Çermiklidir. Kürd Ahmed Paşa'nın oğludur. 1174 ramazânının ibtidâsında Amasya mutasarrıfı olup Rahtuvân Paşazâde Hacı Ahmed Bey mütesellimi oldu. Bu esnâda İstanbul müderrislerinden Galatasarayı mu'allimi ve vâ'izi Amasyalı Enbiyâzâde Mehmed Efendi ve nakîb-i esbak Şeyhzâde Hacı İbrâhim Efendi vefât etdi.
1175 muharreminde Gürcüzâde Halîl Bey baş a'yân ve Rahtuvân Paşazâde Hacı Ahmed Bey bin İbrâhim Bey Amasya mütesellimi ve Moramulluoğlu Hacı Mehmed Ağa hacı başı ve şehir kethüdâsı ve birkaç gün sonra Uzun Müftü azl edilip "İmâret Şeyhi" demekle meşhûr İkincizâde Hacı Mehmed Efendi Amasya müftüsü oldu.
Sâbık mutasarrıf Ebûbekir Paşa'nın şiddeti eşkıyâyı sindirmişdi. Paşanın Rûmeli'ne gitmesinden fırsat bulan eşkıyâ sergerdesi Deli Pehlivân Mehmed ve kethüdâsı İbeklioğlu Acar Mustafâ, başlarında olan dört yüz kadar levend eşkıyâsıyla Amasya, Çorum, Zile, Tokad, Merzifon havâlîsinde dolaşarak yolları kesip köyleri yağmâ ve Sivâs vilâyetini tehdîd etmeğe başlamışlardı. [102]
Her tarafdan yükselen feryâd üzerine mutasarrıf, mütesellim, baş a'yân, alaybeyi Çuçu Paşazâde İsmâ'il, sâbık alaybeyi Kürd Bekir Beyler'le kır serdârı Kâsım, sipâhîler kethüdâsı Deli Hüseyin, yeniçeri serdârı Çıtırık Mehmed Ağalar yanlarına aldıkları kuvvetlerle eşkıyâ üzerine gitdiler.
Bunlardan başka Merzifon a'yânı Kara Müsellim Süleymân Ağa, Mecidözü a'yânı Avkatlıoğlu Hacı Alî Ağa, Gümüş a'yânı Cevheroğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa, Çorum mutasarrıfı Cevher Paşa, Sivâs alaybeyi Sarıbeyzâde Mehmed Bey de eşkıyâyı tenkîle me'mûr olmuşlardı.
Rahtuvân Paşazâde Hacı Alî Bey mütesellim vekîli olup Amasya'yı muhâfazaya me'mûr oldu. Bu esnâda sarây-ı hümâyûnda Amasyalı Gümüş Süleymân Ağa bostancıbaşı (zabtiye nâzırı) ve rebî'ulevvelde Amasya'da menfî olan Mekkîzâde Hacı Hüseyin Paşa Gazze sancağı mutasarrıfı ve Kudüs muhâfızı olup gitdi.
Cemâziyelâhirde Mustafâ Efendi Amasya kadısı olup geldi. Şa'bânda haremeyn kîsedârı Amasyalı Hacı Ahmed Efendi evkâf-ı sultâniyye mütevellîsi olup mahdûmu Es'ad Mehmed Efendi kâ'im-makâm olarak geldi. Masrafzâde İbrâhim Efendi de Çelebi Sultân Vakfı mütevellîsi olup yerine sâbıkı Hacı Süleymân Efendi kâ'im-makâmı oldu. [103]
Şevvâlde mutasarrıf Süleymân Paşa Varay tarafında eşkıyâyı basıp sıkışdırdı. Fakat Acar Mustafâ'nın kumandasıyla hareket eden eşkıyâ paşayı bozup perîşân ve mecbûrî firâr ederek bütün ağırlığı yağmâ edildi. Paşa da Amasya'ya kaçıp canını kurtarabildi.
