Mehmed Pasha

In Modern English

He is the son of Lala Şâhin Pasha, son of İzzeddîn Balabân Bey, one of the Turkish beys who died in 795 [1392-93]. After being twice beylerbeyi of Anatolia, he became lala to Prince Alâeddin Bey, and on the latter's strangling, at the end of 846 [1442-43], became beylerbeyi of the province of Amasya.

But the moment this murder by Kara Hızır of the devshirmes was heard in Edirne, it enraged the Turks extremely. Demonstrations were organized everywhere. Turks and devshirmes fell upon each other. Sultan Murad was openly told to descend from his throne.

Understanding the gravity of the outcome, Sultan Murad, at the beginning of 847 [1443-44], could not resist the demands of the Turkish statesmen and the Turks. Helplessly he summoned his son Sultan Mehmed from Manisa and put him on the throne. He himself took İshak Pasha, whom he loved most, and withdrew to Manisa.

One of the poets addressed Sultan Murad with the following quatrain:

O man, what a strange thing you have done
The work was gold and you made it silver
You brought a calf of twelve years
And set a buffalo (kömüş) in its place

During the strangling of Prince Alâeddin Bey, the judge Muslihzâde Nizâmeddîn Abdurrahmân Çelebi was removed from office, and Kara Sinânzâde Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi, son of Yusuf, became judge of Amasya in his place. The mufti Sinâneddîn Yûsuf Çelebi was also forbidden to give fatwas; in his place Mevlânâ Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Çelebi, famous as "İbni Midâs" and "Paşmakçıoğlu," became mufti.

The prince's teacher Hatîbzâde Tâceddîn İbrâhim Efendi was removed from Amasya as professor of the Orhâniyye Madrasa in İznik. The prince's sheikh es-Seyyid Sadreddîn Mehmed Horasânî was also sent to the village of Yenice around Amasya. Each of the prince's beys became a sanjak bey in a different direction.

In 847 Muhyiddîn Mehmed Bey, son of İskender Bey, one of the leading beys, of the line of Halîl Pasha, one of the former grand viziers, endowed his property for the expenses of the tomb he had built. The judge of Amasya who registered the endowment deed, the signature of the said Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi, is seen at the top of the endowment deed.

But the Kara Sinânoğlu's judgeship of Amasya had set the Muslihzâdes in motion. In Shaban 847 Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi was transferred to Tokat and Muslihzâde Celâleddîn Abdulgaffâr Çelebi became judge of Amasya in his place. He was also called "Molla Beylik."

When Sultan Mehmed II took the throne and İshak Pasha left, Zağnos Pasha, who took his place, drew close to the prince and offended the Turks. The grand vizier Halîl Pasha and the third vizier Bergoslu Halîl Pasha had begun to fear Zağnos Pasha in the divan.

Zağnos Pasha was regarded as the favorite of the converts. In contrast Çandarlızâde Halîl Pasha was the favorite of the Turks. Bergoslu Halîl Pasha was in a position to take the place of Çandarlızâde.

Zağnos Pasha's attitude and conduct made one long for Sultan Murad's administration. Learning of this situation, Murad II wrote in letters sent from Manisa to Halîl Pasha that he be summoned to Edirne and seated on the throne, giving strong assurances.

Moreover, the division that had appeared in Edirne with the accession of Sultan Mehmed, who was still regarded as a child, gave courage to Europe and to the Karamanids and Candaroğulları, who united and declared war on the Turkish state.

The grand vizier Halîl Pasha regarded the war of the allied states as a good occasion. He at once had Sultan Murad brought and seated on the throne. He sent Prince Sultan Mehmed with his Zağnos Pasha to Manisa. İshak Pasha's name also sank.

Both sides were pleased with Sultan Murad's ascending the throne a second time. For it was understood that the declared war would be bloody. A skilled commander was needed. Sultan Murad was the commander sought. After his second accession Sultan Murad took the army and went to war.

While the Ottoman Turks were occupied with the European war, Kızıl Ahmed Bey, son of Candarzâde İbrâhim Bey, ruler of Kastamonu, and his brother Hızır Bey attacked the Canik and Bafra regions dependent on the province of Amasya.

The beylerbeyis of Amasya and Tokat, Mehmed and Balabân Pashas, went together with their forces against Hızır and Kızıl Ahmed Beys. Fighting, they scattered them, seized both, and imprisoned them in the fortress of Amasya.

