A GATE TO THE EMOTIONAL WORLD OF
PRE-MODERN OTTOMAN SOCIETY:
AN ATTEMPT TO WRITE OTTOMAN HISTORY
FROM “THE INSIDE OUT”
The Graduate School of Economics and Social Sciences
of
f the Requirements for the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY
THE DEPARTMENT OF
HISTORY
ii i
ABSTRACT
A GATE TO THE EMOTIONAL WORLD OF
PRE-MODERN OTTOMAN SOCIETY:
AN ATTEMPT TO WRITE OTTOMAN HISTORY
FROM “THE INSIDE OUT”
May 2016
Beginning in the 1980’s, the research produced on various fields of knowledge
including history, neuroscience, sociology, psychology and anthropology asserted
that emotions are not only a product of biochemical but also cognitive processes.
It is now commonly accepted that emotions do have a history, they are socially
constructed changing across time and space. This thesis is an attempt to revisit the
relations established within the pre-modern Ottoman society, by taking emotions
into consideration. The relations are analyzed within three dimensions; the state
and the subjects, intra-communal relations and familial ties. It is argued that the
Ottoman state, each taife/cemaat within the society and families were not only
social but also emotional communities. The collectively constructed emotional
norms and codes of each emotional community and their reflections in political
relations, negotiations and daily practices are elaborated via linguistic and
iv
discourse analysis of the primary sources. This thesis offers a new perspective and
direction in Ottoman social history and thus stands as a first such attempt. The
main emotion code, as reflected in the primary sources, was “telif-i kulûb” and
“mahabbet” between the ruler and the ruled; “rıza ve şükran” for the community
members; and “hüsn-i zindegani ve musafat” for husbands and wives. It is
emphasized in this thesis that not only the material but also the emotional
dimension of the political and social relations was important in shaping relations
and that they should not be avoided in Ottoman social history studies.
Keywords: history of emotions, mahabbet, ottoman history, rıza ve şükran, telif-i
kulûb.
v
ÖZET
PRE-MODERN OSMANLI TOPLUMUNUN
DUYGU DÜNYASINA AÇILAN BİR KAPI
Tekgül, Nil
Doktora, Tarih Bölümü
Tez Yöneticisi: Prof. Dr. Özer Ergenç
Mayıs 2016
Tarih, sinirbilim, sosyoloji, psikoloji ve antropoloji gibi farklı bilgi alanlarında,
duygular üzerine 1980’lerden beri yapılmakta olan araştırmaların sonuçları,
duyguların insan beyninde sadece biyokimyasal süreçler değil, bilişsel süreçlerin
de bir ürünü olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Bu sonuçlara dayanan genel kabul ile
birlikte, duyguların da tarihin bir konusu olduğu, zaman ve mekana göre hem
duygular hem de onların ifade biçimlerinin değiştiği ve duyguların toplumsal
olarak inşa edildikleri ileri sürülmektedir. Bu çalışma, pre-modern Osmanlı’sında
devletinin tebaasıyla, taife/cemaat üyelerinin birbirleriyle ve genelde kadın ve
erkek olmak üzere özelde karı ve kocanın aralarında kurmuş oldukları ilişkilere,
duyguları da gözönüne almak suretiyle bir yeniden bakış denemesidir.
Araştırmada, hem devlet, hem her bir cemaat/taife hem de ailenin birer duygu
topluluğu olduğu ileri sürülmektedir. Her duygu topluluğunun kollektif olarak
inşa edilen duygu normları ve kodları, kullanılan dil üzerinden tespit edilmiş ve
bu normların kurulan ilişkilerde, müzakerelerde ve gündelik pratiklerde
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yansımaları incelenmiştir. Böylelikle Osmanlı sosyal tarihine bir başka açıdan
bakılmıştır. Bu yönüyle, bir ilk olma özelliği taşıdığı söylenebilir. Devletin
tebaasıyla kurduğu ilişkide en belirleyici duygu kodu “telif-i kulub ve mahabbet”
iken, taife/cemaat ilişkilerinde “rıza ve şükran”, karı koca lişkilerinde ise “hüsn-i
zindegani ve musafat”tır. Araştırmada, bireylerin birbirleriyle, ait oldukları
taife/cemaatin diğer üyeleri ile devletin de yönetilenlerle kurduğu ilişkilerin
maddi boyutu kadar duygu boyutunun da önem taşıdığı ve sosyal tarih açısından
bu yönün ihmal edilmemesi gerektiği tezde vurgulanmaktadır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: duyguların tarihi, mahabbet, rıza ve şükran, osmanlı tarihi,
telif-i kulûb.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This thesis represents the end of my journey in obtaining my Ph.D and I would
like to express my sincere thanks to all those who contributed scientifically and
emotionally and who made it possible and an unforgettable experience for me.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest “şükran” for my advisor
Prof. Özer Ergenç for his continuous support and never lasting patience to my
questions. His immense knowledge of Ottoman history and his guidance always
enlightened my way throughout my time of research. It would have been
impossible to study such an elusive concept like “emotions” without his
continuous encouragement. He had not only been my advisor but also my mentor
and I always felt myself lucky to feel his deep support. He had always been
supportive in my search for emotions in history and could make my journey not
only fulfilling but also enjoyable. I am and will always be proud to be one of his
students.
I’m thankful to my thesis committee members Prof. Mehmet Kalpaklı and Prof.
Tülay Artan for their support by encouraging me and for their insightful
comments. I’m specifically thankful to Prof. Cemal Kafadar for his esteemed and
generous contribution of his vast knowedge into my thesis and agreeing to be a
member of my defense committee. I also thank to Prof. Ali Yaycıoğlu for sparing
his time for me and for his valuable comments. I would also like to thank all my
viii
professors in History Department of Bilkent University since they each had an
impact on shaping my own understanding of history.
Special thanks also to Prof. Yusuf Oğuzoğlu who had been supportive and always
interested in my thesis subject by giving me insightful comments and supplying
invaluable primary sources for my thesis.
I also take this opportunity to sincerely acknowledge Prof. Berrak Burçak and
Prof. İlker Aytürk for their academic support and friendship.
I would like to expand my huge, warm thanks to my dear friends Birgül, Canan,
Füsun, Lale and Sevgi who were always there whenever I needed them helping
me to relieve my anxieties by making me laugh and think. I’m thankful for their
sincere support. Life would be boring without them. I also owe special thanks to
my dear brother Can Erkey who had always been my hero.
I am indebted to all of my colleagues, but in particular to Aslıhan and Michael
Sheridan, Can Eyüp Çekiç, Merve Biçer for their valuable help and support.
There’s also somesome special whom I would like to thank who passed away long
ago, my grandmother Ferhunde Betin. She was a member of late Ottoman society
in her childhood and a proud citizen of the Turkish Republic as an elementary
school teacher in her later life. I always loved to listen to her stories and my
passion for history owes a lot to her. I hope she’s in peace in heaven now.
Last but not the least, I would like to thank my dear husband Serdar and my
beloved son Hakan who had always been supportive, thoughtful and appreciative
all throughout my research. I cannot think of a life without them.
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ..........................................................................................................iii
ÖZET ......................................................................................................................v
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................ix
LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................xi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 1
CHAPTER II: WHAT IS “HISTORY OF EMOTIONS”?....................................16
2.1 The Origins and Evolution of the Field...............................................17
2.2 Recent Studies and Their Contributions to the Field...........................23
2.3 Emotions in Ottoman History..............................................................31
CHAPTER III: SOURCES AND METHODOLOGY...........................................37
3.1 Sources, Main Theoretical Approaches and Debates...........................37
3.1.1 Emotionology........................................................................43
3.1.2 Emotional Communities.......................................................44
3.1.3 Emotives................................................................................47
3.2 Methods Utilized in Exploring Emotions............................................50
3.3 Ottoman Sources Utilized....................................................................52
3.3.1 Sources for Exploring Prescriptions of Emotions................54
3.3.2 Sources for Exploring Description of Emotions..................56
CHAPTER IV: OTTOMAN POLITICS OF EMOTION......................................67
4.1 Emotions in Political Discourse:..........................................................67
4.2 Presidential Speeches and Imperial Decrees........................................71
4.3 Creation of State Ideology: The Power of Words................................75
4.4 Symbolic and Emotion Codes In Ottoman Political Rhetoric..............82
4.4.1 Merhamet ile Siyanet, İhtisas ile İtaat.................................82
4.4.2 Tarik-i Mahabbet as an Emotion Code................................88
4.4.3 Telif-i Kulub as a Symbolic Code......................................100
x
4.4.4 Fading Out of Protection and Demanding Compassion....112
4.4.5 Oppression/Transgression and Fading out of Protection...125
4.4.6 İnfisâl-ı kulûb.....................................................................137
4.5 Emotion Talk Between the Rulers.....................................................139
4.6 Concluding Remarks..........................................................................146
CHAPTER V: EMOTIONAL RHETORIC OF TAİFE/CEMAATs: “RIZA VE
ŞÜKRAN DUYMAK” ..............................................................................149
5.1 Spatial Analysis of Ottoman Quarters and Bazaars...........................157
5.2 Emotional Rhetoric of the Taife/Cemaats..........................................168
5.2.1 “Razı ve şakir olmak”.........................................................169
5.2.2 “Maiyyet Üzere Olmağla”..................................................173
5.2.3 “Terazu ve Tevafuk Eyledik”..............................................174
5.2.4 “Kendü Haline Olmak”......................................................177
5.3 The Domain of “Rıza ve Şükran”.......................................................184
5.4 The Process of Moving In and Out of the Domain of “Rıza ve
Şükran” ....................................................................................................202
5.5 Variances in the Borders of the Domain of “Rıza ve Şükran”...........215
5.6 Sustainability of the Domain of “Rıza ve Şükran”: Shame................227
5.6.1 Descriptions of Shame........................................................228
5.6.2 Ar.........................................................................................234
5.7 Concluding Remarks..........................................................................245
CHAPTER VI: THE OTTOMAN FAMILY AS AN AFFECTIVE UNIT AND
ITS EMOTIONOLOGY: “HANE-İ ÜLFET VE MAHABBET”...............247
6.1 How Did Ottomans Define “Home”?................................................249
6.2 Prescription of Emotions....................................................................253
6.3 Prescription versus Expression of Emotions......................................259
6.4 Expressing Emotions in Familial Ties...............................................271
6.4.1 Namzedlik............................................................................271
6.4.2 Hul Cases............................................................................280
6.5 Concluding Remarks..........................................................................299
CHAPTER VII: CONCLUSION.........................................................................301
BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................311
APPENDICES.....................................................................................................330
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LIST OF FIGURES
1.Arnold’s Theory of Cognitive Emotions ...........................................................19
2.Vedayi-i Halik-i Kibriya.....................................................................................78
3.Merhamet ile Siyaset...........................................................................................79
4.İhtisas ile İtaat.....................................................................................................82
5.Symbolic and Emotion Codes in Ottoman Political Rhetoric...........................103
6.Zulm ve Teaddi.................................................................................................120
7.Reversal of Zulm ve Teaddi..............................................................................121
8.Unsuccessful Reversal of Zulm ve Teaddi.......................................................131
9.Pyramidal Structure of Taife/ Cemaats.............................................................145
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
There were craftsmen producing goods and services in their field of expertise
clustered along the various streets, each of which opening to
“Uzunçarşı”(long bazaar). The sounds of their tools rising up from the
bazaar were like tunes of a magical, centuries-old music. If it were possible
to wander along the streets in which this magical music was being performed,
it would have been possible to see the quilts glamorized with colors of nature,
the silk, cotton and woolen textiles woven, the harness piled up by the hands
of craftsmen, all skilled with the knowledge transmitted from generation to
generation. One could have also witnessed a worldly-wise master with lines
on his face reflecting his wisdom, and his disciple sitting in front of his
master with his legs crossed, respectfully practicing his art. The whitebearded
old man that you would have noticed in the entrance hall of the
bazaar would most likely be a sheikh, a kethüda or a yiğitbaşı, all acting as
the representatives of a five centuries long tradition. You would have felt the
power of a vast authority when you saw the muhtesib (regulator of urban
economic activity), sitting gloriously on his horse, with a “terazu oğlanı”
(young assistant of muhtesib for weighing) on one side and a “falaka
oğlanı”(young assistant of muhtesib for bastinadoing) on the other.1
1 “Uzunçarşı’ya açılan çok sayıdaki sokaktan her birinde, kendi uğraşı dalında mal ve hizmet
üreten sanatkârlar kümelenmiştir. Her üretici grubunun çarşısından yükselen âlet sesleri,
yüzyıllar boyu kesintisiz süregelen b ir sihirli musikînin nağmelerini oluşturur. Bu musikînin icrâ
edildiği mekânda gezinmek mümkün olsaydı, kuşakların birbirine aktardığı deneyimlerin
ustalaştırdığı ellerin doğa renkleriyle bezediği yorganları: ipekli, yünlü, pamuklu dokumaları, boy
boy pabuçları, koşum takımlarını özenle istiflemiş esnâfı görürdünüz. Yüzündeki çizgilerde yılların
görmüş geçirmişliği sezilen, bir ustanın, önünde bağdaş kurmuş bir şâkirdin saygılı çalışmasına
tanık olabilirdiniz. Çarşının başında; rastlayabileceğiniz aksakallı bir ihtiyar, ya şeyh ya kethüdâ
ya da yiğitbaşı'dır. Bunlar, enaz beş yüz yıllık bir geleneğin temsilcisidir. Bir yanında "terâzu
oğlanı", diğer yanında "falaka oğlanı:" ile, atının üzerinde heybetle oturan muhtesib, bir büyük
otoritenin gücünü size hissettirebilirdi.” Özer Ergenç, “Osmanlı’da Esnaf ve Devlet İlişkileri,” In
Osmanlı Tarihi Yazıları Şehir, Toplum, Devlet (İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2012), 417.
Translation belongs to the author.
2
Ergenç’s article titled “Osmanlı’da Devlet ve Esnaf İlişkileri”, a part of which is
quoted above, narrating the guild structure of the Ottoman Empire, still remains to
be one of my favorites. While reading his lines, I feel as if I hear the tunes of this
magical music while wandering around a 16th century Ottoman bazaar. What
makes this article unique is not only its novel-like style enabling one to recover
the living presence of historical actors -a disciple and his master or the muhtesib
and his young assistants- but also the hard core research substantiating his
analysis of Ottoman guilds.
I have always been interested in similar texts reflecting the human contours of
history and wondered whether it was possible to trace how people in the past felt.
Questions like; what they were afraid of, what made them feel happy, how they
perceived the world that they lived in, how they gave meaning to their lives, used
to be my topics of interest. The Ottoman historians made great contributions so
far to our understanding of ordinary Ottoman subjects, the women, the slaves, the
marginal and their daily lives. There is a vast scholarship produced so far on the
Ottoman history regarding its social, legal and political structure. However,
historical research focused mostly on the demographical analysis, like exploring
the number of Ottoman households and the neighborhoods, average life
expectations, population counts of Muslim and non-Muslim subjects or social and
economic analysis of institutions like the timar or the guild system. I think
Rosenwein’s quote below, may as well be easily applied to Ottoman history
studies.
“Although history began as the servant of political developments, and despite
a generation’s work of social and cultural history, the discipline has never
3
quite lost its attraction to hard, rational things and emotions have seemed
tangential (if not fundamentally opposed) to the historical enterprise.”2
I never thought it was possible to trace the emotions of people who lived in the
past. While facing difficulties in understanding our beloved’s feelings even today,
how one would expect from a historian to understand how people had felt in the
past? I felt almost sure that such questions would remain unanswered, up until I
got acquainted with this new field of history: “history of emotions”. My interest in
history of emotions originates mainly from this curiosity. This field offers a way
to:
“recover that living presence, to recapture the way history felt. Because
history has been felt; the lives of men and women have lived had an
emotional dimension. That dimension has not only given shape to history but
also created history, as men and women have acted on their feelings,
sometimes knowingly, sometimes not.”3
Now it is widely accepted that not only emotions have a history that is changing
across time and place, but also that emotions have larger social, political and legal
implications throughout time.
Emotions are everywhere, in every utterance that we make, in every play or movie
that we watch, in every book or poem that we read, in every song that we sing.
They are in our relations. We love, hate, we get sad, angry, feel ashamed. After
all, don’t we all strive for “happiness”? Emotions are embedded in our daily lives,
politics, what we value, whether or not those include or exclude emotion words.
2 Barbara Rosenwein, “Worrying About Emotions,” American Historical Review 107 (2002): 821.
3 Peter Stearns, and Jan Lewis, eds., An Emotional History of the United States (New York: New
York University Press, 1998), 1.
4
But what are emotions? As two psychologists commented everybody knows what
an emotion is, until asked to give a definition.4 The definition of emotion by a
neurobiologist would probably differ from that of a historian. While emotion is
defined as “a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances,
mood or relationships with others” in Oxford Dictionary of English, emphasizing
its instinctiveness; Peter Stearns, who is one of the prominent historians of the
field, elaborates emotions as a cognitive process in his definition; “a complex set
of interactions among subjective and objective factors, mediated through neural
and/or hormonal systems, which gives rise to feelings (affective experiences as of
pleasure or displeasure) and also general cognitive processes towards appraising
the experience; emotions in this sense lead to physiological adjustments to the
conditions that aroused response, and often to expressive and adaptive behavior”.5
Most European languages have more than one word for the phenomena that
Anglophones call “emotions,” and often time are not interchangeable. “In France,
love is not an émotion; it is a sentiment. Anger, however, is an émotion, since an
émotion is short term and violent, while a sentiment is more delicate and has a
longer duration. German has Gefühle, a broad term that is used when feelings are
strong and irrational, rather like les émotions in French while Empfindungen are
more contemplative and inward, rather closer to les sentiments”.6 In Ottoman
4 Jan Plamper, The History of Emotions An Introduction, trans. by Keith Tribe (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2015), 11.
5 Peter Stearns and Carol Z. Stearns, “Emotionlogy: Clarifying the History of Emotions and
Emotional Standards,” American Historical Review 90, no 4 (1985): 813-36.
6 Barbara Rosenwein, Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 2006), 4.
5
Turkish, hiss, which may be an approximate equivalent of emotions in English, is
defined as sense, perception, faculty; feeling, sensation, sentiment. However there
were also phrases like hiss-i batini (intellectual perception, cognition) and hiss-i
deruni (inner perception).
Emotion is such an elusive concept. Although we may never know exactly what
others feel, we are all in constant search to understand their feelings. Emotions are
the most personal; however they may also be collective which was the case in
Gezi event in Taksim in year 2013. They are expressed both in our minds and our
bodies. They may be subjective, however sometimes they may well be objective.
Emotions do not also fit well in our well-known dichotomies like private/public,
individual/collective, mind/body and subjective/objective.
Are emotions strictly biological or chemical occurrences? Or are they socially
constructed? Do emotions have a history? Do they change from place to place and
era to era? Do religious, political or other ideological or collective agencies
configure emotions? How do emotions shape and how are they shaped by social,
cultural, political and economic factors? Can we have an access to emotional lives
of people who lived in the past? How do emotional expressions differ from actual
emotional states? These are only some of the questions posed by historians lately.
However any attempt to inquire as such remained “tangential” for the historians
for a long time as Rosenwein termed.
In fact, the question, why it took so long for scholars to have an interest in
emotions, demands an answer. In her comprehensive article, Lutz explores the
unspoken assumptions embedded in the concept of emotion as a master Western
6
cultural category, which I believe also holds true for our culture.7 She argues that
emotion is either assumed to be opposed to the positively evaluated process of
thought, or to a negatively evaluated estrangement from the world. In other words,
when we label someone as “unemotional” we either mean that he/she is calm,
rational, and deliberate, or he/she is uninvolved and alienated. She argues that this
contrast of emotion to rationality and thought has been the dominant and common
use of the concept.8 I believe the main reason why emotions have always been
tangential to the historical initiative, is the bias in both academic and everyday
discussions regarding emotions as irrational, insane, unreasonable, insensible,
subjective, uncontrollable, involuntary, wild and primitive forces.
Things have changed since the past four decades. Today, the field has expanded
so dramatically that some historians like Plamper, even suggested that history has
taken an “emotional turn”.9 Whether it’s an “emotional turn” or not, there’s a
growing interest in emotions not only among historians but also across humanities
and natural sciences. This growing interest is manifested in the growing number
of edited volumes, monographs, conferences, journals and even research centers
established like ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions in the
University of Western Australia/Perth, Center for the History of Emotions/Max
Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for the History of Emotions in
Queen Mary University of London.
7 Catherine Lutz, “Emotion, Thought and Estrangement: Emotion as a Cultural Category,”
Cultural Anthropology 1, no 3 (1986): 287-309.
8 Ibid., 289.
9 Jan Plamper, “The History of Emotions: An Interview with William Reddy, Barbara Rosenwein
and Peter Stearns,” History and Theory 49 (2010): 237-265.
7
In a virtual roundtable chaired by Frank Biess, remarkable historians of the field
discussed the reasons underlying this growing interest.10 For Ute Frevert, who was
a contributor in this forum, it was “due to methods developed in neuroscience
since 1990’s providing a new boost to psychological research”. For Uffa Jensen, it
was due to “uneasiness with or a longing for an alternative to hegemony of
discursive, constructivist assumptions, like “linguistic turn”.
Susan Matt argues that beginning in the 1940’s, historians of Annales School who
started studying the history of daily activity, private life and mentalities of earlier
generations actually pioneered the historical investigation of emotions.11 She
claims that American scholars in 1960’s attempted to write history from “the
bottom up”, and focused on social history of ordinary people, writing history of
working class, marriage, the family, housing, cleanliness, sex and food. Some
scholars expanded the research field and started investigating the emotions in
1980’s. She points out that now there are many historians from Europe and North
America who study topics as diverse as the history of lust and the changing
experience of nostalgia.12 For Matt, they are trying to explore the history of
subjectivity and uncover intension, motivation and values that might lead to their
actions; in short they are committed to write history not only from “the bottom
up”, but also from “the inside out”.13
10 Frank Biess, ed., “Forum- History of Emotions,” German History 28, no 1 (2010): 67–80.
11 Susan J. Matt, “Current Emotion Research in History: or, Doing History from the Inside Out,”
Emotion Review 3, no 1 (2011): 117-124.
12 Ibid., 118.
13 Ibid.
8
History of emotions represents a fundamentally new direction in history. For the
past four decades, history of politics, economics, religions and society are being
examined by taking emotions into consideration. Following numerous researches
on the subject of emotions, historians brought emotions back into the story and
offered explanations of human motivation enriching our understanding of the past.
This thesis is an attempt to do Ottoman history from “the inside out” bringing
emotions into the domain of historical research.
We witness to expressions of emotions, implicitly or explicitly, in almost every
Ottoman primary source. A man came to the court in the year 1660 and uttered
the distress of his soul and the grief of his heart (mutazaccır- the root of the word
is zucret in Arabic: distress) since his family (ehl ü iyal) was within the sight of
his next-door neighbor and demanded a wall to be built in between.14 Likewise,
the peasants, in their political demands from the State, almost always referred to
their hurt feelings and their freight with the well-known phrase of “rencide ve
remide olmak”. We witness the ruling elites expressing and displaying their
sorrow when shed into chickpea-sized tears within the narratives of Silahdar
Fındıklılı Mehmed Ağa quoted below:
“…….defterdârlık büyük işdir, her âdeme i‘timâd olunup hakkından
gelemez, yerine nasb itmeğe eyü âdem bulunmaduğundan rızâ virmedüğüme
bâ‘is budur, cürm-i kabâhatım çokdur afv eyle pâdişâhım” deyü, zâr zâr
ağlayup, gözlerinden nohud dânesi gibi dökülen yaşa merhamet eyleyüp,
“Suçunı bağışladım, sana tekā‘ud ihsân eyledim. Var du‘âda ol”
buyurup….. “.15
14 Konya JCR10: 12/3
15 Nezihe Karaçay Türkal, “Silahdar Fındıklılı Mehmed Ağa Zeyl-i Fezleke (1065-22 Ca.1106 /
1654-7 Şubat 1695)” (Unpublished PhD thesis, İstanbul: Marmara Üniversitesi, 2012), 1481.
9
We also witness subjects or ruling elites demanding compassion (merhameten)
from the Sultan very often in chronicles, decrees, petitions, or we witness the rage
of the Sultan expressed metaphorically as in “derya-i gazab-ı padişah temevvüc
idüb”16 (the flood of the rage of the sultan waved) or his mercy to one of the
military members who had recently been dismissed from his position or had been
sentenced to death. We also face cases when a high military officer had been
dismissed from this post on the grounds that he could not succeed in uniting the
hearts, telif-i kulûb, of the subjects. The Ottoman Palace for instance, is described
as a refugee of happiness in decrees and in official letters to other political
sovereigns. What do all these displays of emotions or linguistic representations of
such displays tell us?
In its essence, this research questions how the field of knowledge produced so far
on the history of emotions may be applied to Ottoman History and how this may
contribute to our understanding of the past. I argue in this thesis that studying
Ottoman emotions or Ottoman discourses concerning emotions will enable us to
better explain Ottoman politics and society, which was previously analyzed
without regard to the emotional dimension of the relations established between the
individuals themselves, intra-communal relations and also the state and subject
relations. I further argue that both the emotions in political rhetoric of the
Ottoman State and in everyday politics of ordinary people in Ottoman pre-modern
era had larger social and political implications in the Ottoman history shaping
16 Hoca Saadettin Efendi, Tacü’t-Tevarih (İstanbul: 1341), v:2, 313.
10
both private and public relations. History of emotions in that sense should not be
regarded as a sub-field of history such as religious, economic or political history
as Reddy suggests in an interview.17 Rather, the field offers a new way to
understand past by exploring the effect and dimension of emotions to behavior,
culture, institutions, rituals and others.
The period under discussion may be regarded as classical and post-classical
periods in the Ottoman history, which roughly covers the period until the
Tanzimat reforms in the 19th century. Discovering periods of change in Ottoman
emotions would be highly praised, unfortunately, this thesis does not explicitly
focus on periodization. Although it implicitly assumes that emotional standards of
the society started to change with modernity, comparison between pre-modern
and modern times does not lie within the scope of this research. I do hope that
succeeding scholars will regard my findings as a reference to make such a
comparison.
The methodology to discover emotions of past generations is exceptionally
challenging. Reconstruction of any emotion in history firstly demands a
lexicographic work which means contextualizing the words, understanding the
cultural importance and meanings of those emotional notions and signs that
characterize the emotional culture of a society or group. Therefore, I should first
note that I tried to be faithful to the original vocabulary used in the Ottoman
17 William Reddy’s interview by Jessica Scott and Penelope Lee while visiting Univeristy of
Melbourne in March 2013 for the conference titled “ Feeling Things; A Symposium and Objects
and Emotions in History”.
11
sources since every translation is itself an interpretation especially if one is trying
to conceptualize a term used in various contexts.
Besides the lexicographic work on emotions, the methodological approach is also
crucial and demands critical analysis of the sources utilized revealing both their
limitations and potentials. That is why a chapter is devoted to sources and
methods utilized, which is lengthier than expected. In addition to the presentation
of the Ottoman sources utilized throughout this research and the conventional
methods used, it also serves to give the reader a broader understanding of the
various sources and theoretical perspectives that historians of emotions have used
so far, including the debates regarding the potentials and limitations of their
sources. This thesis should also be considered as a methodological attempt to
recapture the emotions of Ottoman men and women using our available sources.
This thesis is a journey to the emotional world of Ottoman individuals drawn on
both the primary Ottoman sources and the literature produced so far. It is first and
foremost assumed in this thesis that emotions are never strictly biological or
chemical occurrences; neither they are wholly created by language and society.
Instead, emotions have a neurological basis but are shaped, repressed, expressed
differently from place to place and era to era. This is what makes emotions to
have a history and this is why emotions may be objects of historical research.
This thesis constitutes of five chapters. The first chapter is an overview of what
“history of emotions” is. Starting from its origins, I presented the developments in
the field starting from 1980s and gave examples on recent studies to show how
diversely emotions may be studied and how their effect in social, political,
12
religious history may be elaborated. Although emotions have been implicitly
touched by some Ottoman historians, research structured within the framework of
“history of emotions” is quite limited, if not at all. These few studies are further
critically examined within this chapter.
The second chapter is devoted to sources and methodology. In this chapter I first
presented the various sources that historians of emotions utilize to explore
emotions and the ongoing debates regarding the limitations and potentials of these
sources. I further give the main theoretical perspectives providing the reader with
a sound basis on the tools utilized so far, which I hope will also help future
researchers to write their own histories of Ottoman emotions. Secondly I focused
on the Ottoman sources utilized in this thesis with a critical analysis of the
limitations and potentials of the sources. Although I utilized various different
kinds of Ottoman sources, the Ottoman judicial court registers and the copies of
imperial degrees recorded in these registers constituted my main sources.
Therefore, I also gave an overview of studies based on Ottoman judicial court
records and the ongoing debates on how to use these records as a historical
method. After several discussions on their use, historians now do not readily
accept the records at their face value. But still, both the quantitative studies and
the so-called impressionistic studies still have their limitations to better
understand the past. This study also proposes a new approach to utilize judicial
court records by conceptualizing the frequently used terms, without which none of
the methods would be meaningful.
The third chapter focuses on Ottoman politics of emotion. In this chapter, political
rhetoric of the Ottoman State is scrutinized exploring the role of emotions in state13
subject relations. My main sources in this chapter consisted of Ottoman
chronicles, imperial decrees recorded in mühimme registers or their copies in
judicial court records and the petitions to the Sultan as well as the relative
chapters of ethics manual Ahlak-i Alai written by Kınalızade. I explored the
“archipelagos of meaning” embedded in widely held and deeply embraced
symbolic codes and their accompanying emotion codes which are socially
constructed and culturally shaped. I argue that conceptualizing the symbolic and
emotion codes embedded Ottoman political rhetoric enables us to better
understand Ottoman political thought and its politics of emotion. I first explored
the symbolic and emotion codes in Ottoman political rhetoric which include the
terms like siyanet, itaat, ihtisas, şefkat, refet, merhamet, asude-hal, müreffehü’lbal,
iktidar, zulm ve teaddi, rencide ve remide, evla ve enfa, tuğyan, isyan, gayz
and contextualized them. Utilizing many sources from different genres, I argue
that two terms; namely telif-i kulüb and mahabbet, usually overlooked by
historians, were important concepts Ottoman political thought and its politics. My
conceptualization of these terms enabled me to propose a new model for better
understanding of Ottoman political thought.
The fourth chapter is devoted to exploring the emotional rhetoric of taife/cemaats
in Ottoman Society. I argued in this chapter that the social sub-groups
(taife/cemaat) were also distinct emotional communities besides being social
communities and the emotional ties between the members were expressed with
the term “rıza ve şükran duymak” (having consent and feeling gratitude). I made a
conceptual analysis of the term “rıza ve şükran” in various contexts exploring its
functions and implications regarding it as a process and exploring the tools, which
14
helped to achieve its sustainability. In my search for the term’s broader meaning, I
mainly utilized judicial court records focusing on cases showing the offences or
the penalties of those who deviated from the standards to explore the emotional
norms themselves and to discover how people sometimes resisted to or confronted
these norms. Like the previous chapter, I conceptualized some terms like rıza ve
şükran, terazu ve tevafuk, maiyyet üzere olmak, kendü halinde olmak to
understand how the solidarity between the members of this community was
achieved and had been long-lived in addition to religious or customary norms.
The Ottoman society’s understanding of “shame” and various expressions of
shame depending on its intensity and its functions are also elaborated in this
chapter.
The fifth chapter is devoted to Ottoman family focusing on relations between
husbands and wives, again taking emotions into consideration and exploring
affective ties between them within the most basic social and legal unit, i.e.the
family. In the first section of this chapter, I first analyzed the terms (beyt, buyut,
menzil, hane, ehl ü iyal) used by the Ottomans which denote to “family”, “home”
and “house”, and how they themselves defined "home” within different contexts.
In the next section, I searched for emotionology of the familial ties by utilizing
Kızalızade’s Ahlak-i Alai. Determining the idealized codes of behavior between
husbands and wives also served as clues to their emotional expectations from one
another and I analyzed the features of the pre-modern Ottoman “emotional
regime”. I then compared the prescriptions of emotions with descriptions of
emotions by utilizing judicial court records, which served as a source with ample
15
examples of such, especially focusing on the conceptualization of the terms and
phrases like rıza and hüsn-i zindegani.
The concluding chapter joins all the arguments given in the preceding chapters
and gives an analysis of pre-modern Ottoman state and society, taking emotions
into consideration, starting from the widest circle of state-subject relations,
moving down into intra-communal relations and finally the personal relationships
between a husband and a wife in an Ottoman family; a unit representing the
smallest circle of relations in this study.
16
CHAPTER II
WHAT IS HISTORY OF EMOTIONS?
“What makes the study of emotions so stimulating and yet so maddening is
the elusiveness of the subject, the knowledge that we can never be entirely
confident that our interpretations are correct. The shifting sands of human
emotion and experience both bedevil and beguile us. As such, the endeavor is
much like the object of its focus.”18
This chapter is an overview of the field of the history of emotions. It starts with
the origins and continues with the findings of the scientific research starting in
1980s regarding how emotions are processed and activated, which eventually led
the social scientists to explore emotions in their research projects. Then several
examples are given from the scholarship with topics ranging from emotions in
non-Western societies to functions of emotions in religion and politics. This
chapter attempts to show how diversely emotions may be studied and how their
18 Peter Stearns and Jan Lewis, eds., An Emotional History of the United States (New York: New
York University Press, 1998), 10.
17
effect in social, political, religious history may be elaborated. The few scholarship
produced on the Ottoman history of emotions are also elaborated.
2.1. The Origins and Evolution of the Field
It is commonly accepted that Lucien Febvre, as a member of Annales School, was
the first historian who called for histories of emotions in 194119. However Febvre
was following some other historians, Huizinga, in particular. In The Waning of the
Middle Ages, published in 1919 in Dutch, Huizinga wrote about child-like nature
of medieval emotional life.20 Huizanga argued that the emotional dimension of
social life of middle ages was characterized by extremes and lack of restraint and
he emphasized a linear progression of emotional control starting with Humanism,
the Renaissance and Protestantism.21
This master narrative of linear progress of emotional control was further
supported by the writings of Norbet Elias, a historical sociologist. Elias, in his
book, The Civilizing Process22, examined how emotional control had developed
19 Febvre’s article “La sensibilité et l’historie: Comment reconstituer la vie affective d’autrefois?”
published in 1941 was translated to English in 1973 as “Sensibility and History: How to
Reconstitute the Emotional Life of the Past,” In A New Kind of History: From the Writings of
Febvre, edited by Peter Burke eand translated by K. Folca.
20 Barbara Rosenwein, “Worrying About Emotions,” American Historical Review 107 (2002):
823.
21 Jan Plamper, The History of Emotions An Introduction, trans. Keith Tribe (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2015), 48.
22 Elias, Norbert. The civilizing process: Sociogenetic and psychogenetic investigations, trans.
Edmund Jephcott (Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 2000). The Civilizing Process was written
in German and first published in 1939. It was then republished in 1968 and was translated into
English and French in 1970s and became one of the most influential texts on emotions.
18
and changed since the medieval period and is considered to be the first most
comprehensive study on emotions.
Elias and Febvre had many common arguments. Both of them regarded emotions
as contagious, in which emotions of one arouse emotions in others entering a
mutual relationship, both proposed to use psychology in historical studies and
both assumed that emotions were subject to historical transformation. The threat
of European fascism prompted Febvre’s interest in emotions, and suggested that
primarily negative emotions like the history of hate, fear and cruelty had to be
studied.23 He was in search for a moral history, one that would explain fascism
and reveal the principles on which a more rational order could be achieved.24 For
both, emotions were child-like, irrational, and had to be restrained emphasizing
the dichotomy between the rational and the emotional.
For a long time, it was assumed that emotions are like great liquids eager to be let
out which largely derives from the medieval notions of the humors and thereby
regarding emotions as universal which Rosenwein labels as “hydraulic”25 models
arguing that it constituted the basis of the arguments of Febvre, Huizinga and
Elias. In fact, Galenic doctrine of the four fluids, blood, phlegm, yellow gall and
black gall, was still found in the writings of Kant and some psychologists up until
nineteenth century.26 Ottoman medicine was also under the influence of this
23 Jan Plamper, The History of Emotions An Introduction, trans. Keith Tribe (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2015), 16.
24 Barbara Rosenwein, “Worrying About Emotions,” American Historical Review 107 (2002): 823.
25 Ibid.
26 Jan Plamper, The History of Emotions An Introduction, trans. Keith Tribe (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2015), 16.
19
doctrine well until 19th century.27 This theory was also related to the theory of the
four elements; earth, fire, water and air. In this doctrine, these four humors
corresponded to four basic temperaments each representing one of the four
elements. Blood, represented by the element air, corresponded to the temperament
sanguine with characteristics of being courageous, hopeful, playful and carefree.
The humor yellow bile, represented by fire, corresponded to choleric with the
characteristic of being ambitious, restless, easily angered. Black bile representing
earth, corresponding to melancholic who is expected to be quiet, serious and
analytical, while phlegm was represented by fire and corresponded to choleric
temperament whose characteristics were calm, patient, peaceful. This system was
highly individualistic, assuming that every individual had his/her unique humoral
composition.
In parallel to the assumptions of “hydraulic model”, a significant portion of the
psychological literature on emotions was dominated by Paul Ekman and his
associates’ studies, which argue that basic emotions −happiness, sadness, disgust,
surprise, anger and fear− are common to all human beings. Neurobiologists and
geneticists have also added their knowledge to these studies, arguing that today’s
emotions were the emotions of the past and will remain those of the future. These
views may be regarded as “presentist/universalist” views of emotions. However,
neither the hydraulic nor the universalist views are justifiable anymore.
27 Özer Ergenç, “Osmanlı Klasik Döneminde Sağlık Bilgisinin Üretimi, Yayılması ve Kullanımı,”
In Osmanlı Tarihi Yazıları Şehir, Toplum, Devlet (İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2012),
467.
20
Universalist views were challenged first by cognitive psychologists like Magda
Arnold, an early leader in the field of cognitive psychology, who argued that
“emotions were the result of a certain type of perception, a relational perception
that appraised an object (or person or situation of fantasy) as desirable, valuable
or harmful for me”.28 She further argued that such appraisals depended on past
experience and present value and goals. The new school argued that an emotional
sequence begins by perception and is followed by appraisal, leading in turn to
emotion, which is followed by action readiness.29 Arnold’s theory may be
summarized with the graphic below;
Figure 1. Arnold’s Theory of Cognitive Emotions
These findings, according to Rosenwein,30 led scholars to argue that if emotions
are assessments based on experience and goals, the norms of the individual’s
social context provide the framework in which such evaluations take place and
28 Magda Arnold, Emotion and Personality Volume II: Neurological and Physiological Aspects
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1960)
29 Barbara Rosenwein, Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 2006), 14.
30 Ibid., 15.
APPRAISAL
(Good or Bad)
SITUATION
(Life Event)
ACTION
(Approach/
Withdrawal)
EMOTIONS
(Liking/Disliking)
21
derive meaning. This is the most crucial point in the history of the field. This
scientific outcome is what triggered the numerous research projects, which
brought emotions into the domain of history, sociology, anthropology and other
social sciences.
In 1970s, social constructionism, which is an offshoot of cognitive theory, pointed
out that, although some emotions are “hardwired” in the human (and animal)
psyche, emotional expression takes as many forms as there are cultures. In other
words emotions were socially constructed and culturally shaped. In Japan for
example, there is a feeling, called amae, meaning contended dependence on
another, however in English there is nothing comparable and presumably no
feeling that corresponds to it.31 Sarah Tarlow argued that “emotions are
unbounded, existing only through cultural meaning, culturally specific, and
subject to transformation or disappearance through time”.32 Anthropology may be
considered in this sense, as a discipline, which contributed most to invalidate the
assumption that emotions are timeless and everywhere the same.
An anthropologist, Catherine Lutz, who studied Ifaluk culture – inhabitants of an
atoll in the Caroline Islands of Micronesia- noted that these islanders had words
for emotions that corresponded very poorly to Western terms. For example, the
Ifaluk word song meant something more or like “justifiable ager”. However, it did
not involve any discharge, loss of control and an outburst, which the Western idea
31 H. Morsbach and W. J. Tyler, “A Japaneese Emotion: Amae,” In The Social Construction of
Emotions, ed. Rom Harre (New York: Basil Blackwell Inc, 1986), 289-308.
32 Sarah Tarlow, “Emotions in Archeology,” Current Anthropology 41, no 5 (2000): 713-46.
22
of anger may imply.33 Song in Ifaluk society functioned as a form of regulation,
with the more powerful ones having the right to declare song more frequently then
the less powerful.34
Lila Abu-Lughod was another anthropologist, who made important contributions
to the field. Her book (1986) titled “Veiled Sentiments” is based on a fieldwork
conducted among settled Bedouin nomads living west of Alexandria, called
Awlad Ali.35 She investigates the ideology of honor and modesty and shows how
these concepts serve to rationalize social inequality in the Awlad Ali society,
which will be referred to in more detail in the succeeding chapters.
However, extreme social constructivist approach assumes that there are no
universal human emotions, rather, different societies construct different emotions,
and develop different strategies in their expression. William Reddy, one of the
prominent historians of the field was not satisfied with their assumptions, since
they reject the plasticity of the individual and concentrate only on the social and
collective excluding the individual pointing out to the inability of the social
constructionist approach to bridge the gap between the social and the subjective.36
33 Catherine Lutz, Unnatural Emotions: Everyday Sentiments on a Micronesian Atoll and Their
Challenge to Western Theory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).
34 Jan Plamper, The History of Emotions An Introduction, trans. Keith Tribe (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2015), 107.
35 Abu-Lughod, L. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley: Unv.of
California Press, 1986.
36 Koziol, Geoffrey, “Review of Rosenwein, Barbara H. Emotional Communities in the Early
Middle Ages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006,” The Medieval Review, 2008 Reviews
(08.01.04), 1.
23
In his criticisms,37 Reddy pointed out that emotions are the most complicated zone
of conflict and negotiation between individual and society. Even though we
cannot fully understand the others’ feelings, we are constantly trying to do so, and
he coined the term “emotive”38 to describe the process by which emotions are
managed and shaped, not only by society and its expectations, but also by
individuals themselves as they seek to express how they feel.39
In the next section examples from the studies in the field are cited to give the
reader a broader understanding on how historians historicize emotions.
2.2. Recent Studies and Their Contributions to the Field
Some scholars focused on specific emotions like anger40, shame, jealousy,
disgust, nostalgia41, homesickness42, pity43, happiness44, compassion45, fear46 and
37 William Reddy, The Invisible Code Honor and Sentiment in Postrevolutionary France, 1814-
1848 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997) and The Navigation of Feeling: A
Framework for the History of Emotions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
38 Emotive is an analogy to linguistic performative. Linguist J.L. Austin divided words into two
categories: constatives (words that describe a situation) and performatives (words that incite
action). For example, while “this table is black” is a constative, “I wed thee” is a performative.
However, “I am happy” is an emotive.
39 Barbara Rosenwein, “Worrying About Emotions,” American Historical Review 107 (2002): 837.
40 See for example; Linda Pollock, “Anger and the Negotiation of Relationships in Early Modern
England,” The Historical Journal 47, no 3 (2004): 567-590; Dawn Keetley, “From Anger to
Jealousy: Explaining Domestic Homicide in Antebellum America,” Journal of Social History 42,
no 2 (2008): 269-297.
41 Jean Starobinski, “The Idea of Nostalgia,” Diogenes 54 (1966): 81-103.
42 Susan J. Matt, Homesickness: An American History (New York: Oxford University Press,
2011).
43 Rachel Sternberg, The nature of pity (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
44 See for example; Darrin McMahon, Happiness: A History (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press,
2006) and “Finding Joy in the History of Emotions,” In Doing Emotions History, ed. Susan J. Matt
24
explored changing expressions across time or space. However, it was mostly the
negative emotions that were explored like anger, shame, and jealousy. McMahon
points out that, this is not surprising because psychologically, information with a
negative valance impacts us more strongly than the positive and painful events
stay longer in memory and are recalled more often.47 Carol and Peter Stearns were
the first scholars who focused on specific emotions of anger48 and jealousy49.
Keetley explored the domestic homicide in the early and late 19th century where
he points to a change in emotional norms constructed by the society. While
analyzing the trial accounts of domestic violence between 1800-1830, he found
that in most of the cases the violence was precipitated by what appeared to be a
husband's simple anger at a wife's failure to perform her duties where happiness
seemed to lie in husbands and wives soberly performing their respective and very
material duties; the work of labor for subsistence (on the part of the man) and of
labor within the household (on the part of the woman). However, virtually absent
until 1830, toward the mid-nineteenth century romantic jealousy began to appear
and Peter Stearns (Urbana, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2014), 103-119; Philip Ivanhoe,
“Happiness in Early Chineese Thought.” In Oxford Handbook of Happiness, ed. Ilona Boniwell
and Susan David (Oxford: Oxford Unv. Press, 2012); Daniel Haybron, The Pursuit of
Unhappiness: The Elusive Psychology of Well-Being (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
45 Lauren Berlant, ed. Compassion The Culture and Politics of an Emotion (New York: Routledge,
2004).
46 Joanna Bourke, Fear: A Cultural History (London: Virago, 2005).
47 Darrin McMahon, “Finding Joy in the History of Emotions.” In Doing Emotions History, ed.
Susan J. Matt and Peter Stearns (Urbana, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2014), 104.
48 Carol Zisowitz Stearns and and Peter Stearns, Anger: The Struggle for Emotional Control in
America’s History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986).
