176 chapter 4
practices (cevr ü bid’at); the lack of efficient and competent officials; of greedy
people coming to power; the excessive tax burdens imposed on the reaya; the
fall of tax-farms into the hands of incompetent farmers; the corruption of
bureaucrats and ulema; the intrusion of çift-bozan into the ranks of the janis-
saries (in short the violation of the holy law as seen above) (emr-i ma ’ruf ve
nehy-i münker olmaz oldı); the selling of high administrative posts (such as gov-
ernorships, judgeships, defterdar-positions etc.) in the form of bribes and gifts
(with the grim note that “in no state were bribes ever taken openly, without
felicity turning to misfortune”); the disintegration of the monetary system and
the excessive taking of taxes and custom fees due to the needy situation of the
sipahis and the greed of the tax-farmers; and the increase in the number of
viziers and other palace officials, with the subsequent granting of fiefs to the
detriment of the treasury. This gloomy image leaves Selaniki with a very pes-
simistic view of the future of the Ottoman Empire.56
Although lacking systematic explanation, these ideas show an original
approach; some of them, such as the need for a limited number of viziers or the
disapproval of the “strangers’ intrusion” into the janissary ranks were to domi-
nate early seventeenth-century political treatises. Selaniki may well be the first
exponent of such ideas, which were obviously current among the ranks of the
scribal bureaucracy: both Selaniki and the early seventeenth-century authors,
who form the subject of chapter 5, belonged to this class, one which seems to
have considered departures from established institutional rules a major threat
to the empire. On the other hand, it seems that, upon Murad III’s death (or
even during his reign), it had become quite common to criticize him for whim-
sical administration in public affairs. This is how Beyani Mustafa b. Carullah
(d. 1597/8), a lower-class ulema who later retired to a Halveti dervish lodge in
Istanbul and wrote a collection of poets’ biographies, describes Murad III:57
He did not pay attention to his people, causing the order of the admin-
istration to disintegrate ... In addition, because of his association with
numerous women he had many children, resulting in an increase of
expenditure and the opening of the gates of bribery. The state magnates
also followed the same path, saying that “A vice approved by the sultan
becomes a virtue”. Whoever had a sheikh said “You reached God.” Great
and small, women and men, everybody sought to become rich ... Those
who administrated the state were not content with [their stipends], but56 Selaniki – İpşirli 1999, 458, 478–79, 504, 716–17, 784–85, 852–53. For the exact citations see
Sariyannis 2008a, 137–140.
57 Beyani – Kutluk 1997, 28 (=17–19 of the Ottoman text); cf. Sariyannis 2008a, 140–141.