The Eighteenth Century: the Traditionalists 337
his more ambitious work or as a short memorandum to the young vizier,
summarizing it.30 More importantly, there is also a contemporary anonymous
chronicle, the Anonymous history 1688–1704, written by a member of Rami
Mehmed’s entourage (as the author himself states).31 In many ways the text
is identical with Defterdar’s Zübde-i vekayiat, due perhaps to both copying of-
ficial reports. The same applies to the author’s political advice on the occasion
of Ali Pasha’s removal (1692), in which there are recognizable reflections of
Defterdar’s Nesâ’ihü’l-vüzerâ (the author notes that his advice is based on many
books in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish).32
Another author obviously very close to Defterdar, and who had a fairly simi-
lar career, was Nahifi Süleyman Efendi (1645?–1738). Son of a va ’iz (preacher),
he seems to have had a good education; he served in various posts in the scribal
service (in a period that suggests he may have been a colleague of Defterdar)
and was the scribe of Kavukçu Mehmed Pasha when the latter went to Iran as
an imperial envoy in 1689. He also followed the second defterdar, İbrahim Ağa,
during the peace negotiations of Passarowitz (1718). He retired in 1725, having
also served as a second defterdar himself. He was the author of numerous poet-
ic and literary works. What interests us here is his Nasihatü’l-vüzerâ (“Counsel
for viziers”), probably completed after 1717, as the majority of the work seems
to have been copied from Defterdar’s Nesâ’ihü’l-vüzerâ and, in particular, its
first part, i.e. on the office of grand vizier.33 Indeed, in its largest part Nahifi’s
text is but a summary of Defterdar Mehmed Pasha’s treatise, which in some
cases he renders almost verbatim, although he usually excludes the moralist
parts.34
2.1 “Mirrors for Princes” Revisited
All these authors give the impression of writing as if nothing had been pro-
duced in the field of political advice for over 60, or even 100, years. The only
general vision of society given by the group can be found in Nahifi, who ends
his essay, somewhat abruptly, with the usual description of human society
30 Özcan 1982.
31 Özcan 2000. In a later note, the chronicle is named “History of Sultan Süleyman [II]”
(Kitâb-i tevârih-i Sultan Süleyman); however it also covers the reigns of Ahmed II and
Mustafa II.
32 Özcan 2000, 37–39. Cf. Özcan 1982, 201; Sariyannis 2008a, 147–149; Tuşalp Atiyas 2013,
286–292 (cf. above, chapter 6).
33 Nahifi – İpşirli 1997. Cf. Yılmaz 2003a, 314.
34 Cf. for instance Nahifi – İpşirli 1997, 21 (on the virtues of the grand vizier), 23–24 (on the
need for spies in the land, against bad innovations, and on the regulation of prices), 25–26
(on unregistered lands and on military affairs); Defterdar – Uğural 1990, 55–63, 29–31, 23,
101–121 respectively.