Bosnalıdır. Memi Çelebizâdedir. 1070 senesi saferinin gurresinde ikinci defa Amasya mutasarrıfı olup vusûlüne kadar kethüdâsı İbrâhim Ağa’yı mütesellim gönderdi. Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa da gurre-i saferde Köprü’den hareketle Havza’ya ikinci günü muazzam bir istikbâl alayıyla Amasya’ya geldi.⁶⁶⁰
Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa, Amasya’da üç gün ikâmet etdi. A‘yân ve halkı dinleyip haklı buldu. Şehir kethüdâsı Ahmed Ağa’nın vâsıta-i nüfûzu olan kethüdâyeri Bâlîoğlu Mehmed Ağa ile serdâr Yâkub Ağa azledildi. Sipâhilerden Hakâlalı Ekşi Mehmed Ağa sipâhi kethüdâsı, odabaşı Seksen Birin Ahmed Ağa da yeniçeri serdârı oldu.
Fakat Mumcuzâde Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, gelip taksîrâtını itiraf ederek [134] affını rica eylediğinden Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa’nın bir lütfu olmak üzere yine şehir kethüdâlığını elde etdi. Ba‘dehû Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa da Erzurum’a gitdi.
Lâkin Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, halkın cür’etkârâne tehâcümlerini Müftü Fâzıl Hızır Efendi’den bildi. Fâzıl Hızır Efendi de mukaddem azliyle Sivas’a ihzârını Seyyid Ahmed Ağa’dan biliyordu. Bu yüzden ikisi arasında onulmaz bir adâvet yarası açıldı.
Rebîülevvelde Muslî Paşa geldi. Mâh-ı mezkûrun on beşinde mütesellim-i sâbık Merzifonî İbrâhim Ağa, Sultân Bâyezîd evkâfı mütevellîsi oldu. Rebîülâhirde müddet-i kazâiyesini temdîde muvaffak olan Kadı Mustafa Efendi, İstanbul’dan gelip cumâdelûlâ gurresinde işe başladı.
Cumâdelûlânın ortalarında Sultân Bâyezîd Câmii hatîbi Kadızâde Hâfız Abdurrahman Efendi, sonlarında câmi-i mezkûrun muvakkidi “Koca Müneccim” demekle meşhûr Fâzıl Ahmed Efendi vefât etdi. Meşâhir-i ulemâdan Hâfız Ali Efendi hatîb ve Koca Müneccim’in oğlu Mehmed Efendi muvakkit oldu.
Şa’bân evâilinde şehir kethüdâsı Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa’nın ta’lîmâtıyla Akdağ ve Geldiklân nâhiyelerinde birkaç köylerin ahâlisi mukaddemen ehl-i örfe verdikleri mebâliğ-i mühimmeyi Müftü Hızır Efendi’den mutâlebe ve şikâyet ederek Amasya’ya geldiler.
Şa’bân evâsıtında müftü-i müşârün-ileyhin Eski Kethüdâ mahallesinde olan hânesini taşlayıp “Zâlim! Bizden gasben aldığın paralarımızı ver.” [135] diyerek haykırdılar. Amasya’yı inletdiler.
Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, bu vâkıayı istediği şekil ve surette büyüterek yazdırdığı şikâyetnâmeleri vâliye, Bâb-ı Âlî’ye yağdırdı. Muslî Paşa da vak’ayı bildirdi. Vâlî bu şikâyetler üzerine silahdârı Kaba Ali Ağa’yı mübâşir tâyin ederek Amasya’ya gönderdi.
Ramazânın üçüncü günü Kaba Ali Ağa Amasya’ya gelip Müftü Fâzıl Hızır Efendi’yi ahz u haps etdi. Yerine Yeğenzâde Ebussu’ûd Efendi Amasya müftüsü oldu. Şu hâle erbâb-ı hamiyyet, pek ziyâde hayret ederek dilhûn olmakta idi.
