Ahıskalıdır. “Muruloğlu Mehmed Paşa” demekle meşhûrdur. 1088 senesi ramazânının on beşinci günü Amasya mutasarrıfı olup kethüdâsı Ahıskalı Sarı Süleyman Ağa Amasya mütesellimi oldu. Selhinde Çevikci Baba Tekkesi Şeyhi Ömer Efendi’nin vefâtıyla pederinin halifesi Süleyman Efendi şeyh oldu.
Şevvâlin evâilinde Kal’a-i Bâlâ Dizdârı Çavuşlu Mehmed Ağa Çavuş [167] Karyesi’nde bina eylediği câmi ve çeşmesini ikmâl ve kalede Bey Câmii’ni îmâr ederek her ikisine de mütevellî oldu. Bu esnada Merzifonî Halil Paşa Sivas vâlisi oldu.
Şevvâlin on ikinci günü Amasya ve etrafına müthiş bir yağmur yağıp kemâl-i şiddetle üç gün devam etdi. Amasya derelerinden müthiş seller aktı. Etrafındaki evleri harap ederek enkazını ve birkaç kimseyi alıp götürdü. Bağlarda ve tarlalarda mezru’ât ve mahsûlâtı mahvetdi.
Bunu müteâkib Yeşilırmak coşup her tarafa taşdı. Meydanları ve Amasya’nın orta yerlerini âdeta bir derya haline çevirdi. Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii’ni su basıp Hacı İlyâs, Eski Kethüdâ, Devehâne, Köprübaşı mahalleleri, İçerişehir’in sâhilleri virân oldu. Çekerek ve Deliçay ırmakları da coşduğundan her tarafa bir tûfan dehşeti verdi.
Bu afetlerden son derece zarar gören fukarânın tekâlif-i mîrîyeden bu senelik istisnasına dâir Amasya Nâibi Mahmûd Efendi tarafından takdîm edilen mufassal bir i‘lâm-ı şer‘î mûcebince irâde-i pâdişâhî sâdır oldu.
Zilka’de gurresinde Kadı Abdülbâkî Efendi’nin müddeti temdîd edildiğinden Nâib Mahmûd Efendi makâmında kaldı. Zilhiccenin selhinde Amasya sancağı, sâbık Mar’aş Beylerbeyi Murtezâ Paşa’ya tevcîh edildi. [168]
In Modern English
He was from Ahıska. He was known by the name "Muruloğlu Mehmed Pasha." On the fifteenth day of Ramadan 1088 [1677] he became governor of Amasya; his kethüda Sarı Süleyman Ağa of Ahıska became mütesellim of Amasya. On the last day of the month, when Ömer Efendi, Sheikh of the Çevikci Baba Tekke, died, Süleyman Efendi, his father's deputy (halife), became sheikh.
At the beginning of Shawwal, Çavuşlu Mehmed Ağa, Warden of the Upper Castle (Kal'a-i Bâlâ), completed the mosque and fountain that he had had built in Çavuş Village, also repaired the Bey Mosque in the castle, and became trustee of both. At this time Merzifonlu Halil Pasha became governor of Sivas.
On the twelfth day of Shawwal a terrible rain began to fall on Amasya and its surroundings and lasted three days with great violence. Frightful floods flowed from Amasya's streams. The floods demolished the houses around, carrying away their wreckage and a few people; they destroyed the crops and produce in the vineyards and fields.
After this the Yeşilırmak surged and overflowed everywhere. It turned the squares and the middle of Amasya almost into a sea. Water flooded the Sultan Bâyezîd Mosque; the Hacı İlyas, Eski Kethüda, Devehâne, and Köprübaşı quarters and the riverside parts of İçerişehir were ruined. As the Çekerek and Deliçay rivers also surged, every side experienced the terror of a deluge.
So that the poor, who had suffered greatly from these disasters, would be exempted from that year's state taxes, the Naib of Amasya Mahmûd Efendi presented a detailed shar'i ilam (the court's official report); on the basis of this ilam the sultan's order was issued.
On the first day of Dhu al-Qa'da, since Kadı Abdülbâkî Efendi's term of office was extended, Naib Mahmûd Efendi also remained in his post. On the last day of Dhu al-Hijja the sanjak of Amasya was given to the former Beylerbeyi of Maraş, Murtezâ Pasha.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- selh: the last day of a lunar month
- halîfe: in a Sufi order, a disciple authorized by the sheikh and able to succeed him
- Kal'a-i Bâlâ: the Upper Castle, the fortress on Mount Harşena
- dizdâr: castle commander
- karye: village
- îmâr: repairing, making prosperous
- kemâl-i şiddetle: with the utmost violence
- mezrû‘ât: crops
- mahv: destruction
- virân: ruined, in ruins
- fukarâ: the poor
- tekâlif-i mîriyye: state taxes
- istisnâ: exempting
- i‘lâm-ı şer‘î: the kadı's official letter reporting an event and its ruling to the center
- irâde-i pâdişâhî: the sultan's order
- temdîd: extension
Muruloğlu Mehmed Pasha
At the end of the previous entry Hüsameddin had introduced this pasha as "Mehmed Pasha, governor of Pasin"; here he adds that he was from Ahıska and was called by the nickname "Muruloğlu." No information was found on the Pasha in other sources. His home town Ahıska was one of the centers of the Çıldır province that the Ottomans founded in 1578; the center of the province was sometimes Çıldır and sometimes Ahıska, and in the seventeenth century the province was also called the "province of Ahıska." That the Pasha's kethüda and mütesellim Sarı Süleyman Ağa was also from Ahıska suggests that the Pasha formed his household from his own home region.
