The Empire in the Making 55
nizamı onunla olur ... ve her vilayette bir kanun olur ki mesalihi onunla düzülür).
On the other hand, he also argues that a just ruler will abolish some of the
“established innovations” (i.e. bad laws: bida ’-ı mu’tebere) upon his accession
to the throne.
As well as justice and clemency, a virtue that all these texts highlight (as did
the “opposition” authors such as Aşıkpaşazade) is generosity. In Ahmedi’s eulo-
gies of the first sultans, generosity is praised as much as justice, culminating in
his praise of Emir Süleyman [Çelebi] (v. 298ff.):
Despite having troops and wealth, treasure and capability, still he does
not fancy seizing domains (likin itmez mülk almağa heves) ... Necessarily,
he should attain prosperity and glory. The kingdom and the sultan have
an aspect of generosity. The one who gives his money to something will
be like them (nesneye nakdin viren eyle olur). The one who does a job
carelessly will go astray.Ahmedi’s urge against “fancying seizing domains” is interesting; Kadı Fadlullah
also advises that a ruler should not covet the territories of other kings (A190);
he must know the limits of his army’s power, as well as that of his enemy. Sinan
Pasha, too, emphasizes that the sultan should stay within the limits of reli-
gion, even risking a loss of wealth (T676: hükm-i şer’den çıkmaya eğerçi bir mal-ı
azime sebeb olursa), just as he should not conquer castles by breaking a treaty
or by breaking his word in any other way.
Just as Aşıkpaşazade and Yazıcıoğlu favoured a sultan who was generous
to his army, so do these Persianate authors understand generosity as magnifi-
cence towards the ulema and the dervishes. A share in the treasury must be
allocated to them, says Şeyhoğlu (Y70), whereas Kadı Fadlullah stresses the
importance of thought and knowledge, which leads to the need for the pious
(dindar) and the “friends of God” (A159: Tanrı dostları) to be respected and
cared for. In the same vein, Sinan Pasha devotes a chapter to praising the sul-
tans’ generosity (seha: T686ff, E257ff ). This is of two kinds: the lowest kind con-
sists of not feasting on their subjects’ wealth, the highest is being generous in
one’s own bestowals—provided, of course, that the royal wealth has not been
acquired unjustly. A sultan, therefore, must respect the ulema and dervishes
and be generous and humble; he must have four virtues, namely generosity,
justice, honesty, and being firm in his decisions and awe-inspiring for his vi-
ziers. While Sinan Pasha does specifically refer to the army and the need to
care for poor and valiant soldiers and their families, especially when they have
been wounded or killed (T724ff, E271ff ), his general attitude vis-à-vis the army
can be seen as the precursor of later caution against giving the soldiers too