Fakat Köprülü Mehmed Paşa’ya dayanan Mumcuoğlu’nun nüfûz ve şirretine karşı sükûtu ihtiyar ederek âkibet-i hâle intizâr ediyorlardı. Çünkü mesele mahkemeye aksetmiş, vâlî olan Köprü Müftüsü Tokatlı Şücâeddîn Efendi’nin mahdûmu Köprülü Mustafa Paşa da buna büyük ehemmiyet vermişdi.
Ramazânın beşinci günü bîçâre Fâzıl Hızır Efendi muhakkarâne bir surette mahkemeye ihzâr edildi. Kadı Hayreddînzâde Mustafa Efendi, Mübâşir Ali Ağa, şehir kethüdâsı Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, mütesellim-i sâbık Muslî Ağa, Evkâf-ı Sultâniyye Mütevellisi İbrâhim Ağa’nın, pek çok ulemâ ve a‘yânın huzurunda muhâkeme başladı.
Cereyân eden muhâkeme esnasında umulmadık şâhitlerin, şâhit şeklinde müştekîlerin şehâdet ve ihbârâtıyla Hızır Efendi’nin mezkûr iki nâhiye [136] ahâlisinden ve muhtelif kimselerden sekizyüz kese akçe⁶⁶¹ aldığı anlaşılıyordu. Mahkeme pek kalabalıkdı.
Hızır Efendi, cevâbında “İddia ve talep edilen bu kadar paraları tayyârât ve cerâyim nâmlarıyla ehl-i örfün aldığını, benim almadığımı müddeîler de, şâhitler de, Hazret-i Allâmu’l-Guyûb da biliyor. Herkesin de ma‘lûmudur.” diyerek tebrie-i zimmetine gayret etdi.
Fakat mahkeme şehâdetleri derece-i kifâyede gördüğünden bu kadar çok meblağın Hızır Efendi’den tahsîliyle müddeîlere redd ü iâdesini hükmetdi.⁶⁶² Mahkemede müddeîlerin ve şâhitlerin mahkûmun aleyhe karşı irtikâb etdikleri rezâletleri halkı galeyâna getirdiyse de derhâl bastırıldı.
Bîçâre Hızır Efendi’nin müsâdereden bir kısmını kurtardığı emvâl ü emlâk ve kütüb-i kesîre ve nâdiresi bi’l-müzâyede satılıp esmânı alâ rivâyetin⁶⁶³ Mumcuoğlu’nun ceyb-i intifâ’ına kadar gitdiği söylendi. Eşyâ-yı semîne ve nâdireden ba’zıları da mübâşir Ali Ağa yed’iyle vâliye takdîm edildi.
Fâzıl-ı müşârün-ileyhin bütün mâmeleki satıldıktan sonra gelen fermân-ı âlî [137]⁶⁶⁴ile iki oğlu Ya’kûb, İbrâhim efendilerle dâmadı ve dânişmendi Fâzıl Osmân Efendi Kıbrıs’a nefy ve i‘zâm edildi.
Mesele yalnız Hızır Efendi’nin ve evlâd ü müteallikâtının nefyiyle bitmedi. Halka-i tedrîsinde bulunan yüzlerce şâkirdân-ı irfânından hayli kimseler de dûçâr-ı haps ve te’dîb oldu.
Fâzıl-ı müşârün-ileyhin i‘zâmından bir gün sonra Sultân Bâyezîd kürsü şeyhi vâiz-i meşhûr Mehmed Efendi, esnâ-yı va‘zında yirmi kadar zevâtı, mahkemede Hızır Efendi’den iddia edilen paraların ehl-i örf tarafından ahz u irtikâb edildiğine işhâd ederek Mumcuoğlu’yla avenesinden acı acı feryât etmesi, câmi-i mezkûrda hazır olan Kadı Mustafa Efendi’yi telâşa düşürdü. Birâderi Abdullah Efendi’yi Amasya nâibi tâyin ederek tegayyüb etdi.
Zâten dîlgîr ve dolgun olan halk, her dinleyeni ağlatan vâizin müessir sözleriyle coşup kabından taşdı. Derhal Mumcuoğlu’nun hânesini taşlarla harab etdi. Mumcuoğlu gizlendi. Fakat müddeî ve müştekîlerden ele geçenler fena halde döğüldü. Bu haşerâttan bir kaçı telef oldu.