In the Battle of Varna it was the Turks who worked most self-sacrificingly and suffered heavy losses, and then won the war. In this battle, among the Amasyans, İshak, son of Îsâ Bey, conqueror of Bosnia, of the line of Hacı Şâdgeldi, Burâk, son of Şâdî Bey, and Hızır and Mustafa Beys, sons of Yörgüç Pasha, fell as martyrs.

At the Battle of Varna defeat was a hair's breadth away, and Sultan Murad had been compelled to flee. The person who took hold of the reins of Murad's horse and turned him back, the cause of victory, was Hızır Pasha, Yörgüç Pasha's brother. Thanks to Hızır Pasha's effort the Battle of Varna was won in 848 [1444-45].

On returning from the Battle of Varna the sipahis and janissaries, that is, the Turks and the devshirmes, returned to the old contention. In the Buçuk Tepe incident in Edirne they deposed Sultan Murad twice in one day and seated him again, and the matter grew.

In the end, by the reconciliation of the notables of the state, that is, through Halîl Pasha's effort, Sultan Murad, turned from his road, was able to remain on his third accession to the throne. For this reason Çandarlızâde Halîl Pasha earned the fierce enmity of Sultan Mehmed and of the non-Turks.

At the beginning of 848 Muslihzâde Nizâmeddîn Abdurrahmân Çelebi, who had been removed from the judgeship of Amasya, was brought back to the judgeship of Amasya; the judge of Amasya Abdulgaffâr Çelebi, his brother, was transferred to Sivas.

But Mehmed Pasha, son of Şâhin Pasha, beylerbeyi of Amasya, had fallen out of favor for having allowed the attacks of Hızır and Kızıl Beys. Understanding this, Mehmed Pasha endowed his property and land in the court of Amasya for the zawiya and mosque he had built within the borders of Bolu. The judge who made the record was Abdurrahmân el-Muslihî.

Mehmed Pasha's old age was a great excuse. Relying on this excuse he was retired. On Sultan Murad's accession, Hızır Ağa, son of Hasan Ağa, janissary agha and sekbanbaşı, whose service had passed, became beylerbeyi of Amasya. The sheikh of the tanners, Pîr Sun'ullâh el-Halvetî, died at this time and was buried in the cemetery east of the Saraç-hâne Mosque. Zekeriyyâ-yı Halvetî took his place.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• ihnâk: strangling, having someone strangled
• cülûs: accession to the throne
• hal' ve iclâs: deposing from and reseating on the throne
• mühtedî: a person who became Muslim later
• devşirme: in the Ottomans, youths collected from Christian families and trained for the palace and the army
• kömüş: buffalo in Anatolia, the male of the buffalo
• Zağnos: according to Hüsameddin, a kind of falcon; the name of a bird likened to the crow (zağ)
• tekâ'üd: retirement
• ma'zûl: dismissed from office
• kâ'im-makâm: deputy
• mîrlîvâ: sanjak bey

After the Prince's Death

Hüsameddin lists the changes in Amasya after Alâeddin's strangling: the shifting of the judge, mufti, teacher, and sheikh, and the dispersal of the beys in the prince's retinue. These details are not found in the other sources we read; they rest on information the author gathered from Amasya endowment deeds and local records.

No information was found in other sources on Mehmed Pasha's identity and his zawiya in Bolu.

The Quatrain: Sultan Murad and the Calf

The quatrain in the text criticizes Murad II's leaving the throne to his twelve-year-old son Mehmed. Hüsameddin gives it as the address of "one of the poets" to Sultan Murad. Another study relays the same couplets as a poem in which the sultan, after leaving the throne to his son, expressed his regret in a drinking gathering. The two accounts differ from each other: one writes that the poem was spoken by an outside poet, the other by the sultan himself. The meaning of the poem is clear: in the gold and silver comparison Murad's experience is likened to gold and Mehmed's worth to silver; in the calf and buffalo comparison an inexperienced youth and an experienced ruler are compared. In footnote number 566 Hüsameddin explains that the word "kömüş" means buffalo and that the word "câmûs" is its Arabized form, not a corrupted one.

