Sivaslıdır. Zaralızâde Osmân Paşa'nın oğludur.⁷¹¹ 1166 muharremi gurresinde Amasya mutasarrıfı olup sipâhîler kethüdâsı olan Fazlıoğlu Hacı Mustafâ Ağa'yı mütesellim nasb etdi. Buna Mustafâ Efendi de denirdi.
Mehmed Paşa, Sivâs vâlîsi iken Amasya tahsîlâtından hazîne-i mâliyyeye gönderilmek üzere Sivâs defterdârına teslîm edilen büyük ve mühim bir meblağı kendi işlerine sarfetmişti. Bu hâl İstanbul'a aks etdikde paranın gönderilmesi emir ve te'kîd ve aldırmayınca azl ve tehdîd edildi. [85]
Paşa, işin fenâya saracağını anlayınca ba'zı vüzerâya ve sadr-ı a'zama mürâca'atla Amasya sancağını taleb ve imhâlini ricâ ederek parayı ödeyeceğini beyân eylediğinden matlûbu is'âf edildi.
Ancak Amasya sancağı uhdesine tevcîh edilmeden önce muhassıllar ta'yîn ederek Sivâs'dan gönderdi. İhtilâs etdiği paraları halkdan ikinci def'a tahsîl etdirmek için mütesellimine buyrultu gönderip tahsîline kıyâm ve az sonra Amasya mutasarrıfı olduğunu ve Sivâs'dan hareket etdiğini bildirdi.
Fazlı Oğulları, Mehmed Paşa'nın mukaddem verdiği emri üzerine paraların tahsîlâtına kıyâm ve Sivâs'dan gelen tahsîldârlar ise mübâşeret etdikleri cihetle şikâyetler bâb-ı âlîye yağdı.
Bu hareket, yeniçeriler ve hâsseten halk arasında dehşetli bir infi'âl uyandırdı. Muhassılları ve Fazlı Oğulları'nı tahsîlâtdan men' eden halk, boğazları sedd edip Mehmed Paşa'yı Amasya'ya sokmamak ve tahsîlâta kıyâm edenleri öldürmek için ittifâk etdiler.
Vaz'iyyet pek korkunç idi. Çünkü vergilerini tamâmiyle vermiş olan halk, tekrâr tahsîl edileceğinden korkup her türlü muhâtarayı göze aldırmışlardı. Bunu takdîr eden mütesellim [86] muhassılları durdurmuş, ahvâli Mehmed Paşa'ya bildirmişdi.
Bâbı-âlî, şikâyetleri muhikk gördüğünden derhâl Mehmed Paşa'yı azl ve yerine İçil mutasarrıfı Cevher Paşa'yı ta'yîn etdiği hâlde bundan ma'lûmâtı olmayan Mehmed Paşa boğaza kadar gelmiş, halk ise müsellahan paşayı geri çevirmeğe kıyâm etmiş, Helvâcı Pınarı önünde oldukça önemli bir boğuşma olmuşdu.
Fakat Amasya a'yânı araya girip paşayı iknâ'a çalışdıkları esnâda fermân-ı âlî gelip teblîğ edilince Mehmed Paşa dönüp Sivâs'a gitdi. Gavgâ da bitdi. Paşanın adamlarından birkaçı öldü. Amasyalılardan da yaralanan oldu.
In Modern English
He was from Sivas. He was the son of Zaralızâde Osman Pasha. On the first day of Muharrem 1166 [November 1752] he became mutasarrıf of Amasya and appointed the kethüda of the sipahis, Fazlıoğlu Hacı Mustafa Ağa, as mütesellim, that is, as the deputy who would govern the sanjak in his place. This person was also called Mustafa Efendi.
While governor of Sivas, Mehmed Pasha had spent on his own affairs a large and important sum, collected in taxes from Amasya and delivered to the defterdar of Sivas to be sent to the state treasury. When this became known in Istanbul, the sending of the money was ordered, order was written upon order, and when the pasha paid no heed he was threatened with dismissal.
When the pasha understood that the matter would turn out badly, he applied to some viziers and to the grand vizier, asking that the sanjak of Amasya be given to him and that he be granted time for his debt, and announced that he would pay the money. His request was thereupon accepted.
But before the sanjak of Amasya was given to him, he appointed and sent tax collectors (muhassıls) from Sivas. To have the sums he had embezzled collected from the people a second time, he sent a written order to his mütesellim and set about collecting; shortly afterward he announced that he was mutasarrıf of Amasya and had set out from Sivas.
When the Fazlıoğulları set about collecting the money on the order Mehmed Pasha had given earlier, and the collectors who came from Sivas also began work, complaints poured into the Sublime Porte.
This action aroused a terrible anger among the janissaries and especially among the people. The people, who prevented the tax collectors and the Fazlıoğulları from collecting, held the passes leading to the city and united among themselves so as not to let Mehmed Pasha into Amasya and to kill those who set about collecting.
The situation was terrible. For the people, who had paid their taxes in full, feared that they would be collected again and had braved every danger. Understanding this, the mütesellim stopped the collectors and informed Mehmed Pasha of the situation.
Since the Porte found the complaints justified, it at once dismissed Mehmed Pasha and appointed Cevher Pasha, mutasarrıf of İçel, in his place. Yet Mehmed Pasha, unaware of this, had come as far as the pass, and the people, armed, had risen to turn the pasha back; a fairly large clash took place before Helvacı Pınarı.
