Sultân Ahmed (2)

In Modern English

The meaning of the Persian couplets is as follows:

Just now a sign has been given from the unseen world that in this season the young shah will hold a circumcision feast.
At this circumcision feast let the bud open with joy, and let the red rose offer its congratulations to the young shah.
The Caesar of the age, Sultan Ahmed, exalted as the heavens, on whose brow the light of the caliphate shines.
The bud of fortune is his blessed son, the ruler of the land of courtesy, the shah of those with sun-bright faces.
The shah and prince Murad, whose blessed face is for the notables like the mirror of Alexander.
The exalted shah Bayezid, whose valor and victory have become a deep-rooted tree in the rose garden of the land of faith.
The star in the tower of greatness, Shah Alâeddin, whose light of fortune from the Truth shines with the light of his brow.
Süleyman, the pearl of the caliphate's crown, the glory of the nation and religion, to whom the name Süleyman has been given as a title from the heavens.
The fortunate Osman, who bears his grandfather's name, through whom the honored remembrance of Osman has been revived.

The Mevlânâ was not content with this. After writing and arranging pages in praise of the circumcision feast and in description of Sultan Ahmed, he composed a second qasida and displayed the power of his pen. In this qasida he offers many praises and prayers. Afterwards he writes the following:

Meaning of the Persian couplet: O breeze of the morning, carry this gift to Sultan Ahmed in the assembly of pleasure and joy.

For Sultan Ahmed was the heir to the sultanate. The Mevlânâ described this with the phrase

Meaning of the Arabic phrase: Surely, first, a sultanic sign full of glad tidings, to that heir to the office of guarding and watching over the world, that is, to the sultan of exalted power and the successor of the Creator's caliph, to Sultan Ahmed Khan, who in his time was the supporter of the caliphate ...

and so on.

From the Mevlânâ's spring qasida it is understood that Sultan Ahmed had four princes named Murad, Alâeddin, Süleyman and Osman. The Mevlânâ does not write which of them was circumcised.

As submitted above, the circumcision feasts and marriages of Murad and Alâeddin had already been recorded. These two were of marriageable age at this time. It is thought that Süleyman and Osman Beys, and Murad Beyzade's Mehmed and Kâsım and Alâeddin Beyzade's Orhan Beys, were the ones circumcised.

The greatest reason for the Acems being so joyful and merry was Sultan Ahmed's weakness and love of amusement. The moment Sultan Ahmed became sultan of Rum, all of Anatolia was to be invaded by Shah İsmail, the man they loved most and for whom they carried out propaganda.

While Sultan Ahmed held feasts lasting days on end at Amasya, the Turks along the frontier were weeping tears of blood over Shah İsmail's cruel oppression. The only one who helped them was Sultan Selim, the governor of Trabzon.

The Acems' great exultation and clamor was not without cause. Shah İsmail had decided to invade Anatolia. He had an excellent organization and men everywhere in eastern Anatolia, especially in and around Amasya. They were always informed of what Shah İsmail was doing and what he was going to do.

While Sultan Ahmed was occupied at Amasya with feasts, pleasure and amusement, Shah İsmail had advanced as far as the neighborhood of Erzincan. He was attacking Erzincan. Tokatlı Abdurrahman Bey son of Edâ Ömer, the bey of the sanjak of Erzincan, was informing Sultan Ahmed of the situation and asking for help.

Abdurrahman Bey held firm in the defense until the relief force arrived. But since the force that came was inadequate, the poor man struggled until he was martyred. Shah İsmail prevailed and took Erzincan. He marched past Sivas toward Tokat.

For the Turks of Anatolia, and especially for the Sunnis, Shah İsmail was a scourge more cruel than Timur the Lame. The Acems who surrounded Sultan Ahmed were partisans of such a scourge. Sultan Ahmed was not of a nature to understand them.

Ali Bey, the bey of the sanjak of Tokat, an Amasyan and the son of Mehmed Pasha, with the fresh forces he had received, was barely able to halt Shah İsmail. He saved Tokat from Shah İsmail's massacre, destruction and plunder.

