370 chapter 8
Es-Seyyid Mehmed Emin Behic Efendi, for one thing, was a committed sup-
porter of Selim III and a victim of the sultan’s enemies. He was a member of
the financial bureaucracy and the first director of the paper factory that was
opened in Beykoz in 1804. In 1807, he became chief buyer (mübayaacı) for
the army for the Danubian coast and thus came into contact with Bayrakdar
Mustafa Pasha, the avenger-to-be of the soon afterwards deposed Selim, be-
coming a member of the “Ruşçuk committee” that supported him. Behic
Efendi was killed by the janissaries in May 1809.76 His Sevanihü’l-levayih
(“Inspirational memoranda”), a quite exceptional text, was composed in 1802.77
If Behic seems a bit outdated compared to the other authors of his time (as
will be seen in the next chapter), Ömer Faik Efendi is an almost perfect speci-
men of another era. A palace scribe, he is known to have later followed the
Nakşbendi order of dervishes (which, its religious conservatism notwithstand-
ing, had been associated with sultans including Ahmed III and Selim III).78
As he himself narrates, he decided to write his treatise, meaningfully entitled
Nizâmü’l-atîk (“The old order”), in 1804, after a meeting in which he discussed
the Nizam-i Cedid reforms with Selim III’s secretary, Ahmed Efendi.79 He divid-
ed his treatise into 32 sections, nine of them concerning “spiritual measures”
(tedbirât-ı ma ’neviyye), i.e. pertaining to the ulema and the dervishes’ prayers,
and 23 concerning “the apparent order” (nizam-ı suriyye), namely the role of
courtiers and officials, the military, and the economy. Both Kemal Beydilli and
Kahraman Şakul argue that he in fact supported Nizam-i Cedid, albeit with cer-
tain proposals for amendments and changes, and indeed some of his proposals
were later implemented by Mahmud II, and there are some striking similari-
ties with Behic Efendi’s treatise. Overall, however, his views seem more like a
critique of Selim’s reforms than support.
Both authors take a religious perspective: Behic begins by lamenting the
situation of Muslim knowledge and morals within the Ottoman Empire.
Μosques and medreses are empty, while no justice is to be found in the courts
since the provincial ayan use them to enhance their own interests. Alongside
cheap education books, new regulations (nizamname) on the ulema and their
76 Cabi – Beyhan 2003, 168 (on his association with Bayraktar Mustafa Pasha), 482 (on
his death), and index s.v. “Mehmed Emîn Behîc Efendi, Cihâdiye Defterdârı”; Süreyya –
Akbayar 1996, 2:364; Shaw 1971, 397.
77 Behic – Çınar 1992; see also Beydilli 1999b, 42–53; Şakul 2005, 141–145.
78 Artan 2012, 379–380. On the relationship between the Nakşbendi order and Selim’s reform
team see Şakul 2005, 120–121; Yıldız 2008, 641–653. Butrus Abu-Manneh has studied the
Nakşbendi influence on the 1839 Gülhane rescript (Abu-Manneh 1994).
79 Ömer Faik – Sarıkaya 1979. See also Özkul 1996, 329–333; Beydilli 1999b, 37–42; Şakul 2005,
145–148; Yıldız 2008, 183–184; Menchinger 2017, 214.