AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · BİRİNCİ BÂB · ONUNCU FASIL · AMASYA TÂRÎHİ'NDEN ÜÇÜNCÜ DEVRE BAKİYYESİ

Mehmed Pasha

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Remainder of Volume 4, p. 669 • Edited by: Prof. Dr. Mehmet ARSLAN

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Alâ'iyelidir. Serdengeçdi ağalarından Yûsuf Ağa'nın oğludur. Anadolu vâlîliğinden ma'zûl iken 1195 cemâziyelâhirinin dokuzuncu günü Amasya mutasarrıfı ve Hotin muhâfızı olduğundan [140] mütesellim Abdullâh Efendi ibkâ edildi.

Bu ayın sonlarında müftü Hacı Hüseyin Efendi de azl edilip selefi Kara İsmâ'il Efendi Amasya müftüsü oldu. Receb ortalarında Kırım'a kaçan Canikliler Rus imparatorunun iltimâsıyla afva mazhar olarak Samsun'a geldiklerinden Hacı Alî Paşa'ya ibkâ-yı vezâretle Trabzon eyâleti ve oğlu Mikdâd Ahmed Paşa'ya da ibtidâ İçil ve sonra Amasya sancağı ber-vech-i mâlikâne (!) ihsân edildi.

Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was from Alaiye, that is, a native of Alanya. He was the son of Yusuf Ağa, one of the ağas of the serdengeçtis. While dismissed from the governorship of Anatolia, on the ninth day of Cemaziyelahir 1195 [1781] he became mutasarrıf of Amasya. Since he was at the same time guardian of Khotyn, the mütesellim Abdullah Efendi was left in his place.

At the end of this month the mufti Hacı Hüseyin Efendi was also dismissed, and his predecessor Kara İsmâil Efendi became mufti of Amasya. In the middle of Receb the Canikli, who had fled to Crimea, obtained pardon through the mediation of the Russian emperor and came to Samsun. Thereupon the province of Trabzon was granted to Hacı Ali Pasha with his vizierate left in place, and to his son Mikdâd Ahmed Pasha first İçil and then the sanjak of Amasya as a malikâne (!).

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • Alâ'iye: today's Alanya
  • serdengeçti ağası: commander of the "serdengeçti" units that volunteered for the most dangerous tasks in battle
  • ma'zûl: dismissed from office
  • ibkâ edilmek: to be left in place, to be kept in office
  • iltimâs: mediation, a request for favor
  • afva mazhar olmak: to receive pardon, to be forgiven
  • ibkâ-yı vezâret: retention of the rank of vizier
  • ihsân edilmek: to be granted, given by the sultan

Yeğen Seyyid Mehmed Pasha

Alaiyeli Mehmed Pasha, whom Hüsameddin introduces briefly, is Yeğen Seyyid Mehmed Pasha, who a year later would briefly serve as grand vizier. According to records based on Mehmed Süreyya's Sicill-i Osmânî, he was born in 1726 in the town of Marulla in Alaiye as the son of Yusuf Ağa, one of the ağas of the serdengeçtis; some sources show him as from the Barla subdistrict attached to Eğirdir. He entered the Janissary Corps and, like his father, became ağa of the Belgrade serdengeçtis, rose rapidly in the Ottoman-Russian war of 1768-1774, and in 1772 became janissary ağa and vizier. After the war he served as governor of Silistra, guardian of Vidin and mutasarrıf of Kırşehir.

Hüsameddin's saying "dismissed from the governorship of Anatolia" corresponds to this period of his career. According to the same records, Mehmed Pasha became beylerbeyi of Anatolia in 1779, and in 1780, being treated coldly, was sent to the sanjak beylik of Alaiye, which meant a demotion, with his vizierate also taken away and obliged to reside there. In 1781 he was pardoned, his vizierate restored, and he was appointed guardian of Khotyn. Hüsameddin's record shows that, along with this pardon and the Khotyn appointment, the sanjak of Amasya was also attached to him as a source of income, and that its date was 9 Cemaziyelahir 1195 [early June 1781]. Since the Pasha was at Khotyn, Amasya was again governed by the mütesellim Abdullah Efendi.

