The Yörgüç Paşazâdes are the Amasya descendants of Celâleddin Yörgüç Paşa (d. 845 [1442]), lala (tutor-guardian) of Murad II, beylerbey (governor-general) of Rum and vizier. The family takes its name from the statesman who, after the city passed under Ottoman rule, built the first great mosque complex on the banks of the Yeşilırmak. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the pasha's sons and grandsons served as sanjak governors and beylerbeys on campaigns that reached from Varna to Çaldıran and from Egypt to Yemen; from the seventeenth century onward the family's weight shifted to the administration of the pious endowment (waqf) founded by their ancestor. Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi contains thirty-six entries that carry the family name in their headings, to which are added dozens of brief notices scattered through the chronicle sections and inside other people's entries. Brought together, these records tell the story of a family that held the trusteeship of the same endowment for close to five hundred years and, even at the end of the nineteenth century, still produced the city's mayor and a member of its administrative council.

The longest known genealogies of the family come from Hüsameddin, and they do not always agree from one volume of the book to the next. The father of the same man appears as Ali Bey in one entry and as Abdî Bey in another; the date of the same battle is given as 847 in one place and 848 in another. The account below follows the generations as closely as possible without concealing these discrepancies.

Name and Origins

Hüsameddin links the family to Amasya's old Atabeg lineage. According to him, three great branches descended from Nâsıreddin Ahmed Bey, atabeg of the Seljuk sultan Mesud II, and these were called the Hoca Mehmed Paşazâdes, the Yörgüç Paşazâdes and the Hızır Paşazâdes. The author notes that in his own day the descendants of Hoca Mehmed Paşa and Hızır Paşa survived only through the female line, whereas the progeny of Yörgüç Paşa lived on "entirely as asabât", that is, unbroken in the male line. Another entry, based on the deed of the Atabeg endowment, records that the pasha's father, Muînüddin Abdullah, also called Abdî Bey, was trustee of the Atabeg endowment in 802 [1399-1400], fell in the war against Timur in 804 [1402], and left as sons İlyas Bey and the pashas Yörgüç and Hızır.

Hüsameddin defends this lineage in sharp terms. He calls "false and mistaken" Solakzâde's report that Yörgüç and Bayezid Paşas were not Turks; his evidence is that the pasha's endowment deed states plainly that his forefathers were Muslims, that he is styled "sülâletü'l-ümerâ" (scion of emirs), and that the door of his mosque bears the words "Yörgüç Paşa bin Abdullah el-Atabegî". Modern scholarship is more cautious. Fahameddin Başar notes that the sources give conflicting information on the pasha's pedigree: one tradition ties him to Nâsırüddin Ahmed, another to the line of Gazi Mihal Bey. Because his father's name is written as Abdullah on the inscription, on his tombstone and in the endowment deed, these genealogies are doubtful; on the strength of the father's name it has also been suggested that the pasha was of Slavic origin and that his name derives from Jorgić. According to Başar, the epithet "atabeg" on the inscription is most probably a reference to the pasha's own office as tutor-guardian rather than a title belonging to his father. The Atabeg connection on which the family's name rests is therefore Hüsameddin's position and cannot be counted as a documented fact.

The pasha's marriage also tied the family to Amasya's most deeply rooted house of emirs, the descendants of Hacı Şâdgeldi Paşa. Hüsameddin presents him as the son-in-law of Hacı Şâdgeldi Paşazâde Mustafa Bey; he writes that Emîneddin Mehmed Paşa, whom the pasha left as his deputy when he set out for Sivas, called him "Enişte Paşa" (brother-in-law pasha), and that their letters were preserved in a collection of chancery writings in the Veliyyüddin Efendi Library, but that this collection burned in a fire. On the pasha's wives the book is scattered: in one place the name Safiye Hatun is quoted from the endowment deed; in another entry Safiye Hatun appears as the daughter of Musliheddin Mustafa Bey who died in 831 [1427-28]; in yet another, Emine Şâhbulâ Hatun, daughter of Mustafa Bey bin Devâtdâr Ahmed Paşa, is named as the pasha's wife. Hüsameddin further makes Safiye Hatun the sister of Şâhbulâ Hatun, wife of Mehmed I (Çelebi Mehmed), and thus the pasha the sultan's brother-in-law; this kinship could not be confirmed in other sources. Başar's article notes in addition that a Çiçek Hatun with an endowment in Edirne is recorded as the pasha's wife. That Şâhbulâ Hatun built a masjid, a fountain and a primary school in Amasya is confirmed both by Hüsameddin and by Mustafa Çağhan Keskin's study based on the family's endowment deeds.

