre of the madrasa is surrounded by porticoes with pointed arches carried on four piers along each side. The porticoes are covered with shallow cross vaults, and the student rooms are entered from them. The façade of the rooms facing the courtyard is enlivened with Bursa arches. A form of plaster decoration known as malakârî on the plaster of these façades had already been noticed before the building was abandoned.

The gate is described as a monumental, pointed-arched portal projecting from the façade and framed with borders, and the space for its inscription is empty today. The capitals of the columns carrying the porticoes are generally plain. One description considers the plan especially important because this is the only building that is octagonal both inside and out. Some publications add that the octagonal scheme was used here for the first time outside funerary architecture. That claim is an interpretation of the information that the scheme had previously been seen only in Seljuk funerary monuments, and it does not appear to be supported by comparative research.

The plan becomes clearer when the building is compared with the other madrasas of the region. According to official descriptions, the madrasa built by Mehmed I (Çelebi Mehmed) at Merzifon in 1414 has four iwans and a square plan, as in Seljuk madrasa architecture. A madrasa is also counted among the units of the Bayezid II Complex built in Amasya in 1485-1486. Hüseyin Agha's madrasa rose in almost the same years as that complex, adding to the number of madrasas in the city and offering an alternative to the tradition of the square courtyard. In the Küçük Ağa Madrasa, built a few years later in the same quarter, the barrel-vaulted cells are lined up along the north and west sides of a shared courtyard, with a portico running in front of them; this difference between two neighbouring buildings suggests that the choice made in Hüseyin Agha's madrasa was deliberate.

Rooms and Lecture Hall

The student rooms behind the porticoes are covered with domes, the transition to which is made by pendentives, and the domes rest on octagonal drums. The rooms at the corners each have a niche about one metre deep and 2.10 metres wide. Every room has a lower and an upper window, places for two cupboards, a lamp niche and a hearth in the partition walls. The rooms open to the outside through windows set one above the other. The rectangular windows of the lower row have pointed relieving arches of brick, while the windows of the upper row have round arches of brick. That each room opens onto the courtyard through a single door is part of an arrangement that made each one both a lodging and a study cell. Hüsameddin also writes that the madrasa was extremely solid, built of stone on every side, with spacious rooms and an excellent lecture hall. The sources name professors and students who lived and worked in these rooms for years; İbrîzâde Abdurrahman Efendi, who will be mentioned below, spent his life in one of the madrasa's cells.

The lecture hall on the southern side also served as a masjid. It is taller than the mass of the building and forms a volume projecting outward. This square space is covered by a dome and widened to the sides by two half-domes in the direction of the entrance. Its façade facing the courtyard is more carefully worked than the other faces and recalls a late-comers' portico. The central unit is covered by a mirror vault filled with muqarnas. The lecture hall-masjid is entered through a door articulated with stepped mouldings, its upper part filled with muqarnas, with a rosette at each corner. According to the TDV entry, the mihrab directly opposite the entrance is made of brick and is quite plain. Another description, however, says the mihrab is faced with tiles and that a floor cushion (minder) lies beside it; the two accounts do not agree and may reflect a condition altered by repairs. To the east and west are iwans covered with half-domes, and the top of the main dome is sheathed in lead. In addition to the two rows of windows on either side of the mihrab and in the side walls, there is a window in each of the four directions in the drum of the dome.

Building Materials and the Fountain

Brick and stone are used together in the walls. According to the TDV entry, the building is laid in three courses of brick and one course of stone. The official description gives the same arrangement as horizontal bands of three courses of brick with the spaces between them filled with rubble stone. To the left of the entrance façade, on the face regarded as the façade's counterpart, there is a projecting, vaulted unit measuring 5 × 2.95 metres. It has been suggested that this section may have been a room for ritual ablutions, but the unit does not appear on the plan of Albert Gabriel, who studied the building earlier. It may therefore be a later addition.

In front of the madrasa stands a fountain in the classical style. Built of regular, large blocks of küfeki stone, it has a trough carved from a single piece of stone in front of it. Its arch is laid with red stones alternating with white marble. The marble panel above the arch is blank and was probably prepared to receive an inscription. This rather plain fountain is also thought possibly to be one of Hüseyin Agha's charitable works.

The First Professors

The first years after the madrasa opened can be followed in detail in Hüsameddin's chronicle. According to him, Ustaoğlu Tâceddîn İbrâhim Efendi, one of the scholars of Amasya, was appointed as first professor of the madrasa of Hüseyin Agha, known as Büyük Ağa, while Horasanlıoğlu Seyyid Tâceddîn İbrâhim Efendi was brought to the neighbouring Küçük Ağa Madrasa. Tâceddîn İbrâhim Efendi's father is remembered in the sources as a master tanner who invented the colour lapis blue; the nickname "Ustaoğlu," son of the master, comes from this. Hüsameddin writes that after his death Mehmed Çelebi bin Durmuş, known as "Deli Birader of Bursa," came from Akşehir to the madrasa, and that he was a very exacting professor. Deli Birader was removed from his post in 904 (1498-1499) after quarrelling and coming to blows with his students. In Hüsameddin's volume of biographies, however, it is written that Tâceddîn İbrâhim moved to the Hüseyniye on the death of his teacher İbrîzâde and died in 909; this record does not fully agree with the sequence in the same work's chronicle.

Deli Birader was succeeded as professor of the Büyük Ağa by Koca Emîr İbrâhim Efendi, deputy of the marshal of the descendants of the Prophet (nakîbüleşraf). Koca Emîr belonged to the family of Horasanlıoğlu Seyyid Abdullah Efendi, Bayezid's teacher in Amasya; it was also he who drew up the register of the seyyids of Amasya and sent it to the nakîbüleşraf. He signed himself "İbrâhim bin Mehmed el-Acem," İbrâhim the Persian, and kept close company with the Iranians newly arrived in the city. Hüsameddin relates that in the Abdüllatif Efendi Library in Amasya he saw a book written in Koca Emîr's own hand, bearing on its flyleaf a note dated 905 (1499-1500): "Ketebehu el-fakîru'l-muhtâc ilâ rahmetillahi'l-kadîr İbrâhim bin Mehmed el-'Acem el-müderris bi'l-medreseti'l-Hüseyniye bi-Amasya" (Written by the poor one in need of the mercy of God the Almighty, İbrâhim bin Mehmed the Persian, professor at the Hüseyniye Madrasa in Amasya). This note is a first-hand document showing that already in its earliest years the madrasa was known as the Medrese-i Hüseyniyye. Because of his closeness to the Iranians, Koca Emîr met with objections from the ulema and in 911 (1505) was removed from Amasya by being sent to the Hatuniye Madrasa of Tokat.

In these years the madrasa enters the records under other names as well. Hatîbzâde İbrâhim bin Halîl, dismissed in 888 while judge of Darende because he was suspected of supporting Prince Cem, was given "the professorship of the Hüseyniye, that is, the Büyük Ağa" in Amasya once his innocence became clear. According to the Şakâyık-ı Nu'mâniyye, İbrîzâde Abdurrahman Efendi died while professor at the Hüseyniyye Madrasa in Amasya. His habit was to sit in one of the madrasa's cells and occupy himself with learning night and day; he trained students and composed works, but because of his death these remained in draft. According to a note by the editor of the book, he died in Muharram 902 (1496). Hüsameddin states expressly that this madrasa was "the madrasa of Hüseyin Agha, called Büyük Ağa, at Bahçeler İçi," and records that in 910 (1504-1505) a new professor was appointed on the dismissal of Şirvanî Hibetullah Efendi.

Taşköprülüzâde and the Era of Prince Ahmed

The best known of the professors who taught at the madrasa is Taşköprülüzade Muslihuddin Mustafa Efendi. The date of his appointment appears in two forms in Hüsameddin: the section on madrasas gives 911, the volume of biographies 914. His son Taşköprizâde Ahmed Efendi was born in Bursa on 14 Rabi al-Awwal 901 (2 December 1495) and would later become known as the author of works such as the Şakâiku'n-nu'mâniyye and the Miftâhu's-saâde. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, when his father was appointed to the Hüseyniye Madrasa of Amasya he too went to Amasya, continued his education there at his father's side, and completed his studies under scholars such as Şeyhzâde Muhyiddin Mehmed Kocevî, Mahmûd b. Kadızâde-i Rûmî and Muhammed et-Tûnisî. Ahmed Efendi's childhood was spent among his father's posts. His father taught for a time at the Akmedrese in Ankara, was then appointed to Skopje (Üsküp), and afterwards came to Amasya. These journeys show how often professors changed posts in that period, and that Amasya was part of this network.

During Taşköprülüzâde's years in Amasya the madrasa lay within a lively circle of learning tied to the court of Prince Ahmed. One of those raised in this circle, Sinâneddîn Yûsuf Efendi, was born in 893 in the Kurşunlu quarter of Amasya; after memorising the Qur'an at the school of Sultan Bayezid, he lodged at the Büyük Ağa Madrasa and studied first with Emirkulu Şemseddîn Ahmed Efendi, professor of the Küçük Ağa, and then with Taşköprülü Muslihuddin Efendi, who came to the Büyük Ağa as professor. Emîr Sinan Çelebi of Niksar likewise came to Amasya in 896, attended the lessons of Koca Emîr İbrâhim Efendi and lodged in this madrasa. Many years later, in 937, Sinan Çelebi would become professor of the same madrasa and would die in that post in Dhu al-Hijjah 940 (1534).

The accession of Selim I in 1512 and the elimination of Prince Ahmed also affected the madrasa's teachers. According to Hüsameddin, in 918 Seydî Ali Efendi became professor of the Medrese-i Hüseyniyye in place of Taşköprülü Muslihuddin Efendi, and Sinâneddîn Yûsuf Efendi went to Istanbul with his teacher that same year. The chronicle, on the other hand, records that after the investigation into Prince Ahmed's partisans a decree of 919 sent the Büyük Ağa professor Taşköprülü Muslihuddin Efendi to Bursa. These records, which differ between Istanbul and Bursa, suggest that Muslihuddin Efendi's departure from Amasya was connected with the purge of the prince's circle.

Professors in Later Centuries

Throughout the sixteenth century the madrasa remained one of the most prestigious chairs in Amasya. Hüsameddin counts the Büyük Ağa professor Muslihuddin Efendi of Amasya, around 924 (1518), among the scholars of the city who gave public lessons. Muslihuddin Mûsâ Efendi, professor of the Hüseyniyye and keeper of books at the Sultan Bayezid Library, was raised to the office of mufti of Amasya and the professorship of the Sultaniye during the disturbances of 933-934. In 946 (1539-1540) Bahşîzâde Kemâleddîn İbrâhim Efendi became professor of the Büyük Ağa. Hâfız Acemzâde Ebu'l-Meâlî Ahmed Efendi was born while his father, Hâfızeddîn Mehmed el-Berdaî, was professor at this madrasa, and in 957 he was appointed to the same chair on his father's death. Ahmed Efendi, who drew close to Prince Mustafa, was killed in Shawwal 960 (1553), in Hüsameddin's words while he was waiting for the prince's accession. Other names from this period appear in the volume of biographies. Among them are Koca Hüseyin Efendi, who rose to the Büyük Ağa after the Halfet Gazi, Atabeg and Ayas Ağa madrasas, and Şeyh İmâdzâde Cemâleddîn Mehmed Şah Efendi, who taught here before moving on to the judiciary.

The picture that emerges from these records shows that the madrasa stood at the upper end of the ladder of professorships in Amasya. Scholars who had taught at the Halfet Gazi, Atabeg, Hızır Paşa and Ayas Ağa madrasas would rise to the Büyük Ağa, and from there move on to larger chairs such as the Hatuniye of Tokat or the Sultaniye of Merzifon, or to judgeships. The professorship of the madrasa was at the same time a door to the office of mufti of Amasya. Hüsameddin records that Dursun Efendizâde Mehmed Efendi, a local scholar and professor of the Büyük Ağa, in 1024 (1615), Koca Muîd İsmâil Efendi, professor of the Büyük Ağa (Hüseyniyye), in the early eighteenth century, Hacı Osman Efendi of Antep in 1148 (1735), and Şeyhzâde Abdullah Vecîh Efendi in 1203 (1789) all passed from this chair to the office of mufti of Amasya.

