Amasya Târihi
Dördüncü Cildin Bakiyyesi
Amasya Tarihi Mü'ellifi
Abdi Oğlu Hüsâmeddin Yasar
Her Hakkı Mü'ellifindir
İstanbul
Aydınlık Basımevi
1935
Büyük Türk ırkını ve dilini dirilten Cumhurbaşkanımız ulu önderimiz Kemal Atatürk'ün ve Başbakanımız kutlu İsmet İnönü'nün takdîrlerini gören Amasya Târîhi, işbu dördüncü cildin bakiyyesini basdırmakda önemli himmetleri geçen Amasya İlbayı Kadri ve Halk Partisi başkanı Veysi Bey Oğlu Bay Sıdkı ile ilbaylık dâ'imî encümeni üyelerine teşekkürlerini sunar. [3]
In Modern English
History of Amasya
The Remaining Part of the Fourth Volume
Author of the History of Amasya
Hüsâmeddin Yasar, son of Abdî
All rights belong to the author
Istanbul
Aydınlık Printing House
1935
The History of Amasya, which won the approval of our President, our great leader Kemal Atatürk, who revived the great Turkish race and language, and of our Prime Minister, the blessed İsmet İnönü, offers its thanks to the Governor (İlbay) of Amasya Kadri, to Mr. Sıdkı son of Veysi Bey, chairman of the People's Party, and to the members of the provincial standing committee, who spent considerable effort in having this remaining part of the fourth volume printed.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- bakiyye: remaining part, remainder
- mü'ellif: author
- himmet: effort, help, support
- ilbay: governor (vali); a word proposed in place of "vali" during the Turkification movement in the language in the 1930s
- ilbaylık dâimî encümeni: the standing committee of the province, the counterpart of today's provincial committee
The Story of an Intermediate Volume
Of the Amasya Tarihi that Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin had planned in twelve volumes, only four volumes could be printed in Ottoman letters in the author's lifetime: the first volume in 1912, the second in 1914, the third in 1927, the fourth in 1928. The unfinished part of the fourth volume was published seven years later, in 1935, in Istanbul at the Aydınlık Printing House, this time in the new Turkish letters, as a separate book. The short text we have is the inner title page and the acknowledgment page of this very book. Researchers state that the alphabet reform had a share in the delay between the two editions, because the author had begun the printing preparations in Ottoman letters before the reform. When the author died in Istanbul on 10 February 1939, volumes six to twelve remained in manuscript, and the fifth volume had been lost; it is rumored that the fifth volume burned in a fire at the press.
This supplementary volume is the only part that left Hüsameddin's hand and reached the reader in the new letters. In some sources it is written that the fourth volume and its supplement together cover the years between 1017 [1608] and 1099 [1688]; yet the first entry of this book, the section on Receb Pasha, opens with the year 1119 [1707], and the following entries come down to the 1130s [1720s]. That is, the supplement extends the chronology of the fourth volume to the first quarter of the eighteenth century.
The People Thanked
"İlbay Kadri," named in the acknowledgment, is Kadri Küçük, shown in the official list of Amasya governors as having served between 1930 and 1935. Studies examining the printing history of the work also note that the printing of the book was carried out with the financial support of the Amasya provincial committee and that Governor Kadri Bey had a share in this help. A similar path had been followed in the earlier volumes: the third volume was printed with the contributions of the former governor Hilmi Bey, the deputy İsmail Hakkı Bey and waqf administrators, and the fourth with those of Governor Fâik Bey and the committee members.
"Mr. Sıdkı son of Veysi Bey" is a man of Amasya known from the years of the National Struggle. When Mustafa Kemal Pasha came to Amasya on 12 June 1919, the name "Veysibeyzâde Sıtkı Bey" appears among the city notables who received him; the same person is also counted a few days later among the members of the Amasya Defense of Rights Association founded under the chairmanship of the mufti Tevfik Efendi. No separate record of his chairmanship of the People's Party provincial branch in 1935 was found in other sources; this information rests only on Hüsameddin's acknowledgment page.
The language of the acknowledgment sentence is also noteworthy. Words such as "ilbay," "ilbaylık" and "Bay" bear the marks of the mid-1930s, when attempts were made to put Turkish equivalents in place of foreign-origin words in the language. Hüsameddin's adopting these words, known as a fervent Turkist who also wrote works on the Turkish language, is consistent with his own view of language.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, Supplement (Bakiyye), p. 627–628. amasya.bel.tr
- Turgut Akpınar, "Amasya Tarihi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 3, 1991, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/amasya-tarihi
- Hasan Yerkazan, "Amasya Tarihi'nin Basım Süreçleri", Sosyal Bilimler Araştırmaları 12, ed. H. Yerkazan – Ö. Eryılmaz, Amasya Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2024, https://sbe.amasya.edu.tr/media/110996/sosyal-bilimler-arastirmalari-12-2.pdf
Academic studies
Official sources