The Family Through the Generations

Yörgüç Paşa

The founder of the family was the statesman whom Mehmed I assigned as lala to his twelve-year-old son, Şehzade Murad (Prince Murad), when he sent him to Amasya in 1414 with the governorship of the province of Rum. Hüsameddin dates his governorship to 816 [1413-14], the year of Çelebi Mehmed's accession, and writes that after Murad's accession he came from Ankara to Amasya for a second time as beylerbey in Şaban 825 [1422]. Başar, by contrast, records that he was appointed beylerbey of Rum in 826 [1423], after the suppression of the revolt of Düzmece (the "False") Mustafa. The province under the pasha's administration comprised the sanjaks of Amasya, Sivas, Tokat, Karahisar-ı Şarkî, Canik and Çorum.

His governorship was a period of imposing order on the region's unruly lords and bands. As Hüsameddin tells it, the pasha lured the Kızıl Koca Oğulları, who were plundering the population around Çorum and Osmancık, to Amasya by inviting them to a wedding feast arranged for his son Hızır Bey, had them seized in a single night and put to death with straw smoke in the caves of the Kal'a-i Bâlâ. The author places this event in 827 in one part of the book and in 833 in another, and in a footnote he rejects the historians who find the pasha cruel, on the grounds that they ignore how the bandits had burned hundreds of innocents alive. Başar likewise writes that the Kızılkocaoğulları were bands under the command of four brothers and that the pasha brought them to submission; the detail of the wedding trap, however, is found only in Hüsameddin. The surrender of Taşanoğlu Haydar Bey, lord of Koca Kayası near Köprü, also appears in Hüsameddin once under 828 and once under 833. The subjugation of Alparslanoğlu Hüseyin Bey in Canik is placed in 830 [1426-27]; Başar dates the same event to 1427 and gives the name of the lord of Canik as Hasan.

After these services the pasha was granted the rank of vizier. Hüsameddin relates that he obtained permission to strike coins in his own name, called "Yörgüç Paşa Akçesi", but that his long governorship and this privilege made him proud, and that following the people's complaints Murad II summoned him to Edirne in 838 [1434-35]. Başar regards the story of the coinage as doubtful. The pasha returned in 839 [1435-36] as warden of Amasya, became lala of Şehzade Alâeddin Ali, and in Rebiülevvel 840 [September-October 1436] endowed all his properties to his charitable foundations in Amasya before a large assembly. He died in Zilhicce 845 [April-May 1442] and was buried in the tomb of his mosque.

The Pasha's Sons and Daughters

Başar lists the pasha's sons Hızır, Yûnus and Mustafa, his daughters Sitti and Hundi Hatun, and a further son, Molla Îsâ, who had endowments in Lefke. Hüsameddin's scattered notices yield at least six sons: Hızır, Mustafa, Yûnus, Abdî, Ali and İsa Beys. Ali Bey has no entry of his own, yet most of the genealogies of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century members lead back to him. İsa Bey, too, appears only in the pedigrees of his grandsons.

Hızır Bey was already counted among the emirs in his father's lifetime. According to Hüsameddin he became sanjak governor of Samsun in 831 [1427-28] and was sent against Canik the same year; in 833 he carried to Edirne the letter of victory announcing his father's success in the Niğde region. In 838 he was appointed warden of Amasya in the retinue of Şehzade Ahmed and fell at the Battle of Varna. The entry on his brother Abdî Bey states that Abdî fell in the same battle together with Hızır Bey. The chronicle section of the book, however, names the Yörgüç Paşazâdes martyred at Varna as "Hızır and Mustafa Beys" and places the battle in 848, while the biographical entries use the date 847. Başar, too, names the sons who died at Varna as Hızır and Mustafa. Whether it was Mustafa Bey, Abdî Bey or both who died at Varna cannot be resolved from the book.

Mustafa Bey is the family's best-documented patron of building in the fifteenth century. The door inscription of the imaret (public kitchen and hospice) in Havza names him "emîr-i kebîr Mustafa Bey bin el-vezîru'l-hatîr Celâlü'l-mille ve'd-dîn Yörgüç Paşa el-Atabek" and states that the building was erected for the poor and destitute in the reign of Murad II in the year 833 [1429-30]. Hüsameddin dates the same imaret to 835 and its endowment deed to 840, and also attributes to him the small bathhouse beside the imaret. Sami Bayraktar notes that an endowment deed of Mustafa Bey dated 840 [1436-37] is held by the General Directorate of Foundations and that it makes no mention of the mosque in Havza. According to Hüsameddin, Mustafa Bey also built an elegant bathhouse in Amasya in 840, in what is today the Mehmed Paşa quarter; in Keskin's compiled list he is likewise credited with a bathhouse in Amasya and a bathhouse and a han in Havza.

