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years of the Cretan campaign (V37b) are explained by the “love of the world”
(hubb-ı dünya) that is now instilled in the hearts of men, and which resulted in
neglect of the Sharia and the increase of tyranny.
There is also a strong sense of “declinism”, showing that the spirit of the
authors of previous decades was still alive: the sultan must follow the example
of his ancestor, Süleyman the Magnificent, impose order, and ensure the safety
and well-being of his poor subjects (V15b). He must check where the order
imposed in Süleyman’s times is not present and thus bring it back; most impor-
tantly, Süleyman stuck to the precepts of the Sharia and always consulted his
müfti, Ebussu’ud. Furthermore, Hemdemi claims that, from A.H. 1000 (1591),
the empire has been plagued by self-interested people who have changed pro-
vincial governorships up to six times.53 Thus, the expenses of the sultan and
his entourage should be gradually decreased in such a way that unnecessary
burdens will be lifted from the subjects; the sultan is like any other man, so
his expenses should not exceed his revenue.54 Other advice is reminiscent of
Koçi Bey and Aziz Efendi: Hemdemi stresses the negative effect of reaya join-
ing the army and the need to check the military registers, the responsibility of
the beylerbeyis and their voyvodas to safeguard the roads, and so on.
The author proposes “cure by opposites” (tedavi bi’l-ezdad); just as doctors
cure diseases due to cold by using heat and vice versa, so must any reform find
the root of the disorder and resist with their opposite (V16a). Hemdemi goes
back to the ten roots of evil, as he described earlier, and discusses them one by
one, emphasizing that the wealth (from money to houses and gardens) pro-
duced by agriculture, manufacture, and trade depends on the ruler, who must
guard these activities as he guards the apple of his eye. It is interesting to note
here the unusual place of trade and manufacture in an otherwise traditional
description of economic activities; this departure from tradition was, as has
been noted, fully in line with the realities of the monetized economy of the
seventeenth century.
Yet there is no doubt that Hemdemi’s treatise is closely related to Kâtib
Çelebi’s ideas. For one thing, he also brings back the general view of the cre-
ation of political society in terms of social philosophy, and in this he follows
53 Hemdemi is cautious about the accuracy of this, but says he has heard of people who
met up to 90 different governors when travelling from Baghdad to Istanbul (V17a), which
means that he had no access to official records.
54 Here the author inserts a story about Selim I’s vizier Piri Pasha, explaining that there are
three treasuries: one known to himself, i.e. the peasants; one known to the defterdar, from
which salaries and other expenses are paid; and one known to the sultan, i.e. the inner
treasury (V17b–18a). On the inner treasury and its relation with the sultan as distinct from
the state, cf. Sariyannis 2013, 112–114.