Şehir kethüdâsı Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa’nın aleyhinde birçok [138] müddeîler meydana çıktı. Şehir kethüdâlığına ait muhâsebesine bakılmak üzere halk tarafından tutulup haps ve ta‘zîb edildi. Hızır Efendi’den dava ve tahsîl edilen paraların kısm-ı a‘zâmını kendisinin aldığı iddia edilmekte idi.
Şevvâlin on beşinde şehir kethüdâlığından kaldırılan Mumcuoğlu’nun yerine Nasûhzâde Mehmed Ağa şehir kethüdâsı oldu. Mutasarrıf Muslî Paşa, taşkın halkı teskîn ve te’dîbe kıyâm etmişdi. Halk ise “Mahkemedeki rezâleti men‘ etmeyip de adâlet isteyenleri te’dîbe uğraşıyorsun.” diyerek Paşa’yı da taşladı.
Zilka’denin beşinci günü Muslî Paşa, Amasya’dan çıkıp kaçtı. Altıncı günü halk, Mumcuoğlu’nun diğer hânesine hücûm ve eşyasını yağma ve kendisini yarım ölü bir halde Amasya’dan ikinci defa sürüp çıkardı. Hızır Efendi’nin eşyasından buldukları şeyleri toplayıp hıfz etdi.
A‘yândan Deli Yûsuf Ağazâde Mehmed Ağa Amasya’yı devlet nâmına idâreye kıyâm edib vukû-ı hâli Sivas Vâlisi Kıbleli Mustafa Paşa’ya bildirdi. Müteâkiben Amasya’nın ulemâ ve a‘yânı tarafından bir mahzar-ı umûmî tertib edilerek sadrâzam Köprülü Mehmed Paşa’ya ve pâdişâha takdîm edildi.
Zilka’de evâsıtında tımârhâne kurbinde Nuh Bey Dâru’l-kurrâ’sı Şeyhi Reîsi el-Kurrâ Hâfız Abdurrahman Efendi, mevlevîhâne şeyhi Mahmûd Adnî Dede Efendi, irtihâl-i dâr-ı bekâ edib Hâfız Sun‘ullah Efendi [139] dâru’l-kurrâ şeyhi, hulefâ-yı mevleviyyeden Hasan Kudsî Dede Efendi de mevlevîhâne şeyhi oldu.
Zilhicce gurresinde Vâlî Kıbleli Paşa, Sivas’tan hareket edib Tokat’ta birkaç gün kaldı. Sonra Amasya’ya geldi. Uzun tahkîkâta girişip hayli tâkîbat yaptı. Ulemâ ve halktan çoklarını tecrime kıyâm ederek şikâyetlere ma’rûz oldu. Amasya sancağı da Kayseriyye Mutasarrıfı Mehmed Paşa’ya tevcîh edildi.
In Modern English
He was a Bosnian. He was the son of Memi Çelebi. At the beginning of the month of Safer 1070 [1659] he became mutasarrıf of Amasya for the second time, and until he himself came he sent his kethüda İbrâhim Ağa as mütesellim (deputy governor). Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha also set out from Köprü at the beginning of Safer and came to Havza, and on the second day to Amasya with a great welcoming procession.
Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha stayed three days in Amasya. He listened to the notables of the city and the people and found them in the right. The kethüdâyeri Bâlîoğlu Mehmed Ağa, the instrument of the city kethüda Ahmed Ağa's influence, and the serdar Yâkub Ağa were dismissed. Among the sipahis Ekşi Mehmed Ağa of Hakâlalı became sipahi kethüda, and the odabaşı Ahmed Ağa of the Eighty-First became janissary serdar.
But since Mumcuzâde Seyyid Ahmed Ağa came, confessed his faults and begged pardon, he regained the city kethüdalık as a favour from Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha. After this Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha went on to Erzurum.
However, Seyyid Ahmed Ağa regarded the people's boldly marching against him as the doing of Mufti Fâzıl Hızır Efendi. Fâzıl Hızır Efendi too regarded his earlier dismissal and being brought to Sivas as the doing of Seyyid Ahmed Ağa. For this reason an incurable wound of enmity was opened between the two.
