Köprülüdür. 1053 senesi şevvâlinin beşinci günü ikinci defa Amasya sancağı mutasarrıfı olup geldi. Fakat zilka’denin on altısında efendisi olan sadrâzam yok yere maktûl ve müntesibleri menkûb olup hâssaten sadr-ı müşârün-ileyhin mahrem-i hâssı ve Köprülü Paşa’nın hâmi-i yegânesi olan mimâr başı Kâsım Ağa azl ve Gelibolu’ya nefyedildi.
Zilhiccede Sultân Bâyezîd vâizi, mûmâileyh Kâsım Ağa dersiyesi mutasarrıfı, Mahmûd Çelebi tekke şeyhi olan Halvetiye meşâyih-i kibârından fâzıl-ı meşhûr eş-Şeyh Hüsâmeddîn Efendi dâr-ı naîme irtihâl etdi. Bütün esnaf dükkânlarını kapattı. Cenâzesi parmak üzerinde gitdi.
Bunun yerine meşâhir-i ulemâdan Sinan Efendizâde Mehmed Efendi Sultân Bâyezîd kürsü şeyhi ve dersiyye-i Kâsım Ağa Mutasarrıfı ve ders-i âm ı olup Enderûn Câmii kürsü şeyhi olan Niksarlı Çebni Beyzâde diğer Hüsâmeddîn Efendi de Mahmûd Çelebi Tekkesi şeyhi oldu.
1054 senesi gurre-i muharreminde Tokatlı Müctebâzâde Mehmed Efendi yine Amasya kadısı olup çok geçmeden Müftü Yahya Efendi, şehir kethüdâsı Bağdatlıoğlu Osmân Ağa, kethüdâyeri Şâtır Ali Ağa azl olunup yerlerine Dursunzâde Mustafa Efendi Amasya Müftüsü, [89] meşhûr Bâlî Bey şehir kethüdâsı, Alevî Köylü Gazanfer Ağa kethüdâyeri oldu.
Lâkin Sadr-ı a’zam Kara Mustafa Paşa’nın katli ve Mimâr Kâsım Ağa’nın azl ve nefyi Köprülü Mehmed Paşa’yı da müteessir etdiğinden saferde azledilip Amasya sancağı Bosna Alaybeyi Muslî Bey’e tevcîh edildi.
In Modern English
He was from Köprü. On the fifth day of Şevval 1053 [1643] he came for the second time as mutasarrıf (governor administering the sanjak) of the sanjak of Amasya. But on the sixteenth of Zilkade his master, the grand vizier, was killed without cause, and his men fell from favour. In particular, Mimarbaşı Kâsım Ağa, the closest confidant of the said grand vizier and the sole patron of Köprülü Pasha, was dismissed and exiled to Gallipoli.
In the month of Zilhicce, the famous scholar Şeyh Hüsâmeddîn Efendi, preacher of the Sultan Bâyezîd Mosque, holder of the dersiye (salaried lectureship funded by a waqf) founded by the said Kâsım Ağa, sheikh of the Mahmûd Çelebi lodge and one of the great sheikhs of the Halvetiyye, died. All the tradesmen closed their shops; his funeral was carried on fingertips, held aloft by hand.
In his place Sinan Efendizâde Mehmed Efendi, one of the famous scholars, became kürsü şeyhi of the Sultan Bâyezîd Mosque and holder of the Kâsım Ağa dersiye. The other Hüsâmeddîn Efendi, Niksarlı Çebni Beyzâde, who was a ders-i âm (madrasa professor giving general lectures in the mosque) and kürsü şeyhi of the Enderûn Mosque, became sheikh of the Mahmûd Çelebi Lodge.
On the first day of Muharrem 1054 [1644] Müctebâzâde Mehmed Efendi of Tokat again became kadı of Amasya. Soon afterwards Mufti Yahyâ Efendi, the city kethüda Bağdatlıoğlu Osmân Ağa and the kethüdâyeri Şâtır Ali Ağa were dismissed; in their places Dursunzâde Mustafa Efendi became mufti of Amasya, the well-known Bâlî Bey city kethüda, and Gazanfer Ağa of the village of Alevî kethüdâyeri.
But because the killing of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha and the dismissal and exile of Mimar Kâsım Ağa also affected Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, he was dismissed in the month of Safer, and the sanjak of Amasya was given to Muslî Bey, Alaybeyi of Bosnia.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- maktûl: killed
- müntesib: a person attached to a great man, his man
- menkûb: fallen from favour, struck by calamity
- mahrem-i hâss: the closest confidant
- hâmi-i yegâne: sole protector
- nefy: exile
- dersiye: a lectureship taught in a mosque with a salary from waqf income, and the post itself
- meşâyih-i kibâr: the great sheikhs
- dâr-ı naîme irtihâl: to pass away
- müteessir: affected
Köprülü Mehmed Pasha and Amasya
The subject of the entry is Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, the grand vizier who would later restore the Ottoman state. Mehmed, born in the village of Rudnik in the sanjak of Berat in Albania, was recruited through the devshirme and trained in the Enderun, and was then assigned to one of the cavalry regiments. At that time he went to the town of Köprü (today's Vezirköprü), attached to Amasya, and married Ayşe Hanım, and because he lived in this town he was called "Köprülü". When Hüsrev Pasha became grand vizier he became his treasurer. The encyclopedia entry by Mücteba İlgürel, in agreement with the information Hüsameddin gives, writes that after Hüsrev Pasha's death he briefly served as sanjak governor of Amasya, and that after serving as kapıcılar kethüdası and mirahur under the grand vizierate of Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha he was appointed "again to the sanjak governorship of Amasya."
In recent years this narrative has been questioned with archival documents. In an article published in 2024, Christopher Whitehead reconstructs Köprülü's early and middle career from the appointment registers and notes that the tradition about his governorships of Amasya rests directly on Hüsameddin, who gives no source for it. According to Whitehead, the governors who ruled Amasya in 1634-1635 were Üveys Bey, Hüseyin Bey and Elkas Pasha, and in the Amasya register for those years there is likewise no trace of Köprülü as governor. According to the appointment register covering 1641-1647, however, Köprülü became kapıcılar kethüdası in October 1641 and chief mirahur in February 1643; he received his first beylerbeyiship, Adana, on 4 August 1643 and the province of Rum (Sivas) on 19 Ramazan 1053 / 1 December 1643, and was transferred to the sanjak of Bolu on 6 July 1644 and on 24 September 1644 to the province of Eğri in Hungary. Hüsameddin's entry "second time Amasya on 5 Şevval 1053" falls in the same weeks as Köprülü's appointment to the province of Rum, to which Amasya also belonged. It is possible that the author took this appointment to belong to Amasya at the sanjak level; but this is an inference.
A letter used by Whitehead also shows the background of the phrase "he was affected" in the text. In this letter, dated 29 August 1644, it is related that Mehmed Pasha, the bey of Bolu, that is Köprülü, incurred the great wrath of Sultan İbrahim, that the sultan first summoned the executioner and then ordered his imprisonment. The letter does not give the reason. On the point that Köprülü entered a difficult period after the execution of his patron Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha, Hüsameddin and the archive point in the same direction; where they differ is on his posts and their dates.
The End of Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha and Mimar Kâsım Ağa
Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha was the powerful grand vizier of the first years of Sultan İbrahim. He lost the contest he entered with the sultan's tutor Cinci Hüseyin Efendi and with Silahdar Yusuf Pasha, was dismissed, and while trying to flee in disguise was caught and strangled in the Hocapaşa Market. Encyclopedia records give this event as 21 Zilkade 1053 / 31 January 1644; Hüsameddin's date of "the sixteenth of Zilkade" is five days earlier.
