“Mirrors for Princes”: The Decline Theorists^177
started to trade; the magnates of the state took the foodstuff coming from
the provinces for Istanbul and stocked it. Part of it was taken for the state,
but its worth was not paid ... The cries of the oppressed reached the skies,
but with no avail; the signs of the approaching doom became manifest ...
People were desperate.One may see some similarities with the quasi-Apocalyptic vision of Selaniki
in a roughly contemporaneous text, which had a rich afterlife throughout the
seventeenth century. Papasnâme (“The priest’s book”) was written by Derviş
Mehmed, allegedly a Christian priest turned Muslim (and, indeed, he uses
the Greek word idolah [είδωλα] for idols: S8b). It is recorded in at least seven
manuscripts, all dated after the mid-seventeenth century (the first being dated
to 1651).58 The text, which can be classified as a “conversion narrative” accord-
ing to Tijana Krstić, is essentially a prophetic vision (in many ways similar
to Saruhani’s Rumûzü’l-künûz, seen above) narrated by an alleged convert to
Islam; his own conversion, all the more since he used to be a priest, illustrates
the possibility of changes that would seem unbelievable.59 Its dating is inse-
cure; internal evidence could suggest that its original compilation should be
dated to c. 1597/8, although one cannot exclude the possibility of additions or
alterations during its long history of being copied.60
The author starts by wondering what will happen to the Muslim communi-
ty, since bribery has created such disorder that the Ottoman dynasty itself may
soon reach its end. With these grim thoughts, a dervish named Abdurrahman,
58 See Krstić 2011, 116–118. Here I use the MSS of Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
MS Mixt 689 (1651) and Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Saliha Hatun 112/2 (1685/6).
The text is to be published by Günhan Börekçi and Tijana Krstić; I wish to thank them
both for their permission and help.
59 On other “alternative histories” in addition to Saruhani’s work analyzed above, cf. Reindl-
Kiel 2002 and Reindl-Kiel 2003.
60 A terminus post quem concerns a sultan Murad’s victories over the Persians (S5b). Most
probably, this is Murad III and his victories in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, and Tabriz, since
the author seems to ignore Ottoman history after the rise of Mehmed III (1595–1603).
Prophet Muhammad is mentioned as having “come to the world a thousand and six years
ago” (S8b, V9a); according to this the text should be dated to 956/1550 (if we accept that
Muhammad was 50 years old at the time of the Hijra; see Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd
ed., “Muhammad”), which seems too early. If there is a misunderstanding by the author
and he had the Hijra in mind, the date becomes 1597/8, which is much more sensible. A
certain emphasis on Yemen adds to this hypothesis, since the province was lost in 1636.
Moreover, the description of Mehmed as a champion against the Central European forces
and a reference to the need to inspect the janissary and the sipahi registers (S23b–24a,
V34a-b) could strengthen the dating of the original text to just after the battle of Mező
Kerésztés (October 1596)