The Acems and Shiites became exuberant with joy at this and made an uproar. In the course of this exuberance a good many quarrels broke out, a good many Turks were insulted, and religious feelings were wounded. Complaining of these things to Sultan Ahmed was useless, because it was hard to make them heard.

Figânî İshak Çelebi son of Mehmed Çelebi, one of the famous poets and a companion in conversation of prince Murad Bey, who came from the Torumtay line, a noble dynasty of Amasya, had written an epic in the form of a satire censuring the Shiites and Acems, in order to make these matters known to Sultan Ahmed. This epic was recited among the people, and the Shiites were angered by it.

The Acems could not stomach this. Together with a person Sultan Ahmed trusted most, they fabricated and slandered that Figânî had an interest in and ill intent toward prince Murad Beyzade, and made Sultan Ahmed believe it. Without any investigation, poor Figânî was hanged in the month of Shawwal of the year 912 [1506-07].

In a tezkire of poets that came into my hands at Amasya, the following quatrain by Çeşmî Çelebi of Amasya is probably about Figânî:

My two sorrowful eyes weep without ceasing
My sigh choked my throat and cut it off
The lament of this heart made the people weep
Figânî rose to the heavens and was gone

Muslihzâde Abdurrahman Efendi, the kadı of Amasya, fell ill, on the one hand from the Figânî affair, to whom he was related through marriage, and on the other from the bitter words of the people, who were grieved that he could not prevent this extraordinary event. Much was said against Sultan Ahmed. Then he died. Mü'eyyedzâde Şemseddîn Ahmed Efendi became kadı of Amasya in his place. That year Akdağlı Şeyhzâde Şeyh Hüsâmeddin Hüseyin Efendi endowed the village of Alakise in Akdağ as a waqf for his zawiya.

But the sons of the late kadı, Mehmed, Mahmud and Seydî Çelebis, could not remain in Amasya. They fled and went to Sultan Selim at Trabzon. The Figânî affair also considerably diminished and broke Sultan Ahmed's standing and his influence in the eyes of the people. It emboldened the Acems to that degree.

But Figânî had many supporters and relatives, and they were people of considerable influence. They supposed that the one who conveyed this slander to Sultan Ahmed was the mufti Acem Sinan Efendi.

At the beginning of the year 913 [1507-08], it was found that the mufti of Amasya and madrasa professor of the Sultâniyye, the said Acem Sinan Efendi, had died suddenly in his bed one night. In his place Koca Emîr İbrahim Efendi, who was the madrasa professor of the Hâtuniye at Tokat and deputy of the nakîbüleşraf, came as madrasa professor and mufti. He joined the Seven.

At this time there was also at Amasya a group called "the Seven." Yediler means Seven Emirs. The first was Emîr Gıyâseddîn Şîrâzî, whose word carried great weight. Sultan Ahmed would visit his sayyid house from time to time and bestow gifts. The second was the mufti Koca Emîr.

Among the Seven, Niksarlı Emîr Hüseyin Çelebi son of es-Seyyid Ali Efendi was a madrasa professor of lofty learning. Emîr Ali Çelebi son of es-Seyyid Hüseyin Çelebi, Koca Emîr's cousin, and Emîr Şerefeddîn Hamza Çelebi of the line of Seydî Hüsâm were also among the Seven.

That year Şirvânî Ebulhayr Efendi, the madrasa professor of the Hüseyin Ağa Madrasa, was dismissed from the madrasa, and in his place Taşköprülü Musliheddîn Mustafa Efendi came from Istanbul as madrasa professor. Immediately afterward Şemseddîn Ahmed Efendi, a private student of the mufti efendi, was appointed to the professorship of the Ayas Ağa Madrasa. He was called "Emîr Kulu."

Shah İsmail the Safavid had that year completely overrun Erzincan and its surroundings, and in order to keep Sultan Ahmed occupied with sweet hopes he had sent Nûreddîn Ali Sûfî of Mardin to Amasya.

