492 appendix 2
for zeamet or fiefs. Now, concerning the imperial vakfs, there is nothing to be
said: the great sultans donated to the public kitchens and mosques lands they
had conquered by force ... But is it just to grant as private property forty or fifty
villages to only one vizier, apart from the other gifts and favors [he is given]? Is
not a high post such as that of the vizier sufficient to secure their obedience?
And, especially, what need is there to present villages as a gift to a grand vizier?
... Spending so much wealth from the treasury is a deed for which His Excellency
the honorable sultan will account for on the Day of Judgment ... It is clear that
the purpose of conquering lands and territories is the expansion of the realm
and the increase in the wealth of the treasury, not the granting [of lands] to vi-
ziers or others. So it is necessary that, from now on, [the sultan] should find it
inappropriate to grant to viziers or others anything from the state land, whether
villages or arable fields. If villages and fields continue to be granted in such a
way for much longer, the revenues will not be sufficient to match the expenses
and, moreover, no fief will remain so that if—God forbid!—an enemy moves
to attack it will be very difficult to repel him. What is more appropriate is to
not grant anything as private property, and even if such has to happen once, it
should concern only one village or two, and only to a grand vizier who is devoid
of greed and content with the produce of his fiefs, cautious of this world and of
the Hereafter, and careful to grant posts only to useful and appropriate people.
If a prudent vizier like this wishes to build a mosque and a public kitchen in a
suitable place for the sake of the Hereafter, then he should be granted abundant
imperial permission; but apart from such a case, he must not be allowed to raise
numerous kitchens and mosques.12 Mustafa Ali (See Chapter 4)
From Nushatü’s-selâtîn (“Counsel for sultans”), translated by Andreas Tietze:14
The sixth requirement: The dîvân secretaries and the stylists of the high officials
at whose fingertips lies the fulfillment of the wishes of the people and in whose
lines, that pleasure of the expert beholder, lies the attainment of the aspirations
of the century, are in our days for the most part addicted to intoxication by eating
bersh and opium. As improvement and coming to reason are impossible for their
short-sighted minds they undoubtedly neglect their duties, in this way harm and
insult the people that come for business. In particular, in unchecked greed they
dare to venture certain illegal dispositions; to please someone they write many14 Ali – Tietze 1979–1982, 1:48–49.