49 Peter Stearns, Jealousy: the evolution of an emotion in American history (New York: New York
University Press, 1989).
25
much more frequently as a motive in domestic violence reflecting the prevailing
ideal that marriage is held together by love.50
Frevert focuses on emotions that either loose their intensity or gain importance.
For example she argues that over the course of 19th and 20th centuries,
significance attributed to shame and honor decreased, while that of empathy and
compassion increased.51 She concludes that emotions do change throughout
history, while some disappear, some change in context and the process of change
is dynamic in the sense that they continuously enact and react to cultural, social,
economic and political challenges.52
William Reddy in his latest book, The Making of Romantic Love, compares
Western conception of romantic love with different practices of sexual
partnerships in regional kingdoms of Bengal and Orissa in South Asia from 9th
through 12th centuries and Heian Japan in the 10th and 11th centuries. He argues
that the dualism of sexual desire and love is unique to Western societies where it
was socially constructed after the 12th century Gregorian reforms as a dissent
from the sexual teachings of the Christian churches.53
Stephen White, exploring anger in the middle ages, questions Marc Bloch who
argued that medieval politics was irrational, medieval people were emotionally
50 Dawn Keetley, “From Anger to Jealousy: Explaining Domestic Homicide in Antebellum
America,” Journal of Social History 42, no 2 (2008): 269-297.
51 Ute Frevert, Emotions in History: Lost and Found (Budapest: Central European University
Press, 2011).
52 Ibid., 13.
53 William Reddy, The Making of Romantic Love: Longing and Sexuality in Europe, South Asia
and Japan, 900-1200 CE (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012).
26
unstable and lordly anger was an unrestrained, unrepressed force that stimulated
political irrationality. Unlike Bloch, while making a close reading of medieval
political narratives, White argued that lordly anger was indeed an important
element in a secular feuding culture, and that the displays and representations of
such displays had political and normative force. He argued that anger acted for
political purposes and proposed that instead of assuming that a lord’s anger and
expression of hatred automatically produced irrational acts of political violence,
we should posit a much more complicated relationship between displays of lordly
anger and the many different political acts that angry lords instigated.54 Likewise,
Richard Barton argued that anger was a social signal, which helped keep the
peace. The anger of the lords was nicely calibrated to show that something was
wrong in a relationship, to get mechanisms of change underway, and to produce a
new (generally more amicable) relationship.55
Research on political science is largely influenced by ratiocentric methods of
economics based on purely rational approach to politics assuming that emotions
should not play a role in politics since rational public policy should be freed from
uncontrollable emotions. However, recent research points to a shift in political
analysis in which the role of emotions in political decision making or as
54 Stephen White, “The Politics of Anger.” In Anger’s Past The Social Uses of an Emotion in the
Middle Ages, ed. Barbara Rosenwein (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998), 127-
153.
55 Richard Barton, “Zealous Anger and the Renegotiation of Aristocratic Relationships in
Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century France.” In Anger’s Past The Social Uses of an Emotion in the
Middle Ages, ed. Barbara Rosenwein (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998), 153-
171.
27
contributors to social and political discourse is being reevaluated.56 Eustace
rightly claims that, until recently, “emotions’ influence has been thought to reside
in the private realm of family, faith and fiction, and interest has often more than
waned when the topic has turned to political philosophy or power relations”.57
Some historians working on American Revolution,58 demonstrated the important
role that debates about feelings played in the independence movement, showing
that the revolutionary cause was based on widely shared convictions about
passion, sentiment, and sensibility, and built on particular modes of emotional
expression.59 Eustace’s research provides a perspective on the role of emotion in
the articulation of 18th century social and political philosophy and offers new
insights into how the ordinary people tested or contested such theories in the
course of their daily lives and she considers emotion as a key form of social
communication.60
Some scholars on the other hand, focused on emotional styles, or emotional
cultures and discourses on emotions either in everyday life or in politics. Kutcher,
by drawing some common threads in Chineese Emotions History studied and
suggested new directions for future research. He points to specific Chinese
56 Laureen Hall, “Review Essay Impassioned Politics New Research on the Role of Emotions in
Political Life,” Politics and the Life Sciences 28 no 2 (2009): 84.
57 Nicole Eustace, Passion is the gale: Emotion, power, and the coming of the American
Revolution (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2008), 3.
58 See for example; Andrew Burnstein, Sentimental Democracy: The evolution of America’s
romantic self-image (New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1999). Sarah Knott, Sensibility and the
American Revolution (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2008).
59 Susan Matt, “Current Emotion Research in History: or, Doing History from the Inside Out.”
Emotion Review 3, no 1 (2011): 117-124.
60 Nicole Eustace, Passion is the gale: Emotion, power, and the coming of the American
Revolution (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2008), 6.
28
traditions like Confucianism dictating the rules of behavior, which also included
regulation of emotions as one thread. Expression of emotions differently in
different genres and formulaic structure of emotional expressions are considered
as the remaining threads.61 Pernau on the other hand, discusses how Indo-Muslim
advice literature can be used as a source, not only for feeling rules, but also for
emotion knowledge, which sets the framework for the possible perception and
expression of emotions. Focusing on two sermons on anger by one of the most
prolific Urdu writers, the reformer and Sufi Ashraf Ali Thanawi, she explores
emotions in different traditions for giving advice i.e. moral philosophy, the Sufi
tradition and legal sources reconstructing the 20th century Indo-Muslim emotional
culture.62
Steinberg explored Eastern European emotional life and discussed how the Soviet
leaders worked to create enthusiasm and optimism about their policies and how
disillusioned citizens came to see expressions of unhappiness as potent signs of
dissent.63
Sara Ahmed, in her book “The Cultural Politics of Emotion”, proposed to ask
what emotions do instead of what emotions are and focused on the relation
between emotions, language and bodies. She concentrated on the power of
61 Kutcher (2014: 58) Norman Kutcher, “The Skein of Chineese Emotions History.” in Doing
Emotions History, ed. Susan J. Matt and Peter Stearns (Urbana, Chicago: University of Illınois
Press, 2014), 57-73.
62 Margrit Pernau, “Male Anger and Female Malice: Emotions in Indo-Muslim Advice Literature,”
History Compass 10, no 2 (2012): 119–128.
63 Mark D. Steinberg, “Emotions History in Eastern Europe,” In Doing Emotions History, ed.
Susan J. Matt and Peter Stearns, (Urbana, Chicago: University of Illınois Press, 2014), 74-99.
29
emotional language producing social relationships, which determine the rhetoric
of nation.64
Matt argued that “the history of emotions is changing the familiar narratives of
history and that politics, religion, economics, labor and family life all look
different when explored with an eye to emotion”.65 Just to cite a few examples
from the most recent publications regarding religious history, Austrian historian
Lutter showed how representations of emotions in exemplary miracle stories had
an impact on the readers’ spiritual lives using monastic texts from the 12th
century.66 Baseeto on the other hand, analyzed Elizabethean and Stuart conversion
narratives and found that it was not fundamental doctrinal matters but a shared
emotional repertoire, which acted as a unifying factor in a heterogeneous group of
sect, labeled by contemporaries as “Puritans”.67 Although research on emotions in
Islam is quite few relatively, Gade explored how the Qur'an, the normative model
of the Prophet Muhammad, and interrelated frameworks of jurisprudence and
ethics as the most authoritative sources of Islam highlight emotions as a means of
access to an ethical ideal.68 Furthermore, Gade examined emotion in Islam,
64 Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion, (New York: Routledge, 2004).
65 Susan Matt, “Current Emotion Research in History: or, Doing History from the Inside Out.”
Emotion Review 3, no 1 (2011): 120.
66 Christina Lutter, “Preachers, Saints, and Sinners: Emotional Repertoires in High Medieval
Religious Role Models,” In A History of Emotions, 1200-1800, ed. Jonas Liliequist, (London:
Pickering& Chatto, 2012), 49-63.
67 Paola Baseotto, “Theology and Interiority: Emotions as Evidence of the Working of Grace in
Elizabethan and Stuart Conversion Narratives,” In A History of Emotions, 1200-1800, ed. Jonas
Liliequist (London: Pickering& Chatto, 2012), 65-77.
68 Anna Gade, "Islam," In The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Emotion, ed. John Corrigan
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 35- 50.
30
focusing on the cultivation and expression of sentiment, aesthetics, affect and
performance.
Some scholars explored how past theorists/intellectuals talked about, theorized,
classified and interpreted emotions. For example Konstan explored the emotions
of the Ancient Greeks.69 Aristo, interestingly classified basic emotions (he used
the term pathe, which is a near-equivalent of the term “emotion”) as anger,
mildness, love, hate, fear, confidence, shame, shamelessness, benevolence, lack of
benevolence, pity, indignation, desire to emulate, and “happiness”, which is
considered today to be one of the basic emotions, was lacking from his list.70
However, Aristo included mildness in his list as a basic emotion, which for some
of us today would not take part in such a list.71 Gazali for example, who was one
of the theoreticians of Muslim philosophy, was especially concerned with the
fusion of the mind and the soul and with the practices through which perfect
Gnostic communion with God could be achieved. And, one of the aspects of the
self that must be worked on in pursuit of this goal is emotional experience. In his
works, Ghazali elaborates on the need for “disciplining the heart,” “breaking
desires,” and “cultivating the emotions”.72
69 David Konstan, The Emotions of the Ancient Greeks: Studies in Aristotle and Classical
Literature (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006).
70 Barbara Rosenwein, “Problems and Methods in the History of Emotions.” Passions in Context
Journal of the History and Philosophy of the Emotions 1 (2010): 14.
71 Ibid.
72 Richard Shweder et.al., “The Cultural Psychology of the Emotions Ancient and Renewed,” In
Handbook Of Emotions (Third Ed.), ed. Lewis, Michael and et.al (New York: The Guilford Press,
2008), 423-424.
31
An understanding of how emotions could be an object of historical studies
demanded a wider than expected search for literature and that is mainly why such
a detailed analysis of review of secondary sources is given in this chapter. They
all shaped my perceptions on how to approach emotions in Ottoman society,
which would not be possible otherwise.
2.3. Emotions in Ottoman History
As far as Ottoman History is concerned, the interest is quite new, if not at all.
There are some previous studies regarding the Ottoman and the Middle Eastern
history, especially the ones on women, gender, family and honor73 which
implicitly refer to some emotions, however they are not framed within the context
of history of emotions.74
The work of Robert Dankoff regarding Evliya Çelebi’s Traveller Account has to
be mentioned in which he made both a linguistic and a historical analysis of the
term “ayıb” (shame). Dankoff made a contextual analysis of the word “ayıb” in
Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatname arguing that different societies had different
understandings of shame in Ottoman Society. He also explored different words of
shame, each having a different meaning in different contexts. His work
73 See for example; Leslie Peirce, Morality Tales: Law and Gender in the Ottoman Court of Aintab
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003); Yaron Ben-Naeh, “Honor and Its Meaning
Among Ottoman Jews,” Jewish Social Studies 11, no 2 (2005): 19-50; Robert Dankoff, “Ayıp
Değil!.” In Çağının Sıradışı Yazarı Evliya Çelebi, ed. Nuran Tezcan (Istanbul: YKY, 2009), 109-
122.
74 Artan’s lecture should also be noted; Tülay Artan, “Duygu İmparatorluğunda Üç Kişi:
Mektuplarıyla Fatma Sultan, Damad İbrahim Paşa ve Sultan III. Ahmed,” Speech delivered at
İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University (Ankara, December 12, 2013).
32
contributes to our understanding of not only 17th century Ottoman social norms
especially towards women but also differing emotional norms regarding notions
of honor and shame constructed by various sub-societies.75
A cultural history of emotions conference jointly organized by Bilkent University
and Sabancı University in Istanbul in 2011 titled “Emotions in East and West”
may be regarded as the first call to scholars from different disciplines to study
emotions. The conference was organized by the network for Cultural History of
Emotions in Pre-Modernity (CHEP) as a workshop, the first of which was held at
Umea University (Umea/Sweden) in 2008. Unfortunately, the papers presented in
Istanbul conference have not yet been published. I could only find an unfinished
version of Walter Andrews’ paper (walterandrews.wordpress.com) in his personal
blog. In his first essay on the blog, based on recent neuroscience theories about
mind-culture relations, Andrews proposes a model in which he examines the case
of bonding, separation, and separation-related emotions in Ottoman poetry and
argues that Ottoman culture scripts not only social behaviors but also the internal
architecture of the brain and consequent unmediated “emotional” reactions to real
world events. However before this first call to historians, Kalpaklı and Andrews,
in their pathbreaking study published in 2005, analyzed the emotion of “love”
using literary sources to better understand relations in Ottoman society.76 What
makes it important for the claims of this study is that the authors attempted to
depict “love” not as an object of private sphere but as a part of cultural script. In
75 Robert Dankoff, Robert, “Ayıp Değil!.” In Çağının Sıradışı Yazarı Evliya Çelebi, ed. Nuran
Tezcan (Istanbul: YKY, 2009), 109-122.
76 Mehmet Kalpaklı and Water G. Andrews, The Age of Beloveds (Durham; London: Duke
University Press, 2005).
33
other words they were the first who claimed that “it’s in language that we learn
how and whom to love, what is normal and what is deviant, what the words and
actions of love are” emphasizing the socially constructed feature of emotions.77
To my own knowledge, there are only two published articles, one unpublished
master’s thesis which explicitly studied Ottoman emotions, and one published
book, which used the framework of history of emotions in its analysis.
Andrews, in his article based on the findings of The Age of Beloveds,
demonstrated “how the idea of love -in the specific example of early modern
Ottoman culture and society- can be used to describe one, possibly central feature
of an Ottoman emotional ecology”. Using the literary genres like poetry and
exploring the cultural symbols inherent in them, he argued that “it was possible to
describe the Ottoman emotional ecosystem, as a function of certain primary social
relationships that generate emotion and interact with emotional language to
interpret both the relationships and the emotions”.78 He further concluded that “a
particular notion of love was indeed central to the ways in which Ottoman society
understood and scripted the emotional content of a broad range of primary
relations: for example, parent-child, lover-beloved, friend-friend, patron-client,
student-teacher, employer-employee, master-servant, spiritual adept-disciple,
courtier-ruler, believer-God, etc”.79
77 Ibid., 38.
78 Walter Andrews, “Ottoman Love: Preface to a Theory of Emotional Ecology.” In A History of
Emotions, 1200-1800, ed. Jonas Liliequist (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2012), 21.
79 Ibid., 24.
34
In a very recent article, following Norbert Elias, Yelçe explored the norms of
anger in pre-modern Ottoman courtly culture as to who gets to experience and
display anger, when, why, towards whom, how and to what extent using
narratives of Tursun Beg’s (d.1490s) Tarih-i Ebu’l-Feth, Kemalpaşazade’s
(d.1534) Tevarih-i Al-i Osman, Mustafa Ali’s (d. 1600) Künhü’l-Ahbar and
Kınalızade’s (d. 1571) Ahlak-i Alai. 80 She argues that royal wrath was a tool of
intimidation reinforcing the authority of the sultan, and expressions of it served as
warning and threat against possible opposition.81 Anger in other words, had
several functions, mainly used as a tool to remind the image and the authority of
the sultan against those who overstep the boundaries of obedience. This article is
also important in the sense that it depicts emotions, anger in particular, as a social
construct rather than a purely individual/psychological trait.
Özizmirli explored the narratives of fear, havf, in the travelogue of the
seventeenth century Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi and examined how this
prominent traveler participated in, observed, and commented upon the
seventeenth century Ottoman transformations.82 This study has to be appraised
since it’s the first comprehensive attempt to study Ottoman history of emotions.
Özizmirli used a first-person narrative as a source of history and compared the
narratives of fear in Evliya’s Travelogue with other narrative sources like İsazade
80 Zeynep N. Yelçe, “Royal Wrath: Curbing the Anger of the Sultan,” In Discources of Anger in
the Early Modern Period, ed. Karl Enenkel and Anita Traninger (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 442. I am
thankful to Tülay Artan for drawing my attention to this article.
81 Ibid., 455.
82 I would like to thank Özizmirli for sharing his unpublished thesis with me. Görkem Özizmirli,
“Fear in Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatname: Politics and Historiography in a Seventeenth Century
Ottoman Travelogue,” (Unpublished master’s thesis, İstanbul: Koç Üniversitesi, 2014).
35
Târihi, Abdurrahman Abdi Paşa Vekaiyanamesi, Tarih-i Gılmai, Tarih-i
Naima and Solakzade Tarihi. Özizmirli categorized Evliya’s fears into four
according to their occurrence and function in the narratives in his search for the
selfhood of Evliya and discussed them in their particular historical context. He
counted the use of the word “havf” (fear) in all volumes of Seyahatname by using
one of the methods that Rosenwein also utilized and made a contextual analysis.
Evliya Çelebi most frequently used the emotion word “havf” for İbşir Mustafa
Paşa, who caused a political crisis in the seventeenth century and Özizmirli
examined the political aims and positions of Evliya Çelebi during this period
using his narratives of fear.
Lastly Göcek, in her book Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present,
and Collective Violence against the Armenians, 1789-2009, analyzes “denial”
which emerges through the interaction of structural and affective elements over
time and across space.83 She argues that affective component of “denial” leads to
the suppression of knowledge contrary to one’s own stand. She discusses the
significance of collective emotions and the connection of emotions with
nationalism and trauma in particular84 and examines the significance of emotions
to the nation-building process especially in the creation and subsequent legitimacy
of the abstract conception of the imagined community of the nation.85
83 Fatma Müge Göcek, Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present, and Collective
Violence against the Armenians, 1789-2009 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 11.
84 Ibid., 28.
85 Ibid., 31.
36
As a last word for this chapter on what history of emotions is, Reddy’s own
understanding of the field should be added, which summarizes its essence. He
states in one of his interviews that some historians adopting “the new cultural
history” approach, refused the simplistic functionalism of Marxist history and
even of some old economic and liberal history, favoring a relativistic approach to
the past suggesting that each moment in history had its own characteristics and
qualities that we need to understand, appreciate and interpret. Each moment in
the past demands a careful study and understanding of the undermining structure
of the texts, works of art, rituals, garments, etc. However, while trying to explore
those perfect moments of past, they lost their ability to find causes for change.
Why would there be a need for a change then, if every moment was perfect?
Therefore, Reddy thinks that emotions might be a register, a dimension of culture
where one may again begin to explain change. Marxist and liberal historians
assumed that people pursued their own interests. Contrary to their arguments
however, Reddy suggests that people pursued their emotional wellbeing instead,
which may be a subtler, a more deft and sensitive way of grasping why a change
occurs.86
Inspired by Reddy’s premise, this research represents an attempt to determine the
function of emotions in pre-modern Ottoman politics and society, which
implicitly assumes a change during the modern era.
86 William Reddy’s interview in his attendance to the conference “Feeling Things: A Symposium
of Objects and Emotions in History” held in March 2013 in University of Melbource. For more
details on the symposium, see historyofemotions.org
37
CHAPTER III
SOURCES AND METHODOLOGY
3.1. Sources, Main Theoretical Approaches and Debates
There are many studies exploring historical emotions using an immense variety of
sources like advice literature, religious sermons, food, music, advice manuals,
poetry, newspapers, religious texts, diaries, biographies, legal sources, letters,
some of which have already been mentioned in the previous section. Artistic
representations of emotions, symbols or popular literature are also sources
commonly used which also reveal about emotional practices. For example,
William Reddy has used the essays of Voltaire and the novels of Balzac as a way
to understand the emotional mood in France. Similarly, the novels of Jane Austin
illustrated how new ideas about female friendship emerged in late 18th century.87
Rosenwein on the other hand used epitaphs from 5th and 6th centuries in Central
87 Susan Matt and Peter Stearns, eds. Doing Emotions History, (Urbana, Chicago: University of
Illınois Press, 2014), 48.
38
Europe to show how the loving connections between parents and children differed
among societies.88
There are also many ways and methods that historians, sociologists and political
scientists use either to explain past emotional expressions or integrate them into
social, political and intellectual histories for a better understanding of the past.
Rosenwein proposed some methods for historians of emotions which include
problematizing emotion terms, weighing the words and phrases to establish their
relative importance, reading metaphors and the ironies and considering social role
of emotions.89 Reading the silences constitutes yet another approach. She argues
that some sources may be unemotional in tone and content. However, they are just
important as overtly emotional texts. Besides, silence of emotions should not be
considered as an evidence of absence of emotions. For example, Plamper searched
for fear in Russian army. The absence of fear-talk among Russian soldiers in
early nineteenth century did not mean that they were fearless; rather the fear-talk
was non-normative for the soldiers up until the beginning of twentieth century.90
Eustace on the other hand, encountered a historical example in eighteenth century
Virginia in which a wealthy slaveholder had recorded the loss of his son in his
diary with no mention of grief. While some historians interpreted the case as early
modern family’s lack of love for their children, one historian, basing his claim on
88 Barbara Rosenwein, Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 2006).
89 Barbara Rosenwein, “Problems and Methods in the History of Emotions,” Passions in Context
Journal of the History and Philosophy of the Emotions 1 (2010), 1-32.
90 Jan Plamper, “Emotional Turn? Feelings in Russian History and Culture (Special Section),”
Slavic Review 68, no 2 (2009): 229-37.
39
the slaveholder’s report of disabling stomach complaints during the same time of
his loss, inferred that he had expressed his emotional pain as a physical
suffering.91 Likewise, Ottoman self-narratives, which are expected to give more
room for expressing personal emotions, fail to do so. For example, in the diary of
Sadreddinzade Telhisi Mustafa Efendi, which was written in early 18th century,
there was no expression of sorrow displayed when his son passed away.92
Karahasanoğlu relates this to the possibility that his son died at a very early age
and that the father and son did not have enough time for accumulating memories
for one another. Although his record of the death of his grandson was more
detailed, giving the cause of his death as smallpox, still there were no mentions of
emotions in his verses. The diary of Seyyid Hasan, a dervish in 17th century
İstanbul, also gives us clues on expression of emotions. During the first months of
his diary, his friends and family members were dying because of plague epidemic
and while he was away visiting his relatives outside the city, he learned that his
wife had been infected by the fatal disease.93 When his wife passed away, they
cooked helva at home, which is quite customary, and he recorded in his diary how
delicious the helva was94, which may seem contradictory to our contemporary
understanding of our expressions of sorrow or loss. Although he also wrote that
he couldn’t sleep that night and went to see his wife and cried till morning, he
91 Nicole Eustace, “AHR Conversation: The Historical Study of Emotions,” American Historical
Review December (2012): 1503.
92 Selim Karahasanoğlu, Kadı ve Günlüğü Sadreddinzade Telhisi Mustafa Efendi Günlüğü (1711-
1735) Üstüne Bir İnceleme (Istanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2013), 8.
93 Cemal Kafadar, “Self and Other: The Diary of a Dervish in Seventeenth-Century Istanbul and
First Person Narratives in Classical Ottoman Literature,” Studia Islamica 69 (1989): 143.
94 Ibid.,144.
40
added in his diary that he had cheese and watermelon right after his wife’s
funeral.95 Although this research aims to provide at least some explanations,
exploring possible reasons for the absence or insufficient emphasis of emotions in
Ottoman self-narratives is not within the scope of this thesis. However, it is
apparent that neither Sadreddinzade Telhisi Mustafa Efendi nor Seyyid Hasan
should be considered as one without having an emotion of sorrow; rather, it may
be interpreted as being non-normative to express them in self-narratives.
There are also several debates regarding the methodology, which also needs to be
mentioned. One of the debates is the contested connection between words and
emotions, while the second one is the relationship between emotional norms and
individual emotional experience. A number of historians have argued that feelings
cannot exist completely independent of language and that words give shape to
emotion.96 In other words individuals, when naming or identifying their emotions
in a particular way, they also define them in the process of expressing. William
Reddy argues that, “verbal expressions of emotions are themselves instruments
for directly changing, building, hiding, intensifying emotions...”.97 Starobinski
also maintains that “the history of emotions could not be anything other than the
history of those words in which the emotion is expressed”.98 If words shape the
95 Ibid.
96 Susan J. Matt, “Recovering the Invisible: Methods for the Historical Study of the Emotions,” in
Doing Emotions History, eds. Susan J. Matt and Peter Stearns (Urbana, Chicago: University of
Illınois Press, 2014), 43.
97 William Reddy, The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 105.
98 Jean Starobinski, “The Idea of Nostalgia,” Diogenes 54 (1966): 81-83.
41
emotions of those who lived in the past, in the same manner, our vocabularies of
today may limit our understanding of the previous cultures’ emotions. This is
especially a serious problem for Ottoman historians, since we do not have a
historical dictionary. We do not have an easy access to past emotions’ meanings,
when specific emotion words had been started to be used and how and when the
meanings shifted. For western scholars, it is somewhat easier since they may learn
from historical dictionaries for example; that the word nostalgia was created in
1688 and meant a formal medical term for homesickness, however, in the early
20th century, the same word took on the meaning of a diffuse longing for the past
and lost times.99 For example, in a recent research historians analyzed cultural
history of the emotional terms in German, French and English language
encyclopedias since 17th century presenting the field of knowledge on emotions of
past societies embodied in concepts which change their meaning in time.100
Historians therefore must be careful in interpreting the emotion words that they
encounter in historical texts. Exploring the use of emotion words in various
contexts, and showing the original vocabulary used in historical texts while
translating into English, are valuable attempts to better understand earlier
generations’ “archipelagos of meaning”.
The second most contested connection is between the emotional norms and
emotional experience. Historians started with exploring emotional norms, codes
and standards of the society and tried to understand how norms changed in
99 Susan Matt and Peter Stearns, eds., Doing Emotions History, (Urbana, Chicago: University of
Illınois Press, 2014), 43.
100 Ute Frevert, Monique Sheer, Anne Schmidt et al., Emotional Lexicons: Continuity and Change
in the Vocabulary of Feeling 1700-2000 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
42
reaction to transformations either in family life, low economic growth or political
upheaval.101 These studies depended on advice manuals, sermons, or other forms
of prospective literature. However, they had their limitations. Firstly, exploring
emotional norms does not necessarily explain actual experience of emotions.
Secondly, advice manuals were consumed only by the literate people, which may
limit our understanding of how widely the emotional norms were being shared.
Nevertheless, they suggested that, exploring emotional norms may lead the way to
understand how individuals either conformed or deviated from those norms, how
they repressed or expressed their feelings. Additionally, some historians used
legal sources like those, which recorded the deaths, divorces or disputes of
ordinary people who are illiterate to bridge this gap. For example, one study of
wills from Tudor England traced the lineaments of familial affections and
connections across generations, countering earlier notions that family love was
less intense before the rise of capitalism and industrialism.102
In the next section, three of the main approaches, which also constitute the tools
that had been utilized to explore emotions in the Ottoman history in this thesis, are
elaborated.
101 See for example; Peter Stearns and Carol Z. Stearns, “Emotionlogy: Clarifying the History of
Emotions and Emotional Standards,” American Historical Review 90, no 4 (1985): 813-36.
102 Susan Matt and Peter Stearns, eds. Doing Emotions History, (Urbana, Chicago: University of
Illınois Press, 2014), 50.
43
3.1.1 Emotionology
Peter N. Stearns and Carol Zisowitz Searns published a path-breaking article103
whose work may be regarded as a manifesto for those scholars of history of
emotions in which they coined the term “emotionology”. Emotionology is
referred as “the attitude or standards that a society, or a definable group within a
society, maintains toward basic emotions and their appropriate expression and
ways that institutions reflect and encourage these attitudes in human conduct”.104
To explore the change of emotions in time, they basically attempted to find the
“emotional standards” of a society by examining popular advice manuals,
thinking that change in emotional norms would mean change in actual
experiences of emotions. They argue that the norms governing feelings change
over time and that pre-modern period had less precise standards than the modern,
regarding emotional history of United States as “the history of progressive selfconstraint”.
For example, the decades around 1800 and again around 1920
involved new ideas like democratic beliefs, change in commercial relations, a
growing acceptance of leisure, redefining gender, a change in social men-women
interactions, alteration in class relations and historians of emotions searched for
possible emotional changes accompanying such social, economical changes.105
“Emotionology” may be regarded as one approach to history of emotions, which
proposes that we may explore emotional standards of the past by examining
103 Peter Stearns and Carol Z. Stearns, “Emotionlogy: Clarifying the History of Emotions and
Emotional Standards,” American Historical Review 90, no 4 (1985): 813-36.
104 Ibid.
105 Peter Stearns and Jan Lewis, eds., An Emotional History of the United States (New York: New
York University Press, 1998), 6.
44
popular advice manuals written for the middle class starting in mid 18th century.
However, Rosenwein argues that for medievalist and pre-modern historians, this
approach narrows the field for emotionologist due to its dismissal of the period
before 18th century while at the same time depicting emotional lives of people as
childish and violent in pre-modern times undergoing increasing restraints
beginning with modernity.106
Historical study of emotional rules are important because rules, be them explicit
or implicit, are central to understanding how culture shapes emotions. There may
however be more than one set of expectations or rules within a single society.
3.1.2. Emotional Communities
Rosenwein proposes a different historical approach to explore change in
emotions. She coined the term “emotional communities” and defined them as
“social communities –families, neighborhoods, parliaments, guilds, monasteries,
parish church membership- which define and assess same feelings as valuable and
harmful to them”.107 She proposes scholars to “uncover these systems of feeling
that they value, and seek the evaluations that they make about others’ emotions,
the nature of the affective bonds between people that they recognize, and the
modes of emotional expression that they expect, encourage, tolerate and deplore”.
In other words, she argues “an emotional community is a group in which people
106 Barbara Rosenwein, “Worrying About Emotions,” American Historical Review 107 (2002):
821-45.
107 Barbara Rosenwein, “Worrying About Emotions,” American Historical Review 107 (2002):
842.
45
have a common stake, interests, values and goals”. She further argues in her book,
Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages that “they are in some ways
what Foucault called a common “discourse”: a shared vocabularies and ways of
thinking that have a controlling function, a disciplining function and are also
similar as well to Bourdieu’s notion of “habitus”; internalized norms that
determine how we think and act and that may be different in different groups”.108
Regarding the change of emotional norms in time, she argues that, in every period
there is more than one emotional community, although the ones in power tend to
monopolize the sources that which historians see. And as new groups become
powerful whether politically (French Revolutionaries) or economically (Hanse
merchants) or religiously (Protestants in 17th century England) or scientifically
(members of the 18th century Royal Society of London) or in other ways, they
bring their emotional norms, behaviors, standards, valuations and “scripts” with
them.109 However, it is important to note that emotional communities are not
always “emotional”, in the sense that members of an emotional community will
not necessarily express love or affection towards one another, they only have
particular values, modes of feeling and ways to express those feelings.110
In her book, Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages, Rosenwein
studied the funerary inscription in three cities, namely, Trier, Vienne and
108 Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006),
25.
109 Barbara Rosenwein, “AHR Conversation: The Historical Study of Emotions” In American
Historical Review December (2012): 1516.
110 Barbara Rosenwein, Generations of Feeling A History of Emotions, 600-1700 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2016), 3.
46
Clermont of Early Middle Ages.111 She found that affection between children and
parents, and to a slightly lesser extent between husbands and wives was a
privileged emotion in Trier with epitaphs revealing affectionate sensibility.112
However the inscriptions in Clermont was quite different in both emotional
repertory and the contexts in which the words were used. Clermont people were
less silent when confronting death, at least publicly and the emotions they
expressed were less personal affectionate compared to that of Tier.113 In Vienne,
the epitaphs that contain emotion words dated from the sixth century, when
Vienne was firmly under Catholic kings. They were willing to publicize their
emotions against death in this period, however emotion words were almost absent
until the sixth century. She therefore argues that, there were at least three different
emotional communities before the eighth century differing in their ways of
expressing emotions when confronted with death.114
She also argued in her book “many emotion words had explicit or implicit
normative functions and were to be understood as emotional scripts whose
temporal change should be a central object of historical investigation”.115 She was
also concerned with the formulaic structure of the conventional phrases like “Dear
X” which do not explicitly show emotions. However, she stated that such phrases
111 Barbara Rosenwein, Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 2006).
112 Ibid., 68.
113 Ibid., 69.
114 Ibid., 77.
115 Jan Plamper, The History of Emotions An Introduction, trans. Keith Tribe (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2015), 70.
47
were themselves subject to historical change that indicated something of the
changing status of particular emotions.116
3.1.3. Emotives
William Reddy, an American historian and anthropologist, studied change in the
concepts of emotions like shame and honor in the political life of 18th and 19th
centuries France.117 He was not quite satisfied with the social constructivist
approach that had been previously mentioned. An example would help the reader
to better understand his criticism.
The anthropological study of Grima explored emotions among Pashtun women in
Pakistan and has shown that gham, which is a kind of sadness, was the most
intensive emotion that was expected to be displayed by them in public sphere. It
was particularly expected from Pashtun women for example to express gham
publicly when they were getting married which contradicts to the Western image
of a “happy” bride.118 The marriages were usually arranged, and the bride, when
getting married, accepted her loss of status in the social hierarchy of the
husband’s house with mothers and sisters-in-law. Pashtun women were also
expected to come and weep together, when they were informed of one of their
116 Ibid., 70.
117 William Reddy, The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
118 Benedicte Grima, The Performance of Emotion among Paxtun Women: “The Misfortunes
which Have Befallen Me” (Austin: University of Texas, 1992).
48
son’s injury instead of a prompt concern and intensive fixation of the injured.119
Grima with this study contributed to the dismissal of the concept of “universal
emotions”, and argued that gham was socially constructed among Pashtun women
and criticized the “oppression” in Pashtun and other Muslim cultures. However,
Reddy thought that if gham is unique for the Pashtun society, which is as an
extremist social construction approach, if emotion is itself culture as Grima points
out, then we are not in a position to make any value judgments on such
findings.120 He points out that “if everything is socially constructed then so too are
my values, and they are of only local validity, and I cannot have really anything to
tell against genital mutilation in parts of Africa”.121 He also insists on the
necessity of creating a position from which values such as freedom and justice can
be defended and questions how we are supposed to trace change in emotions with
such value judgments.122 He wasn’t therefore comfortable with the assumed
absolute inplasticity of the individual in Pashtun society.123 He offered a new
theoretical perspective, taking the plasticity of the individual into consideration
119 Jan Plamper, The History of Emotions An Introduction, trans. Keith Tribe (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2015), 251.
120 William Reddy, "Against Constructionism: The Historical Ethnography of Emotions," Current
Anthropology 38 (1997): 327- 51.
121 Ibid., 254.
122 Ibid.
123 For the replies of anthropologists and some historians to Reddy’s criticism of extreme
constructionism see; Signe Howell, “Comment on William M. Reddy, Against Constructionism:
The Historical Etnography of Emotions,” Current Anthropology 38 no 3 (1997): 342-3; Lynn
Hunt, “Comment on William M. Reddy, Against Constructionism: The Historical Etnography of
Emotions,” Current Anthropology 38 no 3 (1997): 343-4; Chia Longman, “Comment on William
M. Reddy, Against Constructionism: The Historical Etnography of Emotions,” Current
Anthropology 38, no 3 (1997): 344-5; Catherine Lutz, “Comment on William M. Reddy, Against
Constructionism: The Historical Etnography of Emotions,” Current Anthropology 38, no 3 (1997):
345-6; Linda C. Garro, “Comment on William M. Reddy, Against Constructivism: The Historical
Ethnography of Emotions,” Current Anthropology 38 no 3 (1997): 341-42.
49
and coined the term “emotives”. Borrowing from John Austin’s speech act theory,
in which constatives are descriptive statements of the world like “this fir branch is
green”, whereas performatives are also descriptive statements but also change the
world like saying “I marry thee in a registry office”, Reddy developed the concept
of emotive. For example, the sentence “I am happy” is an emotive, because it not
only describes the condition of the world using emotion but also seeks to
influence this condition. For Reddy emotions are “goal-relevant activations of
thought material”. In other words, emotions are judgments based on goals. And he
defines emotives as “transformative statements like performatives, but they are
always in the process of revision unlike performatives”.124 According to
Rosenwein, this terminology is important because “emotives” describe the
process by which emotions are managed and shaped, not only by society and its
expectations but also by individuals themselves as they seek to express the
inexpressible, namely how they “feel”.125 Additionally Reddy described
“emotional regimes” as the codes of expression and repression created and
enforced by societies and governments” and “emotional refugees” as those spaces
–physical and social- which offer opportunities for emotional expressions not
sanctioned by the dominant regime while describing “emotional liberty” as the
freedom to change goals in response to bewildering, ambivalent thought
activations.126 An emotional regime is the total of prescribed emotions with their
124 William Reddy, The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
125 Barbara Rosenwein, “Worrying About Emotions,” American Historical Review 107 (2002):
821-45.
126 Susan Matt, “Current Emotion Research in History: or, Doing History from the Inside Out,”
Emotion Review 3, no 1 (2011): 117-124.
50
related rituals and other symbolic practices like swearing on the flag in the army
would be considered as an emotive of modern national emotional regime.127
Liliequist studied the language and power of tears representing the
communicative and rhetorical aspects of crying.128 He argues that “inspired by the
Reddy’s perspective on emotional expression as a type of speech-act (emotives)
with relational intent and the potential for altering effects on the self and others,
his aim is to discuss the uses of weeping in early modern Swedish political
contexts, focusing on the 18th century”.129
3.2. Methods Utilized in Exploring Emotions
Hoping that the reader had by now a broader understanding of the theoretical
approaches of the field, including the debates around the perspectives, the main
question remains to be how this vast knowledge produced regarding emotions as
an object of historical investigation, may be applied to Ottoman History. What in
other words, taking emotions into consideration, be they in the political, social or
religious spheres, may add to our current knowledge of Ottoman History?
In this research, the emotions in pre-modern Ottoman Society had been explored
in three different dimensions. The first dimension is the role of emotions in the
127 Jan Plamper, The History of Emotions An Introduction, trans. Keith Tribe (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2015), 257.
128 Jonas Liliequist, “The Political Rhetoric of Tears in Early Modern Sweden,” In A History of
Emotions, 1200-1800, ed. Jonas Liliequist (London: Pickering& Chatto, 2012), 49-63.
129 Ibid., 181.
51
relations established between the Ottoman State/Sultan and its subjects. In this
part, mainly the political rhetoric of the State with special focus on the seemingly
formulaic phrases, which implicitly or explicitly refer to emotions, have been
analyzed. The second dimension explored the intra-communal relations within
neighborhood communities and the Ottoman guilds. It is argued that both
neighborhood communities and the guilds were distinct emotional communities,
having their own emotional norms and explored how they achieved solidarity
focusing on both the emotional norms and the deviations from those norms. This
approach also sheds light on the process of punishing those who deviated from
norms. The third dimension one on the other hand, explored the affective ties
between husbands and wives in an Ottoman family questioning whether the ties
that bond men and women in a marriage were based on pure rational
purposefulness and such affective ties were established only with “modernity” as
some historians argued. What were the larger social implications of the prescribed
emotions between husbands and wives?
In this study, all three methodological perspectives had been utilized; namely,
emotionology, emotional communities and emotives. In all three dimensions, the
same pattern had been used, which firstly explored the prescriptions of emotions,
or the emotionology and secondly the descriptions or the expressions of the
established norms or the actual experience of the individuals and analyzed how
individuals sometimes conformed while sometimes deviated from these norms,
how they expressed or repressed their feelings. However, as Lewis and Stearns
point out, “the distinction between precept and experience should not be drawn
too sharply, for the two are always held in tension; the one is tested against the
52
other and each is understood within the context of the other.”130 They further
claimed “historians of the emotions remind us that men and women give shape to
their own lives, sometimes attempting to conform to the prevailing standards,
sometimes internalizing them, sometimes resisting, but always negotiating
between experience and precept in the process giving history its distinctive,
human contours.”
The sources that had been utilized directed this research on deciding which terms
and concepts had to be conceptualized. These terms and concepts had sometimes
been the emotion words themselves, however, metaphoric representations which
do not explicitly refer to emotions but which had accompanying emotion codes or
which define emotional states had also been utilized. They were selected for their
significant frequency in primary sources.
3.3. Ottoman Sources Utilized
Zaharna’s article published in Public Relations Review, written as a guide for
contemporary cultural communications, systematically analyzes the cultural
differences between eastern and western cultures. It examines how the two
cultures have two distinct perspectives for viewing the role of language, for
structuring persuasive messages and for communicating effectively with their
audiences.131 For the eastern culture, emphasis was on form over function, affect
130 Peter Stearns ans Jan Lewis, “Introduction,” In An Emotional History of the United States, ed.
Peter N. Stearns and Jan Lewis, (New York: New York University Press, 1998), 2.
131 R. S. Zaharna, “Understanding Cultural Preferences of Arab Communication Patterns,” Public
Relations Review 21, no 3 (1995): 241-255.
53
over accuracy and image over meaning. Some of the results of this study indicate
that western cultures place more meaning in the language and very little in the
context, and communication tends to be specific, explicit and analytical where as
in eastern cultures meaning was always in the context. Secondly, this study
indicates that while the western culture was direct, to the point, clear with
simplicity valued, objective and avoiding emotion, eastern culture on the contrary
was indirect, circular, ambiguous, with embellishments valued, and subjective,
which deliberately uses emotion. As a part of an eastern culture, the language of
Ottoman documents was quite similar. Any attempt to search for emotions in
Ottoman culture, influenced much from eastern cultures, therefore has both
limitations and potentials. Although there’s deliberate use of emotions and
emotion words in communication patterns, which denotes its potential, they’re
mostly cicular, subjective, indirect and implicitly expressed reflecting on the other
hand its limitations demanding a much closer look into in-between lines of the
texts.
The deliberate use of emotion words is clearly reflected in Ottoman documents.
Although the simultaneous use of both Arabic, Persian and Turkish emotion
words may be regarded as the source of this rich vocabulary, still the Ottoman
sources are replete with emotional words. There were at least 12 different words
used for the emotion of shame, each differing in their either intensity or meaning
like; ayıb, utanç, hücnet, haya, ar, haşmet, ihtişam, hacalet, faziha, neng, şerm,
istihya and various other words derived from their roots. Likewise, for anger, the
Ottomans used the words gazab, gayz, hırs, gazban; for fear, havf, ters, haşyet54
haşye, bak, belinmek, bim, hiras, feza, rub; for envy; hased, hasid, reşk; for
sadness; hüzn, enduh, gam, gam-gin, mağmum, iktiras, kürbet, keder, mükedder,
mütekeddir, yeis; for disgust, müşmeiz, işmizaz, nüşüz, ikrah; for compassion;
merhamet, şefakat, mürüvvet, fütüvvet; and lastly for happiness, ferah, meserret,
mesrur, mesud, said, müstaid, şad, şad-man, şad-gam, vidd, vedd, vüdd, vidad,
behçet, fıruz, hullet, küsayiş, merrih, şatır, şetaret, şuttar, kam, kam-gar, kam-yab,
kam-ver, kam-bin, musafat, hoşhal. Even this list of emotion words and phrases
used in Ottoman primary sources with their approximate related English
equivalents further evidences the richness of the Ottoman emotional repertoire.
William Reddy argues that “verbal expressions of emotions are themselves
instruments for directly changing, building, hiding, intensifying emotions...”.132 If
we hold his assumption, then it may easily be suggested that Ottomans were quite
concerned with emotions.
In this study a linguistic, semantic and contextual analysis of some of the terms
and phrases is made to better understand their broader meanings, which implicitly
or explicitly refer to emotions, based on the Ottoman primary sources.
3.3.1. Sources for Exploring Prescriptions of Emotions
Ethic books provide ample information regarding the idealized form of relations
expected to be established between both the state and its subjects and husbands
and wives. The book of Ethics Ahlak-i Alai written by Kınalızade representing the
132 William Reddy, The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 105.
55
most popular one of its counterparts had been utilized in search for prescriptions
of emotions.
Ahlak-i Alai is a part of Islamic advice literature (siyasetname-nasihatname),
which is similar to genre of “mirror for princes” in the Western tradition.
Kınalızade (1510-1572)’s book of ethics, Ahlak-ı Alai, has been the topic of many
research attempting to explore the Ottoman state and political thought133 and
frequently used as a reference to formulate the concept of “circle of justice”
(daire-i adalet).134 His work is a book of ethics in its essence. He issued his work
in three volumes. The first volume is on science of ethics (ilm-i ahlak), the second
one is about family ethics (ilm-i tedbîri’l-menzil), while the third is about political
ethics (ilm-i tedbîri'l-medîne). The section ilm-i tedbîri'l-medîne had been utilized
in exploring state-subject relations and the section ilm-i tedbîri’l-menzil while
exploring the affective ties between husbands and wives.
All the books in siyasetname and nasihatname literature reflect ideal forms of
political, social and economic entities rather than the factual ones. Fütüvvetnames,
which hold an important place in the siyasetname genre, also provide clues
regarding economic life with a special focus on guilds. For example, Burgazi
Fütüvvetnamesi copied in 1507, the original of which dates 13th century135,
Radavi’s Haza Kitabu Fütüvvetnamesi (Meriç 2013), also known as Miftah-ı
133 Fahri Unan, İdeal Cemiyet İdeal Devlet İdeal Hükümdar (Ankara: Lotus Yayınevi, 2004),
XXVI .
134 Ibid.
135 Kaan Yılmaz, “Burgazi Fütüvvetnamesi Dil İncelemesi-Metin-Sözlük,” (Unpublished master’s
thesis, Sakarya: Sakarya Universitesi, 2006).
56
Dekayık or Fütüvvetname-i Kebir136, completed in 1524 are representatives of
fütüvvetname genre in this regard. The judiciary court records however, are quite
generous in providing ample examples of prescriptions of emotions regarding the
guilds reflecting the prescriptions of fütüvvetnames. Thus, judicial court records
had been more intensively utilized relative to fütüvvetnames in this study which
had taken guilds into consideration as one of the taifes in in Ottoman societal
structure.
