A History of Ottoman Political Thought Up to the Early Nineteenth Century

(Ben Green) #1

Introduction 7


theories of government.26 In a more genre-centered vocabulary, the latter two
categories would correspond, respectively, to ahlak literature, which tries to
combine a philosophical view of the world and society with individual and
political morals, and to adab (lit. “etiquette, manners” or, more generally, the
special knowledge required for a profession) literature that gives more con-
crete advice on government. Ethics are central to all three “formulations”, but
their origins and their connection to politics differ. However, even this distinc-
tion is precarious, since, as Lambton observes, not only does “a good deal of
cross-fertilization” exist but also “some writers wrote now as jurists, now as
philosophers, now as counsellors of kings”.27 As we are going to see, in the
Ottoman case all three categories were present, while a more original genre
was also developed from the mid-sixteenth century: a development of the adab
or “mirrors for princes” category that focused on institutions rather than moral
or practical advice. Usually labeled (more often by modern scholars than by
their authors) nasihatnames or “books of advice”, these texts constitute a spe-
cific Ottoman literary genre, with its own tropes and leitmotifs.28 In this vein,
the most recent categorization I am aware of, which seems a very plausible
suggestion from a philological point of view, proposes four genres, namely
ahlak, fikh, tasawwuf or Sufi perspective, and ıslahat or reform literature.
In fact, one may perhaps speak of several parallel genres, each one influenc-
ing the others and yet having its own characteristics; it is hoped that the reader
will recognize these sub-genres in the structure of most chapters. In this book,
more emphasis will be placed on the content of Ottoman political works than
on their form; on the other hand, it is hoped that the degree of detail with
which these works are presented will give some idea of their literary struc-
ture. In fact, form and content are so closely interlinked that the theoretical or
ideological trends that we will try to follow are usually coherent in their formal
features as well: philosophical descriptions of society tend to take the form of
moral treatises, authors speaking of decline and of the “Golden Era” tend to


26 Lambton 1974, 404–405; Lambton 1981, xvi–xvii. Interestingly, Lambton prefers to con-
sider Ibn Khaldun in the context of the “theories of the jurists” (Lambton 1981, 152ff.; she
had named Ibn Khaldun “sui generis” in Lambton 1974, 405). In another article of hers,
Lambton prefers to divide the “literary formulation” into “administrative handbooks” and
“mirrors for princes” (without explaining much about the former): Lambton 1962, 91–92.
27 Lambton 1981, xvii.
28 Douglas A. Howard identified some of these as the “prophetic voice” often assumed by
the authors, the use of the memorandum or telhis form for advice, and the preoccupation
with language: Howard 2007, 149–152. Cf. also the list of siyasetname topics drawn up by
Levend 1962, 169–170.
29 Gündoğdu 2016.

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