Amasyalıdır. Esbak Amasya Kethüdâyeri Şamlı Ali Ağa’nın mahdûmudur. “Rahtuvan” demekle meşhûrdur.⁶⁸⁰ 1106 senesi gurre-i muharreminde Amasya mutasarrıfı olup, Rumeli Harbi’ne me’mûr olduğundan baş a‘yân intihap edilen Kaya Ali Ağa Amasya mütesellimi ve Müftüzade Ömer Efendi Amasya kadısı oldu.
Rebîülevvelde Cebecibaşılıktan ma‘zûlen Amasya’ya gelen esbak Bostancıbaşı İnekçi Hüseyin Ağa, Hüseyin ve Firuz ağalar evkâfına ber-vech-i [220] tekâüd mütevellî oldu. Cumâdelûlâda Kandilci Vezîr Hüseyin Paşa Sivas vâlisi olup geldi.
Cumâdelâhirenin yirmi ikinci günü İkinci Sultân Ahmed’in vefâtıyla Dördüncü Sultân Mehmed’in şehzadesi İkinci Sultân Mustafa Hân Osmanlı tahtına cülûs etdi. Mâh-ı mezkûrun selhinde Hâtuniye kürsü şeyhi Ali Efendi vefât edib, yerine ulemâdan İvaz Efendi kürsü şeyhi oldu.
Receb gurresinde Müftü Çorumlu Ahmed Efendi Amasya fetvâsından istifa eylediğine binâen Merzifonî Mustafa Efendi yine Amasya müftüsü ve Sultâniyye müderrisi olup şa’bânda Lâdikli İmam-ı Sultânî Hâfız Mehmed Efendi şeyhülislâm ve Kethüdâ-yı Sadr-ı Âlî Amasyalı Kerestecizâde Mehmed Ağa vezâretle nişancı ve Kadızâde Ahmed Ağa sipâhiler ağası ve Madenzâde Ahmed Ağa evkâf-ı Sultâniyye mütevellisi oldu.
Ramazân-ı şerîf evâilinde nakîb es-Seyyid Osmân Ağa’nın ref‘inden Emîr Hacı Abdüllâtif Çelebi yine nakîbü’l-eşrâf kâ’im-makâmı olup şevvâlinde Şehir Kethüdâsı el-Hâc Abdülkâdir Ağa’nın azliyle a‘yândan Sancızâde el-Hâc Hasan Ağa şehir kethüdâsı oldu. Bu esnada İnekçi Hüseyin Ağa, intihar eden Diyarbakır Vâlisi Şeyhzâde Ahmed Paşa’nın emvâl ü eşyâsını zabta me’mûren Amasya’dan Malatya’ya gitdi.
1107 senesi gurre-i muharreminde Kadı Müftüzâde Ömer Efendi’nin yerine Bâkîzâde Ahmed Efendi yine Amasya kadısı oldu. Ba‘dehû Amasya Mutasarrıfı Rahtuvan Mehmed Paşa Karahisar-ı Şarkî’ye nakl-i me’mûriyet etdiğinden [221] Amasya sancağı, sâbık Canik Mutasarrıfı Mehmed Paşa’ya tevcîh edildi.
In Modern English
He was a native of Amasya, a son of Şamlı Ali Ağa, the former kethüdâyeri (sipahis' steward in the sanjak) of Amasya. He is known as "Rahtuvan." On the first day of the month of Muharrem 1106 [1694] he became mutasarrıf (governor) of Amasya. Since he was assigned to the war in Rumeli, Kaya Ali Ağa, who had been chosen head notable (baş âyan), became mütesellim (deputy governor) of Amasya and Müftüzâde Ömer Efendi became kadı (judge) of Amasya.
In the month of Rebîülevvel, the former chief gardener (bostancıbaşı) İnekçi Hüseyin Ağa, who had come to Amasya dismissed from the headship of the armorers (cebecibaşılık), became administrator (mütevelli) of the waqfs of the ağas Hüseyin and Fîrûz as a retirement allowance. In the month of Cemâziyelevvel Vizier Hüseyin Pasha the Lamplighter (Kandilci) came as governor of Sivas.
On the twenty-second day of Cemâziyelâhir, upon the death of Sultan Ahmed II, Sultan Mustafa Khan II, son of Sultan Mehmed IV, ascended the Ottoman throne. On the last day of the same month the chair-holding sheikh (kürsü şeyhi) of the Hâtuniye, Ali Efendi, died; İvaz Efendi, one of the scholars, became chair-holding sheikh in his place.
On the first day of Receb, since the mufti Çorumlu Ahmed Efendi resigned from the muftiship of Amasya, Merzifonlu Mustafa Efendi again became mufti of Amasya and professor of the Sultâniyye. In the month of Şaban Hâfız Mehmed Efendi of Lâdik, the sultan's imam (imâm-ı sultânî), became şeyhülislam; the Steward of the Grand Vizierate Kerestecizâde Mehmed Ağa of Amasya became chancellor (nişancı) with the rank of vizier; Kadızâde Ahmed Ağa became commander of the sipahis; and Madenzâde Ahmed Ağa became administrator of the sultans' waqfs (evkâf-ı Sultâniyye).
At the beginning of Ramazan, with the removal of the Naqib es-Seyyid Osmân Ağa, Emîr Hacı Abdüllâtif Çelebi again became deputy of the naqib al-ashraf. In the month of Şevval, with the dismissal of the City Steward el-Hâc Abdülkâdir Ağa, Sancızâde el-Hâc Hasan Ağa, one of the notables, became city steward. At this time İnekçi Hüseyin Ağa was charged with seizing the goods and property of Şeyhzâde Ahmed Pasha, the governor of Diyarbakır who had committed suicide, and went from Amasya to Malatya.
On the first day of Muharrem 1107 [1695], Bâkîzâde Ahmed Efendi again became kadı of Amasya in place of the kadı Müftüzâde Ömer Efendi. Then, since the post of the governor of Amasya, Rahtuvan Mehmed Pasha, was changed to Karahisar-ı Şarkî, the sanjak of Amasya was given to the former governor of Canik, Mehmed Pasha.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- esbak: previous, former
- mahdûm: son
- ma'zûlen: having been dismissed from office
- ber-vech-i tekâüd: in place of a retirement salary, as a retirement allowance
- cülûs: accession to the throne
- mâh-ı mezkûr: the month mentioned
- nişancı: the high official who affixes the tughra to the sultan's decrees and is responsible for the divan's writing affairs
- emvâl ü eşyâ: goods and belongings
- zabt: seizure
- nakl-i me'mûriyet: changing of the post's location
Rahtuvan Mehmed Pasha and His Family
The subject of the entry is one of the pashas who came from within Amasya itself. Hüsâmeddin follows him step by step in earlier pages of the book: in 1100, as mütesellim of Amasya, he took part in the cleansing of the upstarts and in return received the rank of kapıcıbaşı of the Sublime Porte; at the end of 1104, while bey of Jeddah, he became beylerbeyi of Abyssinia. In this entry, at the beginning of 1106, he returns to his own homeland as governor, but since he is sent to the front in Rumeli, he leaves the sanjak again to a mütesellim from Amasya, Kaya Ali Ağa. According to Hüsâmeddin's later records he is governor of Karahisar-ı Şarkî in 1108 and was sent to the war together with the other pashas from Amasya; in 1109 he will also be given the administratorship of the waqfs of the ağas Hüseyin and Fîrûz.
On the origin of his father Ali Ağa, Hüsâmeddin drops an interesting note in a footnote: Nuri Bey, one of the pasha's grandsons, alive in his own time, says that Ali Ağa was originally from Urfa; the history books and court registers, however, record him as from Damascus (Şamlı). Hüsâmeddin is content to set the two pieces of information side by side. This point where family memory and written documents part is a small example showing that the book also used oral sources.
The lineage of Rahtuvan Mehmed Pasha formed a family in Amasya. In the section where Hüsâmeddin lists the lineages of Amasya, it is written that Yeğen Ali Bey, ancestor of the Yeğenzâde family, was the son of Rahtuvan Mehmed Pasha's sister, that the pasha also founded a lineage in Amasya, but that this family's influence could not surpass that of their nephews, and that all of them were called "Rahtuvanzâde." His descendant el-Hâc Rahtuvan Paşazâde İbrâhim Bey became head notable and mütesellim of Amasya in 1183 and, when he died in 1206, was buried in the Mehmed Pasha Cemetery. It is also recorded in the book that Rahtuvan Paşazâde el-Hâc Ali Bey of the same family had the Mağdenus Bridge in front of the Sultan Bayezid Madrasa repaired in 1241.
