AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · BİRİNCİ BÂB · ONUNCU FASIL · AMASYA TÂRÎHİ'NDEN ÜÇÜNCÜ DEVRE BAKİYYESİ

Ömer Pasha

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Remainder of Volume 4, p. 650–651 • Edited by: Prof. Dr. Mehmet ARSLAN

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

İspirlidir. Zarbona Ebûbekir Paşa'nın oğludur. 1160 cemâziyelevvelinin yirmisinde Amasya mutasarrıfı ve Îrân harbine me'mûr olduğundan baş a'yân Hacı Ahmed Bey Amasya mütesellimi ve şa'bânın on yedisinde Amasya'da "Çırçırlıoğlu" demekle meşhûr Abdullâh [78] Paşa sadr-ı a'zam ve harem kethüdâsı Amasyalı Hacı Abdullâh Ağa da kapıcılar kethüdâsı oldu. Bu esnâda Amasya kadısı Müjdecizâde Mehmed Efendi olmuşdu.

İhtilâsın ilk tahkîkinde Fazlı Oğulları'nın mes'ûliyetleri anlaşılıyordu. Sonra mes'ûliyet müftî-i ma’zûlün ve şehir kethüdâsı Hacı Hüseyin Ağa'ya yükletilip tazmîne mahkûm oldular. Bu hükm-i karakuş ulemâ ve a'yânı tenfîr, halka da te'sîr etmişdi.

Şevvâl evâ'ilinde Zâr Alîoğlu Mehmed Paşa Sivâs vâlîsi olduğundan müntesibleri Fazlı Oğulları'nın nüfûzları artdı. Hacıbaşı Fazlıoğlu Hacı Mustafâ Efendi ilâveten şehir kethüdâsı oldu. Fazlı Oğulları'nın aleyhinde atıp tutan nakîb Hacı Bâkîoğlu Hacı Abdulbâkî Ağa da mühîn-i sâdât denilerek azl edilip Fazlıoğlu Hacı Alî Efendi nakîb oldu.

1161 muharrem intihâbında Hacı Efendioğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa baş a'yân, Emîr Hacıoğlu Torun Hacı Alî Ağa'nın hacıbaşı olması Fazlı Oğulları'na karşı halkın vaz'iyyet aldıklarını anlatdı.

Safer evâ'ilinde şâyân-ı dikkatdir ki ber-vech-i mâlikâne Canik muhassılı dergâh-ı âlî kapıcıbaşılarından Fatsalı Ahmed Ağa bin Süleymân Ağa bin Abdurrahmân Ağa pek zâlimâne [79] hareket eylediğinden Irım, Akçay, Olsa köyleri halkı toplanıp otuz nefer etbâ'ıyla berâber Ahmed Ağa'yı paraladılar. Oğulları Süleymân, Alî Beyler'i bırakdılar.⁷¹⁰

Footnotes

  • 710 Bu vak'a ahkâm ve mâliye defterlerinde görüldü.
Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

He was from İspir. He was the son of Zarbona Ebubekir Pasha. On the twentieth day of Cemaziyelevvel 1160 [1747] he became mutasarrıf of Amasya; since he was on duty in the war in Iran, the chief notable Hacı Ahmed Bey became mütesellim of Amasya. On the seventeenth of Şaban, Abdullah Pasha, known in Amasya as "Çırçırlıoğlu," became grand vizier, and Hacı Abdullah Ağa of Amasya, the harem kethüda, became kethüda of the gatekeepers. At this time Müjdecizade Mehmed Efendi had become kadı of Amasya.

In the first investigation of the embezzlement of the aid, it was understood that the Fazlıoğulları were responsible. But later the responsibility was shifted onto the dismissed mufti and the city kethüda Hacı Hüseyin Ağa, and the two were sentenced to compensation. This arbitrary, "karakuşî" verdict had alienated the ulema and the notables and deeply affected the people.

