Şâkir Hüseyin Bey was the grandson of the Amasya vizier Gümrükçü el-Hâc Hüseyin Pasha. His father was Mustafa Bey, who rose as high as the post of molla (senior judge) of Edirne; he himself entered the mevâlî, the upper rank of the learned hierarchy, and died in 1156 (1743-44). Everything we know about him comes from the last two sentences of the entry devoted to his grandfather in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi. Hüsameddin's words for him are "fâzıl, hattât, şâir, sâhib-i divân": a learned man, calligrapher and poet who left a divan (collection of poems). He offers no copy of that divan, and not a single couplet. His poems have not come down to us.

The State of the Sources

In the master list of Amasya poets this record appeared under the name "Hüseyin Paşa-Gümrükçü el-Hâc, d. 1135". A reading of the original entry changes the picture. The Hüseyin Pasha of the heading was a statesman who died in Basra in 1098 (1687); Hüsameddin does not describe him as a poet but as "akîl, müdebbir, iş-güzâr, sahî, dindâr bir vezîr", a wise, prudent, capable, generous and pious vizier. The date 1135 is the year of death of the pasha's elder son, Mustafa Bey. The description "şâir, sâhib-i divân" comes at the very end of the entry, directly after the sentence about Mustafa Bey's son Şâkir Hüseyin Bey, and grammatically belongs to him. This page is therefore devoted to the grandson whom the entry calls a poet, and the pasha named in the list appears as the head of the family. On whether "Şâkir" was a pen name (mahlas) or part of his given name Hüsameddin is silent; a pen name is plausible, but there is no document to support it.

Hüsameddin's Entry

The long biography of the pasha closes with these lines listing his children and grandson:

Mahdûmları Mustafa, Mahmûd Beylerdir. Ulemâdan Mustafa Bey, Edirne mollası olup 1135'de vefât etdi. Mahmûd Bey de ulemâ ve mevâliden olup 1142 rebîülevvelinde vefât eyledi. Mustafa Bey'in mahdûmu Şakir Hüseyin Bey de kibâr-ı mevâlinden olup 1156'da irtihâl etdi. Fâzıl, hattât, şâir, sâhib-i divân, bir vücûd-ı kâmil idi.

In English: His sons are Mustafa and Mahmud Beys. Mustafa Bey, one of the ulema, became molla of Edirne and died in 1135. Mahmud Bey, also of the ulema and the mevâlî, died in Rebiülevvel 1142. Mustafa Bey's son Şâkir Hüseyin Bey was likewise one of the great mevâlî and passed away in 1156. He was a learned man, a calligrapher, a poet, the author of a divan, an accomplished person.

Life

Where and when Şâkir Hüseyin Bey was born, where he studied and which judgeships he held, the source does not say. Hüsameddin's phrase "kibâr-ı mevâlî" shows that he reached the upper level of the learned hierarchy, through the judgeships of great cities or the ranks attached to them. His father Mustafa Bey was molla of Edirne and his uncle Mahmud Bey also belonged to the mevâlî; after the pasha's death, in other words, the family passed from military and financial service into the learned profession and held its place there. Hüseyin Bey's calligraphy belongs to the same milieu, since fine writing was a widespread accomplishment among the ulema of the eighteenth century. The year of his death, 1156, falls in the reign of Mahmud I.

His Grandfather Gümrükçü Hüseyin Pasha

According to Hüsameddin, the grandfather who began the family's rise was the son of Mustafa of Amasya; Hüsameddin notes in a footnote that in the financial records his name appears as "Hüseyin Mustafa Amâsiye". As a boy he entered the service of the Amasya vizier Küçük Hasan Pasha, learned writing and manners in his household and became his steward (kethüda). When Hasan Pasha was killed by a cannonball in the Cretan war in 1058 (1648), Hüseyin came to Istanbul, married the daughter of the customs superintendent Mahmud Ağa of Amasya, and on the death of his brother-in-law in 1083 (1672-73) became customs superintendent himself. He prospered under the grand vizierate of Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha; in 1092 (1681) he rebuilt the Galata customs house, burned in the Galata fire, at his own expense of forty-two thousand kuruş and presented it to the grand vizier, and was honoured by a visit of the sultan to his waterside mansion at Fındıklı. In 1094 (1683) he became steward first of the valide sultan (queen mother) and, after her death, of the haseki sultan (the sultan's favourite consort).

After the execution of Kara Mustafa Pasha his fortunes turned. In Hüsameddin's account the new grand vizier Kara İbrahim Pasha, fearing that Hüseyin's rise would end in the grand vizierate, gave him the rank of vizier with the sanjaks of Malatya and Ayıntab and sent him to put down a disturbance around Babadağı. When the disturbance proved groundless he was sent on as governor of Özi, then of Silistre; in 1097 (1685), under the grand vizierate of Sarı Süleyman Pasha, he was appointed governor of Basra and so removed still further, and he died there in Rebiülevvel 1098 (1687) "hüzn ü endûh içinde", in grief and sorrow. His property was confiscated; only the holdings he had endowed, after placing a pulpit in the Kulaksız Mosque at Kasımpaşa, escaped. Hüsameddin writes that in his own day this endowment was the livelihood of the pasha's descendants.

Connection with Amasya

Şâkir Hüseyin Bey's connection with Amasya runs through his lineage. Hüsameddin's note "Amasyalıdır" (he is from Amasya) refers to his grandfather Hüseyin Pasha; the pasha was the son of Mustafa of Amasya, was brought up in the household of an Amasya vizier and married the daughter of an Amasya customs superintendent. Whether the grandson was born in Amasya or had any tie with the city is unknown. His father served as molla in Edirne, and he himself most probably lived in the Istanbul-centred world of the learned hierarchy. The indirect nature of the connection has been kept deliberately on this page: Hüsameddin did not give the poet grandson an entry of his own, but mentioned him within the biography of his Amasya grandfather, as a member of this lineage.

Poetry

The word divan comes from Hüsameddin, but he does not say where he saw it or from what source he learned of it, and he quotes not a single couplet; the poems themselves have not come down to us. No divan or biographical-anthology (tezkire) entry for a poet named Şâkir who lived in the first half of the eighteenth century and belonged to the mevâlî turned up in the sources we searched. The possibility of confusion with other poets of the same name must also be kept in mind; Hüsameddin's book has two further entries headed Şâkir, and they concern other people. It is possible that the divan is catalogued in some manuscript library under another name, but no record confirming this was found.

Chronology

1058 (1648): Hüseyin's master, Küçük Hasan Pasha, dies in Crete; Hüseyin comes to Istanbul.

1092 (1681): Hüseyin rebuilds the burned Galata customs house at his own expense.

Rebiülevvel 1098 (1687): Hüseyin Pasha dies as governor of Basra.

1135 (1722-23): His father, Mustafa Bey, molla of Edirne, dies.

Rebiülevvel 1142 (1729): His uncle Mahmud Bey dies.

1156 (1743-44): Şâkir Hüseyin Bey dies.

Bibliography

Online sources