306 chapter 7
the author claims that the collapse of a state can be prevented, as God has
granted his protection upon men, both high and low. If a sultan loves God, fol-
lows His commands, and practises justice, the same will happen in the hearts
of “the tribe that makes the state”, and eventually even rain will make all busi-
ness flourish, and vice versa (V11a–11b).56
In an interesting excursus (V24a), the author repeats that the Ottoman state
has passed through the age of youth into old age, as luxury and pomp have
led to the expansion of bribery and corruption and, ultimately, of oppression.
As a result, the Celali rebels appeared in Anatolia and the sultan expended
much energy suppressing them. The main cause of this was the appointment
of greedy men to governorships through bribery and affiliation, as well as
(adds the author in a marginal note) the granting of timars, zeamets, vakfs,
and malikânes to such people, who in turn gave the revenues to any tax-farmer
(mültezim) willing to offer five dirhems more, thus making the peasants
destitute.
Hemdemi’s treatise is a strange specimen of the eclectic tendencies of
Ottoman literature: alongside its clear emphasis on the Sharia (the author
seems to ignore the kanun completely) and pieces of received wisdom regard-
ing sultanly justice, there are signs of an acute understanding of contempo-
raneous realities (as in his stress on tax-farming and the role of household
affiliation in obtaining administrative posts). Kâtib Çelebi’s influence is strong-
ly visible not only in the Khaldunist description of the rise and fall of dynasties
and the simile of the human body (including the cautionary remark that each
age needs different medicine) but also in Hemdemi’s recurrent references to
“the people constituting the realm” (devlet ve saltanat müştemil olduğu kavmi)
which bring to mind Kâtib Çelebi’s definition of devlet.
Hemdemi was very probably a friend or perhaps student of Kâtib Çelebi;
the reader will also remember Hezarfen Hüseyin Efendi, whose work was stud-
ied in chapter 5 and who bore a striking resemblance to Kâtib Çelebi himself:
Hezarfen, indeed, had a similar career, was likewise a polymath and encyclope-
dist, also used Greek and European sources in his work, and had close relations
with European scholars active in Istanbul. In a way, both men also shared a
new culture of learning: instead of teaching in medreses, they preferred self-
instruction and had their own scholarly circles (in some ways the equivalent
of European salons) with whom they discussed and exchanged knowledge.
Contrary to what is generally believed, however, Hezarfen was more of a
56 Hemdemi also uses other anthropomorphic metaphors, similar to those used, for exam-
ple, by Bitlisi: a state (devlet ve saltanat) is like a man; the sultan is the head, the vizier the
heart, the peasants the feet, and justice the soul (ruh) (V19a).