For Yûnus Bey, Hüsameddin leaves a single sentence: Yûnus Bey, the pasha's "favourite son" and one of the emirs in the retinue of Şehzade Alâeddin, died in 842 [1438-39] and was buried in the tomb in front of his father's mosque. The entry on his son Oruç Bey relates that Yörgüç Paşa gave his own share of the inheritance to the child orphaned by his father's death, and that Oruç grew up in the household of his uncle Hızır Bey. On the grave of Hundi Hatun, one of the daughters, the book divides: the list of tombs says that she lies in the Yörgüç Paşa tomb together with her father and Yûnus Bey, while in two other places it is written that she was buried in the deepest part of the tomb of Sultan Mesud in the Receb quarter, that judging by her tombstone she died unmarried, and that two of the pasha's daughters lie in this tomb.

The Grandsons Under Mehmed II and Bayezid II

The pasha's grandsons grew up in the retinues of the princes in the years when Amasya was a princely sanjak, and they rose with the princes' accession to the throne. The most brilliant name of this generation is Hızır Bey's son Süleyman Paşa. He received a zeamet (large military fief) in his grandfather's lifetime, entered the retinue of Mehmed II (the Conqueror) while the latter was governor of Amasya, became one of the emirs at the accession in 855 [1451], and took part in the conquest of Istanbul in 857 [1453] as bey of Filibe. After the Serbian campaign of 860 he became bey of Silistre, in 864 [1459-60] beylerbey of Rumeli, and then beylerbey of Anatolia. In 873 [1468-69] he came to Amasya as warden at the side of Şehzade Bayezid; when Bayezid came to the throne in 886 [1481], he became lala and steward of Şehzade Ahmed, the new governor of Amasya. In 889 he handed this post over to Hızır Paşazâde Mehmed Paşa, went to Rumeli as beylerbey of Semendire, and died there in 896 [1490-91]. The tutorship of Şehzade Ahmed thus passed between two branches of the same Atabeg lineage, the Yörgüç and Hızır Paşazâdes.

Hızır Bey's other sons, Umûr Bey and Hasan Bey, are also named among the emirs. Umûr Bey became an emir at the conquest of Istanbul, accompanied Şehzade Bayezid, governor of Amasya, on the Georgian campaign of 873, and died in 878 [1473] in the battle against Uzun Hasan. Hasan Bey died around 894 [1489]. Yûnus Bey's son Oruç Bey likewise received a zeamet after his uncle's death, rose among the emirs and died in 893 [1488] on the Egyptian campaign; because he had endowed his properties, these were joined to the Yörgüç Paşa endowment.

For the sons of Abdî Bey the book gives brief notices. Üveys Bey passed from the zeamet holders to the emirs and died around 890 [1485]; a brother named Yûsuf Bey is mentioned. Süleyman Bey grew close to Şehzade Bayezid in Amasya and became one of his retinue emirs, was made sanjak governor of Balıkesir at the accession and bey of Kayseri in 893, returned to Amasya in 896 in the retinue of Şehzade Ahmed and died around 900 [1494-95]. Hasan Bey, one of Ali Bey's sons, went to Istanbul in Bayezid's retinue and was lost on the Egyptian campaign of 893. From the İsa Bey branch, Hüseyin Bey bin İsa Bey died around 902 [1496-97] and his nephew Hüseyin Bey bin Ali Bey bin İsa Bey around 907 [1501-02]; these two notices are short additions at the end of other people's entries.

The Çaldıran Generation

At the beginning of the sixteenth century the struggle for the throne split the family. The brothers İskender, İshak and Enîs Beys were at first among the emirs of Şehzade Ahmed, governor of Amasya. İshak Bey, "because of the influence and oppression of the A'câm (the Persians)", as Hüsameddin puts it, went to Trabzon in 913 [1507-08], took refuge with Şehzade Selim, and became bey of Trabzon when Selim came to the throne in 918 [1512]. Enîs Bey, too, attached himself to Selim and became a sanjak governor at the accession. İskender Bey was sanjak governor of Niğde at the accession, and Üveys Bey bin Abdullah Bey, counted among their cousins, was sanjak governor of Kayseri. All four fell at Çaldıran in 920 [August 1514]. The account of the events of 918 also records that Yörgüç Paşazâde Enîs Bey was among the lords who defended Amasya, that Yörgüç Paşazâde Mehmed Bey, sanjak governor of Samsun, joined them with the troops of his sanjak, and that Yörgüç Paşazâde Mustafa Bey was made alaybey (commander of the provincial cavalry) of Amasya on the arrival of the new beylerbey.

