Vanlıdır. 1085 senesi zilhiccesinin yirmi üçüncü günü [162] ikinci defa Amasya mutasarrıfı olup dergâh-ı âlî kapıcıbaşılarından Deli Yûsuf Ağazâde Mehmed Ağa Amasya mütesellimi oldu.
Merzifon Voyvodası Kürt Sefer Ağazâde Ahmed Ağa İstanbul’a gidip Kadızâde Merzifonî “İbrâhim Ağa” Merzifon voyvodası oldu. Bu esnada Mekke mollası olan Yâkut Paşa Mütevellisi Hasımzâde Abdülbâkî Efendi vefât edib mahdûmu Yahya Efendi mütevellî oldu.
Bu sene esbak Erzincan Kadısı Topçuzâde el-Hâc Hüseyin Efendi ve mahkeme kâtibi ta‘lîk nüvîs-i meşhûr kâtipzâde Ali Efendi vefât edib yerine ulemâdan hattât-ı meşhûr Ömer Efendi mahkeme kâtibi oldu.
1086 senesi gurre-i muharreminde Kadı Şermîzâde Dâniş Mehmed Efendi’nin yerine sâbık Musul Kadısı Amasyalı Pîrîzâde Zühdî Mehmed Efendi Amasya kadısı oldu. Her ikisi de ulemâ-yı şu‘arâdan ve mevâli-i devriyeden idiler.
Safer evâilinde Mutasarrıf Mehmed Paşa, Irak’a tasallut eden İran’ın def‘ine me’mûr olarak Musul beylerbeyi olduğundan Amasya sancağı Canik Mutasarrıfı Ahmed Paşa’ya tevcîh edildi.
In Modern English
He was from Van. On the twenty-third day of Dhu al-Hijja 1085 [1675] he became governor of Amasya for the second time; Deli Yûsuf Ağazâde Mehmed Ağa, one of the kapıcıbaşıs of the Sublime Porte (the palace's kapıcıbaşıs), became mütesellim of Amasya.
The Voivode of Merzifon, Kürt Sefer Ağazâde Ahmed Ağa, went to Istanbul; Kadızâde "İbrâhim Ağa" of Merzifon became voivode of Merzifon. At this time Hasımzâde Abdülbâkî Efendi, trustee of the Yâkut Pasha Waqf and then molla of Mecca, died, and his son Yahya Efendi became trustee.
This year the former Kadı of Erzincan, Topçuzâde el-Hâc Hüseyin Efendi, and the court clerk, the renowned master of the ta'lîk script Kâtipzâde Ali Efendi, died; in his place Ömer Efendi, a renowned calligrapher from among the ulema, became court clerk.
On the first day of Muharram 1086 [1675], in place of Kadı Şermîzâde Dâniş Mehmed Efendi, the former Kadı of Mosul Pîrîzâde Zühdî Mehmed Efendi of Amasya became kadı of Amasya. Both were among the poet-ulema and among the mevâlî-i devriye (high-ranking kadıs appointed in turn to the great kadılıks).
At the beginning of Safar, since the governor Mehmed Pasha, charged with repelling the Iranians who were attacking Iraq, became beylerbeyi of Mosul, the sanjak of Amasya was given to Ahmed Pasha, Governor of Canik.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- dergâh-ı âlî kapıcıbaşısı: one of the ağas who directed the palace's gate service and were sent to the provinces on important missions
- voyvoda: the official who collected the taxes of a kaza and looked after its public order
- Mekke mollası: the Kadı of Mecca, the rank of great molla
- mahdûm: son
- esbak: former, previous
- ta‘lîk-nüvîs: a calligrapher who writes the ta'lîk script
- ulemâ-yı şu‘arâ: scholars who were poets
- mevâlî-i devriye: high-ranking kadıs appointed in turn to the kadılıks of great cities
- tasallut: attacking, assailing
- def‘: repelling, driving back
Mehmed Pasha of Van
In this entry Hüsameddin writes that Mehmed Pasha of Van became governor of Amasya "for the second time." Yet in the work's earlier entries a Mehmed Pasha of Van is seen to be appointed to Amasya twice: Mehmed Pasha of Van, called "Kürt Mehmed Pasha," received the sanjak in 1070 [1660], and a Mehmed Pasha named only as "of Van" received it in 1074 [1663]. That in the 1070 appointment too the sanjak was administered until the Pasha's arrival by the same Deli Yûsuf Ağazâde Mehmed Ağa suggests that the pasha spoken of here is the Kürt Mehmed Pasha of 1070. In that case the "second time" record shows either that the 1074 appointment belonged to another pasha or that there is an error in the count; which it is cannot be understood from the text. At the end of the previous entry the pasha was introduced as "former Beylerbeyi of Van." No information was found on this pasha in other sources; the Kurd Mehmed Pasha known by the same name, who died in 1605 or 1606, is a separate, earlier statesman.