In the month of Rebîülevvel Muslî Pasha came. On the fifteenth of the same month the former mütesellim İbrâhim Ağa of Merzifon became mütevelli of the Sultan Bayezid waqfs. In the month of Rebîülâhir Kadı Mustafa Efendi, who had succeeded in having his term as kadı extended, came from Istanbul and began work at the beginning of the month of Cemâziyelevvel.
In the middle of Cemâziyelevvel Kadızâde Hâfız Abdurrahman Efendi, preacher of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, and at the end of the month the muvakkit (timekeeper) of the same mosque, Fâzıl Ahmed Efendi, known as "Koca Müneccim" (Grand Astronomer), died. Hâfız Ali Efendi, one of the well-known scholars, became preacher and Mehmed Efendi, son of Koca Müneccim, became muvakkit.
At the beginning of Şaban, on the prompting of the city kethüda Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, the people of several villages attached to the districts of Akdağ and Geldiklân came to Amasya as complainants, demanding from Mufti Hızır Efendi the large sums they had earlier paid to the ehl-i örf (officials of the administrative and military class).
In the middle of Şaban they stoned the said mufti's house in the Eski Kethüdâ quarter and shouted "Tyrant, give us back our money you took from us by force"; they made Amasya groan.
Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, inflating this event as he wished, rained down the petitions of complaint he had had written on the governor and the Sublime Porte. Muslî Pasha too reported the event. On these complaints the governor appointed his silahdar Kaba Ali Ağa as mübaşir (investigating and collecting official) and sent him to Amasya.
On the third day of Ramazan Kaba Ali Ağa came to Amasya, arrested Mufti Fâzıl Hızır Efendi and imprisoned him. In his place Yeğenzâde Ebussuûd Efendi became mufti of Amasya. The men of honour looked upon this situation in great bewilderment, their hearts weeping blood.
But before the influence and malice of Mumcuoğlu, who relied on Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, they chose to keep silent and wait for the end of the affair. For the matter had been brought to court, and Köprülü Mustafa Pasha, the governor, who was the son of Şücâeddîn Efendi of Tokat, Mufti of Köprü, had given it great importance.
On the fifth day of Ramazan poor Fâzıl Hızır Efendi was brought to court in a humiliating manner. The trial began in the presence of Kadı Hayreddînzâde Mustafa Efendi, the mübaşir Ali Ağa, the city kethüda Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, the former mütesellim Muslî Ağa and İbrâhim Ağa, mütevelli of the Sultan waqfs, and a great many scholars and notables.
During the case, through the testimony and denunciations of unexpected witnesses and of complainants disguised as witnesses, it emerged that Hızır Efendi had taken eight hundred purses of akçe from the people of the two said districts and from various persons. The court was very crowded.
In his answer Hızır Efendi tried to clear himself, saying: "That the ehl-i örf took this much money, claimed and demanded, under the name of tayyârât and cerâim (extraordinary taxes and fines for offences), and that I did not take it, the claimants know, the witnesses know, and God, who knows the unseen, knows. Everyone knows this."
But since the court found the testimonies sufficient, it ruled that so great a sum be collected from Hızır Efendi and returned to the claimants. Although the disgraceful behaviour of the claimants and witnesses against the condemned man in the court stirred the people, it was suppressed at once.
Part of the goods and property that poor Hızır Efendi had been able to save from confiscation, and a great many of his rare books, were sold at auction; according to one account the proceeds went as far as Mumcuoğlu's pocket. Some of the valuable and rare items were also presented to the governor by the mübaşir Ali Ağa.
After all this learned man's possessions had been sold, by an imperial firman that came, he was exiled to Cyprus together with his two sons Yakub and İbrâhim Efendis and his son-in-law and student Fâzıl Osman Efendi.
The matter did not end with the exile of Hızır Efendi, his children and his relatives alone. Many of the hundreds of students in his teaching circle were also imprisoned and punished.
