Çerkesdir. Kölelikle enderûna girip Rûmeli pâyesiyle silahdâr ağası, sonra Bursa mutasarrıfı olarak harbe gitmişdi. 1148 şevvâlinin on yedinci günü Amasya mutasarrıfı olup dergâh-ı âlî kapıcıbaşılarından Amasyalı Hacı Süleymân Ağa Amasya mütesellimi oldu.⁷⁰²[59]
Bu esnâda martdan i'tibâren üç yıl müddetle evkâf-ı sultâniyye tevliyeti yine Ebûbekir Ağa'ya verilmişdi. Zilka'dede Küçük Alîoğlu vezîr Hüseyin Paşa kerîmesi Fatma Hanım'ın Amasya'da Mehmed Paşa Câmi'i yanında yapdırdığı Hâtuniyye denilen medresesi hitâma erdiğinden müderrisliği Mehmed Paşa Câmi'i vâ'izi Hâfız Hüseyin Efendi'ye ve tevliyeti de akrabâsından Yeğenzâde Hacı İbrâhim Bey'e verildi.
Bu yıl a'yândan Saatçioğulları'ndan Hacı Hâfız Mehmed Efendi vefât edip Hacı Kadiroğlu Hacı Mustafâ Ağa, esbak alaybeyi Kuloğlu Mustafâ Bey, serasker Abdullâh Paşa ile şehîd oldular.
1148 senesi muharrem gurresinde Yeğenzâde Hacı İbrâhim Bey baş a'yân, Hacı Bilâloğlu Hacı Celâl Ağa hacıbaşı oldu. Safer ibtidâsında müftü Halîl Efendi'nin azliyle Büyük Ağa müderrisi Antepli Hacı Osmân Efendi Amasya müftüsü oldu.
Ramazân gurresinde Anadolu sadâretinden ma'zûl Amasyalı Hacı İbrâhim Efendi arpalık vechile Amasya kadısı olup yeğeni Ahmed Efendi Amasya nâ'ibi olarak geldi. Zilka'desinde Türedioğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa şehir kethüdâsı oldu. [60]
In Modern English
He was a Circassian. He had entered the Enderun (the inner service quarter of the palace) as a slave of the Porte, had become silahdar ağası with the rank of beylerbeyi of Rumelia, and had then gone to war as mutasarrıf of Bursa. On the seventeenth day of Şevval 1148 [1 March 1736] he became mutasarrıf of Amasya; Hacı Süleyman Ağa, one of the palace kapıcıbaşıs and a native of Amasya, became mütesellim of Amasya.
At this time the trusteeship of the sultanic waqfs had again been given to Ebûbekir Ağa for three years, beginning in March. In Zilkade, since the madrasa called Hâtuniye, which Fatma Hanım, daughter of the vizier Hüseyin Pasha of the Küçük Alioğlu family, had built beside the Mehmed Pasha Mosque in Amasya, was completed, the professorship of this madrasa was given to Hâfız Hüseyin Efendi, preacher of the Mehmed Pasha Mosque, and its trusteeship to Yeğenzâde Hacı İbrahim Bey, a relative of Fatma Hanım.
This year Hacı Hâfız Mehmed Efendi of the Saatçioğulları, one of the notables, died; Hacı Mustafa Ağa, son of Hacı Kadir, and the former alaybeyi Kuloğlu Mustafa Bey were martyred together with the serasker Abdullah Pasha.
On the first day of Muharrem 1148, Yeğenzâde Hacı İbrahim Bey became chief notable and Hacı Celâl Ağa, son of Hacı Bilâl, became hacıbaşı. At the beginning of Safer, when the mufti Halil Efendi was dismissed, Hacı Osman Efendi of Antep, professor at the Büyük Ağa (Madrasa), became mufti of Amasya.
