Haleblidir. "Halebli Abaza Mehmed Paşa" demekle meşhûrdur. Gönye muhâfızı iken 1179 cemâziyelâhirin on dördüncü günü Amasya mutasarrıfı ve baş a'yân Hacı Ahmed Bey mütesellimi oldu.
Receb evâ'ilinde evkâf-ı sultâniyye kâtibi hattât Kâtibzâde Hâfız Osmân Efendi bin Ahmed Efendi Hicâz'a gidip oğlu Abdullâh Efendi'yi vekîl etmişdi. Ramazânın sonlarında alaybeyi Abdullâh Bey harbde yaralanıp geldiğinden Çuçuoğlu İsmâ'il Bey alaybeyi oldu. [111]
Şevvâl evâ'ilinde Zeynelzâde Hâfız Alî Efendi şehir kethüdâsı ve dokuzuncu günü haremeyn kîsedârı Amasyalı Nüzhet Ömer Efendi bin Mustafâ Ağa evkâf-ı sultâniyye mütevellîsi ve musâhib Mâdih Alî Efendi de Merzifon'da Çelebi Sultân Vakfı mütevellîsi oldu. Nüzhet Ömer Efendi Amasya'ya geldi. Mâdih Alî Efendi'nin kâ'im-makâmı Süleymân Efendi oldu. Sâbık evkâf-ı sultâniyye mütevellîsi Mehmed İzzet Efendi de İstanbul'a gitdi.
Zilka'de ibtidâsında Boluvîzâde Hâfız İbrâhim Efendi Amasya kadısı olup Müftüzâde Hacı Mustafâ Efendi nâ'ibi oldu. Bu esnâda şeyhu'l-kurrâ Şeyhcû'ili Hacı İbrâhim Efendi bin Yahyâ ve esbak müftü Ziyâreli Hacı Ömer Efendi, Hazret-i Pîr İlyâs türbedâr ve mütevellîsi ve Fâtımiyye müderrisi Şeyh Hâfız İsmâ'il Efendi ve Kâtibzâde Hâfız Osmân Efendi de Mekke'de vefât etdi.
1180 muharreminde Gürcüzâde Halîl Bey baş a'yân, Çukadâroğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa hacıbaşı, Emîr Hacıoğlu Hacı Mustafâ Ağa nakîb ve Bekir Beyzâde Abdullâh Bey de mübâya'acı oldu. Saferde Merzifon voyvodası Tuz Mehmed Paşazâde Ahmed Bey mîr-i mîrânlıkla Van vâlîsi olup "Hazînedâr Çırağı" demekle meşhûr Merzifonlu Sâdık Mehmed Ağa voyvoda olarak harbe gitdi. [112]
Bu sene a'yândan Rahtuvân Paşazâde Hacı Alî Bey bin Hacı Ahmed Bey Hicâz'a gitmişdi. Mekke'de vefât edip âzâdlı kölesi Hacı Yûsuf Ağa vâsî olmuşdu. Avdetinde Taşhan içinde yapdırdığı mescidin vakfiyesini tanzîm etdirdi. Selâm Beyzâde Abdullâh Bey de vefât etdi. Ebûbekir Paşa esâretinden kurtarılıp Amasya'ya geldi.
In Modern English
He was a native of Aleppo. He is known as "Halepli Abaza Mehmed Pasha". While guardian of Gönye, on the fourteenth day of Cemaziyelahir 1179 [1765] he became mutasarrıf of Amasya; the chief notable Hacı Ahmed Bey also became his mütesellim.
At the beginning of Receb the scribe of the sultan's waqfs, the calligrapher Kâtibzade Hafız Osman Efendi son of Ahmed Efendi, went to the Hejaz and left his son Abdullah Efendi in his place as deputy. At the end of Ramazan, since the alaybeyi Abdullah Bey returned wounded in the war, Çuçuoğlu İsmail Bey became alaybeyi.
At the beginning of Şevval Zeynelzade Hafız Ali Efendi became city kethüda. On the ninth day of the month Nüzhet Ömer Efendi son of Mustafa Ağa of Amasya, kisedar of the Haremeyn, became steward of the sultan's waqfs, and the musahip Mâdih Ali Efendi became steward of the Çelebi Sultan Waqf at Merzifon. Nüzhet Ömer Efendi came to Amasya. Süleyman Efendi became kaymakam (deputy) of Mâdih Ali Efendi. Mehmed İzzet Efendi, the previous steward of the sultan's waqfs, also went to Istanbul.
At the beginning of Zilkade Boluvizade Hafız İbrahim Efendi became kadı of Amasya; Müftüzade Hacı Mustafa Efendi became his naib. At this time the şeyhülkurra (head of the Qur'an reciters) Şeyhcuili Hacı İbrahim Efendi son of Yahya, the former mufti Ziyareli Hacı Ömer Efendi, and Şeyh Hafız İsmail Efendi, türbedar and steward of the tomb of the Holy Pir İlyas and müderris of the Fatımiye Madrasa, died. Kâtibzade Hafız Osman Efendi also died in Mecca.
