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8/9/2019 Ottoman Historiography of Decline, 16th-17th Cent.
1/27
OTTOMAN HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE LITERATURE OF "DECLINE" OF THE SIXTEENTH ANDSEVENTEENTH CENTURIESAuthor(s): DOUGLAS A. HOWARDSource: Journal of Asian History, Vol. 22, No. 1 (1988), pp. 52-77Published by: Harrassowitz VerlagStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41932017 .
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8/9/2019 Ottoman Historiography of Decline, 16th-17th Cent.
2/27
DOUGLAS
A.
HOWARD
(Calvin
College)
OTTOMAN
HISTORIOGRAPHY
AND
THE
LITERATURE OF "DECLINE"
OF
THE
SIXTEENTH
AND
SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES
In
the
1970s
Roger
Owen
published
two
essays
in
whichhe criticized
modern
western
Orientalist
cholarship oncerning ighteenth-century
Islamic
history.1
he view that the
Ottoman
Empire
was
"in
decline"
during
he
eighteenth
entury,
he
wrote,
was based
partly
n the tradi-
tionalOrientalist ssumption hat thehighpointof "Islamic civilization"
was
reached
during
he
early
medieval
period,
and the formation f
the
Ottoman
Empire only
briefly
nterrupted
he
long
centuriesof
decline
which
followed.
According
to
traditional
cholarship,
his
empire,
too,
began
to
"decline",
beginning
n
the late
sixteenth
entury.
Owen attri-
buted
this
dea,
of what
might
be termedthe decline
within he
decline,
to
two
further
ssumptions:
hat
any
alteration
of the
original
Ottoman
system
of
administrationmust
necessarily
have
been
for
he
worse,
and
that
any
diminution f
Ottoman
authority
n
the
provinces
must also
have been harmful.2
Indeed,
the
period
of
the
history
f the
Ottoman
Empire
which
began
with
the
death of
Sultan
Süleymän
the
Magnificent
n
1566
and
ended
with
the
Treaty
of
Karlowitz
n
1699 has
traditionally
een
viewed as an
era of
stagnation
nd decline. A
succession of
poor
sultans,
t is
said,
led
to
a critical
weakening
of the central
power,
resulting
n
the
emergence
1
Roger
Owen,
"The MiddleEast
in
the
eighteenth
entury
an
'Islamic'
society
n
decline?
A
critique
f
Gibb nd
Bowen's slamic
Society
nd the
West",
eview
f
Middle
East
Studies
1975),
p.
101
112;
nd
the
Intro-
duction" o pt. 2 ofStudies n Eighteenthenturyslamic Historyed.
ThomasNaff nd
Roger
Owen
Carbondale
nd
Edwardsville, 11., 977),
pp.
133-151.
2
Owen,
The Middle
ast,"
p.
107.
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3/27
OTTOMAN
ISTORIOGRAPHYF
"DECLINE"
53
of
oppressive
local
regimes
n
the
provinces.
By
the
end of the seven-
teenth
entury
he nstitutions f
the
Ottoman
tate,
whichhad
achieved
their
classical
expression
by
the
mid-sixteenth
entury,
were
degraded
through
various
disruptions.
ocial
lifewas characterized
by
moral and
culturaldecadence.
This
"decline",
though
rrested
briefly y
the
Köp-
rili
"restoration"
etween
1656
and
1683,
finally
ulminated
n
the
series
of
disastrous
military
defeats
which the
Ottomans
sufferedbetween
1683-1699,
after the
second,
failed
siege
of Vienna.
Thus,
the
eight-
eenthcenturyopened at one of the bleakest moments n Ottomanhis-
tory,
nd few
scholars,
as Owen
noted,
have
questioned
the
aptness
of
the characterization
f "decline".
What
Owen
did not
say,
however,
s
that this
theory
f the decline
of
the
Ottoman
Empire
in the sixteenth
to
eighteenth
centuries
rests
primarily
n the
nterpretations
f
contemporary
ttoman
political
writ-
ers;
the idea
was,
in
other
words,
first n Ottoman
creation. It
found
ready
acceptance among
subsequent generations
of Ottoman
ntellectu-
als and was
repeated
in
Ottoman
political
iterature
of the next
two
centuries.Through ranslation fthis iteraturentowestern anguages,
the
Ottoman
ntellectual
nalysis
of the
Ottoman
decline became
its ac-
cepted
modern
cholarly nterpretation.
In
the
present
study,
the
emergence
of the
decline
theory
will be
treated
n
the context
of
Ottoman
iterary
nd
intellectual
evelopments
between
the
mid-sixteenth
nd
mid-seventeenth
enturies.
Ottoman
political
reatises
of the sixteenth
nd
seventeenth
enturies
have been
seen
variously
s
reflecting opular
political
entiments,
s
courageous
dissents
registered
by
loyal
and devoted
subjects,
as learned but
benign
counsel forthe sultan,or as governmentwhitepapers, guides forthe
eventual
enactment
of reform
measures,
intended
for a
small,
official
audience.3The
present
tudy
views
these
works as
comprising
literary
3 Bernard
ewis,
Ottoman
bservers
fOttoman
ecline,"
slamic
Studies
(1962),71-87;
Rhoads
Murphey,
Functioning
f heOttoman
rmy
nder
Murad V
(1623-1639/1032-1049):
ey
to the
Understanding
fthe
Rela-
tionship
etweenCenter
nd
Periphery
n
Seventeenth-Century
urkey,"
unpublished
h. D. Dissertation
University
f
Chicago,
979),
p.
21;
Mur-
phy,
Kanûn-nâme-i
ultani
i cAzîz
fendi:
Aziz
fendi's
ook
of
ultanic
Laws and Regulations:An Agenda or Reform ya Seventeenth-Century
Ottoman tatesman
Harvard,
985),
.
viii;
Pài
Fodor,
State
nd
Society,
Crisis
nd
Reform,
n
15th
17th
entury
ttoman
irror
or
rinces,"
cta
Orientalia
Academiae
cientiarum
ungaricae
0
(1986),
p.
217-240.
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4/27
54
DOUGLAS
. HOWARD
genre,
that of the Decline
treatise,
and views
their formal haracteris-
tics,
both common nd
unique
-
audience,
manner
of
address, format,
terminology
nd content
-
as
literary
material.
By
the middle of the
seventeenth
century
these
political
tracts
formed
literary
genre
of
political
nd
social
commentary,
eculiar
to
the
Ottomans,
o
which ater
writers
consciously
ontributed.4
Clearly,
the value of these works ies
in
their elucidation f the
con-
temporary
ntellectual
ebate,
and is not diminished
y
their
ometimes
faultyfactual material or inaccurate historicalreasoning.These texts
reveal a crucial
dialogue among
Ottoman
ntellectuals f
the
post-Süley-
mānic
age concerning
he bases of
Ottoman
overeignty
nd
legitimacy.
Accordingly, disregarding
these texts and
substituting
archival
documentation oes not resolve the
problems
they
present.
The devel-
opment
of the decline
theory
tself
needs
explanation.
Certain
scholars
have noted the common cribal class
origins
of
many
of these
authors,5
suggesting
that their
personal
investment
n
the maintenance
of the
status
quo spurred
their
literary
output.
This
indeed
appears
to
be
a
fruitfulineofanalysis.But thedevelopment fthe declinetheorynthe
late
sixteenth and
early
seventeenth centuries cannot be
entirely
x-
plained by
the instinctof
self-preservation
which seems
to have run
particularly
trong
n
the scribal
corps
of
the Ottoman
Empire.
Law
and
Legitimacy
n
the
Ottoman
Tradition
A
recent
study
nterpreted
he
Ottoman
decline
iterature,
in
spite
of
its idiosyncracies", s a directderivativeofthe traditionalNear Eastern
4
Hezārfenn
üseyin
fendi,
writing
n
1080/1669-1670,
eferred
n
his reat-
ise,
entitled
elkhīsū
l-beyãnī qavānīn-i
l-i
cOsmān to earlierwriters
n
the
genre,
ncluding oçiBeg,
Kātib
Çelebi,
ütfí
a§a
and
Ayn
Alï
Efendi.