The genealogies of this generation are the most tangled part of the book. İskender Bey's own entry makes him the son of "Abdullah Bey, known as Abdî Bey, bin Ali Bey bin Yörgüç Paşa". The entry on his son Hürrem Paşa gives the same man as "İskender Paşa bin Abdî Bey bin Ali Bey bin Yörgüç Paşa". In the entry on his other son, Ahmed Paşa, the chain takes the form "İskender Bey bin Abdullah Bey bin el-Hâc Yûsuf Bey bin Abdî Bey bin Yörgüç Paşa". Üveys Bey's father, too, is written as "Abdullah Bey bin Ali Bey bin Abdî Bey". These chains, in which Ali and Abdî trade places, point to records confused by scribes or by the author in a family where the same names recur from generation to generation; which of them is correct cannot be determined from the available sources. That neither Ali nor Abdî appears among the sons listed by Başar makes the problem harder still.

The family's longest journey in this period was made by Ali Bey's grandson Hüseyin Bey bin Hasan Bey; Hasan Bey's own entry, however, names Hüseyin Bey as his brother rather than his son. Attaching himself to Şehzade Selim, he went with him to Trabzon in 896, became sanjak governor of Hüdavendigâr at the accession and of Aydın in 921 [1515]. He took part in the Egyptian campaign of 923 [1517], was sent to the Hijaz after the conquest as sanjak governor of Jeddah, and governed Jeddah well, winning over the sharifs and notables of Mecca with the sultan's gifts. He set out on the Yemen expedition, postponed by Selim's death, in 927 by order of Süleyman the Magnificent, landed at Hudeyde, pressed Kemal Bey hard at San'a, and in 928 [1522] became governor of Yemen. Having governed the province without incident for some four years, he died at the end of 932 [1525-26]. Hüsameddin describes him as "learned, virtuous, God-fearing and generous" and writes that the good administration of his nephew Mustafa Bey and his judge Mahmud Çelebi was recorded with gratitude in the verse history of the Yemeni chronicler Ziyâeddin Ahmed bin Mûsâ el-Vâsıtî.

The sons of the Çaldıran martyrs quickly received sanjaks in their fathers' place. Hürrem Paşa was brought up in Selim's palace, became a sanjak governor on his father's martyrdom, was present on the Egyptian campaign, took part as bey of Antalya in the suppression of the revolt of Canberdi Gazzâlî in 927 [1520-21], then became beylerbey of Maraş and of Karaman, and fell in 933 [1526-27] fighting Zünnûn, one of the Celâlî rebels. In his entry his father's death is written as 820; read together with the other notices, it must be 920. His brother Ahmed Paşa, a zeamet holder of twenty-five, was rewarded with the sanjak of Çorum, joined the Baghdad campaign in 940 [1533-34] as bey of Erzincan, became beylerbey of Şehrizor and of Trabzon, came to Amasya in 951 [1544-45] as warden in the retinue of Şehzade Mustafa, and died in 959 [1552] as beylerbey of Sivas. Among their cousins, Ahmed Bey bin Ali Bey bin Hüseyin Bey became a sanjak governor in 921 on his father's martyrdom at Çaldıran and appears as sanjak governor of Kastamonu in 943 [1536-37]. Ali Bey's son Mehmed Bey, as sanjak governor of Amasya in 927, distinguished himself against Zünnûn and was sent on the German campaign in 928.

The branch of Hasan Bey bin el-Hâc Ali Bey carried on the family's military line in the middle of the century. This Hasan Bey went on the German campaign in 927, fought the Celâlîs in 933, took part in the Baghdad campaign in 941 [1534-35], and died around 947 [1540-41]. His grandson Hasan Paşa, son of Mehmed Bey, distinguished himself in the Rumelian wars and was several times alaybey of Amasya; in 974 [1566-67], after the accession of Selim II, he passed from Canik to the beylerbeyship of Kefe, became beylerbey of Şehrizor in 981, and died early in 983 [1575-76].

