450 conclusion
Mustafa Ali’s emphasis on social differentiation re-emerges with Kâtib
Çelebi, for whom pomp and pageantry, and more generally the imitation of
rulers by the middle classes, are harmful aspects associated with the “decline”
stages of a society. This Khaldunist view is clearer and further elaborated in
Na’ima’s writing, where Kâtib Çelebi’s medical simile of the body politic is ex-
panded to declare excessive luxury and ease on the part of the peasants a cause
of rebellion and strife. In the same vein, he also maintained that merchants
should be controlled and avoid greed. On the other hand, he argued that the
magnates of the state do need the “signs of splendor and grandeur”; luxury
should mark the distinction between the soldiers and the servants of the state,
on the one hand, and the commoners, on the other. The emphasis placed on
the economic aspect of compartmentalization continued throughout the
eighteenth century, such as when Dürri Efendi not only stated that sartorial
differentiation should be imposed but also argued against inferiors imitating
their superiors on the grounds of private economics (fewer private expenses
means a more useful role in war).57
In practice, the principle of compartmentalization was mainly directed at
peasants entering the askeri class, i.e. taxable subjects becoming non-taxable
(it should be noted that, in this sense, the askeri included the ulema as well).
Lütfi Pasha maintained that even in such a case, the transition of a person
to non-taxable status should not bring forth the transition of his relatives as
well. Within the context of the declinist theory, from the late sixteenth century
onwards this principle was turned into a growing emphasis on the destructive
role of “strangers” or “intruders” (ecnebi) in the army ranks.58 However com-
monplace it may seem in a short survey of the sources, this emphasis saw sev-
eral stages and took different forms even within the same period. More than
two decades after Lütfi Pasha was writing, Kitâbu mesâlih (c. 1560) spoke of
“strangers” in the scribal ranks but has no reference at all to the army; shortly
afterwards, the anonymous author of Hırzü’l-mülûk mentioned strangers in the
sipahi corps, while for the janissaries he only lamented their large salaries (not
their numbers). The commonly-seen notion of the janissary corps being filled
with intruders first appears in Mustafa Ali, who put the beginning of this prac-
tice in 1582; his contemporary Akhisari placed it ten years later and described
it somewhat differently: peasants and artisans were forced to join the army (the
emphasis, it must be noted, is on the destruction of the urban economy rather
than that of the provinces).
57 On sumptuary laws and sartorial differentiation in practice and in Ottoman mentalities,
see Quataert 1997; Murphey 2002, 136–141. On sumptuary laws in pre-modern and early
modern Western Europe, cf. Hunt 1996; Muzzarelli – Campanini 2003.
58 On this issue cf. Fodor 1986, 225ff.; Káldy-Nagy 1987; Abou-El-Haj 2005, 38–39, 45.