The “Golden Age” as a Political Agenda 199
These anonymous and short memoranda apart, another important prod-
uct of the same period is the Kânûnnâme-i sultânî (“Book of sultanly laws and
regulations”) by Aziz Efendi; the very use of this title indicates the growing
importance of the notion of kanun as a vehicle for political advice in what
we call “declinist” literature. Aziz Efendi must have originated from the same
milieu as Koçi Bey and the anonymous authors of the Veliyuddin memoranda:
he describes himself as an “aged, distinguished, and loyal veteran in the sul-
tan’s service” who “is no longer capable of useful service” (M24). Various clues
in his work imply that he had been a scribe in the chancellery, possibly of the
Imperial Council. He had recourse to original registers and also the experience
of making draft versions and outlines of imperial orders, which he incorporat-
ed into his treatise. He also refers to an older report, which he had submitted
to the sultan “on the subject of the grand vizierate and other matters” (M4). It
is of some importance to note that the scribal bureaucracy also formed Aziz
Efendi’s audience, if we can judge from the only existing copy, which was
“bound into a volume intended as a learning manual for professional scribes”.23
According to the termini ante et post quem, the composition of the treatise can
be placed with great accuracy between September 1632 and June 1633, i.e. just
before Murad IV embarked on his great redressment project and in the wake
of his successful suppressing of the sipahi rebellion. Aziz Efendi’s treatise is
made up of four chapters, of which the third is highly original as it deals with
the Kurdish chiefs of the east, in the wake of Murad’s Persian campaign and in
view of the one to come (M12–18; cf. M:vii–viii and 52 n.56).24
2.2 Decline and Redress
The introduction of Kitâb-ı müstetâb, which declared that, from Murad III’s
reign onwards, the “old law” was abandoned and corruption dominated, was
not openly repeated in the other works that followed this trend; however,
this idea does form their underlying foundation. In his first chapter, Koçi Bey
claims that sultans had had wise and experienced counselors (nüdema ve
23 Aziz Efendi – Murphey 1985, vii. The volume (Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz Ms. or.
quart. 1209) also includes geographical and historical notices, poetry, a collection of fetvas
and regulations, a catalogue of administrative divisions, a list of taxes, instructions for
official correspondence, and so forth. See Flemming 1968, 347.
24 Interestingly, part of his advice in this chapter concerns usury, as thoughtless policies in
the late sixteenth century gave way to provincial governors distracting huge sums from
them and alienating the Kurdish population from the Ottoman state. Aziz Efendi urges
the sultan to appoint a respected ulema to solve the dispute between the Kurdish chiefs
and the usurers; he should issue documents prohibiting interest and considering interest
already collected by the money-lenders to be part-payment of the original sum.