Vanlıdır. “Kürt Mehmed Paşa” demekle meşhûrdur. 1070 senesi zilhiccesinin on üçüncü günü Amasya mutasarrıfı oldu. Vusûlüne kadar Deli Yûsuf Ağazâde Mehmed Ağa mütesellim olup Amasya’yı idâre etdi. Çünkü Mehmed Ağa, fitneyi oldukça teskîn ederek kendisini sevdirmişdi.
Vâlî aleyhinde şikâyetin başlıcası müsâdere edilen kimselerin emvâlinden hayli nefâyis ve Hızır Efendi’nin müzâyedeye çıkarılan eşyasının nevâdiri bilâbedel ahz etmesi, Sivas ve Amasya’da bir takım bîgünâh olanlara cerîmeler tarh ve tahsîl ederek halkı soyması idi.
Kıbleli Paşa halkın kendi aleyhindeki feverânından korkup Sivas’a avdet etmeye mecbûr kaldı. Çünkü maiyetindeki kuvvet azdı. Amasya Alaybeyi Hasan Bey’le yeniçeri serdârı Ahmed Ağa, hâssaten kethüdâyeri Ekşi Mehmed Ağa, halkı kırmak taraftârı değildi. [140]
1071 senesi gurre-i muharreminde Kadı Mustafa Efendi geldi. Müteâkiben mutasarrıf Mehmed Paşa da gelip güzel idâresiyle halkı tatmîn ve mevkûflardan çoklarını tahliye ederek mevkiini temin etdi. Bu esnada Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa, vezâretle Şam vâlisi oldu.
Cumâdelûlâ gurresinde Kadı Mustafa Efendi’nin yerine Canikli Sıyâmî Efendi Amasya kadısı olup geldi. Receb gurresinde Amasya Müftüsü Ebussu’ûd Efendi kadı olduğundan yerine birâderi Yeğenzâde Mehmed Efendi Amasya müftüsü ve meşhûr ders-i âm İsmâil Efendi Sultâniyye müderrisi oldu.
Receb evâilinde mutasarrıf Kürt Mehmed Paşa, harbe me’mûren gidip Amasya Kethüdâyeri Hakâlalı Ekşi Mehmed Ağa’yı mütesellim nasb etdi. Vâlî Kıbleli Paşa aleyhindeki şikâyetler tahkîk edildiği esnada Sivas a‘yânı da ağır şikâyetler dermeyân ederek Sadr-ı a’zam Köprülü Mehmed Paşa’nın vâlî hakkındaki îtimadını sarstılar.
Bu şikâyetlerden fena halde müteessir olan Vâlî Mustafa Paşa Köprü’ye müteveccihen Sivas’tan hareket ve Tokat’da yaptırdığı cesîm hanları muâyene etdikten sonra şevvâlin on dördüncü günü Amasya’ya vusûlünde bâ-fermân-ı âlî azl ve Amasya Kalesi zindanında haps ve ma‘hûd silahdârı Kaba Ali Ağa da i’dâm edildi. Amasyalı Kara Kadızâde Mehmed Paşa Sivas vâlisi oldu.
Şâyân-ı hayretdir ki Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, Amasya’dan ihraç edildikte İstanbul’a gidip Köprülü Mehmed Paşa’ya sığınmışdı. [141] İkinci defa Amasya şehir kethüdâlığına fermân alıp Kıbleli Paşa’nın azl u haps ve Ali Ağa’nın i’dâm edildiği gün Amasya’ya geldi.
Kezâlik bu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa’nın mukaddemen Amasya’dan tard ve ihrâcında önayak olan a‘yândan Abdülcelîlzâde el-Hâc Hüseyin Ağa’nın da emri gelip Amasya Kalesi zindanında hapsedildi. Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, üçüncü defa Amasya şehrinin ağası, ya’nî şehir kethüdâsı oldu.