In the eighteenth century the professorship, as often happened in the Ottoman provinces, began to pass from hand to hand within a single family. According to the list Hüsameddin gives, the famous scholar Kayyımzâde Hacı İsmâil Efendi, professor of the madrasa, died around 1140-1141 and was succeeded by Hacı Kara Osman Efendi of Ayıntab. While professor of the Büyük Ağa, Kara Osman Efendi would build the lecture hall of the Osmaniye Madrasa in the Karatay quarter of the inner city in 1149. He was followed by Hâfız Mehmed Efendi, by Seyyid Abdullah Efendi of İbatsa in 1168, by Halîl Efendi in 1179, and then by Seyyid Mustafa Efendi and his son Seyyid Mehmed Emîn Efendi. In 1193 (1779) the celebrated scholar Şeyhzâde Abdullah Vecîh Efendi became professor; after his death in 1218 the chair was shared among his sons Seyyid Mehmed Şerîf, Abdurrahman and Ahmed Rüşdî Efendi, and later passed to Ahmed Rüşdî Efendi and his sons Hâfız Ali and İsmâil Efendi. The names of students who lodged in this madrasa and studied with Kayyımzâde and with Seyyid Hacı Mehmed Efendi of Çorum also appear frequently in the biographies.

The Last Professors and the Madrasa's Decline

According to Hüsameddin, the madrasa was thriving and full of students until 1293 (1876). Its last professor was el-Hâc Hâfız Ali Efendi of the Şeyhzâde family, son of Seyyid Şeyh Ahmed Rüşdî Efendi; the section on madrasas, however, records that in 1312 (1894-1895) the teaching right was held by el-Hâc Ali Efendi, son of Hacı Hâfız Ali Efendi. Writing at the beginning of the twentieth century, Hüsameddin notes that the building, once so solid, now "saddens everyone in its ruined state." Osman Fevzi Olcay also writes that in his youth he heard that the professor of the madrasa was a scholar from Çorum called "Şeyh-zade Hoca Efendi." The name recalls the Şeyhzâde family mentioned by Hüsameddin, but the connection between the two records cannot be verified.

The institution's vitality waned towards the end of the nineteenth century. The general dissolution of the madrasa system affected this building too, and the emptied structure fell into ruin under the effects of earthquakes and neglect.

Relationship with the Rüstem Pasha Madrasa

The octagonal plan of the Kapıağası Madrasa is linked in the history of Ottoman architecture with a later building. According to the TDV entry, this plan was applied, with some small changes, by Mimar Sinan in the Rüstem Pasha Madrasa in Istanbul, dated 1550. The inscription of the Rüstem Pasha Madrasa gives the years 1550-1551, but in the work of Âtâî the construction date appears as 1547-1548. This Istanbul building with its octagonal courtyard measures about 42 × 43 metres and contains 22 rooms behind its porticoes. Sinan interpreted the scheme he took from the Amasya example with solutions of his own. The corner rooms that make the transition from square to octagon were used only in the Rüstem Pasha Madrasa and are absent from the Amasya building.

The link is valuable in that it connects a provincial building with a masterpiece in the capital. The sources at hand, however, give no detail as to whether the relationship took the form of direct imitation or of different solutions to a shared idea of plan. The fact that Hüseyin Agha later rose in the palace circle in Istanbul and founded large endowments there as well may have made the Amasya building known in the capital; but this too is a conjecture. The resemblance should therefore be read as a view based on architectural comparison rather than on documents.

Abandonment, Collapse and Repair

The madrasa was abandoned after 1940 and left to collapse. The earthquake in which the building was badly damaged is given as 1939 in some sources and as 1942 in the TDV entry. The difference may be explained by the building having been affected by more than one tremor. In the Amasya earthquake of 1942 the dome of the lecture hall was damaged by large cracks, and traces of malakârî decoration were seen beneath the fallen plaster. After 1965 the dome of the lecture hall collapsed and the portico in front of it almost entirely disappeared, leaving only two columns and the arches they carried standing.

A comprehensive repair was carried out by the Foundations Administration, and the building was entirely renewed. The collapsed dome of the lecture hall, the portico arches, the columns and the capitals were rebuilt, and an ablution fountain was placed in the middle of the courtyard. Another source states that the pool in the courtyard was a later addition and that the repair was carried out in 1980 under the auspices of the Foundations Administration. Culture and tourism publications give the restoration as 1978, while the TDV entry gives the 1980s. The difference may stem from the repair having extended over a long period. The madrasa is used today as a Qur'an course. An English-language source writes that the largest domed room served as the lecture hall and is now used for training local young people as hafız, those who know the Qur'an by heart; Muhammet Enes Yüksek's thesis also emphasises that the madrasa maintains its place in the religious and social life of Amasya through this memorisation teaching. In this way the building, founded some five hundred years ago to train students, has kept its essential function.

