İkinci Bâyezîd Hân'ın ikinci şehzâdesidir. 918 senesi rebî'ulâhirinin evâsıtında Amasya'da i'lân-ı saltanat ve istiklâl ederek bey'at merâsimi yapdırdı. Gümüşlüzâde Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi'ye du'â etdirdi. Nâmına hutbe okutdu.
Halk arasında "Yular Kısdı" demekle meşhûr olan Sinan Paşa'yı vezîr-i a'zam, kendisine bi'l-mecbûriyye arz-ı inkıyâd eden beylerbeyi Mustafa Paşa'yı afv ve taltîf ederek vezîr-i sânî yapdı.
Sultân Ahmed'in en fenâ hasleti, halkın kendilerinden nefret etdikleri Acemler'in tatlı dillerine aldanıp onlara lüzûmundan ziyâde kıymet ve ehemmiyet vermekdi. İ'lân-ı saltanat etdikde Tebrîzli Kutbeddîn Îsâ Efendi'yi Amasya kadısı, Şîrâzlı Mîr Gıyâseddîn Çelebi'yi nakîbü'l-eşrâf ta'yîn etdi. Nişâncılığı da Acem Hibetullâh Efendi'ye verdi.
Hâlbuki Kutb ve Gıyâs'ın pâyeleri halk nazarında pek aşağı idi. Eşkıyâyı Amasya'ya da'vet edenlerin bunlar olduğu zann olunurdu. Hibetullâh Efendi de evkâf-ı sultâniyye tevliyetinde medhûl olmuşdu. Hele tabîbi Kutb-ı Şirvânî, Sultân Ahmed'i halkın gözünden düşüren adamdı. [270]
Sultân Ahmed, eşkıyânın yıkdığı sarâyı ve kaleyi derhâl i'mâr ederek bendegânından Mustafa Bey'i kale dizdârı nasb etdi.⁵⁸⁸ Sancaklara, vilâyetlere kendi tarafından mîrlivâlar, beylerbeyiler ta'yîn ederek Anadolu hükümdârı olduğunu anlatmak istedi.
Şâyân-ı dikkatdir ki İstanbul'da Sultân Selîm'in sadr-ı a'zamı olan Arnavut Koca Mustafa Paşa, Sultân Ahmed'e takdîm etdiği mektûblarında sadâkatdan bahs ediyor, kendisine her türlü hizmetlere hazır olduğunu arz ederek İstanbul üzerine harekete teşvîk ediyordu.
Sultân Ahmed, Koca Mustafa Paşa'nın ve sâ'ir ba'zı müntesiblerin sadâkat mektûblarını aldıkça İstanbul'da erkân-ı hükûmetin kendisiyle beraber olduğuna zâhib oldu.
Bu mektûblara i'timâden asker cem'ine başladı. Amasya vilâyeti a'yânını ve zenginlerini toplayıp eşkıyâdan kaçırabildikleri nakidlerini istikrâz sûretiyle aldı. Bu mebâliğ-i müstakraza ile tedârikât-ı seferiyyesini gördü.
Sultân Ahmed, kendisine her yazılan mektûblara inanmak gafletinde bulundu. Bu mektûblar içinde Sultân Selîm'in ta'lîmâtıyla yazılan müzevver mektûblar da vardı. Bunlardan biri kendisini tahta iclâs için İstanbul'a da'veti müş'irdi.
Sultân Ahmed bu müzevver mektûb ve da'vete aldanıp ma'iyyet-i [271] askeriyyesiyle beraber 918 şevvâlinin yirmisinde Amasya'dan hareket etdi. Büyük bir ümîd ile Yenişehir havâlîsine vusûlünde birâderi Sultân Selîm ile karşılaşdı.
Burada iki kardaş kanlı bir muhârebe etdi. Sultân Ahmed, mağlûb olarak firâr ederken atından düşüp esîr oldu. Sultân Selîm'in yanına getirildiği anda kendi yayının kirişiyle 918 senesi zilhiccesi evâsıtında boğuldu. Cesedi Bursa'da Sultân Murâd-ı Sânî türbesine defn edildi.⁵⁸⁹
Sultân Ahmed'in üzerinde sadr-ı a'zam Koca Mustafa Paşa'nın sadâkat mektûbu ve ta'lîmât-ı mahsûsası zuhûr etdiğinden derhâl Koca Mustafa Paşa i'dâm ve Amasya beylerbeyiliğine Şâdî Paşa ta'yîn edildi. Şehzâde Murâd Bey Îrân'a, Alâ'eddîn ve Kâsım Beyler Mısır'a firâr etdiler.
In Modern English
He is the second prince of Bayezid II Khan. In the middle of Rabi' al-Akhir of the year 918 [1512-13] he proclaimed his sultanate and independence at Amasya and had the oath of allegiance ceremony held. He had Gümüşlüzade Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi pray for him. He had the khutba read in his name.
He made Sinan Pasha, known among the people as "Yular Kısdı," his grand vizier, and Mustafa Pasha, the beylerbeyi who had been obliged to offer him his obedience, he pardoned and rewarded by making him second vizier.
Sultan Ahmed's worst trait was that he was taken in by the sweet words of the Acems, whom the people hated, and gave them more value and importance than they deserved. When he proclaimed his sultanate he appointed Kutbeddîn Îsâ Efendi of Tabriz as kadı of Amasya and Mîr Gıyâseddîn Çelebi of Shiraz as nakîbüleşraf. The chancellorship he gave to the Acem Hibetullâh Efendi.
Yet in the eyes of the people the standing of Kutb and Gıyâs was very low. It was supposed that they were the ones who had called the brigands to Amasya. Hibetullâh Efendi had also meddled in the stewardship of the sultanic waqfs. Above all his physician, Kutb of Shirvan, was the man who made Sultan Ahmed fall out of the people's favor.
Sultan Ahmed at once repaired the palace and the fortress that the brigands had destroyed, and appointed Mustafa Bey from among his slaves as warden of the fortress. By appointing mirlivas and beylerbeyis of his own to the sanjaks and provinces, he wished to show that he was the ruler of Anatolia.
It is worth noting that Koca Mustafa Pasha the Albanian, who was Sultan Selim's grand vizier in Istanbul, spoke of loyalty in the letters he submitted to Sultan Ahmed, and, declaring that he was ready to serve him in any way, encouraged him to move on Istanbul.
As Sultan Ahmed received letters of loyalty from Koca Mustafa Pasha and some other adherents, he supposed that the officers of the government in Istanbul were with him.
Trusting these letters, he began to gather soldiers. He assembled the notables and the rich of the province of Amasya and took as loans the cash they had managed to save from the brigands. With the money borrowed in this way he made his campaign preparations.
Sultan Ahmed fell into the heedlessness of believing every letter written to him. Among these letters there were also forged letters written on Sultan Selim's instruction. One of them invited him to Istanbul to be seated on the throne.
Sultan Ahmed, deceived by this forged letter and invitation, set out from Amasya with his military retinue on the twentieth of Shawwal of the year 918. When, in great hope, he reached the neighborhood of Yenişehir, he met his brother Sultan Selim.
Here the two brothers fought a bloody battle. Sultan Ahmed, defeated and fleeing, fell from his horse and was taken prisoner. At the moment he was brought before Sultan Selim, he was strangled with the string of his own bow in the middle of Dhu al-Hijja of the year 918. His body was buried at Bursa in the tomb of Sultan Murad II.
Since Grand Vizier Koca Mustafa Pasha's letter of loyalty and private instructions turned up on Sultan Ahmed's person, Koca Mustafa Pasha was executed at once, and Şâdî Pasha was appointed to the beylerbeyilik of Amasya. Prince Murad Bey fled to Iran, and Alâeddin and Kâsım Beys fled to Egypt.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- i'lân-ı saltanat ve istiklâl: proclaiming one's sultanate and independence
- bey'at: the oath of allegiance to a new ruler
- hutbe okutmak: to have one's name mentioned as ruler in the Friday prayers; one of the signs of independence
- nakîbü'l-eşrâf: the official who looked after the affairs of the descendants of the Prophet
- nişancı: the official who authenticated the sultan's decrees with the tughra
- tevliyet: management of a waqf, being a trustee
- dizdâr: fortress commander
- mîrlivâ: sanjak bey
- istikrâz: borrowing
- müzevver: forged, fabricated
- iclâs: seating on the throne
- ihnâk: strangling
- evâsıt: the middle days of a month
Prince Ahmed
Prince Ahmed was born at Amasya in 1465 to Bülbül Hatun, the consort of Bayezid II, and is described as his father's eldest living son. Hüsameddin presents him as the "second prince"; how this expression squares with the sources' description "eldest surviving son" is not explained in the sources I read. During his years as governor of Amasya Ahmed had the support of the vizier Hadım Ali Pasha and of his father, and his partisans among the officers of state had multiplied. In Bayezid II's decision about the throne, Ali Pasha's death in the Şahkulu rising and Ahmed's loss of standing were influential, and the Janissaries' loyalty to Selim is regarded as decisive. When Selim ascended the throne on 24 April 1512, Ahmed did not recognize it and set up his own government in Konya. A wax figure of him is displayed in the Amasya Princes Museum.
Later accounts of his sons are as follows. Alâeddin seized Bursa and had the khutba read in his father's name, and when Selim sent forces he took refuge with the Mamluks. Murad fled to Iran; it is written that Süleyman and Alâeddin died in Egypt in a plague epidemic and that Kasım also went to Egypt. This information is consistent with Hüsameddin's last sentence; only Hüsameddin does not mention Süleyman.
The Forged Letters and Yenişehir
Hüsameddin's most striking account is the forged letters. Sources narrating the Battle of Yenişehir likewise report that Selim, through letters written in the name of his pashas, informed Ahmed that they would change sides in the battle, and that Ahmed, believing these words, marched against his brother from Amasya with about thirty thousand men. In the battle Ahmed, understanding that the letters were lies, was in no state to withdraw. He was strangled with a bowstring by the head of palace gatekeepers (kapıcıbaşı) Sinan Ağa. Hüsameddin's phrase "he was strangled with the string of his own bow" agrees with this account.
On the date, however, there is a difference. Today's sources place the battle on 24 April 1513. Hüsameddin gives Ahmed's departure from Amasya as the twentieth of Shawwal 918 and his strangling as the middle of Dhu al-Hijja of the same year. By an approximate calculation the Hijri year 918 ended at the beginning of March 1513, so this date falls before April 1513; the 919 in the Türkiye Tarihi cited in Hüsameddin's own note matches April 1513. In his note Hüsameddin says that in the Bursa registers he saw that Ahmed's body was brought to Bursa on the nineteenth day of Dhu al-Hijja 918, while Türkiye Tarihi writes the battle and the strangling in 919. Thus the date common today is close to the date in Türkiye Tarihi, which Hüsameddin was trying to correct on the basis of the registry record; how this difference is explained was not found in the sources I read. Another article writes the battle as 1514; this is neither Hüsameddin's date nor the date given by the majority.
The burial of the body at Bursa in the tomb of Murad II appears in today's sources as burial in the Muradiye Complex; the two point to the same place. It is also written that Ahmed's son Osman was strangled at Yenişehir and buried at Amasya.
Koca Mustafa Pasha
Koca Mustafa Pasha, whom Hüsameddin calls "Albanian," is shown in the encyclopedia entry as of Greek or Frankish origin. It is written that he worked as a barber, was raised in the Enderun, was one of Bayezid II's closest men from his princehood, became vizier in 1502 and was appointed grand vizier again on 6 January 1512. After Selim ascended the throne he kept his post for a while, but because of rumors that he was a partisan of Ahmed he was suddenly executed at Bursa on 14 Ramadan 918, that is, 23 November 1512. By the order of Hüsameddin's narrative, this date comes before Ahmed's death; Hüsameddin, however, writes that the pasha was executed when his letter was found on Ahmed's person. According to the encyclopedia entry, some Ottoman sources state that the pasha caused Ahmed to take Amasya by keeping Selim away from Istanbul, while other sources state that he was put to death without guilt on such claims. Mustafa Pasha has a mosque, a madrasa and an imaret in Istanbul, and the neighborhood has been called by his name.
For Yularkısdı Sinan Pasha, who is named in the text, the notes of entry 40 may be consulted. For Şâdî Pasha, Kutbeddîn Îsâ of Tabriz, Mîr Gıyâseddîn Şîrâzî and Hibetullâh Efendi, no further information was found in the sources I surveyed. No other source was found confirming Hüsameddin's note on the inscription of the fortress gate either.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 3, pp. 493–494. 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.
- "Vakfiyeleri Işığında II. Bayezid'in Eşi Bülbül Hatun Vakıfları", Vakıflar Dergisi, DergiPark.
Books
- Feridun Emecen, "Koca Mustafa Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 26, Ankara 2002, pp. 131–133.
Other sources
- "Şehzade Ahmed", Wikipedia (Turkish).
- "Yenişehir Muharebesi (1513)", Wikipedia (Turkish).