At the beginning of the year 914 [1508-09], Nûreddîn Ali, called "Şah Kulu," came to Amasya. After presenting Shah İsmail's letter and gift to Sultan Ahmed, he also instilled in Mîr Gıyâseddîn Şîrâzî the instructions the shah had given to the Shiites, and returned.

At this time at Amasya, Bâlî Bey son of Mustafa Çelebi son of Hâce Acem Ali Ağa, of the Acem Alîzâdes, and his brother Hamza Bey had become among the famous emirs and intimates of Sultan Ahmed. Bâlî Bey had begun the construction of a mosque in the Acem Ali quarter at Amasya.

In the year 915 [1509-10] the officers of Sultan Ahmed's divan were as follows: the vizier Yularkısdı Sinan Pasha; the chancellor (nişancı) Münîrî Çelebi son of Yûsuf; the armor-bearer (silahtar) Mahmud Bey son of Abdullah; the head of palace gatekeepers (kapıcıbaşı) Ferruh son of Abdullah; the chief of the couriers (çavuşbaşı) Abdî Ağa son of Abdullah; the ağa of the Azabs Hoca Dede Bey son of İvaz; the ağa of the sipahis Hacı Şâdî Bey son of Abdullah; the treasurer (defterdar) Mehmed Çelebi son of Hacı Abdulhay Çelebi; and the register steward (defter emini) Mehmed Çelebi son of Hâce Yûsuf Çelebi.

Bâlî Bey was the emir of the divan and Hamza Bey was the alaybeyi. Although Sultan Ahmed's greatest favorite was Yahşî Beyzade Ahmed Bey of Amasya, son-in-law of prince Sultan Abdullah, it was this Ahmed Bey and his uncle İskender Bey who bore the greatest grudge against the Acems and the Shiites.

At the beginning of the year 915 [1509-10] a bloody quarrel broke out at Amasya between the Sunnis and the Shiites. The Shiites attempted an attack, and the houses of some notables were plundered. Bâlî Bey, who was the guardian of Amasya, was barely able to stop this fighting. Many men from both sides died. The wounded were also many.

The cause of this quarrel was Halîl Ağa, the steward of Mîr Gıyâseddîn. Halîl Ağa had spoken at length and in brief about the leading Companions in the battles of the Camel and Siffin. The Sunnis could not bear this. A bloody quarrel came of it. Mîr Gıyâseddîn Çelebi turned the incident around. He gave Sultan Ahmed a reversed report. The Shiites both started the quarrel and came out on top.

But the Kadızâdes among the Sunnis and Hâce Bey, the ağa of the Azabs, contradicted Mîr Gıyâs and described the Shiites' attacks in the divan in a pitiful tone. The sultan's son-in-law Yahşî Beyzade Ahmed and Bâlî Bey of the Acem Alîzâdes also helped them. Halîl and the fierce Shiites were seized and imprisoned, and an investigation began.

During the bloody quarrel the sheikh of the Hâce Sultan Tekke, Cemâloğlu Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi, died. Çelebi Halîfezâde Şemseddîn Ahmed Efendi became sheikh in his place. Sheikh Muhyiddîn Mehmed Efendi was buried in his own grave in front of the water-distribution basin (maksem) near the tekke.

The Shiites, hearing of the imprisonment and interrogation of Halîl and the fierce Shiites, incited their partisans in the villages and tried to free those who directed the organization at Amasya. Mîr Gıyâseddîn, together with his "poles," had on the one hand deceived Sultan Ahmed and on the other had stirred up the Kızılbaş around Amasya.

For this reason the scholars and notables and the people had split into two sides. The true Turks and the scholars wanted the Acems to be removed and driven out. For it was these who spread Kızılbaşism among the Turks. The propagation was kept secret, and those who accepted Kızılbaşism presented themselves as Sunnis.

The poles did not tell the truth of the matter; they tried to make Hâce, Ahmed and İskender Beys and the Kadızâdes fall out of Sultan Ahmed's favor. Seeing that they were being slandered, the Kadızâdes and Hâce Bey fled and went to Trabzon. They took refuge with Sultan Selim. Hacı Ferhâd Bey became ağa of the Azabs.