In Muharrem 1180 [1766] Gürcüzade Halil Bey became chief notable, Çukadaroğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa hacıbaşı, Emir Hacıoğlu Hacı Mustafa Ağa nakîb, and Bekir Beyzade Abdullah Bey mübayaacı (the official who bought provisions in the name of the state). In Safer Tuz Mehmed Paşazade Ahmed Bey, voivode of Merzifon, became governor of Van with the rank of beylerbeyi; Sadık Mehmed Ağa of Merzifon, known as "the Treasurer's Apprentice", went to the war as voivode.
This year Rahtuvan Paşazade Hacı Ali Bey son of Hacı Ahmed Bey, one of the notables, had gone to the Hejaz. He died in Mecca, and his freedman Hacı Yusuf Ağa became his executor. On his return Yusuf Ağa had the waqf deed drawn up for the mescit he had built inside the Taşhan. Selam Beyzade Abdullah Bey also died. Ebubekir Pasha was rescued from captivity and came to Amasya.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- muhâfız: fortress commander
- evkâf-ı sultâniyye kâtibi: the official who handled the clerical affairs of the sultan's waqfs
- hattât: calligrapher
- Haremeyn kîsedârı: the official who handled the money affairs of the waqfs belonging to Mecca and Medina
- şeyhu'l-kurrâ: head of the Qur'an reciters and teachers of recitation
- türbedâr: guardian and servant of a tomb
- mübâya'acı: the person in charge of buying provisions and supplies in the name of the state
- voyvoda: the official who collected and administered the tax revenues of a region
- âzâdlı köle: a freed slave
- avdet: return
- vakfiye: the official document setting out the terms of a waqf
- esâret: captivity
The Two Abaza Mehmed Pashas
The mutasarrıf whom Hüsameddin calls "Halebli Abaza Mehmed Pasha" is one of two statesmen who bore the same name in the middle of the eighteenth century and are often confused with each other. Hamit Karasu, in his study based on archival documents, distinguishes them as "Goniyeli Abaza Mehmed Pasha" and "Silahşor Abaza Mehmed Pasha". Silahşor Abaza Mehmed, trained as çuhadar of Hekimoğlu Ali Pasha, played a part in the execution of Çapanoğlu Ahmed Pasha in 1765 and was executed in the 1768-1774 war on the ground that he abandoned his post. Goniyeli Abaza Mehmed, on the other hand, was trained in the Enderun and left the palace with the rank of beylerbeyi and the mutasarrıflık of the sanjak of Gönye. In Mücteba İlgürel's Abaza Mehmed Pasha entry the Gönye mutasarrıflık is also attributed to Silahşor Abaza; Karasu shows that this information in fact belongs to Goniyeli Abaza Mehmed and that Silahşor Abaza was never appointed to Gönye. According to this information, the mutasarrıf of Amasya whom Hüsameddin presents as "while guardian of Gönye" is Goniyeli Abaza Mehmed Pasha.
According to Karasu, Goniyeli Abaza Mehmed was appointed to the sanjak of Gönye in 1750 on the condition of guarding Faş Castle, was dismissed in 1754-1755 upon complaints that he oppressed the people and collected excess taxes, but was soon reappointed and held the sanjak until 1759. Gönye is the sanjak to which the important Faş Castle on the Black Sea coast was attached. The Pasha, together with his elder brother and two sons, held this sanjak for twenty of the thirty-six years between 1756 and 1792, and the family became virtually a dynasty in the region. Karasu attributes this partly to Gönye being the Pasha's homeland; Hüsameddin, however, introduces him as "from Aleppo". This difference between the two pieces of information could not be resolved.
The date of the Pasha's coming to Amasya also does not fully agree with the sequence Karasu gives. According to Karasu, Abaza Mehmed Pasha became mutasarrıf of Kayseri in April 1765, in the autumn of the same year, after a great clash with the notables of Kayseri, was appointed to Karahisar-ı Sahib and stayed there about a year. Then, on the condition of guarding Faş Castle, he was appointed first again to Gönye, then to Amasya, and then to Ankara. According to this sequence the Amasya mutasarrıflık falls after 1766; Hüsameddin, however, gives the appointment as 14 Cemaziyelahir 1179 [November 1765]. Karasu writes that the Pasha, called to the front when the war began while mutasarrıf of Ankara, was appointed on 7 July 1769 to the sanjak of Bender on the condition of guarding Bender Castle, was given the sanjak of Sultanönü as well at the beginning of 1770, and died while guardian of Bender. At his death the soldiers of the fortress wrote a letter announcing that they had chosen another vizier in the city, Ebubekir Pasha, as guardian. This record is directly relevant to the question of Ebubekir Pasha's captivity discussed in the previous entry.
Ebubekir Pasha's Return from Captivity
In the last sentence of the entry Hüsameddin writes that in 1180 [1766] Ebubekir Pasha was rescued from captivity and returned to Amasya. As noted above, in 1766 there was no war between the Ottomans and Russia, and the Russian capture of Bender was in 1770. For this reason the dates of the records concerning the Pasha's captivity and return are disputed; the detail is given in the notes to entry 55.
The Mescit in the Taşhan
The mescit mentioned in the entry stood in the courtyard of Amasya's Taşhan, which still stands today. According to the inscription over its door, the Taşhan was built in 1699 by Rahtuvan Hacı Mehmed Pasha, mutasarrıf of Amasya and guardian of Jedda, through Mimar Mehmed Kalfa; the Pasha endowed the han to his descendants in January 1700. According to what Selim Özcan relays, in December 1761 a şadırvan was built in the middle of the courtyard by Hacı Yusuf Abdullah, with a mescit over it, and in the han's waqf deed drawn up in 1771 its founder, architect and the number of rooms and shops were recorded. The Hacı Yusuf Ağa whom Hüsameddin mentions as the freedman and executor of Rahtuvan Paşazade Hacı Ali Bey and the Hacı Yusuf Abdullah who had the mescit built are very probably the same person. There is a difference between the dates: the sources put the building of the mescit in 1761, while Hüsameddin says Yusuf Ağa had the waqf deed drawn up after 1180 [1766]. It is possible that the mescit was built first and its waqf deed drawn up later. In photographs from the han's later periods it is seen that the mescit and the şadırvan in the courtyard are no longer there. The han was reopened to service when the restoration begun in 2007 was completed in December 2012, and today is used as a hotel and shops.
Şeyh İsmail Efendi, Türbedar of Pir İlyas
Şeyh Hafız İsmail Efendi, named among the dead, was both türbedar of the tomb of Pir İlyas, who spread Halvetism in Amasya, and müderris of the Fatımiye Madrasa. According to Kadir Özköse's study on the Halvetî tekkes in Amasya, İsmail Efendi, the "famous türbedar", on the advice of Saraylı Fatma Hanım had a madrasa built in 1740 in place of the Gümüşlüoğlu Tekke and arranged its waqfs; with İsmail Efendi's death in 1765 the türbedarlık of the Pir and the stewardship of the Fatıma Madrasa were separated from each other. Yılmaz Karadeniz also writes that the first müderris of the Fâtımiye (Hatuniye) Madrasa, built in 1740 by Fatma Hatun of Amasya, one of the palace women of Mahmud I, was Şeyh İsmail Efendi. The year 1765 given by Özköse is very close to Hüsameddin's record of Zilkade 1179 [April 1766].
On Pir İlyas himself, Özköse relates that Pir Şücaeddin İlyas, who returned to Amasya in 1406 after the death of Timur, brought Halvetism to Amasya, and that his relative Hâce Celal Çelebi a year later had the Gümüşlüoğlu Tekke built and put it at the order's disposal. In the same study the date of Pir İlyas's death is given as 833 [1429].
Other Names
The deceased şeyhülkurra Hacı İbrahim Efendi must be the same person as the şeyhülkurra Hacı İbrahim Efendi whom Hüsameddin in entry 48 writes was exiled to Famagusta in the Fazlıoğulları case; however, this is not stated explicitly in the text. The calligrapher Kâtibzade Hafız Osman Efendi, who died in Mecca, should not be confused with the famous Istanbul calligrapher of the same name, Hafız Osman; according to the information M. Uğur Derman gives, that great calligrapher was born in Istanbul in 1052 [1642] and died, again in Istanbul, in 1110 [1698]. No information was found in other sources on Kâtibzade Hafız Osman Efendi of Amasya.
Tuz Mehmed Paşazade Ahmed Bey, reported appointed to the governorship of Van, must be the son of Tuz Mehmed Pasha, the governor of Diyarbekir executed in 1739; in Tuz Mehmed Pasha's biography the son's name appears as Ahmed Pasha. In Mehmet İnbaşı's list of the governors of Van, however, there is no appointment of an Ahmed corresponding to Safer 1180 [July 1766]; at those dates İbrahim Pasha appears between April and November 1766, followed by Sarızade Mehmed Pasha. In the list an Ahmed Pasha, former mutasarrıf of Karesi, was appointed to Van on 31 October 1767. Whether this Ahmed Pasha is the Tuz Mehmed Paşazade could not be verified.
No information was found in other sources on Nüzhet Ömer Efendi, Mâdih Ali Efendi, the kadı Boluvizade Hafız İbrahim Efendi and Sadık Mehmed Ağa of Merzifon.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, Supplement to Volume 4, p. 660–661. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
- Hamit Karasu, "XVIII. Yüzyılda İki Abaza Mehmed Paşa", Genel Türk Tarihi Araştırmaları Dergisi, 7/13, 2025, p. 51-68, https://doi.org/10.53718/gttad.1598862
- Mücteba İlgürel, "Abaza Mehmed Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 1988, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/abaza-mehmed-pasa
- Kadir Özköse, "Amasya'da Bulunan Halvetiyye Tekkeleri", Akademiar Dergisi, 5, 2018, p. 91-118, https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/606666
- M. Uğur Derman, "Hâfız Osman", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/hafiz-osman
- Mehmet İnbaşı, "Van Valileri (1755-1835)", Atatürk Üniversitesi Türkiyat Araştırmaları Enstitüsü Dergisi, 29, 2006.
Official sources
Books
Other sources