352 chapter 8
should only be given to those properly entitled. Dürri describes at length the
selling and buying of payrolls (286b–289b); janissary officers should thus in-
spect the payrolls and remove the names of anyone who does not take part in
campaigns (291b). Similarly, the provincial armies (eyalet askerleri) need to be
restored to their old order. Dürri remarks that, around A.H. 1110 (1698/99), these
troops were very orderly: according to “the old law”, whenever a fief became
vacant it was given to a soldier, on condition that he stayed in the province;
strangers were not given fiefs. As long as this order was kept, there was no need
for irregular troops (levendât) for 30 or 40 years (294a–294b). Similar advice is
given by Canikli, who maintains that everybody, from petty traders (bakkal ve
çakkal) to infidel reaya, had been enlisted in the army in exchange for bribes,
and nobody actually goes on campaign. The reason for all these shortcomings
was, it is claimed, the intrusion of inappropriate people, servants of the house-
holds of the great statesmen, and ulema (Ö162) into the ranks of the army.
Canikli proposes strict interrogation of the officers by the sultan so that all
intruders, of peasant or urban origin, would be excluded from the military.48
More practically, Penah Efendi (after noting that peasants who want to be free
of the interference of local officials enroll in the janissary ranks, making them
no longer an army created by the will of the sultan, but one created by its own
will: B158) stipulates that janissaries must be given roll titles (esame), in which
are explicitly written their names, characteristics, and post. To this effect, janis-
saries must be registered anew and should stay in their defined post until their
death, unless the needs of the state dictate they be transferred. When this new
order (nizam-ı cedid; B228) prevails in the provincial garrisons, it will be easier
to impose in Istanbul as well; Penah Efendi even gives a template for the impe-
rial decree that would ordain the expulsion of any undisciplined or disobedi-
ent janissaries.
So far, such advice does not differ greatly from earlier attempts to curb the
numbers of salaried soldiers. There are, however, a few new points that may be
attributed to contact with European armies and which are common to all three
authors. One such point is the idea of imposing uniforms of sorts on the army.
In Dürri’s treatise, this idea resembles similar older suggestions (for instance,
48 As if he wanted to lessen the harshness of these measures, following in the tracks of
Defterdar’s cautiousness, Canikli emphasizes the importance of consultation (meşveret),
primarily for matters related to war (Ö158). He notes that in matters of war it is the ulema
and the high-standing state officials (rical-ı devlet) who now give their opinion, rather
than the military officers, whereas in the olden days the officials and viziers were asked
about the order and protection of the imperial lands, the military about matters related to
war, and the ulema about whether the advice given by the other two classes was compat-
ible with the law (şer’e ve kanuna mutabık; Ö161).