3.3.2. Sources for Exploring Description of Emotions
The most intensively used source in this thesis is Ottoman judicial court records.
The use of these legal sources had two functions in this search for the
emotionology. First of all, since the judicial court records mostly record disputes,
they showed how individuals or groups deviated from the norms, enabling us to
explore the norms themselves. For example, the emotional expectations of a
society from any group member are clearly evidenced in cases where the ones
who deviated from those norms have been punished either by expulsion or
banishment. Such cases showed not only the norms but also the process of
treating the deviants from those norms. They had been utilized particularly to
explore the emotional norms of the taife/cemaats. However, the norms were
mostly verbal, transmitted from one generation to another in the taife/cemaats.
Secondly, it helped to avoid the risk of exploring only the emotional standards of
136 Numan Meriç, “Radavi’nin Haza Kitabu Fütüvvetnamesi,” (Unpublished masters thesis,
Manisa: Celal Bayar Universitesi, 2013).
57
the literate since all the members of the society were represented in judicial courts
regardless of their gender, social status or literacy.
Since Ottoman court records constituted the basis of this research, it is necessary
to point out the ongoing methodological debates regarding their
limitations/potentials.
In this regard, the article by Agmon and Shahar remains to be the most
comprehensive study on the recent methodology of sicil studies.137 According to
them, in mid-90’s a methodological discontent on sicil studies emerged.138 It was
Zouhair Ghazzal who first criticized Establet and Pascual’s Familles et fortunes à
Damas: 450 foyers damascains en 1700, which was based on probate inventories,
in his review.139 Ghazzal criticized the authors for failing to discuss their decision
to conduct a quantitative analysis of court records. He argued that this choice,
which is anything but trivial and self-evident, must be explained and supported by
methodological considerations. In his response, André Raymond defended the
value of the quantitative analyses of court records. Ghazzal in turn clarified that
his criticism was directed at the entire sijil- based Ottoman and Middle East
historiography. He explained that he objects to the a priori decision of historians
to approach court records using methods that are external to these documents, thus
137 Iris Agmon and Ido Shahar,“Theme Issue: Shifting Perspectives in the Study of Sharia Courts:
Methodologies and Paradigms,” Islamic Law and Society 15 (2008): 1-19.
138 Ibid., 12.
139 Zouhair Ghazzal, “Review of Colette Establet & Jean-Paul Pascual, Familles et fortunes à
Damas: 450 foyers damascains en 1700, Damascus: Institut Français de Damas, 1994,”
International Journal of Middle East Studies 28 no 3 (1996): 431–32.
58
ignoring their inherent textuality.140
Then Dror Ze’evi published an article where he discussed and criticized the use of
sicils.141 Ze’evi observed that in many sicil-based social histories, shariʿa court
records are treated as a transparent record of reality, “a source that reflects society
and culture as through a simple looking glass or a mirror”, which, he argues is a
fallacy, since “no source may be regarded as a mirror”.142 In his article he
classifies sicil studies as quantitative, narrative and microhistory depending on
their methodology. The problem with quantitative method, which requires a vast
database, is the representativeness of the sample. For example, since it was not
required to register or annul a marriage, any statistical analysis regarding marriage
or divorce would be meaningless. The same would be true for analysis regarding
the values of sale contracts. Does the price of a house recorded reflect the “real”
value or is there some other reasoning that determines prices? He argues that the
statistical outcome would not reflect the actual transactions. Regarding narrative
method, he argues that historians sometimes “try to look for evidence to
substantiate their claim while ignoring the pieces of the puzzle that do not fall into
place.”143 Although he believes the sicil studies are best suited for microhistory,
he argues that it is also problematic in the sense that “the procedure of many
Islamic courts in many periods ignores questions of motivation and background
140 Iris Agmon and Ido Shahar,“Theme Issue: Shifting Perspectives in the Study of Sharia Courts:
Methodologies and Paradigms,” Islamic Law and Society 15 (2008): 1-19.
141 Dror Ze'evi, "The Use of Court Records as a Source of Middle Eastern Social History: A
Reappraisal," Islamic Law and Society 5 (1998): 35-56.
142 Ibid.40.
143 Ibid.,45.
59
and most cases are presented without the benefit of a discussion to illuminate the
reader about the underlying context.” 144
Another part of the debate regarding sicil studies is about the uttered words and
their inscription. Ze’evi also doubts “the extent to which the inscribed record
reflects its purported creators- the people present in the court- said, even when
they seem to have been quoted directly.” He argues that there are many “barriers
to the floating free-spoken words” from the time they were uttered till the time
they were recorded. For example “most court cases in Arab lands were mediated
by interpreters who translated the claims and counter claims into Turkish.” Or
sometimes the words uttered in colloquial language were translated to literary one
or to court jargon, all of which Ze’evi considers as barriers.145
He proposes that the first concern of historians should be the sicil as a text,
looking into the linguistic and literary aspects of the source. In other words,
historians should “take sicil as a cultural product and therefore an end in itself.”
Secondly, qadis and court procedure has to be scrutinized.146
The debate on the limitations of court records is also crucial in this study as it had
already been mentioned. Ze’evi is right in proposing historians first to consider
sicil as a text and analyze the linguistic and literary aspects of it.
The court records have a unique form and structure. And uttered words had to be
transformed in such way to fit into that structure like a template. The example
144 Ibid.,48.
145 Ibid.,50.
146 Ibid., 53.
60
below clarifies the point.
“Medine-i Ayntab’a tabi Hayyam nam karye ahalisinden Hamza Ağa ibn
Hüseyin nam kimesne meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımü’t-tevkirde karye-i
mezbure sükkanından ashabu hazi’l-kitab semerci Mehmed ibn Mahmud ve
Esseyyid Osman ibn Seyyid İsmail ve Mehmed bin Mustafa nam kimesneler
mahzarlarında üzerlerine dava ve takrir-i kelam idüb, “tarih-i kitabdan 11
sene mukaddem 225 guruşa işbu mezburlara selem-i şer’i idüb birbirlerine
kefil bi’l-mal olmuşlar idi, hala taleb iderim sual olunub edaya tenbih
olunmak matlubumdur” didikde,
gıbbe’s-sual mezburun cevablarında “mukaddema karyemiz kethüdası
Arslan oğlu Mustafa ile gıyabımızda bir temessük peyda idüb, raht bahası
deyü 8 sene mukaddem bizi dava sadedinde oldukda zimmetimizde hakkı
olmamağla huzur-ı müsliminde meblağ-ı mezbur 225 guruş davasından
zimmetlerimizi amme-i deaviden ibra ve ıskat eyledi” deyu, def’le mukabele
idicek, gıbbe’l-istintak ve’l-inkar mezburun semerci Mehmed ve Esseyyid
Osman ve Mehmed’den def’-i mezkurlarına mutabık beyyine taleb
olundukda, udul-ı ahrar-ı müsliminden Şeyh Ebu Bekir ibn-i Seyyid
Mehmed ve Ali bin Abdullah nam kimesneler li-ecli’ş-şehade meclis-i şer’e
haziran olub, eserü’l-istişhad “fi’l-hakika tarih-i kitabdan 8 sene
mukaddem işbu Hamza Ağa ahali-i karyeden işbu mezburundan 11 sene
mukaddem virmiş idüm deyü meblağ-ı mezbur 225 guruşu dava sadedinde
oldukda merkumlar dahi Arslan oğlu temessük virmiş bizim haberimiz
yoktur deyu bi’l-külliye inkarlarından an-inkar işbu merkum Hamza Ağa
meblağ-ı mezbur 225 guruş davasından işbu mezburunun zimmetlerini bizim
huzurumuzda ibra-ı amm ve kati’ün-niza’la ibra ve iskat eyledi biz bu
hususa bu vech üzere şahidleriz şahadet dahi ederiz” deyu her biri eda-ı
şehadet-i şer’iyye eyledikte, ba’d-ı riayetihi şeraiti’l-kabul şehadetleri
makbule olmağın, mucebince müddei-i mezbur Hamza Ağa bi-vech
mu’arazadan ba’de’l-men’ ma’ vak’a bi’t-taleb ketb olundu. Fi’l-yevmi’ssamin
ve’l-işrıyn min rebiül-ahir sene erbaa ve sittin ve mie ve elf.”
Şuhudü’l-hal
Menzilci Esseyyid El-Hac Ahmet Ağa
Koca Mehmed Ağa
Esseyyid Ebubekir İbn-i Hacı Yahya
Bektaş Ağa147
The words that are quoted below constitute the basics of a template. The rest is
just a process of fill-in-the-blanks. The template of which looks like;
147 Antep JCR 107:74
61
“……1… karye ahalisinden .…2… meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımü’t-tevkirde,
karye-i mezbure sükkanından ……3…… mazharlarında üzerlerine dava ve
takrir-i kelam idüb, “……………………………4…………………” didikde,
gıbbe’s-sual mezburun cevablarında “………………5……” deyu, def’le
mukabele idicek, gıbbe’l-istintak ve’l inkar …6… beyyine taleb olundukda,
………7… li-ecli’ş-şehade meclis-i şer’e haziran olub, eserü’l-istişhad
…………8……” deyu her biri eda-ı şehadet-i şer’iyye eyledikte, ba’d-ı
riayetihi şeraiti’l-kabul şehadetleri makbule olmağın ………9…...bi-vech
muarazadan bade’l-men’ ma’ vak’a bi’t-taleb ketb olundu.”
1. Location
2. Plaintiff
3. Defendants
4. Testimony of plaintiff
5. Testimony of defendant
6. Court’s demand for witness or evidence
7. Witnesses of the case (event)
8. Testimony of personal witnesses
9. Decision/Conclusion
10. Witnesses of the trial
The most important part of the cases for this study are the parts (4) and (5). Part
(4) shows the claim of the plaintiff where the words of the plaintiff are quoted
describing what happened and why he’s appealing to court. Part (5) is the reply of
the defendant.
Regarding each court record as a template filled out either by the judge himself or
the scribe, I argue that although the uttered words are transformed into either
literary or court jargon, the essence of the parts (4) and (5) of the template was
neither lost nor distorted. Indeed, for some cases it seems quite probable that the
judge or the katip (scribe) had written the utterance of the legal actors without any
filtration; particularly those about expressing their emotions, and such cases had
been priceless for my research. It is worthwhile to mention here Tucker’s study.
Tucker explored the women’s role in the seventeenth and eighteenth century Syria
and Palestine using the court records of the Islamic courts of Damascus, Nablus,
62
and Jerusalem and focused on cases regarding family law.148 She also found that,
especially the cases regarding familial relations, when compared to those
involving business and property exchange, were much more contentious in
tone.149 She argues that
“…..most of these cases feature a litigant who felt strongly entitled,
aggrieved, or both. The voice of lived experience comes through these cases
more vividly than it does in most property cases. Although the narrative of
the events that led up to the court apperance was no doubt shaped by the
court scribe, many of the details of these “as told so” stories are clearly
based on a litigant’s verbal testimony and capture not just the sequence of
events but also the anger, chagrin, or bewilderment that the victim
experienced.”150
A simple translation of court records into Turkish or English or providing a
summary of them may hinder one to understand its essence. The terms and
concepts used in such templates needs to be further analyzed. Most of the time,
the perceptions lying behind the terms inscribed in the records give crucial clues
to historians regarding the motivations behind the scene. It is attempted in this
study to understand the perceptions hidden behind the terms and concepts and
make the textual and linguistic analysis of the case records while also interpreting
their emotional content. That is why either the full text of the sources or the
related part of the text itself had mostly been quoted. If history is a field of
science, which is expected to build knowledge in the form of “testable”
explanations and predictions, this approach will serve the researches as a chance
to test the evidences of this study. This is mainly due to the fact that I myself had
148 Tucker (2000) Judith Tucker, In the House of Law Gender and Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria
and Palestine (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).
149 Ibid.,19.
150 Ibid.
63
difficulties in fully understanding secondary sources, which only translated the
terms and concepts without quoting the original vocabulary. I had to go back and
refer to the original document in cases where I had doubts about the author’s
translation. For example, Leslie Peirce’s path breaking book, Morality Tales, is an
excellent example of micro-history where she focused on three unique cases.151
Her book is one of the books on Ottoman history, which received hundreds of
citations and reviewed almost by all of the historians using judicial court records
as their main sources. One of the chapters was about child brides and the chapter’s
evidence was based on two short court cases recorded in the 16th century in
Ayntab. Irıs Agmon was the only historian to my knowledge who was at least
suspicious about the child bride Ine in the story. However, since she did not have
any access to the primary source, she just pointed out her doubt. In her extensive
review of Morality Tales, Agmon criticizes the book by emphasizing that some
important transliterated terms that are crucial to her argument were missing which
were even more critical she says for the story of the child bride Ine. She was
suspicious of Ine being a child in the first place, because in the translated entry,
Peirce used the word “girl” once without giving the original term used in the
record.152 However, this word does not appear in the opening sentence of the
entry, Agmon adds, whose function was to identify the litigant for the record
(representing the court’s definition of the litigant’s legal personality). Agmon
questions what Peirce means by describing Ine as a child bride, whether she was
151 Leslie Peirce, Morality Tales: Law and Gender in the Ottoman Court of Aintab (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2003).
152 Agmon, Iris. “‘Another Country Heard From’: The Universe of the People of Ottoman Aintab,”
H-Turk, H-Net Reviews September (2007): 9.
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=13539
64
legally minor, or whether the translation “female child” stands for in terms of
legal minority, or in terms of age. In short, Agmon was dissatisfied with the
missing terminology of the court cases.
It is not clear whether Ine was a child or not. Rather, it seems like her
interpretations was quite far-fetched and Agmon was right for being suspicious.153
Her far-fetched interpretation presenting Ine as a child bride led her to come out
with a conclusion that mostly represents an “impressionistic” approach, a
drawback of sicil-based studies. The lack of evidence for Ine being a child does
not show that there were no cases of such in Ayntab in that period whatsoever,
however, since the whole chapter’s argument is substantiated by this one court
case, it makes her arguments less persuasive. Although, her far-fetched
interpretation in no way lessens the book’s value and impact on the field,
inclusion of the primary text could have hindered the loss of the research’s
“testability”. Additionally, the case record that Peirce utilizes as an evidence of
the child bride Ine (AS 161:136c) was recorded in the village of Hacer dating
153 The original of the case (AS161: 136c) that Peirce uses inferring Ine as a child bride is as
follows: “Vech-i tahrir-i sicil karye-i Hacer (?) kutbundan (?) Ine binti Maksud meclis-i şer’i
şerife gelüb, …… kayin babası Mehmed bin Ümmet hazır olub mezkure Ine takrir-i dava kılıb
didiki, kayin babam olan mezkur Mehmed bana cebren zina idüb bana … zail eyledi deyücek
mezkur Mehmed’den sual olundukda inkar ile cevab virdi ahali-i karyeden sual olundukda mezkur
Mehmed bizim ile zaman-ı sıgarından berü bileolub bunun yaramaz fiilini görmedik ve
işitmedik…. Cemaatdir deyüb mezkur kızın üveği babası Hüdavirdi bundan evvel bir nice haber
sordum bana dahi mezkur Ine inkar ile cevab virüb haber virmedi. Şimdiki halde böyle söyler
deyücek vuku’u üzre sebt-i sicil olundu. fi 6 Şaban sene 934”. The following is Peirce’s
translation of the case: “Ine daughter of Maksud, from the village of Hacer, came to court. Her
father in-law Mehmed son of Ümit was also present. The aforementioned [female] brought the
following suit: “My father-in-law Mehmed raped me [lit., ‘had illicit sex with me by force’]; he
destroyed my virginity.” When Mehmed was questioned, he denied [this]. When the people of the
village were questioned, they said: “Mehmed has been together with us from the time we were all
children. We have never observed or heard of any wrongdoing on his part. We consider his people
as friends.” The girl’s stepfather Hüdavirdi said: “Previously, several times I asked her, and I˙ne
denied [that anything was going on], and never said anything. Now she is saying this.” It was
recorded as it happened.”
65
December 1540. She further argues that a second case (AS 2:300c)154 dating
September 1541 recorded in the village of Çağdığın was related with the first one
on the grounds that the name of the woman (Ine bin Maksud) was same in both
cases. However, we may never be sure that they were the same couple that moved
out of their village and settled in Çağdığın village.
To sum up, it is attempted in this research, in Ze’evi’s wording, to take each court
case as a cultural product and therefore an end in itself and to look into the
linguistic and literary aspects of the source. It is argued that a contextual and a
conceptual analysis of the terms and concepts used in sicil texts in the seemingly
formulaic legal “templates” may enable historians to find the hidden perceptions
and motivations behind the scene. This approach also offers a tool to eschew the
risk of making an impressionistic interpretation of historical texts. Since
emotions are the key to human motivation and indeed we would not be humans
without our emotions, exploring them would thus open the gate to the emotional
world of legal actors.
154 The original of the second case (AS 2:300c) that Peirce uses is as follows: “Vech-i tahrir-i
sebeb budur ki karye-i Çağdığın’dan Tanrıvirdi bin Mehmed meclis-i şer’de menkuhesi olan Ine
binti Maksud ile haziran olduklarında mezbur Tanrıvirdi ikrar ve itiraf idüb mezbure Ine benim
menkuhem olub, benim ile muaşereti ve hüsn-i zindeganisi yokdur, 1000 akçeye 1 hımar virmiş
idim bana virsün, kendüye talak vireyim ve nafaka-i iddetinden ve mihr-i muahharından ve sair
hukukundan geçsün didikde, mezbure Ine zikr olunan hımarı virüb nafaka-i iddetinden ve
kisvesinden ve mehrinden ve sair hukukundan geçib feragat ittikde mezbur Tanrıvirdi mezbure
Ine’ye bain-i talak ile boşadım didikde min bad ahedihümanın aherde davası ve niza’ı kalmayub,
tarafeynden tefrik bulunub sebt-i sicil olundu.”. The following is the Peirce’s’s translation of the
case arguing that the legal actors of the second case was the same in the first case: “When
Tanrıvirdi son of Mehmed and his wife I˙ ne daughter of Maksud, both from the village of
Cagdıgın, were present [at court], Tanrıvirdi said: “Ine here is my wife. She has no pleasure in life
living together with me. I gave her a cow worth 1,000 akçes, let her give it back to me and I’ll give
her a divorce; and let her also give up her waiting-period support and her dower and her other
rights.” When the said Ine forfeited the cow and her waiting-period support and her clothes right
and her dower and her other rights, the aforementioned Tanrıvirdi said, “I divorce Ine with an
irrevocable divorce.” There remaining no claim or suit by either against the other, they were
separated from each other and it was recorded.”
66
The choice of judicial court records sources utilized in this thesis should also be
pointed out. The earliest registers of Islamic judicial courts, termed as sicil-i
mahfuz, recorded in the districts throughout the empire, the numbers of which
range between 600 to 900, date the late fifteenth century while the latest date the
early twentieth century. The voluminous number of registers available thus
counted as one of the constraints of my choice. I also had to take into
consideration that Ottoman society never possessed a monolithic structure in its
vast territory known as “memalik-i mahruse” which remained as a spatial
constraint. With these limitations in mind, I had to choose a tenable number of
registers from this immense collection for emotional expressions which would
provide clues of how the individuals of the Ottoman society prescribed and
described their emotions in the pre-modern era for my search. A longer than
expected time period had been preferred with the assumption that tracing a change
in social construction of emotions would demand a search in longer periods of
time. Further discontinuities however may be traced demanding a subperiodization
of the pre-modern era but it such aim is not within the scope of this
thesis. A random sampling method had been used in the choice of court registers
that were utilized in this research. However the number of court cases which gave
clues on expression of emotions were none in some registers, less in others and
relatively redundant in still others. That is the main reason why the court cases
utilized in this research seem to be unevenly distributed, with more evidences
presented from the seveneteenth and eighteenth centuries.
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CHAPTER IV
OTTOMAN POLITICS OF EMOTION:
“TELİF-İ KULÛB AND MAHABBET”
It has been acknowledged by now that “reason, logic, culture and emotion, all
impose different constraints on the raw material of a political concept and if one
of these dimensions is not adequate, we may not fully understand any political
thought.”155 This chapter explores the semantics of Ottoman political language
with special focus on emotions, emotion related words, expression of emotions,
emotion talk and metaphors regarding emotions, to better understand the
emotional dimension of Ottoman politics.
4.1. Emotions in Political Discourse
Although the debates over the role of emotions in politics have been active
throughout the history of political thought, until recently it was mostly overlooked
not only by scholars of history, sociology, anthropology as it had been previously
155 Michael Freeden, “Editorial: Emotions, ideology and politics,” Journal of Political Ideologies
18 no 1 (2013): 4.
68
mentioned, but also by political scientists in the same manner.156 For Aristotle for
example, emotions played an important role in motivating action, creating social
bonds and supporting political justice and retribution. For Hobbes, reason is
merely “a handmaiden of the passions”, while Adam Smith and David Hume
considered sentiments as a primary social glue holding communities together.
Moreover, Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments and his work on aesthetics
emphasize the role of emotions in forming value judgments and how these values
motivate political action.157 Hall contends that this negligence of emotions is
largely due to assumptions of “rational choice model”.158 Habermas for example,
contended that public debates about official government policies developed first
in 17th and 18th centuries through a process of rational disputation conducted via
the press and for Habermas emotion had no part to play in this idealized political
process.159 The “rational choice model” emphasizes maximization of personal
benefits for which reason provides the means. As Hall rightly denotes this simple
cost-benefit analysis seems to have limited explanatory power since politics
engages values, beliefs and mores which are all colored by the passions.160
Now it is commonly accepted that emotions are prominent and pervasive in all
forms of ideological and political discourse since emotions directly shape and
156 Laureen K. Hall, “Review Essay Impassioned Politics New Research on the Role of Emotions
in Political Life,” Politics and the Life Sciences 28 no 2 (2009): 84.
157 Ibid., 85.
158 Ibid.
159 Nicole Eustace, “Emotion and Political Change,” In Doing Emotions History, ed. Susan J. Matt
and Peter Stearns (Urbana, Chicago: Unv. of Illınois Press, 2014), 163.
160 Laureen K. Hall, “Review Essay Impassioned Politics New Research on the Role of Emotions
in Political Life,” Politics and the Life Sciences 28 no 2 (2009): 85.
69
constrain the very nature of political thinking and discourse.161 There is now a
broad array of research in the fields of social sciences besides history and
sociology like political science, social psychology and international relations
exploring the role of emotions in contemporary politics. Some scholars, drawing
on the accounts of Aristotle, explored the relation between “emotion talk” as one
of the central ways in which people negotiate and dispute meaning and value in
political communication and political judgment.162
Similarly Loseke explored how, as some observers argue, talk containing
affective content or effect could be pervasive in public life because it is persuasive
where the audience is characterized by heterogeneity.163 In other words, how
“words” might appeal to vast numbers of people who live under very different
circumstances, and therefore can be expected to have very different emotional
reactions to specific events? She tries to answer this question by referring to
presidential speeches with a special focus on the president George Bush’s
presidential speeches to American nation after the events of 9/11. Based on the
assumption that subjective experience of emotion most often requires a cognitive
appraisal of antecedent events and present goal and values, she argues that
“subjective experience of emotion is socially shaped by the impersonal
archipelagos of meaning.... shared in common and these archipelagos of meaning
are historically and culturally situated, socially circulating, complex interlocking
161 Michael Freeden, “Editorial: Emotions, ideology and politics,” Journal of Political Ideologies
18 no 1 (2013): 4.
162 For example; Susan Bickford, “Emotion Talk and Political Judgement,” The Journal of Politics
73, no 4 (2011): 1025-37.
163 Donileen R. Loseke, “Examining Emotion as Discourse: Emotion Codes and Presidential
Speeches Justifying War,” The Sociological Quarterly 50, no 3 (2009): 497-524.
70
systems of ideas about how the world works, how it should work, of rights and
responsibilities and normative expectations of people in the world.”164 These are
defined as “symbolic codes” which are cultural ways of thinking, encouraging
people to think in particular ways and are accompanied by emotion codes.165
“Emotion codes” on the other hand are defined as, cultural ways of feeling, which
are “sets of ideas about what emotions are appropriate to feel when, where, and
toward who or what as well as how emotion should be outwardly expressed”.166
It is worth pointing out here that for Aristotle, as Bickford quotes, “excellence is
not simply a matter of acting well or thinking correctly but also of feeling rightly,
of feeling the proper responses at the right time, towards the right people, for the
right reason, and in the right manner which requires cultivation”.167 Aristotle’s
idea here perfectly matches with the definition of emotion codes. Loseke further
argues that rhetoric might achieve effectiveness to the extent that it deploys only
the widely held and deeply embraced symbolic codes and their accompanying
emotion codes. She, in other words, explores social production of emotional
meaning. Since it’s not possible to separate emotion and cognition, because
feelings give rise to thoughts and thoughts give rise to feelings, we cannot
understand how people think or make moral evaluations without understanding
how they feel. Likewise, it’s not possible to understand how people feel without
164 These systems of meaning are also named as “semiotic codes”, “interpretive codes”, or
“symbolic repertoires”.
165 They are also “scripts”, as Robert Kaster suggests, as the kind of mental routines that guide the
interpretation of events, helping to choose the behavior to adapt.
166 They are also named as “emotion schemas”, “emotionologies”, or “emotional cultures”.
167 Susan Bickford, “Emotion Talk and Political Judgement,” The Journal of Politics 73, no 4
(2011): 1027.
71
understanding how they think since the subjective experience of emotion requires
cognitive appraisal of antecedent experience and present goals and values.168
4.2. Presidential Speeches and Imperial Decrees
But, how could a presidential speech of 21st century addressed to “American
nation” supported by mass media and advanced communications technology be
relevant to Ottoman politics of emotion? It is relevant for many reasons.
First of all, the heterogeneity of the American nation is quite similar to that of
Ottoman society in the sense that subjects of the Ottoman State had different
religious, ethnic, spatial, occupational or otherwise identities, socially and
politically structured in communities, called “taife”s.
Secondly, although it was not common for any Sultan/King in pre-modern times
to give a speech to its subjects, we do have many imperial orders verbalized in the
Ottoman Sultan’s voice in the Ottoman archives addressed to all the Ottoman
subjects regardless of their religious, ethnic, spatial, occupational or otherwise
identities issued upon important concerns. These decrees, issued to redress justice,
addressing all the subjects, were called imperial edicts of justice (adalet
fermanı).169 Justice meant governing the subjects (reaya) well and prosperously in
its broadest sense. The decisions taken on any political issue in the Imperial
168 Donileen R. Loseke, “Examining Emotion as Discourse: Emotion Codes and Presidential
Speeches Justifying War,” The Sociological Quarterly 50, no 3 (2009): 499.
169 It should not be inferred that these decrees addressing to all the subjects of the Sultan were the
only ones redressing justice. All the others, addressing all or some of the subjects, were also issued
to redress justice.
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Council (Divan-ı Hümayun) were recorded in the registers of important affairs,
mühimme defterleri, formalized as if they were the personal order of the Sultan.
Based on these records, imperial decrees, fermans and sultanic warrants (berats)
were issued. The wording and the language of the decrees and berats seem as if
the Sultan listened to all the discussions in the Divan and he himself settled or
redressed the issue.
Thirdly, although there were not advanced communication technologies, and
although the dominant culture was oral with very low literacy rate, the subjects
were well informed of the general issues and problems pertaining in the Empire.
The wording of the fermans frequently included strict orders regarding the
transmission of messages to the subjects like “record a copy of the order in the
court registers and make sure that it will be read out loud in public places or
market places and be clearly understood by each one of the subjects” (sicillatta
kayıd ittirdükden sonra mecma-ı nas olan mahallerde ve cemaat-pazar yerlerinde
her birine nida ve izan ve tefhim ve ilan ittüresin).170 Since the addressees of the
imperial decrees were mostly illiterate, it was required that the decree will be both
read at loud and also the contents of the decree would be explained for full
comprehension of the subjects. For example, in a decree dating H.967/ M. 1560
sent to the sancak of Semendere171 it’s recorded as “I order that those who are the
addressees of this order, should record a copy of it in local court registers, and
make sure that my edict of justice would be read out loud in your local towns and
170 Halil Inalcık, “Adaletnameler,” In Osmanlı’da Devlet, Hukuk, Adalet (İstanbul: Eren, 2005),
142-144. The source has been transliterated from Mühimme register no.87/74:186 dated 10
zilhicce 1046/ 5 May 1637.
171 Ibid., 151. The source has been transliterated from Mühimme register no. 3/ 447: 1024.
73
villages to make sure that all the subjects would be informed of my order’s
content...” (...buyurdum ki, vusul buldukda her biriniz zikr olunan hükm-i
şerifimin suretin sicil-i mahfuza kayd eyleyüb dahi bu babda bizzat mukayyed
olub bu adaletname-i hümayunumun mefhumun taht-ı kazanızda vaki olan
kasabat ve nevahi ve kuraya nidâ-ı ‘âmm ittirüb, reaya ve sair halka umumen
bildiresin ki, ............ cümle reayanın malumu olub...). Furthermore in the
concluding section of the ferman, it is being ordered to “make sure that the
contents of my order would be read out loud to sancakbeys, their men in service,
the subjects and those who possess sultanic warrants, so that nobody would claim
that he did not hear or know about the order....” (.... ana göre ferman-ı şerifimin
mefhumunu eğer sancak beyleridir ve eğer ademleridir ve eğer sair reaya ve
berayaya bir vech ile nida ve ilan ittiresiz ki, sonra kimesnenin bilmedik, ve
işitmedik dimeğe mecali kalmayub....). What is more interesting is that, at the end
of the ferman, the Sultan orders that the officials should also let the Sultan know
when the decree had been received, when it was made public and when the
innovations (bedayi’)172 were revoked.... (... bu hükm-i şerifim ne gün varub, ve ne
vech ile i’lan olunub, bedayi’ ref olunduğun bildiresiz...). Strict orders regarding
the transmission of the contents of the decrees to its addresses is also evidenced in
another imperial decree dating H.1004/ M. 1595173 which is addressed to the
judges (kadı), ordering them to gather all the notables and the residents who are
present, to read the ferman in front of them, make sure that the contents of the
order which would bring peace to all is fully understood by them. Furthermore, it
172 bedayi’ is the plural of bid’at- new practices which were considered to be violations of law
173 Halil Inalcık, “Adaletnameler,” In Osmanlı’da Devlet, Hukuk, Adalet (İstanbul: Eren, 2005),
138-142.
74
is demanded that the full text of the decree from the beginning till the end
including its date should be recorded in the court register, and for anyone who
claims a copy of it, the scribe of the judicial court should issue a duly signed copy
for 50 akçes without any further cost on the subjects’ part (... siz ki hakimlersiz,
a’yan-ı vilayet ve sükkan-ı memleketde hâzır ve mevcûd olanları cem’ idüb, bu
adaletname-i hümayunumu muvacehelerinde kıraat idüb, fehva-ı rahat-ihtivası
temâm ma’lumları oldukdan sonra siz ki kadılarsız, bir ehil katibe sicil-i mahfuza
evvelinden ahirine değin, tarihiyle nakl itteresiz ki, reaya ve beraya e’âli ve
esafilden her kim gelüb, suretin taleb iderlerse mahkeme katibine bir surete
ellişer akçeye sahihce yazdırıb, ve siz akçelerin almayub, hasbî imza idüb ellerine
viresiz ki, lazım olduğu yerlerde ibraz ideler.....).
Ivanova also explored how the subjects living in the European provinces were
informed of the Ottoman Empire’s political events using the standard sultanic
decrees of the 17th and 18th centuries. She demonstrated convincingly that
circulation of fermans established an information channel linking the capital to the
tax-paying communities in the provinces thereby spreading news about important
state-political events and that transmission of socio-political information was well
established throughout the Empire.174
174 Ivanova (2012) Svetlana Ivanova, “The Ottoman Decrees “Up” in Istanbul and What the
Rumelia Subject Perceived at the “Bottom” (Seventeenth-Eighteenth Centuries),” In Political
Initiatives “From the Bottom Up” in the Ottoman Empire, ed. Antonis Anastasopoulos
(Rethymno: Crete University Press, 2012), 345-378.
75
4.3. Creation of State Ideology: The Power of Words
Inspired by Loseke’s article, the “archipelagos of meaning” embedded in widely
held and deeply embraced symbolic codes and their accompanying emotion codes
which are socially constructed and culturally shaped is explored in this section as
reflected in both the Ottoman imperial decrees as venues for transferring the
political messages of the Sultan to its subjects and the petitions sent to the Sultan
by the subjects as the venue for communicating the political requests of the
subjects to the Sultan. In this sense, as addressees of political messages, the
Sultan, the askeri class members whom the Sultan delegated his authorities to
govern and the individual subjects may all be considered as an “emotional
community” with a common perception of emotion codes.175 It is argued that
conceptualizing the symbolic and emotion codes embedded Ottoman political
rhetoric reflected in texts like imperial decrees and the petitions of the subjects as
modes for communicating political messages and determining the
“emotionology”176 of the pre-modern Ottoman state and society enables us to
better understand Ottoman political thought and its politics of emotion. Here, the
political and the politics have been differenatiated and “political” is used as a
specific vision of the organization of society, and “politics” as the means to reach
175 “Emotional community” is defined by Rosenwein as “social communities –families,
neighborhoods, parliaments, guilds, monasteries, parish church membership- which define and
assess same feelings as valuable and harmful to them. It is a group in which people have a
common stake, interests, values and goals”.
176 Here, emotionolgy is used as Stearn’s definition, which is: “the attitudes or standards that a
society, or a definable group within a society, maintains toward basic emotions and their
appropriate expression; ways that institutions reflect and encourage these attitudes in human
conduct”.
76
that specific vision.177 There are many valuable research made so far regarding the
Ottoman political thought, starting with the seminal works of Halil İnalcık. The
literature on the subject is reviewed comprehensively and critically by Yılmaz.178
However, Ottoman historians are still attracted to hard-fact, rational things and
still emotions seem “tangential” in that sense.
Tracing historical patterns in who expressed what emotions when and to whom,
how the emotions were categorized and ranked, which emotions demanded a
particular way to feel and to behave may reveal much about the distinctive
meanings of emotions in culturally and historically specific contexts, the role of
emotions in legitimizing political power and may help us grasp the fundamental
social assumptions and negotiations underlying Ottoman political thought.
Karateke suggests a framework within which the legitimacy of the Ottoman
Sultan and the Ottoman State and the strategies that Ottoman Sultans and the
ruling elite devised to keep the subjects content is analyzed.179 In his framework
the construction of a legitimate authority has a normative and a factual aspect. A
normative schema, according to Karateke, form “legal” grounds for legitimacy
and factual measures constitute the pillars and walls of legitimacy building.180 He
177 I borrowed Dağlı’s definition of political and politics, for a detailed dicussion on the use of the
terms, see; Murat Dağlı, “The Limits of Ottoman Pragmatism,” History and Theory 52 (2013):
194-213.
178 It’s almost impossible to cite all the research on Ottoman political thought however the
bibliography of a comprehensive and critical review of the recent publications by Yılmaz will be
satisfactory. See; Hüseyin Yılmaz, “Osmanlı Tarihçiliğinde Tanzimat Öncesi Siyaset Düşüncesine
Yaklaşımlar,” Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi v.1 (2003): 231-298.
179 Hakan T. Karateke, “Legitimizing the Ottoman Sultanate.” In Legitimizing the Order The
Ottoman Rhetoric of State Power, ed. Hakan Karateke and Maurus Reinkowski (Leiden: Brill,
2005), 16.
180 Ibid., 17.
77
argues that normative legitimacy also determines the color of the political rhetoric
and symbolism, shaping the ceremonies, the state imagery and the architecture.
The “rhetoric” in this respect, demands a broader understanding and
conceptualization of the Sultan/State’s political rhetoric. It is argued in this
chapter that the use of emotional words embedded in the political rhetoric of the
Ottoman State had its own functions in formulating relations among the political
actors.
Although the concepts in the political rhetoric, especially in the sources that are
utilized throughout; like the fermans either recorded in mühimme registers or
copies of fermans recorded in judicial courts registers, petitions, and texts from
advice literature, are considered to be too formulaic and state-centered with
replete cliché-like phrases by some historians, they are still illuminating tools to
discover the “archipelagos of meaning” that Loseke mentions. Exploring the
concepts and meanings behind the Ottoman rhetorical clichés and phrases, may be
quite rewarding to trace both the political ideologies and discourse reflected in the
relations between the rulers and the ruled and also the change in emotional norms
since it takes long periods for ideologies and emotional norms to change
significantly. Reinkowsky, in his illuminating article where he analyzes the
political idiom of Tanzimat, states that “the aim of creating a state ideology is
achieved by propagating symbols of power, one of them being the symbolism of
language in Ottoman official documentation, which are valuable clues as to how
the Hamidian bureaucracy conceptualized such matters as the relationship of the
ruler and the ruled”, arguing that routine Ottoman bureaucratic correspondence
can also be an excellent source for understanding the Ottoman political idiom and
78
rhetoric of power.181 However, the formulaic structure of bureaucratic
correspondence may also seem problematic in yet another sense since it’s hard to
be convinced on the sincerity of emotions expressed in these texts. It’s worthwhile
to cite here a recent research regarding the sincerity of emotions. Kutcher in his
search for emotions in Chinese history claims that while Westerns tend to
associate the sincere expression of emotion with originality, in pre-modern China
the expression of correct emotions through strict adherence to a formula was
considered the most sincere form of expression and emotions were expressed in
stock phrases.182 Although we may never be sure whether these terms reflect the
sincere emotions, there is one thing certain: it tells us about prevailing emotional
norms or “emotionology” in Stearn’s terms and they shape the political thinking
of the actors. Borrowing from Reddy, “the real emotions are in the realm of
private; however along the process of cognition they give rise to thoughts, which
are shaped by antecedent experience, present goals and expectations and
expressed by language, and are therefore socially constructed”.183 This approach
therefore also attempts to fill the gap between the private/public, inner/outer, and
emotion/cognition.
As Yılmaz rightly contends, the general approach in Ottoman political thought
studies until 90s and which still continues for 2000s had been accepting the
181 Maurus Reinkowski, “The State’s Security and the Subjects’ Prosperity: Notions of Order in
Ottoman Bureaucratic Correspondence (19th century),” In Legitimizing the Order The Ottoman
Rhetoric of State Power, ed. Hakan Karateke and Maurus Reinkowski (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 198.
182 Norman Kutcher, “The Skein of Chineese Emotions History,” in Doing Emotions History, ed.
Susan J. Matt and Peter Stearns (Urbana, Chicago: University of Illınois Press, 2014), 57-73.
183 William Reddy, The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
79
“concepts” as a raw data or just a tool to explain various other Ottoman
phenomena. The value and meanings of several ideas, concepts and perspectives
reflected and recorded in siyasetname genre had usually been studied nonexhaustively.
Paradoxically however, the concepts themselves became the least
analyzed objects of historical investigation in Ottoman political thought studies.184
The main reason for this according to Yılmaz was the historians’ bias that the
accumulated Ottoman intellectual thought as a field of knowledge did not have
anything novel and that Ottoman intellectuals have readily accepted the pre-
Ottoman concepts without building new semantics on them.185 It may be easily
assumed that the same approach holds true for the şerh and haşiye literature. It’s
worthwhile to note here the work İlim Bilmez Tarih Hatırlamaz Şerh ve Haşiye
Meselesine Dair Birkaç Not in which the genre of şerh and haşiye is defined as a
functional and a participatory effort and a source of knowledge written about a
“book” or a “text” the main aim of which is to comprehend, protect, transmit,
maintain continuity and record knowledge and information.186 Kara claims that
during the 19th and 20th centuries, a significant literature flourished which totally
refuses and underestimates this genre totally. At the same time however, he also
complains of insufficient academic research and methodology developed so far
questioning the widespread bias against the genre of şerh and haşiye. He also
rightly emphasizes the need to concentrate on all books written within this genre
including talikat, telhis and tercüme, with a new methodological approach, to
184 Hüseyin Yılmaz, “Osmanlı Tarihçiliğinde Tanzimat Öncesi Siyaset Düşüncesine Yaklaşımlar,”
Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi v.1 (2003): 280.
185 Ibid.,282.
186 İsmail Kara, İlim Bilmez Tarih Hatırlamaz Şerh ve Haşiye Meselesine Dair Birkaç Not
(İstanbul: Dergah yayınları, 2011).
80
better understand why, in what cicumstances, how they were all produced and
what their main functions were (or not) with all of their strengths and
weaknesses.187
It is of course hoped that the contributions of Ottoman intellectuals to the pre-
Ottoman political traditions with new methodological approaches, and evaluations
regarding the distinct use of pre-Ottoman political concepts in Ottoman context
will be explored by the future researches.
The present study does not have any claim to explore all the political concepts in
the Ottoman political rhetoric. Additionally, this thesis of course is not the first
study of conceptualizing the terms in political rhetoric, although hermeneutic
research focusing explicitly on terms and concepts are quite few.188 While
Deringil analyzed the “symbolism of language” of Ottoman official
documentation from 1876 to 1909189, and Reinkowski of Tanzimat period190,
187 Ibid.
188 For example see; Cemal Kafadar, “Osmanlı Siyasal Düşüncesinin Kaynakları Üzerine
Gözlemler,” In Cumhuriyet’e Devreden Düşünce Mirası: Tanzimat ve Meşrutiyet’in Birikimi, ed.
M. Ö. Alkan (İstanbul: yayınevi, 2001), 23-28; Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, “Din ve Düşünce,” In Osmanlı
Devleti ve Medeniyeti Tarihi, ed. E. İhsanoğlu, v.2, (İstanbul: 1998), 163-174; Selim Deringil, The
Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire 1876-
1909 (London-New York: I.B.Tauris, 1998); Hakan Karateke, “Legitimizing the Ottoman
Sultanate,” In Legitimizing the Order The Ottoman Rhetoric of State Power, ed. Hakan Karateke
and Maurus Reinkowski (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 13-52; Hakan Karateke, “Opium for the Subjects?
Religiosity as a Legitimizing Factor for the Ottoman Sultan,” In Legitimizing the Order The
Ottoman Rhetoric of State Power, ed. Hakan Karateke and Maurus Reinkowski (Leiden: Brill,
2005), 111-131; Maurus Reinkowski, “The State’s Security and the Subjects’ Prosperity: Notions
of Order in Ottoman Bureaucratic Correspondence (19th century),” In Legitimizing the Order The
Ottoman Rhetoric of State Power, ed. Hakan Karateke, and Maurus Reinkowski (Leiden: Brill,
2005), 196-212; Gottfried Hagen, “Legitimacy and World Order,” In Legitimizing the Order The
Ottoman Rhetoric of State Power, ed. Hakan Karateke and Maurus Reinkowski (Leiden: Brill,
2005), 55-85; Marinos Sariyannis, Ottoman Political Thought Up To The Tanzimat: A Concise
History (Rethymno, Greece: Institute for Mediterranean Studies, 2015).
189 Selim Deringil, The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the
Ottoman Empire 1876-1909 (London-New York: I.B.Tauris, 1998).
81
Hagen on the other hand, analyzed comprehensively the concept of “world-order”
(nizam-ı alem), which served as an underlying principle of the Ottoman discourse
of legitimacy within the wider discourse on justice.191 Darling scrutinized the
concept of “circle of justice” (daire-i adalet) from ancient Mesopotamia to 20th
century, which was one of the basic principles of good government in Middle
Eastern political thought.192 The most analyzed concept in Ottoman political
thought however, still remains to be the circle of justice. In his study, which
stands as the most recent publication on Ottoman political thought, Sariyannis
contributes to the field of research by extending the sources used in understanding
Ottoman political ideology from advice literature to a wider scope of works like
historiographical works, copybooks of protocol and official correspondence,
administrative manuals and fetva collections.193 Although a brief survey, Hagen
and Menchinger’s study on Ottoman “historical thougt” it should also be noted
since genre of “applied history”, claimed to be uniquely Ottoman, adds to our
further understanding of Ottoman political thought as well.194
190 Maurus Reinkowski, “The State’s Security and the Subjects’ Prosperity: Notions of Order in
Ottoman Bureaucratic Correspondence (19th century),” In Legitimizing the Order The Ottoman
Rhetoric of State Power, ed. Hakan Karateke, and Maurus Reinkowski (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 196-
212.
191 Gottfried Hagen, “Legitimacy and World Order,” In Legitimizing the Order The Ottoman
Rhetoric of State Power, ed. Hakan Karateke and Maurus Reinkowski (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 55-
85.
192 Linda Darling, A History of Social Justice and Political Power in the Middle East: The Circle
of Justice From Mesopotamia to Globalization (New York: Routledge, 2013).
193 Marinos Sariyannis, Ottoman Political Thought Up To The Tanzimat: A Concise History
(Rethymno, Greece: Institute for Mediterranean Studies, 2015).
194 Gottfried Hagen and Ethan L. Menchinger, “Ottoman Historical Thought,” In A Companion to
Global Historical Thought ed. Prasenjit Duara, Viren Murthy, and Andrew Sartori (Sussex, UK:
Wiley, Blackwell, 2014), 92-106.
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4.4. Symbolic and Emotional Codes in Ottoman Political Rhetoric
In this section, firstly the embedded symbolic and emotion codes in the Ottoman
political rhetoric is defined and then analyzed in different contexts in which they
were used, conceptualizing the terms and finally a model to better understand the
Ottoman political thought is proposed, by taking emotions into consideration.
This analysis remained loyal to the original terms used in the documents, since
every translation is itself an interpretation.
4.4.1. Merhamet ile Siyanet ve İhtisas ile İtaat
In the Ottoman social structure, there were various social communities, termed as
taifes. Some of them were spatially defined like neighborhoods (mahalle), while
some were religiously defined like Armenian taife, Rum taife, and still others were
occupationally defined like demirci taifesi, etmekçi taifesi. These communities
were sometimes overlapping with each other in the sense that an Ottoman subject
could be a member of a spatially defined community and at the same time a
member of an occupationally or religiously defined community. As indicated in
the political rhetoric of the imperial decrees, the subjects, reaya, were entrusted
by God, the Almighty, vedayi-i Hâlik-i kibriya, to the Sultan thereby obliging him
to protect and administer properly, regardless of their religious, ethnic,
occupational or otherwise standings. Therefore, being a reaya of the Sultan was
considered to be the upmost status of the subjects’ defining their identities. It was
an umbrella term for all the subjects fading out the religious, ethnic, spatial,
occupational, lingual differences.
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Figure 2. Vedayi-i Halik-i Kibriya
As expressed in the political rhetoric of the imperial decrees, the Sultan had to
protect (siyanet)195 the subjects (reaya) since they were the ones whom were
entrusted to him by God, the Almighty. Siyanet was the symbolic code, which
encouraged the subjects to think in particular way. It is a symbolic code because,
borrowing from Loseke, it’s a part of a system of ideas, about how the world
works, how it should work, of rights and responsibilities and normative
expectations of the people. However, while protecting his subjects, the Sultan was
expected to do so with compassion (merhamet).196 In other words, an emotional
rhetoric was established by linking the symbolic codes of protection (siyanet) with
the accompanying emotion codes of compassion (merhamet) in the minds of both
the Sultan and the subjects. The expected expression of emotion from the Sultan
195 Terms used synonomously with siyanet; riayet, himayet, muhafazat.
196 Terms used synonomously with merhamet; şefkat, atifet, inayet.
SULTAN
REAYA- The Subjects of the Sultan
“Vedayi-i Halik-i Kibriya”
(Those who are entrusted by God, the Almighty)
Askeri
(The military)
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was merhamet, if he claims to be the protector of his subjects as a legitimate one.
Protection, which requires a particular way to behave, also demands to feel in a
particular way and all the political actors commonly shared this symbolic and
accompanying emotional code. The subjects who were protected by the Sultan
with compassion would reach the state of being pleased, with their hearts
prospered (müreffhü’l-bal)197 thereby achieving a happy life (asude-hal). The
ultimate goals of the governmental policies then were the prosperity of the hearts
and happiness of the subjects. The diagram 3.1 below represents the expected
“thinking” and “feeling” rules of the Sultan towards the reaya.
Figure 3. Merhamet ile Siyanet
Merhamet, which is a feeling, is an important and frequently encountered term in
Ottoman political rhetoric, which needs to be further, contextualized. Emotional
words and their uses mostly expand their literary meaning and usually become a
197 Terms used synonomously with müreffehü’l-bal; terfih-i hal, hoş-hal, asude-hal.
THE SULTAN
REAYA
The Subjects of the Sultan
Siyanet
(Protec on)
Merhamet
(Compassion)
MÜREFFEHÜ’L BAL
and
ASUDE-HAL
Askeri
(The military)
Symbolic Code
Emo onal Code
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concept which gives us a clue on perceptions and we may only understand this
broadened meaning by different words clustered around them which enrich their
conceptual meanings.
Based on the readings of primary sources, especially the historical narratives and
the imperial fermans, it is argued that the use of the word “merhamet” was a quite
complex and a broad concept in its meaning and also distinctive in understanding
the relation between the Ottoman State and its subjects. “Merhamet” (which
literary means mercy, compassion; pity; tenderness of heart; kindness), has a
complex function and was used as a tool to legitimize political order and social
hierarchy.
The use of merhamet is analyzed within different contexts with a cluster of other
words, which help us to better understand its broad meaning. “Merhamet” is
sometimes used synonymously with words like şefkat (compassion, tender
kindness; affection; pity, concern, solicitude), atifet (affection, sympathy, pity,
benevolence, protection), inayet (grace; favor; kindness; care, effort), re’fet (a
being clement and benign; benignity), mürüvvet (munificence; generosity;
blessing) and fütüvvet (generosity; large-heartedness).
In the section regarding Damat İbrahim Paşa’s appointment as a grand vizier, it’s
stated in Raşid Tarihi198 that his way of reviving merhamet and mürüvvet and his
execution of the rules of şefkat and fütüvvet (ayin-i merhamet ü mürüvveti ihya ve
198 Abdülkadir Özcan, et al., Tarih-i Raşid ve Zeyli Raşid Mehmed Efendi ve Çelebizade İsmail
Asım Efendi (1071-1141 / 1660-1729 v. I (İstanbul: Klasik, 2013), 8-9.
86
kavanin-i şefekat ve fütüvveti icra) gave a new order to the State’s politics, where
mürüvvet, şefkat and fütüvvet is added to the broader meaning of merhamet.
Likewise, in the ferman dating May 5th 1637, the subjects are defined as those
who were entrusted by God and therefore the Sultan was obliged to be
compassionate towards them (reaya ki vedayi-i halik-i kibriyadır haklarında
mezid refet ve şefkat ve vufur-ı mekremet ve merhametim zuhura getürdüb), where
merhamet is used synonymously this time with re’fet, şefkat, and mekremet. There
are similar phrases that we frequently encounter in the fermans like “reayaya
mahz-ı merhamet ve şefkat içün” or “reayaya şefkat ve fukara ve zuefaya
merhamet ile hareket eyleyub”. It was also demanded that, not only the Sultan,
but also the members of the military class (askeri), whom the Sultan delegated his
authorities, would treat the subjects with merhamet. For example, in the same
ferman dating 1637, Bayram Paşa, as a representative of the askeri class, was
presented as one who had an innate feeling of compassion (Bayram Paşa’nın
cibilliyet-i zat-ı merhamet-nihad ve esniyye-i murad-ı fuadi’l halisi’l-itikadında
asar-ı merhamet ve ref’et mevzu’ ve izhar-ı adl ve atıfet mevdu’ olub), which
further broadens the concept of merhamet with re’fet and atifet.
Returning back to Ottoman political thought, the sultan’s protection with
compassion ideally leading to pleased and prosperous reaya would in return
encourage the subjects’ voluntary submission (tavi’an) to the Sultan which was
reflected in the documents with terms used synonymously as itaat199,
ubudiyyet200, imtisal201, inkıyad202, sadakat203, istikanet204, all denoting
199 itaat: 1. an obeying; obedience 2. submission; to obey, to submit oneself to.
200 ubudiyyet: 1. devotion to God with faith and obedience 2. a serving; servitude, slavery
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submission. While these are symbolic codes pertaining a particular way to behave,
the accompanying emotion code of itaat was ihtisas (affection)205 or its synonyms
like, mahabbet206, meveddet207. The personal gain of the Sultan in this case, with
subjects voluntarily submitting, would be restoration of his power enabling him to
demand universal sovereignty, frequently reflected in the sources as gerdun
iktidar. The diagram 3.2 below represents the expected “thinking” and “feeling”
norms of the reaya towards the Sultan.
Figure 4. İhtisas ile İtaat
201 imtisal: a conforming to rule, precept or example
202 inkıyad: a being or becoming tractable or obedient; submission, obedience
203 sadakat: 1. faithfulness, faithful friendship; fidelity, devotion, loyalty
204 istikanet: a humbling oneself, a being submissive; meekness, humility, submissiveness
205 ihtisas: sentiment, sensation, impression, affection
206 mahabbet: love, affection
207 meveddet: affection, love, friendship
REAYA
The Subjects of the Sultan
SULTAN
İtaat
(submission)
İh sas
(affec on)
GERDUN İKTİDAR
(Power)
Askeris
Symbolic Code
Emo onal Code
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This model however, reflects an ideal Ottoman State-subject relation, where the
Sultan or his delegated authorities are entitled to protect the subjects who are
entrusted to them by God, and should do so with compassion, thereby restoring
the power of the Ottoman State. This ideology is embedded in the symbolic and
emotion codes of siyanet and merhamet respectively. The subjects on the other
hand, protected with compassion by the Sultan, would be emotionally prosperous
(müreffü’l-bal) and achieve a happy life (asude-hal) thereby would voluntarily
submit to their Sultan with loyalty and affection which is embedded in the
symbolic and accompanying emotion codes of itaat and ihtisas.
4.4.2. Tarik-i Mahabbet as an Emotion Code
The above-mentioned codes normatively shape the commonly shared perception
of power relations. We may easily find reflections of this model both in the
siyasetname literature showing power relations in their idealized form and in the
political rhetoric of the imperial decrees. Accordingly, this idealized model could
only be achieved by conforming to religious and sultanic laws thereby
establishing adalet. The Ottoman understanding of good governance was
formulated under the basics of the concept of daire-i adliyye (circle of justice),
which was frequently referred in the texts of pre-Ottoman and Ottoman
siyasetname literature.208 Adalet, as a concept having a crucial importance in
208 For example Kınalızade’s formulation of “circle of justice” was as follows; “Adldür mucib-i
salah-ı cihan/ Cihan bir bağdur divari devlet/ Devletin nazımı şeriatdür/ Şeriate olamaz hiç haris,
illa mülk/ Mülk zabt eylemez, illa leşker/ Leşkeri cem’ idemez, illa mal/ Malı cem’ eyleyen
raiyyetdür/ Raiyyeti ku ider padişah-ı aleme adl.” (It is justice which is necessary fort he World;
the World is a vineyard and its wall is the state; the state is governed by the sheria; the sheria
cannot be maintained without a king; the king cannot govern without soldiers; he cannot compile
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understanding the political structure of Middle Eastern States, has been the
subject of many studies so far.209 For example Inalcık defined justice as the
prevention and elimination of the oppressive acts, zulm, by those who exercise
power in the name of the ruler210, while Ergene explored alternative definitions of
justice211 within the Ottoman administration terminology.
The essence of this political order is referred in Kınalızade’s Ahlak-i Alai as “icrâyı
kavânîn-i adâlet ve ihkâm-ı saltanat u iyâlettir ki işâret olundu”. We may also
encounter the same philosophy in the Ottoman chronicles. For example,
expectations from Yunus Paşa who had been appointed to govern the recently
conquered lands of Egypt was stated in Tacü’t Tevarih written by Hoca Saadettin
soldiers without wealth; it is the reaya who accumulate wealth; and it is justice which makes reaya
the servants of the sultan of the universe). Hasan Kafi formulated justice as “Padişahlık ve
sultanlık olmaz, illa erler ile olur, yani asker ile olur, asker ise olmaz, illa mal ile olur; mal ise
olmaz, illa vilayet mamur olmak ile olur; vilayet ise olmaz, illa adalet ile dahi hüsn-i siyaset ile
mamur olur”. (The sovereign cannot rule without troops. He has no troops without without Money.
There is no money if the land is not prosperous. The land would not prosper without good and just
government. Therefore one cannot reign except by justice). For further details see; Boğaç Ergene,
“On Ottoman Justice: Interpretations in Conflict (1600-1800),”Islamic Law and Society 8 no 1
(2001): 57.
209 For example see; Halil Inalcık, “Adaletnameler,” In Osmanlı’da Devlet, Hukuk, Adalet
(İstanbul: Eren, 2005), 75-191; Fahri Unan, İdeal Cemiyet İdeal Devlet İdeal Hükümdar (Ankara:
Lotus Yayınevi, 2004); Mehmet Öz, “Klasik Dönem Osmanlı Siyasi Düşüncesi: Tarihi Temeller
ve Ana İlkeler,” İslami Araştırmalar XII, no 1(1999): 27-39; Boğaç Ergene, “On Ottoman Justice:
Interpretations in Conflict (1600-1800),” Islamic Law and Society 8 no 1 (2001): 52-87.
210 Halil Inalcık claims that, the prevention and elimination of the oppressive acts is achieved
through the Ottoman Divan-ı Hümayun functioning as the Supreme court, through a constant
check and spying on the governors, punishments under the siyasa laws, the periodic promulgation
of the adaletnames or rescripts of justice and rik’a and arz-ı mahzar or petition rights against the
abuses of power of the public agents. In this system, he adds, justice is not simply a principle of
equity and imperial judgement, but also a principle of social action. Halil Inalcık, “State and
Ideology under Sultan Süleyman I,” in The Middle East and the Balkans under the Ottoman
Empire (Bollomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), 71.
211 Ergene claims that justice was defined as the protection of the rural and urban producers against
the abuses of the millitary elite under the terminology of the Ottoman administration system.
However, for some segments of the ruling elite it meant recognition of the mutual rights and
obligations of the Sultan and his servants which referred to the protection of the priviledges and
entittlements of those who were thought to secure them. Boğaç Ergene, “On Ottoman Justice:
Interpretations in Conflict (1600-1800),” Islamic Law and Society 8 no 1 (2001): 52-87.
90
as follows; “…….hall ü akd-i umuru zabt u rabt-ı mesalih-i cumhuru keff-i
kifayetine tefviz ve âyîn-i şeref-karîn-i Osmanî muktezası üzerine icra-yı merasimi
adl ü dâde tahrîz buyurdu.”212
However, conforming to religious and sultanic rules and regulations to establish
justice represents only the logical and the rational constraints of Ottoman political
ideology. There was one more way that was suggested in Ahlak-i Alai; namely,
“the path of mahabbet”, usually overlooked by historians, which was required for
good governance. Although mahabbet is translated as either love, affection of
friendship, they are not sufficient to explain the term conceptually. Therefore
mahabbet is used in this analysis instead of its translations. Kınalızade reserved a
whole chapter for “mahabbet” and its significance in the relations expected to be
established between the ruler and the ruled, and among the ruled. “Mahabbet” in
this section is considered as an emotional code in Loseke’s terminology, meaning
“cultural ways of feeling, which are sets of ideas about what emotions are
appropriate to feel when, where, and towards who as well as how emotion should
be outwardly expressed”. Pernau explored how Indo-Muslim advice literature
may be used as a source not only for feeling rules, emotion codes in Loseke’s or
emotionology in Stearns terminology, but also for emotion knowledge, which sets
the framework for the perception and expressions of emotions.213
212 Hoca Saadettin Efendi, Tacü’t-Tevarih (İstanbul: 1341), v:2, 374.
213 Pernau explored anger in advice literatüre of early twentieth century India looking at different
traditions for giving advice, from which the authors drew like moral philosophy, the Sufi tradition
and legal sources. Pernau claims that knowledge on emotions can encompass ideas on the division
of soul (like the Platonic appetitive, spirited and rational soul to the Freudian id, ego and
superego), on the relation between soul and body, on the classification of emotions, and also
answers questions like how emotions arise, how it can be controlled. She argues that advice
literatüre is a valuable source on how philosophical, pyschological or medical conceptions were
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Discussion of “mahabbet” as an emotion code serves for two purposes. Firstly, in
the idealized model where the sultan protects the subjects with compassion and
the subjects in return submit by affection, it will show the norms regarding when
it was appropriate to feel mahabbet, where and towards whom and how it should
be displayed. It acts as an overarching emotion code of the previously mentioned
model. Secondly, in addition to rational and the logical constraints of political
ideology, this commonly shared understanding of the emotion of mahabbet, will
enable us to place the emotional constraint as well into the picture, without which
the full understanding of the political philosophy seems inadequate.
In Kınalızade’s Ahlak-i Alai, a separate section is devoted to mahabbet, its various
kinds, causes, and its role in shaping the relations between the Sultan and the
subjects and its use as a political tool. In Ahlak-ı Alai, Kınalızade emphasizes
mahabbet as the basics of all relations in an ideal state. Beyond doubt, mahabbet
as a political tool was not a purely Ottoman concept; rather it rested upon an
ancient tradition. It was an important concept since it reflected the philosophy
behind this ancient tradition in power relations. We know that Kınalızade
frequently referred to both works of famous Muslim philosophers like the work of
Farabi (874-950) el-Medînetü’l- Fâzıla, Hâce Nasîrüddîn-i Tûsî’s (1200-1273)
Ahlâk-ı Nâsırî, Calâlüddîn-i Devvânî’s (d. 1502) Ahlâk-ı Celâlî and Molla
translated into popular knowledge. See; Margrit Pernau, “Male Anger and Female Malice:
Emotions in Indo-Muslim Advice Literature,” History Compass 10, no 2 (2012): 120.
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Hüseyin Vâ’iz's (1456-1505) Ahlâk-ı Muhsinî, and also works of ancient
philosophers like Aristotle, Plato and Socrates.214
This tradition inculcates the Sultans that a good government may not be achieved
by legislating law only, it also requires to establish a mutual emotional bond
between the subjects and the Sultan. This is evident in many advice manuals
written for the Sultans. The following text from Kınalızade indicates why even
justice may not be required in an idealized world of mahabbet.
“Ve dahi mahabbet, muktezî-i ittihâd ve râfi’-i isneyniyyettir. Ve adâlet,
isneyniyyet tahakkukundan sonra olur, zîrâ adâlet insâftır; insâf lugatta
“nısf” kelimesinden müştakktır. Ya’nî bir nesnenin nısfın kendi alıp ve nısf-ı
âherini şerîki ala. Nısf hod isneyn olanda olur. Çün mahabbet sebebi ile
ittihâda –ki asl-ı usûl ve va’d-gah-ı kurb ü vusûldür- vasıloluna, isneyniyyet
furû’undan olan ahkâma ne ihtiyâc olur ve andan ne fâyide hâsıldır?215
In Kınalızade’s words, mahabbet, as a mystical concept with regards to the
philosophy of “vahdet-i vucûd” (monotheism) is a humane emotion, which, by
leaning towards the existence of God, ensures uniting one’s self with that of God
and thereby ruling out isneyniyyet (duality). However, in reality there’s always
duality in humankind as a social entity, and that’s why people demand justice.
Justice means “insaf” (to act with equity) and the root of the word insaf is “nısf”
(half). Justice, means in this sense an act of distribution, getting the half and
leaving the other half to one’s partner. Half exists only when there’s duality.
However, if duality is abolished within humankind, then there will be no need for
214 Fahri Unan, İdeal Cemiyet İdeal Devlet İdeal Hükümdar (Ankara: Lotus Yayınevi, 2004),
XXIX-XXX
215 Mustafa Koç, ed., Kınalızade Ali Çelebi: Ahlak-ı Alâ’î (İstanbul: Klasik, 2007), 413.
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rules regarding distribution. Therefore, mahabbet ranks prior to justice. Based on
this understanding, compassionate governance is suggested in Ahlak-i Alali. The
main reason for such a suggestion is further explained as follows;
“Çün zâhir oldu ki efrâd-ı insân intizâm-ahvâl ve tahsîl-i sa’âdet ü kemâl
etmekte ictimâ’ u te’ellüfe muhtâc ve ictimâ u te’ellüf dahi mazarrat-ı
müzâhame vü mugalebeyi müştemildir. Ve bu mazarratın def’i iki tarîkle
mutasavverdir: Birisi icrâ-yı kavânîn-i adâlet ve ihkâm-ı saltanat u iyâlettir
ki işâret olundu. Ve bu, tarîk-i cumhûr-ı enâm ve âmme-i havâss u
avâmmdır ve sevâd-ı a’zam ve ekser-i ehl-i âlem içindir. İkinci tarîk tarîk-i
mahabbettir. Ve bu tarîk, havâss u efrâd ve a’yan u âhâda mahsûstur, zîrâ
cumhûr-ı halk birbirleriyle mahabbet etmek âdeten muhâldir. Ammâ bir
cemâ’at içinde tarîk-i mahabbet olsa, mümkindir ve mahabbet olıcak tarik-i
adâlete ihtiyâc kalmaz, zirâ adâlete ihtiyâc anın içindir ki her kişi murâd u
matlûbu olanı kendi almak ister. Pes gayrı def’ etmek lâzım olur ve gayr
dahi hemçunân ol matlûbu kendiye câlib, bunun def’ini tâlib olub
muzâhameden muhâsama, mutâlebeden mugalebe hâsıl olur. Mahabbet
olıcak, kişi murâd u müştehâ olan nesneyi mahbûb murâd edicek îsâr etmek
mukarrer, belki mahbûb tenâvül etmesi dahi eşhâ gelir.”216
The meaning of this text is as follows; it is apparent that, to have a life in order, to
live a happy life and acquire maturity requires acquaintance with other people and
sociability. However, living together also incorporates a negation in itself as
giving harm to each other. There are two ways to prevent this negation. The first
way is validating the religious law and the sultanic orders. This is valid for all the
people, including the public and the notables. The second way is the path of
mahabbet. Mahabbet is intended for selected people, because it’s not possible for
all the people to feel mahabbet to each other. Even if there were mahabbet within
every member of a society, although it’s not possible, then there would be no need
for even justice. Since it’s not possible to achieve such an order, both parties of a
relation would like to attain their own will, which leads to conflict. The conflict
216 Ibid., 413.
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then transforms into hostility and contention. If there had been mahabbet in such a
relation however, one of the parties would feel happy even if the other party gets
the counter party’s share.
In the succeeding paragraphs, the sources of mahabbet are explained as follows;
“Ve sebeb-i mahabbet dahi üç nesnedir. Evveli lezzet, ikincisi nef’,
üçüncüsü hayrdır. Gâh olur ki bu esbâb ba’zı ba’zıyla müctemi’ olup
mürekkeb olur. Ammâ lezzet ol mahabbete sebeb olur ki serî’ül-akd ve
seriü’l-inhilâl ola, zirâ lezzet serîü’l-husûl ve’z-zevâldir; ana tâbi’ olan
mahabbet dahi eyle olur. Amma nef’ ol mahabbete sebeb olur ki geç hâsıl
olub tîz zâyil ola... Ammâ hayr şol mahabbete sebeb olur ki tîz hâsıl ola, geç
zâyil ola,..........Ammâ nef’le hayrdan yahud üçünden mürekkeb olan sebeble
hâsıl olan mahabbet geç hâsıl olup geç zâyil olandır. Geç hâsıl olduğu zirâ
iki yâ üç nesnenin bir yere gelib cem’ olması geç olur. ...”217
There are three sources of mahabbet. The first one is lezzet (pleasure), while the
second one is nef’ (benefit) and the third is hayr (benevolence). Sometimes one or
two of the sources combine while sometimes all of the three are present as sources
of mahabbet in a relation. Lezzet concludes quickly, however, also dissolves
quickly. Mahabbet, which is induced by lezzet, is also similarly featured.
However, if mahabbet is induced on the basis of nef’, it concludes late, but
dissolves quickly. Mahabbet induced by hayr on the other hand, conversely,
concludes quickly but is lost lately. Mahabbet, which is either induced by nef and
hayr, or all of the three, concludes lately and also dissolves lately, and therefore
it’s the one, which lasts the longest. In a society where duality exists, mahabbet of
the parties may be induced by different causes. While mahabbet of one of the
parties may be induced by nef’, the other party’s may be induced by lezzet. This
217 Ibid., 415.
95
kind of mahabbet induced by different sources, and its consequences is explained
as follows in Ahlak-i Alai;
“Bir tarafdan menfa’at, âherden lezzet sebebi olan mahabbete şekvâ vü itâb
çok olur...Ve bu makûle mahabbete “mahabbet-i levvame” derler, levmden
hâlî olmadığı için. Ve pâdişâh u ra’iyyet ve ganî vü fakîr ve hâdim ü
mahdûm aralarında mahabbet bu kısmdadır. Şekvâ ve tazallümden hâlî
değildir, zîrâ her biri âherden bir nev’ menfa’at ister. Murâdı üzere
olmıycak şekvâ vü tazallüm zâhir olur. Ve adâlet ri’âyet olmayınca bu şekvâ
vü tazallüm mürtefi’ olmaz. Mahdûm, hâdimden hidmette devâm ve hazrette
kıyâm ve ihmâl ü tekâsülden gâyet ictinâb ve fehm-i garaz ve tahsîl-i
merâmda nihayette ihtimâm ister. Hâdim ri’ayet-i me’âkil ü melâbis ü
merâkibinde nihâyet-i inâyet tama’ eder.” 218
If one of the party’s mahabbet is induced by lezzet while the other’s by nef’, the
relation would incur complaints and reprimand and that’s why this kind of
mahabbet is termed as “faultfinder love” (mahabbet-i levvame). The mahabbet
between the sultan and the subjects, the rich and the poor, the servant and the
served is this type, which demands justice. The relation may not be freed from
complaints and oppression since both parties would want to benefit from one
another. And oppression and complaints of the one who is being served would
demand continuous service. In other words, this-worldly mahabbet is between
those who expect some benefits from the other side, like the one between the
sultan and the subjects, requiring the establishment of justice. The sultans then are
obliged to satisfy the expectations of their subjects while the subjects are expected
to submit to their sultans.
Kınalızade further illuminates the details of the expected mahabbet of the subjects
to their sultan in his words below;
218 Ibid., 429.
96
“Re’âyânın selatîne mahabbeti saye-i inâyetlerinde müreffehü’l hâl ve
fevâzıl-ı in’amlarından müna’amü’l-bal oldukları içindir. Ve selâtîn –ki
ifrât-ı cevr ü zulmle mevsûf olmayalar- re’âyâdan anlara ifrât-ı mahabbet
ve nihâyet-i sadâkat mukarrerdir, husûsen ki bir nesl-i şerîf nice zemân
vilâyetde tâc-ı hikmetlerini gevher-i hükûmetle murassa’ etmiş ola. Eğer,
zîver-i adl ü insafla ittisâf ve mezheb-i zulm ü i’tisâftan inhirâf edip mezhebi
hakk ri’âyetinde re’âyâsıyla hem-kîş ve zu’afâ-yızîr-destlerini hıfz u
hirâset edip mu’în-i ganî ve muhibb-i dervîş ola, mahabbet dâyiresinden
geçip sıdk-ı rıkıyyet ü meveddet mertebesini koyup hakk-ı ubûdiyyet üzere
olurlar.”219
The source of the mahabbet of the subjects to their sultan is their prosperity by the
sultan’s benevolence and favors. The mahabbet and loyalty of the subjects to
those sultans who do not oppress and transgress is apparent. It is especially
apparent for those sultans who decorated their crown of wisdom with good
government. If the sultan conjoins with justice and fairness, refrains from
oppression, join together with his subjects, protects the weak, and be a friend of
dervishes the subjects would pass the realm of mahabbet reaching meveddet, and
his subjects would become submissive to their sultan like God’s slaves. This
section is especially crucial giving insights on the source of the affectionate
submission of the subjects to the Sultan.
Kınalızade in his following words explains the sultan’s mahabbet to his subjects.
“Ve hukemâ derler ki selâtînin re’âyâya mahabbeti ol cihettendir ki
mün’imlerdir; mün’imin mün’imun aleyh cânibine mahabbeti lâzımdır. Ve
pederin dahi ferzendine bu cihetden mahabbeti sâbittir ki hukuk-ı ni’meti bîhaddir.
Eğerçi cibilleti dahi mahabbeti mukarrerdir, zîrâ kendinin nüshası
ki tabî’at kendinin sûretinden nakl u intisâh etmiştir, fi’l-vâki’ bu fikr
sahîhtir. Zîrâ madde-i beden-i piser cüz’-i vücûd-ı pederdir ve halk u
hilkatta müşakil ve müşâbihdir. Ol sebebdendir ki ne kadar kemalât u
219 Ibid., 431.
97
sa’adâtla muttasıf olsa, mesrûr ve karîru’l-ayn olur. Hattâ evâyil-i ömründe
tahsîl edemediği, mütehassir kaldığı kemale piser kadir olsa, kendi kadir
olmuş gibi hazz edib tahassürüne tesellî hâsıl olur. Ve derler ki hîç kes âheri
kendiye cemî-i kemâlâtta râcih olduğın istemek yoktur, meğer peder
piserine. ................................................................... Ammâ ferzendin
pedere mahabbeti aksinden ekalldir, zîrâ ma’lûl ü müsebbebdir. Ma’lûl
müsebbebin illet ü sebeb irtibât u mahabbeti aksinden ekalldir.
........................ Ve ferzendin mahabbeti zemânen dahi müte’ahherdir,
mertebe-i ıttılâ’a u temyîze vâsıl, pederden intifâ’ı hâsıl olmayınca dâyire-i
mahabbete kadem basmaz. Ve bu sebebdendir ki şerî’at-ı mutahharada
ferzende ri’âyet-i hukuk-ı peder etmek için muhkem vasiyyet olunmuşdur.
Aksi ol kadar olmamıştır.”220
Wise men say that the sultans have mahabbet to their subjects because the
subjects are those who are blessed by them. It is similar to a father vastly blessing
his son. The father has mahabbet towards his son, which is innate since the son is,
reproduced by the help of God, as a duplicate of his father. The substance of the
son’s body is a part of his father’s. The father and the son are similarly created.
That’s why the father feels happier as his son matures possessing good conduct.
Even if the son reaches a stage of maturity earlier than his father who had sighed
for it, the father still feels gratified and happy. The father would see it as a
consolation of what he sighed for. Although nobody would want to see someone
who is superior to him, the fathers remain as the only exception. The father would
only be proud of his son’s superiority. However, the mahabbet of the son to his
father is less than that of the father’s, which is natural. The mahabbet of the son
concludes late and it also takes time for it to mature and become visible. If the son
does not have any benefit from his father, his mahabbet dissolves. That’s why
220 Ibid., 422-3.
98
there are strict rules regarding the son’s behaviour towards his father, which in
their essence protect the father. However, there are no such strict rules regulating
the father’s behavior towards his son.
The relation between the subjects and the Sultan is compared to the one
established between the son and the father. Just like the son, whose mahabbet to
his father would dissolve if it ceases to be beneficial to him, the mahabbet of the
subjects towards the sultan would also dissolve in case it cease to be beneficial.
That is the reason Kınalızade adds, why there are strict rules promulgated to
prevent such occurences.
The next passage is also important since he’s classifying the mahabbet induced by
benevolence (hayr) into 6, the fourth of which being the mahabbet of the subjects
to their Sultan.
“Ve merâtib-i mahabbet-i hayr (altıdır):
Evvel mahabbetullah-ı te’âlâ, nitekim geçti. Menba’-ı hayrât u sa’âdâtdır.
İkinci mahabbet-i üstâddır ki insâna ilm ü amel-i sâlih ve ta’lîm ü tehzîb-i
ahlâk eder...Üçüncü mahabbet-i peder ü mâderdir ve ecdâd u ceddâttır, zîrâ
silsile-i esbab-ı vücûdda her biri dâhil ve ni’met-i dîn –ki efdâl-i ni’amdırzemân-
ı sıgardan anların telkîn ü ta’lîmiyle hâsıldır. ........... Dördüncü
sultana re’âyânın mahabbetidir. Ba’zılar, re’âyânın sultâna mahabbeti
piserin pedere mahabbetinden râcih gerek demişler, zîrâ siyâset-i sultân ve
anın adliyle rûy-i rüzgâr hilye-i emn ü emân ile muttasıf olmayıcak ne piser
pederden müntefi’ ve ne pedere esbâb-ı terbiyet-i piser ve hıfz-ı ıyâl
müctemi’ olur. Ve peder, pisere siyâset ü te’dib ve ahlâkını tahsîn ü tehzîb
eyler, ammâ sultân hem pedere hem pisere te’dib ü siyâset eyler. Pes anın
nef’i e’amm ve mahabbeti ehemmdir.”221
221 Ibid., 433.
99
The first one is the mahabbet to God. The source of this mahabbet is benevolence
and happiness. The second one is the mahabbet to one’s own master because the
masters teach righteous behavior and good ethics. The third is the mahabbet to
one’s parents and ancestors because they are the reason of one’s existence and
they are also the source of one’s of values inherited from or taught by them. The
forth is the mahabbet of the reaya to his sultan. For some people, the mahabbet of
reaya to his sultan ranks even prior to the son’s mahabbet to his father. Because if
there were no justice or governance of the sultan, neither the son would benefit
from his father, nor the father would have the power to protect his family loosing
the chance to discipline his son. Furthermore, the father has the power not only to
punish his son but also to beautify his ethics. The sultan however, has the power
to do so to both the father and the son thereby remaining to be the most important
one.
The chapter on mahabbet in Kınalızade substantiates the idealized model of
protection with compassion and submission with affection in the Ottoman
political thought. The idealized relation between the Sultan and his subjects is
explained via the emotional code of mahabbet, the norms regarding how the
sultan and subjects should feel towards one another, how they should display it,
what the major sources of mahabbet in their relations are. However, this should in
no way be regarded as the sole basics of establishing good governance. It is both
supplementary and necessary to establish good governance. Good governance, in
other words, may not be established by conforming to rules and regulations only,
which represent the rational and the logical constraints, the commonly shared
understanding of the emotional code of mahabbet is also essential.
100
4.4.3. Telif-i Kulub as a Symbolic Code
Tarik-i mahabbet (path of affection), or mahabbet as an emotion code was
accompanied however, by another term. The accompanying symbolic code of
mahabbet in the relation established between the sultan and reaya was telif-i
kulub. In this section the term telif-i külub is analyzed in the Ottoman political
rhetoric.
The relationship between the Sultan and the subjects shaped by the above
mentioned symbolic and emotion codes where the Sultan protects with
compassion and the reaya in return voluntarily submits with affection resulting
with a more powerful Sultan and a pleased and prosperous reaya is
conceptualized in Ottoman documents as uniting the hearts (te’lif-i kulûb). There
are also other synonymous terms used within different contexts like “terfih-i
kulûb-ı reaya”222, “tatmin-i kulûb-ı reaya”223, “celb-i kulûb-ı reaya”224, and
“tatyîb-i kulûb-ı reaya”225. İttihad-ı derûn (pertaining to union of hearts) and
istimalet (gentle persuasion) are also similar terms that we encounter in primary
documents. Historians oftentimes use the term istimalet as a policy of gentle
persuasion of only non-Muslim subjects. However, the root of the Arabic word
istimalet is meyl, which means affection, love, propensity and istimalet was also
commonly used as a policy to gain the hearts of those who were already Ottoman
subjects. İstimalet means trying to persuade, gaining goodwill and coaxing which
222 prospering the hearts of reaya
223 satisfying/calming the hearts of reaya
224 attracting the hearts of reaya
225 calming/consoling/satisfying reaya
101
comes from the root meyl (inclining, affection, love, propensity). İlgürel claims
that in the Ottoman chronicles it is usually used as showing tolerance to, looking
after the rights of the subjects with special focus on non-Muslim subjects or as
raiyyetperverlik (cherishing one’s subjects, nourishing of people).226 It is also
revealed in the Kuran (et-Tevbe 9/60) as “müellefe-i kulüb”. 227 Inalcık has been
one of the first historians who firstly emphasized the importance of istimalet as a
policy, which eased the Ottoman conquests. He claims that Ottomans practiced
the zimmi law in its widest sense without differentiating the non-Muslims subjects
from the Muslims, protecting their lives and properties as the rule of God. He
further claims that this policy of tolerance, which is relayed as “telifü’l-kulüb” in
the Kuran is reflected in the Ottoman sources as the policy of istimalet.228
Kafadar, in his path breaking book Between Two Worlds, analyzing warrior epics
and hagiographic sources, also emphasizes the policy of “gaining the hearts and
minds” of the people of newly conquered lands in early Ottomans. Kafadar in his
conceptualization of gaza ideology of the early Ottomans, argues that
“…..the people of the marches did not see a contradiction between striving
to expand their faith and engaging in conciliatory gestures from members of
the other faith. One insight gained from the hagiographies of dervishes like
Sarı Saltuk is that an atmosphere of “tolerance” and symbiosis or
“improvisation” in Greenblatt’s vocabulary, does not preclude a desire to
gain converts.”229
226 Müctebe İlgürel, “istimalet,” DİA (İstanbul: Diyanet Vakfı, 2001), 362-3.
227 Ibid.
228 Halil Inalcık, “Türkler ve Balkanlar,” in Balkanlar (İstanbul: Eren Yayınları, 1993), 16-18.
229 Cemal Kafadar, Between Two Worlds The Construction of the Ottoman State (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1995), 72.
102
Kafadar further asks “Is it not more intelligent to be conciliatory, whenever
possible, in gaining hearts and minds of others”230 adding that gaza ideology,
among other things, was an attempt to gain hearts and minds.231
The example below constitutes just one example from the mühimme registers
where we may find the reflections of “istimalet” policy and “telif-i kulub”,
synonymously used as “itminan-ı kulûb”, in the ferman dating H.972:
“Alî Çelebi'nün âdemisi Mahmûd'a virildi. Fî 10 Ca., sene: 972
Diyârbekir beğlerbeğisine ve Rakka kâdîsına hüküm ki:
Sen ki kâdîsın, mektûb gönderüp; "tâyife-i el-Bûsem'ün(?) üzerinde olan
mâl-i mîrî tahsîl olunmayup ısyân üzre oldukları defe‘âtle arzolundukda,
hükm-i şerîfüm vârid olup;"Tâyife-i mezbûreye nâyib ile âdemler gönderüp
şerî‘ate da‘vet idüp itâ‘at-i şer‘ itmeyüp ısyân üzre olurlar ise sicill idüp
üzerlerine varup mâl-i mîrîyi virmeyüp ceng iderler ise haklarından
gelesin." diyü fermân olunmağın tâyife-i mezbûreye nâyib ve mu‘temedünaleyh
âdemler ile Emînleri olan Kâsım ve Pîrî irsâl olunup şer[î]‘ate da‘vet
olundukda itâ‘at itmeyüp ısyân üzre oldukları mukarrer olmağın Fırat
suyından ubûr idüp üzerlerine teveccüh itmezden mukaddem tâyife-i
mezbûreden Relvetiye(?) nâm harâbe kal‘anun harâb olmış yirlerin yapup
içinde hısâr olunup ceng kasdın itdükleri mukarrer olmağın kal‘a-i
mezbûrede kendülerine karîb olan mahallere vâsıl oldukda, firâr idüp ehl ü
ıyâlleriyle Fırat suyına düşüp öte cânibe ubûr idüp ba‘zı mâlları ve
esbâbları gâret olunup ba‘dehû tâyife-i mezbûrenün oklu ve yaylusı ceng
itmeğiçün girü Fırat suyından ubûr idüp su kenârında hayli ceng olup
tarafeynden niçe âdem katlolunduğın" bildürdüğün ecilden buyurdum ki:
Hükm-i şerîfüm vusûl buldukda, bu husûsa bi'z-zât mukayyed olup
zikrolunan tâyifeyi yarar âdemler gönderüp şerî‘ate da‘vet idüp üzerlerinde
ne mikdâr mâl var ise taleb idüp bî-kusûr tahsîl itdüresiz. Şöyle ki; itâ‘at-i
şer‘ itmeyüp fesâd ü şenâ‘at üzre ısyân u tuğyânlarında ısrâr üzre olup
ıslâhları mümkin olmayup memleket ü re‘âyâya zarar u ziyânları ola, te’hîr
itmeyüp tedârükleri her ne yüzden mümkin ise görüp baş baş müfsidlerinün
haklarından gelesin ki, sâyirlerine mûcib-i ıbret olup ve mâl-i mîrî dahı
zâyi‘ u telef olmayup tahsîl oluna. Ammâ; gönderdüğünüz âdeme tenbîh ü
te’kîd eyleyesiz ki, tâyife-i mezbûreyi evvelâ şerî‘ate da‘vet idüp itmînân-ı
kalb virmek içün gereği gibi istimâlet itdürüp ahsen vechile ıslâhına
230 Ibid., 72.
231 Ibid., 82.
103
sa‘yeyleyesiz. Müyesser değil ise fermân-ı şerîfüm üzre tedârüklerin
göresiz.”232
The Sultan, while finalizing his order, demands that a group of his subjects in
Rakka who were not willing to pay their tax obligations should first be brought to
the judicial court for their trials to be investigated, and the administers should try
to persuade them, and affectionately try to gain their hearts (tâyife-i mezbûreyi
evvelâ şerî‘ate da‘vet idüp itmînân-ı kalb virmek içün gereği gibi istimâlet itdürüp
ahsen vechile ıslâhına sa‘yeyleyesiz. Müyesser değil ise fermân-ı şerîfüm üzre
tedârüklerin göresiz).
The anecdote below from Raşid Tarihi further illuminates the meaning of te’lif-i
kulûb in Ottoman political ideology symbolically in an interesting way.
“...Hünkâr hazretleri şimdi makarr-saltanatlarında eğlenürler mi yohsa
sayd ü şikâr ederler mi?” “Hayır şâhım, etmezler” “Şikâr-ı kûh dahi
etmezler mi?” dedüklerinde, “şikâr-ı şükûh ederler” dedim. Güldüler, “ya
anların vâlid-i mâcidleri ve birâder-i emcedleri sayd ü şikâra mâiller idi.
Bunlar n’içün etmezler? Husūsā sayd ü şikâr mülûk-i izâmın şânındandır
gerek idi, edeler.” Bu kulları cevâb verdüm ki, “şâhım bizim şevketlü
Pâdişâhımız şehzâdeliğinde tahsīl-i ma’ârife gāyet sa’y edüp, husūsā
tevârîhe ve mülûk-i eslâfın âsârına hayli tetebbu’ları var idi. Bir gün tevârîh
mütâla’a ederken, bir mahalle gelmişler ki, Nûşirevân-ı Âdil Büzücmihr
Hakîm‟e suâl eylemiş ki, “sayd ü şikâr makulesinden kangı sayd ü şikâr
lezîz ve fâidelüdür?” Büzücmihr demiş ki, “re’âyâ vü ahâlînin kulûbunu
sayd etmek cümle saydlardan lezîzdir. Ve âhiretde intifâ’ı ziyâdedir” demiş.
Ve bu keyfiyyete vâkıf oldukdan sonra, “eger Hakk te’âlâ taht-ı âlî-baht-ı
Osmanî’ye cülûs etmeyi bana müyesser ederse, kat’â sayd ü şikâr hevâsında
olmayup re’âyâ vü ahâlînin ta’mîr-i kulûb ve terfîh-i ahvâlleri ile olayım‟
deyü derûnunda cenâb-ı Bârî ile ahd etmiş. Şimdi ol ahde vefâ ile dâimâ
niyyet-i sādıkaları celb-i kulûb-ı re’âyâ vü ahâlîdir.”233
232 6 Numaralı Mühimme Defteri (972/1564-1565) (Ankara: Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü,
1995), 302.
233 Abdülkadir Özcan, et al., Tarih-i Raşid ve Zeyli Raşid Mehmed Efendi ve Çelebizade İsmail
Asım Efendi (1071-1141 / 1660-1729 v. II (İstanbul: Klasik, 2013),1260.
104
In this story, the Ottoman envoy talks with the Persian Shah, where Shah asks the
envoy questions regarding how the Ottoman Sultan spends his spare time,
whether he’s having fun or hunting. No, says the envoy, my Sultan doesn’t hunt.
Shah asks whether he’s not even hunting for mountains. The envoy replies that his
Sultan hunts for magnificence only. The envoy then asks why not, since the
Sultan’s ancestors were fond of hunting as a sign of their glory. The envoy in his
reply says that, when his Sultan was a prince, he had great respect for knowledge
and especially interested in studying history and traces of his ancestors. One day
he met a wise man and asked what kind of hunting would both give pleasure and
be beneficial. The wise man replied that hunting the hearts of the reaya is the one,
which gives the most pleasure and is also the most beneficial in the other world.
Then the Sultan said that, if God allows him to be the Ottoman Sultan, he would
have no desire to hunt animals, rather he would always try to gain the hearts of the
reaya and make them prosperous. That’s why he says his sultan’s will is to attract
the hearts of his subjects.
It is apparent that, in an ideal political order, the Sultan was expected not only to
make its subjects prosperous in material sense, but was also expected to gain their
hearts in an emotional sense. In other words, there were two constraints of an
ideal order in which both the material and the emotional needs of the subjects
were expected to be satisfied.
Ottoman chronicles are replete with texts showing how te’lif-i kulûb as a principle
tool for good governance. For example, the Ottoman political principles to be
implemented for governing Egypt is explained in Tacü’t Tevarih after its conquest
by Yavuz Sultan Selim, the full text of which is given below:
105
“Çün diyar-ı Mısriyyenin zabtı teshîri gibi asîr ve çerakise ve a’rab
serkeşleri meyanında hükümet gayri yesîr idi.
Daver-i dûrbîn bu fikri seza gördü ki mevkeb-i zafer-karîn rücûundan öndin
erkân-ı bâ-temkînden birin imtihan içün Mısır hükümetine tayin ide. Eger,
zabt ve muhafazatı müyesser olursa izi ü ikbâl ile Darü’s-saltanasına gide.
Ve li-hezâ vezir-i azam ve sair erkandan mukaddem olan Yunus Paşa’yı
bendegân-ı pîşîn ve devlet-hâhân-ı dirîn adadından olub, hususen bu sefer-i
zafer-rehberde asar-ı celadet ve secaati zuhur bulup hidemat-ı şayestesi
sezavâr-ı tahsîn olmağın Mısır hükümetine ta’yin ve kamet-i ikbalin teşrif-i
hüsrevane ile tezyin idüb, hall ü akd-i umuru zabt u rabt-ı mesalih-i
cumhuru keff-i kifayetine tefviz ve aynin-i şeref-karîn-i Osmanî muktezası
üzerine icra-yı merasim-i adl ü dâde tahrîz buyurdu.
Amma ol şah-ı dil-agâhın adet-i saadet-gayeti bu mimval üzere idi ki vulât
ve hükkâm aktar-ı ahvalinden hemvare istihbar eyler idi. Ve câir olanları
girdab-ı gazabında hayır ve muğak-ı hasretde dair idüb tığ-i kahrından
necat bulanı hâr ve rûz-ı ruşenî çeşm-i ibret bînine târ eyler idi. Güş-ı huşu
istima’-ı ahval-i hükkam içün küşade ve şimşir-i berk tesiri zulmet-i vücud-ı
zaleme def’i içün amade idi. Tığ-i berrânı irtişa yedin makdu ve bedşedidü’l
ahzı setm dırahtını beyhinden maklû itmiş idi.
Yunus Paşa ile dahi seiyye-i ma’rufe ve adet-i me’lufeleri üzere muamele
idüb, eğeçi mücamele suretin izhar buyurdular. Amma eyyam-ı hazar ve
seferlerinde mücari-i ahval ve imalinden istihbar buyurdular. Sifariş
buyurdukları üslûb bi’l-külliye hatırından meslûb olup, cem’i mâle ve tahsili
amale hırs ve tehalükü ve bab-ı tamada adem-i temâlükü ma’lum-ı şerîfleri
ve ümera-yı çerakise avradından cebr-i aniv ve tehdit ve tahvif ile mebaliğ-i
kesire alduğu ve meşayiğ-i Arab’a tekalif-i şakka ile emval-i azime salduğu
ma’ru’z-ı zamir-i ilham-ı halifleri olıcak, ol makule hükümet-i gayrı
makbule ile Mısır zabtı müyesser olmadığına cazim ve hükümet-i Mısrı
Hayırbay’a tevfize azim oldular.
Çün Hayırbay ruşen-i rey’in sadad-ı hali ve hüsn-i efal ve amali ve bab-ı
muhalledü’l ikbal-i sultaniye kemal-i sadakati ve hükümet-i Mısır’a liyakatı
daver-i ferhunde ferzamirine zahir ve damen-i ismeti levs-i tamadan tahir
idi. Ve ol diyarı ahvaline vukuf-ı taamı ve te’lif-i kulüb-ı çerakise ve a’raba
iktidar-ı ‘ammı olmağla ol mansab-ı celilü’l-kadre mezid istihkakı bahir ve
etvar-ı hamide ile hidemet-i pesendide edasında mahir idi.”234
It is first emphasized that getting hold of Egypt’s governance is harder than its
conquest (zabtı teshirinden asîrdir). The Sultan, while authorizing Yunus Paşa to
234 Hoca Saadettin Efendi, Tacü’t-Tevarih, (İstanbul:1341), v.2, 374-375.
106
govern Egypt also demanded that he would conform to Ottoman law and value
justice. Regulation of the affairs of the subjects and their supervision were
assigned to the talented hands of Yunus Paşa and he was incited to conform to the
Ottoman law (...hall ü akd-i umuru zabt u rabt-ı mesalih-i cumhuru keff-i
kifayetine tefviz ve ayin-i şeref-karîn-i Osmanî muktezası üzerine icra-yı merasimi
adl ü dâde tahrîz). Obligations of Yunus Paşa in governing Egypt strictly
resembles Kınalızade’s proposition mentioned previously to resolve conflicts (Ve
bu mazarratın def’i iki tarîkle mutasavverdir: Birisi icrâ-yı kavânîn-i adâlet ve
ihkâm-ı saltanat u iyâlettir ki işâret olundu.) However, Yunus Paşa was not
successful in achieving the expected mission and was dismissed from his office,
and Hayırbay was assigned. The main reason for Hayırbay’s assignment to this
position is indicated as his ability and power to unite the hearts of Çerkes and
Bedouins who were the Egypt’s native inhabitants before the conquest (ol diyar
ahvaline vukuf-ı taamı ve te’lif-i kulûb-ı çerakise ve a’raba iktidar-ı ‘ammı
olmağla). It is apparent that the first requirement for the establishment of affective
ties between the ruler and the ruled was based on the symbolic code of telif-i
kulûb. Furthermore, it is stated that the Sultan left the Egypt after giving the
necessary suggestions to Hayırbay, and that Hayırbay as a wise commander,
would meet the expectations of the Sultan who knows what it means to have ties
with affection (dana-dil). The text indicates that Hayırbay’s governance was
based on the principles of uniting hearts (...ol emir-i âkil, hükümetinde bir vech ile
mu’âmil oldu ki, şah-ı dânâ-dil zannını tasdîk ve fikr-i dakiki ve tedbîr-i anîfini
tahkîk eyledi).
107
The next passage from Raşid Tarihi further evidences how Silahdar İbrahim Paşa,
just like Yunus Paşa who could not fulfill his obligation to win the hearts of the
subjects of Egypt, could not achieve his mission by coveting a bribe.
“Azl-i Silahdâr İbrahim Paşa ez-sipehsâlârî ve nasb-ı Ârifî Ahmed Paşa
.....................Tiflis eyâleti memâlik-i mahrûsetü’l-mesâlik-i hâkānîye
munzamm oldukda memleket-i merkūmenin tanzîm-i kâffe-i umûru Seraskeri
olan Erzurum Vâlîsi Vezîr Silahdâr İbrahim Paşa’ya tefvîz olunup,
tesyîr-i cenâb-ı İlâh ve te’sîr-i kuvvet-i baht-ı Pâdişâh-ı âlem- penâh ile
pençe-i zabt u teshîre girüp ol makûle memleket-i azîmede icrâ-yı merâsim-i
adl ü dâda bezl-i kudret ve cevr ü tama’dan tehâşî birle tensîk-ı umûr-ı
memleket ve celb-i kulûb-ı ahâlî vü ra’iyyete sa’y ü dikkat eylemek
sipehsâlâr olanlara lâzım ü lâzib, belki makûle-i farz u vâcib iken, vezîr-i
müşârun-ileyh Erzurum serdengeçdi ağalarından Uzun Mustafa Ağa nâm
kimesne vesâtatıyla Vahtan tarafından rüşvet tarîkıyle arz olunan mâl-ı
firâvâna tama’ u rağbet ve Tiflis hükûmetini mezbûr Vahtan’ın henüz
iddi’â-yı şeref-i İslâm itmekle İbrahim tesmiye eylediği Şehnevâz nâm
oğluna cânib-i mîrîye senevî kırk bin guruş maktû’ vermek şartıyla bervech-
i ocaklık tevcîhe müsâra’at eyleyüp......”235
Dismissal of Sipahsalar Silahdar İbrahim Paşa and appointment of Arifi Ahmed
Paşa: İbrahim Paşa was appointed for establishment of an order and execution of
the affairs of Tiflis when it was adjoined to the Ottoman State. It was not only the
required duty of but also obligatory for the office of sipehsalar to spend effort for
the establishment of justice, to carefully avoid oppression and illegal tax
collection, to put the affairs into proper order, to govern well but also to win the
hearts of the reaya. However, İbrahim Paşa acted contrary to his obligations and
coveted (tama’) to the bribe of an Armenian named Vahtan by means of Mustafa
Ağa-Erzurum serdengeçti ağası- and conferred (tefviz) the land to the son of
235 Abdülkadir Özcan, et al., Tarih-i Raşid ve Zeyli Raşid Mehmed Efendi ve Çelebizade İsmail
Asım Efendi (1071-1141 / 1660-1729 v. III (İstanbul: Klasik, 2013), 1334.
108
Vahtan, originally named Şehnevaz who was newly converted o Islam by taking
the name of İbrahim, on “ocaklık” terms, for a yearly fixed payment of 40.000
guruş.
The sultan’s obligation to satisfy the expectations of his subjects is also reflected
in Raşid Tarihi where the non-Muslim subjects in newly conquered island of
Morea were exempted from their cizye tax obligations.
Nizâm-ı ahvâl-i cezîre-i Mora ve tahrîr-i cedîd Mora cezîresi feth ü teshîr
olundukda egerçi ber-vech-i müsâra’at tahrîr olunup, lâkin henüz feth
olunmak takrîbiyle tahrîrinde gereği gibi dikkat olunmak mümkin
olmadığından mâ’adâ te’lîf-i kulûb-ı re’âyâ içün tekâlîf-i sâire değil iki
senelik cizyeleri bile afv olunmuş idi. Hâlâ müddet-i afv münkazî olmak
takrîbiyle ahvâl-i cizyeye nizâm verilmek yüzünden cezîre-i Mora voyvodası
nasb ü ta’yîn ve maslahat- ı melhûzayı tahrîrde teneffür-i re’âyâya bâ’is
olur hareketden gāyet ihtiyât üzre hareket eylemek husūsu lisânen kendüye
tezkîr ü telkīn olundu.236
Giving order to the island of Morea and the new land survey (tahrir): Land
survey of the island of Morea has been completed immediately upon its conquest.
However, since it was newly conquered, the land survey could not be made
attentively. The reaya of the island were exempted from not only other taxes but
also cizye taxes for two years to prevent any possible adverse consequences of a
hastily made land survey and to win the hearts of the reaya. A new voyvoda was
appointed to the island to regulate the cizye tax obligations since the exemption
236 Abdülkadir Özcan, et al., Tarih-i Raşid ve Zeyli Raşid Mehmed Efendi ve Çelebizade İsmail
Asım Efendi (1071-1141 / 1660-1729 v. II (İstanbul: Klasik, 2013), 1142.
109
period was expired. And he was told and suggested that he should be precautious
and refrain from any act, which would arouse hatred.
Figure 5. Symbolic and Emotion Codes in Ottoman Political Rhetoric
The diagram 3.3 above represents the idealized Ottoman political thought via the
overarching symbolic and emotion codes; telif-i kulüb and mahabbet.
In the following parts of this section, how the ideal model was actually
implemented and represented in the political rhetoric is analyzed by giving
examples from the imperial decrees.
The texts from advice literature and Ottoman chronicles that had previously been
mentioned reflect the “ideal” political order. The practices to be implemented,
which were compatible with this ideal order, were also regarded as “a rule of
thumb” in the administrative policies. These symbolic and emotion codes, which
THE SULTAN
REAYA
The Subjects of the Sultan
TELİF-İ KULÜB MAHABBET
Askeris
Symbolic Code
Emo on Code
İtaat
(Submission)
İh sas
( affec on)
Siyanet
(Protec on)
with
Merhamet
(Compassion)
with
Symbolic Code Emo on Code
and
Symbolic Code Emo on Code
110
pertain a distinct way to behave and to feel, are procured from Ottoman primary
sources. Telif-i kulûb as an encompassing concept accompanied with mahabbet
determining the relationship between the Sultan and the subjects was the rule-ofthumb
in Ottoman political thought which is clearly evidenced in the quoted text
below;
“....ke'l-evvel hâkim-i mûmâ-ileyh ile tarz-i ülfet ve muhabbet ve celb-i
kulûb ve hâtırına mübâderet ve istîmâlet vererek, idhâl-i dâ’ire-i itâ‘at-i
mülâyemet ve müsteclibün- aleyh ve mukadderi olan ittihâd-ı derûn
kâ‘idesini ne vechile olur ise olsun hâllen ve kâ’ilen vücûda getürmeğe bezli
makderet ve'l- hâsıl i‘mâl-i tedâbir-i hasene ile mâdde-i mübâlâtın su‘ûbet
ve germîyete tahvîline nisâr-ı nakdîne-i gayret ve azîmet eyleyüp, iktizâ-yı
nefsâniyet ve dâ‘iye-i şiddet ve hiddet hasebiyle ıyâzen billâhi te‘âlâ nâmülâyim
nesne hudûsundan ve hılâf-ı emr-i şerîf vaz‘ ve hareketden
gâyetü'l-gâye hazer ve mücânebet eylemen bâbında fermân-ı âlî-şânım sâdır
olmuşdur, ......... 237
Union of hearts (ittihad-ı derun) is referenced as a rule of thumb for government,
stating that “...having subjects who are concordant members of the society with
common stakes and voluntarily obeying the rules depends on uniting the hearts of
the subjects which constitutes the basis of good government (ittihâd-ı derûn
kâ‘idesini ne vechile olur ise olsun hâllen ve kâ’ilen vücûda getürmeğe bezl-i
makderet ve'l- hâsıl i‘mâl-i tedâbir-i hasene ile mâdde-i mübâlâtın su‘ûbet ve
germîyete tahvîline nisâr-ı nakdîne-i gayret ve azîmet eyleyüp. In the succeeding
section examples from fermans are given, evidencing how “te’lif-i kulûb” as a
rule-of-thumb was implemented as a tool of governance.
It is reflected in many sources that te’lif-i kulûb was the main principle for good
governance not only for newly conquered territories but also for all territories
237 Mühimme register no: 149/269, the full text of which is in appendix I.
111
under the sovereignty of the Ottoman State, termed as memalik-i mahruse. A
contextual and linguistic analysis of an imperial decree (ferman), will further
clarify my argument, the full text of which appears in Appendix II.238
This ferman dating May 5th, 1637 starts with a phrase pointing out that it was the
Sultan’s will that the necessities of justice be achieved, state affairs be executed in
compliance to established order and the hearts of the subjects and the government
officials (askeri) be prospered (merasim-i adl ü dad ve levazım-ı nizam-ı umur-ı
bilad ve terfih-i kulub-ı reaya ve ecnad iktiza-ı murad-ı fuad olub......). What is
prominent in this text is that the Sultan addresses not only the subjects but also the
ruling elite with the symbolic code of “te’lif-i kulûb”. Secondly, the Sultan’s order
emphasizes and appeals to emotions stating that it is the will of his heart to unite
the hearts of the subjects and the askeri members.
His order also gives clues on an ideal Ottoman Paşa reflecting the Ottoman
political understanding. In the same ferman, the Sultan also gives his advice to the
newly appointed officer Bayram Paşa who is leaving the capital for an expedition
to the East, regarding how to govern the subjects to make them prosperous
(müreffeh) and live in good conditions (muntazamü’l-ahval) which is indicated in
the paragraph below as:
“........bundan akdem vezir-i azam-ı sabık Mehmed Paşa zamanında reayaya
zulm ve teaddiye müteallik nice tekalif teklif olunmağla, enva-i cevr ve
teaddi ve zulm ve te’ezzi olunduğu semm-i hümayunuma ilka olunmağın
tevaif-i reaya ki vedayi-i halik- kibriyadır haklarında mezid refet ve şefkat
ve vufur-ı mekremet ve merhametim zuhura getürdüb, minbad ol makule
238 Halil İnalcık, “Adaletnameler,” In Osmanlı’da Devlet, Hukuk, Adalet (İstanbul: Eren, 2005),
142-144.
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zulm ve bid’at tekalif olunmayub, her biri eyyam-ı devlet-i hümayun ve
hengam-ı hilafet-i saadet-makrunumda müreffeh ve muntazamü’l-ahval
olmaları içün tenbih-i hümayunum ve ferman-ı saadet-makrunum
olduğundan gayri......”
His advice starts with the epithet of Bayram Paşa denoting the Sultan’s
confidence in him to duly perform his expected duties. The epithet of Bayram
Paşa is stated as “one who most illustriously guides the path to the world- order”
(müşir-i efhamu nizami’l-alem), “one who prudently manages the important
affairs of the public with his brightly shining ideas” (müdebbiru umuri’l-cumhur
bi’l-fikri’s-sakıb) and as “one who perfects the affairs of mankind with his sound
judgments” (mütemmimu mehami’l-enam bi’r-reyi’s-saib). All of these
qualifications denote a wise government with reason dominating the political
thought. However, these features are not sufficient enough for good government
because achievement of such goal also requires an innate feeling of compassion
(Bayram Paşa’nın cibilliyet-i zat-ı merhamet-nihad ve esniyye-i murad-ı fuadi’l
halisi’l-itikadında asar-ı merhamet ve ref’et mevzu’ ve izhar-ı adl ve atıfet). In
other words, a good government demands not only reason but also feelings
reflected from the hearts, which were supplementary to each other.
4.4.4. Fading Out of Protection and Demanding Compassion
It is hard to ensure that these commonly shared symbolic and emotion codes
prevailed all throughout history. Oftentimes, the ideal model reflecting the
expected thinking and feeling codes of a sultan, an askeri class member or the
subjects would deteriorate. In cases when the symbolic and emotion codes would
113
deviate from its idealized forms, both the Sultan and the reaya would usually
demand for reversal from the deviation. While doing so, both the sultan and the
subjects would refer to the same commonly shared symbolic and emotion codes in
their rhetoric, which would enable them to justify their claims. There were wellunderstood
conventions about when and in which cases it was appropriate to
display such discontentment. The displays of discontentment and linguistic
representations of such displays reflected in their demands functioned as social
signals, suggesting that there’s something wrong going on in the established
power relations, on the rights and responsibilities of one of the political parties.
Strategic use of emotions in their rhetoric helped both sides to attain their short or
long-termed political goals.
Upon such a change in power relations within a political entity, the first attempt
would be to resolve the conflict and reverse the relation back to the state of “te’lifi
kulûb” which demands protection of the reaya by the Sultan with compassion
and submission of the reaya in return with affection. If the policies implemented
to reverse would not be effective, then the principle of “te’lif-i kulûb” would
change. In the next section examples from cases is given in which some of the
symbolic and therefore emotion codes are deteriorated, however, reversed back to
“te’lif-i kulûb”.
We frequently encounter cases in which the Sultan, in return for demands from
his subjects, orders that “in mercy to their prevalent conditions”(hallerine
merhameten) he would either forgive the subjects or change the conditions of a
previously determined punishment or make the traditionally implemented practice
more flexible. In some of these contexts, compassion (merhamet) denotes either
114
mercy or pity while in others it denotes a social signal, informing that reaya is
suffering, signaling that there’s something wrong going on with the symbolic
code of protection or in the practice of an enacted law. Below, term’s use in
different contexts is elaborated.
A copy of ferman recorded in the judicial court register dating 1828 is quoted
below:
“kıdvetü’n-nüvvabü’l-müteşerri‘în Kütahya nâibi mevlânâ zîde ilmuhû
tevki-i refi-i hümâyun vasıl olıcak malûm ola ki dersaadetimde Kumkapıda
mütemekkin ermeni gariplerinden Küpeli ebe iskât-ı cenin misüllû hilaf-ı
rıza harekete ictisal eylediğine mebni bundan akdem sadır olan emr-i
şerifim mucibince li-eclü’t-te’dib Kütahyaya nefy ve icla olunmuş ise de
mersûmenin nefy tazi hayli müddet olarak fukara ve ihtiyarlık sebebiyle
müzdarib ve perişan ve vucuh-ı merhamet ve şefâate şayeste ve şitayan
olduğundan bahisle afv ve ıtlak olunması hususu mersumenin zevciyle kızı
taraflarından bu defa südde-i saadetime arzuhal takdimiyle istirham
olunmaktan nâşi hususu mezbûr seredi bayı hassamdan olan Rum ili
kazaskeri esbak a‘lâmü’l-ulemâi’l-mütebahhirin mevlânâ Mustafa Behçet
edamallahü teala fezâilehûya havâle olundukta mersume adeti reddiyeye
sabıkasından vucuh ile kabil terbiye olduğu tahkik gelindiği beyanıyla ıskatı
cenini hımarından fima ba‘d kefyed ve feragat ile sanatında arzıyla meşgul
olmak ve ba‘de’l-yevm iş bu kar-ı şer‘ eylediği mesmu olunduğunda
te’dibinde diğer vecihle muamele olunmak şartıyla merhameten afv ve ıtlakı
babında emri şerifim suduruna hâvi ilâm etmekle ilâmı mucibince
mersumun afv ve ıtlak olunması fermanım olmağın imdi şurut-ı mezkure
üzre mersûmun cürmü afv ve ıtlak olunduğu sen ki nâib-i mumaileyhsin
malûmun oldukda şurutu ıtlakını guş u huşuna gereği gibi telkin ederek
kabzı nakizine tahliye-i sebiline mübaderet eylemen babında ferman-ı
âlişanım sadır olmuşdur buyurdum ki fermanım vusul buldukta bu babda
vech-i meşruh üzere şeref-yafte-i ferman-ı vâcibü’l-ittibâ ve lâzımü’limtisalimin
mazmun-ı itâ‘at-makrunuyla âmil olasız şöyle bilesiz alâmet-i
şerife i‘timad kılasız.”239
239 Mustafa Yavuz, Kütahya Şer’iye Sicilleri 15 Numaralı Defterinin Transkripsiyonu ve
Değerlendirilmesi (Unpublished master’s thesis, Kütahya: Dumlupınar Üniversitesi, 2009), 111.
115
It is understood that an Armenian women in Kumpakı Istanbul who was a
midwife (ebe) had previously performed some illegal acts like termination of
pregnancy (ıskat-ı cenin), which were disapproved by the society (hilaf-ı rıza) and
therefore she was expelled (nefy ve icla) to Kütahya to be disciplined. She lived in
Kütahya for a long time suffering from her impoverishment and her elderliness
(hayli müddet olarak fukara ve ihtiyarlık sebebiyle muzdarib ve perişan). The
daughter of this Armenian wife appealed to the Imperial Council and demanded
from the Sultan that her mother be forgiven (afv) and released (ıtlak) grounding
her demand to the fact that her mother deserves to receive compassion
(merhamet) and intercession (şefaat). Rumeli Kadıaskeri Mustafa Behçet Efendi
was appointed for the investigation and he ascertained that the Armenian midwife
had renounced her previous conviction (adet-i reddiye-i sabıkasından rucû’) and
that she was determined to perform her profession in an honorable way
(san’atında ırzıyla meşgul olmak) from then on. Based on his investigation,
Rumeli Kadıaskeri indicated that the midwife had been disciplined and that it
would be appropriate to forgive her due to her present conditions deserving the
Sultan’s mercy (haline merhameten) and let her punishment continue in another
way. Finally, the Sultan ordered the judge of Kütahya to forgive and release the
midwife upon inculcation (telkin).
Another ferman dating H.1243/M.1828 is quoted below:
“......kıdvetü’n-nüvvabü’l-müteşerri‘in Kütahya nâibi mevlânâ zide ilmuhû
tevki-i refi-i hümayun vasıl olucak malûm ola ki bundan akdem Aydın
kazasında mezunen bi’l-ifta olan hilaf-ı rıza hareketi ibtidarına mebni
Kütahyaya nefy ve icla olunan Ahmed Rafiin mütteti nikaından beri
memleketinde olan iyi hali ve evladı bi-kes ve perişan kalarak vucuhla
merhameten şayan olduklarından bahisle merkumun afv ve ıtlakı hususuna
müsaade-i aliyyem erzan kılınması iyi hal ve evladı taraflarından arzuhal
116
takdirleriyle istida istirham olunmaktan naşi merkumun merhameten afv
ıtlakı babında emr-i şerifim suduruna bi’l-fiil şeyhü’l-İslam ve müftiyü’lenâm
olan kadızade alamü’l- ulemai’l-mütebahhirin efdalü’l-füdala-i
müteverriin mevlânâ Mehmed Tahir edamallahu Teala fezailehu işaret
etmeleriyle işaretleri mucibince amel olunmak fermanım olmağın imdi sen
ki naibi mumaileyhsin mezburun harbi afv ve müdde-i ma‘lumun oldukta fi
ma ba ‘d arz ve edebiye mukayyit olup mugayir-i rıza harekette
bulunmaması hususuna guş u huşuna tefhim birle kaydı ta’yitten tahliye-i
sebiline mübaderet eylemen babında ferman-ı alişanı sadır olmuştur
buyurdum ki hükmü şerifimle vusul buldukta bu babda vech-i meşruh üzere
şeref-yafte-i sudur olan ferman-ı vacibü’l-ittiba ve lazımü’l- imtisalimin
mazmun-ı itaat-makrunuyla amel ve hareket ve hilafında hazer ve
mücanebet eyleyesüz şöyle bilesüz alamet-i şerife itimad kılasuz tahriren fi
evahir-i şehr-i rebiü’l-ahir li sene selase ve erba ‘în ve mieteyn ve elf vasale
ileyna kayd şod. fi 6 Ca sene 243 Konstantiniyye el-mahruse.”240
The müftü of Aydın executed some action, which were disapproved by the society
(hilaf-ı rıza) and thus expelled (nefy ve icla) to Kütahya to be disciplined. But
now, he’s entitled to demand merhamet from the Sultan. The reason behind such
demand was the fact that he was well behaved from the first day of his expulsion,
and additionally his children were desolate (bîkes) and scattered (perişan). His
children, wife and the family members (evlad u ‘iyali) officially requested (istida)
that he would be forgiven and they asked for the Sultan’s mercy (istirham).
Şeyhülislam Kadızade Mevlana Mehmed Tahir Efendi gave his own opinion on
the subject complying with the requesting party. The Sultan then issued his order
and sent it to the naib of Kütahya, ordering that the müftü would be forgiven and
let free on the condition that he would be warned not to perform against the
240 Mustafa Yavuz, Kütahya Şer’iye Sicilleri 15 Numaralı Defterinin Transkripsiyonu ve
Değerlendirilmesi (Unpublished master’s thesis, Kütahya: Dumlupınar Üniversitesi, 2009), 101.
117
consent of society (mugayir-i rıza) and behave mannerly bounding to honor and
chastity (ırz ve edebine mukayyed olub).
In these two above-mentioned documents, both the Armenian midwife and the
müftü of Aydın were expelled to Kütahya for their behaviors which were against
the consent of the society. While the two were serving their sentence, their
families appealed to Divan-ı Hümayun and demanded that they be forgiven.
While the Armenian midwife was suffering because of impoverishment and
elderliness, the family of the müftü was suffering in a helpless condition. The
Sultan’s pardon of two cases shows that punishment was implemented as a means
for amelioration (ıslah-ı nefs). Because, in both cases they were forgiven only
when it was assured to the Sultan that the committed crime would not be repeated
any more. It was believed that such a pardon would relieve not only the
wrongdoers but also their families. Merhamet in such cases dominantly denote a
feeling of pity of the Sultan. There are also cases in which merhamet explicitly
refers to pity, as is the case in the sultanic order dating H.1193/M.1778;
“.......Bundan akdem İsmâil ser-askeri maiyyetine me’mûr dergâh-ı
mu‘allâ'm cebecileri çorbacılarından ikinci cema‘atin çorbacısı Seyyid
Mehmed Sâdık zîde kadruhû hidmet-i lâzımesinde kıyâm ve bezl-i makdûr
üzre iken bi-gazâ‘illâhi te‘âlâ atdan düşüb bir bacağı şikest olub bir
istinâd-ı sınıkcı olmadığından üç mâhdan berü zahmi müşted ve (...) ve
mahall-i mezkûrda kalır ise telef-i nefs olacağını zâbitân-ı ocak tarafından
inhâ olunmakdan nâşî mûmâileyhin hâl-i perişânına merhameten Astâne-i
aliyye'me gelüb hânesinde bir hâzik sınıkcı ve cerrâh ile devâ ve illetinden
halâs oldukda yine hidmet-i me’mûre azîmet etmek üzre Der aliyye'me
gelmesine müsâ‘ade-i aliyyem erzân kılınmış Dergâh-ı mu‘allâ'm
kapucubaşılarından olub hâlâ cebecibaşı olan Şa‘bân Ağa dâme mecduhû
i‘lâm etmeğin vech-i meşrûh üzre amel olunmak fermânım olmağın imdi sen
ki vezîr-i müşârün-ileyhsin mûmâ ileyhin hâl-i ızdırâbına merhameten
Astâne-i aliyye'mde illetine ba‘de’l-müdâvâ ve’s-sıhha mahall-i
me’mûresine gelmek üzre Der aliyye'me vürûduna izn ü ruhsat-ı şâhânem
erzân kılındığı ma‘lûmun oldukda ber minvâl-i muharrer mûmâ ileyhin Der118
saâdet'üme ircâ‘ına mümâna‘at olunma(ma)k bâbında.....”241
It has ordered that çorbacı Seyyid Mehmed Sâdık, whose feet were broken when
he had fallen off a horse, would be brought to the Palace for his treatment. The
order has been given as a pity of Mehmed Sadık’s current suffering and pain (hâli
ızdırâbına merhameten).
These examples cited above show how the subjects would refer to merhamet as an
emotion code to justify their requests from the Sultan, which was a commonly
shared feeling norm. This shared knowledge gives the reaya the right to request
from the Sultan, to reverse the case back to its idealized state of “telif-i kulub” and
“mahabbet”.
We may also argue that, display of merhamet in the political rhetoric as an
emotion code had other functions as well. It functioned as a tool to legitimize.
Sometimes, merhamet is used as a tool to bring flexibility to some laws that were
previously implemented and regularly practiced when it became almost
impossible to obey the current law. For example, in the ferman below, an
interpretation of a current rule has been made with a reference to an emotion,
merhamet;
“.... malum ola ki, Rumilinde ve Anadolu’da zeamet ve tımara mutasarrıf
olan gedüklü Dergah-ı Ali müteferrikaları ve çavuşları ve Divan-ı Alişan ve
Defter-i Hakani katipleri, ve şakirdleri; an-asl seferlerde vezir-i azamlar ile
sefer eşüb, ve hazarlarda Der-i devlet-medarda zabitleri marifetiyle daima
241 Kadir Özbay, 177 Numaralı Mühimme Defterinin Transkripsiyon ve Tahlili (H.1192-
1193/M.1777-1778), (Unpublished master’s thesis, Van: Yüzüncü Yıl Üniversitesi, 2008), 241.
119
hidmette mevcud bulunmak üzere mevzu’ olub, hatta yedlerine verilen
nişan-ı alişanda ale’d-devam Divan-ı Ali makam hidmetinde bulunalar deyü
meşruh ve mestur iken bu kaidenin riayetinde adem-i ihtimamdan naşi
zümre-i mezbureden bazıları taşralarda zeamet ve tımarları olduğu yerlerde
ve sair istedikleri mahallerde tavattun ve temekkün itmeleriyle esna-i
hazarda kanun-ı kadime riayet etmeyüb,..........ancak mezburların her biri
taşralarda alaka hasıl etmeleriyle hallerine merhameten evlerinde ve
yerlerinde külliyet ile mehcûr olmayıb, kanun-ı kadim dahi bil’l-külliye terk
olunmayıb fi’l-cümle mer’i olmak üzere taife-i mezbureden Rumili ve Özi
Eyaletlerinde mutavattın olanlar her senede 6 ay ve Anadolu’da ve eyalet-i
sairede mutavattın olanlar dahi beher sene 6 ay münavebe tarikiyle gelüb,
Asitane-i Saadetimde zabitleri marifetiyle iktiza iden hidemat-ı aliyyede
bulunmak üzere bundan akdem şeref-yafte-i sudûr olan evamir-i şerîfem
mucebince Rumili ve Özi eyaletlerinde olanlar müsillü sair yerlerde sakin
olan gedüklüler için dahi fermanım sadır olmuşdur.”
What is revealed in this imperial order is that there’s a norm coded for those
servants like müteferrika, çavuş, divan and defterhane katipleri and şakirdleri
(kuls of the Sultan) who are serving in the Ottoman Palace, which necessitates
them to serve also in the provinces as tımar and zeamet owners. It was also
expected that they had to join the expeditions and return back to Istanbul as soon
as the expedition was over. It is understood that the State expected the provinces
to be administered by the members of the kul system. However, it’s often
observed that these servants would not go to their dirliks, but rather move to other
places, settle there, even get married, own land and choose other occupations.
Although the State is fully conscious that it was against the rules, the State is
anthropomorphized showing mercy to those servants who had disobeyed the rules
thus finding an amicable solution by letting those servants to serve for the Palace
for six months, and to live in their newly settled places for the remaining six
months. This document indicates that the relation between the State and its
subjects is based on the emotion of “merhamet”. In its political rhetoric, the State
120
counts on an emotion. If there weren’t any such relationship, the State would
force its disobedient subjects. On the contrary, the new implementation was
legitimized by the issuance of several similar orders.
Another similar order is quoted below;
“Sivas Eyâleti’nin elviye alaybeylerine hüküm ki:
Birkaç seneden berü düstûr-ı mükerrem müşîr-i mufahham nizâmu’l-‘âlem
hâlâ Gence muhâfızı vezîrim Mustafa Paşa edâmallâhu tecâlâ iclâlehûnun
ma’iyyetinde iktizâ iden hidemât-ı dîn ü devlet-i ‘aliyyemde sancaklarınızın
zücemâ ve erbâb-ı tîmârlarıyla bezl-i tâb ü tüvân eyleyüb ve hâlâ hallerinize
za’f târî olmağla vilâyetlerinize izin ve ruhsat virilmek üzere vezîr-i
müşârun ileyh tarafından ‘arz ve iclâm olunub fi’l-hakîka dört beş seneden
berû ehl ü ‘ıyâlinizden dûr ve hidemât-ı ‘aliyyede tahsîl-i rızâ-yı
hümâyûnum içün bezl-i makdûr itmeniz ile sa’yleriniz mebrûr ve meşkûr
olmağla hallerinize merhameten vilâyetlerinizi ‘avdete izn-i hümâyun erzânî
kılınmışdır imdi işbu emr-i şerîfim ile vüsûlünde vezîr-i müşârun ileyhin
ma’rifetiyle bi’l-cümle sancaklarınızı zü’emâ ve erbâb-ı tîmârıyla
vilâyetlerinize ‘avdet eylemeniz bâbında fermân-ı ‘âlîşânım sâdr
olmuşdur,buyurdum ki.”242
It has been ordered that tımar and zeamet owners who were in the service of the
Gence muhâfızı vezîr Mustafa Paşa would be given permission to return to their
vilayets (it means to their dirliks) which were units of taxation constituting their
income. Although the timar holders were required to serve in the expeditions, a
change in the already practiced rule had been made not only bringing flexibility to
its practice but also legitimizing the new interpretation of the rule by a reference
made to the emotion code of merhamet.
A record from a mühimme register is quoted below:
242 Zeynep Kurt, “13 Numaralı ve 1727-1730 Tarihli Mühimme Zeyli Defteri (Değerlendirme-
Transkripsiyon-Dizin).” (Unpublished master’s thesis, Elazığ: Fırat Ünversitesi, 2005),186.
121
“Yenişehir kâdîsına hüküm ki:
Taht-ı kazânda olan erbâb-ı hıref ve ahâlî-i dekâkîn Âsitâne-i Sa‘âdetâşiyânum'a
âdem gönderüp; "Bundan akdem kendü mâllarıyla kârgîr
dekâkîn ü mehâzin binâ itdürüp veyâhûd akça ile satun alup vefât
eyledüklerinde oğullarına ve kızlarına intikâl idüp eytâma sebeb-i ma‘âş
olurdı. Ba‘dehû; "Kızlara dükkân ü mahzen virilmeye." diyü mütevellîlere
ahkâm virilmekle hâl-i hayâtlarında mâ-meleklerin dekâkîn ü mehâzine
virenler vefât eyledüklerinde yetîmeleri şiddet-i ihtiyâc ile muhtâc ü zelîl
oldukların" bildürüp; "kızlarına virilmek" bâbında istid‘â-yı âtıfet
eylemeğin mezîd-i merhametümden işbu sene: 978 Cemâziye'l-ûlâsı'nun
sekizinci güninden kızlarına dahı virilmek emridüp buyurdum ki:
Hükm-i şerîf-i vâcibü'l-ittibâ‘um vardukda, emrüm üzre evkâfa müte‘allik
dekâkîn ü mehâzinün eger kârgîr binâlarıdur ve eger gayridür; anun gibi
müste’cirleri vefât eyledüklerinde oğullarına ve kızlarına icâre-i
mu‘ayyene-i câriye ile virdürüp mütevellîleri ol bâbda dahl ü ta‘arruz
itdürmeyüp müste’cirlerden fevtolup evlâdı kalmayanlarun dekâkîn ü
mehâzini ve sâyir evkâfa müte‘allik yirleri muktezâ-yı şer‘-ı şerîf üzre vakıf
tarafından mütevellîlere zabt u kabz itdürüp şer‘-ı şerîfe muhâlif hâricden
kimesneyi dahl itdürmeyesin ve bu emr-i şerîfümi sicill-i mahfûza
kayditdükden sonra ellerinde ibkâ eyleyesin ki, dâyimâ mazmûn-ı hümâyûnı
ile amel oluna, şöyle bilesin….”.243
It is understood that previously, when those who owned shops and cellars which
were built as waqf property passed away, the property of the shops and cellars
were used to be inherited by the sons and daughters of the deceased, which
constituted the allowances of the orphans. However later, it was ordered to the
mütevellis of the waqf that only the sons of the deceased would be entitled for the
inheritance of shops and cellars. We understand that the owners of those shops
(ahali-i dekakin) and craftsmen (erbab-ı hiref) sent their men acting on their
behalf and officially requested (istida’) benevolence (atifet) from the Sultan to
change this rule so that the daughters would also have the right to inherit the
243 12 Numaralı Mühimme Defteri (978-979/1570–1572), (Ankara: Devlet Arşivleri Genel
Müdürlüğü, 1996), 171.
122
shops and cellars by contending that the daughters became seriously needy and
contemptible (zelil) after their fathers’ death. Based on their demand, the Sultan
with his abundant compassion (merhamet) ordered that the rule would be changed
so that the daughters of those deceased tenants would be able to inherit.
The next example is a ferman dating 1668 quoted below:
“Mefâhirü’l-kuzât ve’l-hükkâm ma‘âdini’l-fezâili ve’l-kelâm Kayseriye
sancağında vâkı‘ olan kâdîlar zîde fazluhum ve mefâhirü’l-emâsil ve’lakrân
kethudâyirleri ve yeniçeri serdârları ve a‘yân-ı vilâyetin iş erleri zîde
kadruhum tevkî‘-i refî‘-i hümâyûn vâsıl olıcak ma‘lûm ola ki inşâe’llâhu
te‘âlâ işbu sâl-i ferhunde-fâlde bi’z-zât cenâb-ı hilâfet- meâbım ve devlet ve
ikbâl ve sa‘âdet-i iclâl ile Girid cezîresinde serhadd-i İslâmiye'ye karîb
küffâr-ı dûzah karâr yedlerinde olan kal‘aların bi avni’llâhi te‘âlâ feth u
mashariyeti ile sefer-i hümâyûna teveccüh ve azîmet-i şerîfim mukarrer ve
muhakkak olmağla bi’z-zât rikâb-ı hümâyûnumla sefer-i zafer-şi‘ârıma
me’mûr olan kapum kulları vesâir asâkir-i İslâm içün menâzilde ziyâde
zahîre lâzım ve tedârük ve ihzârı mühim olmağla bin yetmiş sekiz senesinde
livâ-i mezbûrda vâkı‘ kâdî‘asker İsa sürsat zahîresi ihrâc ve menâzile îsâl
ve irsâli fermânım olmuşidi lâkin mesâfe ba‘îd olub aynî ile zahîre nakli
re‘âyâya asîr olmağla hâllerine merhameten nüzülleri tahsîl olunmak ne
vechile evlâ ve akta‘ olmağın irsâl olunan mühürlü ve nişânlu mevkûfât
defterinde her bir kazâya ta‘yîn ve tasrîh olunduğu üzre şa‘îrin her bir
İstanbul kilesini altmış akçe ve dakîkin her bir kilesin yüzyirmişer akçe ve
koyunun bir re’si ikiyüz yirmişer akçe ve revgan-ı sâdenin her bir
vukiyyesine........” 244
It was issued addressing all the judges and all the members of military class in the
sancak of Kütahya. We understand from the content of the ferman that the Girit
expedition was still continuing and the Sultan had sent his army to the island to
conquer the fortresses. The importance of the provision of the army’s basic food
and drink necessities was emphasized by ordering that the subjects settled along
244 Leyla Alidağı, “78/3 Numaralı Kayseri Şer’iyye Sicili (H. 1078-1079/ M. 1668) Transkripsiyon
ve Değerlendirme,” (Unpublished master’s thesis, Kayseri: Erciyes Üniversitesi, 2009), 229.
123
the route of the army would supply the required provisions of the army and
deliver them to the military base. However, it is stated that it was difficult for the
subjects to transport the provisions of the army in kind since the distance between
the subjects’ settlement and the military camp was remote. Again the mentioned
condition of the subjects deserve the compassion of the Sultan therefore merhamet
is demanded from the Sultan. In the succeeding wording of the document we
understand that “as compassion to the prevalent conditions”, in which it is hard
and inconvenient for the subjects to transfer the provisioning to the army camp in
kind, the Sultan ordered that the nüzul tax obligation of the subjects paid in kind
would be changed to payment in cash. Furthermore, it has been added that the
change of payment terms from kind to cash is the most suitable and the most
beneficial (evla ve enfa) decision to be made. It’s possible to see all the symbolic
and accompanying emotion codes in this document. The avarız tax could actually
be paid either as service made to the State or in cash or in kind. The conditions of
the expedition normally would determine the terms of the payment. In the abovementioned
case, although it was more preferable and suitable for the army that the
terms of the tax payment would be in kind, the terms of the tax obligation was
changed from kind to cash since the transfer of the payment to a distant place in
kind would be a burden on the part of the reaya. The symbolic code of protection,
siyanet, demanded the Sultan to behave in a particular way, with merhamet, and it
was used as a justification of a newly implemented rule.
It would be appropriate to further conceptualize yet another term, evla ve enfa that
means the most suitable and the most beneficial, mentioned in the previous
ferman. Because, this is also a term similar in its function to “hallerine
124
merhameten”, frequently used as a tool to legitimize implemented rules and
regulations. The term was firstly analyzed by Ergenç where he pointed out that
although it was commonly used in state-subject relations, it was also used as a
tool for the settlement of the disputes in individual-society relations, in waqf
related conflicts and also for the rules implemented regarding the individuals in
need of protection like sabi (male child) and pir (old man).245 Ergenç argues that
the expected consequences from this rule were threefold. The first one was to find
to most beneficial solution while the second one was to amicably resolve a
conflict and the third one was to legitimize the solution.246
In all of these cases, there has been deterioration in the symbolic code of
protection, telif-i kulûb. The Sultan, who is obliged to protect his subjects
regardless of their religious, ethnic, spatial, occupational or otherwise identities
with compassion to restore his power, could not do so leading to suffering of the
subjects. The subjects in other words, lost their prosperous conditions both
materially and emotionally (müreffehü’l-bal) thus; their submission to the Sultan
voluntarily with affection was in danger. Social signals were sent to the Sultan
that the codes of telif-i kulub and mahabbet had lost their meaning and function.
Merhamet was requested from the Sultan, so that the suffering condition of the
reaya would be resolved. Reconsidering the condition of the reaya, the Sultan then
shows compassion, which in some cases denotes the pity of the Sultan, while in
245 Özer Ergenç, “Osmanlı’da Enfa Kuralının Devlet ve Reaya Arasındaki Mali İlişkiler Açısından
Anlamı,” In Osmanlı Tarihi Yazıları Şehir, Toplum, Devlet (İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları,
2012), 429-442.
246 Ibid., 432
125
others as a tool to justify a change in the implementation of a rule, but in either
case his subjects would continue their voluntary submission with affection.
4.4.5. Oppression/Transgression and Fading out of Protection
There are other terms, which also denote the deterioration of the telif-i kulub and
mahabbet, which we encounter frequently in the Ottoman sources. The phrase
“zulm ve teaddi” and its functions of display in the Ottoman political rhetoric is
explored in this section. Again, the emotion code of merhamet is highlighted in
the demands of the subjects and the orders of the Sultan to reverse the
consequences of a political act back to the symbolic and emotion codes of the
idealized model.
The weakness in the Sultan’s feature as a protector which denotes the
deterioration of the symbolic code of te’lif-i kulub both in its in its meaning and
function as a social bonding concept, is most frequently reflected in the
documents as oppression (zulm) and transgression (teaddi). Zulm also denotes the
opposite of justice (adalet). Usually zulm ve teaddi is defined as the conduct of
the members of the askeri class whom the Sultan delegated his authority to govern
by hurting or annoying the subjects. This hurting and annoying is termed as
“rencide ve remide”247. However, the main task of the members of the askeri
class, both the örf members ranging from eyalet valisi to timar holder and the
kadıs, was to protect the subjects in the name of the Sultan. Mumcu categorizes
247 rencide etmek: to hurt (someone’s feelings), to annoy.
remide:fugitive; scared; disturbed, afflicted.
126
zulm as “collecting money without legal justification, which is in excess of
prescribed sums or under false pretexts, to divert money into one’s pocket, to use
unjustified force and to join forces with rebel”.248
As depicted in Figure 6 below, in such cases the symbolic code of siyanet is
converted to the symbolic code of “zulm ve teaddi”. This term may also be
considered as a social signal informing that the subjects are in need of protection
with compassion and that there’s something wrong going on in the power
relations. The subjects being protected with compassion are now faced with
oppression and transgression, which converted the condition of the subjects from
emotional (müreffehü’l-bal) and material prosperity (müreffehü’l-hal) to a state of
being dispersed and scattered (perakende ve perişan). And therefore informs the
Sultan that the subjects may not submit to the Sultan affectionately and
voluntarily thus demanding his compassion. The Sultan willing to restore his
power, which requires submission of his subjects with affection, takes some
measures to revert back to the state of “te’lif-i kulûb”.
248 Gottfried Hagen, “Legitimacy and World Order,” In Legitimizing the Order The Ottoman
Rhetoric of State Power, ed. Hakan Karateke and Maurus Reinkowski (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 72.
127
Figure 6. Zulm ve Teaddi
As evidenced from the cases below, the first reaction of the reaya who were
perakende ve perişan would be to send petitions (arz ve mahzar) directly to the
Sultan and demand protection with an accompanying emotion code of
compassion. The Sultan in return, would issue fermans to terminate the zulm and
teaddi, which incur phrases ranging from simple warning to threat. In the wording
of these fermans, mostly the symbolic and accompanying emotion codes are used
simultaneously, however, even if one is missing the accompanying code would be
perceived accordingly. If the zulm and teaddi is terminated or prevented by the
various measures taken, the power relations would return back to its state of
“te’lif-i kulub” as shown in Figure 7 below. In this process, both parties, the
subjects and the Sultan, are inclined to get away from the present state and revert
back to the state of “telif-i kulûb. The documents are replete with such cases
SULTAN
REAYA
(müreffehü’l-bal)
Askeris
İtaat
(Submission)
İh sas
(affec on)
Siyanet
(Protec on)
with
Merhamet
(Compassion)
with
Symbolic Code
Zulm ve
teaddi
REAYA
(perakende ve perişan)
128
where either the subjects as a group or individually demand compassion as a
reaction to oppression and transgression.
Figure 7. Reversal of Zulm ve Teaddi
Below some examples are given from Ottoman primary sources to substantiate
my arguments. Previously mentioned ferman dating M.1637 continues as follows:
“I have heard that excessive tax payments deemed as oppression and transgression
were demanded from the subjects. They are entrusted by God the Almighty to me,
and thus entitled to be protected with compassion..... (reayaya zulm ve teaddiye
müteallik nice tekalif teklif olunmağla, enva-i cevr ve teaddi ve zulm ve te’ezzi
olunduğu semm-i hümayunuma ilka olunmağın tevaif-i reaya ki vedayi-i halik-i
kibriyadır haklarında mezid refet ve şefkat ve vufur-ı mekremet ve merhametim
zuhura getürdüb...) The symbolic code of protection transforms into its opposite
indicating that the subjects are under oppression, they are hurt and annoyed and
suffering under the burden of excessive tax requirements demanding the Sultan’s
SULTAN
REAYA
(müreffehü’l-bal)
Askeris
İtaat
(Submission)
İh sas
(affec on)
Siyanet
(Protec on)
with
Merhamet
(Compassion)
with
Symbolic Code
Zulm ve
teaddi
REAYA
(perakende ve perişan)
Demand
merhamet
Emo on Code
129
compassion. Since the subjects remain unprotected by the Sultan, they have the
right to demand compassion. Symbolic code of oppression is accompanied by
demanding compassion.
Furthermore, it is expected from Bayram Paşa to treat the subjects with affection
(şefkat) and compassion (reayaya şefkat ve fukara ve zuefaya merhamet ile
hareket) demanding a particular way to behave, which in this case is defined as
paying out the expenses for the provisions like food and drink rather than
imposing an additional tax payment named sürsat (reayaya mahz-ı merhamet ve
şefkat içün sürsat-ı zahire salmayub, narh-ı ruzi üzere bulunan yerde zadu
zadesin akçesiyle)249. Once the expected behavior is achieved which denotes
waiving of tax payments in this particular case, protection of the subjects by the
Sultan is retrieved. In other words, the symbolic code of protection with
accompanying emotion code of compassion is restored which makes the subjects
emotionally prosperous and happy (asude-hal ve müreffehü’l-bal). Additionally it
is ordered that illegal tax demands would be prevented by reducing the tax
obligations and thus the hearts of the reaya would be rendered tranquilly and
treated kindly (tekalifleri tahfif ve kalblerin tatyib ve taltif). And it is again
emphasized that the subjects are those entrusted by God, the Creator of mankind,
whom for this reason are to be treated with compassion, their conditions have to
be stabilized and kept in order (bi’l-cümle tevaif-i reaya ki vedayi’-i haliki’lberayadır
(yaratıkların, mahlukatın, insanların yaratıcısı) cümlesine şefkat ve
249 During the expeditions, necessities of the Ottoman soldiers were supplied by the locals
producers on the route. It was demanded that the the soldiers would pay for the cost of their
purchase of any kind from the locals. However, sometimes the military members would demand
additional payments from the reaya illegally to cover up such expenses of the army which was
termed as sürsat.
130
merhamet olunmak ve hallerine istikrar ve intizam virilmek aksa-ı murad-ı
hümayun. In other words, it is the most sincere will of the Sultan that in his era of
justice, the burden on the reaya would be reduced which will please their hearts,
and this will ensure the continuation of the lives of the reaya in an orderly
manner. What is striking here is the phrase “bi’l-cümle tevaif-i reaya”. Reaya is
regarded as an overarching identity with no distinction made between various subgroups.
In other words, it is revealed that even though reaya constitutes of various
different sub-communities, the hearts and minds of all distinct communities were
united. In the last section of the order, the Sultan directly addresses Bayram Paşa
and states that “from now on, if I hear that the reaya and the poor are under
oppression and transgression of ümera or anybody besides ümera, I will blame
you, and your excuses will not be accepted and your answers will not be listened
to, and you will be severely punished and vehemently insulted” (bundan sonra
reayaya ve fukaraya ümeradan ve gayriden cevr ve teaddi ve zulm ve te’ezzi
olunduğu istima’ oluna her ahval sizden bilinüb, ve bir vechle özrünüz makbul ve
cevabınız mesmu’ olmayub eşedd-i hakaret (kızgınlık) ile haklarınızdan gelinmek
mukarrerdir). The threat then is extended to also include other officers stating that
this punishment was required for the purpose of admonition to those and as an
advice to many others (sairlere muceb-i ibret ve nicelere sebeb-i nasihat).
An imperial decree dating 1685 recorded in Konya JCR is quoted below:
“Kıdvetü’l-kuzât ve’l-hükkâm ma‛deni’l-fazl ve’l-kelâm Gaferiyâd kadısı
zîde fazluhû tevki‛-i refi‛-i hümâyûn vâsıl olıcak ma‛lûm ola ki kazâ-i
mezbûre ahâlîsinin otuz yedi buçuk bir rub‛ ‛avârızhânesi olub ahâlîsinin ol
mikdâr ‛avârızhânelerin edâya iktidârları olmamağla hallerine merhameten
yedi buçuk ve bir rub‛ hâneleri tenzîl ve füzûnehâde olunub üzerlerinde otuz
‛avârızhânesi kalduğuna ellerine mühürlü ve nişânlu medkûfât-ı defteri
sûreti virilmeğin mûcibince ‛amel olunmak fermânım olmuşdur buyurdum ki
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hükm-i şerîfim vardıkda bu bâbda sâdır olan emrim üzere ‛amel idüb dahî
kazâ-i mezbûr ahâlîsi perâkende ve perîşân olmağla kadîmî hânelerinden
yedi buçuk ve bir rub‛ hâneleri füzûnehâde olunub üzerlerinde otuz
‛avârızhâneleri kalduğuna ellerine virilen mühürlü ve nişanlu mevkûfât
defteri sûreti mûcibince edâ eylediklerinden sonra füzûnehâde olunan yedi
buçuk ve bir rub‛ hâne içün hilâf-ı defter kazâ-i mezbûr ahâlisin rencide
itdirmeyesiz şöyle bilesiz ‛alâmet-i şerîfe i‛timâd kılasız tahrîran fi’lyevmi’s-
sânî şehr-i Muharremi’l-harâm li-sene isneyn tis‛în ve elf.”250
The inhabitants of one of the kaza in Konya sancak, appeals to the Imperial
Council (Divan-ı Hümayun) and make a complaint regarding their avarız tax
payments. According to the document, since the population of their kaza has been
reduced, they have previously requested a reduction in their avarız tax payments,
which are due per house. Their previous requirements were determined as 37.5
one rub, however, as per their request, it was reduced by 7.5 one rub to 30. Their
previous request for this reduction has been found fair and just, therefore their tax
obligations have been revised as a mercy felt by the Sultan to their prevalent
condition (hallerine merhameten). However, without considering the newly
issued order, which reduced the tax obligations, the askeri members collecting the
avarız tax obligations, insisted to demand previously determined tax obligations
for 37.5 and 1 rub. It has been emphasized that, demanding the previously
determined high tax obligations would be considered as rencide (hurting feelings).
Rencide as a term refers to teezzi (pain, suffering) and teellüm (grief) as an
expected emotional display of emotions. Furthermore, it has been ordered in strict
terms with a strong language, to immediately stop requesting high taxes from the
250 Mehmet Ali Güven, “33 Numaralı Konya Şer’iye Sicili (Değerlendirme ve Transkripsiyon)”
(Unpublished master’s thesis, Konya: Selçuk Üniversitesi, 2006), 534.
132
subjects. Again, an appeal to an emotion, to compassion is highlighted, which is
an emotion code with an implicitly accompanying symbolic code of protection.
A buyruldu, the full text of which is in Appendix III, issued by Anadolu valisi
vezir Yahya Paşa, clearly indicates the job description of the askeri class
members, and further defines what was considered as transgression. The
responsibility of any member of askeri class is defined as;
“...... memalik-i mahruse-i bilâd-ı İslamiyye’de vaki’ sükkân-ı memleket ve
kuttan-ı vilayet ki vedayi’-i Haliki’l-beraya olan fukara-i raiyyet ve mürûr
ve ubûr iden ebna-i sebîlin kutta’-i tarik ve haramzâdeden himaye ve
siyanetde ve herkes kar u kisblerine istigâl ile fariza-i zimmet-i enam olan
dua’-ı devlet-i hazreti padişâhiye müdâvemet ve mevaziyyet ve cümlenin
emn ü asayiş ile müstedîm olmaları vulât ve hükkâm üzerlerine lazime-i
zimmet olub...”.251
It states that protecting the reaya and the voyagers passing through the lands of
the Ottoman State from highway robbery, brigandage and villains, ensuring that
everybody is occupied with his own business, enabling the subjects to continue to
pray for the Sultan and proving a safe and secure life for the subjects are the main
obligations of the askeri class members (the governors and judges). Moreover,
misconduct of this requirement or hurting the feelings of or any act annoying the
reaya while conducting their responsibilities is defined as corruption.
“......fukaranın rahatları meslûbuna bâdi ve muhtel-i nizâm-ı bilâd olan
muharriklerin te’dib ve gûşmalleriyle tathir-i memleket zımnında Anadolu
valilerinin senede bir kaç defa bayrakları geşt ü güzâr ve birer bahane ile
cem’-i mebaliğ ve yem ve yiyecek ve konakcı ve bayrak akçeleri namıyla
fukaraya teaddileri cümlenin ma’lumu olub....”.252
251 Appendix III, issued by Anadolu valisi vezir Yahya Paşa dating H.1165,
252 ibid.
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It is further detailed in the quote above that, if the Anatolian governors, who are
required to move around a couple of times a year with their armband to prevent
the eşkiya (brigands) from annoying the subjects, would misuse their duties by
demanding cash or any other payments under the name of either “yem-yiyecek ve
konakçı akçesi” or “bayrak (devr) akçesi” illegally and such acts would be
defined as transgression. Yahya Paşa as the one who issues this buyruldı further
states that, such illegal acts were frequently seen before his appointment, and that
it is demanded that such oppression and transgression has to be prevented within
his period of duty. Yahya Paşa further states that even if the military officials do
not demand illicit tax or any other excessive payments from the reaya, it would
still be troublesome for the reaya to serve food and necessities for the
overcrowded entourage of the officials while moving around ensuring protection.
Yahya Paşa adds that this practice was often witnessed during the period of office
of the previous governors, which is and should be considered as oppression and
transgression. He therefore demands that military officials should be cautious in
organizing their forces appointed to ensure security with special emphasis to the
amount of forces so that they would not be a burden for the reaya (......bundan
akdem buyruldumuz ile tenbih olunmuşken mütenebbih olmayıb, eslâfımız müsillü
bayraklarımız ile külliyetli mübaşir ile teftîş olunmak lazım gelse ve bir pâre ve
bir akçe alınmasa dahi yine yem ve yiyecek içün bu kadar mesarifiniz zuhur
ideceği malumumuz olduğundan fukarayı siyanete hafifü’l-müenne (çok fazla şey
istemeyen, çok yük yüklemeyen) mübaşir ta’yin ve irsal kılınmağla ol makule
erâzil ve eşkiya her gangınızın taht-ı kaza ve hükümetlerinde bulunur ise marifet-i
şer’ ve zâbitân ve ta’yin olunan mübaşir marifetiyle ahz ve suret-i sicillatla
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mübaşir-i mümaileyhe teslîme ve ibreten li’l-sâirîn te’dib ve guşmâl içün ihzar
idüb....).
In another ferman recorded in the Ankara judicial court register no: 135, the full
text of which apperars in Appendix IV, dating H.1164 addressed to the naib of
Ankara we understand that, naib Mehmed Aziz sent a letter to the Sultan and
requested that a new imperial order be issued. In his letter, the naib stated that, the
Sultan had previously in H.1153 (11 years ago) issued an order addressed to the
mutasarrıfs of Ankara regarding the collection of hazeriyye tax and demanded
that once the taxes of both seferiyye (collected during expeditions) and hazeriyye
(during peaceful times) had been duly collected as required, the mutasarrıfs
should never request any additional payments in any name be it devr, kaftan,
zahire, nal charges or öşr-i diyet or whatsoever from the reaya, and the
mutasarrıfs should not send any military force or mübaşir demanding and forcing
them to pay. For the past three years, the mutasarrıfs were strictly conforming to
the order and the reaya were prosperous and living happily (asude-hal). However,
during the last couple of years, the mutasarrıfs started acting contrary to the
previously issued sultanic order. The prevalent condition of the reaya thus altered
from the state of being asude-hal. The naib therefore requested the sultan to issue
a new order to prevent the oppression and transgression of the reaya. The sultan,
after investigating the related registers of hazeriyye tax payments which was
determined to be 4750 guruş per year to be paid in 3 installments, issued his new
order and strictly prohibited the mustasarrıfs to demand anything from the reaya
under any name whatsoever in excess of the already determined hazerriye tax
obligations. The Sultan demanded also to stop hurting the feelings (rencide) of the
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reaya and annoying (remide) them and continue to protect them (himayet ve
siyanet) by fully conforming to the hazeriyye tax collection regulations.
It is also worth mentioning here an imperial order dating 1751, the full text of
which appears in Appendix V, since it further supports what has been revealed in
previous buyruldı and brings a broader explanation. The ferman was apparently
issued to prevent illegals acts against the Rum and Armenian subjects who wish to
visit the Kamame Church in Jerusalem. The mütevelli kaimmakam of the Haseki
Sultan waqf in Jerusalem requested the issuance of this order. The addresses of
the ferman are quite many including the valis of Anadolu, Erzurum, Diyarbekir,
Karaman, Sivas, the Beylerbeyi of Maraş, the kadıs of Amid (Diyarbekir),
Erzurum, Maraş, Sivas, Adana, the naibs of Konya, Kütahya ve Maraş, all the
kadıs and naibs and örf class members of places located on the routes to
Jerusalem. It is apparent that the addressees of the ferman are the members of
askeri class who are servicing in places where the Rum and the Armenian taifes
were densely populated. The complaints of the Rum and Armenian taifes were
stated as follows;
“.....Sivas ve Erzurum ve Diyarbekir ve Anadolu ve Karaman ve Adana ve
Maraş eyaletlerinde vaki’ elviye ve kazalardan Lazkiye ve İskenderun ve
Antakya ve sair mahallerden Kuds-ı Şerife gidib gelen Rum ve Ermeni
taifesi Adana’dan ve mahall-i mezbureden mürur ve ubur ve gidişde ve
gelişde kasabat ve kurada ve derbend ve geçitlerde esna-i rahda bir ferd
mesfurları rencide ve remide idegelmiş değil iken mahall-i mezburede olan
ehl-i örf taifesi ve sairleri siz Kuds-i Şerif’e gidersiz, bize virgü ve gufr
namıyla akçe virin deyü nice müddet tevkif ve yollarından alıkoyub külli
akçelerin ahz ve cevr ve teaddi eylediklerinden gayrı iskele eminleri daha
sefine kapudanları ile yek-dil ve matlubları olan sefinelere süvar olmağa
mümanaat ve ziyade navl ile diledikleri aher sefineye koyub bu vechile cevr
ve teaddileri hadden ziyade olmağla....”.
136
Although it was forbidden for the örf members to interfere those who travel back
and forth along the towns, villages, derbend and geçits between the above
mentioned places and Jerusalem, they had demanded tax payments against the
law, prevented the passengers to pass and forcefully took their properties. All of
these acts are considered to be cevr (oppression) and transgression. İskele emins
(port officials) interfered with the passengers who were traveling by sea,
preventing them to board on the ships that they would prefer by forcing them to
travel by ships that were excessively loaded thus threating their lives. Before
issuing this ferman, it has been investigated that previously, 24 years ago, a
similar order had been given to prevent cevr and transgression. Referring to the
previous order issued, strong orders were issued back then. This ferman is also
important since it is concerned specifically with the non-Muslim subjects. As it
has been previously emphasized, all the subjects regardless of their religious
identity were considered as those whom were all entrusted by God, and who were
to be protected by the Sultan in the name of God.
What is revealed from the political rhetoric of all those imperial orders is that, all
the political parties, including the reaya, the askeri members and the Sultan,
shared a common political and also an emotional script, perceiving the underlying
symbolic and accompanying emotion codes in the same manner reflected in the
fermans used as a venue for communication, which demand a particular way to
behave and a particular way to feel. The main aim of the political rhetoric of the
fermans denotes unifying all the subjects regardless of their various secondary
identities by appealing to their emotions and emphasizing the commonly accepted
symbolic and emotion codes repeatedly.
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4.4.6. İnfisâl-ı kulûb
Despite the requests of the reaya, if the illegal acts defined as oppression and
transgression would continue, the symbolic and emotion codes would also change
necessitating both the subjects and the Sultan to behave and feel in a particular
way. The Sultan, loosing his feature as the protector of the subjects with
compassion, the distorted and scattered subjects would then feel teezzi (pain) and
tezellüm (grief). Due to their prevalent conditions, the subjects will not be able to
submit to the Sultan with affection. The new symbolic codes, habaset (villainy,
infamy, baseness ), şekavet (villainy, brigandage; a being wretched and miserable;
misery, wretchedness ), şena’at (a being abominable, foulness, wickedness) and
mübayenet (conflict, divergence; a being seperated, separation, severance)
accompanied with emotion codes teezi (a being hurt, a being annoyed, pain,
suffering; a being ill-treated or wronged, oppression), teellüm (distress, grief,
sorrow) and istikrah (aversion, hate) will take the place of previous codes. In
other words, the symbolic codes of itaat, ubudiyyet, imtisal, and inkıyad will be
replaced by habaset, şekavet, şena’at and mübayenet. Similarly emotion codes of
istikamet, ihtisas, sadakat and meveddet will be replaced by inkisar, teezi, teellüm
and istikrah. These codes reflecting the sense of being hurt are used in various
contexts. We also encounter additional emotion codes like “teneffür” (disgust),
“havf” (fear, fright), “rub” (to fear) and “me’yus” (desperate, hopeless) in the
sources. Figure 8 below shows the unsuccessful attempt to revert back to the state
of “telif-i kulûb” in which zulm and teaddi remained persistent damaging the
hearts of the subjects; thus hindering them to achieve prosperity both materially
and emotionally and gradually moving to a state of “infisal-i kulûb”.
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Figure 8. Unsuccessful Reversal of Zulm ve Teaddi and “İnfisâl-i Kulûb”
The state of the reaya in such pain and sorrow would be discontentment. If this
state of discontent continues, the sultan would display particular warning or
punishment strategies towards his subjects who do no more submit him which are
reflected in the sources as tenbihat (warning), terbiyet (discipline), ta’zirat
(reprimand) ve te’dibat (correcting). The accompanying emotion codes for these
symbolic codes then would be “hücnet” (meanness), “iğmaz” (neglecting), “ta’zil”
(blaming) and “gayz” (wrath). The general term, which explains the Sultan’s
psychological state is reflected in the sources as “inhiraf-ı zamir” (displeasure)
reflecting a change in the Sultan’s code of behavior towards his subjects.
The deterioration of power relations between the Sultan and the subjects would
signify a change of state from ittihad-ı derun to infirak-ı derun, from telif-i kulüb
SULTAN
REAYA
(müreffehü’l-bal)
Askeris
Şekavet
Teellüm, havf,
rub, tenafür
Symbolic Code
Zulm ve
teaddi
REAYA
(perakende ve perişan)
Demand
merhamet Emo on Code
Zulm ve
teaddi
İtaat
(Submission)
İh sas
(affec on)
139
to infisal-i kulüb. Where telif-i kulüb represents the gaining hearts and minds of
his subjects, iğbirar-ı kulüb represents the hurting the hearts of his subjects.
Infirak-ı derun or infisal-i kulûb means a full aversion of the subjects from
submission towards the Sultan representing an irreversible phase, in cases where
warning and disciplining efforts remained inconclusive. In such cases which are
quite rare, the subjects claiming that the expected social and emotional code of
protection with compassion had been lost, would revolt against the Sultan, which
is reflected in the Ottoman sources as “kıyam”, “isyan”, “gaile”, “tuğyan”. In
return of such an aversion from submission, the Sultan would use his executive
tools varying from “kuvve-i cebriyye” to “siyaseten katl”. In this process, it would
be inevitable that the opposing parties would display emotions of “gayz-ı külli”
(wrath) or “iğbirâr” (disappointment).
4.5. Emotion Talk
In the previous section the displays of emotions and the linguistic representations
of such displays in Ottoman political rhetoric is analyzed reflecting the state’s
frequent reference to emotional well beings of its subjects. In this section, the
“emotion talk” of the rulers focusing on emotional words within the political
narratives is analyzed, showing how reading in between the lines of the narratives
may give insights about the emotional norms of a particular political culture.
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An example from an imperial decree dating 8 October 1571253, sent to Russian
Tsar, shows the frequent expression of emotion words and reference to emotional
states of Ottoman subjects as reflected in the political rhetoric towards an ally of
the Ottoman State.
In the beginning of the decree, it has been stated that it constitutes a reply to the
letter of the Tsar and his letter has been defined as “name-i muhabbet-meşhûn” (a
letter, the content of which is full of affection). We may assume that the
contemporary political relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Russia had
been expressed with reference to the emotions embedded in that phrase. Even the
context of an official letter between two empires is full of emotion words. The
same concern regarding emotional expression is further displayed while giving
detailed account of the political acts. Ottoman Palace was identified as a refuge
for many powerful sultans. (“Atebe-i aliyye-i alem-penâh ve Südde-i seniyye-i
saadet-destgâhımız ki melâz-ı selatîn-i nâmdâr ve melce-i havâkîn-i ‘âlîmikdârdır”)
It’s also emphasized that the Russian Tsar’s news had reached the
Ottoman Palace, which was a palace where all the knowledge produced within the
universe had been accumulated signifying the universal feature of the Ottoman
Sultan. The Ottoman Palace has been defined also not only as a “melce”, a refuge,
but also as a “südde-i seniyye-i saadet-destgâhımız”, a home of happiness.
Furthermore, the Ottoman Palace this time is referred as “pâye-i serîr-i saadetmasîrîmize”,
a source of happiness (her ne ki ilam olunmuş ise, mufassalan pâye-i
253 Akdes Nimet Kurat, Rusya Tarihi: Başlangıcından 1917’ye kadar (Ankara: TTK, 2014).
Quoted from Mühimme Defteri no: No: XVI. Vesika 3:3-4.
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serîr-i saadet-masîrîmize arz ve takrir olunub, ilm-i şerîf-i alem-şumûl-ı
hüsrevânem muhîd ve şâmîl olmuşdur). In the succeeding lines, the pleasure
(sürûr ve hubûr) of the Sultan inspired by the friendly relations between the
Ottoman Sultan and the Russian Tsar is signified, adding that it is one of the
foremost responsibilities of the Ottoman Sultan to overcome the ill-intentioned
enemies (a’dâ-i bed-re’y). (“........enva’-ı surûr ve hubûr üzere olub, etrâf ve
eknâfda olan a’dâ-ı bed-re’yin haklarından gelinmek içün asakir-i müslimîn ve
cünûd-ı muvahhadîne yarar serdarlar tayin eyleyüb, taraf taraf irsal
eyledikde......”). In the same decree it is emphasized that the Ottoman Palace, as a
refuge of happiness, is open to everybody, be it friends or enemies, and never
precluded. (bab-ı saadet-me’âbımız ‘ale’d-devam meftûh ve mekşûf olub, eğer
dostluk eğer düşmanlık ile gelenlere asla men’ ve red yokdur). A persistent
emphasis on the emotion of happiness is also evident in the remaining section of
the letter; “....... şimdiye değin Dergâh-ı saadet-destgâhımıza istikâmetle tarîk-i
ubudiyyetin sabit-kadem olanlar enva’ı riayet ve inayetimizle hoşhâl ve saye-i
saadetimizde müreffehü’l-bâl olub, vilâyet ve memleketleri ahalisi her vech ile
dest-i taaddi-i a’dâdan masûn ve mahfûz olıgelmiş nice memleket sahipleri ol
bâbda envâ’ı say’ ve ikdâm ve hüsn-i ihtimamların zuhura getürüb.......südde-i
saadetimiz dostluğu arzusuyla...... daima inkıyâddan tecavüz itmezler.” These
expressions reveal that those who will be decisive to endure their friendship and
loyalty to the Ottoman Sultan will live in peace and will be pleased (hoşhal) and
happy (müreffehü’l-bal) with the protection (riayet) and mercy (inayet) of the
Ottoman Sultan. The terms and concepts repeated in the ferman about the
Ottoman Palace show the emotional rhetoric of the Sultan’s sovereignty. In other
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words, there is a reference in almost each sentence to the emotional well being of
those who had accepted the Ottoman sovereignity and thus pursuea a happy and
prosperous life under protection of the Sultan, again reflecting the State’s concern
on the emotional constraints imposed to achieve political order.
The text below however, does not include any emotion words at all. However, it
implicitly represents a display of anger of the Sultan. It indicates the Ottoman
State’s “politics of anger” in its relation with its rivalry, the Safavid Empire,
quoted from Tevarih-i Ali Osman Li-Lütfi Paşa.
“......padişahların taht-ı tasarrufunda olan memleket menkuhesi
mesabesindedir, reculiyyetten 254 hissesi ve fütüvvetden 255 behresi belki
derununda fi’l cümle zehresi olan kimesneler kendüden gayrı bir ferd ana
taarruz ittiğüne tahammül itmek ihtimali yokdur, öyle olsa bunca gündür ki,
asakir-i nusret-measirim memleketine dahil olub kamranlıklar 256 iderler,
henüz senden ne nam ve ne nişan peyda ve ne vücudundan eser hüveydadır.
Hayatın mematın ale’s-sivadır”.257
This is a passage from the letter written by Yavuz Sultan Selim to Şah İsmail
during the Çaldıran expedition, the full text of which is in Lütfi Paşa Tarihi. In
this imperial order, Yavuz Sultan Selim instigates, provokes Şah İsmail and forces
him to fight. There’s a metaphor made between a ruler’s land and his wife.
254 reculiyyet; manliness. (erkek olma, erkeklik) Muhabbet namını verdiğiniz bir levs (kir, pislik,
murdarlık) ile benim gibi bir bîkesi lekeleyip bırakmak şan-ı recüliyete yakışır mı? (H. Rahmi
Gürpınar)
255 fütüvvet; delikanlılık, gençlik, mertlik, yiğitlik. Here used as “valour”-mertlik.
256 kamran-kamuran : kam; arzu istek. kamuran; arzusuna muradına ermiş.
257 Lütfi Paşa, Tevarih-i Ali Osman Li-Lütfi Paşa (İstanbul: 1341), 217.
143
Manliness is emphasized stating that those who have the valor would fight against
those who abduct their wives. This is what is expected from a man, which is
inherent in his manliness. Declaring the code of honor, Yavuz instigates Şah
İsmail to fight against him. His advance in the Safavid lands is compared to
abduction of Şah İsmail’s wife, and Yavuz in his letter openly appeals to Şah’s
emotions. The letter degrades, insults Şah İsmail aiming to make him feel
ashamed in front of his soldiers and its subjects. The politics of anger is evident
within the context of this letter in which, by using degrading emotional
vocabulary, Yavuz Sultan Selim aims to make his rivalry hateful, angry and
shameful. This passage indicates clearly, how the rhetoric of emotions is used
between two military rivalries. Yavuz Sultan Selim’s emotions are not irrational,
everything seems perfectly rational, in Reddy’s terms, and emotional language
here indicates a goal-oriented thought material.
The display of emotions was not of course limited only in power struggles of
different political entities. It was also common among the Ottoman military
officials in their struggles for power. Reading in between the lines of chronicles
does provide us clues on how Ottoman officials implicitly expressed their
emotions to one another in their search for power.
An important feature of 18th century was that the elite’s struggle for power has
been centered in the Palace. We know quite a lot regarding the political aspects of
those struggles for power. It is also possible to trace attitudes of opposing parties,
how emotions routed their actions, how they were suppressed or expressed by
making a linguistic and textual analysis of chronicles. 18th century chronicles are
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used to trace emotions vis-à-vis the related terms and concepts, which reveal the
sentiments within power struggles.
Tarih-i Raşid, written by the 18th century Ottoman historian Raşid Efendi, the
political history of the empire is presented in a purely official tone. However, we
encounter some passages, which reflect either an emotional setting or an
emotional state of the Sultan. In the examples that are quoted below, Raşid gives
the details of the displacement of grand vizier Çorlulu Ali Paşa as a result of
power struggles in the Palace. Raşid states that due to Çorlulu Ali Paşa’s
recklessness, the king of Sweden has been a burden for the empire and all the
attempts remained futile. Therefore the Sultan was in deep pain (ızdırab-ı külli),
and his heart was overly (mertebe-i mübalağa) broken (inhiraf-ı zamir).
“Vezir-i azam Çorlulu Ali Paşa’nın su-i tedbiri sebebiyle İsveç Kralı devleti
aliyyeni dûş-ı hamiyyetine bir bar-ı giran olub, ref’inde kangı tarafa
teşebbüs olunduysa müfid olmadığından, tab-ı hümayuna ızdırab-ı külli
hâsıl ve vezir-i müşarünileyhe inhiraf-ı zamîr hümayunları mertebe-i
mübalağaya vâsıl olmuş idi.”258
The passage continues with the power struggle between opposing parties Çorlulu
Ali Paşa and Silahdar Ali Paşa. Raşid states that the two were getting perfectly
well (müttehidü’l-kavl) before Silahdar Ali Paşa had been married to the Sultan’s
daughter. However things have changed once Silahdar became the Sultan’s sonin-
law. Although they seemingly looked quite sincere (birbirlerine arz-ı
muhabbet ve ihlâs ve izhâr-ı alaka ve ihtisâs itmede idiler), they were feeling hate
and antagonism deep inside (gayz ve kin derûnlarında derkemîn).
258 Abdülkadir Özcan, et al., Tarih-i Raşid ve Zeyli Raşid Mehmed Efendi ve Çelebizade İsmail
Asım Efendi (1071-1141 / 1660-1729 v. II (İstanbul: Klasik, 2013),835.
145
“Ve hala rikab-ı hümayun kaim-i makamı ve damad-ı padişahi olan
Silahdar Ali Paşa Silahdarlığı evailinde vezir-i a’zam müşarünileyh ile
müttehidü’l-kavl iken bâlâda tafsîl ve beyân olunduğu üzere madde-i
izdivacdan beru mabeynlerinde hâdis olan münaferet pezîrâ-yı ilaç olmayıb,
eğerçi sureta birbirlerine arz-ı muhabbet ve ihlâs ve izhâr-ı alaka ve ihtisâs
itmede idiler. Lakin ikisinin dahi gayz ve kin derûnlarında derkemîn ve
ahedu-humâ aherin izalesine nihânî leyl ve nehâr fırsat-bîn olub, hakikat-ı
hal-i muamelelerinden agah olan kardanan-ı feraset-karîn bâzıçe-i
münakaşaları kariben meydana çıkacağına çeşmdar-ı cezm ve yakîn
olmuşlar idi.”259
The passage then records how the opponents of Çorlulu Ali Paşa convinced the
Sultan that the previous şeyhü’lislam Başmakçızade Ali Efendi, who had been
dismissed by Çorlulu Ali and sent to Sinop, should be appointed back to his post.
Çorlulu Ali Paşa, although he was the grand-vizier, was not even informed of this
appointment. When Çorlulu Ali Paşa learned, he felt totally unconscious and was
overwhelmed and out of his senses (bî-şuur ve anduh-ı melâmet itti).
“...ber vech-i ittihad ve ittifak es-seyyid Ali Efendi hayr-hah-ı devlet-i
‘aliyyeleri olub, bu esnalarda anın Asitane-i saadetde bulunması her vechle
enseb ve enfa idi deyu, taraf-ı hümayuna sevk itmeleriyle sadr-ı azamın
haberi yoğ iken gelüb, hanesinde ikamet eylemek üzere hatt-ı hümayun ile
davet olunmağla, gelüb, Topcularda olan bağçesinde ikamet ve gelmesi
hususunda alaka ve medhali olmamak nakisası vezir-i azam-ı müşarünileyhi
bî-şuur ve anduh-ı melâmet itti.”
These examples show that there were well-understood conventions about when it
was appropriate to repress or express emotions, how to feel towards allies or
enemies and how to display feelings. Usually, the emotions were not publicly and
openly expressed however, the narration techniques that Raşid uses in his lines
259 Ibid.
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show that a closer look into the seemingly pleasant relations reveal a deeper
emotional anger and disgust.
4.6. Concluding Remarks
It is evidenced in the preceding sections that there is always a reference to the
emotional states of both the Sultan but especially of the subjects in the rhetoric of
Ottoman politics. The ideal political order is achieved when the Sultan protects
with compassion and the subjects submit with affection. They both are pleased
(hoşnud) in this ideal state of political order and the pleased state of the subjects is
expressed by the terms müreffehü’l-bal and asude-hal reflecting not only the
material but also emotional well being of the subjects. In their political rhetoric,
both parties, the ruler and the ruled, refer to their emotional states in their
demands as political actors. They do so by using commonly shared codes, both
symbolic and accompanying emotion codes in their rhetoric. We do not know
how they felt, we do not either know whether they expressed their sincere
feelings, however; it is apparent that they used these codes as tools to either show
their content of the present political order, or their discontent signaling a
deterioration in the power relations and a demand for a change, a demand to alter
the present conditions. The emotional well being of the subjects then imposes yet
another constraint to the political order to be established. The state, while trying to
achieve an idealized form of political order, was expected to show compassion,
was also expected to consider their emotional well beings by trying to gain hearts
of its subjects, by uniting not only their minds but also their hearts. Likewise, the
subjects, when they were displeased, they uttered their emotional states, their
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pain, their suffering, their hurt feelings, their grief and sorrow reflecting their
emotional discontent. Their expressions of emotions, the very use of these terms
and phrases acted as secret codes, symbols or signals of deteriorating power
relations. Political measures were taken in return against the wrongdoers for
restoration of not only material but also emotional well being of the subjects
ranging between a simple warning to death penalty. If displeased status of the
subjects continue regardless of the political measures taken they either revolt or
take refuge in another political entity pursuing their emotional well being thereby
loosing their affective ties with the Ottoman state.
This chapter was an attempt to analyze the relations between the ruler and the
ruled who were socially and politically communicating with commonly shared
symbolic and emotion codes. The Ottoman political rhetoric reflects those
thinking and feeling rules and both political parties, the rulers and the ruled, were
effectively utilizing these codes in their political strategies. It is further argued
that the commonly shared emotion codes as to what to feel when and to whom,
necessitates one to consider Ottoman State and its subjects as an emotional
community.
While reading Ottoman narratives, chronicles, decrees or judicial court records,
one may feel that there were more exceptions then the rules, as if there was no
strict adherence to codified laws in Ottoman administration. That is why probably
many historians focus on how law was actually practiced in daily lives of people.
While reason was the most crucial element in defining the relations between the
ruler and the ruled with strict adherence to rules and regulations, for traditional
societies rules were always open to negotiation. The subjects used emotion words
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as a tool to justify their political claims from the Sultan. Likewise the Sultan also
used emotion words as a tool to legitimize his political actions towards his
subjects. In other words, the use of emotion words, had a special function in social
and political relations established. Modeling the rights and responsibilities of both
the Sultan and the subjects via use of common symbolic and emotion codes
constituting shared perceptions, ideas, on how to think and feel, when, where and
towards whom, and how to express/repress displays of emotions enabled us to
better evaluate the seemingly irrational or the seemingly unlawful political
actions. Some historians relate it to Ottoman pragmatism; however, this model
serves a better understanding.
The use of emotions in the political rhetoric of the Ottoman State was also
apparent in its political negotiations or communications with its allies or rivalries,
exemplified within the letters written to Russian Tsar and Safevid Shah. The
symbolic use of emotions revealed the State’s political stance towards other
political entities and linguistic representations of the palace as a “home and source
of happiness” welcoming all the subjects reflected their universal claims of
sovereignty.
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CHAPTER V
EMOTIONAL RHETORIC OF TAİFE/CEMAATS:
“RIZA VE ŞÜKRAN DUYMAK”
The Ottoman society’s social structure has been a research interest for many
historians and the subject has been studied so far from various perspectives. In
this chapter, Ottoman social structure and the sub-groups within this structure is
scrutinized by taking emotions into consideration. Before moving on to explore
the living presence in these sub-social groups, our current knowledge on the social
structure of the Ottoman society is briefly examined.
The first thing that should be emphasized is that Ottoman society never possessed
a monolithic structure in its vast territory known as “memalik-i mahruse”. Rather,
the sub-communities, termed as either “cemaat” or “taife” constituted the
Ottoman society, having different regional, climatic, geological, geographical,
ethnic and cultural identities of their own, reaching from Persian steps to Danube
river basin, from northern Black Sea to northern Africa.260
260 Özer Ergenç and Nil Tekgül, ‘“Role model” defined for the Ottoman individuals and its change
throughout time,” In New Trends in Ottoman Studies, Papers presented at the 20th CI.PO
Symposium Rethymno, 27 June – 1 July 2012, ed. Marinos Sariyannis (Rethymno: University of
Crete, 2014), 768.
150
The members of the society were grouped depending either on their legal status,
spatial settlements, occupational features or their faith/ethnicity. Legally for
example, the society was divided into two segments as reaya (tax-paying
subjects) and askeri (military class members representing the Sultan’s authority
who were tax exempt). Spatially on the other hand, the subjects were grouped as
either urbanized living in the cities or as villagers/nomads in the rural area. The
urbanized were living in the neighborhoods (mahalle), which denoted the most
basic spatial settlement. The villages and the nomadic communities on the other
hand were the main spatial settlements in the rural area, similar to mahalles in the
cities. Those living in the rural areas with agricultural occupation were either
termed as “ziraatçi” (agrarian) or “rençber”(peasant). The subjects living in the
cities were organized as members of specific production units, named as “hirfet”.
They were in other words, organizations producing non-agricultural products in
the cities, carrying on various lines of businesses. The members of hirfets were
termed either as “esnaf”, “ehl-i hiref” or “hirfet erbabı” in the Ottoman
documents. The subjects’ identities were also shaped by their faith or ethnicity
that were also grouped under different communities. The subjects were either
Muslim, Christian or Jewish, while some were further organized depending on
their ethnic origins. There were many terms used in Ottoman documents denoting
to various legal, spatial, occupational or religious sub-groups. The general terms
used for these sub-groups were either “cemaat” or “taife”. Sometimes, the terms
“millet” or “fırka” were also used especially when referring to the subjects’
religious identities. All of these taifes or cemaats formed the basic social and
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organizational units of the Ottoman society. Bearing this fact in mind however,
despite the legal, spatial, occupational, and religious or ethnic disparities, all
taife/cemaats possessed some commonalities as well and these common features
are emphasized in this chapter.
Firstly, the common thread of all the members of the taife/cemaats was being a
subject of the Ottoman State, in other words “reaya” of the State, regardless of
their secondary identities that they possessed by being a member of a specific
taife/cemaat. The most basic identity of any individual was being “an Ottoman
reaya”, preceding all his/her secondary identities.
Secondly, these sub-groups were not isolated in the sense that any Ottoman
subject could simultaneously be a member of more than one social sub-group. A
Muslim and a Christian subject, for example, could be a member of the same
residential settlement be it a mahalle in a city or a village in the rural area. The
case was also prevalent for members of occupational groups. A Muslim, a
Christian or a Jew could at the same time be a member of a specific occupational
group. Throughout his daily-life, an Ottoman subject would pray in his place of
worship with other members of the same faith in the morning, and work in the
afternoon as a member of a specific production unit together with the members of
an occupational group from different faiths. Religious identity of one did not
hinder him to simultaneously have a different occupational or spatial identity. In
this respect, we may regard Ottoman society as transitive allowing room for
mobility within various overlapping or intertwined sub-communities.
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Thirdly, each taife/cemaat had three basic layers in its pyramid-like hierarchial
structure. The administrators of the taife/cemaat were positioned at the top of this
pyramid. The second layer constituted of the notables or elites of the taife. All the
remaining members were positioned at the bottom layer and were termed in
general as taife/cemaat members.
Figure 9. Pyramidal Structure of Taife Cemaats
For example, the administrators termed either as şeyh, pir, kethüda or yiğitbaşı
were positioned at the top of the pyramidal organization in every guild. The elites
of the group were termed as üstadan (masters). The remaining members of the
group were termed as şakirdan (disciples). Likewise, while mahalle kethüdası,
mahalle çavuşu or imam represented the administrators in the mahalles, ihtiyaran,
vücuh, ayan represented the notables of the group or those who have been
selected by the community members, and taife members constituted the remaining
members at the bottom of the organizational structure, termed as mahalle cemaati.
The same structure was also true any religious group like Yahudi cemaati, Rum
taifesi.
Administrators
Notables/Elites
Taife members
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The three main common features of taifes; namely their members’ common
identity of being an Ottoman reaya, their transitive feature rendering mobility,
and their pyramid-like organizational structure also paved them to set similar
codes of behavior for their members. Each taife/cemaat had its own conduct
besides the religious or legal rules imposed by the authorities. The members of
each taife/cemaat were well aware of the established code of behavior, which
were usually orally transmitted from one generation to the next.
But how could the established Ottoman social structure subdue the taife/cemaats
despite all their variations? This is one of the questions that historians have long
tried to answer focusing either on the rules and regulations promulgated by the
state to achieve co-existence among various groups or on the flexible and
pragmatic tendencies of the state’s policies towards disparities. However, a better
question may be how the individuals themselves in the taifes could bridge the preexisting
boundaries, be it spatial, legal, religious, ethnic or occupational. What
was the main principle bonding the members of each taife/cemaat? What was the
key to the co-existence of members with different secondary identities in one
taife/cemaat, be it a mahalle cemaati or an esnaf taifesi? Was it just the policies
and rules promulgated by the state that which enabled co-existence? Was it just
the principle of tolerance that Islam demanded as some historians have argued?
Or was it something else that which acted as a gluing factor among the members
of each taife and relatively eased pre-existing boundaries?
It is argued in this chapter that these social sub-communities (taife or cemaat)
were all at the same time distinct emotional communities having their own
emotional norms. It was mainly this feature of the taifes that could not only cut
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across and bridge pre-existing boundaries incorporating diverse groups of people
and thereby making co-existence possible but also acted as a social bond within
each taife itself. It was also this feature that which could ease transition from one
to another once the members conform to its norms. In this chapter the
emotionology of the taifes is explored, regarding them as unique emotional
communities. Emotional communities and emotionology are the terms coined by
Rosenwein and Stearns that has previously been mentioned in chapter two. Their
approach is utilized in search for emotional standards of the Ottoman taifes
embedded in the social norms, beliefs, ideologies, discourses which enable us to
find out their larger social, legal and political implications.
“Emotional communities” are social communities −families, neighborhoods,
parliaments, guilds, monasteries and parish church membership− that define and
assess same feelings as valuable and harmful to them.261 It is also a community in
which people have a common stake, interests, values and goals. She claimed that
they are in some ways what Foucault called a common “discourse”: a shared
vocabularies and ways of thinking that have a controlling function, a disciplining
function and are also similar as well to Bourdieu’s notion of “habitus”;
internalized norms that determine how we think and act and that may be different
in different groups.262 In one of her talks given in TORCH-The Oxford Research
Centre in the Humanities in May 11 2015, Rosenwein was asked by Ute Frevert,
whether it was emotions that which founded the group of emotional community or
261 Barbara Rosenwein, Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 2006).
262 Ibid., 25.
155
emotions came out of group processes that were defined otherwise, like belonging
to a certain religious or any other value system. In other words, Frevert asked if
emotions had a foundational value or emotions were consequence of being in a
community or group structure that then breeds certain emotions. Rosenwein’s
answer is crucial. She indicated that she did not mean for an emotional
community to be reified, she just suggested the concept as a heuristic device, as a
tool for historians who want to be thinking of emotions, and are troubled with
giving sense to too many sources on emotions, emotion words. Likewise, she did
not get into discussions regarding the epistemological foundations of the concept
of emotional communities. Whether they were communities founded because
members valued same emotions or emotions were a consequence of communities
that are defined otherwise, she stated, her main concern had been the relations
established between community members. I therefore used the concept as a tool to
better understand the emotional dimension of intra-communal relations.
Inspired by Rosenwein’s approach, the nature of the affective bonds in the
Ottoman taifes between their members, the modes of emotional expression that
they expect, encourage, tolerate and deplore is analyzed in this section.
But how can we explore the emotional norms of any taife or cemaat embedded in
their social or religious norms? Presciption of emotions have rather been
established within each taife/cemaat itself and transmitted from generation to
generation with no written manuals. However, a careful analysis of judicial court
records offers us ample clues to trace the emotional norms because the registers
are full of records of those who deviated from the widely spread social and
emotional norms. The negations in this sense may enable us to explore not only
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the deviations from these norms but also the prescriptions themselves. We also
need to keep in mind that, it is the social rules that which give shape and govern
emotional norms. For the guilds, there were also written conduct manuals,
fütüvvetnames263, which also served as prescriptions for becoming an exemplary
member. Fütüvvetnames include topics ranging from guiding principles for
complete and utter selflessness, unlimited generosity, hospitability and tolerance
of other people’s faults to rules, regulations and rituals of the guild. They acted as
a moral and spiritual guide for the members.264 The judicial court records on the
other hand, supply more clues on the emotional dimension of the relations
established among the guild members.