The Withdrawal from the Throne and the Return

Hüsameddin ties Murad's putting Mehmed on the throne to the beginning of 847 [1443-44]. In another source this event is placed in Cemâziyelevvel 848, that is, August 1444: Murad II formally abdicated in favor of his son Mehmed II at Mihalıç before the kapıkulu troops and beys, and withdrew into a life of asceticism and piety around Bursa. This difference of date is noteworthy. The same source writes that the death of his eldest son and the opposition he saw from the frontier beys may have been effective in this decision.

That Çandarlı Halil Pasha gained strength in that period, that the contention between him and Mehmed II's lalas Zağanos Pasha and Şehâbeddin Pasha hardened, that at Halil Pasha's insistence Murad II went to Varna at the head of the army and returned to Manisa after the battle is narrated in other sources too. This is what Hüsameddin means by "through Halil Pasha's aspiration."

On the origin of Zağanos Pasha the sources do not agree: in some studies he is presented as of Greek, Albanian, or Turkish origin; that his name appears in his endowment deed as "Zağanos b. Abdullah" points to his being a devshirme. Hüsameddin, however, in footnote number 567 maintains that the name is "pure Turkish." He writes that it is a kind of falcon.

Hızır Pasha at Varna

Hüsameddin writes that the person who took hold of the reins of his horse at the brink of defeat at Varna and turned Murad back was Hızır Pasha, Yörgüç Pasha's brother. In the encyclopedic source the same event appears as Dayı Karaca Bey's preventing Murad's retreat. In another writing on Varna it is written that the one who held on to his horse's saddle and would not let go was the beylerbeyi of Anatolia. There is a difference of name among the three accounts; there is no single record documenting the detail. The date of the battle, that is, 10 November 1444 (28 Rajab 848), is the same in the sources. That Yörgüç Pasha's sons Hızır and Mustafa fell martyrs at Varna is also noted in the encyclopedic source and agrees with the information Hüsameddin gives.

The Buçuktepe Incident

Hüsameddin places the Buçuk Tepe incident immediately after Varna and writes that Murad was deposed and seated twice in one day. This incident is treated in another study under the name "The Buçuktepe Incident (1446)." According to the study, the janissaries revolted on the grounds that they were not sufficiently looked after in putting out a fire that broke out in Edirne and that Mehmed II had lowered the standard of the akçe; the event took place in 1446. In the entry on Çandarlı Halil Pasha it is also written that Murad II was put on the throne after the Edirne fire and the janissary revolt that followed it. The detail of "twice in one day" was not found in the sources we read.

Hüsameddin's "National Solidarity" Interpretation

In footnote number 568 Hüsameddin maintains that the real cause of Sultan Murad's being deposed and seated repeatedly was the "national solidarity" arising from the giving of the janissary aghalik, beylerbeyilik, and vizierate to non-Turks from 829 on, and writes that this is never mentioned in Türkiye Tarihi and that he drew this information from the documents and old papers he found during his research. Modern sources narrate the same period more through the rivalry among the viziers: on one side Çandarlı Halil Pasha, on the other Zağanos Pasha and Şehâbeddin Pasha. That one aspect of this contention rested on the Turk-devshirme distinction is also mentioned in some writings. Hüsameddin does not show in the text the documents he relies on; the claim should therefore be read as his own testimony.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 3, p. 472–474. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

• Halil İnalcık, "Murad II", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/murad-ii
• "Çandarlı Halil Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/candarli-halil-pasa
• "Zağanos Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/zaganos-pasa
• "Yörgüç Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 43, İstanbul 2013, p. 566-567. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/yorguc-pasa
• Yunus İnce, "Sultanın İsyankâr Kullarının İlk İsyanı: Buçuktepe Vakası (1446)", Journal of History Studies, 10/5 (2018), p. 83-101.

Other sources

• Ahmet Anapalı, "Fatih'in Abisi Şehzade Alaaddin Ali Öldürüldü mü?", Haber7, 29.05.2018. https://www.haber7.com/yazarlar/ahmet-anapali/2636025-fatihin-abisi-sehzade-alaaddin-ali-olduruldu-mu
• Naci Yengin, "Fatih Sultan Mehmet'in Manisa Yılları", TARSAM, 29.03.2021. https://www.tarihistan.org/yazarlar/naci-yengin/fatih-sultan-mehmet-in-manisa-yillari/35832