The leading member in the second half of the century was Hızır Paşa. When his father, the sanjak governor Mehmed Bey bin Mustafa Bey, fell in a Celâlî raid in 940 while bey of Amasya, he was taken into the Enderun (the palace school) and became master of the horse in 953 [1546-47]. Hüsameddin presents his career as a series of rises and falls tied to Rüstem Paşa's grand vizierate: in 956 he was removed to the sanjak of Köstendil through the grand vizier's intrigue; after Rüstem Paşa's dismissal he became beylerbey of Damascus in 962 [1554-55]; during Rüstem's second vizierate he was again sent to the sanjaks; after Rüstem's death in 968 he rose to favour as beylerbey of Baghdad; in 971 he became governor of Silistre; and in 975 he was retired. The author says that he could rise no higher "because of the envy and rivalry of the devşirmes". The Hızır Paşa dervish lodge in Amasya's Şamice quarter was built in 971 [1563-64] by this Hızır Paşa; he should not be confused with Hayreddin Hızır Paşa, Yörgüç Paşa's brother, who gave his name to the Hızır Paşazâde branch.

Trustees and Disputes over the Trusteeship in the Seventeenth Century

In the seventeenth century the Yörgüç Paşazâdes appear less as sanjak governors than in the local administration of Amasya and in their ancestor's endowment. Hasan Paşa, son of Mehmed Bey, trustee of the Yörgüç Paşa endowment, exemplifies this transition. As a çavuş (pursuivant) of the imperial court he worked for a long time in tax collection, became collector of Amasya and treasurer of Sivas in 1019 [1610], and in 1021 [1612] was made sanjak governor of Amasya on the proposal of Cafer Paşa, governor of Sivas; since he also kept the treasurership, his brother Hakalacı Mustafa Bey became his deputy governor. There followed the sanjaks of Suğla, Çorum and Erzincan, Kars and Batum, and then the beylerbeyship of Maraş. His conduct in Maraş, which caused complaints from the people, was covered up thanks to the patronage of the sultan's tutor Ömer Efendi of Amasya; he was dismissed in 1031 [1621-22], sent to Amasya, and remained out of favour for about three years. In 1038 he joined the Iraq campaign as beylerbey of Şehrizor in the retinue of Hüsrev Paşa, returned to Amasya in 1040, was retired with the trusteeship of his ancestor's endowment, and died in 1045 [1635-36].

In the same years the administration of the endowment was in danger of slipping out of the family. According to Hüsameddin, in 1031 Kurd Ağazâde Mahmûd Bey of Lâdik, relying on the influence of his brother Bayram Paşa, had seized the trusteeship "contrary to the conditions of the endowment". Hüseyin Bey, son of Veli Bey and a member of the family, a sipahi registered in the sixty-fourth company, contested this and in Şevval of the same year replaced Mahmud Bey as trustee. In 1032 he was dismissed for joining those who rose against Abaza Mehmed Paşa; in 1037 he went on the Persian campaign as a sanjak governor, later became trustee again, and died in 1048 [1638-39]. Some time later the trusteeship again passed outside the family, to the sipahi Himmetoğlu Osman Ağa; in 1035 [1625-26], however, Yörgüç Paşazâde Mustafa Bey became trustee of the endowment. It is also recorded that Hakalacı Mustafa Bey was removed by court decision on the grounds that he had wronged the endowment and its stipendiaries, that Yörgüç Paşazâde Mehmed Bey bin Hasan Bey was put in his place, and that a few years later Mehmed Bey in turn was removed on the same charge and replaced by Hakalacı Mustafa Beyzâde Mehmed Bey. The trusteeship thus changed hands among the branches of the family; in the second half of the century, because of a dispute among the descendants of Yörgüç Paşa, acting trustees from outside the family were for a time appointed to the endowment.

The other members of this period, too, appear mostly around the endowment and the city's administration. Osman Bey, son of the trustee Mehmed Bey, served as trustee in alternation with Hakalacı Mustafa Bey and died after 1051 [1641-42]. Mehmed Bey's other son, Hasan Bey, served as a çavuş on the Baghdad, Persian and Cretan campaigns, became trustee of his ancestor's endowment in 1063 [1652-53], and died in 1069 [1658-59] at the time of the execution of the Abazas. Hasan Bey's son Osman Ağa was trained in the household of the grand vizier Bayram Paşa, served as second master of the horse and as head gatekeeper, became deputy governor of Amasya in 1062 [1651-52], and died after 1067. Hüseyin Bey, son of Hakalacı Mustafa Bey, became trustee of the endowment on his father's death and died early in 1073 [1662-63]. From the İskender Bey branch, Ahmed Bey bin Yûsuf Bey rose from zeamet holder to alaybey and sanjak governor, was retired in 1024 [1615], and died at the end of 1055 [1645-46], according to Hüsameddin at about the age of one hundred and ten. In 1044 [1634-35] the trustee Yörgüç Paşazâde Mustafa Bey, as the number of students grew, built a wooden madrasa of twelve cells on the east side of the mosque courtyard.

