Samples of Translated Texts 487
bring merchandise, craftsmen, and artisans ... This class is like the air, from
whose movement ease of souls and relaxation of bodies are produced ... The
fourth class consists of agriculturers and farmers, who dig and plow arable
land ... They are the real earners, since they spend their time and take their sus-
tenance from the black earth, while the other classes take other gains and ex-
change goods produced by others. This class is like the earth: while they produce
many beneficial things, everyone steps on their face and kicks them, yet they, in
turn, remain steadfast and endure.7 Ebussu’ud Efendi (See Chapter 3)
From the fetva concerning the breaking of the peace treaty with Venice, translated by
Colin Imber:7
For the Sultan of the people of Islam (may God glorify his victories) to make
peace with the infidels is legal only when there is a benefit to all Muslims. When
there is no benefit, peace is never legal. When a benefit has been seen, and it is
then observed to be more beneficial to break it, then to break it becomes abso-
lutely obligatory and binding. His Excellency [Muhammad] the Apostle of God
(may God bless him and give him peace) made a ten-year truce with the Meccan
infidels in the sixth year of the Hegira ... Then, in the following year, it was con-
sidered more beneficial to break it and, in the eighth year of the Hegira, [the
Prophet] attacked [the Meccans], and conquered Mecca the Mighty.From the preamble to the kanunname of Buda and from collections of fetvas, trans-
lated by Colin Imber:8
The inhabitants of the said province [of Hungary] are to remain where they are
settled. The moveable goods in their possession, their houses in towns and vil-
lages, and their cultivated vineyards and orchards are their property to dispose of
as they wish ... The fields which they have from old cultivated and tilled are also
confirmed in their possession. However, whereas their goods in the categories
mentioned above are their property, their fields are not. [Instead] they belong
to the category of royal demesne, known elsewhere in the Protected [Ottoman]
Realms as miri land. The real substance (raqaba) is reserved for the Treasury of
the Muslims, and the subjects have the use of it, by way of a loan. They sow and7 Imber 1997, 84–85.
8 Imber 1997, 122–123 and 127.