In Modern English
He was a native of Çermik. He was the son of Kürd Ahmed Pasha. At the beginning of Ramazan 1174 [1761] he became mutasarrıf of Amasya; Rahtuvan Paşazade Hacı Ahmed Bey became his mütesellim. At this time Enbiyazade Mehmed Efendi of Amasya, one of the müderrises of Istanbul and teacher and preacher at Galatasaray, and the former nakîb Şeyhzade Hacı İbrahim Efendi died.
In Muharrem 1175 [1761] Gürcüzade Halil Bey became chief notable. Rahtuvan Paşazade Hacı Ahmed Bey son of İbrahim Bey became mütesellim of Amasya, and Moramulluoğlu Hacı Mehmed Ağa became hacıbaşı and city kethüda. A few days later the Tall Mufti was dismissed, and İkincizade Hacı Mehmed Efendi, known as the "Imaret Sheikh", became mufti of Amasya.
The severity of the former mutasarrıf Ebubekir Pasha had cowed the bandits. Taking the Pasha's departure for Rumelia as an opportunity, the bandit ringleader Deli Pehlivan Mehmed and his kethüda, İbeklioğlu Acar Mustafa, with some four hundred levend bandits at their head, roamed around Amasya, Çorum, Zile, Tokat and Merzifon, beginning to cut the roads, plunder villages and threaten the province of Sivas.
At the outcry rising from all sides, the mutasarrıf, the mütesellim, the chief notable, the alaybeyi Çuçu Paşazade İsmail Bey, the former alaybeyi Kürd Bekir Bey, the kır serdarı Kâsım Ağa, the kethüda of the sipahis Deli Hüseyin Ağa and the janissary serdar Çıtırık Mehmed Ağa marched against the bandits with the forces they took along.
Besides these, the notable of Merzifon Kara Müsellim Süleyman Ağa, the notable of Mecitözü Avkatlıoğlu Hacı Ali Ağa, the notable of Gümüş Cevheroğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa, the mutasarrıf of Çorum Cevher Pasha and the alaybeyi of Sivas Sarıbeyzade Mehmed Bey were also assigned to eliminate the bandits.
Rahtuvan Paşazade Hacı Ali Bey was charged with protecting Amasya as deputy mütesellim. At this time at the palace Gümüş Süleyman Ağa of Amasya became bostancıbaşı (chief of police). In Rebiülevvel Mekkîzâde Hacı Hüseyin Pasha, who was in exile in Amasya, went off to Gaza as mutasarrıf of the sanjak of Gaza and guardian of Jerusalem.
In Cemaziyelahir Mustafa Efendi arrived as kadı of Amasya. In Şaban Hacı Ahmed Efendi of Amasya, kisedar of the Haremeyn (the official in charge of the money affairs of the waqfs of Mecca and Medina), became steward of the sultan's waqfs, and his son Es'ad Mehmed Efendi came to Amasya as kaymakam (deputy). Masrafzade İbrahim Efendi also became steward of the Çelebi Sultan Waqf; in his place, as kaymakam, the previous steward Hacı Süleyman Efendi was left.
In Şevval the mutasarrıf Süleyman Pasha attacked and pressed the bandits in the direction of Varay. But the bandits, acting under the command of Acar Mustafa, routed the Pasha, ruined him and forced him to flee; all of the Pasha's baggage was plundered. The Pasha fled to Amasya and barely escaped with his life.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- sergerde: ringleader
- kethüdâ: assistant, second-in-command
- levend: a masterless armed man; a paid soldier not attached to a regular unit
- alaybeyi: commander of the timar-holding sipahis of a sanjak
- kır serdârı: the armed official responsible for public order in the countryside
- tenkîl: crushing and eliminating
- bostancıbaşı: head of the bostancı corps, which guarded the palace gardens and the public order of the Istanbul shores
- menfî: exiled
- kîsedâr: the one who holds the money purse, treasurer
- evkâf-ı sultâniyye: the waqfs belonging to the sultans
- kâ'im-makâm: the deputy who carries on the work in someone's place
- âr-ı firâr: the shame of fleeing
- ağırlık: the army's baggage, belongings and provisions
The Levend Bandits and Deli Pehlivan
In this entry Hüsameddin recounts the most intense phase of a banditry movement that had begun a few years earlier and long ravaged the sanjak of Amasya. According to what he gave in earlier pages, the origin of the banditry was that Zaralıoğlu Mehmed Pasha, governor of Sivas, loosed on the people the sums he had embezzled from both Sivas and Amasya. Village youths who could not bear the tax pressure had taken to the mountains, and a bold ringleader named "Sarıkadıoğlu Pehlivan Mehmed" had come to head them. Mustafa Ağa, son of İbekli Ömer Ağa, had also fled Zaralıoğlu's tyranny and joined them, becoming the kethüda of the band. In 1171 [1758] this band had shot and killed the mutasarrıf of Amasya, Ömer Pasha, during a pursuit. In this entry we meet the same persons under the names Deli Pehlivan Mehmed and İbeklioğlu Acar Mustafa. Hüsameddin clearly ties the cause of the levend movement to the heavy tax collecting of the local administrators.
