Yûsuf Pasha

In Modern English

He was from Arapkir. He was the brother of Koca Ca'fer Pasha. In Cemâziyelevvel 1109 he became mutasarrıf (governor) of Amasya with the rank of beylerbeyi of Rumeli and inspector of Anatolia; the head notable (baş âyan) Murâd Beyzâde el-Hâc Mustafa Ağa, son of el-Hâc Ahmed Ağa, therefore became mütesellim (deputy of the sanjak governor) of Amasya.

At this time, since the administrator (mütevelli) of the sultans' waqfs (Evkâf-ı Sultâniyye) in Amasya, Hacı Madenzâde Ahmed Ağa, had become the superintendent of the avârız (extraordinary war levy) of the province of Sivas, Karahanzâde Mustafa Ağa of Amasya, one of the leading ushers (çavuş) of the Imperial Council, became administrator of the Evkâf-ı Sultâniyye.

On the first day of Receb the Naqib Emîr Hacı Abdüllatif Ağa, who interfered excessively in the affairs of the mütesellim and the notables, was dismissed; es-Seyyid Osman Ağa, who had held this post before him, became deputy of the naqib. On the twenty-first of Receb the former chief gardener (bostancıbaşı) İnekçi Hüseyin Ağa, one of the men of the state, died in Amasya.

At this time the vizierate of Kalaylı Pasha had been abolished, and his steward, Küçük Alizâde Hüseyin Ağa of Amasya, had been exiled to Amasya. For this reason the administratorship of the waqfs of the ağas Hüseyin and Fîrûz, vacated by the death of İnekçi Hüseyin Ağa, was given to this Hüseyin Ağa.

In the month of Şevval the governor of Amasya, Yûsuf Pasha, caught and executed Gâvur Murâd, the bandit chief who was seriously disturbing the province of Sivas, and three of his fierce men; he had their heads cut off and sent to Istanbul.

On the first day of Muharrem 1108 [1696] Bekir Beyzâde Ömer Bey was chosen head notable. Hacı Efendizâde İbrâhim Efendi became kadı (judge) of Amasya. A few days later the sanjak of Amasya was given to the guardian of Chios, Mahmûd Pasha.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• birâder: brother
• pâye: rank, degree of office; "Rumeli pâyesi" means the rank of beylerbeyi of Rumeli
• mutasarrıf: the person to whom the administration of a sanjak is given
• müfettiş: a high official charged with supervising the public order and administration of a region
• mütesellim: the deputy who governs the sanjak in place of the sanjak governor
• a'yân, baş a'yân: the notables of a city and their head
• Evkâf-ı Sultâniyye: the waqfs founded by sultans; in Amasya, above all the waqf of the Bayezid II Complex
• mütevellî, tevliyet: waqf administrator, waqf administratorship
• avârız emîni: the official in charge of collecting the avârız, the extraordinary war tax
• çavuşân-ı dergâh-ı âlî mütehayyizânı: the distinguished among the ushers of the Imperial Council
• gurre: the first day of the month
• nakîb, nakîb kâ'im-makâmı: the city deputy of the naqib al-ashraf, who looks after the affairs of seyyids and sharifs
• selef: the previous holder of a post
• ricâl: statesmen
• ref', nefy: removal; exiling
• mahlûl: a post or revenue vacated when its holder dies
• bî-huzur etmek: to disturb, to rob of peace
• sergerde: ringleader, gang chief
• intihâb: choosing, being chosen
• tevcîh: granting a post to someone

Who Yûsuf Pasha Is

Yûsuf Pasha, whom Hüsameddin introduces as "from Arapkir" and "brother of Koca Ca'fer Pasha," is the statesman known in present-day research as Topal (in its Arabic equivalent, A'rec, "the Lame") Yûsuf Pasha. According to Bekir Gökpınar's study of the estate of this vizier, who died as governor of Damascus, Yûsuf Pasha was the younger brother of Büyük (the Great) Ca'fer Pasha, governor of Aleppo, and the uncle of Genç (the Young) Ahmed Pasha, governor of Damascus. Raised in palace service, he came out of the Privy Chamber (Has Oda) as chief falconer on 15 May 1694 and was brought to the inspectorship of Anatolia in 1695. In return for catching and punishing levend and sekban bandits during this duty, the sanjaks of Kırşehir and Amasya were given to him in 1696, and then the sanjaks of Akşehir and Eskişehir were added to them. The same study tells that while governor of Kırşehir and Amasya he was assigned to pursue the bandits who held up the roads in the sanjaks of Sivas, Bozok, Arapgir, Çorum, Çankırı, Divriği and Aksaray and in the areas of Tokat and Zile, and that while joining Mustafa II's Austrian campaign of 1696 the punishment of those who did not go on the campaign and fled the army was also referred to him. The catching and execution of Gâvur Murâd that Hüsameddin writes of is a link of this wide bandit pursuit on the Amasya and Sivas side.

In the previous entry of the book it is written that the sanjak of Amasya was given in Cemâziyelevvel 1107 to "the chief falconer Yûsuf Ağa, who was charged with pursuing bandits." The information Gökpınar gives clearly shows that this chief falconer Yûsuf Ağa and the Yûsuf Pasha of this entry are the same person: the person who moved from the chief falconership to the inspectorship of Anatolia, dealt with bandits and took Amasya in 1696 is a single one. His elder brother Koca Ca'fer Pasha is one of the well-known commanders of the Austrian front. In the article Dilek Seniha Cenez Ülker wrote on Ca'fer Pasha's military activities, it is told that in the spring of 1694 the pasha went to visit his brother Yûsuf Bey in Aleppo and stayed with him for some two months, and that Grand Vizier Elmas Mehmed Pasha was influential in having a vizierate given to his brother Yûsuf Pasha in order to win over Ca'fer Pasha, with whom he had fallen out. Koca Ca'fer Pasha lost his life in the rout at Zenta in September 1697.

Yûsuf Pasha's later life can also be followed in the same study. In 1108 (1696-97) he passed to the governorship of Raqqa with the rank of beylerbeyi of Rumeli, in 1109 (1697-98) became a vizier, and married Fatma Sultan, widow of Çerkes İbrâhim Pasha. Yûsuf Pasha, who carried out the settlement of Turkmen and Kurdish tribes in Raqqa, came to the governorship of this province several times, also governed provinces such as Şehrizor and Aleppo, and died in Damascus in Ramazan 1128 (August 1716) while governor of Damascus and commander of the pilgrimage caravan (hac emiri).

Gökpınar writes that there is no information on Yûsuf Pasha's birthplace and date and that he was probably taken into the palace through the devshirme. Hüsameddin, however, plainly regards him as from Arapkir. The local records of Arapgir also share this view: among the pashas of Arapgir they count both Ca'fer Pasha and Yûsuf Pasha, "originally from Arapgir," note that it is written in one of Yûsuf Pasha's waqf deeds that he and Ca'fer Pasha were brothers, and record that he had a mosque, a han and a bath built in Şanlıurfa. The Yûsuf Pasha Mosque in Şanlıurfa is presented, in the quarter to which it gave its name, together with the adjoining bath, as a building built by "Arapkirli Yûsuf Pasha, governor of Urfa"; in some sources the building is called the work of "Yûsuf Pasha, governor of Urfa and Raqqa," and its inscription bears the date 1122. Considering that Topal Yûsuf Pasha was governor of Raqqa many times from 1698 on, it is very probable that this mosque in Urfa is also his charitable work; but this is an interpretation drawn from combining the sources at hand.

On the Date 1109

The entry places Yûsuf Pasha's governorship of Amasya in "the month of Cemâziyelevvel of the year 1109"; yet the last paragraph of the same entry begins "on the first day of Muharrem of the year 1108," and the next entry writes that Mahmûd Pasha became governor of Amasya for the second time on 5 Muharrem 1108. The previous entry also states that the sanjak was given to the chief falconer Yûsuf Ağa in Cemâziyelevvel 1107. That Gökpınar, relying on archival documents, places the Amasya appointment in 1696 also shows that Cemâziyelevvel 1107 (December 1695-January 1696) is the correct date. Accordingly, "1109" in the text is most probably a typesetting or pen error written in place of "1107"; the events of Receb and Şevval within the entry must also belong to the year 1107 (spring and summer of 1696).

The Fall of Kalaylı Pasha and Küçük Alizâde Hüseyin Ağa

"Kalaylı Pasha," whose vizierate is said in the text to have been abolished, is Kalaylıkoz Ahmed Pasha of Kayseri. According to compilations on his life, in 1696, when it was understood that the Russians would attack the fortress of Azov again, Ahmed Pasha was sent to the governorship of Trabzon but handled the matter of helping the fortress laxly, and Azov fell into the hands of the Russians in August 1696. Understanding that he would be executed because of this failure, the pasha left his post and hid, could not be found for three years, and was pardoned only in February 1699 through the mediation of the Valide Sultan. This is the event Hüsameddin touches on briefly as "the abolition of Kalaylı Pasha's vizierate," and the exile of the pasha's steward Küçük Alizâde Hüseyin Ağa to Amasya is also a result of the same collapse.

Küçük Alizâde Hüseyin Ağa will become governor of Amasya a few years later and will be the subject of entry 110 of the book. According to his translation (biography) in Hüsameddin's biographical volume, he is the son of Küçük Ali Bey, one of the great zeamet holders of Amasya; he was raised in the Enderun and enrolled in the Baltacı Corps, where he formed a friendship with Kalaylıkoz Ahmed Pasha, and when the pasha became grand admiral (kaptan-ı derya) he entered his household and became his steward. In 1104 he served as mütesellim of Sivas during the pasha's governorship of Sivas, came to Amasya in exile when his master's vizierate was abolished, and in 1109 became the tax farmer of the tax item called "bedel-i südciyân" (the milkmen's levy) for the sanjaks of Sivas, Amasya and Çorum, and gained a great fortune thanks to this tax-farm that lasted five years. The administratorship of the waqfs of the ağas Hüseyin and Fîrûz given to him in this entry is the first sign that a statesman in exile was beginning to regain influence in his homeland.

Gâvur Murâd

About Gâvur Murâd, the bandit chief said to have disturbed the province of Sivas, no information was found in other sources. The same epithet appears earlier twice in Hüsameddin's book: around 1599 a "Gâvur Murâd" is counted among the Celali chiefs gathered around Karayazıcı (this list is also relayed, relying on Hüsameddin, in the article Meryem Kaçan Erdoğan wrote on the Karayazıcı revolt), and in the 1050s and 1060s someone called "Gâvur Murâd Ağa, son of Murâd" appears among the notables of Amasya. Whether these persons have any link with the bandit executed in 1107 is not known; it is also possible that the epithet was used for more than one person in the region.

The City's Internal Affairs

The rest of the entry records the changes of post among the local notables who governed Amasya in person. While the governor was in pursuit of bandits, the head notable Murâd Beyzâde Mustafa Ağa ran the sanjak as mütesellim, and the administratorship of the sultans' waqfs, which manage the waqfs of the Bayezid II Complex, passed to Karahanzâde Mustafa Ağa because the administrator went to another post (the avârız superintendency of Sivas). The noteworthy detail is the dismissal of the Naqib Emîr Hacı Abdüllatif Ağa for "interfering a great deal in the affairs of the mütesellim and the notables." In the previous entry the mufti of Amasya had also resigned, weary of the interference of this same Emîr Hacı and the City Steward Yeğen Hasan Ağa. This contest of influence between the deputy of the naqib al-ashraf, the representative of the seyyids in the city, and the notables will continue in later entries as well. Mahmûd Pasha, the guardian of Chios named at the end of the entry, is treated in the next entry of the book as Mahmûd Pasha of Yozgat.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 4, p. 617–617. amasya.bel.tr
• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 9-12, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, entry "Hüseyin Paşa-Küçük Alizâde", e-book p. 37. https://amasya.bel.tr/uploads/e-kitap/kitap/9-12/files/basic-html/page37.html
• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 1-4, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, e-book p. 570, 584 (Gâvur Murâd Ağa).
• "Kalaylıkoz Hacı Ahmed Paşa", Wikipedia (Turkish; based on Mehmed Süreyya, Sicill-i Osmânî, and the entry in Casim Avcı's Yaşamları ve Yapıtlarıyla Osmanlılar Ansiklopedisi). https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalaylıkoz_Hacı_Ahmed_Paşa

Academic studies

• Bekir Gökpınar, "Şam Valisi Vezir Topal Yusuf Paşa'nın Muhallefatı (1716)", SDÜ Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 56 (2022), p. 130-150. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/2364310
• Dilek Seniha Cenez Ülker, "Serhadlere Adanmış Bir Ömür: Koca Cafer Paşa'nın Askerî Faaliyetleri (1685-1697)", Anadolu ve Balkan Araştırmaları Dergisi, 7/13 (2024), p. 2-32. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/3765218
• Meryem Kaçan Erdoğan, "Karayazıcı İsyanı", Osmangazi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 4/2 (2003). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/112963

Official sources

• T.C. Arapgir Kaymakamlığı, "Arapgirli Paşalar". http://www.arapgir.gov.tr/arapgirli-pasalar

Other sources

• "Yusuf Paşa Cami", Şanlıurfa. https://gezimanya.com/sanliurfa/gezilecek-yerler/yusuf-pasa-cami