“Sarı Mehmed Paşa” demekle meşhûr bir beylerbeyidir. 1069 senesi şa’bânının gurresinde Amasya mutasarrıfı olup a‘yândan Kadızâde Muslî Ağa Amasya mütesellimi oldu. Tahkîkât hususunda Ebûbekir Ağa’ya yardım etdi.
Bundan akdem kethüdâ-yı sadr-ı âlî Köprülü Yûsuf Ağazâde Kayın Mehmed Ağa, ba’zı etvârından Abazalı olduğu sezilmekle azl ve tekâüde sevk edilip Hacıköylü Muharrem Ağa kethüdâ-yı sadr-ı âlî ve telhîsi olan Merzifonî Kara Mustafa Ağa da mirâhur-ı sânî oldu.
Şa’bânın onunda Vâlî Sührab Paşa’nın azline binâen Trablusşam Beylerbeyi Kıbleli Mustafa Paşa Sivas vâlisi olup geldi. Yirmi altısında mağdur olduğu anlaşılan Fâzıl Hızır Efendi Amasya Müftülüğü’ne ve Sultâniyye müderrisliğine iâde edilerek taltîf edildi. Fakat Hoca Ahmed Paşa, müsâdereden pek ziyâde müteessir olup şa’bân evâhirinde vefât etdi. Çünkü kendisini müsâdere eden Bayburdlu Ahmed Ağa’yı katırcılıktan kurtarıp [132] dâiresinde terbiye ederek adam etmişdi.⁶⁵⁸
Ramazân evâilinde nakîb es-Seyyid Ahmed Efendi’nin ref‘inden şehir kethüdâsı Seyyid Ahmed Ağa’nın kardeşi es-Seyyid Mustafa Ağa nakîbü’l-eşrâf kâ’im-makâmı oldu. Bayburdlu Ahmed Ağa’nın maiyeti olan serdâr Ya’kûb Ağa büyük bir nüfûz ve şöhret kazandı.
Şevvâlin gurresinde Kadı Hayreddînzâde Mustafa Efendi İstanbul’a gidip kardeşi Abdullah Efendi Amasya nâibi oldu. Müteâkiben Amasya Mutasarrıfı Mehmed Paşa, Amasya’ya geldi.
Zilhicce evâhirinde Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Bey’e Rumeli Beylerbeyliği pâyesiyle Erzurum ve Merzifonî Kara Mustafa Ağa’ya da yine Rumeli pâyesiyle Silistre eyâletleri tevcîh edildi.⁶⁵⁹
Fakat şehir kethüdâsı Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, Köprülü Paşa’ya intisâbından dolayı tecâvüzâtını pek artırmış, mutasarrıf paşaya bile kafa tutmaya başlamışdı.
1070 senesi muharreminin evâilinde halk, Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa’nın tecâvüzâtından bîzâr olup, hânesine hücûm etdiler. Mûmâ-ileyhi şehir kethüdâlığından azledip Amasya’dan muhakkarâne çıkardılar. Bunu tutan mutasarrıftan ve serdârdan şikâyetler etdiler. A‘yândan Nasûhzâde Mehmed Ağa’yı şehir kethüdâsı yaptılar. [133]
Muharremin evâhirinde Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa Erzurum’a gitmek üzere Köprü’ye gelip dört gün oturdu. Gerek halkın şikâyetleri ve gerek Mumcuoğlu’nun kethüdâlıktan hodserâne azl ve ihrâcı vâlî ile Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa’yı alakâdar etdi.
Fakat halkın mutasarrıftan şikâyetleri Mumcuzâdeye fazla yüz vermesinden ve tecâvüzâtını icrâya âlet olmasından ibâret olduğundan muharreminin sonunda Amasya sancağı sâbık Mar’aş Beylerbeyi Muslî Paşa’ya tevcîh edildi.
In Modern English
He is a beylerbeyi known as "Sarı Mehmed Pasha". On the first day of the month of Şaban 1069 [1659] he became mutasarrıf of Amasya, and Kadızâde Muslî Ağa, one of the notables, became mütesellim of Amasya. He helped Ebûbekir Ağa in the investigation work.