See
Robert
Anhegger,
Hezarfenn
üseyin
fendi'nin smanli evlet
e§-
kilâtina air
míilâhazalari,"
ürkiyat
ecmuasi
10
1953),
65-393.
5 A.
S.
Tveritinova,
Socialisti dei
v
tureckikh
idakticheskikh
olitiko-
ekonomicheskikh
raktatakh VI- XVII
vv.,"
25th
nternational
ongress
of
Orientalists
Proceedings
Moscow,
-16
August,
960,
Moscow,
963),
vol.
2,
pp.
402-409;
Cornell
leischer,
ureaucrat nd Intellectualn the
Ottomanmpire:TheHistorianMustafaAli,15JĻ1-1600Princeton,986);
see
also R. A.
Abou-El-Haj,
eview f .
Metin
unt,
he
īiltaris ervants:
The
Transformationf
Ottoman
rovincial
Government
1550-1650,
n
Os-
manli
Ara§tirmalan/
ournal
f
Ottoman tudies
(1986),
21-246.
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OTTOMAN
ISTORIOGRAPHYF "DECLINE" 55
"Mirrors for
Princes",
with
regard
to its function as
well as its
philosophical
ubstance.6
t is no doubt true that
knowledge
fthisexist-
ing
literary
form nfluenced
he
development
of the Ottoman
decline
literature.
The
Near Eastern
expression
of this
seemingly
universal
genre
of advice literature
Persian
pandnāme
or
nasīhatnāme)
was
in-
troduced o
the Islamic world
n
the
eighth-century
y
Ibn
al-Muquaffac,
the vezir of the
Caliph
al-Mansūr,
who translated
many
ancient
ndo-
Iranian works
nto Arabic. Strands
ofthree
ancient
political
ultures
re
distinguishablenthese Near Eastern Mirrors: he ancientPersian con-
cept
of the ruler as the embodiment
f
Justice;
the
Greek
(Platonic)
concept
of
Justice
s social
harmony;
nd the Judeo-Christian
oncept
of
the
sovereignbeing subject
to the aw of
God.7
The
best known
xamples
ofthis
iterature rom he medieval
slamic
period,
ncluding
he
Qäbüs-
nãme of
Qā'i Qābūs
ibn
Iskandar,
the
Siyãru
'
l-Mulūk
of
Nizāmu
'l-Mulk,
and the Nasihatu
'l-Mulūk of
al-Ghazālī,
all Persian
works,
were
available to the
Ottomans
n
Turkishtranslation.8
However,
the
mmediacy
nd
urgency pparent
n
the
Ottoman
works
set themapart from arlierexamples. These Ottomanwriters ntended
more than to
give
advice
on how to rule.
They presented
critical
naly-
sis of
Ottoman
ociety,
nd warned that failure
o correct
he evils
they
described
meant
risking
social and
political
cataclysm.
n
the devel-
opment
fthe
Ottoman
decline
genre,
a
second
nfluence
s discernible
n
addition o the Near Eastern
"mirrors",
hat ofthe
centrality
f
qänün
,
6
Fodor,
State nd
Society," .
218.
7 See the ntroductionf RobertDankoffo YüsufKhāssHājib,Wisdom f
Royal Glory KutadguBilig
:
A Turko-lslamic
irror
or
Princes trans.
Dankoff
Chicago,
983),
p.
3-9. On
Ibn
al-Muqaffac,
ee
G.
Richter,
tu-
dienzur
Geschichte
er lteren
rabischen ürsten
piegel
Leipzig,
932).
8
Qãbusnãme
according
o
DankoffWisdo?n
p.
8)
the
first f the Persian
"Mirrors,"
as
completed
n 1082.Eleazar
Birnbaum
ublished
facsimile
edition f he earliest xtantOld
Ottoman
ranslation,
ated
pproximately
the fourth
uarter
f the fourteenth
entury,
ee
Birnbaum,
he Book
of
Advice
yKingKay
Ka-us bn skander
Cambridge,
ass.,
1981).
A manu-
script
f n
Ottoman
ranslation
f he
Siyãru
l-Mulūk f
Nizāmu
l-Mulks
preserved
n
the Istanbul
University
ibrary,
o. T6952
see
Agâh
Sim
Levend, Siyasetnameler,"ürkDili Ara§tirmalai~iilligiBelleten1962),
pp.
167-194,
n. 47.
An
Ottoman
ranslation
f
Ghazālī's
Nasihatu
l-Multük
dating
rom
he
reign
fMehemmed
I
(1451
1481)
s
in
the
Topkapi
arayi
Library,
stanbul,
o.
Hazine368.
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56
DOUGLAS
.
HOWARD
the
regulations
that
comprised
traditionalOttoman
dynastic
aw. The
authors often ouched
theirtreatises
n
the
language
of the
regulations,
often
made
oblique
allusions to
procedural
matters touched on
by
the
regulations,
nd sometimes
ven
employed
ample
sultanicdirectives
s
a
literary
device.
The
joining
in
Ottoman
decline literature
of these
objectives,
personal
advice to the ruler
which tressed
ustice
and
per-
sonal
piety,
nd
emphasis
on the traditional
aw,
reflects he
synthesis
f
traditionswhich characterized
Ottoman
political
heory.
The thesis of the sixteenth- nd seventeenth-centuryolitical ritics
became the
standard Ottoman
view
of
the
empire
n
the seventeenth
century
ecause
it was
firmly rounded
n
traditional ttoman
notions f
legitimacy.
Ottoman
oncepts
of tatecraft
epresented
n
amalgamation
of elementsfrom arious
political-philosophical
raditions,
ncluding
ra-
nian,
Islamic and
perhaps
Inner Asian.
These
elements
had come
to-
gether
n
Near Eastern states since about the ninth
entury.
The
prob-
lems
that arose from heir nteraction
ed to
important evelopments
n
Muslim
politicalphilosophy,
videntalso
in
Ottoman
political
iterature.
The conceptof sovereignty, s it had emerged duringthe medieval
Islamic
period,
was based
first f all on the
recognition
hat the
holy
aw
(
sharlca
was the ultimate
guide
of ife.Practical
reality,
however,
ed
to
the admission
that
kingship
was the
only
alternativeto
anarchy.
The
fundamental
urpose
of
rule,
then,
was to
mplement
he
holy
aw.
If
this
was the
purpose
of
rule,
t was also obvious that the
foundation f
egiti-
mate
rule must be
justice,
for
a
sovereign unjust
toward his
subjects
would
eventually
be forced
hrough
heirrebellion o forfeit is throne.
Justice
for
he
subjects
was
particularly
efined
n the Platonic sense of
an equitable division ofsocietyforthe preservation f social harmony.
The aim
of
ust
rule,
in
turn,
was to foster n environment
n
which
he
subjects
could
prosper,
for
nly hrough rosperity
f he
subjects
would
the
necessary
wealth be amassed
for he
army,
he
support
fthe ruler.
This
ancient
paradigm appeared repeatedly
n
Near Eastern
political
literature.
An
expanded
version,
adopted
from Persian
work
by
the
sixteenth-century
ttoman
thicist
Qinalîzâde,
read as follows:
There can
be
no
royal authority
without he
military
There can
be no
military
withoutwealth
The subjects producethe wealth
Justice
preserves
the
subjects' loyalty
o the
sovereign
Justice
requires
harmony
n
the world
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OTTOMAN
ISTORIOGRAPHY
F "DECLINE" 57
The
world s a
garden,
ts walls the state
The
Holy
Law
(
sharīca orders
the state
There is no
support
for
the sharīca
except
through oyal
authority.9
In
medieval Islamic
political
heory,
he most
significant
esult
of this
paradigm
was
a
legitimization
f absolutist
monarchy,
n
the
ancient
Iranian
tradition.
Royal authority
meant
the
prerogative
f the ruler
to
rule
through personal
decree.
The
legal
validity
of this
concept
was
founded
upon
a
philosophical
ccomodationbetween
"ruler's
aw"
(
curf
in OttomanTurkishcörf, and Muslimholylaw, the sharia. "Ruler's
law"
was
recognized
s
necessary
for he
upholding
f the
holy
aw,
and
was intendedforthe
regulation
f matters of
state concern
outside the
realm of
the
holy
law,
includingespecially
matters
of tax
collection,
criminal aw and administration
f the affairs
of state.10
The devel-
opment
fthis
body
of aw
was influenced
y political
vents,
notably
he
weakness of the
caliphate
and the
appearance
ofthe
sultanates,
nd was
defended
by
urists
since al-Māwardī.
Al-Mawardťs formulation
as
repeated
in later
sultanates,
ncluding
the Ottoman.11n Ottomanpoliticaltheory,however,there is seen a
unique emphasis,
as
regards
royal
authority,
n the
egitimacy
f a
body
law
(
qänün
,
pl.
qavânîn).
cÖrf
ntails
not
simply
ule
by
decree,
but
rule
according
to a codified
ollection
f
decrees,
promulgated
by
the
ruler
and ratified
y
his successors.
This law
code,
known
s the
Qãnunnãme-
i Àl-i
cOsmãn
(.
aw
Code
of
the
Ottoman
Dynasty
,
as modified
nd
expanded
by subsequent
sultans,
served
as the basis
of
Ottoman
public
law until at least
the middle of
the seventeenth
century.
The
circular
paradigm quoted
above
was often
referred
o
by
Ottoman
writers
nd
9
Quoted
n
Cornell
leischer,
Royal
Authority,ynastic
yclism
nd Ibn
Khaldûnism'
n
Sixteenth-Century
ttoman
etters,"
nBruceB.
Lawrence,
ed.,
bn
Khaldun
nd slamic
deology
Leiden, 984),
.
49.
See
Journal
f
Asian
and
African
tudies
18
Jerusalem,983],
p.
198-220).
10
See
H. A.
R.
Gibb,
Mawardi's
heory
fthe
Caliphate,"
slamic
Culture
11,
291-302;
H.
Laoust,
"La
pensée
et l'action
olitiques
Al-Mawardi,"
Revue
des études
slamiques
6
(1968),
11-92.
11 For a concise
ummary
f the
problem
f the
respectiveurisdictions
f
Sultanic
ecree
nd
holy
aw
see Halil
nalcik,
Osmanli
ukukuna
iri§:
rfi-
sultanî ukuk e Fatih'in anunlari,"iyasal Bilgiler akültesiDergisi13
(1958),
102-126;
nalcik,
Süleyman
he
Lawgiver
nd Ottoman
aw,"
Ar-
chivům
Ottomanicum
(1969), 107-111;
and
Inalcik,
Kanun,"
Encyc-
lopaedia
of
slam,
New
Edition,
ol.
5
(1985),
58-562.
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58
DOUGLAS . HOWARD
intellectuals,
who
found
n t
a convenient
ink
between
ustice,
a societal
dichotomy
f rulers and
ruled,
and
established
dynastic
aw.
The
Otto-
man
historianTursun
Beg
defended he law code
of
Sultan
Mehemmed
II
(ruled
1451-1481)
along
lines
similar
to
those of the medieval
philosophers,
s
necessary
forthe
preservation
f the "world
order".12
These
Ottoman
nnovations
may
represent
a
distinctly
nner Asian
influence
n
Ottoman,
nd
Islamic,
politicalphilosophy.13 ttempts
have
been made
to
link
the
Ottoman
concept
of law to a
supposedly
nner
Asian reliance on the law of the ancestors,evident n the legitimizing
role
ofthe
Chingissid
yāsā
,
and
present
even
in
the firstmonuments
n
a
Turkic
anguage,
the
Orkhon
nscriptions.
However,
the nature
of
the
yāsā
as a
feature of a
distinctly
nner
Asian
politicalphilosophy
s not
settled,14
nd even
if
t
were,
the route
of
ts
transmission o the
Otto-
mans is
not
clear.
It
is knownthat
educated men of etters
fleeing
he
Mongol
conquest
and the
disintegrating
Anatolian
Seljuk
state influ-
enced
the
political
and social life of
the western
AnatolianTurkic
prin-
cipalities,
that of the
Ottomans ncluded.
Many
Ottoman dministrative
forms ppear to have Seljuk, Persian and Ilkhanidmodels. The early
Ottoman
tate
attracted
many
ntellectuals,
writers,
poets
and
religious
figures
from
Central Asia as well.
15
There can be little
doubt that
these
12
Halil
Inalcik nd
Rhoads
Murphey,
ds. The
History f
Mehmed he
Con-
queror y
Tursun
Beg
Minneapolis,
978),
ext,
. a.
13
This s
the view of
Halil Inalcik.
ee
his
"Osmanlilar'da
altanat erâseti
usûlii,"
pp.
69-77;
"KutadguBilig'de
Türk
ve Iran
siyasetinazariye
e
gelenekleri,"
n
Re§id
Rahmeti
Arat
için
(Ankara,
1966),
pp.
259-271;
"Siileyman
he
Lawgiver,"
p.
107-109;
The
Ottoman
mpire:
The
Classi-
cal Age 1300-1600 London nd NewYork,1973), p. 65-69.14 On this
debate,
see David
Ayalon,
TheGreatYasa of
Chingiz
Khan,
A
Reexamination,"
tudia Islamica 33
(1971),
pp.
97-140;
34
(1971),
pp.
151-180;
36
1972),
p.
113-158;
38
1973),
p.
107-156;
Peter
Golden,
"Imperial
deology
nd the
Sources
of Political
UnityAmongst
he Pre-
Chinggisid
omads fWestern
urasia,"
Archivům urasiae MediiAevi2
(1982),
p.
37-76;
Mansura
aider,
The
Mongol
raditionsnd heir
urvi-
val
in
CentralAsia
(XIV-
XV
Centuries),"
entralAsiatic
Journal28
(1984),
pp.
57-79; Haider,
"The
Sovereign
in
the Timurid
State,
(XlVth
XVth
Centuries),"
urcica8/2
1976),
pp.
61-82;
and D.
O.
Mor-
gan,
"The GreatYasa of
Chingiz
hân'
nd
Mongol
aw
in
the
lkhanate,"
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and AfincanStudies 49 (1986),
pp.
163-176.
15
Eleazar
Birnbaum,
The
Ottomansnd
Chagatay
iterature:
n
Early
16th
Century
Manuscript
f Nava'i's Divan
in
Ottoman
rthography,"
entral
Asiatic
Journal 0
(1976),
pp.
157-190.
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OTTOMAN
ISTORIOGRAPHYF "DECLINE"
59
factors
ignificantly
nfluenced
he
development
f
Ottoman
political
dis-
course. But the role of the
concept
of
yãsã
in a medieval
Central
Asian
political heory,
which
might
have
been
bequeathed
to the
Ottomans,
s
not clear.
By
the middle of the fifteenth
entury
the
equation
of
ustice
with
application
of the
qänün
was
accomplished
n
Ottoman
politicalphiloso-
phy.
In
the
Ottoman
Empire,
the
military-governmental
pparatus
was
foundedon two
basic
institutions,
he slave
(qui)
and
the fief
tīmār
systems. Both of these institutions ested almost entirelyon qänün.
Accordingly,
he
political
and administrative tructure
f the Ottoman
state relied
heavily
on the theoretical
oncept
of
cörf.
he
problem
f he
transformationf nstitutions uch
as the tīmār
system
n
the late
six-
teenth and
early
seventeenth enturieswas
one of
great
importance
o
Ottoman hinkers ecause
they nterpreted
he
changes
as indicative
f
disregard
for
Ottoman
qänün
,
the traditional
regulations
which
em-
bodied the
legal
and
philosophical
nderpinnings
f the
Ottoman
tate.
This
had
significant
amifications
or their view
of the
legitimacy
of
Ottoman rule. Thus, the social transformationhese writers observed
became forthem an intellectual
malaise.
Ottoman
Decline Treatises
and the
Tīmār
System
The
highly harged
ntellectual
tmosphere
f the
Ottoman
Empire
of
the late sixteenth nd
early
seventeenth enturies
was
characterized
y
what has been called
"qänün
consciousness".16
his was an
age
ofconsid-
erable literary nd intellectual ctivity,ofseemingobsessionwith the
consepts
of
law and
legitimacy.
This was
a time
when,
n
the words
of
Mustafā
cĀlī,
he
Chancellor
ni§ānci
,
who sat on the
Imperial
Council
and who was the
Ottoman
officialmost nvolved
n
the
daily nterpreta-
tion
of
qänün
y
ould be called
the
"mufti
f
qänün"
and his role
ikened
to that
of the
§eykhü
l-islām
regarding
the
holy
law.
The
concept
of
qänün
in
Ottoman
ociety
had achieved
such
prominence
hat t could
be
compared
o the
holy
aw,
and its chief
nterpreter
o the
supreme
religi-
ous
authority
n
the
empire.17
Writers even
cited
foreign xamples
to
16
Fleischer,
ureaucrat
nd
Intellectual191
197.
17 This
point
was
made
by
Fleischer,
ureaucrat
nd Intellectual
p.
93.
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60
DOUGLAS
. HOWARD
support
their view of the
importance
f awfulrule.
An
early
sixteenth-
century
escription
f
China,
written
n
Persian for
presentation
o
Sul-
tan
Süleymän,
the Tãrlkh-i
Khitãy
va Khūtān
18
was translated nto
OttomanTurkish
during
his
period
underthe
title
Qãnunnãme-yi
Çln
ü
Khitãy.19
The
sipãhis
of that
country's
mperor",
the author
wrote,
"never
have the
power
to alter and
modify,
he
apex
of
evil,
n
opposition
to the
law
(
qänün
."20
It
is difficult
o
fully
ppreciate
the
argumentspresented
n
the De-
cline iteraturewithout thorough amiliarity ith änün. This s partic-
ularly
true with
regard
to their
nalysis
of the timar
system.
Under
the
timar
system,
he
Ottoman
tate
bestowed
on certain tate servants he
right
to
collect,
for their material
support,
tax
revenues
from he
sub-
jects
living
on
the land of a certain area. These
revenue
grants,
called
timar
could
be revoked for
neglect
of
duty.
The timar- older
par
ex-
cellence
was the
common
avalry
soldier
sipãhi
,
who
in
returnforhis
tlmãr
owed the state the
obligation
f
serving
on
campaigns.
The
tlmār
was
not,
strictly
peaking, hereditary,
ut
the
status of
sipãhi
was
pas-
18
On
this
work ee
C.
A.
Storey,
ersian Literature.
Biobibliographical
Guide 3
vols.
London,
927),
vol.
1,
pp.
431-432.
The
autograph
manu-
script
f
he
uthor,
eyyid
AlīAkbar
Khitāi,
s n
he
üleymaniyeibrary,
Istanbul,
o.
A§ir
Efendi 09. Extractswere
published y
Charles
chefer,
"Trois
chapitres
u
Khitay
namèh,"
Mélanges
Orientaux
Paris, 1883),
pp.
29-84.
See also Paul Ernst
Kahle,
"Eine
islamische
uelle
über
China
um
1500.
Das
Khitâynâme
es
Ali
Ekber.),"
Acta
Orientalia
2
Leiden,
1934),
p.
91
110;Kahle,
China s
described
y
Turkish
eographers
rom
Iranian
ources,"
extofa lecture elivered n
January
5,
1940
London,
The IranSociety, roceedings).
19 In
addition o the
manuscripts
ocated
n
Paris and
Dresden,
isted
by
E.
Blochet,
atalogue
des manuscrits
urcs 2
vols.
Paris, 1932-1933),
ive
manuscripts
f
the Ottoman urkish ranslationre extant
n
Istanbul: ee
Istanbul
kütüphaneleriarih-cografyaazmalari ataloglan
vol.
1,
fase.
0
(Istanbul,
951),
p.
810-812. The Ottoman
ranslation,
edicated
o
Sultan
Murād
II,
was
wrongly
ttributedo
Hüseyin
Hezarfenn
on
which ee
Robert
Anhegger,
Hezarfenn
üseyin").
t was
published
n
Istanbul
n
1270/1853-1854.havenothad accessto themodern urkish ranslation
y
Yih-Min
iu,
Hitayname Taipei,
1967).
The
same writer
sing
Chinese
sources,
uestions
he
uthenticity
f he uthor's bservations:ee
Liu,
"A
ComparativendCritical tudy fAliAkbar'sKhitay-namaithReference
to
Chinese
ources,"
English ummary)
entral
Asiatic
Journal
7
1983),
pp.
58-78.
20
Quoted
n
Anhegger,
Hezarfenn
üseyin," .
366.
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OTTOMANISTORIOGRAPHYF
"DECLINE"
61
sed
from
fatherto
son;
thus,
the
tímãr-holámg ipãhi cavalry
consti-
tuted a
provincially
ased
army
of warriors
nd their sons.21
The
existence of
numerous
manuscript
versions of collections
of
qā-
nūns
concerning
he timar
system
s
explained
by
the nature
of
qänün
all
qänün
originated
s directivesof the
sultan,
written
riginally
o a
particular
ndividual,
usually
the
governor beglerbegi
of a
province,
n
response
to a
petition
r
a
complaint.
n
adition
to
the
specific roblem
raised
in
the
petition, hey
often
dressed
generally pplicable
principles
of administration. he directives were copied into the records of the
chief
magistrate
qãdi
of the
province,22
nd
kept
in
a chest
by
the
beglerbegi
23
Copies
were authorized nd must have received consider-
able
circulation t the time.24 irectives
concerning
particular
ubject,
such as the
tīmār
system, may
have been collected and
copied
into a
single
manuscript
orconvenience.25
uch
a
compilationmay
have been
made,
for
xample,
for he
ni§ānci
whose
responsibility
t was to
verify
that
outgoing
decrees accorded
with
existing änün.
A
qänünnäme
was
any
such collection
of directives. There are indications
hat adminis-
tratorsmaintained qänünnäme addingclauses inaccordancewithnew
directives as
they
were received.26
n
addition,
various individuals
p-
21
On
the timar
ystem
ee Halil
nalcik,
he
Ottoman
mpire
The
Classical
Age
1300-1600
New
York,1973),
104
118;
Nicoara
Beldiceanu,
e timar
dans VÉ at
ottoman
débutXWe-
débutXVI
siècle
(Wiesbaden,
980);
Douglas
Howard,
"The Ottoman
imar
System
nd its
Transformation,
1563-1656"
npublished
h. D. dissertation
Indiana
University,
987).
22
The
§ercl
icilleri. or
examples
rom he
reign
fMehemmed
I,
see
Halil
Inalcik,
Bursa
eriyye
icillerinde
atih ultan
Mehmed'in
ermanlari,"
el-
leten 1
1947),
93-708.
23 Notethetypicaldmonitiononcludingachdirective,preservehishonor-
able directive
n
thechest f
registers
hükm-i
erīfūmi
efter
andughinda
hifz
desiz
,"
see the
manuscript
n
the
Süleymaniye
ibrary,
stanbul,
tif
Efendi
734,
. 16b.
24
Inalcik,
Siileyman
he
Lawgiver," .
117,
n. 39.
25
Fleischer,
ureaucrat nd Intellectual
pp.
92-95;
see
also
nalcik,
Süley-
man he
Lawgiver," p.
116-117.
26
This
contrary
o the view of
Omar
Lütfí
Barkan,
XV
ve XVIinci
sirlarda
Osmanli
mparatorluģunda
iraî ekonominin
ukukî
e malí
esaslan vol.
1, Kanunlar,
pp.
XX- XXXIV.
Note,
for
xample,
he
comment
t theend
of directiveopiednto qänüncollectionthems. s intheBayezit tate
Library,
stanbul,
o.
Veliyüddin
970,
.
6a),
"itwasenterednthe
qänün-
näme"
qãnunnãmeye
ayd
olundi
;
see also
ibid.,
f.
10a,
"It was ordered
that incehencefortht willbe done
n
the
preceding
anner,
t be recorded
in
the
qänünnäme
"
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62 DOUGLAS
.
HOWARD
pear
to have collected
copies
of such
regulations, diting
hem
ccording
to
criteria ometimesdifficulto define.
Moreover,
there seems to have
existed a
body
of
regulations
of
general validity
for the timar
system,
although
he
extant
manuscripts
ontainnumerousvariants.27
While the
Ottoman
declinewritersmade a
number
f
mportant
bser-
vations
regarding
he timar
system
n
this
period,
their
arguments
s-
sentially
can
be summarized
by
two
assertions,
both cast
in
terms of
qānūn
first,
hat the numberof tlmārs
n
the
empire
had
declined,
nd
that as a result,fewerfightingmen were available for ombatduty nthe
Ottoman
military.
Second,
they charged
that there had occurred a
dramatic
lteration
n
the
composition
f the
¿īmār-holding
lass. It had
been
invaded
by
alien
elements,
both
from
bove,
by
government
ffi-
cials
and
palace
favorites,
nd from
below,
by
the common
peasantry.
Thus,
what
few tlmārs remainedwere held
by
ndividuals nfit
or
tate
service.
In
the view
of hese
writers,
orruption
nd
nepotism
mong
he
provincialmilitary
eadership
accounted forthe
changes
they
observed
in
the timar
system.
If
the
qãnun
were adhered
to,
the tlmār
army
would again flourish nd become an effectivemilitary orce.
In
certain
respects
Lütfi
Pa§a,
the former
Grand Vezir
of
Sultan
Süleymän
the
Magnificent,
an be
regarded
as the creatorof
this
genre
with his
Àsafnãme
written
n
retirement
n
1542.
8
A
broad
literary
27
Two such
ollections
ave
been
published.
ee M.
Tayyib ökbilgin,
Kanûnî
Sultan
üleyman'in
imar e zeamet evcihile
lgili
ermanlari,"
arih
Der-
gisi
22
1968),
p.
35-48. This s a
summary
f he ontentsf collectionf
six
decrees
f ultan
üleyman
. For a
similar ollection
n
Ottoman
urkish
with
ranslationnto
French,
ee Irène
Beldiceanu-Steinherr,
Loi sur la
transmissionu timar1536),"Turcica11 1979), p. 78-102. Unfortunate-
ly,
neither f
hese
ublications
ucceeds
n
placing
hese ourceswithinheir
proper
ontext,
nd
as a result
hey resent
confusingicture
f he
īmār
system
n
the ixteenth
entury.
more
omplete
ersion
f his
änünnäme
is
found
n
two
other
manuscripts,
tif
E
fendi
734,
n
the
Siileymaniye
Library,
stanbul,
noted
bove
in
note
23),
and also
in
the
Süleymaniye
Library,
o.
§ehid
Ali
Pa§a
2832
the
manuscript
n
the
Topkapi arayi
Library,
stanbul,
o. Yeni
Yazma
1392,
s a
copy
f his
manuscript,
ade
n
1941,
nd
neednotbe
considered).
he atter ersion arries he
itle
Qänün-
nāme-i
Osmānl
berãy-i
lmār
āden nd
the date 983/1575-1576.
28
The
Àsafnãme
was
published
n
Istanbul
n
1326/1908.
he Swiss scholar
Rudolf schudi repared critical dition f hework,with ranslationnto
German,
ased on
manuscripts
n
Vienna,Dresden,
nd
Munich,
s
well
s
the
ibrary
f he
Bayezid
Mosque
n
stanbul,
s his
doctoral issertationor
the
Friedrich
lexanders
niversity
n
Erlangen
Das
Asaf
amedes
Lutfì
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OTTOMANISTORIOGRAPHY
F "DECLINE"
63
motivation orthe work can
be
inferred rom he
title,
which lludes to
the
legendary
vezir of the biblical
King
Solomon.
The
subject
of
Āsaf-
nāme concerns
advice
to future
Grand
Vezirs. Its words are
carefully
phrased,
n
an
impersonal assive
voice,
counseling
ttention o
personal
ethics,
n
the mold of the
traditional
Near Eastern nasīhatnāme litera-
ture,
and action
n
terms of what is
permissible
under the law
(
qänün
.
The work
can,
of
course,
be viewed as intended
ndirectly
or the
sultan. But
later
writers,
n
tones
considerably
more strident
hanthose
of LütfiPa§a, wrote of thenecessityof actionbythe sultan,frequently
addressing
the
ruler
himself
n a
highly ersonal
manner. Later writers
viewed Lütfí
Pa§a
as a
pioneer
n
the Decline
genre,
but
in
this
sense
Āsafnāme
is
still
very
much traditional
Mirror orPrinces". There can
be little
argument
that Mustafa
cĀlī of
Gallipoli's
Nüshätü
'
s-Selātīn
completed
in
1581,
should be considered
the
exemplary
work
in
the
emerginggenre
of the Decline treatise.29
cĀlI,
an
embittered cribe and
bureaucrat,
served
in
various
posts,
eventually
rising
to the
position
of Governor
of the
province
ofJidda.30
NeverthelesscĀlīfeltthat his talents had been overlooked, nd that he
had not
received sufficient
pportunity
o
accomplish
n
his career what
should have
been
possible
for
man of his
training
nd
experience.
t is
impossible
to
ignore
the obvious
literary
merit of his work: few wrote
with
such
impassioned
vision or such satirical force.
The
Nüshät
far
from
eing
an
inter-Governmental
emorandum,
arries
the tone of an
intensely
personal
memoir. t
might
eem somewhat easier to dismiss
'All's
complaints
bout his failure o advance
in
his career as the
petulant
rantings
of
a
spiteful
ureaucrat,
were it not forhis method.
From
the
standpoint fOttoman egal and intellectualhistory,t is significanthat
cĀlī
grounded
much of his
reasoning
n
a rather
rigid
view of
qânûn
as
normative
aw,
and as that which stablishesthe boundaries
f he
possi-
ble
under the
Ottoman
ystem.
Later writerswere
to
amplify
his con-
cept.
Pascha
Leipzig,
910).
His edition
as then
epublished
nder he
ame itle
(Berlin,
910).
29 TheNüshäthas been
published
n
an edition
ith ranslation
nto
nglish y
AndreasTietze,MustafaCÁi's Counselfor ultans 1581 2 pts. (Vienna,
1979
nd
1982).
30 On
Mustafa
ll
see
Cornell
.
Fleischer,
ureaucrat
nd
ntellectual
n the
Ottoman
mpire:
TheHistorian
Mustafa
Ali,
15Ķ1
1600
Princeton,
986).
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OTTOMANISTORIOGRAPHYF
"DECLINE"
65
To
Qoçi Beg
a thirdworkhas
been
recently
ttributed,
which s actual-
ly
not a finishedbook but a collection of ten memoranda found
n
a
Istanbul
manuscript
n
the
Veliyüddin
collection.33 he work can be
dated
in
the
following
manner. The author notes the
assembling
of the
extraordinary,
xtended session of the
Imperial
Council,
summoned n
June
8,
1632
by
Sultan
Murād
IV for the
purposes
of
dealing
with a
military
ebellion nd
addressing
certain ssues of state administration.
Subsequently
the decisionwas taken
to
inspect
all
tīmārs
n
the
empire.
The VeliyüddinmemorandamentionHüseyinPa§a, who was appointed
to
begin
the
inspection
fthe
province
f Rumelia.
A
copy
ofthe
diploma
of office f
Hüseyin
Pa§a,
dated
July
19, 1632,
has
been
discovered
n
another
manuscript.34
ther
documents
verify
he
accuracy
of this
ap-
18
1864],
p.
699-740).
Ali
Kemali
Aksüt
dentified
he uthor s
Qoçi
Beg
onthebasisof
marginal
ote
n
the
manuscript
e usedfor
is
transcription
(Millet
Kütüphanesi,
stanbul,
o.
474;
see
Aksüt,
d.,
Koçi
Bey
Risalesi
p. 77).AhmedVefik adnoted arlier hatQoçiBegpresented treatise o
Sultan
brāhlm,
ithout, owever,
nowing
f
ny
xtant
manuscripts
f
he
work
see
the ntroduction
o his
publication
f
Qoçi
Beg's
Risale
p.
1).
In
his
publication,
n
transcription,
f another
versionof the work
based
on
Nuruosmaniyeibrary,
stanbul,
o.
4950),
Faik
Re§it
Unat
disputed
his
authorship,ttributing
his work
nstead o Ibrāhim'sGrand
Vezir
Qara
Mustafā
a§a
(see
"Kara Mustafa
a§a'nm
ultan
brahim'e
azdigi
anun-
dur,"
Tarih
Vesikalan 1/6
April,
942],
p.
447-480).
M.
ÇagatayUluçay
argued onvincingly
or
QoçiBeg's
authorship
nd
published
transcription
ofwhat s
probably
he
original
et of
reports
telkhisātdrawn
p
for ultan
Ibrāhimwhich
omprise
he work
Koçi
Bey'in,
ultan
brahim'e akdim
ettiģiRisale ve arzlari," n Zeķi Velidi Togan Armagani (Istanbul,
1950-1955),
p.
177-199.
Uluçay peculated
hat he Revan
1323
Müker-
rer)
manuscript,
n
the
Topkapi arayi
Library,
stanbul,
may
be an
early
copy
made
by
the author
himself. nother
manuscript
s
in
Leningrad,
no.
361
(see
W. D.
Smirnow,
Manuscrits
urcsde Vinstitut
es
langues
orientales
St.
Petersburg,
897;
reprinted
msterdam,
971),
pp.
50-54.
For
further
eference,
onsult
luçay,
Koçi
Bey,"
slam
Ansiklopedisi,
ol.
6
(1974),832-835,
and Colin
mber, Koçi
Bey,"Encyclopaedia
f
slam
New
Edition,
ol.
5
(1986),
48-250.
33
Bayezit
tate
Library,
stanbul,
o.
Veliyüddin
205.
34
In
the
Süleymaniyeibrary,
stanbul,
o.
Reisülküttab,
004,
. 154b.The
berätthedefinitiveiploma f ppointment,s a separate ocument,ated
Evākhir-iMuharrem 042/First
art
of
August
1632.On
these
events,
ee
the
Ottoman
hronicle
fMustafa
acīma,
ārīkh
Third
d., Istanbul,
283/
1866-1867),
ol.
3,
pp.
112-122.
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66
DOUGLAS
. HOWARD
pointment
ate,35
which
stablishes
the
terminus nte
quem
non for he
Veliyüddin
memoranda. The author of
the memoranda
rgues
that
in-
spection
of Anatolia should be
delayed
until that of Rumelia had been
completed,
o that the
presence
of the
full
Ottoman
rmymight
nsure
an
orderly
process.36
Archival documents show that the
inspection
of
Anatolia commenced
n
early August,
1632;37 herefore,
t
seems
likely
that the
Veliyüddin
memorandawere
composed
before his
date,
in
late
July
or
early August,
1632. It
is
possible
to
argue
that the author
might
have pleaded for a delay in the Anatolian nspection ightup untilthe
day
it was
completed,
n
February
1633,
8
and that this date should be
regarded
as the
terminus
ost quern
non
for he
Veliyüddin
memoranda.
This,
however,
seems less
likely.
The attribution f the work
to
Qoçi
Beg
rests
on
faultymethodology.
Rhoads
Murphey
noted the
presence
n
this collection
fthreememoran-
da which
appear
in
eight
of the
eighteen manuscripts
of
Qoçi Beg's
Risale
he examined
n
Istanbul.39On this
evidence
Murphey
oncluded
that
Qoçi
Beg
had
prepared
two
versions
of the Risale : to the first
version he later added the three extramemoranda.The secondversion,
attested
by
the
unique manuscript
n
the
Veliyüddin
ollection,
ncluded
the three extra memoranda from the first version and
seven new
memoranda.40 o critical extual evidence s
employed
n
support
ofthis
theory.
The
attribution
o
Qoçi Beg,
then,
must
be
regarded
as no more
than
speculative.
35 Records f
orrespondence
urvive
etween
Hüseyin
a§a,
in
Sofia,
ndthe
central
dministration,
egarding
rocedural
matters
orthe
inspection,
whichhad notyet begun.See Reiülküttab 004,ff. 56a-157a.The re-
sponses
re dated
Evā'il-iMuharrem
042/Last
art
of
July
632.
36 Rhoads
Murphey,
The
Veliyüddin
elhis:
Notes nthe
Sources
nd nterre-
lations etween
Koçi
Bey
and
Contemporary
riters f
Advice o
Kings,"
Belleten
3
(1979),
47-571; text,
elhis o.
VII,
p.
568.
37 The
rûznâmçe
the record
f
tīmārbestowalsmaintained
t the
Imperial
Registry
n
stanbul,
orAnatolia
or hat
year,
breaks ff
fter 6 Rebřti
1-
evvel
1042/1
ugust
1632.
n the
Baçbakanlik
rçivi
BBA),
Istanbul,
ee
Ruz.
519,
p.
74.
38 The earliestdate
recorded
n
the
new
rûznâmçe
or
Anatolia s
16 Receb
1042/10
ebruary
633.See
BBA Ruz.
512,
p.
506.
39 Memoranda os. 2, 3 and 10among heVeliyüddinollection,os. 17-19
among
hose
published
y
Aksüt. ee
Murphey,
Dördüncü ultan
Murad'a
sunulan
edi
elhis,"
III.
TürkTarih
Kongresi
vol.
2,
1095-1099.
40
Ibid.,
pp.
1096-1097 nd
n. 4.
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OTTOMANISTORIOGRAPHYF
"DECLINE"
67
The author
prepared samples
of official
orrespondence,
which
pre-
sumably
demonstrate the
readiness with which
the ideas
in his
memoranda can be
put
into effect.These
"imperial
decrees" resemble
more
closely
the admonitions f other
Decline writers41han
the actual
copies
ofthe
directives ent to
Hiiseyin
Pa§a
in
1632
regarding
he timar
reorganization.42
he
memoranda
tyle
s a familiar evice of
Qoçi
Beg;
an innovative lement
ppears
here
n
the use of
ample
mperial
decrees
as a
literary
device.
Moreover,
the writer of these memoranda
some-
times uses expressionswhichdiffermarkedly rom hoseofQoçi Beg, as
seen in
the Risale . He
repeatedly
insists,
for
example,
that
tīmārs
should
only
be bestowed
on the sons
of
sipãhis
whose families
have
served the
Ottoman
tate
for
generations.43
This
was
the
traditional
iew
of the
tīmār
system,
the
view
enforced
by sixteenth-centuryãnun
and
referred
o
by
most
Decline
writers.
As
early
as
the
reign
of
Süleymän,
Lütfi
Pa§a
had
written,
we
must
nsist
that none
from the
peasantry
be
made
sipāhis
that
none be
made
sipãhis
except
those
who are
sons
of
sipāhis
whose
fathers
nd
ances-
tors weresipāhis "44Mustafā'Ālīwrotethat nhistime, īmārswere "all
reserved for
the mercenaries
evend
and
for the
slaves
of the
great
(ekâbir
qullari)
..."45
The
anonymous
uthor
of
Kitāb-i
müstetab
on
which ee
below)
wrote
that
tīmārs had become
"the
prerogative
f
the
vezirs,"
that
by
approaching
a t
n-aqçe
scribe,
they
name
the
slave
girls
in
their
households,
heirbeardless
youths
nd
slave
boys,
even
their
ats and
dogs,
every
one of them
being
designated
by
a
name,
are
awarded
a
diploma
fora
zicāmet or
tīmār "46
Qoçi
Beg
wrote
in his Risāle
that,
whereas
in
previous
times
the
tīmārs had been
in the hands
of
military
personnel,
the
members
of
41 Note
especially
he
definitions
f
epet
īmān
given
ycAyn
Alï,
ms. Fatih
3497,
ff.
1b-
32a,
regarding
Veliyüddin
o.
6,
Murphey,
Veliyüddin
Telhis,"
pp.
566-567;
and the
suspicions
f
Hiiseyin
a§a
voiced
by
cAzīz
Efendi,
änünnäme
ed
Murphey,
rans,
.
20.
42 Reisülküttab
004,
f.
54a-
159a.
43 QoçiBeg,Risāle ed. Vefik, . 5.
44
Tschudi,
d.,
Das
Asafnâme
text,
p.
24.
45
Tietze, d.,
Counsel
or
Sultans
vol.
1,
p.
85.
46
Ya§ar
Yücel,
ed.,
Kitab-i
Müstetab
Ankara,
974),
ext,
p.
26.
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68 DOUGLAS . HOWARD
military
units
and their
sons,
and "outsiders and
persons
of
ignoble
origin
did not enter their
ranks",
recently hey
had become filledwith
those who were
johnny-come-latelys,
hose
who
said
"there
s
profit
here",
who could not
distinguishgood
and
evil,
those who had no
legitimate
onnection,
hose who
by origin
or stock were
not
posses-
sors of dirliks
some of them
cityboys
and some
of them
peasants,
a
bunch of
commoners,
not useful for
nything.47
The result ofthesedevelopments, ddedQoçi Beg, was that"if he world
were
ruined,
they
took
no
notice,
nd
-
God
protect
us
-
if
the
enemy
overran
the
world,
they
would not even know what the war was . . .
concernforthe
faithhas never
entered their
thoughts".48
Ottoman
statesmen, however,
adopted
a differenttance
during
the
reorganization
f
1632-1633,
ordering
hat tlmãrs
be
given
to former
membersof elite
palace military
ivisionswho had
been stationed
n
the
provinces,
and to
local
peasant youths
who
demonstrated
prowess
in
battle.
This realistic
policy,
which
recognized
nd
accepted
the
changes
whichhad occurred n the tīmār systemduringthe previoushalf cen-
tury,
was
intendedto revitalize
t,
to harness its
present strengths
or
contemporarymilitary
xigencies.
It
clearly
differed rom he
attitude
expressed
in
the
Decline literature
of the
day.49
The
Veliyiiddin
memoranda,
while
cautioning gainst
abuses
in
tīmār
bestowals
in
the
usual
manner,
ppear
to
embrace
this
new
policy, bandoning
he tradi-
tional
language
of
the
qānūn
forthe
terminology
f the decrees of the
reorganization
ffort.
ither the author of the
Veliyüddin
memoranda
was not
Qoçi
Beg,
or
Qoçi Beg's
views had
undergone
a
remarkable
transformationn twoyears.
With
regard
to
the view held
by
these
writers
f he
state of
the tīmār
system,
particular
attentionmust
be
paid
cAyn
Alī
Efendi,
a
writer
whose
work
heavily
influenced
the
subsequent
development
of
the
genre.
In
1609,
cAyn
Alī,
a
scribe of
the
Imperial
Councilwho
served
as
Intendant
of the
Imperial
Registry,
the
office
which
maintained
the
records
ofthe
tīmār
system
hroughout
he
empire,
presented
o
Sultan
Ahmed
I
a
treatise
devoted
entirely
o
the tīmār
system.
The
book,
entitled
Qavānīn-i
Āl-i
cOsmān
der
khüläsa-i
mezāmīn-i
defter-i
īvān
47
Qoçi
Beg,
Risàie ed.
Vefik,
.
12.
48
Ibid
49
On the tīmār
eorganization,
ee
Howard,
The Ottoman
imar
System,"
pp.
193-235.
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OTTOMAN
ISTORIOGRAPHYF
"DECLINE"
69
(
The Laws
of
the
Ottoman
Dynasty
Comprising
a
Summary
of
the
Contents
of
the
Council
Registers
,50
contains a
digest
of
regulations
concerning
arious
aspects
of the administration f the tīmār
system.
Later writers
copied many
of
cAyn
Alī'snumerous
tables,
which isted
the
numbers of
tīmār
in
the
provinces
of the
Ottoman
Empire,
the
numbers of
troops expected
for battle from
each
province,
and the
salaries
of
provincial
officials.These
figures,
which were drawn from
fiscal
survey
records of the
sixteenth
century, hey
incorporated
nto
theirown works,as representativeof the state of affairs n their own
day.51
cAyn
Alī
E
fendi
lso authored a second
treatise,
devoted to financial
matters.
It
appears
that
the
two
works were considered
by
contem-
poraries
to be
closely
related.
They
were often
opied sequentially
nto
the
same
manuscript,
nd were
published ogether
rom ne such manu-
script.52
The
work of
Ayn
Alī
fendi has
usually
been treated as a more or ess
politically
eutral
piece
of
scholarship
written
y
a
retired ivil
ervant.
However, an earlier recensionofthe Qavãnln, which survivesin only
one known
manuscript,
ontains
chapter
not ncluded
n
the version he
author
presented
to
Sultan
Ahmed I.53
From the initial entence of this
chapter,
which
begins
with
the formulaic
khãfi
olmaya
ki . .
(let
it not
be
concealed
[i.e.,
from he
sultan]
...),"
it is
obvious that
the work
belongs
to the
Decline treatise
genre.
The writer oncludeshis
strongly
worded
essay
with
the
advice,
"as the established aws
(qānūn-i muqar-
rer)
concerning
he
army
are
executed,
order and
organization
will
be
facilitated nd
ascertained,
by
the
will
of
God,
may
he
be
exalted".
The problemsofthe originality f the ideas expressed in each of the
works
n
this
genre
of
Ottoman
political
iterature,
he
nterrelationships
between the
works,
and the influence
f
the authors on
one
another,
have not
been
sufficientlynvestigated.54
50
Published
n
Istanbul, 280/1864;
hisedition as
been
reprinted,
ith n
introduction
y
M.
Tayyib
Gökbilgin
Istanbul,
979).
51
Including
oçi
Beg.
The relevant ection
s foundn
Revan
1323
Mükerrer),
ff.
1b- 52b.
See
also the
transcription
f
Aksüt,
p.
99-103.
52 Entitled
isāle-i
vazīfe-i
horãn emerātib-i
endegān-i
l-i
cOsmān
Istan-
bul, 1280/1864;eprinted979).
53
The
manuscript
s in the
Süleymaniyeibrary,
stanbul,
o. Fatih3497.
ee
ff. 0-41.
54 The
scholarship
fRhoads
Murphey
as donemuch o
begin
o address hese
problems.
ee
Murphey,
The
Veliyiiddin
elhis,"
p.
547-571.
