a decade of crisis 51cause the diffi cult state of the treasury to worsen at the same time as the state
does not receive in return service that is worthy of the dynasty and religion.”
Supporters of the grand vizier and treasurer also took their cut, and then the re-
mainder went to the treasury. He disapproved of how “without shame they are
then recorded in the register of fi nancial transactions,” thus legalizing illegal
practices.^63 And the sultan made no effort to stem illegal profi t.
We need to take seriously how members of the Ottoman elite such as this
former sheikhulislam articulated what they saw as the woes of their era and
what needed to be done to remedy them. But to Karaçelebizade, it was as if
it was almost too late. He compares the treasury to a human body needing
appropriate medicine—it had a barely readable pulse, hardly a spark of life
remained, and the patient was in need of immediate intensive care But how
could the patient rebound when the physicians (the viziers) would take two to
three years of the sultan’s wealth in advance payment and, when salaries were
about to be paid, would borrow weak akçe from “opportunist Jews” and “other
traitors to the dynasty and religion,” and because of similar unwise and illegal
profi ts that wealth would not return to the treasury? Day by day the treasury
became less sound as “dishonest viziers take incorrect and harmful measures.”
Especially galling for the author was bribery. He quotes a saying of Muhammad
(Hadith) cursing those who give or take bribes. This legitimizing of corruption
led to a problem of legitimacy for the sultan, as “tyrants, acquiring offi ce this
way, God forbid, engage in various types of oppression on behalf of the sul-
tan,” who theoretically delegated his authority to them to carry out their offi ce.
They were supposed to serve as his eyes in the provinces, but because of their
actions, the symbolic eye of justice was robbed blind. As a result, many com-
moners faced injustice as fearless men without scruples, who lived to enjoy the
moment at others’ expense and not worry about the future state of health of the
empire, lording it over them. When commoners came to the capital seeking
redress to their grievances, rather than “being spoiled by kind treatment” if
they complained at the meeting of the imperial council, “they would be subject
to a violent blow or extended imprisonment from which they would emerge
utterly crushed.”^64
Karaçelebizade sums it up by writing, “From the evil of bribery and oppres-
sive innovations” arise only the “moan, groan, and wailing of the poor and com-
moners.”^65 He may have exaggerated some of the conditions of state. Yet archivaldocuments attest to the root causes of his lamentation. The people of Anatolia
complained that they suffered from an excessive number of men being called
up to military duty, that their towns and villages had been destroyed, and that
they were overtaxed.^66 Tiring of exploitation, having lost their wealth and sense
of peace, commoners set fi re to their land and homes, “which became the abodes