Before this, the sadâret kethüdâsı Köprülü Yûsuf Ağazâde Kayın Mehmed Ağa, because from some of his conduct he was sensed to be an Abaza supporter, had been dismissed and retired; Muharrem Ağa of Hacıköy had become sadâret kethüdâsı, and Kara Mustafa Ağa of Merzifon, the telhisçi (official who prepared the documents the grand vizier submitted to the sultan), second mîrahur.
On the tenth of Şaban, on the dismissal of Governor Sührâb Pasha, Kıbleli Mustafa Pasha, Beylerbeyi of Tripoli of Syria, came as governor of Sivas. On the twenty-sixth of Şaban Fâzıl Hızır Efendi, who was found to have been wronged, was placated by being restored to the muftiship of Amasya and the professorship of the Sultâniyye. But Hoca Ahmed Pasha, greatly affected by the confiscation, died at the end of Şaban. For he had rescued Bayburtlu Ahmed Ağa, who had seized his goods, from muleteering and brought him up into a man in his own household.
At the beginning of Ramazan, with the dismissal of the nakîb es-Seyyid Ahmed Efendi, es-Seyyid Mustafa Ağa, brother of the city kethüda Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, became nakîbü'l-eşrâf kaymakamı. Serdar Ya'kûb Ağa, in the retinue of Bayburtlu Ahmed Ağa, gained great influence and fame.
On the first day of Şevval Kadı Hayreddînzâde Mustafa Efendi went to Istanbul and his brother Abdullah Efendi became nâib of Amasya. Then Mehmed Pasha, Mutasarrıf of Amasya, came to Amasya.
At the end of Zilhicce Erzurum was given to Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Bey with the rank of beylerbeyi of Rumelia, and, again with the rank of Rumelia, the province of Silistra to Kara Mustafa Ağa of Merzifon.
But the city kethüda Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, because of his attachment to Köprülü Pasha, had greatly increased his excesses and had begun to defy even the mutasarrıf pasha.
At the beginning of the month of Muharrem 1070 [1659], the people, tired of the excesses of Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, attacked his house. They dismissed him from the city kethüdalık and, humiliating him, drove him out of Amasya. They also complained of the mutasarrıf and the serdar who supported him. They made Nasûhzâde Mehmed Ağa, one of the notables, city kethüda.
At the end of Muharrem Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha, on his way to Erzurum, came to Köprü and stayed four days. Both the people's complaints and the people's dismissing Mumcuoğlu from the kethüdalık and driving him out of the city on their own concerned both the governor and Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha.
But since the people's complaints against the mutasarrıf consisted of his giving Mumcuzâde too much countenance and lending himself to the carrying out of his excesses, at the end of Muharrem the sanjak of Amasya was given to Muslî Pasha, former Beylerbeyi of Maraş.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- bundan akdem: before this
- etvâr: conduct, manners
- tekâüd: retirement
- telhîs: the summary document the grand vizier submitted to the sultan; the telhisçi is the official who prepared these documents
- mîrâhur-ı sânî: second master of the palace stables
- taltîf: placating, complimenting
- müteessir: distressed, affected
- terbiye ederek adam etmek: to bring someone up and raise him to a position
- intisâb: attaching oneself to someone, being his man
- tecâvüzât: excesses, conduct exceeding one's bounds
- bîzâr: fed up, wearied
- muhakkarâne: with humiliation
- hodserâne: on one's own, without permission
- ihrâc: driving out
The Death of Hoca Ahmed Pasha
The most touching line of the entry is the death of Hoca Ahmed Pasha. According to the biography Hüsâmeddin wrote in volume 6, the pasha had rejected the proposal of rebellion that Abaza Hasan Pasha made with the promise of the vizierate; nevertheless, in Cemâziyelâhir 1069 all his goods and properties were confiscated "on a bare accusation", and in his old age, greatly affected by this disaster, he died on the twenty-seventh day of Şaban and was buried in the tomb of his ancestor Pîr Safiyyüddîn Halvetî. The detail Hüsâmeddin adds in this entry deepens the pain: it was Hoca Ahmed Pasha himself who rescued from muleteering and brought up the mütesellim Bayburtlu Ahmed Ağa, who seized his goods.