Chronology

888 (1483): The date given in the inscription on Hüseyin Agha's bedesten in Amasya; Hüsameddin writes that the madrasa was also finished in this year.

890 (1485): Hüseyin Agha endows the bedesten to his madrasa; according to Hüsameddin the madrasa is completed this year, Hüseyin Agha goes to Istanbul and Ayas Agha succeeds him as gate agha of the Amasya palace.

894 (1488/1489): Date of construction in the inscription; the TDV entry gives 1489.

1494-1495: The gate agha Ayas Agha builds a mosque, madrasa and school in Şamlar; one official source attributes this repair to Hüseyin Agha.

902 (1496): The professor İbrîzâde Abdurrahman Efendi dies at the madrasa.

904 (1498-1499): Deli Birader Mehmed Çelebi is dismissed and replaced by Koca Emîr İbrâhim Efendi.

905 (1499-1500): Koca Emîr İbrâhim Efendi records himself on the flyleaf of a book as "professor at the Hüseyniye Madrasa in Amasya."

909 (1503-1504): The double bath belonging to Hüseyin Agha's Küçük Ayasofya endowment in Istanbul is built.

1508: A thesis dates Hüseyin Agha's death to this year; his tomb is at the Küçük Ayasofya.

911 / 914 (1505 / 1508): The two dates given in Hüsameddin for the appointment of Taşköprülüzâde Muslihuddin Mustafa Efendi as professor.

918-919 (1512-1513): After the elimination of Prince Ahmed, Taşköprülüzâde leaves Amasya and Seydî Ali Efendi takes his place.

1550: Mimar Sinan applies the octagonal plan in the Rüstem Pasha Madrasa in Istanbul.

1556: According to the TDV entry, the madrasa ranks among the "forties" by stipend.

1789: Yeşillizâde Hasan Agha is sent to Amasya as administrator of the Hüseyin Ağa endowment; the Büyük Ağa professor Şeyhzâde Abdullah Vecîh Efendi becomes mufti of Amasya.

1876: According to Hüsameddin, the madrasa's last period full of students lasts until this year.

After 1940: The madrasa is abandoned; the inscription is removed and taken to the Amasya Museum.

1942: The dome of the lecture hall is damaged in the Amasya earthquake.

1978-1980s: The Foundations Administration repairs the madrasa; the building is used as a Qur'an course.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • Works cited in the bibliography of Burgaz's entry and used here through that entry: Semavi Eyice, "Kapu Ağası Hüseyin Ağa'nın Vakıfları", Edebiyat Fakültesi Araştırma Dergisi (EFAD), no. 9, 1978, pp. 149-246; A. Gabriel, Monuments Turcs d'Anatolie, II, Paris 1934, pp. 53-56; Cahid Baltacı, XV-XVI. Asırlarda Osmanlı Medreseleri, Istanbul 1976; Oktay Aslanapa, Osmanlı Devri Mimarisi, Istanbul 1986, pp. 144-145.
  • İrem Gündüz Polat, Küçük Ayasofya and the Foundation of Babüssaade Ağası Hüseyin Ağa, MA thesis, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul 2016 (thesis abstract).
  • Muhammet Enes Yüksek, Amasya Büyük Ağa Medresesi ve Şehrin İlim-Kültür Hayatına Etkisi, MA thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2020 (thesis abstract).

Official sources

  • Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Türkiye Kültür Portalı, entry "Kapı Ağası (Büyük Ağa) Medresesi". kulturportali.gov.tr
  • Governorship of Amasya, Medreseler (Madrasas) page.

Other sources

  • Gülay Burgaz, "Kapı Ağası Medresesi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 24, Istanbul 2001, pp. 342-343. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • "Taşköprizâde Ahmed Efendi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 40, Istanbul 2011, pp. 151-152.
  • M. Baha Tanman, "Ayas Ağa Külliyesi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 4, Istanbul 1991, pp. 201-202.
  • Türkiye Turizm Ansiklopedisi, entry "Amasya Kapı Ağası Medresesi".
  • "Rüstem Paşa Medresesi", mimarsinan.gen.tr.
  • "Büyük Ağa Medrese", Wikipedia (English).

Online sources