At the beginning of Şevval, when Zâr Alioğlu Mehmed Pasha became governor of Sivas, the influence of the Fazlıoğulları, who were his men, increased. The hacıbaşı Fazlıoğlu Hacı Mustafa Efendi additionally became city kethüda. The naqib Hacı Bâkîoğlu Hacı Abdülbaki Ağa, who spoke against the Fazlıoğulları, was dismissed on the charge that he "was humiliating the seyyids," and Fazlıoğlu Hacı Ali Efendi became naqib in his place.

That in the election of Muharrem 1161 [1748] Hacı Efendioğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa was elected chief notable and Emir Hacıoğlu Torun Hacı Ali Ağa hacıbaşı showed that the people had taken a stand against the Fazlıoğulları.

At the beginning of Safer an event worthy of note took place. Since the muhassıl who held Canik as a malikâne, Fatsalı Ahmed Ağa bin Süleyman Ağa bin Abdurrahman Ağa, one of the kapıcıbaşıs of the imperial threshold, behaved very cruelly, the people of the villages of Irım, Akçay and Olsa gathered and tore Ahmed Ağa to pieces together with his retinue of thirty. They let his sons Süleyman and Ali Bey go.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • sadr-ı a'zam: the grand vizier, the head vizier who is the sultan's absolute deputy
  • kapıcılar kethüdâsı: the high-ranking official at the head of the palace gatekeepers
  • ihtilâs: embezzlement
  • müftî-i ma'zûl: the dismissed mufti
  • tazmîn: making someone pay for a loss
  • hükm-i karakuş: an arbitrary, unjust verdict that knows no accounting
  • tenfîr: alienating, making someone averse
  • müntesib: attached to someone, his man
  • nakîb: in Amasya, the deputy of the nakîbüleşraf who looked after the affairs of seyyids and sharifs
  • mühîn-i sâdât: one who humiliates seyyids, that is, descendants of the Prophet
  • vaz'iyyet almak: to take a stand
  • şâyân-ı dikkat: worthy of note
  • ber-vech-i mâlikâne: as a source of tax held for life
  • muhassıl: the official who collected the taxes of a region
  • etbâ': retinue, men

Ömer Pasha of İspir

Hüsameddin introduces this mutasarrıf as from İspir and "the son of Zarbona Ebubekir Pasha." No information on this pasha and his father was found in other sources. He must not be confused with Üçüncüoğlu Ömer Pasha, whose name appears frequently on the eastern Black Sea in the same years; that Ömer Pasha, who was from the village of Manastır in Torul and served as governor of Trabzon from 1739, was, according to Necmettin Aygün's research, killed in the autumn of 1742, and therefore cannot be the pasha appointed to Amasya in 1747.

Grand Vizier Seyyid Abdullah Pasha

Abdullah Pasha, whom Hüsameddin calls "famous in Amasya as Çırçırlıoğlu," is Firârîzade Seyyid Abdullah Pasha, whom he recorded in the previous entry as becoming governor of Cyprus with the vizierate. According to Abdülkadir Özcan's biography, the pasha became muhassıl of Aydın in March 1747, was secretly summoned to Istanbul twelve days later by his patron, the Chief Black Eunuch Moralı Beşir Ağa, and was made grand vizier by Mahmud I on 17 Şaban 1160 (24 August 1747). The date "the seventeenth of Şaban" that Hüsameddin gives agrees with this record to the very day.

Abdullah Pasha's grand vizierate lasted about thirty months. The most important foreign matter of this period was maintaining the peace made with Iran after the killing of Nâdir Shah; it was decided to warn the pashas on the frontiers to remain faithful to the peace, and it was resolved to help the distressed emigrants coming from Iran. The pasha was dismissed in January 1750 and sent to Rhodes, later served as governor of Egypt, Aleppo, Raqqa and Diyarbekir, and died in Aleppo in 1761. His contemporaries describe him as generous, gentle in temperament, fine in handwriting and a lover of learning. It is recorded in the sources that he was called by the nicknames "Eğriboyun" or "Boynueğri"; the nickname "Çırçırlıoğlu" given by Hüsameddin and the pasha's tie with Amasya could not be verified in other sources.

