The Hazinedarzâdes

The earliest figure in the local notable family of the Hazinedarzâdes was Hazinedarzâde Süleyman Paşa. It is argued that this family descended from the hazinedar (treasurer) of Canikli Ali Paşa. That is why they were called the Hazinedarzâdes. M. Emin Yolalıcı has two contradictory views about the hazinedar of Canikli Ali Paşa. While in his earlier work he claims that Hazinedarzâde Süleyman was the treasurer of Ali Paşa²⁷, later he argued that Süleyman Paşa was the son of Behram Bey, who was the actual treasurer of Ali Paşa.²⁸ There is another interesting argument about the origin of the Hazinedarzâdes. Ö. Mert suggests that Hazinedarzâde Süleyman Paşa was the son of Mehmet Paşa who was the son of the brother of Ali Paşa. In other words, the Hazinedarzâdes were coming from the line of Süleyman Paşa, who was the

27 M. Emin Yolalıcı, Samsun Eşrafından Hazinedarzâde Es-Seyyid Abdullah Paşa’nın Terekesi, Samsun: Ondokuzmayıs Üniversitesi Yayınları, 1987, p. 14.

28 M. Emin Yolalıcı, XIX. Yüzyılda Canik Sancağı’nın Sosyal ve Ekonomik Yapısı, Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1998, p. 13.

brother of Canikli Ali Paşa.²⁹ However, there is no primary or secondary information which supports this view. If this is true, it can be argued that the line of Süleyman (brother of Canikli Ali Paşa) became an influential local notable family only after Canikli Ali Paşa’s line was totally disappeared from the political and economic life of the empire in 1808.

On the other hand, Meeker claims that according to an undocumented tradition, Hazinedarzâde Süleyman came from an old family line that had long been associated with the western province of Canik.³⁰ He gives M. Goloğlu as a reference who describes the Hazinedarzâdes as a well-known and very old family of the coastal region.³¹

Whatever the origins of the Hazinedarzâdes (either descended from Canikli Süleyman Paşa or from the treasurer of Canikli Ali Paşa or came from an old family of the province of Canik), they were substituted by the Ottoman state to fill the power vacuum emerged after the final execution of the members of the Canikli dynasty in 1808.

As early as 1769, Hazinedarzâde Süleyman Bey was referred to as the deputy governor (mütesellim) of Canik when Canikli Ali Bey was also at the beginning of his career as a muhassıl of Canik. They were ordered to send provisions to Kefe and to provide the hemp and fibre which was urgently needed for the ships of the imperial navy to arrive at Georgia.³²

29 Mert, XVIII. ve XIX. Yüzyıllarda Çapanoğulları, p. 53.

30 Meeker, A Nation of Empire, The Ottoman Legacy of Turkish Modernity, p. 215.

31 Goloğlu, Trabzon Tarihi, Fetihten Kurtuluşa Kadar, p. xxix.

32 MAD 7596 (Ahkam), p. 99/2.

The only reference to the Hazinedaroğlus as part of the household of Canikli Ali Paşa is found in Cevdet Dahiliye collections, which ordered the transfer of the other members of the retinue of Ali Paşa as well as the harem of the Hazinedaroğlu after the declaration of him as a rebel in 1779.³³ It is very interesting that no order was sent for the confiscation of Hazinedarzâdes’ property when the Caniklizâdes and their retinues’ wealth were seized by the central treasury at this date. This may be taken as evidence confirming the view that the Hazinedarzâdes came from an old family line settled in Canik and probably did not belong to the household of Caniklizâdes.

Hazinedarzâde Süleyman Ağa started as early as in 1796 to control the tax-farm of the muhassıllık of Canik with the title of a kapıcıbaşı.³⁴ As mentioned above, between 1792 and 1799, the remaining members of the Caniklizâdes (Battal and Tayyar Paşa) were in exile in Russia. During that time, after the turbulent years of rebellion in Canik, almost all of the muhassıls of Canik were appointed from among the imperial elites who had no local connection. The central government farmed out this tax-farm for a year. The centralizing measures of the government aimed at raising revenues as well as to neutralize the power of local notables. The only exception seems to have been Hazinedarzâde Süleyman Ağa.³⁵ Between 1799 and 1805, Battal and Tayyar Paşas of the Caniklizâdes reestablished their control in Canik and Trabzon regions following their pardoning by the government. After the rebellion of Tayyar Paşa against New Order (1805)

33 Cevdet Dahiliye 15976 (1780).

34 MAD 9582, p. 109 and DBŞM 6433. The tax-farm of muhassıllık of Canik was farmed out to Süleyman Ağa for one year by the treasury of irad-ı cedid.

and his execution in 1808, Yusuf Ziya Paşa (former grand vizier) dominated Canik and Trabzon. Yusuf Ziya Paşa named Hazinedarzâde Süleyman Ağa as his agent in 1810. Subsequently, Süleyman Ağa became the muhassıl of Canik in 1811 alone and one year later, he rose to the position of the provincial governor of Trabzon.³⁶

