Koca Mehmed Nizameddin Pasha of Osmancık was a statesman who served as grand vizier to Murad II in the formative age of the Ottoman state and who spent an important part of his life in Amasya. The sources call him by a variety of names: Osmancıklı Danishmendoğlu Koca Mehmed Pasha, Danishmendzade Mehmed Pasha, Amasyalı (of Amasya) Koca Mehmed Pasha, Hoca or Hâce Mehmed Pasha; in Venetian documents he appears as Mehmed Ağa. This multiplicity of names stems from the fact that Osmancık was for a long time attached to Amasya, that the pasha spent the years of his youth and maturity in Amasya at the side of Çelebi Sultan Mehmed and of Prince Murad, and that he married into one of the leading families of Amasya. He was born in Osmancık, today a district of Çorum, died there, and had the mosque complex (külliye) that bears his name built there. His date of birth is unknown, and the sources place his death anywhere between 1438, 1439 and 1440.

The information on his life is scattered. Because Ottoman chronicles mostly mention him only as one link in the chain of grand viziers, no detailed biography of him was ever written; indeed, for a long time he stood in the shadow of the Çandarlı family and dropped out of the list of grand viziers altogether. It was the Amasya historian Hüseyin Hüsameddin who brought him back into the light. What survives consists of the endowment deeds and inscriptions in Osmancık, the scattered records of the Amasya History, modern studies based on Venetian and Ragusan documents, and short entries in the classic biographical works on Ottoman statesmen. These sources disagree on many points, and the account below sets out the contradictions as they stand.

Differing Records of His Lineage

There are two separate traditions concerning the pasha's father. In the widely used biographical works, and in the encyclopedia entries based on them, his father is given as Imamzade Halil Pasha of Osmancık, grand vizier to Mehmed I (Çelebi Mehmed). According to the records, Halil Pasha's own father was Haydar Pasha. Halil Pasha sided with Çelebi Mehmed during the Interregnum, which began when Bayezid the Thunderbolt was defeated by Timur at the Battle of Ankara in 1402, and he gave important help in gathering together the scattered Ottoman forces. In return for his service he was first appointed beylerbey (governor-general) of Anatolia and then, on 18 December 1406, became Çelebi Mehmed's grand vizier. He took over this office from Çandarlı Ali Pasha, held it until 1413, and handed it on to Bayezid Pasha of Amasya. On this view, Osmancık was the home of a family that gave the Ottoman state two grand viziers in succession.

The endowment deeds in Osmancık, however, give a different name. In these documents, dated 842 and 843, the founder is called "Mehmed Nizâmeddin Pasha, son of Hıdır Dânişmend", and the epithet Danishmendoğlu derives from this. Hüseyin Hüsameddin, too, consistently records the pasha as "son of Hızır Dânişmend". According to his article "Koca Mehmed Paşa", published in 1916 in the Tarih-i Osmanî Encümeni Mecmuası, the pasha was the son of Dânişmend Hazar Çelebi, son of Hamza Bey, one of the begs of the Atalu Turkmens; his father was one of the ulema and lies buried in Osmancık, which is why the pasha himself was known as "Danishmend's son". In the entry Hüsameddin devotes to Imamzade Halil Pasha, on the other hand, Halil Pasha's father appears as Tâyis, imam and schoolmaster of the village of Tamacı, otherwise known as Çumluoğlan, in Osmancık; the nickname "İmamoğlu" (the imam's son) derives from this, and Mehmed Pasha's name does not appear among the sons he lists. No document is known that reconciles the two accounts. Since the name in the endowment deed survives directly from the pasha's own lifetime, it carries more weight; the paternity attributed to Imamzade Halil Pasha appears to have taken root in later biographical compilations.

The family's bond with Osmancık remained unbroken throughout the pasha's life. In the administrative order of the time Osmancık belonged to the province of Rum, centred on Amasya. In Kamil Yaşaroğlu's entry in the Osmanlılar Ansiklopedisi and in the İzahlı Osmanlı Tarihi Kronolojisi the pasha is described as being from Amasya. In terms of the administrative divisions of the period this description cannot be called wrong. That the pasha was a native of Osmancık, however, is clear from the fact that his father lay buried there, that he withdrew to this town after his dismissal, and from the endowments he established there.