On the first day of Ramazan, Hacı İbrahim Efendi of Amasya, who had been dismissed from the Anatolian kazaskership, became kadı of Amasya as an arpalık; his nephew Ahmed Efendi came as deputy judge (naib) of Amasya. In Zilkade, Türedioğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa became city kethüda.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- enderûn: the inner part of the palace; the slaves trained there went out into state service
- Rûmeli pâyesi: the rank of beylerbeyi of Rumelia, granted without actually serving in Rumelia
- silahdâr ağası: the officer who carried the sultan's arms, one of the highest ağas of the Enderun
- mutasarrıf: a high-ranking administrator to whom the government of a sanjak was entrusted
- dergâh-ı âlî kapıcıbaşısı: one of the heads of the palace gatekeepers; often sent to the provinces on special missions
- mütesellim: the deputy who governed the sanjak on the mutasarrıf's behalf when he was absent
- evkâf-ı sultâniyye tevliyeti: the administration of the sultan's waqfs (here, the waqfs of Sultan Bayezid)
- kerîme: daughter
- hitâma ermek: to be completed
- müderris: madrasa professor
- a'yân: the leading men of the city; baş a'yân is their head
- gurre: the first day of the lunar month
- Anadolu sadâreti: the Anatolian kazaskership
- ma'zûl: dismissed from office
- arpalık vechile: a judgeship given as a livelihood to a high-ranking person left without post; the deputy does the work
- nâ'ib: the kadı's deputy, the person who actually carried out the judgeship's duties
- şehir kethüdâsı: the representative who dealt with the administration on behalf of the townspeople
Süleyman Pasha and Çukadar Süleyman Ağa
The Circassian-born Süleyman Pasha, whom Hüsameddin introduces briefly, is a typical example of the palace slaves who were trained in the Enderun, rose as far as the silahdarship, and went out from there to the provinces with the rank of beylerbeyi. No separate information about this Süleyman Pasha was found in other sources, however. He must not be confused with Silahdar Süleyman Pasha, who bore the same name and served briefly as grand vizier in 1712-1713, since the latter died in 1715. Like many mutasarrıfs before him, the Pasha did not come to Amasya and governed the city through a mütesellim.
About the mütesellim Hacı Süleyman Ağa, Hüsameddin gives important information in a footnote: because this Süleyman Ağa had risen from the çuhadarship of the sultan (the servants who looked after the sultan's clothes and belongings), he was known as "Çukadar Süleyman Ağa" and is the great ancestor of the Çukadar Oğulları family of Amasya. Thus a palace servant returned to his hometown as a kapıcıbaşı and became the founder of a local family. Notes of this kind on family origins are frequent in Hüsameddin's work and tie the Amasya families at the beginning of his own century to the administrators of the eighteenth century.
The Hâtuniye Madrasa and the Yeğenzâdes
The madrasa Fatma Hanım had built beside the Mehmed Pasha Mosque is one of the clearest examples of women's waqfs in eighteenth-century Amasya. Hüsameddin returns to the same building in the biographies in the ninth volume of his work. There he writes that Fatma Hanım, daughter of Hüseyin Pasha, lived in Amasya; that in 1148 she had a madrasa built in the Mehmed Pasha Quarter and endowed her properties for its expenses; that she stipulated that the trusteeship of the waqf would pass after her to İbrahim Bey, son of Yeğen Ali Bey, and to his descendants; and that she appointed Hâfız Hüseyin Efendi to the professorship, all of which is established by the waqf deed records. According to the biography in the same volume, Küçük Alizâde Hüseyin Pasha was a native of Amasya, the son of Küçük Ali Bey, one of the greatest of the zeamet holders; he entered the Enderun in his youth, was trained in the baltacı corps and became kethüda of the baltacıs. There Hüsameddin relates that Hüseyin Pasha was the youngest son of Küçük Ali Bey, that his elder brothers were Ahmed, Mehmed and Hasan Bey, that Yeğen Ali Bey, son of Ahmed Bey, was both Hüseyin Pasha's nephew and his son-in-law, and that Yeğen Ali Bey's descendants became known by the name "Yeğenzâde." The fact that Hacı İbrahim Bey is called a "relative" of Fatma Hanım in the text comes from this chain of kinship. Davut Ağbal likewise notes that the nickname Yeğenzâde was used in Amasya for Yeğen Ali Bey, grandson of Küçük Ali Bey, and his children.