A day after Hızır Efendi was sent into exile, Mehmed Efendi, kürsü şeyhi of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque and famous preacher, in the course of a sermon pointed to some twenty people as witnesses that the money demanded from Hızır Efendi in court had in fact been taken and pocketed by the ehl-i örf, and bitterly complained of Mumcuoğlu and his supporters. This alarmed Kadı Mustafa Efendi, who was in the mosque. The kadı appointed his brother Abdullah Efendi as nâib of Amasya and disappeared.
The people, already hurt and full of anger, boiled over with the preacher's powerful words, which made every listener weep. They at once wrecked Mumcuoğlu's house with stones. Mumcuoğlu hid. But those of the claimants and complainants who fell into their hands were badly beaten; a few of this rabble died.
Many claimants appeared against the city kethüda Mumcuoğlu Seyyid Ahmed Ağa. He was seized by the people and imprisoned and ill-treated so that his accounts concerning the city kethüdalık could be examined. It was alleged that he himself had taken the greater part of the money collected from Hızır Efendi through the lawsuit.
In place of Mumcuoğlu, dismissed from the city kethüdalık on the fifteenth of Şevval, Nasûhzâde Mehmed Ağa became city kethüda. The mutasarrıf Muslî Pasha had set about calming and punishing the riotous people. The people, saying "You did not prevent the scandal in the court, and now are you trying to punish those who demand justice?", stoned the Pasha too.
On the fifth day of Zilkade Muslî Pasha left Amasya and fled. On the sixth day the people attacked Mumcuoğlu's other house and plundered his goods, and drove him, half dead, out of Amasya for the second time. They collected what they could find of Hızır Efendi's belongings and took them under protection.
Mehmed Ağa, son of Deli Yûsuf Ağa, one of the notables, set about governing Amasya in the name of the state and reported what had happened to Kıbleli Mustafa Pasha, Governor of Sivas. Then a general mahzar (collective petition) was prepared by the scholars and notables of Amasya and submitted to Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha and the sultan.
In the middle of Zilkade, Hâfız Abdurrahman Efendi, sheikh of the Nuh Bey Darülkurrâ near the tımarhane and head of the reciters, and Mahmûd Adnî Dede Efendi, sheikh of the Mevlevi lodge, died. Hâfız Sun'ullah Efendi became sheikh of the darülkurrâ, and Hasan Kudsî Dede Efendi, one of the Mevlevi caliphs, sheikh of the Mevlevi lodge.
At the beginning of Zilhicce Governor Kıbleli Pasha set out from Sivas, stayed a few days in Tokat and then came to Amasya. He undertook a long investigation and carried out quite a few prosecutions. When he attempted to find many of the scholars and people guilty and punish them, he himself was complained of. The sanjak of Amasya was also given to Mehmed Pasha, Mutasarrıf of Kayseri.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- gurre: the first day of the Hijri month, the beginning of the month
- mutasarrıf: the administrator who governs the sanjak
- mütesellim: the deputy who governs the sanjak until the mutasarrıf comes or in his absence
- istikbâl alayı: welcoming ceremony
- a'yân: the notables of a city
- kethüdâyeri: the kethüda of the sipahis in a sanjak, the official who looks after their affairs
- serdâr: the head of the janissaries in the city
- taksîrât: faults
- tehâcüm: attacking in a body, marching against
- ihzâr: having someone brought to a place, summons
- adâvet: enmity
- muvakkit: the one who determines the prayer times, the timekeeping official in a mosque
- ehl-i örf: the officials of the military class who carried out administration and tax affairs in the sultan's name
- mübâşir: the official sent to carry out a matter on the spot
- ahz u habs: seizing and imprisoning
- tayyârât ve cerâim: unexpected revenues and the money taken as penalty for offences
- tebrie-i zimmet: clearing oneself of debt or guilt
- müzâyede: auction
- nefy ü i'zâm: sending into exile
- şâkirdân: students
- tegayyüb: disappearing
- mahzar: a collective petition submitted with many signatures
- irtihâl-i dâr-ı bekâ: death, passing to the eternal world
The Trial of a Mufti
This entry, which bears Muslî Pasha's name, is in fact less about the pasha himself than the story of a case that turned Amasya upside down in 1070 [1659-60]. No information on Muslî Pasha beyond what Hüsameddin gives could be reached; his being a Bosnian, his being the son of Memi Çelebi and his flight from the city in the middle of the events are known today only from these lines. By contrast the person on the other side of the case, Fâzıl Hızır Efendi, is one of the best-known scholars of seventeenth-century Amasya.
