İranlıdır. “Acem Zemân Bey” demekle meşhûrdur. Sultân Murâd’ın Revân’dan aldığı yâdigârlardan biridir. 1058 senesi Cumâdelûlâsının yirmi yedinci günü Amasya beyi olup geldi.
Bu esnada Amasyalı Memikzâde Mustafa Efendi Anadolu Kazaskeri ve diğer Amasyalı Sıdkı Mustafa Efendi de reîsü’l-küttâb olmuşdu. Zemân Bey’in zamanında Sultân Bâyezîd İmareti Şeyhi Genceli Veli Bey oldukça bir nüfûz ve şöhret kazandı.
Receb gurresinde kibâr-ı mevâlîden Amasyalı Hayreddînzâde İbrâhim Efendi Amasya kadısı oldu. Recebin on sekizinde Deli Sultân İbrâhim rezâletle tahtından indirilip yerine şehzâdesi yedi yaşında Dördüncü Sultân Mehmed Han çıkarıldı. Sultân İbrâhim sonra boğuldu. [103]
Bugün Amasya’da Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii imâm-ı evveli ve hatîbi Ahmed Efendi üzerinden hitâbet ref‘ edilip meşâhir-i huffâzdan şeyhü’l-kurra ders-i âm Hâfız Mehmed Efendi’nin tilmîzi kadızâde Abdurrahman Efendi hatîb oldu.
Birkaç gün sonra mütesellim sâbık Sarı Ali Bey füc‘eten vefât etdi. Mirlivâ Mehmed Zemân Bey, tebeddül-i saltanattan pek müteessir oldu. Çünkü Amasya sancağını Telli Haseki’ye verdiği peşin parasıyla almış, bunu çıkarmak için tayyârâtı çoğaltmışdı.
Bu yüzden halkın şikâyetleri Zemân Bey’in huzurunu selb ediyordu. Sivas Vâlisi İbşir Mustafa Paşa’nın kethüdâsı ve mûtemedi Amasyalı Sâlih Ağa idi. İbşir Paşa da, gem almazlardan biri idi.
Bunun için şikâyetler müsmir oldu. Şa’bânda Amasya sancağı Trabzon Beylerbeyi Ahmed Paşa’ya tevcîh edilip Zemân Bey’in verdiği paraları güme gitdi. Kendisi de gâib ve hâsir İstanbul’a avdet etdi.
In Modern English
He was an Iranian. He is known as "Acem Zemân Bey" (Zemân Bey the Persian). He was one of the keepsakes that Sultan Murad brought from Revan. On the twenty-seventh day of Cemaziyelevvel 1058 [1648] he came as bey of Amasya.
At this time Memikzâde Mustafa Efendi of Amasya had become kazasker of Anatolia, and Sıdkı Mustafa Efendi, also of Amasya, reisülküttap (head of the Divan secretaries). In Zemân Bey's time Genceli Veli Bey, sheikh of the Sultan Bayezid Imaret, gained considerable influence and fame.
On the first day of Recep, Hayreddînzâde İbrâhim Efendi of Amasya, one of the great mollas, became kadı of Amasya. On the eighteenth of Recep Mad Sultan İbrâhim was disgracefully deposed from his throne, and in his place his seven-year-old prince, the Fourth Sultan Mehmed Khan, was raised. Sultan İbrâhim was then strangled.
On that day in Amasya, Ahmed Efendi, first imam and preacher of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, was deprived of the preachership; Kadızâde Abdurrahman Efendi, a student of Hâfız Mehmed Efendi, one of the famous hafızes, head of the Qur'an reciters and ders-i âm (great madrasa professor), became preacher.
A few days later the former mütesellim Sarı Ali Bey died suddenly. Mirliva Mehmed Zemân Bey was deeply affected by the change of reign. For he had obtained the sanjak of Amasya from the Telli Haseki by paying cash in advance, and to get this money back he had increased the extraordinary taxes.
For this reason the people's complaints robbed Zemân Bey of his peace. The kethüda and trusted man of İbşir Mustafa Pasha, Governor of Sivas, was Sâlih Ağa of Amasya. İbşir Pasha too was one of the unbridled.