The Dispatch to Mosul
The record that the Pasha was sent to the beylerbeyilik of Mosul against the Iranians attacking Iraq is interesting. Mosul had been a provincial center since 1586 and had been the scene of the Ottoman-Safavid struggle in the first half of the seventeenth century. After 1639, when Murad IV retook Baghdad and returned by way of Mosul, the city is known to have passed a relatively calm period until the first half of the eighteenth century. No information was found in other sources about an Iranian attack on Iraq in 1086 [1675]. Hüsameddin's record may point to a small-scale stir on the frontier or to a precaution written into the decree as the justification of the appointment; this is a conjecture.
Kadıs and Clerks
Both of the two kadıs named in the entry are described separately in Hüsameddin's biographical volumes. Şermîzâde Dâniş Mehmed Efendi is among the descendants of Şermî Osman Çelebi, one of the poets of the age of Prince Ahmed; he was born in the Küpceğiz quarter, studied under Uzun Müderris Mehmed Efendi, served as professor at the Firuz Ağa Madrasa in Havza and the Kâsım Bey Madrasa in Hakala, became professor of the Büyük Hüseyin Ağa Madrasa in Amasya in 1078, and became kadı of Amasya on 1 Safar 1085. Afterward he served as kadı of Antalya, Karahisar-ı Şarkî, and in 1096 Sivas, retired, and died around 1103. The biography describes him as a jurist, a master of literature, a calligrapher, and a poet; his descendants were called the "Dânişzâdes." That the biography does not mention a kadılık of Mosul suggests that the epithet "former Kadı of Mosul" given to him in this entry and in the previous one comes from another source or that the detail was omitted in the biography.
No information was found in other sources about Pîrîzâde Zühdî Mehmed Efendi. The poet Mehmed Sâhib Efendi, who bore the same name "Pîrîzâde" and lived in the eighteenth century, and the nineteenth-century poet of Amasya Abdülmecîd Zühdî Efendi are, despite the similarity of names, different persons. Zühdî Mehmed Efendi will be dismissed in the next entry, in Dhu al-Qa'da 1086, upon complaints about him.
That a calligrapher was brought to the court clerkship after Kâtipzâde Ali Efendi's death shows how widespread calligraphy was in Amasya of the period. Later on, where Hüsameddin writes that there were specialists in every branch of the art of calligraphy in Amasya, he also mentions a calligrapher of the same family, Kâtipzâde İsmâil Efendi.
The Yâkut Pasha Waqf
No information was found in another source about the waqf that appears in the text as "Yâkut Pasha." It is known that in the Pîrler quarter of Amasya there is a famous Khalwati tekke (the Çilehâne, or Yakub Pasha Tekke) that Pazarlıoğlu Yâkub Pasha, Beylerbeyi of Ankara, had built and endowed in 815 [1412] for Mufti Gümüşlüzâde Abdurrahman Çelebi; Hüsameddin also speaks of the "Ya'kûb Pasha waqf" in other entries. Since "Yâkub" and "Yâkut" can easily be confused in Arabic-script writing, the waqf here is probably the Yâkub Pasha waqf; but this is an inference, for the text reads "Yâkut."
Sefer Ağazâde Ahmed Ağa and Merzifon
Kürt Sefer Ağazâde Ahmed Ağa, who went to Istanbul from the voivodeship of Merzifon, was according to Hüsameddin the deputy of Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha in Merzifon and building superintendent of his charitable works. The complex that Kara Mustafa Pasha had built in Merzifon between 1666 and 1679, consisting of a mosque, a Taşhan, a bedesten, a library, two baths, and shops, is the work of these years. Two entries later Ahmed Ağa will become kethüda of the grand vizierate when Kara Mustafa Pasha becomes grand vizier.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, p. 595–595. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, same edition, vol. 4, pp. 586–589 (Vanlı Mehmed Pasha's earlier terms), pp. 590–591 (Sefer Ağazâde Ahmed Ağa), pp. 606–609 (the calligraphers of Amasya); vol. 9, p. 157 (Dâniş Mehmed Efendi).
Academic studies
- Ahmet Gündüz, "Musul" (Osmanlılar Dönemi), TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/musul--irak
- Kadir Özköse, "Amasya'da Bulunan Halvetiyye Tekkeleri", Akademiar Dergisi, no. 5 (2018), pp. 91-118.
- Mehmet Öz, "Merzifon", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/merzifon
- "Pîrîzâde Mehmed Sâhib Efendi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/pirizade-mehmed-sahib-efendi--18-yy
Other sources