According to Hüseyin Yazıcı's study of his life and works, Hızır b. Muhammed el-Amâsî, as Hüsameddin records, was born around 1006 [1597] in the Hacı İlyas quarter of Amasya, in a mansion with a garden near the Maydanos Bridge. Because his grandfather had long served as yasakçı, the family was called "Yasakçı Oğulları". When he was only sixteen, in 1020 [1611], he was appointed muîd (assistant professor) at the Sultan Bayezid Madrasa, in 1041 [1631] müderris of the Yörgüç Pasha Madrasa, and in 1058 [1648] mufti of Amasya. Yazıcı notes that in 1059 he clashed over sharia matters with Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, who had become mutasarrıf of Amasya, and was dismissed on 14 Muharrem 1060, and that in the same year Köprülü too was removed from the sanjak on complaints. This detail is important: between Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, shown as the power behind Mumcuoğlu, and Hızır Efendi there was a coolness that had begun years before the grand vizierate.
According to the same study, Mumcuzâde Seyyid Ahmed Ağa, as a friend of Köprülü, had become city kethüda in 1067 [1656-57] by a firman he brought from Istanbul, and four months later began sending complaints against the mufti to Sivas and Istanbul. Hızır Efendi was sent to Sivas to be tried on 17 Ramazan 1067; when the court there established his innocence, Governor of Sivas Söhrab Mehmed Pasha sent him back to Amasya, and in 1069 he was restored to the muftiship. This is the event referred to in the text as his "earlier dismissal and being brought to Sivas". The second case of 1070 should be seen as the continuation of this old account.
Who the City Kethüda Was
The city kethüdalık at the centre of the events is an office that will hardly be familiar to today's reader. In Ottoman cities the city kethüda was the person who, mostly in financial matters, mediated between the state and the people, undertook the distribution and collection of taxes and common expenses among the people, and who was generally chosen by the notables of the city and received a berat from the centre on the kadı's petition. Because he was regarded as the people's representative, some researchers liken him to today's mayors. His removal too often came about at the wish of the notables and people of the city; the rivalry of two candidates could divide the city in two. That Mumcuoğlu both took this post by bringing a firman and was twice driven out of the city by the people clearly shows the double-faced character of the office, that is, its structure resting both on the people and on the centre.
That the money the villagers demanded back from the mufti was in fact paid "to the ehl-i örf", that is, extraordinary taxes and fines collected by administrative officials, is understood from Hızır Efendi's defence. In one of his footnotes Hüsameddin says that from which villages and from whom the eight hundred purses of akçe were taken is written in detail in the sharia registers. In a study on the seventeenth-century registers of Amasya it is noted that register no. 13 covers exactly the years 1070-1072 [1659-1662], contains 540 documents, and that no separate study has yet been made on this register. The same study also records that the name "Mustafa" appears as kadı in this register; this agrees with Kadı Hayreddînzâde Mustafa Efendi in the text. The actual record of the case will one day be comparable with Hüsameddin's account when this register is read.
What Remains in Hüsameddin's Footnotes
In this entry Hüsameddin also shows the sources of his information. He relates Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha's coming to Amasya on the basis of the work called Cevâhirü't-Tevârîh by the pasha's kethüda Osman Ağa of Erzurum; the account that the money from the sale of Hızır Efendi's belongings went to Mumcuoğlu he transmits from Abdî Efendi. The note he adds after the court's decision is striking: according to him, this ruling served neither the kadı, nor the governor, nor the mübaşir, nor Mumcuoğlu, nor the claimants and witnesses; each in some way met dismissal, prison, exile, death or other misfortunes. Indeed in the next entry it is related that Governor Kıbleli Mustafa Pasha was thrown into the dungeon of Amasya Castle and his silahdar Kaba Ali Ağa was executed.
