Yedi-Sekiz Hasan Paşa

Yedi-Sekiz Hasan Paşa was an Ottoman military officer and statesman born in Çorum, one of the rare men in Ottoman service to rise from private soldier to müşir (marshal). He played a key role in building Çorum’s clock tower, the city’s best-known landmark, and spent many years as the guard responsible for the security of Beşiktaş in Istanbul. A 2021 study by Dr. Salim Aydın of the National Defense University, published in the journal of Atatürk University’s Institute of Social Sciences and based on Ottoman archival documents, is a reliable source on his life and on the legend surrounding his “Yedi-Sekiz” nickname.

Origins in Çorum

According to Aydın’s archival research, Hasan Paşa was born in 1832 in a house south of the Han Mosque, on Kayış Köprü street in Çorum’s Gülabibey neighbourhood (some popular sources give 1831 and name Kuşsaray village as his birthplace instead). His father, Hacı Mustafa, was a swordsmith, and his mother was Kezban Hanım; the family’s local nickname was “Mavraloğulları,” recorded in the archives as “Uzun Aliağazadeler.” Hasan Paşa attended a Quranic primary school in Çorum; in his youth he worked alongside his father as a swordsmith and was also known as a hunter.

Military Career

Hasan Paşa took part in the Crimean War (1853-56) and gradually rose to a significant position in Istanbul. Under Sultan Abdülaziz he was appointed guard of the Beşiktaş police station, a post he continued to hold under Abdülhamid II. He became known in 1878 for personally subduing Ali Suavi during the Çırağan Incident, when supporters of the deposed Sultan Abdülaziz stormed Çırağan Palace in an attempt to restore Murad V to the throne; he was promoted to the rank of pasha after the incident.

Service to Çorum

Hasan Paşa remained attached to his home city and used his political influence on its behalf. In 1894, working with the governor of Ankara, Abidin Paşa, he helped secure Çorum’s status as a sanjak (provincial) centre attached to Ankara. That same year he played a key role in building Çorum’s clock tower; its inscription bears both Abdülhamid II’s name and his own. He had a library building constructed in the courtyard of the Çorum Ulu Mosque — renamed the “Hasan Paşa Library” in 1963, it remains part of the historic core of Çorum’s library network today. He was also behind the renovation of the Hıdırlık and Han mosques in the city.

Origin of the “Yedi-Sekiz” Nickname

Popular tradition holds that, being unable to read or write, Hasan Paşa signed his name by drawing a line between the numerals seven and eight, which resemble the old-script letters “ha” and “nun” — hence the nickname “Yedi-Sekiz Hasan Paşa” (Seven-Eight Hasan Paşa). However, Salim Aydın’s research, based on an archival search, finds that this term never appears in Ottoman documents or literature during the pasha’s lifetime or before the 1940s; contemporary sources refer to him only as “Hasan Paşa, Guard of Beşiktaş.” The same study finds that the term “Yedi-Sekiz” first appears in a special issue of the Çorum newspaper “Akşam Yıldızı,” published on 30 September 1965; the earliest written claims that he was illiterate likewise date from after 1940, and gained currency following the controversy over the removal of his tomb from the Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa cemetery in Beşiktaş in 1935. A document in the Ottoman Archives, however, contains a genuine signature of Hasan Paşa’s written in his own name.

Death

Sources disagree on Hasan Paşa’s date of death: the official list published by the Çorum Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism gives 1902, Turkish Wikipedia gives 23 January 1905, while the archival academic study places it in October 1904. Buried at the Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa cemetery in Beşiktaş, his tomb became a point of controversy during the Committee of Union and Progress era, and in 1935 his grave was moved to the Yahya Efendi Cemetery in Beşiktaş, next to his mother and first wife.

Sources

• Salim Aydın — “The Life and Military Activities of Mushir (Marshal) Hassan Pasha (the Seven-Eight), the Guard of Beşiktaş,” Atatürk University Journal of the Institute of Social Sciences, 25 (2), 2021, pp. 547-578
• Ethem Erkoç — Beşiktaş Muhafızı Yedi Sekiz Hasan Paşa ve Bir Devrin Hikâyesi (Çorum Municipality publication)
• Turkish Wikipedia — Yedi Sekiz Hasan Paşa

Frequently asked questions

Where does the nickname 'Yedi-Sekiz' (Seven-Eight) come from?

The popular account holds that, being unable to read or write, he signed his name with the Arabic numerals seven and eight — which resemble the old-script letters 'ha' and 'nun' — joined by a line. However, an academic study published in the journal of Atatürk University's Institute of Social Sciences (Salim Aydın, 2021) finds that the term 'Yedi-Sekiz' does not appear at all in Ottoman archival documents or in publications before the 1940s; it first appears in a special issue of a Çorum newspaper published on 30 September 1965. The same study documents that he attended a Quranic primary school in Çorum and that a genuine signature of his, written in his own name, survives in the archives.

Who built Çorum's clock tower, and when?

According to academic sources, Hasan Paşa played the key role in having the clock tower built in 1894; the calligrapher Mehmet Nuri, who wrote its inscription, included both Abdülhamid II's name and Hasan Paşa's on it.