The “Golden Age” as a Political Agenda 195
Osman’s execution), it was almost impossible to read such passages as those
composed by Kemalpaşazade on the occasion of Mehmed II’s death:15
The permanent palace of the sultan of the world was devastated and
in ruins, the pillars of the building were upside-down and, as a result,
the heart of the people of Islam, nay, the very spine of all mankind had
collapsed ... The world was dressed in black and was mourning; the sky
took off the sun’s turban from its head and dropped it to the earth; taking
off its luminous garments, it covered its shoulders with the fine cloth of
obscurity.True, the commitment to the dynasty created by Osman remained a funda-
mental feature of Ottoman self-image; even prophetical texts (as we saw in the
case of Papasnâme) predicted no dynastic change until the End Times. The
conception of Islamic history as a series of dynasties (as seen, for example,
in Ali’s Füsûl-i hall ü akd) and the implication that a fall of a dynasty would
mean the disruption of the state, must have played a crucial role in this unique
longevity of the royal family line.16 In sharp contrast, individual rulers might
be criticized and, by the early seventeenth century, eventually deposed or even
executed. Charismatic rule may have remained a trope of political ideology,
but it did not feature either in political theory or in practice.
2 The Landmarks of Declinist Literature
The heyday of these works was the beginning of Murad IV’s reign, but the
first specimen may well be the anonymous Kitâb-i müstetâb (“Approved [or,
Agreeable] book”), which was composed around 1620 during the reign of
Osman II (1617–22), to whom it must have been presented.17 The anonymous
author gives no information whatsoever about his life. From two passages of
the work it seems that he was a devşirme recruit and that he was raised and
educated in the palace; he shows detailed knowledge of the kul career system,
and seems to be acquainted with Anatolia (e.g. Sivas) more than with Rumili.
The author notes, as his sources, personal experience and conversations with
15 Quoted in Vatin – Veinstein 2003, 88.
16 In the few cases when other ruling families were envisaged (almost all dated after Osman
II’s execution), see Emecen 2001a.
17 The work was first published by Yücel 1988, 1–40 (transcription follows) and then by
Akgündüz 1990–1996, 9:600–645 (facs. follows). Cf. Gökbilgin 1991, 206–209; Fodor 1986,
230–231; Yılmaz 2003a, 309–310; İnan 2009, 117–118.