158 chapter 4
system to earlier, unworthy viziers and that they wished to stress the rights of
present-day viziers (in the case of Kitâbu mesâlih) or sultans (in Hirzü’l-mülûk)
to mend not only departures from the tradition, but also shortcomings in the
old system. When it became evident that even a sultan who tried to circum-
vent viziers and other officials and rule with absolute power, such as Murad III,
would (or could) not enforce a radical re-establishment of the timariot system,
those who were standing up for the old order began to appeal to the past as a
sort of binding constitution.
At the same time, however, the very invocation of Selim I (or Mehmed II in
other instances), which is seen several times in Hirzü’l-mülûk, offers a model
from the past as a guideline to be followed, and for that matter a binding one.
Unlike Âsafnâme or Kitâbu mesâlih, then, Hirzü’l-mülûk inaugurates a long
series of texts that point to a “Golden Age” in the past, where all these institu-
tions worked perfectly. We have to note that, in this case, the “Golden Age” is
situated in Selim I’s reign, rather than Süleyman’s. For example, the practice of
giving unjustified land grants to viziers dates from Süleyman’s reign, when a
hundred villages were granted to Mehmed Pasha, while an anecdote present-
ing Selim I denying a temlik to his vizier further illustrates the author’s point.
For the sake of comparison, let us take a look at an apocalyptic work
from 1557, Rumûzü’l-künûz (or perhaps rather Rumûz-ı künûz, “Treasures of
ciphers”).26 Composed by a Bayrami sheikh, İlyas b. İsa Saruhani (d. 1559),
it contains a series of prophesies about sultans, viziers, high officials, and
events to come until the year 3000 A.H. on the basis of the occult science of
letters. One may see pieces of political advice and social criticism scattered
among the prophetic calculations: for instance, a just sultan would regularize
26 Saruhani – Özgül 2004. The date is given at the beginning and end of the manuscripts
(cf. Ö72: “the present sultan Selim [II]”). However, it seems that, as the text was quite
popular (to the ten MSS cited in Saruhani – Özgül 2004, 25–26, can be added Paris,
Bibliothèque nationale, suppl. turc 1067), there were certain interpolations made later.
In particular (at least in the MS published by Özgül), there is a mention of celalis (Ö74),
which sounds premature for 1557, followed by a large section on tobacco, “prophesizing”
with precision its introduction, prohibition, and eventual permission through the fetva
of 1652: “In the year 940 of the hijra there will appear a black water named coffee; it will
be considered alternatively sinful or not, until it will be deemed lawful with a fetva in the
year 980. After the year 1000 there will also appear a smoke (bir duhan); the people of the
world will become addicted; a Sultan will prohibit it and execute lots of people, but as it
will prove impossible to extinguish it a mufti will declare it lawful after the year 1060”. In
the same part, after describing several luxurious caps of that time, the author of the in-
terpolation speaks of “a preacher by the name of Kadızade will make the Sultan prohibit
[such luxuries]; however this prohibition will not be respected ...”. The first dated manu-
script is from 1655, a date that sounds very plausible for the final form of the text, due to
its proximity with the events “foretold”.