Mehmed Pasha's Amasya mutasarrıflık lasted a few weeks. The Pasha, who the following year became governor of Tırhala and beylerbeyi of Rumelia, was brought to the grand vizierate on 25 August 1782; but in his grand vizierate of about four months, because he turned to taking revenge on former opponents, he offended many statesmen and was dismissed on 31 December 1782. Kemal Beydilli records that Halil Hamîd Pasha succeeded him and that Yeğen Mehmed Pasha's grand vizierate lasted about four months. In later years Mehmed Pasha, who served as guardian of Vidin and Lepanto and governor of Egypt and Diyarbekir, fell ill on the road in 1787 at the beginning of the Russian war while going to the seraskerlik of Ismail and died at Köstence on 6 December 1787. Özcan Mert writes that because of the Crimean question Abdülhamid I wanted to eliminate Canikli Hacı Ali Pasha, but Grand Vizier Yeğen Mehmed Pasha and Halil Hamîd Pasha dissuaded the sultan from this decision; thus the paths of the entry's two protagonists crossed once more.

This Mehmed Pasha should not be confused with Yeğen Mehmed Pasha, who served as grand vizier in 1737-1739, fell ill and died in 1745 while fighting Nâdir Shah near Revan, and was buried at Kars. According to Abdülkadir Özcan, he had taken the nickname "Yeğen" because he was the son of the sister of Kel Yûsuf Efendi, defterdar from Alanya; the two viziers bear the same nickname and the path of both passes through Alanya, but there is a generation between them.

The Pardon of the Canikli

Hüsameddin writes that the Canikli were pardoned "through the mediation of the Russian emperor". Studies based on archival documents show other intermediaries behind the pardon. According to Yücel Özkaya, Ali Pasha, also drawing on the suggestions of viziers in Istanbul who favored him, sent a letter asking that Trabzon be given to himself and Erzurum to his son Mikdâd, and immediately afterward the Crimean Khan Şahin Giray also asked for his pardon. As a result of Şahin Giray's mediation and the suggestions of the grand vizier and other notables, his vizierate was restored and his appointment to the governorship of Trabzon was communicated to him in September 1781. Özcan Mert also ties the pardon to the efforts of İzzet Mehmed Pasha, who became grand vizier for the second time on 20 February 1781, to restore the balance that had been upset in favor of the Çapanoğulları in Canik and its surroundings. Since Şahin Giray was a khan who had come to the Crimean throne with Russia's support, Hüsameddin's speaking of Russian mediation is not wholly misplaced; but the intermediary named in the documents is not the Russian tsar but the Crimean khan. The Russian tsar's mediation is seen later in the family's history, in the pardon of Battal Hüseyin Pasha in 1799 at the request of Paul I; it is possible that Hüsameddin confused the two events.

There are also small differences on date and title. Hüsameddin places the pardon in the middle of Receb 1195 [early July 1781]; in the documents the date on which the appointments were communicated is September 1781. Hüsameddin says that first İçil and then Amasya was given to Mikdâd Pasha as a malikâne, and by putting an exclamation mark beside this word he reveals his astonishment that the city was again given, with the right of lifetime tenure, to the Pasha who had been forced out of Amasya two years before. Özkaya and Mert, however, write that the governorship of Erzurum and Amasya were given to Mikdâd Pasha as an arpalık; they do not mention İçil. Hüsameddin's next entry recounts that Mikdâd Pasha became mutasarrıf of Amasya for the second time on 1 Şaban 1195 and that, with the return of the Canikli, Amasyan opponents such as Gürcüzâde Halil Pasha, Çomuluoğlu Hacı Ali Pasha and Avkatlıoğlu Mustafa Pasha had to leave the city.

No information was found in other sources on the muftis Hacı Hüseyin Efendi and Kara İsmâil Efendi named in the entry.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

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