Şevvâl evâilinde İstanbul’da Baş-bâkî kulu Amasyalı Darbhâneci Hüseyin Ağa Köprülü Paşa’nın himmet ve ibrâmı üzerine Rumeli Beylerbeyiliği pâyesiyle baş defterdâr ve Merzifonî Kara Mustafa Paşa da vezâretle Diyarbakır vâlîsi oldu.
Şevvâlin yirmisinde Seyyid Ahmed Ağa’nın ihrâcına seyreden Alaybeyi Hasan Bey’le serdâr Ahmed Ağa’nın ref‘lerinden Bâkî Paşazâde Hüseyin Bey Amasya alaybeyi ve menkûb olan Ya’kûb Ağa da Amasya serdârı oldu.
Zilka’dede esir-i firâş olan Mütesellim Ekşi Mehmed Ağa vefât eylediğinden yerine Sefer Ağazâde Osmân Ağa Amasya mütesellimi ve Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa Şam’dan gelip İstanbul kâ’im-makâmı oldu. Zilhiccede Kıbleli Mustafa Paşa afv ve ıtlâk edilerek İstanbul’a gitdi. Vusûlünde vezâretle kubbenişîn oldu. 1072 senesi muharreminin on sekizinci günü Nişancı Vezîr Mostarlı Mustafa Paşa vefât edib yerine Mirâlem Amasyalı Müeyyedzâde Ca’fer Ağa bin Ali [142] Çelebi bin Pîrî Ahmed Efendi⁶⁶⁵ Köprülü Paşa’nın himmetiyle nişancı oldu.
Safer gurresinde Müftü Yeğenzâde Hâfız Mehmed Efendi ve Nakîb es-Seyyid Mustafa Ağa da azledilip kibâr-ı ulemâdan Atâ Bey Müderrisi Çorumlu el-Hâc Ömer Efendi Amasya müftüsü ve ulemâ-yı sâdâttan es-Seyyid Ahmed Efendi de nakîbü’l-eşrâf kâ’im-makâmı oldu.
Safer evâilinde İstanbul kâ’im-makâmı Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa Edirne’ye celb edilip Rikâb-ı Hümâyûn kâ’im-makâmı ve rebîülevvelin yedinci gecesinde vefât eden pederi Köprülü Mehmed Paşa yerine yirmi yedi yaşında sadrâzam oldu.
Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa, sadrâzam oldukta Kıbrıs’a i‘zâm edilen sâbık Amasya Müftüsü Fâzıl Hızır Efendi ile evlâd ve dâmadı ve Amasya Kalesi’nde mahpus olan Abdülcelîlzâde el-Hâc Hüseyin Ağa afv u ıtlâk edildi. Amasyalı Kadızâde İbrâhim Ağa da Rumeli pâyesiyle Niğbolu muhâfızı oldu.
Recebin altısında Erzurum’dan ma‘zûl Vezîr Kenan Paşa Sivas Vâliliğine tâyin edilip evâhir-i şevvâlde Amasya sancağı da Sivas’tan ma‘zûl olan Mehmed Paşa’ya tevcîh edildi. [143]
In Modern English
He was from Van and was known as "Kürt Mehmed Pasha." On the thirteenth day of Dhu al-Hijja 1070 [August 1660] he became governor (mutasarrıf) of Amasya. Until he arrived, Deli Yûsuf Ağazâde Mehmed Ağa governed Amasya as mütesellim (deputy governor); Mehmed Ağa had calmed the unrest considerably and had made himself liked.
The main complaints against the governor were these: that he took many valuable items from the property of people whose goods had been confiscated, and rare pieces from the belongings of Hızır Efendi put up for auction, without paying for them; and that he robbed the people by imposing and collecting fines from a number of innocent persons in Sivas and Amasya.
Kıbleli Pasha, fearing the people's anger against him, was forced to return to Sivas, since the force with him was small. The Amasya alaybeyi (commander of the sanjak militia) Hasan Bey and the janissary commander Ahmed Ağa, and above all the city's kethüda (steward) Ekşi Mehmed Ağa, were not in favor of crushing the people.
At the beginning of Muharram 1071 [September 1660] the kadı (judge) Mustafa Efendi arrived. Then the governor Mehmed Pasha also arrived and pleased the people with his good administration, and strengthened his position by releasing most of the prisoners. At this time Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha became governor of Damascus with the rank of vizier.
At the beginning of Jumada al-Ula, Canikli Sıyâmî Efendi came as kadı of Amasya in place of Kadı Mustafa Efendi. At the beginning of Rajab, since the Mufti of Amasya, Ebussuûd Efendi, had become a kadı, his brother Yeğenzâde Mehmed Efendi became mufti of Amasya, and the renowned ders-i âm İsmâil Efendi became professor of the Sultaniye madrasa.
At the beginning of Rajab the governor Kürt Mehmed Pasha went off assigned to the war and appointed the Amasya city steward (kethüdâyeri) Hakâlalı Ekşi Mehmed Ağa as mütesellim. While the complaints against the governor Kıbleli Pasha were being investigated, the notables of Sivas also put forward grave complaints and shook the confidence of Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha in the governor.
Governor Mustafa Pasha, badly shaken by these complaints, set out from Sivas to go to Köprü. After inspecting the large caravanserais he had had built in Tokat, he arrived in Amasya on the fourteenth day of Shawwal [June 1661]; there, by the sultan's decree, he was dismissed and imprisoned in the dungeon of Amasya Castle, and his silahdar (arms-bearer), a man known by name, Kaba Ali Ağa, was executed. Kara Kadızâde Mehmed Pasha of Amasya became governor of Sivas.
It is a marvel that Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, when he had been driven out of Amasya, had gone to Istanbul and taken refuge with Köprülü Mehmed Pasha. Having obtained a decree for the city stewardship of Amasya a second time, he arrived in Amasya on the very day Kıbleli Pasha was dismissed and imprisoned and Ali Ağa was executed.
Likewise, an order had come concerning Abdülcelîlzâde el-Hâc Hüseyin Ağa, one of the notables who had taken the lead in Seyyid Ahmed Ağa's earlier expulsion from Amasya, and he too was imprisoned in the dungeon of Amasya Castle. Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa became for the third time the ağa of the city of Amasya, that is, its city steward.
At the beginning of Shawwal, Darphaneci Hüseyin Ağa of Amasya, who was başbâkîkulu in Istanbul, became chief treasurer (başdefterdar) with the rank of beylerbeyi of Rumeli through the effort and insistence of Köprülü Pasha, and Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha became governor of Diyarbakır with the rank of vizier.
On the twentieth of Shawwal, when the alaybeyi Hasan Bey and the commander Ahmed Ağa, who had stood by while Seyyid Ahmed Ağa was expelled from the city, were dismissed, Bâkî Paşazâde Hüseyin Bey became alaybeyi of Amasya, and Yakub Ağa, who had fallen out of favor, became commander (serdar) of Amasya.
In Dhu al-Qa'da the mütesellim Ekşi Mehmed Ağa took to his bed and died, and Sefer Ağazâde Osman Ağa became mütesellim of Amasya in his place; Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha came from Damascus and became deputy of Istanbul (kaymakam). In Dhu al-Hijja Kıbleli Mustafa Pasha was pardoned and released and went to Istanbul; on arriving there he became a "dome vizier" (kubbe veziri). On the eighteenth day of Muharram 1072 [September 1661], when the Nişancı Vizier Mostarlı Mustafa Pasha died, the mîrâlem (sanjak ağa) Müeyyedzâde Ca'fer Ağa bin Ali Çelebi bin Pîrî Ahmed Efendi of Amasya became nişancı (chancellor) through the effort of Köprülü Pasha.
At the beginning of Safar, Mufti Yeğenzâde Hâfız Mehmed Efendi and the Nakîb es-Seyyid Mustafa Ağa were also dismissed. Çorumlu el-Hâc Ömer Efendi, professor of the Atâ Bey Madrasa and one of the great scholars, became mufti of Amasya, and es-Seyyid Ahmed Efendi, one of the sayyid scholars, became deputy of the nakîbüleşraf (head of the descendants of the Prophet).
At the beginning of Safar the deputy of Istanbul, Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha, was summoned to Edirne and became kaymakam of the Rikâb-ı Hümâyûn (the sultan's retinue), and, in place of his father Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, who died on the seventh night of Rabi' al-Awwal, he became grand vizier at the age of twenty-seven.
When Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha became grand vizier, the former Mufti of Amasya Fâzıl Hızır Efendi, who had been exiled to Cyprus, together with his children and his son-in-law, and Abdülcelîlzâde el-Hâc Hüseyin Ağa, who had been imprisoned in Amasya Castle, were pardoned and released. Kadızâde İbrâhim Ağa of Amasya also became warden of Nikopol with the rank of Rumeli.
On the sixth of Rajab, Vizier Kenan Pasha, who had been dismissed from Erzurum, was appointed governor of Sivas; at the end of Shawwal the sanjak of Amasya was also given to Mehmed Pasha, who had been dismissed from Sivas.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- nefâyis: valuable, rare things
- nevâdir: rare, unique pieces
- bilâbedel ahz: taking without paying the price
- cerîme tarh ve tahsîl: imposing and collecting fines
- feverân: surging with anger, outburst
- mevkûf: prisoner, detained person
- ders-i âm: a senior madrasa professor who gave public general lectures
- bâ-fermân-ı âlî: by the sultan's decree
- ma'hûd: the said, the known
- tard ve ihrâc: driving out, expulsion
- başbâkîkulu: head of the officials who pursued the treasury's overdue claims
- esîr-i firâş: bedridden, sick
- afv u ıtlâk: pardoning and releasing
- kubbenişîn: a vizier who sat under the dome in the Divan
- nişancı: the official who affixed the sultan's tughra to decrees and headed the divan chancery
- mîrâlem: the ağa in charge of the sultan's standards and military band
- kâ'im-makâm: deputy; the vizier who stood in for the grand vizier in his absence
The Fall of Kıbleli Mustafa Pasha
This entry contains the settling of accounts that followed the Hızır Efendi case described in the previous entry. In an earlier footnote Hüsameddin had said that the judgment against the mufti benefited neither the kadı, nor the governor, nor the bailiff, nor the plaintiffs, and that all of them met dismissal, prison, or death in one way or another. Here the first examples of this appear: the Governor of Sivas, Kıbleli Mustafa Pasha, is accused of taking valuable items from Hızır Efendi's belongings without payment and of fining innocent people; on the day he reaches Amasya he is dismissed and thrown into the castle dungeon, while his silahdar Kaba Ali Ağa, who had conducted the case, is executed.
The speed of events becomes easier to understand when considered together with Köprülü Mehmed Pasha's conception of the grand vizierate. According to Mücteba İlgürel, when accepting the office Köprülü set conditions for the sultan and Turhan Valide Sultan, such as that there be no interference in appointments from the lowest rank to the highest and that no weight be given to the words of those who disliked him, and to consolidate his power he established a spy organization loyal to himself. That a vizier could be thrown into a dungeon in an instant on the strength of complaints, and be pardoned and made a dome vizier a few months later, shows that in this period every career depended on a single decision of the grand vizier. Mumcuoğlu's return to the city on the same day with a new decree is likewise the reflection of this power in Amasya.
It has been difficult to find more about Kıbleli Mustafa Pasha than Hüsameddin gives. The previous entry records that he was the son of Tokatlı Şücâeddîn Efendi, Mufti of Köprü. Which large caravanserais he is said to have had built in Tokat could not be determined from other sources. A noteworthy trace is an oil portrait dated to the 1670s in the Ptuj Ormož Regional Museum in Slovenia. According to the museum record, the portrait is modeled on an engraving in Priorato's Historia di Leopoldo Cesare, and beneath the engraving is written "Cvbleli Mvstaffa Pascia di Aleppo," that is, Kıbleli Mustafa Pasha, pasha of Aleppo. Whether the pasha in the portrait is the same person as the Governor of Sivas in the Amasya events could not be verified from documents; however, the rarity of the nickname and the closeness of the dates suggest the possibility.