Hüsameddin stresses that in the exile firman harsh words such as "ignorant, wicked, treacherous, tyrannical, bribe-taker" were used of Hızır Efendi, whereas that he was a great verifier of his age is established by his works, by Âkifzâde's book el-Mecmû' mine'l-meşhûd ve'l-mesmû' and by the testimony of his contemporaries. Yazıcı's study supports this assessment: the summary Hızır Efendi wrote on rhetoric, Unbûbü'l-belâğa, and its commentary el-İfâza were taught as textbooks in the madrasas of Amasya and its surroundings; of his nine known works six have survived to the present. His sons Yakub el-Vehbî and İbrahim el-Feyzî and his son-in-law Osman Efendi were also among his students. This gulf between the words in the firman and the scholar's scholarly fame strengthens the view that the case was a political settling of accounts.
The rest of the story also agrees in Hüsameddin and Yazıcı. When Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha became grand vizier in 1072 he had Hızır Efendi brought back from Cyprus, and in 1078 [1667] Hızır Efendi became mufti of Amasya for the fourth time. The date of his death is given in the sources in different forms from 1060 to 1100; according to Hüsameddin's record he died while holding the muftiship on 8 Zilhicce 1084 [March 1674].
Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha's Visit to Amasya
Fâzıl Ahmed Pasha, who at the beginning of the text came from Köprü, stayed three days in Amasya and then went on to Erzurum, is the son of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha. Born in Köprü in 1045 [1635-36], he moved after a period as a madrasa teacher into state service at his father's direction and from 1069 [1659] served as governor of Erzurum and Damascus. The short stop in Amasya, that is, his listening to the people's complaints in the great city near his home town on the way to Erzurum, where he had become the new governor, is consistent with this date. Two years later he would become grand vizier in his father's place and would change Hızır Efendi's fate as well.
Place and Institution Names
Akdağ and Geldiklân, from which the claimants came, are old districts of the kaza of Amasya. According to the information compiled by Hamdullah Dedeoğlu on the kazas and districts of the sanjak of Amasya, Akdağ was in 1490 a district attached to Amasya and today is the town of Çiğdemlik attached to Amasya centre. Geldiklân, which appears in the fifteenth century under the name Geldiklan-abad, later took the name Zara, and after 1960 Doğantepe, and today is again a town attached to Amasya centre.
The tımarhane mentioned at the end of the text is the Amasya Darüşşifa (hospital) on the bank of the Yeşilırmak; according to its inscription it was built in 708 [1308-1309] in the Ilkhanid period and is used today as a museum of medical history. The Nuh Bey Darülkurrâ was near it. Evliya Çelebi writes that there were nine darülkurrâs in seventeenth-century Amasya; that Hüsameddin gives detailed information on eight darülkurrâs shows this number is not exaggerated.
On the Mevlevi lodge sheikhs a small difference stands out. Abdülhalim Durma lists the sheikhs after Bayram Pasha's rebuilding of the lodge in 1637 as Mehmed Arif Dede, his son-in-law Mahmud Dede, then Abdülkadir Dede and Alaeddin Dede. Mahmûd Adnî Dede, whose death is reported here, is most probably the Mahmud Dede Durma mentions; but Hasan Kudsî Dede, who is reported to have succeeded him, does not appear in Durma's list. Durma also records that the lodge's waqf deed was lost in 1661; this falls exactly in the troubled years narrated in this entry.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, pp. 584–586. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
- Neşe İnak, "Amasya Tarihinin Kaynaklarından Şeriye Sicilleri (17. Yüzyıl)", Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi İnsan Bilimleri Dergisi, 4/2 (2023), pp. 183-202, https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/3496542
- Şenol Çelik, "Şehir Kethüdâsı", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/sehir-kethudasi
- Abdülkadir Özcan, "Köprülüzâde Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 2002, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kopruluzade-fazil-ahmed-pasa
- Gönül Cantay, "Amasya Dârüşşifâsı", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/amasya-darussifasi
- "Dârülkurrâ", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/darulkurra
Other sources