The Amasya Taşhan
Rahtuvan Mehmed Pasha's name lives on today in Amasya most of all through the Taşhan. According to records, the han was built in 1699 by Governor Rahtuvan Hacı Mehmed Pasha through the master builder Mimar Mehmed Kalfa. The building has two stories and a broad courtyard, with shops lined up on both sides of its entrance, and its inscription is within a long, narrow rectangle above its door. The han was reopened for use at the end of 2012 after its restoration was completed. The date 1699 falls a few years after the governorships Hüsâmeddin describes; considering that the pasha returned to Amasya in these years and received a waqf administratorship in 1109, it is understood that the han was the work of a pasha who had settled in his homeland.
The Accession of Mustafa II and the Şeyhülislam from Lâdik
The date of 22 Cemâziyelâhir 1106 that Hüsâmeddin gives for the death of Ahmed II and the accession of Mustafa II agrees with present-day sources. According to Mücteba İlgürel's entry on Ahmed II, the sultan died of dropsy in Edirne at the age of fifty-two on 6 February 1695, and his body was brought to Istanbul and buried in the tomb of Süleyman the Magnificent (Kanûnî). Abdülkadir Özcan's entry on Mustafa II tells that as soon as the new sultan came to the throne he ordered that the Imperial Council (Dîvân-ı Hümâyun), which had not met regularly for a long time, meet four days a week, and that he wished to go on campaign at the head of the army like his ancestors. The front in Rumeli to which Rahtuvan Mehmed Pasha was sent is the front of this first Austrian campaign, which the sultan would personally undertake in the summer of 1695.
"Lâdikli İmâm-ı Sultânî Hâfız Mehmed Efendi," who became şeyhülislam in Şaban, is also a great scholar raised by the sanjak of Amasya. According to Tahsin Özcan's entry, Mehmed Efendi was born in the district of Lâdik, then attached to the sanjak of Amasya, drew attention with his mastery of the science of Qur'anic recitation (kıraat) and his beautiful voice, and, since Mehmed IV liked his voice, became one of the sultan's imams and came to be called "imâm-ı sultânî." He became şeyhülislam on 4 Şaban 1106 (20 March 1695), but since Mustafa II wanted to bring his own teacher Erzurumlu Seyyid Feyzullah Efendi to this post, he was dismissed two months and six days later. During the Edirne Incident of 1703 he was made şeyhülislam a second time by the janissaries, and it is related that he prepared the fatwa on the deposition of Mustafa II; he died in Bursa in 1728. The month Hüsâmeddin records exactly coincides with the date in the encyclopedia entry.
İnekçi Hüseyin Ağa and Şeyhzâde Ahmed Pasha
The former chief gardener İnekçi Hüseyin Ağa, who settled in Amasya in his retirement, shows the place in the provinces of palace men who were raised in the Bostancı Corps and went out to outside service. According to Abdülkadir Özcan's entry on the bostancı, the bostancıbaşı was responsible for the public order of a significant part of Istanbul, and the carrying out of death sentences in the palace was also among his duties. That Hüseyin Ağa was made administrator of a waqf in Amasya as a retirement allowance and then charged with seizing the property of a deceased governor shows that the state used such persons as reliable officials in retirement as well. According to Hüsâmeddin's record, Hüseyin Ağa will die in Amasya about a year later.
About Şeyhzâde Ahmed Pasha, written to have committed suicide while governor of Diyarbakır, no information was found in other sources. Although Kavanoz Ahmed Pasha is known as an Ahmed Pasha who served in Diyarbekir in 1106, since it is clear that he lived on after this date and became chancellor in 1110, the person Hüsâmeddin mentions cannot be he.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, p. 616–617. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 1-4, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, e-book p. 104, 183, 619. https://amasya.bel.tr/uploads/e-kitap/kitap/1-4/files/basic-html/page619.html
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 6, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, p. 64 (Rahtuvân Paşazâde el-Hâc İbrâhim Bey).
Academic studies
- Mücteba İlgürel, "Ahmed II", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/ahmed-ii
- Abdülkadir Özcan, "Mustafa II", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mustafa-ii
- Tahsin Özcan, "Mehmed Efendi, İmâm-ı Sultânî", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mehmed-efendi-imam-i-sultani
- Abdülkadir Özcan, "Bostancı", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/bostanci
- Abdülkadir Özcan, "Ahmed Paşa, Kavanoz", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/ahmed-pasa-kavanoz
Official sources