424 chapter 9
length with the special revenues allocated to the Nizam-i Cedid (W287–294),
and particularly criticizes the life-long farming out of taxes (malikâne).83
Finally, it may be remembered from chapter 8 that reformist tracts and texts
of the last decades of the eighteenth century, Westernizing or not, placed em-
phasis on the individual responsibility of every member of society, thereby
implicitly enhancing the absolutist tendencies of the palace. It appears that
the janissaries, far from being the political ignoramuses we are used to think
of them as being, were perfectly aware of this idea and of its uses; for instance,
it appears that they turned against Selim’s counsellors, asking for the abso-
lute authority of the sultan, which would in fact restore their own powers.84
Consequently, they adopted an opposing stance, namely a corporate particu-
larism, claiming that the military should be the only ones entitled to have an
opinion about the army. This is what can be made of Kuşmani’s remark that
some may accuse him of meddling with that which does not concern him,
since he is neither a soldier nor a receiver of state salaries. To this, Kuşmani
answers with a coup de force using religious arguments against those who had
appropriated them. He argues that even an itinerant dervish is still a Muslim,
and all Muslims are similarly responsible (since the Holy Book was not given in
different forms to the travelers or the nomads) for “commanding right and for-
bidding wrong” (İ15–18); and if one raises the objection that the ulema should
know better, Kuşmani maintains that unfortunately they do not care, and all
the more so, this neglect to command right and forbid wrong on their part
could be disastrous.
83 He describes it as instituted in Süleyman’s time (!) and argues that thus the profits of the
treasury were not augmented; the new necessary arrangement is that whenever a post
falls vacant the revenue is no longer farmed out, but managed by the government instead
with the income going to the needs of the Nizam-i Cedid. In his memorandum, Mehmed
Şerif Efendi had also described the disadvantages of farming out revenues; the remedy
was thought to be farming-out for life (malikâne), but this also proved disadvantageous
as farmers sub-farmed out the revenues. He suggested that the sultan should personally
grant state revenues as malikânes to palace officials (Şerif Efendi – Çağman 1999, 225–
226). Cf. Menchinger 2017, 181.
84 Cf. Gradeva 2006, 128, on Pasvanoğlu Osman Pasha’s proclamations (“1. That the sultan
should be the only autocrat and ruler without any councils; 2. That the Janissaries should,
according to the ancient usage, be the foremost army in the whole empire; and 3. That all
new institutions must be destroyed in the entire empire and the ones of the olden times
be restored in their place”).