The Death of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha and Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha
Hüsameddin's record that Köprülü Mehmed Pasha died on the seventh night of Rabi' al-Awwal agrees exactly with present-day research. Köprülü died on 7 Rabi' al-Awwal 1072 (31 October 1661) in Edirne, where he was with the sultan, and his body was brought to Istanbul and buried in his complex at Çemberlitaş. Because of his advanced age he had, before his death, recommended his son Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha to the sultan as his successor, and this proposal had been accepted. Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha first became deputy grand vizier (sadaret kaymakamı), and on his father's death he was made grand vizier on 8 Rabi' al-Awwal 1072 (1 November 1661).
According to Abdülkadir Özcan, Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha had served as governor of Erzurum and Damascus from 1069 [1659], and had won the affection of the people through the tax reductions he made in Damascus. He was later appointed beylerbeyi of Aleppo but was summoned to the deputyship of Istanbul before going there. Hüsameddin's phrase "came from Damascus and became deputy of Istanbul" agrees with this sequence. The expression "at the age of twenty-seven" in the text, though it seems inconsistent at first glance, is in fact correct: since Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha was born in 1045 [1635-36], when he reached the grand vizierate he was twenty-seven by the Hijri calendar and twenty-five to twenty-six by the Gregorian.
It is noteworthy that one of the new grand vizier's first acts was to pardon Hızır Efendi, who had been sent into exile in his father's time. Hüseyin Yazıcı also records that Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha was known as a patron of scholars and that he had Hızır Efendi brought from Cyprus "with honor and respect." The different attitudes of father and son toward the same scholar of Amasya are a small but meaningful detail showing that the age of the Köprülüs was not monochrome.
Those Who Rose from Amasya and Merzifon
The appointments listed one after another near the end of the entry show how men of Amasya and Merzifon in the circle of the Köprülü family rose through the ranks of the state. The best known of them is Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha. According to Özcan, Kara Mustafa, born in 1036 [1626-27] and the son of a sipahi, entered Köprülü's patronage at the age of eighteen, served as his silahdar and telhisçi (court secretary), and after the beylerbeyilik of Silistra became beylerbeyi of Diyarbekir with the rank of vizier. Hüsameddin's record for Shawwal 1071, "became governor of Diyarbakır with the rank of vizier," agrees with this information. According to the same author, Kara Mustafa Pasha became kaptan-ı deryâ (grand admiral) during Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha's grand vizierate and would succeed him as grand vizier in 1676.
Concerning Müeyyedzâde Ca'fer Ağa, who was made nişancı, Hüsameddin gives additional information in a footnote: Ca'fer Ağa, while kilar kethüdâsı (steward of the pantry) in the Enderun, came to Amasya in 1064 [1653-54], proved that he was a grandson of Pîrî Ahmed Efendi and a paternal cousin of the mütevelli (trustee) Abdülvâsî Çelebi bin Habib Çelebi bin Ahmed Efendi, and became co-trustee of the Pervâne Bey Waqf. Ca'fer Pasha's later life is told in the following entries; no information about him was found in other sources. The same holds for Darphaneci Hüseyin Ağa, Kara Kadızâde Mehmed Pasha, and Kürt Mehmed Pasha; in our searches no information was found that would complete Hüsameddin's records.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, pp. 586–587. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
- Mücteba İlgürel, "Köprülü Mehmed Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/koprulu-mehmed-pasa
- Abdülkadir Özcan, "Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 2002, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kopruluzade-fazil-ahmed-pasa
- Abdülkadir Özcan, "Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/merzifonlu-kara-mustafa-pasa
Other sources