Toward the end of the century the weight of the Mustafa Bey bin Ali Bey branch in the administration of the endowment becomes clear. When this Mustafa Bey disappeared in 1086 [1675-76], his son Süleyman Bey became trustee of the endowment of the imaret in Havza founded by their forebear Mustafa Bey; in 1099 [1687-88] he also took over the trusteeship of the Yörgüç Paşa endowment in Amasya, entered the council of notables, and died in 1123 [1711-12]. That the Havza endowment was still administered by one of its founder's descendants two and a half centuries later shows how closely the family guarded its endowment arrangements. In the same years Osman Bey, son of Mustafa Bey bin Mehmed Bey, died in 1114 [1702-03], and Hasan Bey, son of Mustafa Bey, in 1118 [1706-07], both as trustees and members of the council of notables.

A Family of Notables in the Eighteenth Century

In the eighteenth century members of the family appear with the titles "es-Seyyid" and "el-Hâc" before their names and sit in Amasya's councils of pilgrims and notables. Hüsameddin does not explain where the seyyid title came from; he also mentions that in the same period the seyyid notables were laying hands on the trusteeships of the city's great endowments. The trusteeship had by now become an office held jointly by several cousins. When Yörgüçoğlu Hacı Ömer Bey bin Mustafa Bey died in 1141 [1728-29], his son Hacı Ahmed Bey and their cousins Hacı Mustafa Bey bin Osman Bey and Mehmed Bey bin Mehmed Bey became joint trustees of the endowment. Ahmed Bey became a member of the councils of pilgrims and notables and once head of the pilgrims, and died after 1162 [1748-49]. A second Ahmed Bey in the book bearing the same name and titles is the son of el-Hâc Ömer Bey bin el-Hâc Osman Bey; he became trustee together with his brother Ali Bey and died early in 1197 [1782-83].

This second Ahmed Bey's son Hasan Bey reached the family's highest position in the city at the end of the century. He became trustee in his father's place in 1197, entered the council of notables, served once as head of the pilgrims, and in Muharrem 1212 [June 1797] was chosen chief notable and "muhtâr-ı belde" (headman of the town). He died on 10 Şevval 1216 [February 1802]; the trusteeship was then given solely to his partner, Yörgüçoğlu Abdullah Bey. From the Osman Bey branch, Osman Bey, son of Hâfız es-Seyyid el-Hâc Mustafa Bey nicknamed "Oğul Bey", became known as "Oğul Beyzâde"; he became trustee of the endowment on his father's death, sat several times on the councils of pilgrims and notables, became head of the pilgrims and chief notable, and died in 1217 [1802-03]. It is likely that Yörgüçoğlu Hacı Hâfız Mustafa Bey, chosen head of the pilgrims in 1150 [1737], is this Oğul Bey; this, however, is an inference.

The Nineteenth Century and After

In the nineteenth century the family also appears through the learned profession and the army. Emîn Mehmed Efendi, son of Seyyid Hüseyin Bey bin Ahmed Bey, studied in Amasya, then entered the judicial career in Istanbul by examination, became a müderris (madrasa professor) while serving as steward to certain statesmen, passed in Receb 1229 [June-July 1814] from the professorship of the Süleymaniye Dârülhadis to the judgeship of Aleppo, and died in 1234 [1818-19]. Hüseyin Bey, son of Hasan Bey, became trustee of the endowment in 1223 [1808-09] and a member of the council of notables in 1231, and died in Şaban 1236 [May-June 1821].

