282 chapter 7
When the two armies met, that of the sultan went over to the rebels. Mustafa
had to resign and his brother, Ahmed III, was proclaimed sultan.8
1 The Social and Ideological Struggles: between Viziers and
Janissaries
If we are to accept that the late sixteenth and the seventeenth century was a
time of strife between sultanly absolutism and the growing power of groups
such as the ulema and the janissaries (with the latter increasingly representing
the urban Muslim strata empowered by the monetarization of the economy)
then the whole second half of the seventeenth century (until the major up-
heaval of the “Edirne event”) would be a temporary victory of the absolutists.
The actual power of the sultans may not have reached that of Murad IV, for
example, but the almost continuous rule of the Köprülü household marks the
alliance of weak rulers with strong viziers in an effort to keep interference by
the urban and military newcomers to a minimum.9 Pasha households, on the
other hand, increasingly began to gain power and a growing degree of partici-
pation in the central and provincial administration, gradually substituting the
sultan’s household during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.10
On the other hand, the gradual growth in the power and autonomy of the
central bureaucracy continued steadily in the second half of the seventeenth
century. Further systematization and rationalization of the tax-collecting ser-
vices was effectuated under the Köprülü regime and led to an even more au-
tonomous and self-confident functioning of the scribal apparatus.11 Even on
the symbolic level of political ceremony, the government apparatus saw its role
and visibility elevated. Thus, while, for instance, the 1582 sultanly festival in-
cluded meals offered to the ulema, preachers, various military groups, palace
officials (including viziers), and the people of Istanbul, no place was reserved
for palace clerks; in contrast, the eighth day (out of fifteen) of the 1675 fes-
tival was devoted to a feast offered to the bureaucracy officials (reisülküttab,
ruznameci, baş muhasebeci).12 As seen in chapter 6, financial bureaucrats in-
troduced substantial reforms, such as the rationalization of poll-tax collection,
8 For a detailed narrative and interpretation of the “Edirne event” see Abou-El-Haj 1984. On
Feyzullah see the recent study by Nizri 2014.
9 This is, in general, the thesis suggested by Tezcan 2010a.
10 Abou-El-Haj 2005; Kunt 1983; Kunt 2012; Hathaway 2013.
11 Darling 2006, 123–124.
12 Ali – Öztekin 1996, 58ff. and 232ff. (on the 1582 festival); Nutku 1987, 56, and Hezarfen –
İlgürel 1998, 241 (on the 1675 festival). On the increased visibility and self-confidence of