The Amasya Years and Marriage into the Kutlu Şah Family

The pasha's rise in Amasya coincides with the years when, after the Interregnum, the city became the centre of gravity of Ottoman rule in Anatolia. In this period Çelebi Mehmed used Amasya as a base and from there re-established his authority in Anatolia. In the entry Hüsameddin devotes to Cihan Hatun, the pasha is introduced as Hâce Mehmed Pasha, who served as defterdar (treasurer) in Amasya in the reign of Çelebi Sultan Mehmed. According to the account based on the same historian's research, Mehmed Pasha became beylerbey of Anatolia while Mehmed I was in Amasya. The beylerbey stood at the head of the sanjak governors of Anatolia and commanded the troops of these sanjaks in time of campaign; attending to the soldiery and supplies of the sanjaks and keeping watch on the principalities of the region were among his chief duties. Some sources cite the year 1415 and say that, thanks to his success as beylerbey, he was appointed grand vizier upon the accession of Murad II. Yet Murad II came to the throne in 1421, and most sources date the pasha's elevation to the grand vizierate to 1429. This inconsistency shows how inadequate the documents on the early part of his life are.

The most concrete information on the pasha's circle in Amasya comes from his marriage. His wife, Cihan Hatun, was the daughter of Kutlu Pasha, beylerbey of Amasya. Kutlu Pasha belonged to the family of Hacı Kutlu Şah, which had once ruled Amasya, and was a nephew of Hacı Şadgeldi Pasha, emir of Amasya; he was married to Hatun Pasha, Hacı Şadgeldi's daughter, lived in the İltekin quarter in the south-west of the city, and had died there in 818 (1415) and been buried in the tomb (türbe) he had built. Mehmed Pasha thus became related by marriage to the native dynasty of pre-Ottoman Amasya. In his 1916 article Hüsameddin writes that the pasha gained standing as Kutlu Pasha's son-in-law, and notes in a footnote that this information is inscribed on his wife's gravestone. This marriage also played its part in the pasha being taken for a native of Amasya.

The Amasya History records the lives of several men who rose in the pasha's circle, and they show his influence in Amasya indirectly. İbrî İbrahim Çelebi, son of Hasan of Amasya, after learning scholarship and the scribal art, became the pasha's divan secretary, and while Murad II was still a prince and governor in Amasya he also served as his secretary. Throughout the pasha's grand vizierate he was among the officials of the imperial council (divan-ı hümayun) and the hâcegân, the senior chancery clerks; he was also entered as a witness to the pasha's endowment deed. The sons of this secretary, known for his fine hand, his poetry and his literary culture, Tahir and Muhyiddin Mehmed Çelebi, were called "İbrîzade". Cihan Hatun's brother Ebû İshak Bey also rose among the prominent begs during his brother-in-law's grand vizierate and served as sanjak governor in large sanjaks such as Salonica and Silistra.

His Rise to the Grand Vizierate

The years in which the pasha rose to the grand vizierate coincide with a period of fierce struggle within the ranks of the state. According to the Venetian documents cited by Halil İnalcık, in August 1428 Çandarlı İbrahim Pasha as first vizier, Mehmed Ağa as second vizier and Sinan Bey as beylerbey of Rumelia were the most influential men of the state. Before his grand vizierate, then, Mehmed Pasha already held second place in the council. The Amasya History relates that in the year 831 (1427-28) there was a severe crisis among the statesmen in Edirne and Bursa, the seats of the sultanate. At issue was the promotion of men of devşirme origin to the rank of beylerbey. When İshak Pasha, one of the Serbian converts, was sent as beylerbey of Rumelia, the begs of Rumelia refused to accept him and demanded a beylerbey of their own stock. On one side stood the devşirme men's expectation of promotion in return for service; on the other, the Turkish begs' stance that government and independence could not be handed to their own slaves. Murad II was in favour of satisfying the devşirme men, since their services were great.

According to Hüseyin Hüsameddin, at the end of this struggle statesmen such as the grand vizier Hacı İvaz Pasha were put to death, Çandarlızade İbrahim Pasha died of poison, and the kadiasker was dismissed. Of the Turks, Âsâyiş Beyzade Sinan Pasha became beylerbey of Rumelia, and of the devşirme men, Karaca Pasha became beylerbey of Anatolia. Hamza Pasha of Amasya, the beylerbey of Anatolia, was removed from office, and Koca Nizameddin Mehmed Pasha of Osmancık was made grand vizier. In the same reshuffle Veliyyeddin Efendi of Ankara was appointed kadiasker, and the office of nişancı passed from Şeyhi Pasha of Kırşehir to Hibetullah Çelebi, known as Hatib Pasha of Bergama. The Amasya History sums up the picture with the words "the pillars of government changed entirely". That an experienced man from within the state tradition should have been chosen to keep the balance in a turbulent period when devşirme cadres were rising is plausible. Even so, this interpretation is not stated explicitly in the sources and is no more than an inference.

The date given for his appointment as grand vizier is 28 August 1429. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, relying on Hüseyin Hüsameddin's findings, likewise states that he was raised to the rank of grand vizier in the year 832 (1429). According to İnalcık, the man who became grand vizier after Çandarlı was Mehmed Ağa of Amasya, that is, Hoca or Koca Mehmed Pasha; in Murad II's endowment deed for his soup kitchen (imaret), dated Shawwal 833 (July 1430), Hoca Mehmed Pasha is appointed supervisor (nâzır) of the endowment in his capacity as grand vizier. This record documents the pasha's grand vizierate beyond any doubt. The statement in Hüsameddin's entry on Cihan Hatun that "in 833 her husband became grand vizier" points to a year later, and is most probably an approximate date resting on one of these documents.

The Question of Çandarlı Halil Pasha

The debate that restored the pasha's name to its place in historiography concerns who succeeded to the grand vizierate after the death of Çandarlı İbrahim Pasha in 1429. For a long time Ottoman historiography accepted that İbrahim Pasha was succeeded by his son Çandarlı Halil Pasha, and it became a general conviction that the vizierate belonged to the Çandarlı family until the reign of Mehmed II (the Conqueror). The encyclopedia entries on Çandarlı Halil Pasha also write that after his father's death he was raised from kadiasker to grand vizier. In his 1916 article Hüseyin Hüsameddin challenged this conviction. Comparing endowment deeds, gravestones, Taşköprizade's Şakâik-i Nu'mâniyye and other endowment records, he argued that the man who became grand vizier after İbrahim Pasha was Koca Mehmed Pasha, and not Halil Pasha, and that Halil Pasha was still kadiasker in the year 836 (1432-33).

Hüsameddin's finding has been supported by later research. According to the Ragusan documents cited by İnalcık, in October 1431 Saruca Pasha was second and Halil Pasha third vizier; this ranking shows that Halil Pasha was not yet at the head of the council in those years. In the same article Hüsameddin wrote that the first hundred and fifty years of Ottoman history had been recorded by later historians through transmission and hearsay, so that many important statesmen had been forgotten, and he counted the search for men such as Koca Mehmed Pasha, who had dropped out of the records, among the principal tasks of the Ottoman Historical Society (Encümen). That the lists of grand viziers of the foundation period today assign the years 1429-1438 or 1429-1439 to Koca Mehmed Pasha is largely the result of this work.

His Years in the Council

Mehmed Pasha served as Murad II's grand vizier for about nine years, or close to ten by Hüsameddin's reckoning. Among the grand viziers of the foundation period this is a notable length of time. His years in office coincide with major events such as the capture of Salonica in 1430, developments in Albania and Serbia, and the border struggles with Hungary. On what decisions the pasha personally played a part in during these events, however, the sources are silent. For this reason it is difficult to weigh his political influence today. His wife Cihan Hatun, after living for a long time in Bursa, moved with him to Edirne when the pasha became grand vizier; it appears that the family lived in the capital during these years.