The last generation of the family that can be traced in the book reaches into the administrative institutions of Tanzimat-era Amasya. Hüseyin Bey, son of es-Seyyid el-Hâc Osman Bey, a former deputy governor of Amasya and head gatekeeper, was born in 1238 [1822-23]. In the years when the state was trying to train officers from the sons of notables, he enlisted in 1256 [1840-41], became a captain after a few months of drill and a major in 1258. When his battalion was transferred elsewhere, he left the army in 1263. In 1285 [1868-69] he became trustee of the Yörgüç Paşa endowment jointly with his brother Ali Bey, became mayor of Amasya in 1291 [1874-75] and a member of the administrative council in 1293, and died in Cemaziyelâhir 1295 [June 1878]. His son Hasan Hüsnü Bey also became trustee in 1318 [1900-01]. Hüsameddin's information shows that the endowment Yörgüç Paşa founded in 840 was still administered by one of the pasha's descendants in the author's own time.

Buildings, Endowments and Quarter

The family's centre in Amasya is the Yörgüç Paşa Mosque on the south bank of the Yeşilırmak, in today's Gökmedrese quarter. According to its door inscription the mosque was built by Atabeg Yörgüç Paşa in 834 [1430]; Hüsameddin also writes that the mosque, madrasa and imaret begun by the pasha were completed in that year and opened with a grand ceremony. Emine Naza Dönmez places the building in the group of mosques with tabhane (guest rooms) and zaviye functions; the closed section beside the entrance iwan is thought to have been the lecture hall of the madrasa that has not survived, and on the other side of the iwan stands the open tomb, enclosed on three sides by marble railings. The tomb contains four marble cenotaphs belonging to the pasha and his family. Hüsameddin says that the pasha, his son Yûnus Bey and his daughter Hundi Hatun lie in this tomb. The author also reports, on the basis of the endowment deed, that the stone cells inside and in front of the mosque were originally built as a madrasa; the wooden madrasa that the trustee Mustafa Bey added to the courtyard in 1044 collapsed around 1271 [1854-55] and became a garden. The book shows that many of the professors of the Yörgüç Paşa madrasa later became muftis of Amasya; it may be deduced from this that the madrasa held a respected place among the city's learned ranks, but this is an inference.

The pasha's endowment extended beyond the city as well. According to Başar, the endowment deeds and tax registers show that he built a mosque, madrasa, imaret and two bathhouses in Amasya, a bathhouse and han in Tokat, a mosque in Gümüş, an imaret in Havza, a mosque in Kavak and a bathhouse in İskilip; the mosques in Amasya, Gümüş, Kavak and Köprü and the bathhouse in Tokat survive. Hüsameddin writes that the building in Köprü called the "Orta Cami" is the Yörgüç Paşa Mosque and is registered in the endowment deed of 834 as "in the village of Köprü near the town of Kedeğra", and that the great mosque the pasha built in Gümüş in 833 was later renewed by Rüstem Paşa and took the name "Çinili Cami" (the Tiled Mosque). By Keskin's count, the family built four hans, a bedesten (covered market), a number of shops, six mills and eleven bathhouses around Amasya to provide revenue for its imarets, zaviyes and madrasas; the pasha's share of these was a han, seventeen shops and a bathhouse in Amasya, a han and bathhouse in Tokat, and a bathhouse each in Gümüş and İskilip.

The imaret in Havza is the family's second great endowment. On the building's east-facing door, the inscription carved in celî sülüs script on marble reads:

In the days of the reign of the great sultan and mighty khan, father of conquest, Sultan Murad son of Mehmed Khan, known as the son of Osman, the great emir Mustafa Bey, son of the esteemed vizier, glory of the faith and the nation, Atabek Yörgüç Paşa, ordered the building of this blessed imaret for the poor and the destitute, and founded it in the year 833 of the Hegira.

Bayraktar, drawing on Ahmet Şimşirgil, reports that the imaret had rich endowments in the tax registers, and from Mehmet Öz's research that it drew revenue from the Vezirköprü area. The building, whose domes collapsed in an earthquake and were replaced by a flat roof, has served as a soup kitchen since 1982. The same thesis records, following Hüsameddin, that the Yörgüç Paşa Mosque in Havza was renewed in 925 [1519] by Şâdi Paşa, beylerbey of Karaman; Mustafa Bey's endowment deed of 840, however, does not mention this mosque. In Amasya, the bathhouse that Mustafa Bey built in 840 west of the Mehmed Paşa Mosque is cited in the book as one of the chief landmarks of the quarter.

