Sevincer, on the south-western side of Amasya, is one of the old villages that still carry their name unchanged. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar connects the name to a bey of the Seljuk period; in the seventeenth century the village gave Ottoman administration a pasha who governed the sanjak of Amasya, and his son. In 1845 half the heads of household were recorded as gardeners, and the vineyards and mulberry orchards of many Muslim and non-Muslim townspeople were registered on the village's land. At the end of 2025, 466 people lived in the village, which belongs to the Central District of Amasya.

The Origin of the Name

Yasar's work contains two separate accounts of the name's origin, and they are not connected to each other. The first comes where he lists the Turkish beys of the Seljuk period: according to Yasar the Kayı Turks lived in the south-western parts of Amasya, their bey was Buşaklu Emîr Bahâeddîn Kürt Bey, and his brother was "Sevinc Er (Sevincer) Bey". Their father Kayı Bey was among the intimates of Sultan Mesud, and the places where these beys lived were, in Yasar's time, the villages called Kayı, Kayı Kürtler and Sevincer. On this reading the village took its name from the bey who lived there.

The second account is in the biographical volumes. A Seljuk prince named Sencer Şah owned two farms near Amasya inherited from his grandfather; around 680 the Mongol ruler Abaqa Khan took them from him and gave them to Tatar beys, and in 682 (1283) the prince recovered his property by appealing to Tekudar Ahmed Khan. Yasar writes that these farms were called "Sencer Alanı" and "Sevincer Alanı", and adds that the prince known as "Sevinç Er Çelebi" was most probably this Sencer Şah. The farm later passed to Halil Paşazâde İskender Bey and was endowed by his son Memi Bey. Yasar does not state outright that Sevincer Alanı is the present village; which of the two accounts explains the village name cannot be shown from documents. The village's absence from the renamed settlements in Bekir Başalan's study shows that the name Sevincer has not undergone an official change.

Location and Sub-district

In the Karaman and Rûm account register of Süleyman's reign the village is written as "Sevincer k., Birgoma n.", on page 375 of the register. The presence of a village called Kayı in the same sub-district agrees with Yasar's pairing of Kayı and Sevincer. Within the administrative arrangement of his own day Yasar counts the village in the Öz sub-district, which covered the south of Amasya; the 1845 temettuat registers likewise give Sevincer in one of the twenty-seven registers of the sub-district centred on Ezinepazar. Sevincer does not appear, however, in the list of the Ezinepazar district bill prepared in 2008.

The Peçelizâdes and Sevincerli Ömer Paşa

Describing the people raised in the Öz sub-district, Yasar writes that Deli Ömer Paşa, one of the viziers, and the Peçelizâde lineage came from the village of Sevincer. In the section that follows the events of Amasya year by year, the best-known name of this family is Sevincerli Ömer Ağa. Listing the supporters of the Köprülüs in Amasya in 1069 (1658-59), Yasar mentions him as "the famous sipahi Sevincerli Ömer Ağa" and notes that he was called "Peçelioğlu". A few years later, when Deli Süleyman and his men came down from Mount Taşan, raided Merzifon and killed its mufti, Sevincerli Ömer Ağa set off in pursuit of the bandits together with the governor Ferhad Paşa and other notables of Amasya. After the bandits were captured and executed in Merzifon, Ömer Ağa was rewarded with the rank of kapıcıbaşı to the satisfaction of Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa.

From then on his rise quickened. According to Yasar, in 1081 (1670), while voyvoda of Tokat and trustee of the public treasury in Amasya, he became beylerbeyi of Karahisar-ı Şarkî. Around 1083 (1672-73) the sanjak of Amasya was given to Ömer Paşa, governor of Karahisar-ı Şarkî. At this point Yasar introduces him plainly: "Ömer Paşa is a Sevincerli from near Amasya. He is the son of Peçelioğlu Kara Mehmed Ağa, one of the famous sipahis." A sipahi from the village had thus become governor of the sanjak in which he was born.

His son Ebûbekir Ağa also found a place in the Ottoman military order. Having served several times as Janissary commander in Amasya, he became superintendent of Janissary orphans in 1094, chief of the zağarcıs and then kul kethüdası in 1099, was removed from office in 1101 and sent to Amasya, and died in 1113 (1701-02). His descendants were called "Ağaoğulları" in Amasya. Yasar writes that the place called Ağaburnu at Karasenir was his vineyard and garden, and that "the Ağa Farm at Sevincer" also belonged to him. The detail shows that the family kept its land in the village even after settling in the town.

