Goynüklü Ahmed Efendi

Göynüklü Ahmed Efendi , also Ahmed bin Mahmud (* ~ 1650 in Göynük [near Kemer  ?], † March / April 1759 in Üsküdar ), was an Ottoman chronicler and secretary in various offices.

Life

The date of his birth for a life of more than a hundred years cannot be determined exactly, but his work shows that Ahmed bin Mahmud was an eyewitness to the uprisings during the reign of Mehmed IV (1648–1687). At that time he was apparently already old enough to be able to write a critical description of the situation, so that there is a high probability that Ahmed was born around 1650. Despite this long life, the information about his youth and apprenticeship is very sparse. His work can be found with Franz Babinger , but almost nothing about it. In Mehmed Süreyya's Sicill -i 'Osmanı there is hardly any further information . According to Ahmed's linguistics, ANKurat suspects that he was a born Anatolian .

In his own work “ Tarih-i Göynüklü ”, Ahmed bin Mahmud made the following notes about his later life: He was a clerk in the treasury ( hazıne-i birun katibi ), where he also began his historical records. In 1711 he took part in the war against Russia and kept a diary about it. In 1715, during the campaign against Austria , he was a clerk in an infantry chancellery ( piyade muqabeleciligi ), but at the same time remained a clerk in the treasury. On September 18, 1716 he was appointed Mevkufatî (head of the confiscation office), which post he held until May 23, 1717. From August 18, 1720 he became Cebeciler kâtibi (chancellery leader of the arsenal troops ) and also Silahdar kâtibi (clerk of the sword-bearers of the Sultan ). From July 22, 1722 to July 24, 1723 he worked in the office of the fortress administration ( büyük qal'e tezkireciligli ). From 1725 he was again infantry secretary and from 1730 for the third time in the arsenal office. At the time of the Patrona Halil uprising , he was back in the financial administration. After several other posts he came to a recruiting office for irregular musketeer troops ( tüfenk-endâz levedât ) during the war against Russia in the Crimea in June 1736 . His last job - after several new posts (including Mevkufatî again ) - was that of an assistant to the provincial treasurer ( şikk-i sanı defterdârı ). He remained in this position for 14 years. His last entry in the chronicle of March 24, 1759 shows that he continued this work until shortly before his death.

plant

The complete title “ Tarih-i Göynüklü ” (“Chronicle of the Göynükers”) was given to the chronicle later, Ahmed bin Mahmud did not give his work a title. The work has a table of contents in the autograph found in the Berlin State Library , which does not always correspond exactly to the chapters of the text. It begins with the invasion of Russia by the Ottoman army on February 19, 1711 and ends on March 24, 1759 with the description of the birth celebrations for Mustafas III. Daughter. Initially, Ahmed kept a precise diary, then in the course of the chronicle he moved on to summarizing reports. The style is simple and clear, some events (Patrona Halil uprising, assassination of the grand vizier Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha in 1730) are portrayed critically and personally. In the war reports, precise information about marching times, battlefields (with colored maps) and field camps are given. In Istanbul he describes in detail a circumcision ceremony in the palace, the wedding celebrations of sultan's daughters and visits to Persian ambassadors. Fires, earthquakes and extraordinary accidents are precisely dated and described. But botanical and medical information can also be found there.

See also

• List of Ottoman chroniclers
• List of Ottoman titles

literature

• Songül Çolak: Aḥmed b. Maḥmūd Göynüklü , August 2005. In: C.Kafadar / H.Karateke / C.Fleischer: Historians of the Ottoman Empire. Harvard University. Center for Middle Eastern Studies, ISBN 9780-9762-7270-0 , pp. 97-99. [1]
• Franz Babinger: The historians of the Ottomans and their works. Leipzig 1927.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Franz Babinger: The historians of the Ottomans and their works. Leipzig 1927, p. 313.
2. ^ Mehmed Süreyya: Sicill-i 'Osmanı. Vol. 1, Istanbul 1890-91, p. 256.
3. ↑ Akdes Nimet curate: Hazine-i Birû Kâtibi Ahmed bin Mahmud'un. 1711, in Ankara University 1966, p. 266.