In the year 916 [1510-11], Celâl Halîfe (at Arabkir), a convert (one who had changed religion) from Oğlanşur, and Zünnûn Halîfe of Varay, caliphs of Şah Kulu, rose in revolt around Amasya, and together with "Nûreddîn Ali Şah Kulu," who rose around Bozok and Çorum, they threw the country into turmoil, openly calling everyone to Shiism and burning those who did not accept it.

Sultan Ahmed, the governor of Amasya, had only just begun to see the danger. Yet Sultan Selim, the governor of Trabzon, had long before understood, by properly evaluating and observing what was going on in and around Amasya and Shah İsmail's policy and organization, what a terrible scourge Shah İsmail was.

Shah İsmail considered himself the equal of Genghis and Timur, one who had appeared and ruled. In appearance he was a Shiite, but in reality he was the kind of man the Sunnis call a rafidi. He had no concern with religious bonds. He had all but stripped himself of the human quality called mercy.

Although Sultan Ahmed saw the multitude of Shiite brigands around the province of Amasya and their fearsome organization, he could in no way understand that those directing this organization were in Amasya and in his own palace. Yet the cries rising from the notables and the people of Amasya echoed as far as Istanbul.

In Istanbul the government officers, apart from the ilmiye class, consisted of non-Turks. The vizierate and the beylerbeyiliks of Rumeli and Anatolia were reserved for slaves raised within the palace, and especially after Çandarlızâde İbrahim Pasha it had become law that the vizierate be given to non-Turks.

Although Mü'eyyedzâde Abdurrahman Efendi of Amasya, the kazasker of Rumeli, was a partisan of Sultan Ahmed, the nişancı Tâcîzâde Câfer Çelebi of Amasya and the second defterdar Cemâlîzâde Pîrî Mehmed Çelebi of Amasya had become partisans of Sultan Selim. Abdurrahman Efendi was very old. But the others were people who knew the truth of affairs.

Sultan Bayezid wanted to put Sultan Ahmed on the throne. But the Janissaries said that this could not be unless the brigands around Amasya were dispersed. Indeed the movements of the Celâlî brigands were very destructive. In the end it was decided to send the grand vizier Ali Pasha to Amasya as commander (serdar) of Anatolia.

For Sultan Ahmed, with his vizier Sinan Pasha, the guardian of Amasya Bâlî Bey, the ağa of the sipahis Hacı Şâdî Bey and his army of twenty thousand, had set out from Amasya against the brigands. At Amasya prince Murad Bey remained as deputy of the sultanate, and the alaybeyi Acem Alîzâde Hamza Bey stayed as guardian of the province.

Although Sultan Ahmed and his retinue fought selflessly, he returned defeated by some ten thousand brigands. All his baggage was plundered. Şah Kulu gained control of the outskirts of Amasya. Despair and helplessness arose among the notables and the people of Amasya.

Hearing of the prince's defeat and return, the beylerbeyi of Anatolia Mehmed Pasha, relying on his strength, marched against the brigands with a retinue of a few thousand, and he too was defeated and returned in disgrace. The despair among the people turned into great fear.

In the month of Dhu al-Qa'da of 916 [1510-11] the grand vizier Hadım Ali Pasha set out from Istanbul with his army and only at the beginning of 917 [1511-12] camped on the plain of Geldiklan near Amasya. The people received Ali Pasha and his army as saviors, in great haste and excitement. The beylerbeyis of Anatolia and Karaman had also come with the forces at hand.

Even so, fear and alarm in Amasya had not ended. Sultan Ahmed was burning with the desire to ascend the throne, the notables and the people with fear for their lives and property. The Shiites who had mixed into the arriving relief army were also corrupting the army. The people felt as if they could see the calamity that would befall them.

At the beginning of the month of Safar of 917 [1511-12], "the pride of viziers, the choice of the great and the discerning, Sinan Pasha son of Abdulhay" endowed as waqf for his mosque and imaret there his bathhouse at Amasya, the palace near it, Çukur Bahçe, the Sedbaşı Garden adjoining the property of Hâce Sâlihzâde, the garden called Göl Yeri adjoining the precinct of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, and his farms in the district of Hacı Hamza. The deputy kadı (naib) of Amasya was Hibetullâh Efendi.

After Sinan Pasha, Bülbül Hatun daughter of Abdulhay, the mother of Sultan Ahmed, endowed her property and income-yielding estates for the needs of the mosques, schools and imarets she had built at Amasya and Lâdik, and Bâlî Bey of the Acem Alîzâdes likewise endowed his property and estates for the needs of his mosque, which was not yet finished.

In the month of Rebi' al-Akhir of 917 [1511-12] the commander Ali Pasha met the brigand army, which was moving under Şah Kulu's command, at a place called Gökçay near Bozok (Yozgat). Şah Kulu attacked with a force equal to half of Ali Pasha's army. Within a single day he broke and scattered Ali Pasha's army.

For in Ali Pasha's army there were many soldiers who belonged to the Shiite organization. The moment the battle began they joined Şah Kulu's army and caused Ali Pasha's defeat. The baggage of the whole army was plundered.

Many emirs such as Haydar Pasha were martyred. Mehmed Pasha, the beylerbeyi of Anatolia, kept his distance, so he and his retinue were saved. The commander Hadım Ali Pasha was badly wounded. Since he came to Amasya on a litter, he died a few days later and was buried in the Kurdboğan Tomb.

It is astonishing that Sultan Ahmed, instead of defending and fortifying the province of Amasya, which had been endangered by this defeat, gave the governorship of Amasya to his eldest prince Murad Bey and, in his desire to ascend the throne, took a large force from Amasya and set out toward Istanbul.

For his brother Sultan Selim had come to the neighborhood of Istanbul and had drawn the Janissaries to his side. The Janissaries were raiding the mansions of Sultan Ahmed's partisans and plundering their goods, and they wanted Sultan Selim. They had plundered the mansions of Mü'eyyedzâde Abdurrahman of Amasya, the kazasker of Rumeli, and Tâcî Beyzade Câfer Efendi of Amasya, the nişancı.

Hearing of this state of Istanbul, Sultan Ahmed could not stay still. He rushed to Istanbul. Yet because he had shown no success in the Şah Kulu and brigand affairs, he had fallen out of favor in the eyes of his father and the Janissaries. His second prince, Alâeddin Bey, went along with him in his retinue.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• sûr-ı hıtân: circumcision feast
• kasîde-i rebî'iyye: a qasida on the theme of spring
• velî-ahd: heir to the throne, crown prince
• Acemler: the name used in the text for people of Iranian origin and partisans of the Safavids
• şî'î, kızılbaş: Shiite; Turkmen communities attached to the Safavid order
• nakîbü'l-eşrâf: the official who kept the registers of the descendants of the Prophet and looked after their affairs
• müderris: madrasa professor
• nâib: the kadı's assistant, deputy kadı
• azablar ağası: head of the light infantry units called azab
• alaybeyi: the commander in a sanjak responsible for the marching and order of the military units
• muhâfız: the official responsible for the protection of the city and the fortress
• sadr-ı a'zam, serdâr: grand vizier; commander-in-chief on campaign
• mahfe: a litter or carrier used to transport the wounded and the sick
• cülûs: accession to the throne
• vakfiye: the document stating that a property has been endowed for charity

Which Şah Kulu?