In the next section, a spatial analysis of the physical spaces like mahalles
(quarters) and the suks (markets, bazaars) commonly shared by the members of
taife/cemaats and the living presence in these spaces are explored. A closer look
at the social implications of spatial settlements indicate that the physical structure
of settlement practices and face-to-face relations of community members did have
an impact on the establishment of not only distinct codes of behavior but also
distinct emotion codes.
263 Özer Ergenç, XVI.Yüzyılda Ankara ve Konya, 2nd Edition (Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt
Yayınları, 2012), 117.
264 Ines Asceric-Todd, “The Noble Traders: the Islamic Tradition of “Spiritual Chivalry”
(futuwwa) in Bosnian Trade-guilds (16th-19th centuries),” The Muslim World 97 (Aprl 2007): 160.
157
5.1. Spatial Analysis of Ottoman Quarters and Bazaars
The main physical structures shaping an “Ottoman city” were the caddes (streets)
opening up to an uluyol (highway) and a bazar meydanı (market square). Selfcreated
clusters of houses having connections to these main structural elements
formed the general texture of the city. Each of these clusters of houses denoted a
distinct mahalle, with houses linked to one another by private streets (tarik-i hass)
that were mostly cul-de-sacs. The borders of these houses were collectively
determined by the mahalle cemaati and life within these clusters depended on
mutual accordance among the residents. The houses were usually termed as
sınırları inde’l-ciran ma’lum olan (the borders of which known among the
neighbors). We usually encounter such phrases in records of house sale
agreements like “…..iki yüz elli guruşu eda eylemek için mahalle-i mezbûrede
vâki‘ lede’lahâli ve’l-cirân ma‘lumetü’l-hudud ve’l-müştemilât bir bâb mülk
menzilimizi…..”265
The houses were usually built next-door to one another. In Ottoman documents,
next-door neighbors were termed as car-ı mülasık266 or hemcivar. It may also be
defined as a domain of neighbors.267 The adjoint structure of the houses shaped the
265 Ülkü Geçgil,“Uskudar at the begining of the 18th century (a case study on the text and analysis
of the court register of Uskudar nr. 402),” (Unpublished master’s thesis, İstanbul: Fatih
Üniversitesi, 2009), 188.
266 Nil Tekgül, “Modernite Öncesi Osmanlı Toplumunda Mahremiyet Halkaları,” in Prof. Dr. Özer
Ergenç’e Armağan (İstanbul: Bilge Kültür Sanat, 2013), 420. Quoted from Konya JCR 35: 113
“...takrir-i kelam idüp Mehmed benim car-ı mülasıkım olub, tarih-i kitab gecesi.........”; cf. Bursa
JCR 41: 12 “.... mahalle-i merkumede vaki’ car-ı mülasıkım olan İskender veled-i Karabed nam
Ermeni......... benim mahutam divarına mülasık bina itmeğle..........”.
267 For “domain of neighbors” see. Nil Tekgül, “Modernite Öncesi Osmanlı Toplumunda
Mahremiyet Halkaları,” in Prof. Dr. Özer Ergenç’e Armağan (İstanbul: Bilge Kültür Sanat, 2013),
411-433.
158
spatial texture of the quarters in an Ottoman city. There were usually walls built in
between the houses to prevent getting sight of one’s neighbor’s privacy and we
encounter many cases in which next-door neighbors got into disputes regarding the
physical structure of the adjacent houses having sight within interior parts of the
other’s house. The below case is an example of just one;
“…ve hassa mimar olan üstad İbrahim bin Abdülgani ile mahrusa-i
brusa’da Reyhan Paşa mahallesinde sakin olan fahrü’l ulemai’l-kiram
Habilzade Mehmed efendinin menziline varıb, beynel ahali akd-i meclis-i
şer’-i ali olundukda, meclis-i mezburda mümaileyh mehmed efendi
hemcivarı olan Hasan bin Abdullah nam kimesne muvacehesinde üzerine
dava ve takrir-i kelam idüb, “mezbur Hasan’ın menzilinde vaki çardağının
sundurması dahil-i beytime nazır olmağla havalesi vardır men olunmak
taleb iderim” deyücek fi’l vaki mimar-ı mezbur ve sair ahali-i vukuf
muayene eylediklerinde zikr olunan çardağın sundurması müşarünileyh
mehmed efendinin dahil-i haremine nazır olub, havalesi zahir ve müteayyin
olmağın havale-i mezbure merkum Hasan’ın divarı üzerinde vaki çardak
sakafına varınca divar yapılmak ile def’ olduğunu mimar-ı mezbur ve ahalii
vukuf ber vech-i vifak icma ve ittifak eylediklerinde mucebiyle mevlana-i
mezbur havale-i merkumeyi defe mezbur hasana tenbih eyledikten sonra
…… Tahriren fi evahir-i cemaziyelevvel sene hamsin ve elf.268
Here is another case record giving us clues on the adjacent structure of the houses.
Mahrusa-i Brusa’da İğnecizade mahallesinde sakin Kladuz veled-i Kazur
nam Ermeni meclis-i şer’de takrir-i kelam idüb, “mahalle-i merkumede vaki
car-ı mülasıkım olan İskender veled-i Karabed nam Ermeninin menzilinde
vaki beyt-i ulvinin canib-i kıblesinde vaki’ kapu ile pencerenin benim
menzilime havalesi olduğundan gayri zikr olunan beyt-i ulvinin taş
nerdibanı ve şarken divarını Ermeni-i mezbur İskender benim mahutam
divarına mülasık bina itmeğle bana külli zarar müterteb olmuştur, canib-i
şer’den üzerine varılıb zikr olunan kapu ve pencerenin havalesi ile nerdiban
ve divarın zararını def itmek içün tenbih olunmak taleb iderim “ didikte……
Tahriren fi’l yevm’is-sadis min cemaziyülevvel sene hamsin ve elf.” 269
268 Bursa JCR 41:25
269 Bursa JCR 41: 28
159
In spite of such disputes, this adjacent living demanded a close relationship
between neighbors. The common thread in this domain was spatial co-existence.
The below record enables one to visualize the nesting structure of the
neighborhood of Ankara castle and feel the living presence within this physical
space.
“Medine-i Ankara hısnının kethüdası olan Es-Seyyid El-Hac Şerif Ağa ve
sair mustahfızanı meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımi’t-tevkirde her biri takrir-i
kelam idüb, hısn-ı mezkurun aşağıkapı tabir olunan kal’a kapısının sol
tarafında kain marü’z-zikr kapının ittisalinde vaki’ etraf-ı selasesi tarik-i
amm ve hısn-ı mezkur hendeği ve zahrı Yanartaş Klisesi dimekle meşhur
kiniseden benna zıra’ı ile 10 zıra’ bu’du olan havlu ile mahdud zıra-i
mezkur ile 10 zıra’ kale duvarı mürür-ı eyyam ve kürur-ı a’vam ile temel
taşları kâğşayub ve münhedîm olmağla meyl ve ta’mir ve termime eşedd-i
ihtiyac ile muhtac olduğuna bina-ı hısn-ı mezkur ahalileri ve nice hâmil
hatunlar ve sabî ve sebiyye uşaklar divar-ı mezkurun tahtından mürur ve
ubur idemeyib bi’z-zaruri mürur ve ubur iden kimesneler dahi azîm havfa
ta’bi olub iyazen billahi teala münhedîm olmak lazım gelirse mukabelesinde
olan birkaç adet menzillerin bi’l-külliye inhidamına ve telef-i nüfusa bais
olacağı zahir ve nümayan olmağla canib-i şer’den üzerine varulub keşf ve
tahrir ve suret-i sicili yedime i’ta olunmak matlubumdur dediklerinde …..
fi’l-yevmi’s-sadis vel ışrıyn min recebü’l- ferd li seneti hamse ve sittin ve
mie ve elf.”270
We understand from this record that the kethüda of Ankara castle and his
entourage came to the court and stated that the walls in the lower end of the castle
had been loosened and that it was inevitable for the wall to rundown. There was a
wide yard, surrounded by a tarik-i amm (public road), a castle ditch and Yanartaş
church, situated just in front of the mentioned wall. This wall endangered the
castle residents, especially the little children and the pregnant women passing by
and added that they felt frightened. If the wall had run down, the houses across
270 Ankara JCR135: 165/2
160
would be under the ruins causing the death of many people. They therefore
demanded the wall to be repaired. The judge then decided to set up a committee
of experts to have their opinions regarding the repair. Having heard of the expert’s
opinions in accord with that of the kethüda, the judge gave permission to the said
kethüda to repair the mentioned wall.
This record evidences the congested texture of the houses clustered within the
Ankara castle. The families spent their daily lives within this space. In spite of the
interior walls between the houses, the residents would hear one another, would
frequently encounter in the streets or the highways, having a good grasp of the
private lives of one another.
The following court record is about a case occurred in the Teke neighborhood of
Ankara.
“Medine-i Ankara mahallatından Teke Ahmed nam mahallede sakin
Mustafa bin Mehmed mahfil-i kazada Mehmed bin Mustafa nam kimesne
mahzarında dava ve takrir-i kelam idüb mezbur Mehmed tarih-i kitabdan 1
gün mukaddem kable’l-‘aşâ balta ile kapımı paralayub itale-i lisan
eylemiştir sual olunsun didikde gıbbe’s-sual mezbur Mehmed inkar idicek
mezbur Mustafa’dan beyyine taleb olundukda Hatib bin İsa ve Musa bin
Mustafa nam kimesneler meclis-i şer’e haziran olub fi’l-hakika mezbur
tarih-i kitabdan bir gün mukaddem kable’l-‘aşâ mezbur Mustafa’nın
kapısını paraladı. Biz bu hususa şahitleriz şehadet dahi ideriz dediklerinde
gıbbe’t-tadil şehadetleri makbule olmağın ma vakıa kayd şud.”271
In this case, Mustafa who is one of the residents of the Teke quarter, filed a
complaint against Mehmed bin Mustafa who is from the same quarter and claimed
that one day ago, the said Mehmed broke his door with an ax during the night
271 Ankara JCR 38:41/107
161
prayer and cursed him with scornful expressions. When the defendant rejected the
claim, the court asked Mustafa to provide evidence to prove his case. Mustafa
then called his neighbors to the court as his witnesses, who had then verified his
claim. This case shows that the neighbors who lived either in adjacent houses or
in close proximity were well aware of their neighbor’s affairs, which necessitated
them to establish close ties with each other.
The following case also serves as an interesting example of the ties founded
between İsfehan and Çubukzade Feyzullah Ağa, both from the Uğurlupınar
quarter of Sivas.
“Uğurlupınar mahallesi mütemekkinelerinden Meryem binti Kayril nam
nasraniyye zevci İstefan veledi Nazar nam zimmiye teslim olunub bir dahi
hilaf-ı şer’ mesfureyi dövmemek üzere tenbih ve mesfur dahi kabul ve bir
dahi dövmemesine Çubukçuzade Kassab Seyyid Feyzullah Ağa ibn-i Hacı
Hasan kefîl ve zâmin olduğu kayd şud. fi 6 safer 1198.”272
We understand from the above case that, the non-Muslim woman Meryem left her
house since her husband was beating her. However, the court demanded that
Meryem would be sent back to her house and handed over to her husband, on the
condition that her husband would not beat her again. However, the court also
demanded someone as a surety in case the husband would fail to perform his
promise. And, Feyzullah Ağa became the husband’s surety. There are two things
in this case that has to be emphasized. One is the presence of close ties between a
Muslim and a non-Muslim family. Secondly, although both Feyzullah Ağa and
İsfehan were joint guarantors (müteselsil kefil) to one another since they were
272 Sivas JCR134: 6
162
both from the same quarter273, additionally Feyzullah Ağa accepted to act as a
surety in this private issue of İsfehan which demands that his non-Muslim
neighbor would not beat his own wife any more. Feyzullah Ağa did agree to be
legally responsible if his neighbor İsfehan beats his wife, which is a private and
personal affair of the husband and wife of a non-Muslim family. Guaranteeing
that his non-Muslim neighbor would not beat his own wife any more, and he will
be responsible in case he fails to do so, also indicates that they were living in
close proximity with one another.
This proximity was also leading to solidarity among the members of the
community not only between each other but also against any threats from outside
the community. Below case is an evidence of solidarity between the members of
the Ankara castle community against the administrators.
The below case is about two non-Muslim neighbors who came to the court
together with their neighbors who most probably possess different faiths, who
claimed against an askeri class member in the Ankara Castle.
“Medine-i Ankara kalesi sakinlerinden işbu baisu hazi’r-rakim Şuurşe
veled-i Mikel ve Domus veled-i Darsus ve ... bi-icmahim meclis-i şer’i hatiri
lazımi’t-tevkire hazirun olub her biri takrir-i kelam ve tabir-i ani’l-meram
idüb bi’l-fiil Ankara damgası mukataası emini olan Piri Ağa’nın kaim-i
makamı ve vekil-i şer’isi olan Hüseyin Ağa bedel-i muavenet akçesi
talebiyle ademlerini sakin olduklarımız menzillerimize gönderib
hatunlarımızın saçını kesib bazı bîkes hatunların hilaf-ı şer’-i şerif üzerine
gidüb ve kapılarını kırıb ve bazıları dahi mezburların havfından vaz’-ı haml
ittiklerinden maada her birimize enva’-i cefa ve eza itmişlerdir davet-i şer’
273 For the issue of “joint guarantors” in the Ottoman society, see; Özer Ergenç, “Osmanlı
Şehrindeki Mahallenin İşlevleri ve Nitelikleri Üzerine,” In Osmanlı Tarihi Yazıları Şehir, Toplum,
Devlet (İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2012), 75-85.
163
olunub icra-i şer’ olunması matlubumuzdur dediklerinde mezbur Hüseyin
Ağa’yı bi’d-def’at davet-i şer’-i şerif olundukda itaat-i şer’-i şerif itmediği
mezburlar talebiyle ketb olundu. Hurrire fi gurre-i muharremi’l haram.
Sene selase ve sittin ve elf.”274
Two non-Muslims residents of Ankara castle, Şuurse and Domus, appeared at the
court together with their neighbors (bi-icmahim) and claimed against Hüseyin
Ağa and his entourage. Hüseyin Ağa was the deputy and the proxy of the damga
mukataası emini Piri Ağa. They declared that Hüseyin Ağa sent his entourage to
their houses to collect a tax under the name “bedel-i muavenet”, cut the hair of
their wives and oppressed them. Their oppression reached such an extent that they
even broke in the houses of desolate women and some of the pregnant women
were so much terrified that some had miscarriage. Despite the plaintiffs’ recurrent
claims for Hüseyin Ağa to be questioned it wasn’t possible to take him to the
court. It is most likely that Hüseyin Ağa abused his status as damga mukataası
emini. The next record in the register further elucidates the same case.
“Medine-i Ankara’da kale sakinlerinden baisü hazi’r-rakîm Merdun veled-i
Karagöz nam zimmi mahfil-i kazada medine-i mezburede bi’l-fiil damga
mukataası emini olan Piri Ağa’nın ademlerinden Halil bin Mustafa ve
Mahmud bin Mehmed nam kimesneler mahzarlarında dava ve üzerlerine
takrir-i kelam idüb tarih-i kitabdan 3 gün mukaddem bedel-i muavenet
akçesi talebi içün mezburan Halil ve Mahmud’ı gönderib anlar dahi gelib
hilaf-ı şer’-i şerif sakin olduğum menzilime girüb zevcem Emili bint Misis
nam nasraniyyenin depme ile karnına darb itmeleriyle ol sebebden sekr ilen
bir cenin meyt ilka etmiştir sual olunub muceb-i şer’i icra olunmak
matlubumdur didikde gıbbe’s-sual ve akibü’l-inkar müddei-i mezburdan
davasına mutabık beyyine taleb olundukda udul-ı müsliminden Ahmed bin
Mustafa ve İbrahim bin Mustafa nam kimesneler li-ecli’ş-şehade meclis-i
şer’e haziran olub eserü’l-istişhad cevablarında fi’l-hakika tarih-i
mezburdan üç gün mukaddem mezbur Merdun’un sakin olduğu menzilinde
274 Ankara JCR 38: 37
164
nida ve feryad istima’ eylediğimizde biz dahi varub mezburan Halil ve
Mahmud merkume Emili’nin karnına depme ile darb ettiklerini müşahede
eyledik biz bu hususa şahidleriz şehadet dahi ideruz deyu her biri eda-yı
şehadet-i şer’iyye eylediklerinde bade’t-tadil şehadetleri makbule olmağın
mucebiyle hüküm birle. (gereğinin yapılmasına hüküm verilerek) ma vakıa
ketb olundu. hurrire fi’l-yevmi’s-salis min muharremü’l-haram sene selase
ve sittin ve elf.”275
This case is also about a claim against Halil and Mahmud who were from Piri
Ağa’s entourage. The non-Muslim Merdun claims that 3 days ago, the said men
came to Merdun’s house for the collection of the same tax, and his wife had a
miscarriage since they had beaten her. After their denial of the claim, the court
demanded Merdun to provide evidence for his case. Merdun showed his Muslim
neighbors Ahmed and İbrahim as his witnesses. The witnesses declared that they
went to Merdun’s house when they had heard sounds of weeping and screaming,
and witnessed Halil and Mahmud beating the wife of Merdun. Then the judge
gave his verdict that they be punished. This is also a case that evidences both the
intertwined texture of the houses and the close ties established between the
neighbors. The neighbors would run for help straightaway in case they hear
anything extraordinary. It is also worth pointing out that in this case, the Muslims
ran for help to their non-Muslim neighbors and did not leave them alone. Halil
and Mahmud, against whom the Muslims witnessed were from the retinue of a
member of örf class delegated with an executive authority. In spite of this fact, the
Muslims did not leave their oppressed non-Muslim neighbors alone and witnessed
against the state officials. It is evident that religious identities were of secondary
275 Ankara JCR 38: 37
165
importance; being a member of Ankara Castle community was the main
determinant of their identity. They could bridge the pre-existing boundaries of
faith. They could act against an “örf member” collectively, which also evidences
the solidarity established among them.
The close proximity of neighbors in a mahalle district was not much different
from that in esnaf taifesi. Below is a case in which Hacı Ahmed from şariyeci
guild demands his good conduct to be questioned from not only his own guild but
also members of other guilds in the same bazaar. Attar, tabib, bazarcı, fesçi and
many others from his own guild witnessed his expertise in his own craft and his
good behavior towards members of other taifes.
“Mahmiyye-i İstanbul’da olan şa’riyeci taifesinin ihtiyarlarından Hacı
Ahmed bin Hacı Ali nam kimesne meclis-i şer’de takrir-i kelam ve ta’bir-i
ani’l-meram idüb ben kendi halimde olub san’atımda kusurum olmayub
kimesneye zararın yok iken halen kethüdamız olan Hacı Uhyel nam kimesne
bi-gayr-ı vech mahmiyye-i mezburede Tahte’l-Kal’a’da vaki karhanemi
kapayub beni işlemeden men’ itmişdir keyfiyet-i halim etrafımda olan
dekakin ashabı ve taife-i mezbureden sual olunub haberleri tahrir ve yedime
hüccet virilmek muradımdır didikde mezbur Hacı Ahmed’in keyfiyet-i hali
etrafında olan dekakin ahvalinden olup hazirun-ı bi’l-meclis olan attar el-
Hac Abdi bin Yusuf ve tabib es-Seyyid Ahmed Çelebi ibn es-Seyyid Şaban ve
(...) Mehmed bin Hacı Ali ve bazarcı Mehmed bin Ebubekir ve Attar Hacı
Mehmed bin Yusuf ve fesci Mehmed bin Ahmed ve attar Mehmed bin Cafer
ve taife-i mezbureden Hacı Ali bin Ömer ve Hacı Ali ibn Hamza ve Hacı
Ahmed ve Hacı Ahmed bin Hacı Mehmed ve Hacı Selim bin hacı Mehmed
ve Hacı Mehmed bin Ivaz ve Hacı Mehmed bin Şaban ve Ömer bin Şehab
bin Cezzar ve Hacı Cemal ibn el-Hac Şehade ve Ali Hacı Ali ibn Sultan nam
kimesnelerden mezbur Hacı Mehmed’in keyfiyet-i hali sual olundukda her
biri mezbur Hacı Ahmed içün kendi halinde olub san’atında kusuru ve
kimesneye zararı olmayub her vechle halinden şakir ve razılarız deyu hüsn-i
hal virdiklerinde ma-vaka’a bi’t-taleb ketb olundu fi’l-yevmi’l-işrin min
Saferi’L-hayr li-sene sitte ve sebine ve elf.” 276
276 Timur Kuran, ed., Mahkeme Kayıtları Işığında 17. Yüzyıl İstanbul’unda Sosyo-Ekonomik
Yaşam. v: 1. Esnaf ve Loncalar, Hıristiyan ve Yahudi Cemaat İşleri, Yabancılar (İstanbul: İş
Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2010), 266-267. Quoted from İstanbul JCR 16: 92a/4.
166
The bazaars in this sense were similar to mahalles. The conduct of Hacı Ahmed in
this case who was from şariyeci esnaf was questioned from the members of other
guilds around like attar, tabibs (etrafında olan dekakin ahvalinden) who were all
performing their craft within the same physical space.
The court cases above evidence that individuals as members of sub-communities
be it a mahalle cemaati or esnaf taifesi lived together with close communal ties
established among them despite their secondary identities. The adjacent structure
of their houses or spatial closeness in their physical spaces of occupation to one
another helped to achieve close contacts apparently.
Although this close proximity established solidarity among the members, it could
also however, serve as a source of displeasure and resentment. We frequently
encounter cases in which members of the same community curse each other,
witnessed by the community members.
Some court cases are recorded as if the scribe had written exactly what the
plaintiff uttered. Such cases like the one below, seems like debunking all the
previous research which argue that the utterances of the legal parties were being
either transformed or even changed while being written to comply to legal jargon.
It is inscribed as if there were no barriers to free-spoken words.
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da Karahayıt mahallesi sakinlerinden baisü’l-kitab
Ümmühani bint Abdülbaki nam hatun meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımü’ttevkirde,
Mehmed bin Receb mahzarında üzerine dava ve takrir-i kelam
idüb, “mezbur Mehmed benim car-ı mülasıkım olub, tarih-i kitap gecesi
benim kapumu mıhlayub, ben dahi açtığım eclden mezburını keser ile darp
idüb, ve sana ben fiil-i şen’i ideyüm ve sıra ile nice kimesnelere dahi fiil-i
şen’i ettireyüm deyü bana şetm itmişdir, sual olunub muceb-i şer’i icra
olunması matlubumdur” didikde gıbbe’s-sual ve a’kibü’l inkar ve bade’l
istişhad, udul-ı müsliminden mahalle-i merkumede sakinin Seyid Mustafa
167
Çelebi ibn El-Hac Seyid Süleyman ve Mehmed ibn İbrahim nam kimesneler
li-ecli’ş-şehade meclis-i şer’e haziran olub..........”277
This case is about anger, cursing, and violence. In this case the lady named
Ümmühan appeals to the court and claims in the presence of Mehmed that this
Mehmed, who is her next-door neighbor, knocked her door, came inside, attacked
her with a knife and cursed by saying that he would not only have an illicit sex
with her, but also let others to have one by one. (sana ben fiil-i şen’i ideyüm ve
sıra ile nice kimesnelere dahi fiil-i şen’i ettireyüm). She wants Mehmed to be
questioned. Although Mehmed denied, witnesses came to the court and told that
they had heard Mehmed cursing. And the case has been recorded upon request.
The above cases which evidence that community members lived physically close
to one another who acted as sureties of their neighbors from a different faith,
claimed against a member of the ruling elite for his oppression together with their
neighbors, witnessed for the well-being (or their displeasure) of their next-door
neighbors or their fellows from their own occupational groups in a court case, are
not unique in any sense. The court registers are full of similar cases and this is
something that we already know. They actually reflect not only Ottoman but also
any other traditional society. However, what we do not know is how they
themselves could succeed in bypassing the disparities among them? Was there
another determinant of social solidarity? Can we explain the solidarity established
277 Konya JCR 35: 113
168
between the members only by their physical close proximity ruling out the
disparities? It seems like it does not give a satisfactory answer by itself.
Regarding each taife as an emotional community sharing not only a common
physical space but also define and assess same feelings as valuable and harmful to
them, having a common stake, interests, values and goals, sharing a common
rhetoric of emotions would elucidate how they could. Furthermore, exploring the
ways in which emotions were expressed would help us to grasp the fundamental
social assumptions and daily negotiations that collectively structured Ottoman
society.
The main question then remains to be how the members of these taifes expressed
their emotions towards one another and what the role of emotional rhetoric was in
their daily lives. Since every expression of emotion constitutes social
communication and political negotiation, exploring the emotional rhetoric is also
crucial in investigating power relations. The emotional rhetoric of the taifes is
explored in the next section.
5.2. Emotional Rhetoric of Taife/Cemaats
It is argued that each taife/cemaat was a distinct emotional community besides
being a social community. Based on notable frequency of their appearance in the
primary sources, it is further argued in this section that the terms that we
encounter like “razı olmak” (giving consent), “şükran duymak” (feeling thankful)
or “hoşnud olmak” (feeling pleased), “maiyyet üzere olmak” all evidence the
169
emotional dimension of the relations among the community members. It was not
something that the religious law demanded, it was not demanded by the traditions
either. These phrases that we frequently encounter in sources represent the
emotional discourse of taife/cemaats, each having their own emotional standards
as an emotional community. It should be noted here that it is not the emotions of
the members of taifes that they felt towards one another that is searched for.
Although words and feelings were not entirely separate, this research is rather
concerned with the verbal expressions of emotions and words in which emotions
were expressed. It is an expression of feeling, an expression of solidarity based on
emotions.
5.2.1. “Razı ve şakir olmak”
What did the phrase “rıza ve şükran duymak” denote? How would members of a
taife or cemaat feel rıza and şükran towards one another? What was the role of
such an expression and when was it suitable to express, where and to whom?
What were the constraints of being somebody whom the members of the
taife/cemaat were thankful to and pleased of?
A neighborhood community could claim in the court that they collectively do not
have their consent for a member of their community and do not feel thankful to
him/her and may even demand his/her expulsion from their community. For
example, in a court case dating 28 December 1683278, the community members
278 Taş 2004: 251 Hülya Taş, XVII. Yüzyılda Ankara. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Ankara: Ankara
Üniversitesi: 2004, 251. Quoted from Ankara JCR 64: 167.
170
came to the court and claimed that “mezbûr Ahmed, yaramaz ve ehl-i fesâd
kimesne olub dâ’imâ bu makûle fesâddan hâlî olmayub her hâl ile evzâ‘ ve
ef‘âlinden rızâ ve şükran üzere değilleriz”. The members of taife did not want to
share their space with Ahmed any more. Ahmed in other words deviated from the
social norms of his community since he was “yaramaz”(misconducting) and “ehli
fesad” (intriguer) and his failure of compliance is expressed in the emotional
rhetoric of the community members as “rıza ve şükran üzere değilleriz”. This
expression may also be regarded as a social signal, informing that the affective
ties between Ahmed and the community members have been deteriorated.
We encounter the phrase “rıza ve şükran” frequently not only in spatial
communities like neighborhoods or districts but also in the guilds. This is also an
expression widely used by the guild members towards those who are either
considered to be a part (or not) of their emotional community. The case that has
previously been quoted in which Hacı Ahmed, a member of şariyeci guild in
İstanbul, demanded his own conduct be questioned from members of other guilds,
also reflects emotional rhetoric of the guild members with the verbal expression
of emotions as “mezbur Hacı Mehmed’in keyfiyet-i hali sual olundukda her biri
mezbur Hacı Ahmed içün kendi halinde olub san’atında kusuru ve kimesneye
zararı olmayub her vechle halinden şakir ve razılarız deyu hüsn-i hal
virdiklerinde...”.279
279 Timur Kuran, ed., Mahkeme Kayıtları Işığında 17. Yüzyıl İstanbul’unda Sosyo-Ekonomik
Yaşam. v:1. Esnaf ve Loncalar, Hıristiyan ve Yahudi Cemaat İşleri, Yabancılar (İstanbul: İş
Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2010), 266-267. Quoted from İstanbul JCR 16: 92a/4.
171
In the case below, the non-Muslim members of dimici taifesi Geromi, Yani,
Melike, Vesnci, Corci, Frankovi and Anton came to the court and within the
presence of Yani who was their selected leader made the allegation that although
Nikola was acting as their selected leader for a long time, they are not pleased of
him and do not have consent in him. Therefore they demand that Nikola be
expelled from his post of kethüda and Yani be their new and selected kethüda for
whom they have unanimously decided to be their new leader. The case has been
recorded as per request when Yani accepted to be their kethüda and carry out the
requirements of his new duty. This case has a high representational power since
court records are full of cases providing evidences in which the group members
demand dismissal of a kethüda and their emotions are usually expressed as “razı
ve şükran değiliz”. It was necessary that the members in the bottom of the
pyramidal organizational structure of the communities would be razı ve şakir
from not only one another but also from their leaders who were selected
collectively by the members. It was a mutual relationship, which also demanded
presence of mutual affective ties.
“Mahrusa-i Galata ve tevabiinde vaki dimici taifesinden Geromi veled-i
Melike ve Yani veled-i Manol ve Melike veled-i Geromi ve Vesnci veled-i
Bati ve Corci veled-i Cani ve Frankovi veled-i Todori ve Anton veled-i Pepi
nam zimmiler ve sairleri meclis-i şer’de hala beynlerinde kethüda nasb ve
tayin eyledikleri işbu rafiü’l-rakim Yani veled-i Manol nam zimmi
muvacehesinde her biri ikrar ve takrir-i kelam idüb kadimü’l-eyyamdan bu
ana gelince umurumuzu rü’yet içün beynmizde bir kethüda nasb u tayin
olunagelüb ve hala kethüdamız olan işbu hazırbi’l-meclis Nikola veled-i
Manol nam zimminin evza u etvarından cümlemiz hoşnud ve razılar
olmadığımız cihetle merkum Nikola’yı ihrac ve yerine merkum Yani’yi
beynimizde bi’l-ittifak kethüda nasb u tayin ve ihtiyar eyledik dediklerinde
merkum Yani dahi ber vech-i muharrer kethüdalığı kabul ve mahallinde
172
hidemat-ı lazımesini ikamete taahhüd itmeğin ma-hüvel-vaki bi’l-ibtiga ketb
olundu. Fi’l-yevmi’s-sani ve’l-ışrin min Zi’l-kadeti’ş-şerife li sene 1137. 280
In one of the records of the register for important affairs (mühimme defteri) dating
17th century, it is understood that the notables of the community transmitted their
demands to the Imperial Council by the aid of their naib, regarding a case of
banditry.281 The district of Muğla is positioned in the middle of the sanjaks of
Menteşe, Hamd and Teke and therefore under relatively a loose control of the
sancakbeys. This is also why the district of Muğla is frequently under the threat of
banditry activities. These ehl-i fesad groups had even previously killed the judges,
the religious scholars and some notables, plundered their properties and oppressed
the subjects. The subjects who were weary of such oppression, would even flee
from their lands and settle somewhere else in case the problem could not be
solved. As a solution to vulnerability of the administrators, the notables of Muğla
district demands that Ahmed who was the previous sancakbey of Erciş be
commissioned to expel the bandits. The related part of the text of which is quoted
below:
“ve sen (Ahmed who is the previous sancakbey of Erciş is being referred to)
ümerânun ihtiyârı(sın), a‘yân-ı vilâyet (senin) ef‘âl ü akvâlünden rızâ vü
şükrân üzre olduklarından mâ‘adâ, ol diyârlarda sâkin ve eşkıyâ-i
mezbûrûnı elegetürmekde vukûfun olup zikrolunan mahalleri hıfz u hırâset
eylemen bâbında a‘yân-ı vilâyet recâ eyledüklerin arzeyledükleri
ecilden....”
280 Taylan Akyıldırım, “259 Numaralı Şeriyye icili Defterine göre Galata (Metin ve
Değerlendirme),” (Unpublished master’s thesis, İstanbul: Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar
Üniversitesi, 2010), 374-375. Quoted from Galata JCR 281: 32.
281 85 Numaralı Mühimme Defteri (1040-1041(1042)/ 1630-1631(1632) (Ankara: Devlet Arşivleri
Genel Müdürlüğü, 2002), 32-33. The full text is given in Apppendix VI.
173
What is important here is the linguistic expression of “rıza ve şükran üzere” used
by the notables of an emotional community formed this time by the residents of
Meğri, Döğer, Pırmaz, Eşen and Ağıtaş districts showing their consent and
feelings of thankfulness to an askeri class member. The Imperial Council in
return, demanded the mentioned sancakbeyi to get control of the said territory.
5.2.2. “Maiyyet Üzere Olmağla”
There are other terms that we encounter, similar in their essence, to the term “rıza
ve şükran” which further elucidates its broader meanings.
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da merhum Şeyh Şemseddin Tebrizi mahallesi
ahalisinden ashab-ı haze’l-kitab Molla Yahya bin Hasan ve ….. nam
kimesneler meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımü’t-tevlirde yine mahalle-i merkume
sükkanından Kasab Osman bin Abdurrahman ve zevcsi Satı bint-i Rıdvan
nam kimesneler mahzarlarında her biri takrir-i kelam ve tabir-i ani’lmeram
idüb merkume Satı kendü halinde olmayub haftada bir gün kendi
menzilinde olub sair günlerde def ve düplek ile ehl-i fesad eşkiya ve fıska
evlerin gezmeyi mu’tad dinüb ve sair bunun emsali fesad eşkıya ve şekavet
üzere olub ve zevci merkum dahi merkumenin şekavet ve fesadatı malumu
iken sükut idüb nice def’a men ve nasihat olunub her biri amil olmadıkları
ecilden her birinin bu makule hilaf-ı şer’ evza’ına tahammülümüz
kalmamıştır mezburan Osman ve Satı ile bir mahallede ma’iyet üzere
olmağa her birimiz razı değilleriz mezburlar mahallemizden ihrac
olunmaları matlubumzdur eğer ihrac olunmazlarsa her birimiz perakende
ve perişan olmamız mukadderdir deyüb her biri mezkuranın su’-i hallerini
ihbar itmeğin min bad mahalle-i merkumede durmayıb menzillerinden çıkub
gitmeğe mezkuran Osman ve Satı’ya tenbih bir le ma vaka’a bi’t-taleb ketb
olundu. fi’l-yevmi’s-samin aşer min şehr-i Rebi’ül-evvel li-sene erbaa ve
mie ve elf” (18 Rebi’ü’-l-evvel 1104 /27 Kasım 1692)282
282 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 38 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1103-1104/1692-1693)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin (Konya: Selçuk Ünviversitesi, 2014), 327. Quoted from Konya JCR 38:
198-2
174
In this case, many people from the quarter of Şeyh Şemseddin-i Tebrizi in Konya
approached the court claiming against Kassab Osman and his wife Satı and made
the following allegation: “Satı is harmful (kendü halinde olmayub), she stays in
her house only once per week. For the remaining days, she visits the houses of
bandits while at the same time playing drum and tambourine, and her brigandage
(şekavet) and mischief (fesadat) has become habitual.” Her husband, although
aware of his wife’s misconduct did not prevent her from doing so, and rather
remained silent. Despite the recurrent advice of the neighborhood members, their
efforts remained futile. They also demanded both the husband and his wife’s
expulsion from the neighborhood stating “Osman ve Satı ile bir mahallede
ma’iyyet üzere olmağa razı değilleriz”. If the couple were not expelled from the
quarter, the members of the community would be dispersed and scattered (eğer
ihrac olunmazlarsa her birimiz perakende ve perişan olmamız mukadderdir). The
most striking term in this case is “ma’iyyet üzere olmak”, which means to be in
one’s company denoting to friendly living together as companions do. This term
also evidence that neighborhood communities were also emotional communities
with affective ties bonding one another.
5.2.3. “Terazu ve Tevafuk Eyledik”
We also encounter terms and phrases, which were used almost synonymously
175
with “rıza ve şükran duymak” and “maiyyet üzere olmak”that I has previously
been analyzed. Understanding the broader meaning of such terms, which denote
affective ties between community members, is crucial in this research. Another
term, “terazu ve tevafuk eylemek” used in the below case, is therefore important in
making the conceptual analysis of “rıza ve şükran”.
“Mahmiye-i İstanbul’a ve etrafında vaki yemişciler taifesinden bazarbaşları
Mehmed bin Ahmed ve Mustafa bin Abdullah ve Hüseyin ibn Nasrullah ve
Süleyman bin Mustafa ve Ömer bin Mahmud ve Hamza bin İbrahim ve El-
Hac Himmet bin el-Hac Hüseyin ve El-Hac Ahmed bin…… ve El-Hac
İbrahim bin Mehmed ve es-Seeyid Mahmud bin Hüseyin ve İbrahim bin
Nasuh ve Süleyman bin Hüdavirdi ve es-Seyyid Ahmed bin Mustafa ve Yusuf
İmalüddin ve Seyyid Ahmed Çelebi ibn es-Seyyid Mustafa ve sairleri meclisi
şer’-i kavim-i lazımü’t-tekrimde hazırun olub bast-ı kelam idüb taşradan
yemiş gemisi geldikde bazarbaşımız marifetiyle beynimizde tevzi’ olunub
kayak ile karşulanı gelmiş değil iken halen olıgelene muhalif bazımız
kayıkları ile taşradan gelen gemiye karşulamak ile fukaraya hisse değmeyüb
külli ihtilale bais olmağın marifetleri yoğiken her kangımız taşradan gelen
sefineyi kayak ile karşulayıb zahire alursa şer’le hakkından gelinüb
muhkem te’dib ile zabt mümkin olmaz ise kayıklarımız ihrak olunmak üzere
terazi ve tevafuk eyledik vech-i meşruh üzere olan ittifakımız tahrir olunub
yedimize def’ olunmak taleb ideriz didiklerinde ...... tahriren fi evaili
Cumadelahire sene seb’a ve isrine ve elf.” 283
From the case above, we understand that when a ship comes to Istanbul loaded
with fruits, the distribution of the fruits from the ship to the guild members was
used to be made under the governance of pazarbaşı who is the leader of the guild
(taşradan yemiş gemisi geldikde bazarbaşımız marifetiyle beynimizde tevzi’
olunub). Lately however, contrary to this custom and practice (olıgelene muhalif),
283 Timur Kuran, ed., Mahkeme Kayıtları Işığında 17. Yüzyıl İstanbul’unda Sosyo-Ekonomik
Yaşam. v:1. Esnaf ve Loncalar, Hıristiyan ve Yahudi Cemaat İşleri, Yabancılar (İstanbul: İş
Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2010), 163-164. Quoted from İstanbul JCR 3: 29b/1.
176
some people started rowing by their own boats to the ship to take the fruits
directly without leaving anything for the rest of the guild members which is an
unfair practice. The guild members stated that this unfair practice could instigate
even a riot among the guild members (taşradan gelen gemiye karşulamak ile
fukaraya hisse değmeyüb külli ihtilale bais olmağın). Fukara in this context,
although literally means poor, denote to those members of the guild the rights of
whom should be protected. The members of the guild were quite displeased of the
ongoing practice and they came to the court to verify that they had unanimously
made a decision and demanded that their colelctive decision recorded in the court
registers to make sure that if any one of them disobeys their collective decision
they would have the right to take legal action against him. They had collectively
promised that not any one member of the guild would row by his boat to the fruit
ship and that even if one does so, they would all burn their own boats. The
solidarity among the group members against wrongdoers was this time expressed
by the terms “terazu ve tevafuk”. This is also an expression of their collective
emotions based on solidarity. This is a quite radical decision for the members
against those who disobey the collectively established rules and regulations and
thus hinder a fair distribution of raw materials. Even if one of the members
attempt to row his boat and buy the fruits beforehand, they promised that each and
every member of the guild would burn his own boat. Such a promise was not
something that had been required by the officials; rather it reflects the willpower
of the guild members themselves. It was a decision taken among themselves in
agreement with all the members to solve a problem regarding their community
which also reflects solidarity among the members. None of the members in the
177
guild resisted the collectively taken decision although they could individually get
harmed for taking such risk. Giving their individual promises for the good of the
community even if it may cause a personal loss denotes the affective ties between
the community members.
5.2.4. “Kendü Halinde Olmak”
There is another phrase that we frequently encounter, kendü halinde olmak, being
innocuous, which represent one of the main determinants of feeling rıza ve
şükran. Kendi halinde olmak meant to be someone who does not display offensive
acts. While kendi halinde olmak today denotes some kind of estrangement from
the outer world, it however referred in Ottoman Turkish to being inoffensive with
an emphasis on the harmlessness. The linguistic and contextual analysis of the
phrase kendü halinde olmak will not only broaden the meaning of rıza ve şükran
but also enable us to better understand the intra-communal relations among the
members.
In the below example dating, 5 cemaziyülevvel h. 1110,
“Medine-i Ankara muzafaatından Haymana-i Kebir nahiyesine tabi Yenice
nam karye sakinlerinden baisü hazil-kitab Fazlı bin Mustafa nam kimesne
meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımi’t-tevkirde karye-i mezbure sakinlerinden Hasan
bin Ahmed nam şabb mahzarında üzerine takrir-i dava idüb tarih-i kitabdan
6 gün mukaddem mezbur Hasan gaibetü’l-meclis olan sulbiye kızım Aişe
nam bikr-i baliğaya fi’l-i şenî’ kasdıyla leylen karye-i mezburede kain
menzilime girdikde işbu haziretü bi’l-meclis olan zevcem Fatma binti Ömer
Bey nam hatun habîr ve ağah olmağla mezbur Hasan’ı menzilim dahilinde
ahz itmiş idim sual olunub takriri tahrir ve kızım mezbure Aişe’nin keyfiyeti
ahvali karye-i mezbure ahalisinden işbu hazırun-ı bi’l-meclis olan Eyüb
bin Mehmed ve El-Hac Mustafa bin Osman ve İvaz bin İbrahim ve Cafer
Bey bin Mustafa ve Mustafa bin İbrahim nam kimesnelerden ba’de’listihbar
muceb-i şer’isi icra olunmak matlubumdur didikde gıbbe’s-sual
178
mezbur Hasan mezbure Aişe’ye fi’l-i şeni kasdıyle müddei-i mezbur
Fazlı’nın karye-i mezburede kain menziline leylen girdiğini ikrar ve itiraf
ittikden sonra mezbure Aişe’nin keyfiyet-i ahvali dahi mezburun Eyüb ve El-
Hac Mustafa ve İvaz ve Cafer Bey ve Mustafa’dan istihbar olundukda her
biri cevablarında mezbur Aişe kendü halinde, afife, ve mesturedir deyü bi’lmuvacehe
ala tarik-i’ş- şehade hüsn-i halini ihbar itmeleriyle mezbur
Hasan ta’zir olunub ma vakıa bi’t-taleb ketb olundu. fi’l- yevmi’l-hamis min
cemaziyel ahire sene 1110.”284
Fazlı, who is from the Yenice village of Büyük Haymana nahiye in Ankara,
claims in the court against Hasan, who is from the same village and who has
recently reached puberty and stated that he entered their house with the intention
of having an illicit sex with his daughter Aişe. Upon his wife’s awareness, Fazlı
captured Hasan and brought him to the court. Fazlı demands Hasan be questioned.
He additionally demands the neighbors who are present in the court to give
information about his daughter Aişe. While Hasan accepted the accusation, the
neighbors witnessed Aişe’s good conduct with the expressions of kendü halinde
(inoffensive, harmless), afife (chaste) and mesture (modest and virtious). Then the
judge made his decision that Hasan be punished.
The first and foremost constraint for feeling pleased and thankful towards one
another was being inoffensive and harmless. The chastity and modesty of Ayşe is
also emphasized in the above case, which refer to morality. The basic constraints
of being someone in the community for whom the community members feel rıza
ve şükran then, is being harmless against others and modest and chaste. To be
284 Ankara JCR 78: 76
179
someone who is loved and appreciated by the others requires such features, and
this feeling of consent is expressed as “rıza ve şükran”.
The below quoted case further widens our understanding of “rıza ve şükran”.
“Medine-i Brusa’da Zâğfiranlık mahallesi ahalisinden işbu ashabü’l-kitab
imam Mehmed Emin Efendi ibn El-Hac İbrahim ve Abdullahzade İbrahim
Ağa ve Abdülkadir bin Cafer ve Molla İbrahim bin Mehmed ve Molla
Abdullah bin Mustafa ve Es-Seyyid Molla Bektaş bin Es-Seyyid Hüseyin ve
Molla İbrahim bin Ali ve Molla Mehmed bin Mahmud nam kimesneler ve
sairleri meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazimi’t-tevkirde yine mahalle-i mezbure
sakinelerinden Edibe bint Ali muvacehesinde herbiri takrir-i dava ve tasviri
müddea idüb, mezbure Edibe mahalle-i mezburede kendi halinde olmayıb
ve na-mahremden dahi ictinabı olmadığından maada medidü’l-lisan
olmağla bundan akdem kendi halinde olmak üzere kendüye tenbih-i ekidd
olundukda mütenebbih olmamağla mezbure Edibe’nin mahalle-i
mezbureden ihracına tenbih birle ma vakıa bi’t-taleb ketb olundu. fi’lyevmi’s-
samin min saferi’l-hayr li seneti tisin ve mie ve elf.285
Mehmed, the imam (the religious leader) of Zağfiranlık quarter in Bursa, and
others came to the court and claimed against a certain women Edibe from the
same quarter declaring that she is offensive (kendi halinde olmayub), does not
refrain from being together with those who are defined as strangers canonically
(namahremden ictinabı yoktur) and long-tongued (medidü’l-lisan). And she did
not behave herself despite several warnings made previously by the community
members. Although “namahremden ictinabı olmamak” is considered as an offense
as per the Islamic law, being medidü’l-lisan is only a misconduct the boundaries
of which were determined by the community members, and that which contradicts
the prescribed social norms. The members are not therefore hoşnud (pleased) by
her conduct and demand that she be expelled from their community.