But while the leading men of Amasya intervened and were trying to persuade the pasha, the sultan's firman arrived and was communicated to him, and Mehmed Pasha turned back and went to Sivas. The fight also came to an end. A few of the pasha's men died, and some of the Amasya men were wounded.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- muharrem gurresi: the first day of the month of Muharrem
- mutasarrıf: the pasha assigned to govern a sanjak
- mütesellim: the deputy who governed the sanjak and collected taxes in place of the mutasarrıf
- nasb etmek: to appoint to a post
- hazîne-i mâliyye: the state treasury
- defterdâr: the official responsible for the financial affairs of a province
- te'kîd: repeating an order insistently
- azl: dismissal from office
- imhâl: granting time for a debt
- is'âf etmek: to grant a request
- muhassıl: an official charged with collecting taxes
- ihtilâs: embezzling state property
- buyruldu: the written order of a governor or pasha
- kıyâm: setting about a matter; uprising
- mübâşeret: beginning a task
- bâb-ı âlî: the office of the grand vizierate, the central government
- infi'âl: anger, great resentment
- muhâtara: danger
- muhikk: in the right, justified
- müsellahan: armed
- a'yân: the leading men of the city
- fermân-ı âlî: the sultan's order
The Zaralızades and Mehmed Pasha
According to Hüsameddin's footnote, the family name was written "Zâr Alîzâde" in the mukataa and finance registers and was shortened in speech to "Zaralızâde." The family is one of the powerful notable families of Sivas in the eighteenth century; Saim Savaş studied this family in an article titled "XVIII. Asırda Sivas'ta Bir Âyan Ailesi: Zaralızâdeler." Feyzullah Pasha, who would take over the administration of Sivas after Mehmed Pasha, is also from this family, and Muradî, one of the chroniclers of the period, mentions him as the brother of Zaralızâde. Thus in these years Amasya found itself face to face with the financial and military power of a family rooted in the center of the neighboring province.
The list of governors of Sivas that Ahmet Önal prepared on the basis of the appointment registers and chronicle records confirms the background of the events Hüsameddin relates. According to the record of the chronicler Hâkim, on 12 Şevval 1166 [12 August 1753] the province of Sivas is "still in the hands of its mutasarrıf, the vizier Zaralızâde Mehmed Pasha," and in the following years, in the appointments of 6 Şevval 1167 [27 July 1754] and 7 Şevval 1168 [17 July 1755], he was left in his post as well. So the uprising in Amasya and the pasha's removal from the mutasarrıflık of Amasya did not shake his governorship of Sivas. Hüsameddin's account beginning "while governor of Sivas" and the pasha's separately asking for the sanjak of Amasya also fit this picture; in this century the sanjak of Amasya was attached to the province of Sivas, and the governor could have the taxes of the sanjaks collected by his own buyuruldus.
Tax, Embezzlement and the People's Reaction
The matter Hüsameddin relates is a well-known predicament of eighteenth-century provincial finance. Jülide Akyüz Onat's research, based on the sharia court registers of Amasya, shows that the imdad-ı seferiyye tax taken from the people in wartime had in this century become a regular source of revenue for administrators. The governors of Sivas demanded such taxes by buyuruldus sent to the kadıs of the province, and the sum to be collected was apportioned among the districts. For example, in 1739-40 the governor of Sivas, Abdullah Pasha, distributed to the province an expense of 20,500 kuruş for the repair of the palace inside the fortress and the levend rooms, of which 2,747 kuruş fell to the districts of the sanjak of Amasya. The same research also documents that in the face of increasing taxes the people mostly reacted by abandoning their villages and farms and migrating.
Within this framework the noteworthy aspect of the events of 1752 is that the people resorted to arms instead of migrating. The Amasya men, who had paid their taxes, did not accept that the same money be demanded a second time because of the governor's embezzlement, and held the passes of the city and did not let the pasha in. Hüsameddin writes that the local administrators (the mütesellim and the notables) this time took the side of the people, and that Istanbul too found the complaints justified and withdrew the pasha. The Fazlıoğulları in the narrative play a two-sided role: they hold local posts such as the mütesellimship and the kethüdaship of the sipahis, and they are also the party carrying out the governor's collection order. This double position of the family would continue in later entries; in the great uprising of 1170 their mansions would be stoned by the people.
The End of Mehmed Pasha
Hüsameddin ends the story of Zaralızâde Mehmed Pasha a few entries later, with his dismissal and execution in 1170 [1757]. According to Önal's list, the pasha became governor of Sivas again in 1756, after a short time as governor of Anatolia returned again to Sivas, and was transferred from Sivas to Trabzon on 15 Cemaziyelahir 1170 [7 March 1757]. Relying on İlhan Ege's study, Önal states that the pasha was executed in the same year; Saim Savaş, on the other hand, writes that he was dismissed in 1754 and most probably killed in the same year. Since the appointment records show the pasha in office until 1757, the date of 1757 given by Hüsameddin appears sounder than Savaş's guess.
No information was found in other sources about the present location of Helvacı Pınarı, which Hüsameddin mentions.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, 4. Cildin Bakiyyesi, p. 652–653. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies