The secretaryship of the council (divan) of the sanjak of Amasya slipped from Selâmî Mehmed Bey's hands once through the feuds of the provincial notables, and came back to him once when a new sultan took the throne in Istanbul. Having held the post twice, the scribe-poet died in the great earthquake that struck the city at the very beginning of 1240 (1824-25). He belonged to the Selâmzâdes, one of the leading families of the Köprübaşı quarter, and his pen name "Selâmî" was very probably taken from that family name. What we know of him amounts to a few lines set aside for him in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi, and the entry introduces him only as "a scribe and a poet".

Hüsameddin's Entry

The entry reads in full:

Selâmî Mehmed Bey-Selâmzâde Amasyalıdır. Alaybeyilerden ve Amasya'nın Köprü-başı Mahallesi eşrâfından el-Hâc Mustafa Bey bin Abdullah Bey'in mahdûmudur. Pederinin irtihâlinde ze'âmetine mutasarrıf olup tahsîl-i ilm ü kitâbet ederek Amasya mukâta'âtı kâtibi oldu. Ba'dehû Amasya sancâğı dîvân kâtibi olup Çapanzâde Süleyman Bey'in tarafdârı oldugundan 1222'de azl edildi. 1223'de Sultân Mahmûd-ı sânînin cülûsunu müte'âkıb yine dîvân kâtibi olarak i'âde-i ikbâl etdi. 1240 senesi evâ'ilinde büyük zelzelede vefât etdi. Kâtib, şâir idi. Mahdûmu Mustafa Bey ve birâderi Abdullah Beg'dir.

Translation: A native of Amasya. His father was Hacı Mustafa Bey bin Abdullah Bey, one of the alaybeys (commanders of the provincial cavalry) and a notable of Amasya's Köprübaşı quarter. On his father's death he took over his zeamet (a large military fief); having acquired learning and the scribal craft, he became secretary of the mukataas, the revenue sources farmed out in Amasya. Later he became secretary of the council of the sanjak of Amasya, and because he was a partisan of Çapanoğlu Süleyman Bey he was dismissed in 1222. In 1223, after the accession of Mahmud II, he regained his former standing as council secretary. He died in the great earthquake at the beginning of 1240. He was a scribe and a poet. His son was Mustafa Bey and his brother Abdullah Bey.

Life

The fief inherited from his father placed Selâmî inside the world of provincial cavalrymen and notables, yet instead of following his father towards the command of the provincial cavalry he chose the pen. His first post was secretary of the Amasya mukataas, which meant keeping the registers of the tax farms and put him at the centre of the city's ties of money and influence. He then became secretary of the sanjak council, the man at the head of all official correspondence written in the name of the governor or his deputy.

His dismissal in 1222 (1807) was the price of partisanship. In the same volume, in the entry on Avkatlızâde Süleyman Re'fet Bey, Hüsameddin relates that in Cemaziyelevvel of that year Tayyar Mahmud Pasha of Canik became governor of Amasya once more, and that the influence of Süleyman Re'fet Bey, whom he calls "a branch" of the Cebbârzâdes, that is, of the Çapanoğlu family, was shaken as a result. Read side by side, the dates in the two entries suggest that Selâmî lost his post in this wave, when the Canik administration purged the Çapanoğlu party, though the link is nowhere written in the text. A year later, in 1223 (1808), the accession of Mahmud II and the dismissal and execution of Tayyar Pasha reversed the situation, and Selâmî was restored to the secretaryship. Selâmî's pen, twice changing hands, is a small reflection of the rivalry between the Çapanoğulları and the Canik family over the notables of Amasya.

His death, too, is tied to a disaster that befell the city. Hüsameddin writes that he died in the great earthquake in the "evâil", the first days, of the year 1240; since the hijri year 1240 began at the end of August 1824, the shock falls in the autumn of 1824. The calamities of these years, counted among Amasya's historical earthquakes, also left their mark on the city's bridges and buildings.

The Selâmzâdes

Other entries by Hüsameddin show that the Selâmzâde family had been among the notables of Amasya since the early eighteenth century. On the first day of the year 1117 (1705) Selâmzâde Mehmed Bey bin Sâdullâh Bey, one of the chief gatekeepers of the imperial court, became the chief notable of Amasya. His son Abdullah Bey rose from commander of the local janissaries to sanjak governor, retired in 1178 and died in 1181 (1767-68); Hüsameddin records that this Abdullah Bey's son was "Captain Mustafa Ağa". Since Selâmî's father is called "Hacı Mustafa Bey bin Abdullah Bey", it is reasonable to suppose that he and Captain Mustafa Ağa were the same man, which would make Selâmî the great-grandson of the chief notable Mehmed Bey; Hüsameddin, however, does not link the two entries, and this line of descent remains an inference.

The family continued to be mentioned in the next generation. Topçuzâde Hacı Halil Efendi, who served as mayor of Amasya, was born in 1258 (1842) and married "the daughter of Selâmzâde Mustafa Bey". Given that Selâmî's son was also named Mustafa Bey, this bride was very likely the poet's granddaughter.

Poetry

Selâmî's poems have not been found. His poetry fits into a single word in the closing phrase of the entry, "he was a scribe and a poet"; no divan is named, no ghazal copied into an anthology, no chronogram. In an age when council secretaries were known for their skill in ornate prose and in composing chronograms for official occasions, Selâmî's verse probably stayed within this circle of the pen, but no example of it has survived.

Chronology

1117 (1705): Selâmzâde Mehmed Bey bin Sâdullâh Bey becomes chief notable of Amasya.

1181 (1767-68): Selâmzâde Abdullah Bey dies.

1222 (1807): Selâmî is removed from the secretaryship of the sanjak council as a partisan of Çapanoğlu.

1223 (1808): After the accession of Mahmud II he becomes council secretary again.

Early 1240 (autumn 1824): He dies in the great earthquake in Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources