Suleiman The Magnificent 1520 1566 (20 page)

r, pp. 167-182.

the "secretaryship of state for foreign affairs." Originally the head of it was the Nishanji, whose sole duty was to authenticate the Sultan's edicts; but before Suleiman's death he had been practically—though not officially-superseded by the Reis Effendi, who, under the direction of the Sultan and Grand Vizir, had an important voice in the conduct of international relations. In the times at which the Sultan intrusted everything to the Grand Vizir, the latter found that he had more work on his hands than he could possibly perform, and consequently, in turn, tended to give more and more autonomy to the Reis Effendi. This development did not reach completion till the reigns of the great Sultan's w r eaker successors, who delegated everything to subordinates and lived a life of luxury and ease, but the origins of it stretch back to Suleiman's day. It is worth noting that the numerous clerks of the chancery, as well as of the treasury, who had been mostly Greek and Christian at the time of Suleiman's accession, tended more and more, as time went on, to be recruited from among the Turks. The amount of secretarial labor increased apace, and it became more and more essential to intrust it to those who were familiar with the Turkish language and traditions. It was a significant evidence of the truth of the dictum that when Turks dismount from their horses, they become bureaucrats and scribblers; it was also an augury of approaching decline. 21 A few words remain to be added in regard to local government, and the condition of the non-Moslems in the Ottoman Empire. The central authority made itself much more effectively felt in some regions than in others. In Greece, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, and Dobrudja, as well as in the greater part of Asia Minor, it really kept things under its authority; but the inhabitants of Mol-

21 Lybyer, pp. 182-187; Leon Cahon, Introduction a FMstoire de VAsle: Turcs et Mongols (Paris, 1896), p. 82.

davia, Wallachia, Georgia, and most of Kurdistan ultimately succeeded, by means of paying tribute, in retaining their own princes, while those of Albania and Montenegro, intrenched behind their mountains, remained practically independent of control by Constantinople in Suleiman's day, as did also, though in a somewhat different fashion, the Berber states of North Africa. And it is fair to add that the Ottoman regime was not unpopular. It had the good fortune to follow, both in Asia Minor and the Balkans, on the heels of a period of anarchy and confusion; it brought in with it a sort of Pax Romana. Despite the grossness of many of its customs and the burdensome-ness of its taxation, the Greeks of Rhodes preferred it to the rules of the Knights of St. John; the Euboeans and the Greeks of the Morea liked it better than that of the Venetians; and the Serbs and Hungarians compared it favorably with the dominion of the Austrian Hapsburgs. It was -laf-tessTntdSfaHt" than the governments of the Western Christian nations. If non-believers paid the extra imposts that were demanded of them, they were always permitted to worship God in their own way.—The "Grand Dragoman of the Porte," translator, host, the man whom all travellers and merchants arriving in Constantinople must immediately get in touch with, and to all intents and purposes, a minister of state, was always, in Suleiman's time, an Orthodox Greek. 22

The regular name for an administrative district of the Ottoman Empire was a sanjak, and the official selected from the Sultan's kullar who had charge of it was called a sanjak bey; the head of a group of districts was known as a beylerbey; and each was provided with ample assistance by an adequate staff of lieutenants, bookkeepers, and clerks. The most important beylerbeys were those of Anatolia and Rumelia; the former in time of peace was nor-

22 Lavisse and Rambaud, TV, 767-769.

maily resident in Constantinople; the latter was frequently there and had his regular place In the Divan. Like all officials of the Turkish empire, their principal functions were those of wartime. On them fell the duty of collecting the feudal Spahis of their respective areas, and bringing them to unite with the imperial forces at the proper time and place. When the fighting was in Europe the army of the beylerbey of Rumelia had the right of the battle-line, and that of the beylerbey of Anatolia the left; when in Asia, the order was reversed. 23

Of all the subject peoples of the Ottoman Empire, the Greeks were those with whom Its authorities were brought Into most Intimate contact. But it was a Greek people sadly depleted of intellectual and social leaders. The stars of Its intellectual firmament, such as Bessarion and Gemis-thos Plethon, had fled westward before and after the capture of Constantinople to complete the triumph of the cult of the classics in the Italy of the Renaissance. Most of Its ancient magistrates found it expedient to go over to Islam, Rival candidacies for its chief ecclesiastical dignities, from the patriarchate downward, gave the Turks an admirable opportunity, of which they were prompt to avail themselves, to undermine, while they still professed to support, the constitution of the Byzantine Church. All that was left was the small trader, apparently almost contemptible; forbidden to bear arms, or to arm the ships in which he sailed; yet not unwelcome at the Porte because he had to pay double duty. At the same time he was better off than the Italians, who had, in turn, to pay twice as much as he. Competition was to be keen, in later years, from the merchants of those Western countries such as France, to which capitulations granted special privileges; even more from the Armenians; and most of all from the

2s Lybyer, 103-105; Lavisse and Rambaud, IV t 755-758- The word

"sanjak" originally meant "flag," or "banner"

Jews expelled from Spain, many of whom subsequently established themselves at Constantinople and Salonika. But the Greeks were quite able to maintain themselves. It was through commerce that they kept alive the memory of their glorious past. It was through commerce, at a much later day, that they were to prepare themselves to regain

t • f -I 24 JLX O

their freedom.

The Slavs of the Danube valley were in less happy case. Most of them were on the grand route of the Ottoman invasions into the northwest; they were burdened with every kind of extra taxation, and when the Turkish armies passed through their lands, they were compelled to do everything within their power to facilitate the Ottoman advance. The inhabitants of the more mountainous regions on the Adriatic were left, comparatively speaking, undisturbed; and many of them emigrated and took service, under the name of stradiots, with the Venetians, the French, the Emperor, and the king of England. Further eastward, the Wallachians and Moldavians vainly attempted to regain their independence, with the aid of the Poles and the Russians and occasionally with that of Ferdinand; but Zapolya was in a position to defeat their intrigues. Several Ottoman expeditions despatched into the regions in question, in the course of Suleiman's reign, furnished an argument for submission to Turkish control which the Inhabitants found increasingly potent, while the Khan of the Crimean Tatars also rendered Suleiman valuable aid in keeping these territories in hand. The remoter parts of Asia Minor and the subject portions of Arabia all had special systems of government of their own; but whatever the local arrangement, the authority of the Sultan was in the last analysis supreme. 25

2 *Lavisse and Rambaud, IV, 769-773. George Finlay, in his History of Greece under Ottoman and Venetian Domination (1856), draws a much darker picture.

25 Lavisse and Rambaud, IV, 772-776,

The administration of justice is the only department of the government service which we have left untouched, and the reason is that it was in the hands of a very different set of people from the Sultan's kullar, or slave-family of renegade Christians, who dominated everything else. Since law and theology are closely fused in the Koran, it was essential that the control of them be placed in the hands of Mohammedans bom, and the so-called "Moslem Institution" of the Ottoman Empire was the body to which, under the Sultan, the double task was intrusted.

A few more words must be added, at this point, to ex-plain the nature of this "Moslem Institution." Aside from the fundamental difference between its personnel and that of the Sultan's kullar, it has been contrasted thereto as church is contrasted to state. But Islam had no hierarchically organized body of clergy, such as was to be found in all the Christian nations of the West; any devout Mohammedan who was "in any way lifted above the level of the ordinary believer" * could justly regard himself as belonging to the great body whose primary duty it was to preserve and strengthen the law and the faith of the Prophet, though the importance of the role that he played in it depended primarily on his intellectual abilities, and his knowledge of the Koran and of the Sacred Law. The so-called "Moslem Institution" was primarily, then, like a great Ottoman national university, which all true believers might enter, practically free of charge; but of which only the most distinguished graduates could aspire to attain office. The juristic side demanded far higher abilities than did the theological It is the juristic side that invites our chief attention here.

The body of those who had "satisfied the intellectual requirements" of the "Moslem Institution" in its capacity

. 199.

as a society of scholars, was known as the ulema or class of learned men. The ulema was divided into two main groups—the muftis who elected to become juristic counsellors to the great officials, central and local, of the kullar, and the more active category, from kazis to kaziaskers, who may be compared to the practicing judges of today. A mufti was assigned to every sanjak bey and beyler-bey, and also to the resident judge in every important city; there were between two and three hundred of them in official status and they were all appointed for life. Whenever a question arose which involved a knowledge of the sacred law, the mufti was consulted and gave his professional opinion or fetva, which usually settled the case. But the mufti of Constantinople was in a class by himself; for the Sultan and his chief ministers were constantly asking his advice on matters of the highest public importance. Unlike the other muftis he was not regularly chosen from the class to which he belonged, but was usually advanced by the Sultan from the ranks of the kazis and kaziaskers; since the time of Mohammed II he had been called the Sheik-ul~Islam ("Ancient of Islam"). Many Christian writers have compared his position to that of the Pope, but the parallel should be drawn with reservations. The Sheik-uUslam took precedence indeed over all other government officials, save the Grand Vizir. In a sense he was even the superior of the Sultan himself, since he was the exponent of the sheri, which the Sultan was powerless to change. "He represented justice and the image of God." He alone could formally pronounce whether or not a war which the Sultan had declared was "holy," and incumbent on all true Moslems. On him alone devolved the solemn responsibility of declaring whether or not the Sultan had violated the sacred law, and whether or not he could, in consequence, be rightfully deposed. On the other hand, he had no power of initiative

lyo Suleiman the Magnificent

whatsoever. He could not speak unless his opinion was asked; his sole duty was to decide, when appealed to, what the law demanded should be done; his verdicts \vere given somewhat as are those of the Supreme Court of the United States. And the most despotic of Sultans did not venture to Ignore them. They might disregard the fetvas of the lesser muftis, though they risked, by so doing, the allegiance of the faithful, but the sentence of the Sheik-ul-Islarn could not be transgressed. It was by the Sheik-ul-Islam that Selim the Terrible was restrained from following up his massacres of Moslem heretics by wholesale extermination of the Christians within his boundaries. "Conversion, tribute, or the sword" was the formula In the Koran and in the sacred law; provided the Christians paid their kharaj and poll tax, they could not lawfully be disturbed In the exercise of their faith; the great mufti was positive on the point; he Informed the Patriarch of his decision, and furnished him with arguments for the protection of his flock which Selim dared not neglect. And, as we shall see more fully In the ensuing chapter, It was through the answer given by the Sheik-ul-Islam to a hypothetical question which was propounded to him on purpose, that Suleiman finally convinced himself, in 1553, that he was justified in putting his eldest son Mus-tapha to death. 27

The muftis as a class really wielded enormous power In the Ottoman state. They were less highly paid than many other less important officials; they were never outwardly conspicuous; yet they embodied and fortified that conservatism and changelessness which are the basis of the faith of Islam. The prime object of their fetvas was to make sure that the customs and practices of the age in which they lived did not violate the fundamental principles of the sacred law; they looked backward, not

forward. It was chiefly due to their influence that Ottoman civilization remained practically stationary for more than three centuries after the death of Suleiman the Magnificent—three centuries during which the rest of the world advanced apace. 28

The judges who presided over the courts where actual cases were tried were divided into various complicated categories; for the Ottomans, like all other Moslems, took pride in the perfection— one might also possibly add, in the intricacy— of their judicial arrangements; but the kazis at the bottom and the kaziaskers at the top are the only ones we need consider here. The kazis were stationed, each in the principal city of the region to which he was assigned, and dealt with the cases that were brought before them with a speed and definiteness which evoked the admiration of Western observers. "Since there is nothing here [that is, in France] so near immortality," writes one of them, "as the processes and extortions of our law, I am ashamed to have to tell of the diligence and promptitude of the verdicts of the courts of a people whom we hold in low esteem." 2S There was doubtless much bribery and corruption, but the courts of the West were by no means wholly free from them; in any case, the Ottoman system got the job done. One is reminded of the saying of the great Spanish jurist Solorzano that "it is better to omit to ascertain and punish some things than to retard everything." 30 The kaziaskers, at the head of the hierarchy, were but two; one for Rumelia, or the Ottoman lands in Europe, one for Anatolia, which was supposed to include all the Turkish territories in Asia Minor and in Africa. Both were resident most of the time in Constantinople, and it is worth noting that cases which con-