Scholars from Sevincer and an Endowed Farm

Not only soldiers and administrators came from the village. In Yasar's biographies Hüseyin Efendi, son of Mustafa from the village of Sevincer, memorised the Qur'an and studied in Amasya, then taught, became imam and pulpit preacher of the Fethiye Mosque, and was known as "Sevincerli Hâfız Hoca". His son Hâfız Mustafa Efendi succeeded his father as imam, then became preacher, and died in 1141 (1729).

The village's land was also the subject of urban endowments. Ahîzâde Sa'dî Çelebi, who retired from the judiciary and built a mosque, a school and other charitable works in the Üçler quarter of Amasya, included "his farm situated at Sevincer" among the properties he endowed for their upkeep, leaving the trusteeship to his freedman and son-in-law Hândân Ağa and his male descendants. Sa'dî Çelebi died in 1039 (1630).

A Garden Village in 1845

Tayfun Soydal's thesis on the temettuat registers of the Ezinepazar sub-district finds 20 households in the register of Sevincer; on the assumption of five people per household, the population was about 100. The distribution of occupations sets it apart from the other villages of the sub-district: ten heads of household are recorded as gardeners, five as rençber (farmers) and three as servants; one shepherd and one orphan are also registered. Among the family nicknames are İlyasoğlu, İmamoğlu, Tekkenişinoğlu, Abacıoğlu, Bölükbaşıoğlu, Topaloğlu and Sarı Mustafaoğlu.

The villagers' own land is small: 115 dönüms of cultivated and 117.5 dönüms of uncultivated fields, 27.5 dönüms of vineyard and 36.5 dönüms of mulberry orchard, 296.5 dönüms in all. The harvest is recorded as only 29 kiles of wheat and 17.5 kiles of barley. Livestock consists of 300 head of sheep and goats, 76 head of cattle and one pack animal; income from sheep and goats is calculated at 1,104 kuruş. Soydal shows Sevincer as one of five settlements whose income fell below the sub-district average.

Most of the village's vineyards and orchards, however, were in the hands of people who did not live there. In Soydal's table of those who resided elsewhere but owned property in the sub-district, Sevincer has a long list, and these people's holdings in the village add up to 61 dönüms of mulberry orchard and 54 dönüms of vineyard, almost twice the villagers' own vineyards and orchards. Alongside Amasya townsmen such as Halid Bey of the Gümüşlüoğlu quarter, Dikici Ömer of the Seyfeddin quarter, Kalaycıoğlu of the Bayezid Paşa quarter, Hafız Osman of the Hacı İlyas quarter and Arif Ağa of the Gümüşlüzade quarter, non-Muslim townsmen such as Kirkor of the Çırakçıbaşı quarter, Aleksan of the Gümüşlü quarter and Kirkor the dyer of the Saraçhane quarter also owned mulberry orchards or vineyards in the village; the names Ohannes, Gabriyel, Artin, Agop, Andon and Kasbar also appear in the list. There are owners living in other villages too: İmamoğlu Ahmed of the village of Moramul, Hacı Osman and Kethüda Veysel of the village of Morami, Hüseyin of the village of Abacı and Hasan of the village of Saz. When the large number of gardeners is set beside this table, it may be supposed that in 1845 Sevincer was a place holding the vineyards and mulberry orchards of townspeople, in which the villagers worked; the thesis does not draw this connection itself.

Present Condition and Population

According to the village drinking-water inventory in the 2023 provincial environment report, Sevincer's network was built in 2007, is fed from both a spring and a well, and works by pumping; an average of 21,353 cubic metres of water a year is drawn for the village. The separate network of the Karadutağılı hamlet attached to the village dates from 1996 and is shown in the inventory with a population of 131.

Sevincer reached the highest values of the series with 605 people in 2007 and 610 in 2008. Over the next fifteen years the population fell slowly but steadily, reaching 469 in 2022. The figure rose to 514 in 2023 and fell back to 466 in 2025; in that last year the village had 247 registered men and 219 women.

Chronology

682 (1283): Prince Sencer Şah recovers his farms, known as Sencer Alanı and Sevincer Alanı.

937 (1530): The village of Sevincer appears in the account register in the Birgoma sub-district.

1039 (1630): Ahîzâde Sa'dî Çelebi, who endowed his farm at Sevincer, dies.

1069 (1658-59): Sevincerli Ömer Ağa is named among the supporters of the Köprülüs in Amasya.

1081 (1670): Sevincerli Ömer Ağa becomes beylerbeyi of Karahisar-ı Şarkî.

c. 1083 (1672-73): The sanjak of Amasya is given to Sevincerli Ömer Paşa.

1113 (1701-02): Ebûbekir Ağa, former kul kethüdası, dies.

1845: The temettuat register records 20 households in Sevincer.

2025: The village's population is 466.

Bibliography

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