The village now called Yeşilöz appears in Ottoman records as Girâb or Kirab. In the sixteenth century a fief-holder from this village rose to the rank of sanjak governor in the Şirvan wars, built a mosque and a school in his village and endowed the Girâb estate to these charitable works. In 1845 forty households were recorded in the village of Kirab, then part of the Ezinepazar sub-district, and the only head of household in the sub-district's records thought to have been a non-Muslim lived in this village. At the end of 2025, 206 people were registered in Yeşilöz, which belongs to the Central District of Amasya.

From Girâb to Yeşilöz

In the table of Central District villages in Bekir Başalan's study of renamed settlements in Amasya, the former name of Yeşilöz is given as "Girap". Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar writes the same village as "Girâb" and places it in the İnepazar, that is Ezinepazar, sub-district of Amasya; in the 1845 temettuat register the name takes the form "Kirab". In her study of place names formed with colour words, Asena Yalnız analyses the new name as an adjectival compound of the adjective "yeşil" (green) and the noun "öz"; among the dictionary meanings Yalnız gives for "öz" are "stream, brook" and "well-watered, highly fertile land". No Amasya village named Girâb or Kirab was found in the index of the Karaman and Rûm account register of 1530.

Ahmed Bey of Girâb

The person named together with the village in Yasar's biographical volumes is Ahmed Bey. Yasar introduces him as the son of Mehmed Çavuş "from the village known as Girâb in the İnepazar sub-district of Amasya". A holder of a zeamet fief, Ahmed Bey took part in many campaigns, rose in the Şirvan wars to the rank of mirliva, that is, sanjak governor, and died in 992 (1584). Yasar describes him as brave, wealthy and devout. His most lasting mark is in his village: he built a mosque in Girâb with a school beside it and endowed the Girâb estate for their upkeep. No record could be found of whether the mosque still stands or has been replaced by a new one.

The Village of Kirab in 1845

In Tayfun Soydal's thesis on the temettuat registers of the Ezinepazar sub-district, the village's entry is in register ML.VRD.TMT. 13017. Its forty households place Kirab among the larger villages of the sub-district; the thesis estimates the population at 200, or 5.1 per cent of the sub-district. Thirty-eight heads of household are recorded as farmers and one as a rençber (cultivator), and one head of household is entered as kizir. Examining the names of the 763 heads of household in the sub-district one by one, Soydal concludes that only one was probably a non-Muslim: Ayvin, who lived in household no. 35 in the village of Kirab. Apart from him, no non-Muslim head of household was found in the sub-district or its villages.

The village's list of nicknames is long, and some families spread across several households. Kasımoğlu and Kocabıyıkoğlu appear in four households each, Bayramoğlu, Devecioğlu and Baklacıoğlu in three each, and Hızıroğlu, Uğurluoğlu, İmamoğlu and Yazmanoğlu in two each. Among the nicknames borne by a single household are Civelekoğlu, Topal Mahmudoğlu, Tosunoğlu, Yaylaoğlu, Çerkesoğlu, Alikayaoğlu, Nameoğlu, Şabanoğlu, Koca Hasanoğlu, Kabaoğlu, Süleymanoğlu, Elifoğlu, Çoban Hasanoğlu and İbaoğlu.

Of the 762 dönüms of land held by the villagers, half was cultivated and half uncultivated field; beside these two items of 374 dönüms each, only 14 dönüms of grape vineyard are recorded, with no mulberry orchard or kürüm vineyard. The land per household comes to about 19 dönüms. The harvest records 157.5 kiles of wheat and 62.5 kiles of barley, 220 kiles of grain in all. Among the livestock, cattle number 263, of which 65 are milch cows. Sheep and goats appear with different figures in two tables of the thesis, 720 in one and 477 in the other; in the detailed table by type, milch and dry goats and kids make up most of the flock. Six mares are recorded as pack animals.

The village's total annual income was 19,941 kuruş, or 498.5 kuruş per household, which remains above the sub-district average; 4,805 kuruş of this income came from sheep and goats. In taxes, 3,769 kuruş of vergü-yi mahsusa, 1,167.5 kuruş of tithe and 65.5 kuruş of sheep tax were demanded, reaching a total of 5,002 kuruş, or 125 kuruş per household. On Soydal's checking, the correct calculation of the vergü-yi mahsusa comes to 3,771 kuruş; the figure in the register is two kuruş short of this.

The Village Today

According to the 2023 environment report, the village's drinking-water network was built in 2002, is fed from a spring and supplies an average of 8,446 cubic metres a year; the supply is judged sufficient. The separate networks of the hamlets of İnönü and Yeşilözçayırı, attached to the village, date from 2006, and the inventory shows İnönü with 17 people and Yeşilözçayırı with 39.

After reaching the highest value of the series, 293, in 2008, the population fell for eleven years, dropping to 162 in 2019. The figure rose to 195 the following year and reached 237 in 2023, then declined again to 206 in 2025. In the latest record the village had 102 men and 104 women.

Chronology

992 (1584): Death of the mirliva Ahmed Bey of Girâb, who built a mosque and a school in his village and endowed the Girâb estate.

1845: The temettuat register records the village of Kirab with 40 households.

2002: The village's drinking-water network is built.

2025: Population 206.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • Tayfun Soydal, Temettuât Defterlerine Göre Ezinepazar Nahiyesi'nin Sosyal ve Ekonomik Yapısı, Master's Thesis, Amasya Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, 2018, pp. 6, 12, 25, 31, 34, 38, 40, 42, 45, 47, 49-50, 55, 57, 82-83. https://acikbilim.yok.gov.tr/handle/20.500.12812/37199
  • Bekir Başalan, "Amasya İlinde İsimleri Değiştirilen Yerleşim Yeri Adları Üzerine Bir İnceleme", Folklor Akademi Dergisi, 7(3), 2024, pp. 1382-1391 (p. 1386). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/4249891
  • Asena Yalnız, "Amasya İli ve İlçelerinin Renk Adlarıyla Oluşan Yer Adlarının Gramatikal ve Bölgesel İncelemesi", Amasya Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi (ASOBİD), 12, 2022, pp. 133-159 (Yeşilöz: p. 142). amasya.bel.tr

Official sources

Other sources

Online sources