44 chapter 1
dominated by moral precepts and promoted an ethical interpretation of poli-
tics. Secondly, it is interesting to note that these same ideas, and especially the
use of the apocalyptic imagery, were to have a significant revival throughout
the seventeenth century and beyond (see below, chapter 6), again mostly as an
oppositional tool, a reaction to contemporaneous political changes.
2 The Introduction of Imperial Ideals
As noted above, it was not only tribal warriors who filled the ranks of the first
Ottomans throughout the fourteenth century. After all, the new state was not
born into a cultural vacuum; on the contrary, the Seljuk sultanate of Konya and
the emirates which had emerged in its place after the Mongol invasions of the
mid-thirteenth century were flourishing centres of Persianate culture, absorb-
ing cultural and political influences from both Iran and the thriving Mamluk
lands of Egypt and Syria. Timur’s invasion and the upheavals that followed, far
from stopping the movement of people and ideas between these regions, actu-
ally enlarged the space of cultural exchange by adding to it the Timurid Empire
and various Central Asian cities. The ideas and currents prevailing in this vast
cultural space have only recently begun to be explored as a whole, and while
Timurid and Mamluk culture are much more well known than they were in the
past (when the splendor of pre-Mongol Islamic civilization left little space for
them), the reverberations in Anatolia still await systematic investigation.35 On
the one hand, the emergence of a Turkish vernacular was reflected in a grow-
ing number of translations and original works, literary as well as religious and
scientific. On the other, the unprecedented growth of mystical movements in
the Persianate areas of Iran, Central Asia, and India found extremely fertile
ground in Anatolia, with its various socio-cultural milieus and influences.
Statesmen and ulema from the neighboring emirates, which (being closer,
both geographically and culturally, to the old Seljuk sultanate) had a higher
degree of urban culture and closer ties to the Persian political traditions,
soon began to settle in or around the Ottoman court, exerting their influence
on the ongoing process of transforming it from a tribal emirate to a kingdom
and an empire-to-be. A surviving document from 1324 and Ibn Battuta’s 1331
description indicate that Orhan’s entourage included scholars competent in
35 On intellectual life in the Anatolian cities under the Seljuks and successor emirates, see
Vryonis 1971, 351ff.; Ocak 2009, 376ff. and esp. 394ff., 406–421; and the studies collected
very recently in Peacock – Yıldız 2016.