This madrasa must not be confused with the Fâtımiye Madrasa, completed later, in 1153. In a subsequent period Hüsameddin speaks separately of the madrasa called Fâtımiye, which another Fatma Hanım, one of the concubines of Mahmud I and wife of Hindî Paşazâde Ahmed Bey, had built adjoining the Gümüşlüzâde Mosque. These two institutions, which some recent sources refer to as if they were a single building, "Fâtımiye Madrasa (Hatuniye)," are, according to Hüsameddin, separate waqfs of different persons. Of the complex that Hızır Paşazâde Mehmed Pasha had completed in 891 [1486], with its units such as the madrasa, imaret and zaviye, only the mosque, its side rooms and the tomb have survived to the present; no information was found as to whether the Hâtuniye Madrasa that Fatma Hanım added next to it has survived.
Serasker Abdullah Pasha and the Martyred Men of Amasya
The "serasker Abdullah Pasha," with whom two of the notables of Amasya were martyred in the text, is Köprülüzâde Abdullah Pasha, serasker of the Iranian front. A son of Fâzıl Mustafa Pasha and a grandson of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, Abdullah Pasha became serasker of Iran after a long career as governor, repelled Nâdir's siege of Kars in the spring of 1735, and was attacked near Yeğvard (Murad Hill) after crossing the Arpaçay on his way to help Revan. In this battle on 19 June 1735 the Ottoman army suffered a heavy defeat, and Abdullah Pasha died. He is also remembered as a vizier who knew the Arabic sciences and wrote works on poetry and Qur'anic recitation. Hüsameddin's record is valuable because it shows that the notable and the former alaybeyi who went from Amasya also lost their lives in this disaster.
The Büyük Ağa Madrasa and Osman Efendi of Antep
The Büyük Ağa Madrasa, where Hacı Osman Efendi of Antep, who was appointed mufti, was professor, is the octagonal-plan building, rarely paralleled among Ottoman madrasas, that Hüseyin Ağa, the gate ağa of Bayezid II, had built on the bank of the Yeşilırmak in 894 [1489]. The madrasa was repaired in the 1980s and is used today as a Qur'an course. It appears that Osman Efendi also had a madrasa built in his own name in later years: some sources state that Kara Osman Efendi, professor at the Büyük Ağa, built the Osmaniye Madrasa in 1737. Hüsameddin will record this person's death in 1151 as a mufti who had built a madrasa beside the Mahmud Çelebi Tekke.
Points to Note
There is a confusion of order among the dates in the text. Süleyman Pasha's appointment is placed in Şevval 1148 [March 1736]; then the events of Zilkade are told, and after that "the year 1148, Muharrem" is said a second time. The events proceed as Muharrem, Safer, Ramazan and Zilkade, and the next entry begins with Zilhicce 1149. It follows that the second "1148" must be read as 1149 [after May 1736]; this is a slip either of the author or of the printing. Since 19 June 1735, the date of Abdullah Pasha's death, also falls at the beginning of the Hijri year 1148, the phrase "this year" is fitting for 1148. Moreover, that Hacı İbrahim Efendi of Amasya took this judgeship as an arpalık meant that the judgeship was in practice run by his nephew the naib; a few years later the misdeeds of the young and inexperienced naib would give rise to great complaints.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, 4. Cildin Bakiyyesi, p. 644–645. amasya.bel.tr
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, 9-12. Cilt, Amasya Belediyesi e-kitap, p. 37 (Fatma Hanım's waqf and the Yeğenzâde family), https://amasya.bel.tr/uploads/e-kitap/kitap/9-12/files/basic-html/page37.html
Academic studies
- Davut Ağbal, "Yegenzâde Mehmed b. Osman Amâsî (ö. 1180/1766) ve Hâşiye 'alâ Envâri't-Tenzîl Adlı Eseri", Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı, I, Amasya 2017, https://isamveri.org/pdfdrg/G00226/2017/2017_AGBALD.pdf
- Gülay Burgaz, "Kapı Ağası Medresesi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, XXIV, 2001, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kapi-agasi-medresesi
- Ebru Karakaya, "Mehmed Paşa Külliyesi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mehmed-pasa-kulliyesi
Official sources
Books
Other sources