Mimar Kâsım Ağa, called Köprülü's "sole patron", was the chief architect who carried on in the first half of the seventeenth century the classical architectural line opened by Sinan. According to Semavi Eyice, because he was close to Kemankeş Mustafa Pasha he was imprisoned at the time of the pasha's execution, removed from the chief architectship and had his goods confiscated. Though his execution was even considered, he was saved through the mediation of Cinci Hoca and was exiled to Gallipoli in Cemaziyelâhir 1054 (August 1644). Soon afterwards he was pardoned, and in 1055 (1645) he became chief architect again. The friendship between Kâsım Ağa and Köprülü continued in later years: while he was kethüda of Vâlide Turhan Sultan, Kâsım Ağa put Köprülü forward for the grand vizierate and for this reason was thrown into a dungeon for a time. Hüsameddin's tying of the date of the exile to the same month as the grand vizier's death is an abbreviated account; the exile itself came several months later.
Şeyh Hüsâmeddîn Efendi
Hüsameddin tells the life of Şeyh Hüsâmeddîn Efendi, at whose funeral the whole market closed, separately in the volume he devoted to the scholars of Amasya. According to the information he gives there, he was the great-nephew of Şeyh Muhyiddîn Mehmed Efendi, known as "Memi Dede". In 1017 he became preacher of the Yâkût Pasha Mosque, he completed his seyr ü sülûk (progress along the spiritual path) in the company of Kutb Ahmed Efendi, in 1044 he became sheikh of the Hızır Pasha zaviye, and then preacher of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque. In 1048 Mimarbaşı Kâsım Ağa, son of Yanyalı Ali Ağa, gave him the dersiye that he had founded in the Sultan Bayezid Mosque and endowed with the revenue of the village of Kalburcu in the district of Gelkiras, and the sheikh taught hadith and tafsir in this mosque. He was regarded as the unique master of his age in the interpretation of dreams. He died at the beginning of Zilhicce 1053 and was buried beside his own sheikh Kutb Ahmed Efendi. Hüsameddin also records that he saw a copy of the Muğni'l-Lebîb that he had transcribed with his own hand on 28 Ramazan 1043.
There is a small difference between the two records: in this entry the sheikh is called "sheikh of the Mahmûd Çelebi lodge", whereas in the biography he appears as sheikh of the Hızır Pasha zaviye. Niksarlı Çebnizâde Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Efendi, who was brought to the Mahmûd Çelebi Lodge in his place, also appears in the same volume: he received his first lessons from Kadızâde Hâce Mehmed and from "Great Şeyh Hüsâmeddîn Efendi", served for forty years as preacher of the Enderûn Mosque and sheikh of the Mahmûd Çelebi lodge guiding others, and died in 1075. That is, there is a teacher-student bond between the two Hüsâmeddîns.
According to Hüsameddin, the Hanafi scholar Nûh b. Mustafa, who gained fame in Egypt, was the nephew of Şeyh Hüsâmeddîn and in his works quotes him as "my uncle Şeyh Hüsâmeddîn Efendi". That Nûh b. Mustafa was born in Amasya, entered the Halvetî order, served as mufti in Konya, then went to Egypt with Ömer Pasha of Amasya when the latter was appointed governor of Egypt, and died in Cairo on 22 Zilkade 1070 / 30 July 1660 is found in other sources too; the uncle-nephew bond rests only on Hüsameddin.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, pp. 567–568. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 6-8, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, entries "Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Efendi-Halvetî Şeyhi" and "Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Efendi-Vâ'iz", e-book pp. 579-580.
Academic studies
- Mücteba İlgürel, "Köprülü Mehmed Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/koprulu-mehmed-pasa
- Christopher Whitehead, "The Early Career of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha: An Archival Reconstruction", Review of Middle East Studies, 57/1, Cambridge University Press, 2024.
- Abdülkadir Özcan, "Kemankeş Mustafa Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kemankes-mustafa-pasa
- Semavi Eyice, "Kâsım Ağa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasim-aga
- Feridun Emecen, "İbrâhim", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/ibrahim--padisah
- Ömer Türker, "Nûh b. Mustafa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nuh-b-mustafa