216 chapter 5
3.1 Sanctifying Janissary and Landholding Regulations: the Early
Seventeenth Century
This discussion began with Koçi Bey’s second treatise in order to highlight the
affinities between the “administration manuals” and the “decline” theorists;
however, his was only one of the last in a long series of similar essays. Perhaps
the first of these attempts to systematize and register the rules and numbers
of the state mechanism was the anonymous Kavânîn-i yeniçeriyân-ı dergâh-ı
âlî (“Rules of the imperial janissaries”) of 1606, an effort to codify the structure
of the janissary corps, and which was widely read and copied.53 The author
differs from later imitators in that he does not belong to the scribal class: he
states that he served for a long time in the janissary corps, as did his grandfa-
thers, one of whom was Saka Mahmud, ağa of Istanbul during Süleyman I’s
reign (A149, 239). The description he gives of the yeniçeri kâtibi and his regis-
ters (A243ff.) may imply that he had served in that office (which would also
explain his detailed knowledge).
The anonymous author begins his treatise by stating that Ahmed I had in-
spected and implemented his ancestors’ laws (A130: ecdad-ı izamlarının kanun
ve ka ’idelerin yoklayub icra etmekle), brought welfare to the people with his
justice, and exterminated the Celali rebels, with the result that “the world is
cheerful like it used to be and is bound to revolve around the pole of his will”.
He decided to write the rules of the janissary corps, he says, as he heard them
from his grandfathers and as he found them himself. In various parts of the
work the sultan is addressed in the second person singular (e.g. A251). The trea-
tise is divided into nine chapters, explaining in every particular the history and
structure of the janissaries: the creation of the corps, the procedure for collect-
ing and training Christian youths, their uniforms (stressing again the histori-
cal dimension), their internal structure and officer ranks, both high and low,
their vakfs (A178–80), their lodgings, their duties and salaries, their registers,
and the means of keeping them relevant and useful. In all these regulations
the reader recognizes the topoi of political advice, such as harm brought by
53 At least ten manuscripts are known. The work has been published in multiple editions
and languages over the last few decades: Petrossian 1987; Fodor 1989; Akgündüz 1990–
1996, 9:127–268 (facs. follows); Toroser 2011 (facs. follows). See also Fodor 1986, 228–230;
Petrosjan 1987; Howard 1988, 70–71.