The pasha's position in the council was not unchallenged. Şah Melik Pasha of Amasya, son of Şadi Bey, became second vizier under Mehmed Pasha's grand vizierate, but according to Hüsameddin he fell from favour owing on one side to Koca Mehmed Pasha's rivalry and on the other to the enmity of the kadiasker Çandarlızade Halil Pasha, and in 835 (1431-32) he was removed from the second vizierate and sent as warden of Gelibolu and its district. Saruca Pasha, of Greek origin, also gained great influence in these years and was dismissed in 1435 or 1436. Thereafter the influence of Kadı Fazlullah, an ardent advocate of a policy of holy war and conquest, grew; Fazlullah appears as vizier in the council in 840 (1436-37), and the Byzantine historian Doukas refers to him as first vizier. It appears that in Mehmed Pasha's last years there was more than one centre of power in the council, and that the tension between the Turkish begs and the devşirme men that Hüsameddin speaks of continued as well.

Other names in the pasha's retinue also appear in the Amasya History. Polat Bey of the Selâmişoğlu family of Lâdik had attached himself to Prince Murad in Amasya, and was later assigned to Mehmed Pasha's retinue and became his steward (kethüda) throughout his grand vizierate. When the pasha was dismissed, his men were removed from their posts as well: İbrî İbrahim Çelebi and his son Tahir Çelebi, a divan secretary, and Ebû İshak Bey, who had served in the sanjaks of Salonica and Silistra, returned to Amasya. Tahir Çelebi would later become divan secretary during Prince Alaeddin's governorship of Amasya. These records show that the grand vizier's fall did not affect him alone, but carried with it a whole group of Amasya secretaries and begs.

His Dismissal and the Question of Dates

When the pasha left the grand vizierate is also disputed. In the widely used lists his departure from office is given as 1438, and Çandarlı Halil Pasha is said to have succeeded him; some lists extend his term to 1439. According to the chronology of events in Hüsameddin's Amasya History, the pasha was dismissed at the beginning of the year 841, that is, in the summer of 1437, and sent to Osmancık; the second vizier İshak Pasha succeeded him and Halil Pasha became second vizier. In the same work, the entry on Cihan Hatun places the dismissal in 840. Hüsameddin's 1916 article, by contrast, maintains that the dismissal took place between Ramadan 842 (February-March 1439) and Muharram 843 (June-July 1439). İnalcık likewise notes that in the endowment deeds the pasha had drawn up in Bursa on 5 Ramadan 843 (9 February 1440) he still appears as grand vizier.

These dates cannot be reconciled. Since the endowment deeds are documents surviving from the pasha's own time, the records pointing to 1439 and later seem the stronger; on which document the date 841 in Hüsameddin's chronological narrative rests is, however, unclear. A firm judgement would require the published full texts of the documents. Nor do the sources give any explanation of the reason for the dismissal. Hüsameddin writes only that in these years partisan feeling grew among the people and Sultan Murad's position was shaken, that İshak Pasha's appointment to the grand vizierate emboldened the devşirme men, and that at the beginning of 843 he was replaced by Çandarlızade Halil Pasha, one of the Turks. That after his dismissal he withdrew to Osmancık, spent his last years there and occupied himself with his endowments is common to all the sources.

The Bathhouses in Bursa

That he had two bathhouses built in Bursa during his grand vizierate is documented by their inscriptions. Bursa was in those years a city counted, together with Edirne, as a seat of the sultanate, and it was common practice for viziers to build a bathhouse, a soup kitchen or a mosque there. That he lived in Bursa with his wife for a long time shows that his bond with the city was not merely official. The bathhouses met the city's need for cleanliness while also providing income for their founder's endowment. The connection between the Bursa endowment deeds of 1440 mentioned by İnalcık and these buildings is not explained in the sources. Nor do we have any detailed information on the present condition of the bathhouses.

