The Empire in the Making 59
idea running through Sinan Pasha’s work, it is the transitory and deceptive
nature of this world; a leitmotif obviously linked to both his Sufi affiliation
and his bitter experience as a result of Mehmed II’s whims.60 His integrated
vision of things social and political is best seen in his chapter on those try-
ing to secure the world order (T368ff, E142ff ). Order and arrangement in the
world (cihanın nizamı ... ve alem intizamı) is to be found when people respect
and protect each other. Human beings are made to help and depend on each
other; thus, everyone should try to benefit from the world order, serving either
its esoteric or its worldly side. Certainly, one cannot equate the sultan with his
servants, but everybody can be useful provided that their intentions are pure;
even those choosing isolation save the world through their prayers (the chap-
ter ends with a reference to the Sufi poles of the world).
It will be seen in the next chapter that Sinan Pasha’s work stands some-
where between the more “naïve” and moralistic “mirror for princes” tradition,
on the one hand, and the systematic exposion of a moral system based on a
theory of the human soul, on the other. He cannot be termed a founder of this
second trend, as there had been exponents before him (Amasi) and contem-
porary with him (Tursun Beg). Yet he stands at a point of transition, just as his
era was an era of transition toward the claims for universal dominion put forth
by Selim I and his successor, Süleyman the Magnificent.
3 Shifting Means of Legitimization
Simplistic as it may well be, the distinction made between the older generation
of frontier warriors and the scholars who came from the neighboring emir-
ates seems to follow the Ottoman history of ideas well into the fifteenth cen-
tury. The images of the Ottoman dynasty created by these two traditions can
be discerned in the different means of legitimization offered by the various
authors of the period.61 Earlier chronicles, such as Aşıkpaşazâde’s and the vari-
ous anonymous texts that express the culture of the early raiders, emphasize
the religious spirit of the first gazis, even though they tend to ignore the inclu-
sion of Christian warriors and notables in their ranks. Such texts are full of
the legendary feats of saints and dervishes, stressing their high status in the
60 In a remark clearly addressed against Mehmed, he stresses the transitory nature of the
world as follows: “every village that you considered yours, is now either a private property
or a vakf ” (T530: her köy ki benim diye gezersin, geh mülk ü geh vakıf olup durur).
61 All of what follows is based on the analytical study by Imber 1987; cf. also Imber 1995,
139–146.