Tarih araştırmalarında yazılı kaynaklara ek olarak yaşayan şahısların bildikleri, gördükleri ve duydukları ile hatıralarında yer alan bilgiler tarihi kanıt olarak değerlendirilmelidir. Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsameddîn eserinde bu tür kanıtları da alternatif olarak kullanmıştır. Bunu Amasya Tarihi’nin farklı ciltlerinde görmek mümkündür. Örneğin Abdülhalîm Efendi (Hacı Ebûbekirzâde)’nin eski Amasya mütesellimi Hacı Efendizâde Hacı Ebûbekir Ağa’nın evlâdından olup Köprü’de yerleşmiş olan Mehmed Efendi bin Hacı Mahmûd Ağa bin Hacı Ebûbekir Ağa’nın oğlu olduğunu Köprü eşrâfından Hacı Es’ad Ağazâde Es’ad Bey, Abdülhalîm Efendi’nin bizzat kendisinden nakletmiş, bunu da torunlarından Abdülhalîm Bey de tasdîk etmiştir.¹²⁰
Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · ESER VE YAZAR HAKKINDA · 2. AMASYA TARİHİ HAKKINDA · 2.4. Eserin Kaynakları
Oral Sources
Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Introduction: The Work and Its Author, p. 67–68 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Songül KEÇECİ KURT
Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)
Footnotes
- 120 Amasya Tarihi, c. 11, s. 435.
Our Research Article
Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk
In Modern English
In historical research, in addition to written sources, what living people know, have seen and have heard, and the information found in their memories, should also be treated as historical evidence. Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsameddîn also used such evidence as an option in his work. This can be seen in different volumes of the History of Amasya. For example, that Abdülhalîm Efendi (Hacı Ebûbekirzâde) was the son of Mehmed Efendi son of Hacı Mahmûd Ağa son of Hacı Ebûbekir Ağa, who was descended from Hacı Efendizâde Hacı Ebûbekir Ağa, former mütesellim of Amasya, and had settled in Köprü, was related from Abdülhalîm Efendi himself by Es'ad Bey, son of Hacı Es'ad Ağa, one of the notables of Köprü, and this was also confirmed by Abdülhalîm Bey, one of his grandsons.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mütesellim: the administrator charged with governing a town or region, a deputy governor
- eşrâf: the notables of a place
- evlâd: children, descendants
- tasdîk: confirmation
- nakletmek: to relate
The Chain of an Oral Source
According to the footnote, this example is found in volume 11 of the History of Amasya, on page 435. In the text the information passes among three people. Es'ad Bey, son of Hacı Es'ad Ağa, heard the information from Abdülhalîm Efendi himself, and Abdülhalîm Bey, one of his grandsons, confirmed it. Thus, rather than basing a piece of genealogical information on a written document, the author based it on two witnesses from within the family line. In historiography this is an example of an oral source in which it is clearly written from whom, and how many generations later, the information was obtained.
The entry in the Türkiye Diyanet Foundation Encyclopedia of Islam notes that Hüsameddin mostly did not give his sources and also that he gathered material in places such as Amasya, Vezirköprü, Ladik, Çorum and Merzifon. The use of oral sources can be thought of as one aspect of this itinerant method of gathering material; however, no direct source establishing this connection was found. In addition, no information was found in other sources about the persons named in the text.
Bibliography
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, Introduction, p. 67–68; also vol. 11, p. 435. amasya.bel.tr
- Turgut Akpınar, "Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 18, 1998, p. 551-552. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/huseyin-husameddin-yasar