The documents of the Yörgüç Paşa endowment are likewise scattered through the book. Hüsameddin writes that he saw in the records of the endowment administration that the endowment deed was sent to the Imperial Council in 870 [1465-66] and certified by the judge of Edirne, Sirâceddin bin Sa'deddin Ali. It is also from these records that the vineyards known today as Akbilek appear in the deed as the "Hekim Bahçesi" (the Physician's Garden), which the pasha acquired from Alâeddin Ali Çelebi, son of the chief physician of Çelebi Mehmed and Şehzade Murad, and endowed in 840. The school and fountain that the pasha's wife Şâhbulâ Hatun built beside the masjid in the Sofîzâde quarter were a small but long-lived part of the family's endowments within the city; Hüsameddin says that in his own day the school still stood as a dilapidated primary school, but gives its date of construction as 841 in one place and 843 in another. The author's biographical section struggles to distinguish two ladies of the same name: in one entry the masjid and school in the Sofular quarter are attributed to Şâhbulâ Hatun, wife of Çelebi Mehmed, while in another the school of the pasha's wife Emine Şâhbulâ Hatun is placed in the Şamice quarter.

Family Tree

The tree below is built solely from the father-son links given by Hüsameddin. The book's conflicting chains are marked separately; because different people share the same names and there are gaps between generations, the tree does not show the whole family.

  • Muînüddin Abdullah (Abdî Bey), trustee of the Atabeg endowment, d. 804 [1402]
    • Şücâeddin İlyas Bey
    • Hayreddin Hızır Paşa (ancestor of the Hızır Paşazâde branch)
    • Celâleddin Yörgüç Paşa, d. 845 [1442]
      • Hızır Bey, d. Varna 847/848 [1444]
        • Süleyman Paşa, d. 896 [1490-91]
        • Umûr Bey, d. 878 [1473]
        • Hasan Bey, d. c. 894 [1489]
      • Mustafa Bey, founder of the Havza imaret
      • Yûnus Bey, d. 842 [1438-39]
        • Oruç Bey, d. 893 [1488]
      • Abdî Bey, d. Varna 847 (according to one account in the book)
        • Üveys Bey, d. c. 890 [1485]
        • Süleyman Bey, d. c. 900 [1494-95]
        • el-Hâc Yûsuf Bey → Abdullah Bey → İskender Bey (the chain in the Ahmed Paşa entry)
      • Ali Bey
        • Abdullah (Abdî) Bey (the chain in the İskender Bey entry)
          • İskender Bey, d. Çaldıran 920 [1514]
            • Hürrem Paşa, d. 933 [1526-27]
            • Ahmed Paşa, d. 959 [1552] → Yûsuf Bey → Ahmed Bey, d. 1055 [1645-46]
          • İshak Bey, d. Çaldıran 920
          • Enîs Bey, d. Çaldıran 920
        • Hasan Bey, d. 893 [1488]
          • Hüseyin Bey, governor of Yemen, d. 932 [1525-26]
          • el-Hâc Ali Bey → Hasan Bey, d. 947 [1540-41] → Mehmed Bey → Hasan Paşa, d. 983 [1575-76]
      • İsa Bey
        • Hüseyin Bey, d. c. 902 [1496-97]
        • Ali Bey → Hüseyin Bey, d. c. 907 [1501-02]
      • Hundi Hatun and Sitti Hatun
  • Seventeenth-century trustees (the intermediate generations linking them to Yörgüç Paşa are not given)
    • Mehmed Bey, trustee
      • Hasan Paşa, d. 1045 [1635-36]
      • Hakalacı Mustafa Bey → Hüseyin Bey, d. 1073 [1662-63]
      • Osman Bey, d. after 1051 [1641-42]
      • Hasan Bey, d. 1069 [1658-59]
    • Mustafa Bey bin Ali Bey → Süleyman Bey, d. 1123 [1711-12]
  • Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century branch
    • el-Hâc Osman Bey → el-Hâc Ömer Bey → es-Seyyid el-Hâc Ahmed Bey, d. 1197 [1782-83]
      • es-Seyyid el-Hâc Hasan Bey, d. 1216 [1802]
        • Hüseyin Bey, d. 1236 [1821]
        • Osman Bey → Hüseyin Bey, d. 1295 [1878] → Hasan Hüsnü Bey
      • Hüseyin Bey → Emîn Mehmed Efendi, d. 1234 [1818-19]
    • Osman Bey → Hâfız Mustafa Bey (Oğul Bey) → Osman Bey (Oğul Beyzâde), d. 1217 [1802-03]

Family Members in Hüsameddin

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

Other sources

  • Mustafa Çağhan Keskin, "Foundations and Real Estates of Yorguc Pasha Family Through The Ottoman Endowment System", 22nd Annual European Real Estate Society Conference, Istanbul 2015 (abstract). https://eres.architexturez.net/node/170792

Online sources