422 chapter 9
uncompromising factions is evident in these works. The invective launched
against the janissaries by Sekbanbaşı and Kuşmani approaches the limits of
calumny. Sekbanbaşı presents some janissaries as admitting that what they are
really afraid of is that they will lose their pay if the Nizam-i Cedid troops in-
crease in numbers;79 on the other hand, others understand that if the Nizam-i
Cedid is abolished the infidels will be able to impose increasingly humiliating
conditions on the sultan, whereas if the new institution is strengthened and
multiplied the safety of the empire will be guaranteed (W246–254). For his
part, Kuşmani labels his opponents disobedient, fanatic bigots, ignorant, and
even madmen; he also states that since there are only four classes, namely “the
people of the sciences and of asceticism (ehl-i ulum ü zehadet), those who are
real soldiers or scribes (hakikaten askeri ve ehl-i kitabet), the merchants and
tradesmen, and the farmers”, it is these people, who are not real soldiers but
just people roaming about wearing military clothes, who should be persecuted
and killed, as is the practice with those who “refuse to enter one of the four
classes” (İ12–13). Reverting to an old argument that originated with the Sunna-
minded authors of the seventeenth century (see above, chapter 6), Kuşmani
also associates the janissaries with the use of drugs and other intoxicants, in-
cluding coffee and tobacco. He accuses Ottoman soldiers of selling their arms
in time of war in order to buy their coffee and opium, and discusses at length
the various opinions on smoking, which he condemns on various moral, medi-
cal, and legal grounds (including that it is a bad innovation; İ64–65).
It is tempting to seek the views expressed by the janissary opposition
through the counter-arguments raised by Sekbanbaşı and Kuşmani. There
seem to have been some “political” objections, implying that the new sys-
tem had no results and that it had, in fact, caused rebellions in the Balkans.80
The most often heard and strongest arguments of the janissaries, however,
seem to have focused on the innovation presented by the new corps, and
especially—since “innovation” had lost by then a large part of its bad
and a leading figure of the opposition, stresses that Selim’s real aim seems to be the con-
version of Islam to another religion (tecdid-i din-i aher) and laments that all the soldiers
became “Frenks wearing hats” (Yıldız 2008, 181–182). On the reactions of the ulema and
their motives see Argun 2013.
79 The same accusation is also made by Kuşmani: Kuşmanî – Yıldız 2007, 73=137.
80 Sekbanbaşı answers that, on the contrary, similar troubles did exist in Anatolia, Egypt,
and other provinces before the institution of the Nizam-i Cedid. Even in the present
time, France is ravaged by disturbances which have turned the country “into a slaughter-
house for swine”, and similar troubles are observed in India, China, and even the new
world; Anatolia, on the other hand, has remained undisturbed for the time being, which
shows that all these troubles stem “from the decrees of Providence” (W221–227). See also
Menchinger 2017, 213.