Bayburtlu Ahmed Ağa and Kara İbrâhim Pasha
In his footnote Hüsâmeddin says that Bayburtlu Ahmed Ağa was the father of Kara İbrâhim Pasha, who had his own benefactor Kara Mustafa Pasha of Merzifon executed and succeeded him. Abdülkadir Özcan's Kara İbrâhim Pasha entry has points that both agree and disagree with this information. According to the entry Kara İbrâhim Pasha was born in 1030 (1620-21) in the village of Handevrek in the district of Kelkit, attached to Bayburt, and "is the son of a villager named Katırcı Ahmed". The three pieces of information Hüsâmeddin gives for Ahmed Ağa, that he was from Bayburt, that his name was Ahmed and that he rose from muleteering, remarkably agree with the encyclopedia record.
The point where they differ is the events of 1659. According to the same entry, Kara İbrâhim in his youth was in Abaza Hasan's retinue as a levend soldier and fled to Iran after the suppression of the rebellion (1659). In Hüsâmeddin's account, however, his father Ahmed Ağa is, in the same days, the mütesellim who, on Köprülü's behalf, had the Abazacıs executed in Amasya and their goods confiscated. It is not impossible for both pieces of information to be true; it is conceivable that a son approaching forty took a different path from his father. But this situation requires that the father-son relationship Hüsâmeddin establishes be assessed carefully. Kara İbrâhim's later life is related in detail in the encyclopedia: attaching himself to Kara Mustafa Ağa of Merzifon he became his kethüda during his governorship of Silistra, rose as his master rose, after the defeat at Vienna played a part in his execution and came to the grand vizierate in 1683, was dismissed in 1685 and was killed at Rhodes in 1687. Hüsâmeddin's phrase "had his own benefactor executed and succeeded him" agrees with this information.
Fâzıl Ahmed and Kara Mustafa
For Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Bey, who was appointed to Erzurum at the end of Zilhicce, and Kara Mustafa Ağa of Merzifon, who was appointed to Silistra, Hüsâmeddin writes in a footnote, relying on the Cevâhirü't-Tevârîh, that both were born in 1045 and grew up together like two brothers. According to Abdülkadir Özcan's entries, Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha was born in the town of Köprü in 1045 (1635-36), the son of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha; his mother was Ayşe Hanım, daughter of Yûsuf Ağa, voyvoda of Köprü, and from 1069 (1659) he served as governor of Erzurum and Damascus. Kara Mustafa Pasha was born in 1044 (1634-35) in the village of Marınca (today's Karamustafapaşa) in Merzifon, was orphaned at four when his father fell as a martyr at the siege of Baghdad, and grew up together with his sons under the protection of Köprülü Mehmed Bey, who was then sanjak bey of Amasya. Even with a difference of a year, the two sources confirm Hüsâmeddin's words "they grew up together like two brothers".
There are small differences over Kara Mustafa's posts. Hüsâmeddin writes that he moved from the telhisçilik to the second mîrahurluk and took Silistra in Zilhicce 1069. According to Özcan's entry, when he brought the glad tidings of the conquest of Yanova he was made second mîrahur on 3 Zilhicce 1068 (1 September 1658) and "two years later" became beylerbeyi of Silistra. The date of the mîrahurluk agrees with Hüsâmeddin's "bundan akdem" record; the year of the Silistra appointment differs in the two sources.
The Expulsion of Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa
The last section of the entry shows that the anger that had accumulated in Amasya after Köprülü's purges was this time directed at Köprülü's own man. The city kethüda Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, who, trusting in his closeness to Köprülü, defied even the mutasarrıf, was driven out of the city by the people after they stormed his house. The people's choosing a kethüda on their own, and the state's finally finding the people's complaint justified and changing the mutasarrıf, is a noteworthy example showing the influence of the local community on administration in seventeenth-century provincial cities. In searches made on these events and on Sarı Mehmed Pasha and Kıbleli Mustafa Pasha, no information was found in other sources.
The Restoration of Fâzıl Hızır Efendi
That Fâzıl Hızır Efendi, who was counted in the previous entry among those whose goods were confiscated, was found in Şaban of the same year to have been wronged and brought back to the muftiship and the professorship of the Sultâniyye shows that the state accepted that the inspection had struck some innocent people too. This scholar, dismissed and reappointed several times on these pages since 1060, paid each time the price of the factionalism in Amasya.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, pp. 583–584. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 6-8, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, p. 167. https://amasya.bel.tr/uploads/e-kitap/kitap/6-8/files/basic-html/page167.html
Academic studies