Khaldunist Philosophy: Innovation Justified 303
compilation of older chronicles.50 At this stage of research, we cannot be sure
about this identification: overall, the Nasîhatnâme seems to lack the concrete
historical references one would expect from a historian (apart from the usual
locating of the beginning of decline in the year A.H. 1000 and some moralistic
rather than historical anecdotes about Mehmed II, Selim I, and Süleyman I);
on the other hand, it undoubtedly shows some signs of historical thought.
Certainly, this is not a work that claims originality: if we have to classify
it, it would instead fall under the “mirror for princes” category, with a strong
thread of Sunna-minded advice and an all-too-traditional emphasis on justice.
Hemdemi’s (if we accept this identification) main idea, around which the trea-
tise is structured, is that state power (devlet ve saltanat) is like a dome based
on ten pillars (payanda). These pillars are prerequisites for that power, and in-
clude the maintenance of fortresses, the use of spies, the summoning of regu-
lar imperial councils, and so on. Among them, it should be noted that the first
pillar, a strong army, efficiently protects “the people constituting the realm”
from both “injuries inflicted by each other” and surrounding enemies. Also
worthy of note is the emphasis placed on the Sharia. Thus, honor, family, prop-
erty, and reason are properly protected with the imposition of the canonical
punishments (hadd; V6b–7b). In these times, he writes, every one of these pil-
lars has deficiencies, with their respective reasons (such as that the sultan and
his people are ostentatious and thus increase their expenses, or that unworthy
people are used in the administration of important matters51), and Hemdemi
embarks on the usual complaints against bribery, lack of consultation, the fact
that incapable people are used in state service due to bribery, intercession, or
affiliation to some great household (9b: bir büyük yere intisab), and so on. A
strong Sunna-minded influence is evident, as when, for instance, Hemdemi
praises consultation (he divides the people into three categories just as did
Kadızade Mehmed İlmi; see above, chapter 6)52 and decries the neglect of
canonical punishments, such as cutting off hands for theft. All kinds of cor-
ruption, including military defeat, stem from the abandonment of the Sharia;
the connection between neglect of religious precepts and military weakness is
illustrated by several hadiths and Quranic phrases. Thus, the six unsuccessful
50 Solakzade 1879.
51 This expression (mesalih-i kibarda rical-ı sıgar istihdam etmek) is strikingly similar to
Sinan Paşa – Tulum 2013, 680.
52 There are whole men (bütün adem), who have their own opinion and are open to con-
sultation, half-men, who have their own opinion but do not put it into consultation, and
non-men (hiç adem), who have neither opinion nor do they consult. In the same context,
various examples against women’s opinions illustrate the attitude of Hemdemi against
the court politics of the early 1650s, as seen in the introduction of this chapter.