The Eighteenth Century: the Traditionalists 349
war unless they have been preparing for at least five years; if they are not ready,
they should feign friendship and even capitulate to some of the enemy’s de-
mands. Dürri even copies Na’ima’s use of Salah al-Din’s example in order to
advocate peace through an appeal to the glorious past of Islamic history.
While Canikli’s treatise, which is much more in Defterdar’s tradition, ex-
hibits no sociological theory whatsoever, Penah Efendi also shows himself a
fervent Khaldunist. He begins his essay with a detailed chapter on the “military
class” (B157), and in this such influences are evident. In the beginnings of a
state or dynasty, he says, the soldiers obey and display solidarity and unanim-
ity when plundering the enemy and dividing the shares of the conquered land;
officials and statesmen tend to ignore their failings. This is a feature of that pe-
riod, however; when the state proceeds to the stage of consolidation (kemal ve
kudret), the soldiers begin to pursue ease, comfort, and luxury; moreover, the
inhabitants of the various towns and villages develop their own various man-
ners and character, with the result that controlling them becomes difficult.
When wise counselors perceive that, consequently, the state will be dispersed,
they divide the population under their dominion into various classes or groups
that have to obey certain rules, and in times of need they have to leave aside
other important affairs and occupy themselves with the urgent matter in hand.
However, order can only be obtained through calm, rational action, rather than
by the use of measures such as execution, exile, or confiscation. Ideally, it will
happen in such a smooth and natural way that the common people (avam-ı
nas) will not understand how it was imposed, whereas, notes Penah Efendi,
those who naively try to impose order in certain matters, while clearly show-
ing their intentions from the start, succeeded only in making themselves the
target of criticism.
The purpose of Penah’s account of the historical stages is to advocate re-
form of the military class, rather than to advocate peace; and in this he re-
sembles more Kâtib Çelebi than Na’ima. After a state surpasses the age of
growth, he maintains, it becomes difficult to rule and control in just one way
(bir renk üzere) its soldiers and the general population (askeri taifesi ve ol dev-
letin kavmı). Men of understanding divide the army into several classes, so as
to have one class supervise and check another. But as a prerequisite, the king
alone can have the power to expel and transfer undisciplined soldiers; if this
power is granted to his ministers (vükela), within a few years all discipline and
respect will be lost once more. This is what happened with the janissaries, who
lost their discipline. Here, Penah Efendi quotes Na’ima (B159) on the three
ages of the state and the similarities with the human body. Like all Ottoman
Khaldunists, however, he notes that, unlike people, states that obey their laws
and adjust themselves to the changes that occur in the world (dünya tarz-ı