The Çevikci Baba Tekke
The Çevikci Baba Tekke, whose change of sheikh is mentioned in the entry, is one of the oldest Khalwati tekkes of Amasya. According to what Hüsameddin tells in other volumes of the work, it was built in 831 [1428] by Şemseddin Mehmed, who showed mastery in the printing in Amasya, in the time of Çelebi Sultan Mehmed, of the paper money known as "çav" or "çavik," and was therefore called "Çevikçi" or "Kırtâsî"; its sheikhship was left to Khalwati deputies and its trusteeship to his own descendants. The tekke was in today's Mehmet Paşa Quarter, west of the Çilehâne (Yakub Pasha) Tekke near the Tomb of the Pîrs.
Hüsameddin writes that the tekke was ruined and revived many times, and that in 1088 Şeyh Süleyman Efendi repaired the tekke and took on the sheikhship; this entry gives the date and reason of the same event. In an earlier part of the work it was recorded that in 1081, on the death of a sheikh of the tekke named Süleyman Efendi, his son Ömer Efendi became sheikh. According to this there are two successive Süleyman Efendis at the tekke: the first is Ömer Efendi's father, and the second is the Süleyman Efendi who was that father's deputy and who became sheikh in 1088. Studies on the Khalwati order also confirm the repair of 1088 [1677] and Süleyman Efendi's sheikhship; according to the same studies Süleyman Efendi was removed from the sheikhship on the ground of involvement in the events of 1099 [1688], and a sheikh again named Ömer was put in his place. The tekke was converted into a madrasa in 1832 with the death of its last sheikh, Osman Baba.
Çavuşlu Mehmed Ağa, Çavuş Village, and the Bey Mosque in the Castle
Çavuşlu Mehmed Ağa, warden of the Upper Castle, came to this post in 1083 according to Hüsameddin and died in Dhu al-Qa'da 1092. No information was found in another source about Çavuş Village, where the mosque and fountain he built stand. Today there is a village called Çavuşköy, also known as "Çavuş," attached to the central district of Amasya; considered together with Mehmed Ağa's nickname, the village in the text is probably this place, but no information was found showing the relation of the mosque in the village to this building.
The Bey Mosque in the castle is the mosque of the Upper Castle on Mount Harşena. In Hüsameddin's biographical volumes it is told that Karaca Ahmed Ağa, the castle warden who came to Amasya during Bayezid II's princehood, had a madrasa called "Dizdâriye" built near the Bey Mosque in 890 [1485], and that scholars from the castle's people served as preachers and imams in this mosque until the nineteenth century. It is known that in the early sixteenth century the castle had a warden, a kethüda, and fifty-seven guards, and that inside the castle there were mud-brick houses where the castle's servants lived. From the eighteenth century the castle lost its importance and began to fall into ruin. No information was found on the present state of the Bey Mosque.
The Flood of 1088 [1677]
The flood disaster occupying most of the entry is a record that should be added to the known history of disasters of Amasya. By calendar calculation 12 Shawwal 1088 corresponds to the beginning of December 1677; that is, the three-day downpour fell at the start of winter. Amasya is known to have suffered earthquake and flood disasters from time to time; but no information was found in a source other than Hüsameddin about this flood. Since Hüsameddin's record is based on the ilam written by the court, it is a valuable record for the flood history of the city in the seventeenth century.
The places the flood struck are the parts of the city nearest the river. The Sultan Bâyezîd Complex is in the Hacı İlyas Quarter; the mansion of the Exegete Hızır Efendi was also in this quarter, on the riverbank, at the head of the Maydanos Bridge. The Devehâne Quarter was in the sixteenth century a market district in which a market called "Kağnı Pazarı" was set up around the Aydın Masjid and its bath. İçerişehir is the old city on the north bank of the river, surrounded by the walls of the Inner Castle. This time the water flooded the Sultan Bâyezîd Mosque, whose repairs left from the earthquake of 1668 were still unfinished.
Tax Exemption
The correspondence after the flood shows how disaster management worked in the Ottoman provinces. The kadı's naib, who established the damage on the spot, reported the situation to Istanbul in a detailed ilam; and the sultan, on the basis of this ilam, exempted the poor who suffered damage from that year's taxes. It is seen in the next entry that Naib Mahmûd Efendi left his post.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, p. 597–597. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, same edition, vol. 1, pp. 148–155 (Çevikçi Baba Tekke); vol. 3, pp. 457–464 (Çevikçi Şemseddin Mehmed); vol. 4, p. 592 (death of Şeyh Süleyman Efendi), p. 594 (Çavuşlu Mehmed Ağa's wardenship), pp. 598–599 (his death); vol. 6, p. 75 (Upper Castle Sheikh İbrâhim Efendi), p. 125 (Karaca Dizdar Ahmed Ağa).
Academic studies
- Kadir Özköse, "Amasya'da Bulunan Halvetiyye Tekkeleri", Akademiar Dergisi, no. 5 (2018), pp. 91-118.
- Feridun Emecen, "Çıldır Eyaleti", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/cildir-eyaleti
- İlhan Şahin, Feridun Emecen, "Amasya", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/amasya
- Selim Özcan, "Amasya'da Sancak Beyliği Yapan Şehzadeler Döneminde Amasya Şehri", https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/19685
Official sources
- Abdulhamit Budak, Bir Şehir Bir Tarikat: Amasya ve Halvetilik, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2015.
Other sources