The "Şah Kulu" whom Hüsameddin presents at the head of the rising of 1511 is not the same person as the one today's research calls Şahkulu Baba Tekeli. The text describes the envoy Shah İsmail sent to Amasya in 914 [1508-09] and the rebel leader who defeated Ali Pasha at Gökçay in 917 as a single Şah Kulu, namely Nûreddîn Ali of Mardin. According to the present-day account, however, at the head of the rising at Gökçay stood Şahkulu Baba, the son of Hasan Halife, who spread the views of the Safavid order at Yalınlıköy near Antalya. The Rumlu caliph named Nur Ali Halife, on the other hand, came to Anatolia in 1512 on Shah İsmail's orders and gathered the Kızılbaş Turkmens in the region of Sivas, Tokat, Amasya and Çorum. Hüsameddin does not make this distinction; he has merged the names and the leaders of the two movements. In reading the text, the dates and leaders of these risings must be kept apart.

The Şahkulu Rising and the Battle of Gökçay

Şahkulu rose in the spring of 1511 in the Teke region and proclaimed himself the mahdi. In March 1511 he attacked the men of prince Korkut at Antalya, and at the end of April he defeated and killed the beylerbeyi of Anatolia, Karagöz Ahmed Pasha, before Kütahya. As the rising grew, Bayezid II assigned Hadım Atik Ali Pasha together with his eldest prince Ahmed. It is recorded that Ali Pasha set out with four thousand Janissaries and four thousand troops of the kapı halkı, met prince Ahmed at Altıntaş, and reached Kızılkaya on 15 June 1511. When Şahkulu withdrew toward Karaman, Ali Pasha mounted five hundred of the Janissaries with him on horses, chased him for some fourteen days, and caught up with him near Sivas. According to the report prince Ahmed sent to the center, the battle took place on 2 July 1511. Hüsameddin gives the place of the battle as Gökçay near Bozok; in some sources the same place also appears under the name Çubuk.

The most conspicuous difference between Hüsameddin and today's research concerns the end of Ali Pasha. Hüsameddin writes that the pasha was gravely wounded and brought to Amasya on a litter, that he died a few days later and was buried in the Kurdboğan Tomb. Some biographical accounts of Hadım Ali Pasha likewise say that the pasha was gravely wounded in the battle, was brought to Amasya for treatment and was buried in the tomb next to the Kurtboğan Tomb. By contrast, the account in the Şahkulu entry, relying on reports in the Ottoman archive, states that the pasha died on the field together with a hundred and seventy Janissary musketeers. According to the same entry, two thousand soldiers, mostly weary, remained with the pasha; according to one document the sipahis of Çankırı and Ankara did not fight as they should, and the sipahis of Rum (Amasya and Tokat) stayed at a distance. Hüsameddin, for his part, sees the cause of the defeat in the Shiites inside the army joining Şah Kulu. The fate of Şahkulu is also not certain in the documents. Some chronicles write that he was killed by an arrow, others that he took refuge in Iran.

Hüsameddin also writes that Hadım Ali Pasha was known in Istanbul as Atik Ali Pasha and that he had a stone school near Selağzı at Amasya. It is known that the pasha had the Atik Ali Pasha Mosque on Divanyolu in Istanbul built, together with the madrasa, school and imaret around it. No information about the school at Selağzı was found in the sources I surveyed.

Prince Ahmed's Position

Hüsameddin's account critical of Sultan Ahmed finds some echo in today's research as well. It is written that in the last years of Bayezid II administration was largely left to viziers such as Ali Pasha and Mustafa Pasha, that Ahmed stood out in his father's eyes, but that his asking the soldiers for an oath of allegiance during the Şahkulu campaign shook his standing in the eyes of the Janissaries. It is reported that the Janissaries said "we will recognize no one as ruler while our sultan is alive," and that Ali Pasha's death and Ahmed's lack of zeal in pursuing the brigands also weakened his chance of ascending the throne. Hüsameddin's remark that "Sultan Ahmed was deceived by the words of the Acems," however, is his own assessment; in the sources I surveyed this remark does not appear in this form.