In sum, the actual and final empowerment of Hazinedarzâde Süleyman Ağa was only after the normalization of the economic and political life in the region of Canik and Trabzon with the execution of powerful Tayyar Paşa, the last member of the Canikli dynasty. In fact, the central state was decisive for not appointing any member of this family to state posts. For this reason, after 1808, the central state elites were to be appointed for the administration of Canik and Trabzon region. However, Canik notables sent a petition to the center and stated that both the center and the periphery were negatively affected from the centrally appointed administrators from outside. These outsiders (centrally appointed officials) over-exploited the population of Canik and had attacked their houses and goods. Thus, the inhabitants of Canik rebelled under these insecure conditions. Therefore, they could not produce the materials (hemp, timbers and fibre) that were significant for the construction of imperial ships. The notables, who consisted of religious scholars, artisans and merchants, demanded the appointment of Hazinedarzâde Süleyman as the muhassıl of Canik who was from

35 He served as the muhassıl of Canik in 1796, 1800, within the first five months of 1807, then as the deputy of Tayyar Paşa in 1808. See MAD 9582, p. 110 and Cevdet Maliye 27107.

36 MAD 9582.

among the prominent, trustful and wealthy members of the region. This demand shows the support for Süleyman Ağa by the population of Canik.³⁷

Hazinedarzâde Süleyman Paşa was appointed as the governor of Trabzon in 1812 and stayed in this post until his death in 1818.³⁸ He attempted to reinforce the central power at the expense of its local elites, especially the coalition led by Tuzcuoğlu Memiş Ağa. This was consistent with the aim of “New Order” which tried to curb the military strength of aghas and ayâns.³⁹ However, his attempt to limit the independence of Memiş Ağa resulted in a revolt (1814-17) led by the latter who was supported by the lesser notables and aghas of Rize, Of and Sürmene.⁴⁰ The conflict between Süleyman Paşa and Memiş Ağa was partly due to a sizeable debt that the former owed the latter.⁴¹ However, their controversy seemed to be rather a competition between two competing hierarchies of authority and commerce, one centered on Rize and the other centered on Trabzon.⁴²

Süleyman Paşa controlled the lands and people in the province of Canik by the mechanisms of state system rather than by taking the support of lesser notables. He possessed large estates (çiftliks) cultivated by sharecroppers.⁴³ He seemed to convert these vast estates worked by tenants into a private property through the establishment of a religious endowment (wakf). It seems highly

37 Cevdet Maliye 434 (1809) There was also reference to the steward of Tayyar Paşa as a mütegallibe.

38 Süreyya, Sicill-i Osmani, 5, pp. 1548-9.

39 Meeker, A Nation of Empire, p. 216.

40 His supporters consisted of local notables such as Kalcıoğlu Osman Bey, Kasapoğlu İbrahim, Hacı Salihoğlu Ali, Abanozoğlu Süleyman, Kel Alioğlu as well as bandits of Of and Sürmene. M.

Münir Aktepe, “Tuzcuoğulları İsyanı”, İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Tarih Dergisi, III, 1951-2, pp. 26-7.

41 Aktepe, “Tuzcuoğulları İsyanı”, pp. 21-52; Faruk Sümer, Tirebolu Tarihi, pp. 116-120.

42 The revolt of Tuzcuoğlu Memiş Ağa was the forerunner of other revolts by his sons, Ahmet Ağa (1818-21) and Tahir Ağa (1832-34). Meeker, A Nation of Empire, p. 218-9.

probable that when he controlled some villages within the boundary of the subdistrict of Satılmış in the province of Canik as a life-term tax-farm⁴⁴, he worked for the opening up unused lands into agriculture. The existence of mezra’as tied to his çiftliks (big farms) proves his attempts to enlarge cultivation.

Some of the big estates were cited as his property in a deed of his wakf.⁴⁵ Moreover, he was able to bring troops and supplies as well as men as a labour-force into the eastern coastal region from the western coastal region of Canik to control the trade route at Trabzon.⁴⁶

After the death of Süleyman Paşa, the new governor of Trabzon, Mehmed Hüsrev Paşa became the guardian of his sons and sent them to İstanbul. The oldest son, Osman, became a page of the Sultan and later returned to Trabzon as a state official as provincial governor (1827-42).⁴⁷ The middle son, Abdullah served his older brother, then later succeeded him as the provincial governor (1842-46).⁴⁸

43 Meeker, A Nation of Empire, p. 215.

44 In 1807, he was holding the revenues of villages tied to Satılmış as a tax-farm. See MAD 9543, p. 190.

45 Beşirli, XIX. Yüzyılın Başlarında Samsun Şehri, II, pp. 384-407. Süleyman Paşa owned two big farms and fifteen mezra’as tied to them in the sub-district of Ayvacık and five estates and three mezra’as together with thirty-six farm land (tarla) in the subdistrict of Arım.

46 Meeker, A Nation of Empire, p. 215.

47 Süreyya, Sicill-i Osmani, 4, p. 1306.

48 Süreyya, Sicill-i Osmani, I, p. 81.