170 chapter 4
the Sharia, he also attributes it to a need “to increase the number of Muslims”
rather than to enhance the military power of the Ottomans (T2:30/148).43
On the other hand, we have to note here that, while Ali appears so demand-
ing of the peasants when comparing them to the sipahis, he does favor them
when he compares them with the rich urban merchants, whom he views with
the same contempt as earlier moralists. Since the levy of army provisions
(nüzûl) and extraordinary taxes (avariz) are not spent entirely on military pur-
poses, Ali notes as a bizarre curiosity the fact that (T2:36–37/156)
the necessities of the victory-bonding army are always provided by the
miserable and poor in ceaseless sacrifice whereas in certain sea-ports and
other cities and towns there are rich merchants ... The poor are moaning
under the hardships of destitution while such rich blockheads thrive in
pomp and power. While the burden of frustration weighs heavily on the
weak, it is clear in many respects that the excess of world-enjoyment of
the rich is counter to perfect wisdom and circumspect policy.The same is valid for usurers. Such people, he writes, should be heavily taxed
for the benefit of the army and the treasury, as happened during the reign of
Mehmed II and Selim I. The corn-profiteers (muhtekir), who become rich by
causing dearth and scarcity, among whom are greedy magistrates and gover-
nors, constitute another factor in the decline (T2:35–39/155–60). The distrust
of wealth is rooted in a deep understanding of society as a whole, a system of
interdependencies where everyone has a place and there is a duty for every
benefit:
It is seriously not in order that such a rich person does not perform any
service to the army of Islam and that he does not every now and then as-
sist the public treasury in its expenses although he has accumulated such
profit and capital during the justice-guided reign of the Sultan.We may see here a distant reflection of the idea of mutual duties, as seen, for in-
stance, in Şeyhoğlu, al-Semerkandi, and even Celalzade (see chapters 2 and 3).
43 We must note that Ali, possibly of devşirme origin himself, has no prejudice whatsoever
against this kind of Islamization; on the contrary, in his Künhü’l-ahbâr he considers the
ethnic mixture of the Ottomans a great advantage for the dynasty. See Fleischer 1986a,
254–255.