The Janissaries' raiding of the houses of Ahmed's partisans in Istanbul appears in another source as well. According to the entry on Koca Mustafa Pasha, on 21 September 1511 the Janissaries raided the houses of the statesmen supporting Ahmed; they demanded that Mustafa Pasha, the kazasker Mü'eyyedzâde Abdurrahman Efendi and the nişancı Tâcîzâde Câfer Çelebi be removed from Istanbul. Hüsameddin, on the other hand, presents this same Tâcîzâde as a partisan of Sultan Selim; the two accounts diverge on this point. Hüsameddin also places the Sunni-Shiite quarrel at Amasya in the year 915 [1509-10]; an article studying the Kızılbaş movements at Amasya gives the event as 1510 and relies on Hüsameddin's narrative.

The Figânî Question

Figânî İshak Çelebi, whom Hüsameddin writes was executed at Amasya, should not be confused with another Figânî known in the sources. The Figânî famous in Divan literature is a poet named Ramazan of Trabzon; he gained fame in Istanbul and was executed because of a Persian couplet he composed about the statue that Grand Vizier İbrahim Pasha had brought from Buda and erected in the Hippodrome. His date of death is generally given in the sources as 938 [1531-32]. Hüsameddin's Figânî, by contrast, appears as a companion in conversation of prince Murad who was killed in 912 [1506-07] on account of an epic satirizing the Shiites. No information about this second Figânî was found in the sources I surveyed; the event appears only in Hüsameddin's narrative and in the tezkire quatrain he saw. In Çeşmî Çelebi's quatrain the word "Figânî" is used both as the poet's name and in the sense of "lament"; the last line makes use of this double meaning.

The Foundations of Bülbül Hatun and Sinan Pasha

Sultan Ahmed's mother Bülbül Hatun was the consort of Bayezid II and stayed with her son while he was sanjak bey at Amasya. She endowed all her property to the charitable institutions she had built at Amasya and Lâdik, and drew up two waqf deeds for her foundation, dated 1511 and 1513. Hüsameddin's account of the endowment in the text is consistent with these documents. Yularkısdı Sinan Pasha, for his part, established a foundation consisting of a mosque, a han, a school and a bathhouse at Hacıhamza Town in the Kargı district of Çorum; its deed is dated 917 [1511] and agrees with Hüsameddin's sentence "he endowed his farms in the district of Hacı Hamza." Since there were several statesmen named Sinan Pasha in the same period, names can become confused in the sources. Lala Sinan Pasha, who had the bathhouse at Uluköy (Sonisa) in Taşova built and who is known from a waqf deed dated 931 [1524-25], is a different person.

It is also recorded in the research that Sultan Ahmed's palace at Amasya was open to poets and scholars, and that Mihrî Hatun presented the greater part of her qasidas to him.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 3, pp. 486–490. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

• Faruk Söylemez, "Yavuz Sultan Selim'in Taht Mücadelesi", Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, no. 33, 2012, pp. 63–86.
• Selim Özcan, "Amasya'da Sancak Beyliği Yapan Şehzadeler Döneminde Amasya Şehri", DergiPark.
• Merve Karakulak, "XVI. Yüzyılda Amasya'da Kızılbaşlık Hareketlerinin Toplumsal Yansımaları", Türk Kültürü ve Hacı Bektaş Velî Araştırma Dergisi, no. 109, 2024.
• İ. Güven Kaya, "Figânî'nin Ölümü ve Taşlıcalı Yahya Bey'in Bir Şiiri", Atatürk Üniversitesi Türkiyat Araştırmaları Enstitüsü Dergisi, no. 34, Erzurum 2007, p. 47 ff.
• "Vakfiyeleri Işığında II. Bayezid'in Eşi Bülbül Hatun Vakıfları", Vakıflar Dergisi, DergiPark.
• Sultan Murat Topçu, "Amasya Uluköy (Sonisa) Sinan Paşa Hamamı", Atatürk Üniversitesi Palmet Dergisi, 2022.

Books

• Feridun Emecen, "Şahkulu Baba Tekeli", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 38, Istanbul 2010, pp. 284–286.
• Feridun Emecen, "Koca Mustafa Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 26, Ankara 2002, pp. 131–133.

Other sources

• "Hadım Ali Paşa (sadrazam)" and "Şahkulu İsyanı" entries, Wikipedia.