Therefore the complaints bore fruit. In Şaban the sanjak of Amasya was given to Ahmed Pasha, Beylerbeyi of Trabzon, and the sums Zemân Bey had paid were wasted. He himself returned to Istanbul empty-handed and at a loss.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- Acem: Iranian, Persian
- yâdigâr: keepsake, what is left by someone or by an event
- kazasker: member of the Divan, the highest judicial official who oversaw the appointment of kadıs and müderrises (there were two, for Rumelia and for Anatolia)
- reîsü'l-küttâb: head of the Divan secretaries, in later periods the official in charge of foreign affairs
- imâm-ı evvel: first imam of a mosque
- hitâbet: preachership, the duty of delivering the Friday and festival sermon
- ref' edilmek: to be removed from office
- meşâhir-i huffâz: the famous hafızes
- şeyhü'l-kurrâ: head of those who teach Qur'an recitation
- tilmîz: student
- füc'eten: suddenly
- tebeddül-i saltanat: change of sultan
- tayyârât: revenues and taxes that are not fixed, periodic or extraordinary
- selb etmek: to take away, to remove
- mûtemed: trusted man
- gem almaz: one who accepts no bridle, disobedient
- müsmir: bearing results, productive
- gâib ve hâsir: having lost and suffered a loss
A Bey from Revan
No more than Hüsameddin gives was found in other sources on Mehmed Zemân Bey. His presenting him as "one of the keepsakes Sultan Murad took from Revan" points to Murad IV's Revan campaign of 1635. According to the sources the Ottoman army reached Revan on 26 July 1635, and after ten days of cannon fire Emirgûneoğlu Tahmasbkulu Khan, Beylerbeyi of Revan, surrendered the fortress on 8 August 1635. Tahmasbkulu Khan won the sultan's favour, adopted Sunnism, took the name Yusuf, entered Ottoman service and rose as far as the vizierate. It is evident that Zemân Bey too was one of the Iranians who passed into Ottoman service after this campaign; but by what route he came, and his posts before the beylik of Bolu, could not be determined.
The Bought Sanjak
The most instructive aspect of the entry is that Zemân Bey took Amasya by paying cash in advance to the Telli Haseki and tried to extract this money from the people. It is known, from the chronicler Vecîhî, that Sultan İbrâhim made his favourites hasekis, assigned them heavy hasses and distributed select provinces and sanjaks as paşmaklık. Under such an arrangement the bey who came to the sanjak had to collect from the people the money he had paid to the owner of the revenue and his own profit. Hüsameddin's phrase "he had increased the tayyârât" expresses this pressure.
From this one also understands why the change of reign shook Zemân Bey so much. Sultan İbrâhim was deposed on 18 Receb 1058 [8 August 1648]; according to Kâtib Çelebi's record in the Fezleke, on 28 Receb [18 August] he was killed by the executioner Kara Ali in the presence of the şeyhülislam, the grand vizier and the agha of the janissaries. The date of the deposition that Hüsameddin gives agrees exactly with present-day research. With the sultan's fall the era of the hasekis also closed; the Telli Haseki, after her husband's death, settled pregnant in the Old Palace and in October 1648 gave birth to Şehzade Orhan. The woman who sold the sanjak's revenue was no longer a power; this is why the money Zemân Bey paid "went down the drain". In the next entry Hüsameddin writes explicitly that the sanjak of Amasya was taken out of the haseki's hands.
The People of Amasya Named in the Text
Memikzâde Mustafa Efendi's kazaskership of Anatolia is given in Mehmet İpşirli's entry as Cemâziyelevvel 1058 [June 1648] and agrees with Hüsameddin's record; according to the same source he was removed from this post within three months.
Hüsameddin tells the life of Sıdkı Mustafa Efendi separately in the biography volume of his book. Sıdkı, from the Fethiye quarter and from a family of kadıs, after teaching for a while changed profession and became divan clerk of Hoca Ahmed Pasha of Amasya, mentioned in earlier entries, moved from there to the office of the Imperial Divan, and in 1047 [1637], under the grand vizierate of Bayram Pasha, had become reisülküttap. According to the biography, his third reisülküttapship came about in Receb 1058, in the event in which Sultan İbrâhim was deposed and Mehmed IV ascended the throne. In this entry, however, Sıdkı's reisülküttapship is mentioned as "had become" in Cemaziyelevvel; there is a difference of a few weeks between the two records. The same biography also writes that the kethüda of İbşir Mustafa Pasha was Sâlih Ağa of Amasya; Hüsameddin's information in this entry is consistent with his own biography volume.
There is an inconsistency within Hüsameddin himself over the "Ahmed Pasha, Beylerbeyi of Trabzon" to whom the sanjak was given in place of Zemân Bey. The Ahmed Pasha who was then beylerbeyi of Trabzon is, according to the previous entries, İğnecizâde Hoca Ahmed Pasha; but the next entry writes that the sanjak was given on the eleventh of Şaban to "Örümcek of Kayabaşı", that is, Ankebût Ahmed Pasha. Hoca Ahmed Pasha's third coming to Amasya, according to Hüsameddin, is only at the end of Şevval 1058.
No information was found in other sources on Genceli Veli Bey, sheikh of the Sultan Bayezid Imaret, on Kadı Hayreddînzâde İbrâhim Efendi, on the preachers of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque Ahmed Efendi and Kadızâde Abdurrahman Efendi, or on Hâfız Mehmed Efendi.
Bibliography
Primary sources
Academic studies
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