The Imperial Heyday 133
Celalzade lists in detail the duties of a sultan, following the usual lines of
“mirrors for princes”, as did other authors of his time and earlier. As for
the subjects, they may be divided into three categories: those who may believe
anything, without being able to distinguish between right and wrong; those
who may be guided to the right path through encouragement and intimida-
tion; and those who are virtuous and behave according to reason (B62–63;
reflecting, in a rougher style, Davvani’s and Kınalızade’s [K486ff.] division of men
into five categories). Respect for the notables, compassion for the oppressed,
help for those in need, the persecution of oppressors, and care for the security
of the roads, are the five things that produce love for the sultan in his subjects’
hearts (B63).
In the chapter on the vizierate, the author declares both the grand vizier
and the divan scribes as being largely responsible for just administration. He
provides a long list of the moral qualities viziers should possess, such as hum-
bleness and patience, but also good manners, such as to answer the sultan’s
questions briefly and to look at him continuously (B65–67). As with other con-
temporaneous authors, it is in Celalzade’s advice for the vizier (not the sul-
tan) that we encounter the four cardinal virtues and their corrolaries (B67).96
Moreover, Celalzade emphasizes the value of counsel; in fact, consultation
(meşveret) is so important (and, one should note, so much based on reason
rather than piety) that even the advice of intelligent infidels can be legitimate-
ly followed.97
Celalzade’s ideas on kingship and law are best seen in his Tabakatü’l-
memâlik, an original work in which he did not follow a specific model. There
are some remnants of the Persian moralistic tradition (closer to adab than to
ahlak), such as his praise of Rüstem Pasha (K502b–503a) for his six vizierial
virtues, but the main focus is on the sultan and his power. Celalzade had
planned it to be “a general panorama of the Ottoman enterprise”, “meant to
reflect the sixteenth-century zeitgeist”.98 What was eventually written, i.e. the
history of the empire from 1520 to 1557,99 would only be the last section or layer
(tabaka) out of thirty. The first sections would describe the population and the
empire (memalik-i mahmiye tafsili), speaking of the ulema and the learned men,
the peasants, the soldiers, and the fortresses, lands, and regions, as well as the
wealth and revenue of the empire (products, gems, mines etc.; K9a). More par-
ticularly, the work was conceived as follows (K10b–20b): the first section would
96 Cf. Yılmaz 2006, 159; Şahin 2013, 240.
97 Şahin 2013, 241.
98 Şahin 2013, 167, 169.
99 On the probable reasons of his stopping in 1557 see Şahin 2013, 177–178.