The Eighteenth Century: the Traditionalists 351
are given in the bureaucracy, provincial people (taşra halkı)47 will still behave
with jealousy and enmity as they did in their villages, remaining ignoramuses
and thus useless for government.
In discussing provincial administration, the rise of the ayans is clearly re-
flected in these texts. Canikli, a major ayan himself, remarks that judges take
the ayan and the inspectors’ (mübaşir) side against the reaya, describing the
tricks used by the ayan of Rumili to hoard and profit from the task of collecting
supplies for the army. If oppressive ayans were executed or exiled to Cyprus
every year, he concludes, the poor peasants would be saved from their hands
(Ö148). Of course, this could be a concession to traditional topoi in order to
present Canikli as being more impartial and unbiased than he really was; on
the other hand, it is interesting to note that he accuses the Balkan notables
specifically, while he was from among the Anatolian. As for Penah Efendi, he
ignores his hostility to the custom of lifelong tax-farming or malikâne when he
talks about Egypt, since he proposes dividing it into various malikânes so that
its landlords would not have too much power (B390–391). Besides, in a chapter
on the Christian notables or kocabaşıs (B396–97), he accuses them of injustice
and proposes that they be appointed for one year each.
As may be expected given the pre-history of political texts and the situa-
tion current in their era, authors writing after the 1770s concentrate on the
problems of the army. Following Defterdar’s tradition, much space is devot-
ed to the practical problems of campaign and logistics: Canikli, for instance,
dwells at length on the subject of mübaaya, or state purchase of army supplies
(Ö146–150). Elaborate instructions for the proper purchase of army supplies
focus on the need for the personal involvement of central government officials,
without local intermediaries. Furthermore, Canikli gives detailed instructions
for the order of an army while on campaign, the arrangement of camps, the
order of battle, and so on, stressing that, nowadays, wars are based on artillery
rather than sword-fighting (Ö169).
As well as such conventional, down-to-earth type of advice, the tradition-
al criticism of the janissaries and the disruption of army regulations takes a
distinctively new form. All authors agree that the excessive numbers of men
enlisted in the payrolls do not correspond to actual power on the battlefield.
In Dürri’s words, the salaries of the soldiers (as well as the stipends of the recit-
ers of prayers, du’a-guyân) had surpassed any moderate level (hadd-ı i’tidal)
and they should be brought back under control order. First and foremost, they
47 This term could be translated as “people outside the palace”, but from the context it is
clear that what is meant are people from the provinces.