406 chapter 9
In order for the various nations to settle into their respective places ex-
panding in a great part of the inhabited world, every group (güruh) needs
to set forth laws (kanun) [that are] useful and suitable to itself. Just like
the law provided by Sultan Süleyman to the Exalted State, so are other
societies (güruh) also bound to arrangements (nizam) particular and use-
ful for themselves. And in order to treat their external affairs equally in
respect to each other, there is a need for balance (mizan). This balance
has appeared for some centuries now and is called the “balance of foreign
affairs”; it presently rules the situation in Europe. Thus, whenever a king
upsets this balance by encroaching on the properties and territories, or
the freedom (azadelik),50 of a weaker state, the other states do not toler-
ate this and, in one way or another, they try to bring things back to their
original equilibrium (i’tidal).This is not the first time such a view was expressed in Ottoman writings: a
quarter of the century earlier, the anonymous author of Su’âl-i Osmânî ve
Cevâb-ı Nasrânî had stated that Christian kings always seek to be equal to each
other (beynlerinde müsavat murad ederler) since they know that when one
kingdom prevails over another it will soon prevail over others as well. Thus,
whenever a country shows itself to be stronger, all the others form an alliance
against it; this is illustrated by numerous examples from recent European
history.51 However, Mîzân-ı umûr-ı hâriciyye is one of the first instances when
the Ottoman state is included explicitly within this description.
The author illustrates this thesis with numerous examples from contem-
poraneous and historical Europe, noting, for instance, that France sometimes
helped the Ottomans in order to check Austria’s power rather than out of pure
friendship. He then describes at length and rather grimly the present mili-
tary and international status of the Ottoman Empire, remarking that with the
change of sultan (with the recent accession of Abdülhamid I to the throne,
in January 1774) statesmen changed too, with the result that the crucial ques-
tion is now pending: what is to be done, and more specifically whether peace
should be sought, and, if yes, which infidel state must be trusted for help. Now,
in order to argue for the necessity of peace, the author uses Ibn Khaldun’s au-
thority on nomadism and its decline (Y11):
According to Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddima, we must obey the necessi-
ties of the time and situation: because of the long and uninterrupted50 Cf. the use of serbestlik for the Polish state, slightly later: Yeşil 2012, 8.
51 Unat 1941, 120; Esad Efendi – Yılmazer 2000, 604.