The "Karakuşî" Verdict

Hüsameddin describes the sentencing of the dismissed mufti to compensation as "hükm-i karakuş." This expression comes from the name of Bahâeddin Karakuş, one of the statesmen Saladin trusted. As Bahattin Kök explains, in the work called "el-Fâşûş fî ahkâmi Karakuş," attributed to Ibn Mammâtî, it is related that Karakuş gave many wrong and ridiculous decisions. However, the information in the sources shows that these claims are not true and that Saladin trusted him in the affairs of the country, and it is argued that these accusations arose from the author's personal grudge. Even so, the expression has been used for centuries for arbitrary verdicts that know no accounting. Hüsameddin's choice of this word shows that he believed the responsibility plainly visible in the first investigation had been turned in favor of an influential family.

The Fazlıoğulları and the Governor of Sivas

In this entry the power of the Fazlıoğulları plainly rests on the governor of Sivas. The Mehmed Pasha whom Hüsameddin writes as "Zâr Alioğlu" is most probably Mehmed Pasha of the Zaralızades, the most powerful notable family of Sivas in the eighteenth century; in a later entry Hüsameddin mentions the same person again as governor of Sivas in 1165 [1752] under the name "Zaralızade Mehmed Pasha." Ahmet Önal's research on the governors of Sivas shows that Zaralızade Mehmed Pasha was left in the governorship of Sivas in the appointments of the years 1166, 1167 and 1168, and that he is one of two persons brought three times to the governorship of Sivas between 1753 and 1792. That a family in Amasya were this governor's men was enough for them to seize, with his appointment, many posts from the city kethüdaship to the naqibship.

But this power had a limit. That in the election at the beginning of the next year persons opposed to the Fazlıoğulları were brought to the chief notableship and the hacıbaşıship showed, in Hüsameddin's phrase, that the people "took a stand" against them. This small detail suggests that the elections of notables and hacıbaşı in Amasya were real elections able to reflect the preference of the townspeople.

The Death of Fatsalı Ahmed Ağa

The last paragraph of the entry sheds light on the beginning of an important family of Black Sea history. Fatsalı Ahmed Ağa is the ancestor of the Canikli family, which would govern Canik, Amasya and Trabzon in the second half of the eighteenth century. According to Özcan Mert, Canikli Hacı Ali Pasha, regarded as the founder of the family, was the younger son of Fatsalı Ahmed Ağa, one of the kapıcıbaşıs of the imperial threshold; because of the oppressions his father committed around Terme and Fatsa, he was exiled to Ankara with him in August 1741, and in 1748, some time after his father's death, he returned to Canik with his elder brother Süleyman. The beginning of Safer 1161 that Hüsameddin gives corresponds to the first days of February 1748 and agrees exactly with this record.

The value of Hüsameddin's record is that it also reports the manner of the death. While the encyclopedia sources give only the year of death, Hüsameddin writes that the villagers, wearied by his cruelty, gathered and killed Ahmed Ağa together with his thirty men, but did not touch his sons. His stating in the footnote that he "saw this event in the ahkâm and finance registers" shows that the information rests on archival documents. The Anatolian Ahkâm registers kept from 1742 are the main sources recording the answers given to complaints coming from the provinces.

Of the villages where the event took place, Irım must be the Arım that Kâtip Çelebi counts among the districts of the vilayet of Canik. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the district of Arım covered today's Çarşamba, Ayvacık, Salıpazarı, Asarcık and Tekkeköy; the market of Çarşamba was also within this district. Akçay also appears in the same list as one of the districts of Canik. The name "Olsa" could not be identified. According to local records, the region was governed until the 1750s by sanjak beys appointed from the center, and then the administration passed into the hands of the notables, first of all of the Canikli family. Of the sons the villagers let go, Süleyman would later become muhassıl of Canik and Ali a vizier, and in 1772 he would take the sanjak of Amasya as a malikâne. Thus the administration of these lands, which had complained of his father's cruelty, passed into the hands of the same family twenty-five years later.

No information was found in other sources about Hacı Ahmed Bey, Hacı Abdullah Ağa, Müjdecizade Mehmed Efendi, Hacı Efendioğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa and Torun Hacı Ali Ağa, named in the entry.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, 4. Cildin Bakiyyesi, p. 650–651. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

Official sources

Remainder of Volume 4 contents

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