Samples of Translated Texts 499
And the janissaries should not be married from now on. Now there are some
married ones among the acemis. There must be a strict warning that whoever
gets married cannot be a janissary, and he will even be removed from the ranks
of the acemis. From now on, janissaries must not be given permission to marry;
they should not be given permission, according to the old law, unless they have
become old and retired and powerless and (this is) told to the sultan. When all
the janissaries are bachelors, the post of the odabaşı comes late (in one’s ca-
reer): this post belongs to those who are experienced and have understood the
laws and regulations of the corps ... Janissaries must not practise any craft; they
should not meddle with measures and scales. If they do not obey, they must be
punished and turned into timariots.
... The scribes of the janissaries should look after the registers of the corps
carefully, and distribute salaries according to the treasury register of the Sultan.
And the sultan must show a way for his silahdar and rikabdar to compare these
registers with one another, and to bring in someone experienced so that they can
learn (the situation) from him. But whoever (from these experienced people)
acts against the law must be punished ... God willing, let the abovementioned
law and regulation be applied in the aforementioned way, and with God’s per-
mission it is certain that victories and conquests will result. The aforementioned
laws are the laws of the Ottoman sultans of the past.18 Birgivi Mehmed Efendi (See Chapter 6)
From al-Ajwibat al-hâsima li-ʿurûq al-shibhat al-qâsima (“Zealous answers to the roots
of divisive doubts”) and from al-Sayf al-sârim f î ʿadam jawâz waqf al-manqûl wa ’l-
darâhim (“The sharp sword for the inadmissibility of movable and cash vakfs”), trans-
lated by Jon E. Mandaville:21
The inadmissibility of the cash waqf is clearly stated in well-known and re-
spected books. The number of scholars who have agreed upon its inadmissibil-
ity is well established ... In the established texts, the argument of Zufar [Imam
Zufar, a student of Abu Hanifa], which is connected with its permissibility, is a
weak one ... [O]f the classical works, neither the Imams Abu Hanifa, Abu Yusuf,
Muhammad, nor other masters of the school permit it, clearly they did not ac-
cept this aforementioned weak statement. This is why it is not permitted. As for
its irrevocability, there is not a single statement to this effect. Zufar says nothing21 Mandaville 1979, 305–306.