The Complex in Osmancık

The pasha's truly lasting work is the mosque complex he had built in the town of his birth. Standing at the foot of Osmancık Castle, in the area called Kayadibi in the Güney quarter, this group of buildings consisted of a mosque, a soup kitchen (imaret), a bathhouse and a covered market (bedesten). Of these, the soup kitchen and the covered market have not survived. The mosque is also known as the İmaret Mosque. The two-part Arabic inscription above its portal records that the building was erected in 834 (1430-31) by the grand vizier Koca Mehmed Pasha; the building thus rose in the first years of his grand vizierate, at the time when he was named supervisor in Murad II's soup-kitchen endowment deed. The endowment deeds dated 842 (1438-39) and 843 (1439-40) also show that the founder of these buildings was Mehmed Nizameddin Pasha, son of Hıdır Dânişmend. The date of the first deed coincides with the years in which the pasha left office. Both deeds were published by Neşet Köseoğlu in 1938 in the journal Çorumlu.

The mosque is one of the characteristic examples of the mosque type with tabhane (hospice) rooms. In this plan scheme, also known in early Ottoman architecture as the zaviye mosque, there are side rooms. Here the side rooms do not open onto the entrance but are each connected by a door to the domed main hall. The building, rising in a broad courtyard bounded by a stone wall, is constructed of rubble stone, brick and lime mortar. On the main walls the rubble stones are framed by two courses of brick, horizontal and vertical, giving colour to the façades. The front façade must once have had a five-bay last congregation portico, each bay covered by a dome. This section has disappeared, but the springings of the arches on the façade prove its existence. The portal is crowned by a hood with ten tiers of muqarnas set within a trefoil arch. The arch and jambs of the doorway, laid with alternating white and red stones, give it a lively appearance.

The most striking element of the mosque is its pair of door leaves, made of walnut in the false kündekâri technique. Divided horizontally into five panels, the leaves are decorated with hadith inscriptions in thuluth script, intricate scrolling branches, rumi motifs, palmettes and geometric interlace formed by twelve-pointed stars, and they are counted among the important examples of Turkish woodwork. Inside, the entrance hall and the prayer hall, separated by a wide arch, are each covered by a dome on an octagonal drum. Pendentives serve as the transition element in the entrance dome and Turkish triangles in the prayer hall. The plaster mihrab has to some extent lost its original form. Set within rectangular frames carrying inscriptions and chain motifs, the mihrab's niche with three tiers of stalactites is decorated with geometric shapes. The minbar is new and has no particular features.

The Bathhouse, the Kitchen and the Endowment

The pasha had two bathhouses built in Osmancık. The one mentioned by Evliya Çelebi in his Seyahatname was demolished in the 1960s. The bathhouse that has survived is the building inside the bazaar, close to the bank of the Kızılırmak, known as the Aşağı Hamam (Lower Bath). It is also presented under the name Paşa Hamamı. This building, which has no inscription, is a "kuşluk" bathhouse, meaning that women and men use it in turn. It is open to women by day and to men at night, and it is still in operation today. The undressing hall of the rectangular building is covered by a dome 8.25 metres in diameter resting on an octagonal drum. Each section of the three-part warm room has a small dome above it. The domed hot room has two iwans and a pair of private cubicles; each iwan contains three basins and each cubicle two. Behind the bathhouse are the water tank and the furnace.

The southern part of the undressing hall was later made into two storeys by an added wall, the lower floor being given over to toilets and wooden changing cubicles built on the upper floor. Since the walls, the domes and the entire roofing are today covered with a concrete shell, the original wall masonry can be made out only here and there between patches of fallen plaster. The bathhouse is valuable as one of the examples of civil architecture to have survived from the fifteenth century.

Little is known about the complex's kitchen and soup kitchen, and no trace of them remains. The kitchen continued to operate until 1255 (1839); after that it served food only to needy families during the month of Ramadan, and in 1283 (1866-67) it was abolished entirely. The endowment system the pasha established thus kept the soup kitchen running for some four hundred years. Some sources also state that he had a school and a soup kitchen built near the mosque. That his Amasya secretary İbrî İbrahim Çelebi was among the witnesses to the endowment deeds shows that the pasha's Amasya circle played a part in founding the endowment.