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8/9/2019 Ottoman Historiography of Decline, 16th-17th Cent.
20/27
70
DOUGLAS
. HOWARD
In
additionto the fourworks
already
mentioned,
everal
other trea-
tises must
be included
n
a discussion of
the
genre.
These include
the
following.
In
1596,
after he Ottoman
ampaign
gainst
the
Hungarian
fortress f
Eger,
Hasan
Qâfî,
from he
village
of
Aqhisär
in
Bosnia,
a
jurist
and
theologian
and author of
a number of
works,
wrote Usui
al-hikam
fi
nizãm al-cãlam
(Principles of
Wisdom
Regarding
the
Order
of
the
World),
The work was written
n
Arabic
and translated nto Ottoman
Turkishby the author.55Hasan Qâfîset about to elucidatethe basis of
the worldorder and the
reasons,
n
his
opinion,
or he disordermanifest
at the
present
ime. He concluded hat
primary
ault
ay
with
neglect
of
justice,
seen
in
the
appointment
of
incompetent
men to
posts
of
authority.56
Qavānīn-i
Yefiiçeriyân
a
lengthy,
nonymous
work of nine
chapters
on
the
Janissaries,
dated to the
reign
of
Sultan
Ahmed
I
(1603-1617),
has never been
published.
Several
manuscripts
re
known.57 he
style
s
factual nd the
presentation
enters
round
a
compilation
f
regulations,
55
Theworkwas
published
n stanbul nthree
ccasions,
n
1278/1861
1862,
n
1285/1868-1869,
nd
in
1287/1870-1871.
ull or
partial
ranslations
ave
appeared
n
French,
y
Garcin
e
Tassy,
Principes
e
sagesse
ouchant'art
de
gouverner ar
Rizwan-ben-abd-oul-mennan
c-hissari,"
ournal
Asiati-
que
4
(1824),
pp.
213-226;
n
Hungarian,
y
E. J.
Karácson,
z
egri
örök
emlékirat
kormányzásmódjáról Eger
vár
elfoglalása
lkalmával
az
1596 évben
rja
Molla Haszan
Elkjáfi Budapest,
909);
nd
German,
y
Lajos Thallóczy
nd E. J.
Karácson,
"Eine Denkschrift
es bosnischen
Mohammedaners olla Hassan
elkjafi
über die Art und Weise
des Re-
gierens,"Archiv ürslavische hilologie 2 (1911),pp. 139-158. See also
MustafaA.
Mehmed,
La crise ottomane
ans la visionde Hasan Kiafi
Akhisari
1544-1616),"
Revue
des études ud-est
uropéennes
3
(1975),
pp.
385-402.
56
Mehmed,
La
crise,"
p.
392-394.
57
Extant
manuscripts
re:
in
Istanbul,
opkapi arayi
Library,
os. Revan
1319
and
1320;
stanbul
University
ibrary,
o.
T3293;
Süleymaniye
i-
brary,
o. Esad Efendi
068
nd
Nuruosmaniyeibrary,
o.
4095;
n
Gotha,
see Wilhelm
ertsch,
Die
orientalischen
andschriften
er
herzoglichen
Bibliothek u
Gotha
2
vol.,
(Vienna, 1859-1864;
reprinted
Wiesbaden,
1971),
no.
133/2;
n
Bratislava,
niversityibrary
o. TE47
(see
Josef las-
kovic, d., Arabische türkische ndpersische andschriftenerUniver-
sitätsbilbiothekn Bratislava
Bratislava, 961),
.
318;
n
Sarajevo,
ee Saf-
vet
beg Bašagič, "Popis
orijentalnihukopisa
moje
biblioteke,"
lasnik
zemaljskogmuzeja
u Bosni
Hercegovini
8
(1916),
p.
207-290,
no. 66.
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8/9/2019 Ottoman Historiography of Decline, 16th-17th Cent.
21/27
OTTOMAN
ISTORIOGRAPHY
F
"DECLINE"
71
in
a
manner reminiscent
f the
Qavãnin
of
cAyn
A'l. Its
purpose,
to
describe the traditional
egulations
by
which
the Janissaries
were
gov-
erned,
and to contrast heir
orderly
ast
with heir
present
tate,
places
the
work
quarely
within he
genre
ofthe Decline
treatisesof
he
period.
An
anonymous
treatise entitled
Kitāb-i
Müstetäb can be
dated to
about
1620,
during
he tumultuous
eign
of Sultan cOsmān
I.58
Nothing
can be detected ofthe author
ofthe
work,
ave that he
apparently
was a
product
of the
dev§irme
evy.59
The author
emphasizes
that from
he
time of Sultan cOsmān, the founder f the dynasty,until the reignof
Murād
III
(1574-1595),
Ottoman
rule had been
characterized
y
adher-
ence to boththe
holy
aw and the
qänün,
and
by ust
administration,
nd
that it was for this reason the
empire
had
expanded
to
conquer
many
lands. This the author contrasts
with the
present
state
of affairs.
Another
anonymous
treatise,
called
Hirzu
'
l-Mulūk
(
Amulet
of
Kings),
written about
1632,
appears
to have been
unfinished.60
he
work,
whichremains
unpublished,
ontains
chapter
on
problems
n
the
provincial
dministration
f the
tīmār
system.
cAzīzEfendi,a scribeprobably ttachedto theImperialCouncil,wrote
Qānūnnāme-i
Sultāni
in
late
1632.
1
8/9/2019 Ottoman Historiography of Decline, 16th-17th Cent.
22/27
72
DOUGLAS
. HOWARD
that
year.
cAzīz
Efendi
employs
ample
Imperial
directives s a
literary
device.
Two later
treatises on the
subject
of the
organization
f the timar
system,
which
ppear
to
be
related,
are the
Qānūn-i
cOsmānl
mefhūm-i
defter-i
hâqânî
ofcAvni
ömer
Efendi62 nd
the Risale of
cAlī
Çavu§
of
Sofía.63
These works
describe various
categories
of timar in
a format
quite
distinctfrom
hat of earlier
registers
and
documents. The text
appears
to
be
largely
a
recitation f
traditional
imar
regulations,
lbeit
moredetailedthan otherdescriptions f the system,withtheexception
of
cAyn
All's
Qavãnln.
Finally,
the
treatise of the well known
Ottoman
ntellectual,
Kātib
Çelebi,
entitledDüsturu
'
l-camel
li
islāhi
Vl-halel
Guiding Principles
for
the
Rectification
f
Defects),6*
ears
mention,
hough
t treats ofthe
tlmār
system
only
n
a
generalized
sense. Here a
subtle
change
in
at-
titude can
be
detected,
when
compared
with earlier
works
n
the
genre.
The
sense of
urgency
which animated
earlier
writers,
and the
lively,
even
racing, prose
which
made earlier
works such
arresting eading,
s
nowreplacedwith morereflective, etached tone. The influence fthe
historical
yclism
f
bn Khaldūn
s
apparent
n
Kātib
Çelebi's
work.
bn
Khaldūn
may
have
had a
stilling
nfluence n
Ottoman ntellectual
ife,
t
least
as
regards
political
nd
historical
hought:
Ottomanwritersof the
later
seventeenth
century
recognized
that within
bn Khaldūn's
body
analogy,
the
Ottoman
Empire
had
reached a
period
of
stasis.
Stasis
might
be
prolonged,
but was
seldom
reversed.65
62
This
workwas
published
n
a
transcription
dition
y
I. H.
Uzunçarçili
n
Belleten15 (1951),381-399. Halil Inalcik see "Kanunname,"I 2 vol. 4
[1975],
64)
considers hiswork o be a shorter ersion f he
Risàie
of
All
Çavu§.
63 An
edition
n
Ottoman
cript,
with
Croatian
ranslation,
as
published y
Hamid
Hadžibegič, Rasprava
Ali
Čauša
iz
Sofije timarskojrganizaci