The “Sunna-minded” Trend 263
Sufism, Sufis’ blind adherence to their sheikhs, and their dependence on the
public for economic benefits, and especially their embeddedness in the impe-
rial vakf networks.102 He urged his readers to abandon a sheikh if they felt that
he was even slightly interested in the riches of this world, and expressed his
own disappointment at not being able to find a single unambitious sheikh.
This emphasis on earning one’s livelihood, being satisfied with moderation,
avoiding being dependent on people’s blessings, and not borrowing money
and food gave the work an almost Melami tone. In his praise for self-sufficien-
cy, Hasan Efendi referred to the producers (çiftçi), whom he saw as the ideal
examples of moderation in consumption.
A similar emphasis on the producers also appears in Kadızade Mehmed
İlmi’s Nüshat, where he deals with them not as a morally-idealized category
but as part of his theory of social classes. Like many generations of Muslim
theorists before him, İlmi saw the key to the order of the universe in the preser-
vation of each class in its designated place. According to İlmi, ancient scholars
organized Adam and his sons into four groups: one for the sword, one for the
pen, one for planting and sowing, and one for manufacture and commerce.
Governing or padişahlık meant making use of these four groups and, at the
same time, controlling them (N57). The people of the sword were rulers, vi-
ziers, begs, and commanders. With justice, and with the advice of the scholars
and the erudite people around them, their duty was to engage in warfare. The
second rank was occupied by the people of the pen, i.e. the ulema and people
of erudition. The duty of commanding right and forbidding wrong befell them.
Informing all classes (cümle esnaf ehline) of the Sharia’s rules (either in writing
or orally) was their main duty. They should uphold religious values through
their opinions and advice, and convince people to perform their religious du-
ties. Those who were known as the reaya were the third rank, and should work
to produce crops and feed livestock in order to meet the demands of all social
classes. Those who were knowledgeable about crafts and commerce occupied
the final category. Again, laboring towards production was their main purpose
(N57–58). Those who fall outside these categories should not be left on their
own and must be included in one of these categories. The infiltration of the
reaya into the ranks of the people of the sword and the pen was what caused
the internal strife afflicting the empire (N58).
102 Pendnâme-i Hasan (Hikâyât-ı makbûle ve nazm-ı mergûb): Köprülü Ktp. Ahmed Paşa
MS 345.