Later History of the Mosque

Thanks to the continuity of the endowment system, the mosque remained in use through the centuries, being repaired as needed. A document dated August 1671 shows that the mosque was repaired that same year after its dome, mihrab and walls had cracked and the domes of the last congregation portico had collapsed. A decree dated January 1721 states that the repair of the mosque and the bathhouse had been completed. The minaret and the last congregation portico collapsed in the 1943 earthquake, and a new minaret was built for the mosque in 1968. In a comprehensive programme carried out by the Regional Directorate of Foundations in 2006-2007, the mihrab, minbar and door leaves were restored, and a wooden last congregation portico in the form of a porch was added in front of the mosque.

His Death and Tomb

Koca Mehmed Pasha died in his home town of Osmancık, but the date of his death, like that of his dismissal, is disputed. Some sources give the year of his death as 1439. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, however, gives the month of Dhu al-Qadah 843, that is, April 1440. Hüsameddin, for his part, writes in the Amasya History that the pasha died in Dhu al-Hijjah 841 (May-June 1438), and mentions this together with a striking coincidence: at the time the pasha died in Osmancık, Prince Ahmed, governor of Amasya, also died in Amasya. Yet the endowment deeds dated 842 and 843 suggest that the pasha was still alive after this date. Since no conclusive document has been cited, the date of his death must be left within the range 1438-1440.

The sources also diverge on his tomb. According to one view, the grave lies in the garden of the mosque that bears his name. Hüsameddin records that the pasha was buried on the east side of the mosque, within the garden, and that the date of his death was carved on his gravestone; so at the beginning of the twentieth century the gravestone was in place and legible. According to the TDV entry, however, his grave, known to have been to the east of the mosque, has today been lost. Most of the graves belonging to the burial ground on the east side have been removed and their stones scattered. An important group of those that remain consists of sarcophagi made in the Seljuk manner, with relief inscriptions of certain Quranic verses on either side of their gabled tops.

Among the sarcophagi of the burial ground are also those of Cihan Hatun, one of the pasha's wives, and of his grandson Ömer Çelebi. According to Hüsameddin, when her husband was dismissed from the grand vizierate and went to Osmancık, Cihan Hatun went with him, died there in 843 (1439-40), and was buried at her husband's mosque, beside him. Neşet Köseoğlu wrote that in the 1930s an uninscribed sarcophagus stood in the last congregation area of the mosque, in front of the door, and that this grave undoubtedly belonged to a person of distinction. In 2011 the neglected stone sarcophagi were cleaned by Osmancık Municipality and moved to the empty ground on the east side of the mosque. Since there is no museum in Osmancık, several of them were taken to the Çorum Museum and the others arranged in the courtyard.

His Sons and Grandchildren

The pasha's line remained influential for some time in the region of Amasya and Osmancık. Hüsameddin writes that his son by Cihan Hatun was Mahmud Pasha; Mahmud Pasha, like his father, lies buried in Osmancık. Süleyman Bey, known as Koca Mehmed Paşazade, for his part, served for about two months around 850 (1446-47) as acting beylerbey in place of the beylerbey of Amasya, Ağa Hızır Pasha, when the latter was charged with escorting to Manisa the daughter of Dulkadiroğlu who had been given in marriage to Prince Mehmed, the future Conqueror. The family's place in the administration of Amasya appears to have continued after the pasha's death.

The best known of the grandchildren is İlaldı Hatun. The mother of İlaldı Hatun, daughter of Mahmud Pasha, was a daughter of İsfendiyar Bey of the Candaroğulları, emir of Kastamonu; the pasha's line had thus also joined that of the Candaroğulları. When Çandarlızade İbrahim Pasha came to Amasya as kadı in 868 (1463-64), he married İlaldı Hatun. Having gone to Istanbul with her husband in 887, she rose further in standing when İbrahim Pasha became grand vizier in 903; when her husband died in 905 she settled in Bursa with her sons İsa and Halil Bey, built a school there, endowed her properties in 908 and died in 911 (1505-06). She had added her properties in Amasya to her endowment too, and assigned stipends to the imams of some of the city's mosques. That the grandchild of Koca Mehmed Pasha should marry a vizier of the Çandarlı family, which he had regarded as a rival during his grand vizierate, is a detail that shows how closely interwoven the statesmen of the foundation period were.