In Ahmet Önal's study comparing the appointment records with chronicle information, it is recorded that Sarızade Mehmed, alaybeyi of Sivas, was appointed to the sanjak of Amasya with the rank of beylerbeyi in return for his "manly" services in disciplining the masterless levends. The same study relates that Mehmet Aydın writes that Sarızade was rewarded in 1762 for disciplining a bandit named "Kadıoğlu", while the chronicler Hâkim reports that the bandit Kadıoğlu was killed in 1764 by Feyzullah Pasha, governor of Sivas. The name "Sarıkadıoğlu" that Hüsameddin gives the ringleader may point to the same person as this "Kadıoğlu"; but since Hüsameddin writes that Deli Pehlivan was killed in early 1176 [1762], it is not certain whether the two records concern the same person.
The Region's Notables and Place Names
The long list of names in the entry shows that against the bandits not only state officials but also local notables of towns such as Amasya, Merzifon, Mecitözü and Gümüş were mobilized. Gümüş, named in the text, is the old center of today's Gümüşhacıköy district. The district, which appears in archival records as "Gümüş ma'a Hacıköy", came into being through the merging of the settlements of Gümüş and Hacıköy; Hacıköy, for a long time a subdistrict attached to the Gümüş kaza, became the district center at the end of the nineteenth century and took the name Gümüşhacıköy. The name of Cevheroğlu Hacı Ahmed Ağa, notable of Gümüş, raises the question whether he was a member of the same family as Cevher Pasha, mutasarrıf of Çorum; in the next entry Hüsameddin says that Cevher Pasha was from Zoğ of Merzifon, but he does not establish a kinship between the two.
The name of the Rahtuvan Paşazade family, which took on the task of protecting Amasya, points to Rahtuvan Hacı Mehmed Pasha, mutasarrıf of Amasya and guardian of Jedda, who in 1699 had built the city's Taşhan, which still stands today. The Pasha endowed the Taşhan to his descendants in 1700. That the family appears frequently in the middle of the eighteenth century in the sanjak administration as mütesellim and chief notable suggests that this waqf and wealth may have made them influential in the city.
The text also mentions the Çelebi Sultan Waqf at Merzifon. The Çelebi Sultan Mehmed Madrasa in the Câmi-i Cedîd quarter of Merzifon is dated 817 [1414]; Devlet Hatun, mother of Çelebi Mehmed, had an imaret built in 822 [1419] together with a mosque and zaviye. The Medreseönü Mosque, known among the people as the Çelebi Sultan Mehmed Mosque, was in fact built in 830 [1427] by Murad II. That the waqf was still administered in the eighteenth century by stewards appointed from Istanbul shows that this foundation retained its importance.
It could not be determined which village or locality today is the place called "Varay" where Süleyman Pasha was defeated. No information was found in other sources on the mutasarrıf Süleyman Pasha and his father Kürd Ahmed Pasha. Information on Mekkîzâde Hüseyin Pasha's exile in Amasya and his later life is given in the notes of entry 49.
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