Khaldunist Philosophy: Innovation Justified 305
both earlier traditions and Kâtib Çelebi’s re-introduction of it. God created the
world and the tribes of men and settled them on earth with a caliph for their
well-being (V1b–2a: hilafet ile emaret etmeleriyçün iskân eyledi). In order to
help each other and procure their food, settlement, and clothing, men formed
societies (cemiyet), cities, towns, and villages, as God inspired them to. Their
worldly professions (dünyevi nizam-i intizam hâlleri) were organized into four
groups, namely farmers (ehl-i hiraset), craftsmen (ehl-i sana ’at), merchants
(ehl-i ticaret, i.e. “those who carry and bring required goods from one country
to another”), and statesmen (ehl-i siyaset, i.e. those who practise good adminis-
tration [hüsn-i zabt ile hâkim ve zabit eyleyüb]) to prevent people from attack-
ing one another according to their natural faculties of passion and lust.55 For
this reason, God facilitated the “arrangement of the rules of the state (tertib-i
kava ’id-i devlet)”; moreover, He sent religion and the Sharia, so humanity could
arrange its otherworldly needs and conditions, and He sent the Prophet and
made Muslim kingdoms and states rise, among which were “the Exalted State
[i.e. the Ottoman Empire] and other Muslim states”. Now, there are five classes
of “the people constituting the realm”: canonical judges (hükkâm-ı şer’), secu-
lar governors (hükkâm-ı ‘örf), treasurers and collectors (ümena ve ammal), sol-
diers, and peasants (re’aya). In these unfortunate times, the majority of these
groups think only of profiteering. As for the peasants, they are so overwhelm-
ingly burdened with taxes that they are forced to leave their villages, with the
result that many in Anatolia have been deserted, while villagers in Rumili flee
to infidel countries, with those remaining finding it harder and harder to make
a living (V8b). Those who deal with crafts and trade (esnaf ve re’ayada tüccar),
on their part, see their money disappear and abandon their commercial ac-
tivities, while those who are able to keep some of their money are also heavily
indebted.
Then the author proceeds to what may be called a Khaldunist vision of
states, one clearly strongly influenced by Kâtib Çelebi. States, says Hemdemi,
are like patients: young and old ones require different treatments. A man is
small (taze) until the age of seventeen, young (yiğit) until forty, and old until
his death; similarly, a state/dynasty is fresh when it appears, and gradually in-
creases its strength until it reaches the point where it can defend itself against
both external enemies and the tensions between its members. Then begins
the young stage, until the pomp and luxury of the ruler and his subordinates
increases, as do expenses and salaries; this is the beginning of old age, which
ends with the collapse of the state. However, in contrast with human death,
55 This strange division echoes Kınalızade’s and Ibn Khaldun’s division of professions (see
above, chapter 2).