His Significance for Amasya and Osmancık

Koca Mehmed Pasha is one link in the chain of grand viziers who came from the Amasya region in the foundation period. In the list of grand viziers the years 1406-1413 belong to Imamzade Halil Pasha of Osmancık, the years 1413-1421 to Bayezid Pasha of Amasya, and the years 1429-1438 to Koca Mehmed Pasha. Even if the paternal link with Halil Pasha is disputed, the emergence of three names from the same region shows that Amasya and its surroundings in this period were more than a princely sanjak and served as a centre that raised viziers, beylerbeys, secretaries and scholars. The pasha's marriage into the old emirial family of Amasya, and the choice of his secretaries and retinue begs from among men of Amasya, show concretely how this local milieu was carried into the central administration of the Ottoman state.

Of the works the pasha left in Osmancık, the mosque and the bathhouse are today among the most important historic buildings of the district. The mosque has its place in architectural historiography as an early example of the tabhane plan scheme, and its door leaves as a distinguished example of woodwork. Though his life fits into brief notes in the sources, the buildings he commissioned show in concrete form the endowment activity of the foundation-period viziers in the provinces. The return of his name to the list of grand viziers, meanwhile, recalls that Hüseyin Hüsameddin's research, based on endowment deeds and gravestones, is one of the concrete contributions of Amasya historiography to the writing of Ottoman history.

Chronology

1402: The Interregnum begins after the Battle of Ankara; Imamzade Halil Pasha sides with Çelebi Mehmed.

18 December 1406: Imamzade Halil Pasha becomes grand vizier and remains in office until 1413.

Reign of Mehmed I: Mehmed Pasha serves as defterdar in Amasya, then becomes beylerbey of Anatolia; he is married to Cihan Hatun, daughter of Kutlu Pasha.

1415 (818): His father-in-law Kutlu Pasha dies in Amasya.

1421: Murad II comes to the throne.

August 1428: Mehmed Ağa appears as second vizier in Venetian documents.

28 August 1429: Koca Mehmed Nizameddin Pasha is appointed grand vizier (832/1429 in the TDV).

July 1430 (Shawwal 833): He is named supervisor, as grand vizier, in Murad II's soup-kitchen endowment deed.

1430-31 (834): Construction date recorded in the inscription of the mosque in Osmancık.

October 1431: In Ragusan documents Saruca Pasha is second and Halil Pasha third vizier.

1431-32 (835): The second vizier Şah Melik Pasha is sent as warden of Gelibolu.

1437-1439: His dismissal; early 841 (1437) in Hüsameddin's chronology, 1439 in his article, 1438 in the common lists.

1438-39 and 1439-40 (842-843): Dates of the Osmancık endowment deeds.

9 February 1440 (5 Ramadan 843): He still appears as grand vizier in his endowment deeds drawn up in Bursa.

1438-1440: He dies in Osmancık (Dhu al-Hijjah 841 in Hüsameddin, April 1440 in the TDV); his wife Cihan Hatun dies in 843.

1446-47 (850): His son Süleyman Bey serves for two months as acting beylerbey of Amasya.

1463-64 (868): His granddaughter İlaldı Hatun marries Çandarlızade İbrahim Pasha.

1671 and 1721: Repairs to the mosque and the bathhouse.

1839 and 1866-67: The soup kitchen first serves only during Ramadan, then closes entirely.

1943, 1968, 2006-2007: Earthquake, new minaret and comprehensive restoration.

2011: The sarcophagi of the burial ground are cleaned and moved to the east of the mosque.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Official sources

Books

  • Kamil Yaşaroğlu, "Nizammeddin Mehmed Paşa (Amasyalı, Koca)", Yaşamları ve Yapıtlarıyla Osmanlılar Ansiklopedisi, vol. 2, İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 1999, pp. 370–371. amasya.bel.tr
  • İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, İstanbul: Türkiye Yayınevi, 1971, p. 9.

Other sources

Online sources