285 Bursa JCR B166: 60
180
Another example for a case in which the community members do not have
consent in an individual, dating 1736 is given below;
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da Zincirlikuyu Mahallesi sakinelerinden zatı bi’lmarifet-
i şer’iyye muarefe olab rafiatü’l-kitab Rahime bint-i Derviş nam
hatun meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımü’t- tevkirde sadriye sagire kızı Şerife
Fatıma bint-i Seyyid Mehmed Efendi hazıra olduğu halde yine mahalle-i
mezbureden İbrahim bin (.....) nam şab emred mahzarında üzerine dava ve
takrir-i kelam idüb kızım merkume Şerife Fatma mezbur İbrahim’in
mahalle-i mezburede vaki menziline bir hacet için vardıkda mezbur İbrahim
kendi uçkurunu çözüp kızım merkumenin üzerine gelmekle kızım merume
Şerife Fatma havf idüb firar eylemişdir sual olunub mezbur İbrahim’in
keyfiyet-i ahvali mahallesi ahalisinden istifsar olunsun didikde ıbbe’s-sual
ve’l-inkar mezbur İbrahim’in keyfiyet-i ahvali mahallesi ahalisinden olub
zeyl-i vesikada muharrerü’l-esami müsliminden sual olundukda mezbur
İbrahim kendi halinde olmayıb daima ümmet-i Muhammed’in ehl ve iyaline
dilazarlık ve destderazlık adet-i müstemeresidir herkes mezburun yed ve
lisanından emin değillerdir deyu mezbur İbrahim’in su-i halini habir
virmeleriyle aa mucib-i ihbaruhum mezbur İbrahim’in tazir ve habsine
tenbih bir le ma-vaka’a bi’t-taleb ketb olundu. 29 şevval 1148”286
In this case, Rahime who is the mother of Şerife claims in the court against
İbrahim who is a young boy who recently reached puberty and states that when
her daughter went to İbrahim’s house who is from another quarter, for some
reason which is not specified, İbrahim untied the band holding his pants and
approached her daughter. Frightened by İbrahim, Şerife ran away. Her mother
Rahime demands that the conduct of İbrahim be questioned from the members of
his own community. When questioned, the members of his quarter stated that he
was offensive (kendü halinde olmayıb) and it was habitual for him (adet-i
müstemeresidir) to be cruel (dilazar), rapacious and oppressive (destderaz) to the
286 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 53 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1148-1149 /1736-1737)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin, (Konya: Selçuk Üniversitesi, 2014), 84. Quoted from Konya JCR 53:
36/2.
181
family members of the Muslims (ümmet-i Muhammed’in ehl ve iyaline). They
further added that the community members did not trust his words and they
doubted his theft (yed ve lisanından emin değillerdir). They witnessed to his
misconduct. The judge gave his decision that he be punished and prisoned. This
case also shows other constraints for being someone appreciated and able to
establish affective ties within his community.
The next case evidences someone of whom the community members were
displeased for a different and interesting reason than the previous ones.
“Medine-i Konya nevahisinden Sudirhemi nahiyesine tabi’ Obsala nam
karye sakinelerinden rafiatü’l-kitan Havva bint-i Ali nam hatun meclis-i
şer’-i hatir-i lazımü’t- tevkirde karye-i mezbure sakinlerinden Seyyid Ali bin
Mehmed ve Nebi bin Abdullah nam kimesneler mahzarlarında üzerlerine
dava ve takrir-i kelam idüb tarih-i kitabdan yirmi gün mukaddem gice
halinde bade’l-ışa mezburan Seyyid Ali ve Nebi su-i niyet ve fi’l-i şeni’
kasdıyla evimin ocağından içerü inib ırzıma taarruz etmek murad
itmeleriyle feryad eylediğimde mezburlar firar itmeğin sual olunub
takrirleri tahrir ve keyfiyet-i halleri karye ahalisinden bade’s-sual mucib-i
şer’isi icra olunmak matlubumdur didikde gıbbe’s-sual ve akibü’l-inkar ve
bade’l-istişhad ve’l-acz ani’l-beyyine ahali-i karyeden …….. nam
kimesneler li-ecli’l-ihbar meclis-i şer’a hazirun olub eserü’l-istihbar her
biri mezburan Seyydi Ali ve Nebi kendi hallerinde olmayıb çalar ve çağırır
makulesinden olub bu misillü fi’l-e cesaret kendülerinden me’muldur deyu
su-i hallerinden haber virmeleriyle mezburların tazirlerine tenbih bir le mavaka’a
bi’t-taleb ketb olundu. 23 zilkade 1148/ 5 April 1736.” 287
In this case Havva bt. Ali from the village Obsala claimed against Seyyid Ali and
made the following allegation: “This Seyyid Ali and Nebi from the same village
of mine tried to break into my house twenty days ago at night time with the
287 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 53 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1148-1149 /1736-1737)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin, (Konya: Selçuk Üniversitesi, 2014), 122. Quoted from Konya JCR 53:
52/2.
182
intention of having an illicit sex with me and they ran away when I screamed. I
demand that their conduct be questioned from the members of our village”. Then
the witnesses from the same village came to the court and they indicated his
misconduct stating that this Seyyid Ali and Nebi were offensive (kendü halinde
olmayub). They were musicians and singers (çalar çağırır makulesinden olub)
and that it was expected from them to have the courage for committing such an
offense. It evidences again that Seyyid Ali and Nebi were members of the village
community to whom the members do not feel rıza and şükran.
In the case below, community members witnessed the good conduct of one of
their members, while also declaring the misconduct of a woman from another
community.
“Medine-i Konya sancağında Gök Osmanlı Karyesi’nden olub medine-i
mezburede misafirenten sakine ve zatı bi’l-marifet-i şer’iyye muarefe olan
Hadice bint-i Hüseyin nam hatun meclis-i şer’-i hatirda refi’iyyü’l-kitab
Gökman Osman bin Mehmed ve Demirci Mehmed bin Mehmed ile
Kibaroğlu Mehmed nam kimesneler mahzarlarında üzerlerine dava ve
takrir-i kelam idüb tarih-i kitabdan bir gün mukaddem menzilhane
kurbunda mezaristandan geçüb giderken mezburan Osman ve Mehmed ve
diğer Mehmed beni cebren ve kahren ahz ve mezbur Demirci Mehmed ve
diğer Mehmed’in Sadırlar Mahallesi’Nde vaki menziline götürüb bir gün ve
bir gece habs ve tasarruf eylediler sual olunub mezburunun keyfiyet-i
ahvalleri mahalleleri ahalisinden istihbar olundukda mezburun Demirci
Mehmed ve Gökman Osman ve Kibar Mehmed kendü hallerinde eyü
ademlerdir ve cümlemiz kendülerinden hoşnud ve razılarız ahvallerine dahi
tekeffül ideriz deyu mezburun Demirci Mehmed ve Gökman Osman ve Kibar
Mehmed’in hüsn-i hallerini ve mezbure Hadice Konya ahalisinden olmayub
ahardan kazadan fuhş ile meşhure ve na-mahremden ictinabı dahi
olmamağla tarih-i mezkurede mahalle-i mezbure Sadırlar’da vaki mezbur
Demirci Mehmed’in menzlinden mezbure Hadice’nin hurucunu bi’lmuayene
müşahede eyledik deyu mezbure Hadice’nin su-i halini mahalle-i
mezbure ahalilerinden olub zeyl-i vesikada muharrerü’l-esami müslimin ala
tariki’ş-şehade haber virmeleriyle ma-hüve’l-vaki hıfzen li’l-makal bi’ttaleb
ketb olundu. 15 şevval 1148/ 28 February 1736”.288
288 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 53 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1148-1149 /1736-1737)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin, (Konya: Selçuk Üniversitesi, 2014), 47. Quoted from Konya JCR 53:
20/5
183
In the case above, Hadice who was a visitor in Konya and who was from the
village of Gök Osmanlı claimed against Gökman Osman, Demirci Mehmed and
Kibaroğlu Mehmed and stated in their presence that one day ago, while she was
passing through the cemetery, those 3 men had forcefully taken her to their house
in the quarter of Sadırlar and had seized her for a day and night in their house. She
wanted them to be questioned against law and their conduct to be inquired. For
the inquiry of the men, witnesses from their own quarter were questioned. The
witnesses however, verified that they were pleased of them having consent to and
that they could act as guarantors to his conduct. The witnesses further stated that
Hadice, the defendant, was not from Konya community and came from another
district (mezbure Hadice Konya ahalisinden olmayub ahardan kazadan) and was
famous for her prostitution (fuhş ile meşhure) and that she did not refrain from
those who were defined canonically as strangers (na-mahremden ictinabı dahi
olmamağla). They also stated that they witnessed her eviction from the house of
the defendants. The case was recorded as per request. In this case, it’s apparent
that the community members considered the defendants as harmless and good
people (kendü halinde eyü ademlerdir). Their emotions were again linguistically
expressed with the phrase “kendülerinden hoşnud ve razılarız”. We do not know
whether Hadica, who was from another district, was indeed a prostitute or not,
however, we do know that as a foreigner, she remained outside the boundaries of
“rıza ve şükran.”
184
5.3. The Domain of Rıza ve Şükran
Taifes and cemaats as emotional communities may also be denoted as “domains
of rıza ve şükran”, in which the emotion of feeling consent and gratitude towards
one another was expressed by the same emotional rhetoric; i.e. “rıza ve şükran
duymak”, “razı ve şakir olmak”, “hoşnud olmak”, “maiyyet üzere olmak”, “terazu
ve tevafuk eylemek”. It was expected from community members to feel consent
and gratitude towards one another, establishing it as an emotional code. This
emotional norm was both private and at the same time collective. It was not only
individuals who were expected to feel “razı ve şakir” to the other members of the
community. The community was also expected to feel “rıza ve şükran” to each
one of its members. It was an emotion felt both in the private realm of the
individuals and also acted as a collective performance. However it was a
cultivated emotion. The feeling of “rıza şükran” is similar to the concept of
“emotive” in Reddy’s terminology. Because it is a “goal oriented thought
material”. Rıza ve şükran in this sense was a feeling rule that the individuals and
the community were expected feel. It did not serve only as a linguistic expression
of an inner feelings of gratitude. It was also goal oriented, wanting to alter the
world. Why would anyone want to be a part of this domain of rıza ve şükran?
Why were they striving to get into this domain? Why would the community itself
require that it should feel consent and gratitude towards its members? Being
someone of whom the community members were pleased served several goals.
The domain of rıza ve şükran was functional for the individuals in pursuing their
personal goals.
185
In the previous chapter where the model of state-subject relations was discussed,
it was argued that the basics of this relation was based on protection of the
subjects by the sultan with compassion and submission of the subjects to the
sultan with affection. Likewise, in the taife/cemaats, the community members
would protect the members whom they were pleased of, thankful for and in
consent. Protection by the community was crucial for one’s survival. The
mechanism for compliance to constraints of being a pleased member was so strict
that the one who deviates could face several penalties like expulsion, dismissal
from their leading positions, false allegations and could loose the support of
community against any oppression of örf members or loose the guarantorships of
his/her neighbors. For community members, this expression of emotion was like a
secret code and everybody was well aware of its rules. “The domain of rıza ve
şükran” denotes here to an imagined domain where affective ties are established
among its members and presence of such ties are linguistically defined, labeled
and named with the expression or rıza ve şükran. Expressing this emotional code
for any member of the community would officially symbolize either the entrance
or the sustenance of that member within this domain. In this section functions of
the domain of rıza ve şükran is analyzed.
“Medine-i Ankara kazası muzafaatından kasaba nahiyesine tabi Nenek nam
karye sakinlerinden baisu hazil-kitab Receb bin Maden nam kimesne
meclis-i şer-i hatir-i lazımü’t-tevkirde karye-i mezbure sakinlerinden Es-
Seyyid Mustafa bin Hasan nam kimesne mahzarında üzerine takrir-i dava
idüb tarih-i kitapdan 1 gün mukaddem mezbur Es-Seyyid Mustafa karye-i
mezburede işbu hazıretü bi’l-meclis olan zevcem Kezban bint Mehmed nam
hatuna fi’l-i şeni kasdı ile neharen menzilime dahil olmağla zevcem
mezbure Kezban habîr ve agah olmağla feryâd ve ahali-i karye-i
mezbureden istiane eylemişler sual olunub takriri tahrir ve keyfiyet-i
ahvalleri ahali-i karye-i mezbureden bade’l-istihbar muceb-i şer’isi icra
olunmak matlubumdur didikde gıbbe’s-sual ve akibü’l-inkar müddei
Receb’den müddeasına mutabık beyyine taleb olundukda ityan-ı beyyineden
186
izhar-ı acz ittiğinden sonra mezbur Es-Seyyid Mustafa ile mezbure
Kezban’ın keyfiyet-i ahvalleri karye-i mezbureden hazırun bi’l-meclis olan
...... nam kimesnelerden istihbar olundukda her biri cevablarında fi’l-hakika
işbu mezbur Es-Seyyid Mustafa kendü halinde olmayıb, yaramaz ve
haramzade olub, daima bu makule fesâd adet-i müstemiresidir ve işbu
mezbure Kezban kendü halinde afife ve mesture deyu mezbur Es-Seyyid
Mustafa’nın su-i halini ve mezbure Kezban’ın hüsn-i halini bi’l-muvacehe
ala tariki şehade ihbar itmeleriyle mezbur Es-Seyyid Mustafa ta’zir
olunmağiçin zabitine teslim olunub ma vakıa bi’t-taleb ketb olundu. fi’lyevmi’s-
sabi’ min cemaziyelahire sene 1110”. 289
In this case the community members witnessed the misconduct (su-i hal) of Es-
Seyyid Mustafa since he broke into Receb bin Maden’s house with the intention
of illicit sex by daylight. In return of Mustafa’s offense, Kezban the wife of Receb
screamed and asked for help, which was the expected code of behavior. Mustafa
in this case, being a member of this community abused the trust of his neighbors
and displayed misconduct behavior. Those who witnessed against him declared
that his misconduct was habitual and they were not pleased of him. Kezban
however, was harmless, modest and virtious. The members of the community
were well aware of the conduct of the other members in this domain of rıza ve
şükran. They may witness for or against a member depending on whether they are
pleased (or not) of their member facing legal controversies. Being a part of this
domain acted as a protective shield against accusations providing strong evidence
for one’s innocence.
The case below evidences the importance of being a part of this domain of rıza ve
şükran which may even help one to get disposed of legal sanctions imposed, again
289 Ankara JCR 78: 81
187
serving as a protective shield against false accusations. If one is outside of his/her
domain of rıza ve şükran, he/she may be under the risk of false accusations.
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da Şekerfüruş Mahallesi sükkanından zatı bi’lmarifeti’ş-
şer’iyye muarefe olan Şerife Fatıma bint-i Mehmed Beşe nam
hatun meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımü’t-tevkirde Abdülaziz Mahallesi
sükkanından Şatıroğlu Süleyman nam kimesnenin mahzarında üzerine da’va
ve takrr-i kelam idüb mezbur Süleyman gayib-i ani’l-meclis İnce Mustafa
nam kimesnenin zevcesi benim esvabım vardır kesiverin deyu mahalle-i
mezbure Abdülaziz’de vaki menziline beni davet edib ben dahi mezbur
Mustafa’nın menziline vardığımda mezbur İnce Mustafa ile benim üzerime
gelib ben dahi feryad eylediğimde mahalle-i mezbure ahalileri gelib beni
menzil-i mezburdan çıkarub ve mezburan Süleyman ve Mustafa firar
eylediler idi sual olunsun didikde gıbbe’s-sual mezbur Süleyman mezbure
Şerife Fatma’nın takrir-i meşruhunu bi’l-külliye inkar idicek mahalle-i
mezbure Abdülaziz ahalisinden merkum Süleyman ile gayib-i merkum İnce
Mustafa’nın keyfiyet-i ahvalleri sual olundukda ber-vech-i muharrer
merkum Süleyman ile gayib-i merkum İnce Mustafa menzil-i mezburun
damından firar eylediklerini ve mezbure Şerife Fatıma’nın dahi menzil-i
mezburdan hurucunu bi’l-muayene müşahede eyledük deyu mahalle-i
mezbure Abdülaziz ahalisinden olub zeyl- vesikada muharrerü’l-esami
müslimin haber virmeleriyle mezbur Süleyman ile merkume Şerife
Fatma’nın tazirine tenbih bir le ma-vaka’a bi’t-taleb ketb olundu. 12 şevval
1148/25 February 1736”.290
Şerife Fatıma, a woman from the quarter of Şekerfüruş, claimed in the court
against Şatıroğlu Süleyman who is a resident of Abdülaziz quarter and made the
following allegation: “This Süleyman invited me to his house and requested me to
tailor the wife of Ince Mustafa, who is not present in the court. When I entered
Süleyman’s house in the quarter of Abdülaziz, they both approached to me and I
screamed. When the neighbors came to help me get out of the house, Süleyman
and Mustafa escaped.” However the defendants denied her claim. Then the judge
questioned the conduct of the defendants from their community members. The
290 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 53 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1148-1149 /1736-1737)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin, (Konya: Selçuk Üniversitesi, 2014), 38. Quoted from Konya JCR 53:
17/1.
188
witnesses however only declared that they had witnessed Şerife Fatma getting out
of the house and the escape of the defendants from the roof of the house. The
judge then demanded that both Süleyman and Şerife Fatma be punished. It seems
that Şerife could not prove successfully that she is indeed a praiseworthy member
of her own community since she was attacked in a place lying outside of her
domain of rıza ve şükran. However, on the same day of the court proceedings, we
encounter another case report regarding the same dispute providing further details,
quoted below;
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da Şekerfüruş Mahallesi sakinelerinden zatı bi’lmarifeti’ş-
şer’iyye muarefe olan Şerife Fatıma bint-i Mehmed Beşe nam
hatun meclis-i şer’-i hatirda takrir-i kelam idüb, tarih-i kitabdan bir gün
mukaddem Abdülaziz Mahallesi sakinlerinden İnce Mustafa nam
kimesnenin zevcesi benim esvabım vardır kesiverin deyu beni menziline
davet edib benim dahi terzilik sanatım olmağla menzil-i mezbura
vardığımda mezbur İnce Mustafa ile Şatıroğlu Mustafa benim üzerime gelib
ben dahi feryad eylediğimde mahalle-i mezbure ahalileri feryadıma yetişüb
beni tahlis ve mezburan Mustafa ve Süleyman firar eylemişler idi mahalle-i
mezbure ahalilerinden ve benim mahallem ahalilerinden keyfiyet-i ahvalim
sual olunub takrirleri tahrir olunmak matlubumdr didikde mezbure Şerife
Fatma’nın mahallesi ahalisinden el-Hac Abdullah bin Osman Efendi ve el-
Hac Ahmed bin Hacı Mahmud ve İmam Molla Said ve Ali Bey nam
kimesneler li-ecli’l-ihbar meclis-i şer’a hazırun ve istihbar olunduklarında
fi’l-vaki mezbure Şerife Fatıma’nın yedinde terzilik sanatı olub kendü
halinde ehl-i ırz dindar ve müstakime eyü hatundur deyu mezburun ve
mahalle-i mezbure Abdülaziz mahallesinden olub zeyl-i vesikada
muharrerü’l-esami müslimin mezbure Şerife Fatma’nın hüsn-i halini her
biri ala tariki’ş-şehade habir virmeleri ma hüve’l-vaki bi’t-taleb ketb
olundu. 12 şevval 1148/25 şubat 1736”. 291
In the second case, after found guilty, Şerife Fatma now demanded that her own
conduct be questioned from both the members of her own community and also the
291 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 53 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1148-1149 /1736-1737)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin, (Konya: Selçuk Üniversitesi, 2014), 42. Quoted from Konya JCR 53:
18/4.
189
members of Abdülaziz quarter, emphasizing her possession of a craft as a tailor.
The witnesses, this time residents from both Abdülaziz quarter and her own
community, witnessed that she is harmless, pious, respectable, honest, upright and
a good person. The case has been recorded as per request. We do not know for
sure but most probably Şerife Fatma could, after having validation of her good
conduct, escape the legal sanctions of the previous case. This case shows that
one would feel safe only within a domain in which he/she could succeed in
establishing affective ties. If one were out of the domain, he/she would be
exposed to the risks false allegation.
The judicial court records are replete with cases of expulsion from one’s
community. Usually the community members would come to the court and
collectively demand that one or more of their members be expelled from their
domain of rıza ve şükran. The case below evidences expulsion of Mustafa from
his occupational community indicating a removal from the domain of rıza ve
şükran.
“Darü’l-hilafeti’l-aliyye-i mahmiyye-i Kostantiniyye’de kul oğlanı
taifesinden Mezarcıoğlu dimekle ma’ruf Mustafa nam kimesnenin es’ara
müteallik olan umurda enva-i fesadatı zahir olmağile keyfiyet-i ahvali taife-i
mezbure ihtiyarlarından ve sayir ehl-i hırefden teftiş olunmasıyiçün fermanı
ali sadır olmağın imtisalen li’l-emri’l-âli taife-i mezbureden el-Hac
İbrahim bin Ömer ve el-Hac Mehmed bin Mahmud ve el-Hac Musa ve
Şaban Çelebi ve el-Hac Musalli ve Ahmed Çelebi ve Mehmed Çelebi bin
Abbas nam kimesnelerden ve mahmiyye-i mezburede vaâki’ ehl-i hiref
kethüdaları ve yiğitbaşılarından ve sair ihtiyarlarından mezburun keyfiyet-i
ahvali sual olundukda mezburunun her biri cevablarında mezbur
Mezarcıoğlu Mustafa fi’l-hakika şâki ve ehl-i fesad ve mürteşi ve ibtal-i
es’ara her vechle ba’is ve badi olub her birimiz mezburın fi’l ve kavlinden
müte’ezzi olduğumuzdan maada mezbur Mustafa hizmet-i mesfurede
istihdam olunmak amme-i nasa zarardır deyu meclis-i şer’de ihbar
eylediklerinde fi’l-hakika mezbur Mustafa’nın vech-i meşruh üzere bi’ddefe’at
fesâdâtı şer’an zahir ve mütehakkık olmağın mezbur Mustafa taife-i
mezbureden ihrac olunub min bad hidmet-i mesfurede istihdam olunmayıb
bâ-ferman-ı ali memur olduğu sefine-i amire hidmetinde kema-kan ibka
190
olunmak üzre işbu vesika enka alâ vechi’l-hakikaketb ve yed-i tâlibe def’
olundu fi gurrei Saferi’l-hayr sene 72”.292
It is apparent that the community members did not have consent in and do not feel
thankful to one of their members and demanded that he be expelled from their
community. The community in this case is an occupational one, the members of
which buy and sell slaves. It has been demanded by an imperial order that
Mustafa’s conduct be inquired from the selected notables (ihtiyaran) and the
community members (sair ehl-i hiref) since it was apparent that he had mischief
regarding determination of the market prices (es’ar. pl. of si’r). Mustafa
apparently specified the prices of the slaves either too high or too low, preventing
the formation of a fair market value. His conduct was questioned from the
administrators (ehl-i hiref kethüdaları ve yiğitbaşılarından), the selected notables
(sair ihtiyarlarından) and the members of his occupational community. They
witnessed the misconduct of Mustafa in their reply stating that he was a
brigand/robber (şâki), intriguer (ehl-i fesad), who accepted bribes (mürteşi) and
was causing the market prices to be abolished ( ibtal-i es’ara her vechle ba’is ve
badi olub). They further stated that each and every one of the community
members was grieved from his acts and words and his service in their community
was harmful for the public welfare (her birimiz mezburın fi’l ve kavlinden
müte’ezzi olduğumuzdan maada mezbur Mustafa hizmet-i mesfurede istihdam
olunmak amme-i nasa zarardır deyu). There is again an emphasis on the potential
292 Timur Kuran, ed., Mahkeme Kayıtları Işığında 17. Yüzyıl İstanbul’unda Sosyo-Ekonomik
Yaşam. v:1. Esnaf ve Loncalar, Hıristiyan ve Yahudi Cemaat İşleri, Yabancılar (İstanbul: İş
Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2010), 227. Quoted from İstanbul JCR 9: 145a/2.
191
harms that Mustafa may induce against the public welfare. The members also
express their grief from his acts.
We also encounter a case in Bursa court registers no B 166/61 dating 1154 in
which a member of a guild was demanded to be expelled since he was offensive
(kendü halinde olmayıb), was frequently familiar (ülfet) with those who were vile
(erazil) and disgraced (nikbet) and was usually walking around drunk with a
weapon in his hand and could not escape being vicious (alet-i harb ile sekran
geşt-i güzar ve fısk ve fesaddan hali olmamağla).
The expulsion cases show that one may be removed out of the domain of rıza ve
şükran if he/she did not comply with the social, legal or religious norms.
The state of being pleased from the community members also served as protection
in cases of false accusation. The example below is interesting as it serves as an
evidence of this protection.
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da mukataa’-ı mirabiye mülhakatından Gödene nam
karye mültezimi olan Seyyid Mehmed Çelebi bin El-Hac Seyyid Yusuf nam
kimesne meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımü’t-tevkirde karye-i mezbure
sükkanından ba’isü’l-kitab Abdülkadir ibn El-Hac Abdi ve Molla İsmail bin
Mehmed mahzarlarında takrir-i kelam ve ta’bir-i anil meram idüb, “ben
karye-i mezburenin zabiti olmam ile mezbur Abdülkadirin sulbiye kızı olub
bu ana gelince kimesnenin menkuhesi olmayan İscihan nam bikrin
bekaretini karye-i merkume imamı olan mezbur İsmail Halife izale itmiş
deyu mesmu’um olmuşdur sual olunsun” didikde, gıbbe’s-sual merkuman
Abdülkadir ve İsmail husus-ı merkumu inkar ile cevab virmeğin karye-i
merkume ahalisinden Abdürrahman Halife ibn Hasan ve Mehmed ibn
Ahmed Bey ve Hüseyin bin Mehmed ve Şaban bin Mehmed ve Süleyman bin
El-Hac Muslu ve Mustafa bin Ali ve diğer Mustafa bin Abdi ve diğer
Mustafa bin Mehmed ve Ömer Halife bin Ali ve El-Hac Ahmed bin …nam
kimesneler li-ecli’l-ihbar meclis-i şer’e hazirun olub, eserü’l istihbar
“mezburun İsmail Halife ve İscihan ehl-i ırs kendü hallerinde müstakim
kimesnelerdir her birinden bu ana gelince bu makule hilaf-ı şer’-i fiil sudurı
mesmu’umuz değildiür, iftira ve bühtandır aslı ve hakikisi yokdur” deyu her
192
biri mezburların hüsn-i hallerini … virmeğin mezbur Seyyid Mehmed Halife
muarazadan men birle ma vakıa bi’t-taleb ketb olundu”. 293
Seyyid Mehmed Çelebi, the mirabiye mukataası mültezim of the village of
Gödene in Konya, called to court Abdülkadir and Molla İsmail who was the
religious leader of the village and made the following allegation: “Acting as the
zabit of Gödene village, I’ve heard that the Molla İsmail raped İscihan who is the
daughter of Abdülkadir and who is unwedded and I demand that the two be
questioned.” Upon the defendants’ denial of the accusation, the members of the
village community witnessed that both of the defendants are respectable (ehl-i
ırz), inoffensive (kendü halinde), honest and upright (müstakim) and they have not
heard of their mischief by now. They added that the allegations of the zabit were
slander (iftira and bühtan). The judge then demanded the plaintiff be prohibited
from making such groundless claims. Being a part of the domain of rıza ve şükran
in this case protected one from the legal sanctions of false accusations.
Regarding the functions or the domain of rıza ve şükran, that which everybody
strived to be a part of, the above cases showed that expression of rıza ve şükran
was more than just a linguistic representation of an inner feeling. It also had
social, legal and religious implications. This domain functioned as a protective
shield. It is an emotional code, indicating that the community members would
protect their members from threats outside by acting as guarantors to their good
293 Konya JCR 35: 112
193
conduct or by protecting its members from false allegations. Likewise, for those,
whom the members are displeased, the shield of protection would be removed and
they would not witness for the member’s good conduct, they would demand their
expulsion from the community.
However, being a part of this domain also served more than just a protection from
outside threats. It also eased one’s financial liabilities, especially on payments of
tax and accrued collective expense payments, either by reducing or even
removing their liabilities. The community members shared the liabilities of those
who are in the domain of rıza ve şükran. This function is as important as the
protective aspect and had larger social implications. The case below would further
elucidate my arguments and provide additional clues on the features of an
emotional community.
“Medine-i Ankara mahallatından Bazar-ı Ganem mahallesi mütevellisi
Mehmed bin Ahmed ve Es-Seyyid Mehmed Halife ibn El-Hac Osman ve
İsmail Beşe ibn Yusuf Es-seyyid Salih Halife bin İbrahim ve Mehmed bin
Mustafa ve Mehmed Beşe ibn Abdullah ve Mustafa Beşe ibn İbrahim ve Es-
Seyyid Ali Çelebi ibn Es-Seyyid Fethullah ve Ali Beşe ibn Mehmed ve Es-
Seyyid Ahmed Çelebi ibn Şerif Çelebi ve Mehmed bin Himmet ve Dede bin
Mehmed nam kimesneler ve sairleri meclis-i şer’-i şerif-i enverde baisü
hazi’l-kitab Alemdar Ebubekir Beşe ibn İbrahim nam kimesne mahzarında
her birileri ikrar-ı tam ve takrir-i kelam idüb mezbur Ebubekir Beşe
muhtarımız olmağla altı seneden beru ahali-i mahalemiz üzerine vârid ve
nâzil olan tekalif-i örfiyye ve şakkayı beynimizde tevzi’ ve taksim eyledikde
hal ve mallerimize göre tadil ve tesviye üzere tevzi’ ve taksim idüb ve
umurumuzu dahi iffet ve istikamet üzere ru’yet itmeğle hilaf-ı şer’-i şerif bir
kimesneye teaddi ve gadr-i fahişi yoğiken ahali-i mahalleden sahibü’l-ağraz
bazı kimesne mezbur Ebubekir Beşe hakkında husus-ı mezkura müteallika
ifk ve iftirayı müştemil kelimat-ı naseza isnadıyla tekdiri bî-asl olub her
halde mezburun evza’ ve etvarından hoşnud ve razı ve tarih-i mezburdan bu
ana gelinceye değin mezbur zimmetinde gerek salyane akçesi ve gerek ciheti
saireden bir akçe ve bir habbe alacağımız yokdur didiklerinde gıbbe’ttasdik-
i şeri’i mavakıa bi’t-taleb ketb ve tahrir olundu. fi’l-yevmi’s-sani
ve’l-ışriyn min zilhicce-i’ş-şerife sene erba’ ve sittin ve mie ve elf”.294
294 Ankara JCR135: 96
194
Mehmed, who is the “avarız akçesi vakfı mütevellisi” (administrator of cash
waqf)295 of the Koyunpazarı quarter in Ankara, came to the court together with
some notables of the same quarter. Within the presence of Alemdar Ebubekir
Beşe they stated that this Ebubekir was their chosen leader (muhtarımız olmağla)
who pursued communal duties. For the past 6 years, he had been allocating their
liabilities of avarız tax payments depending on the members’ financial means and
conditions specified otherwise (hal ve mallerimize gore) honestly (iffet) and with
integrity (istikamet). However some people holding a grudge against him
demanded that he be dismissed form his duty by spreading groundless rumors (ifk
ve iftiayı müştemil) about him with their unseemly words of imputations.
However, they were all pleased of his attitude and behavior (evza ve etvarından
rıza ve hoşnud üzereyiz). They even did not have any receivables from him
accrued from the past regarding “saliyane akçesi” or from any common
expenditures of their community (üzerinde mahallemize ait saliyane akçesinden
ve diğer ortak harcamalardan herhangi bir alacağımız yoktur.)”
There are many concepts in this case, which needs to be further analyzed. The
first one is muhtar. Muhtar is not someone who has been appointed externally. It
refers to someone who gained the respect of community members by his attitude
and behavior and who was collectively accepted and selected by the community
members. The community members in other words, are pleased of him because of
his good conduct. However, the state of being pleased also depends on additional
295 For the functions of avarız akçesi vakfı, see Özer Ergenç, XVI. Yüzyılda Ankara ve Konya, 2nd
Edition (Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2012), 205.
195
qualifications, which are of importance to my arguments. Avarız akçesi mütevellis
also bear the responsibility of allocating the tax liabilities of the community
among its members. The appropriate allocation of taxes was crucial for him in
being a leader of whom the community members were pleased. He was expected
to perform his duty honestly with integrity (iffet ve istikamet üzere). The pleasure
of the members depended not only in his ability to collect the taxes as their
liabilities towards the state but also, more importantly, in his success to fairly
allocate the accrued avarız taxes and other expenditures among the community
members.
What needs to be emphasized here is the funds termed as “avarız akçası fonu”.
This fund had been transformed into a waqf in time. Avarızhanesi was a fictional
(itibari) household constituting of more than one taxpayer. We do not know for
sure how many real households were forming one avarızhanesi. One avarızhanesi
could consist of 3, 5, 7 or 9 real households depending on the taxpayers’
economic circumstances. Avarızhane registers have been mostly studied so far in
search for demographical analysis, especially for population estimation, although
they have some limitations. 296 Ergenç for example made the population estimate
296 See for example; Ömer Lütfü Barkan, “Avarız”, İA, v: 2, 13-19; Özer Ergenç, XVI. Yüzyılda
Ankara ve Konya. 2nd Edition (Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2012); Süleyman Demirci,
“Demography and History: The Value of the Avarızhane Registers for Demographic Research A
Case Study of the Ottoman Sub-Provinces of Konya, Kayseri and Niğde, c. 1620s-1700,” Turcica
38 (2006): 181-211; Charles Wilkins, Forging Urban Solidarities Ottoman Aleppo 1640-1700
(Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2010); Eunjeong Yi, Guild Dynamics In Seventeenth-Century Istanbul
Fluidity And Leverage (Leiden: Brill, 2004); Linda Darling, Revenue-Raising and Legitimacy. Tax
Collection and Financial Administration in the Ottoman Empire, 1560-1660 (Leiden: Brill, 1996);
Oktay Özel, "Population Changes in Ottoman Anatolia during the 16th and 17th Centuries: The
'Demographic Crisis' Reconsidered," International Journal of Middle East Studies, 36 (2004),
183-205.
196
for Ankara for the year 1607.297 Ergenç based his claim on a court record in which
the community members demanded a recount of avarızhanes. Although there
were 863 avarızhanes registered for Ankara, they demand the number of
avarızhanes to be reduced to 600. Ergenç in his research claimed that, although
the ratio of real households per one avarızhane could change from one place to
another, one avarızhane was denoting to 5 real households in 1607 in Ankara.298
Demirci examined the avarızhane system in the livas of Konya, Kayseri and
Niğde in the province of Karaman based on data provided in the series of Anadolu
ve Rumeli eyaletleri avarızhane defterleri. He attempted to find out the number of
real households (gerçekhane) in one avarızhane, which varied considerably from
one region to another.299 Demirci states that the usually accepted generalization
for the empire as a whole is that one avarızhane could be made up of 3 to 15
gerçekhanes (real households), which is too broad to be a practical value and that
it may be misleading to make population estimates.300 I will not get into details of
avarızhane system and the limitations of sources in determining the real number
of taxpayers for each avarızhane because my concern is rather how the
community leaders themselves allocated the accrued avarız taxes among the
community members. Wilkins on the other hand, also investigated the
297 Özer Ergenç, XVI. Yüzyılda Ankara ve Konya. 2nd Edition (Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt
Yayınları, 2012), 61.
298 Ibid. Ergenç claims that there were 863 fictional avarızhanes in Ankara in 1607, with a ratio of
1 to 5 for real household/avarızhane, there were 4315 real households as tax-payer subjects. He
also claims the population of Ankara as 25.000 approximately.
299 Süleyman Demirci, “Demography and History: The Value of the Avarızhane Registers for
Demographic Research A Case Study of the Ottoman Sub-Provinces of Konya, Kayseri and
Niğde, c. 1620s-1700,” Turcica 38 (2006): 181-211.
300 Ibid.
197
administration of avarız taxes in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in the years
1640-1700, which he defined as a period marked with fiscal strain caused partly
by the Ottoman wars with Venice, Habsburg Empire and Poland.301 He tried to
answer the question of how provincial populations responded to such tax
collection claims. Wilkins, in other words, is the only Ottoman historian, to my
knowledge, who was puzzled by the same question as mine. He addresses the
various ways in which residential quarters negotiated the challenge of
extraordinary taxation as these impositions became regularized over the course of
the seventeenth century presenting residential quarters as basis of solidarity with a
picture of cohesion. 302
The bulk of avarız taxes demanded by the state were being paid by “mahalle
avarız akçası fonu” which was an endowment established for payment of avarız
taxes that would accrue in the future. The shared expenditures of the community,
like the restoration expenses of a mosque, salaries of imam or müderris, were also
being covered from the cash accumulated in the waqf. The avarız taxes and the
collection of common expenditures had always been regarded as an extra burden
for the taxpayers, which may be the reason for preference for such a collection
model. What made this model effective was the flexibility that it provided to
taxpayers in paying their own share of avarız taxes. Some of the real households
of any one fictional avarızhane could have some financial difficulties in paying
their taxes, or could even fail to pay. In such cases, the ones who had the
301 Charles L. Wilkins, Forging Urban Solidarities Ottoman Aleppo 1640-1700 (Leiden: Brill,
2010).
302 Ibid.,64.
198
financial power to pay would undertake their liabilities and let them out. The
research produced so far on avarız taxes provide us with ample knowledge on its
financial features. We do know the avarız tax liabilities of one fictional
avarızhane. However, we still do not know how the tax liabilities were allocated
among the real households of the fictional avarızhanes. The process of collection
from the real households or the distribution of the accrued liabilities among the
real households has not yet been an interest for the historians. However, this is the
most crucial part of the process. This is where the potential tensions between the
state and the subjects on tax collections could be resolved, and this is how
solidarity between the community members could be achieved. How they could
achieve, was hidden under some terms and concepts. What makes the community
members pleased of Ebubekir in collecting saliyane, avarız tax, is his method of
distributing the imposed tax depending on the physical and financial abilities of
the subjects, which was expressed as “hal ve mallerine göre tevzi ve taksim”. It
also denotes to physical abilities because some of the taxes could be paid by
physically serving the state. The terms “tevzi ve taksim” give clues on its
distribution and allocation. If, the imposed tax for each fictional avarızhane would
be equally distributed within the number of real taxpayers under the avarızhane,
the two terms “tevzi ve taksim” would be enough to show how it was allocated.
However, it is further stated that distribution was being made by the method of
“tadil ve tesviye üzere”. Tesviye means making equal and leveling, which denotes
to equal allocation of the liabilities among the members. However, the term
tesviye is also supported by tadil, which is another term that further elucidates the
manner of allocation. The word tadil is related to adl, or justice. However it does
199
not refer to equal distribution or allocation of the liabilities among the members. It
refers to distribution in the most suitable and fair way. It rather denotes to an
adjustment or a modification in its allocation in the sense that the liabilities of
one, whose financial strength is not sufficient enough, may be waived for this
time and collected during the next imposition. It also refers to an allocation, which
is based on the financial strength of the community member. It rather means
giving one one’s due. What is striking in this method of allocating communal
liabilities among the members is that it makes a neighborhood community not
only a legal and fiscal unit but also an emotional community. Acting as an
emotional community hinders the potential tensions in the process of tax payment.
In cases of severe difficulties though, the community members could appeal to the
Imperial Council in their demands to redress justice. However, the terms and
concepts in the texts that have been analyzed above provide us clues on how the
community members themselves could ease their financial obligations and the
tools that they had developed. It seems that Alemdar Ebubekir Beşe, the mütevelli
of the Bazar-ı Ganem avarız akçesi fund, is a respectable member of the
community and the members are pleased of him especially for his success in fairly
allocating the accrued liabilities among the members. The members of Bazar-ı
Ganem quarter apparently constitute an emotional community with affective ties
established among them in easing each other’s financial liabilities towards the
state. The solidarity among the group members apparently was based on affective
ties, and the collective emotions of the community members sharing a common
physical space and having the same stake was expressed by the term “rıza ve
hoşnud”.
200
The case below is another court record valuable for evidencing affective ties not
only within two distinct communities but also among them allying with one
another and forming a new emotional community.
“Mahmiye-i İstanbul’da vaki taşçı taifesinin kethüdaları Duka v. Dumo ve
ihtiyarlarından Papa Yorgi v. Serafi ve Kiro v. Duka ve Konstantin ve
İstefanos ve Liko v. Minho ve Pando v. Duka ve Koka v. Kirov e Fentari v.
Dimitri ve Duka v. Dino ve Biço v. Fanka nam zimmiler meclis-i şer’-i serifi
lazımü’t-teşrifde mahmiye-i mezbure hısnı ebvabından Topkapı dahilinde
Bayezid Ağa mahallesi avarızına mevkufe nukudun bi’l-fiil mütevellisi olan
Mahmud Çelebi b. Muharrem ve mahalle-i mezbure imamı Mustafa Efendi
b. Ramazan ve ahali-i mahalle-i mezbureden Ahmed Çelebi b. Mustafa ve
Hüseyin Çelebi b. Ahmed ve İbrahim Çelebi b. Mustafa ve Ali Bey b.
Mehmed nam kimesneler mahzarında her biri takrir-i kelam ve ta’bir-i
ani’l-meran idüp mahalle-i mezburenin dokuz hane avarızı olup
mukaddema biz rızamız ile bir hanesinin mahalle-i mezbure ahalisine
malimizden imdad edegelmişdik bade’l yevm beher sene zikr olunan dokuz
hanenin üç hanesini rızamız ile kendi malımızdan ahali-i mahalle-i
mezkureye imdad eylemek üzere taahhüd eyledik dediklerinde ma hüve’lvaki
bi’t-taleb ketb olundu. Fi’l-yevmi’-sani aşer min Şabani’l-muazzam li
sene seb’a ve seb’in ve elf”. 303
In this record, the kethüda and the notables of the taşçı taifesi in İstanbul, the
members of which were all non-Mumlims, came to the court and made an
allegation within the presence of the Mahmud Çelebi who was the mütevelli of
avarız akçesi waqf of the Bayezid Ağa quarter, the imam and the notables of the
said quarter. Bayezid Ağa quarter was situated within the Topkapı gate of the city
walls of Istanbul. From their allegation, it is understood that Bayezid Ağa quarter
had 9 registered avarızhanes. However members of taşçı taifesi were paying the
taxes and other expenses corresponding to the liabilities of one avarızhane of the
303 Transcribed by İSAM. İstanbul BAB JCR 03 v17: 667
http://www.kadisicilleri.org/goster.php?blm=bab03&bsm=667esa667yt54
201
Bayezid Ağa quarter with their own consent (rızamız ile) as sustenance (imdad
olmak üzere) for the liabilities of the quarter. They now wanted to expand their
own liabilities and pay for not one but three of them. It is mostly probable that the
taşçı guild was located either very close to the Bayezid Ağa quarter or was within
the said quarter. This close proximity brought two different taifes, members of the
taşçı guild and the members of Bayezid Ağa quarter, together. Although the
members of Bayezid quarter and the taşçı guild members were two distinct
emotional communities located close to one other, it is apparent that there were
also affective ties established between the two, evidenced by the payment of one
another’s liabilities with their own will expressed by the term “rıza”. Whatever
the reasons are lying behind their decision to increase their own payments on
behalf of another community and ease their financial obligations, the two distinct
taifes were integrated as one distinct emotional community. It is also worthwhile
to note that although the residents of Bayezid Ağa quarter were Muslims, the
members of taşçı taifesi were non-Muslims. This case also shows that their
religious identities became secondary in their attempt to aid for the obligations of
another taife. The state, in avarız tax payments, only demanded that the sum
accrued for each fictional avarızhane would be duly paid. It did not, in other
words intervened in how the taxes are collected from each avarızhane. The
allocation of taxes among the real households under one avarızhane was made by
either the imams, religious leaders, or the muhtars who were selected members of
the community and who were a part of the domain of rıza ve şükran, of whom the
members were pleased with, in their methods of fair allocation of liabilities. The
emotional ties among them then, expressed as “rıza ve şükran”, acted not only as
202
a shield form outside threats but also as a tool to ease their financial liabilities. In
this case we witness emotions, which supposedly should stay in the private realm
of individuals, expressed not only linguistically but also by acts and behaviors by
paying taxes of another member, giving emotions their collective form.
5.4. The Process of Moving In and Out of the Domain of Rıza ve Şükran
We may now consider “rıza ve şükran” as a term indicating a domain of
gratification and contentment from the case records noted in previous sections.
The community itself established distinct emotional norms and expected
compliance to such norms from its own members if they want to be a part of this
domain of pleasure. The members also longed to be an inseparable part of this
domain showing their compliance. But how did they become either an inseparable
part of it or regarded as the black sheep of the community demanding their
expulsion? What in other words was the “process” of either becoming a part of
the domain or not? In this section, both the process of becoming a member and
expulsion are scrutinized. Analyzing the process itself is important also in
providing us clues on interpretation of the judicial court records.
The case below is interesting in the sense that it shows the process of becoming a
mastering member of the guild and officially moving into the domain of
gratification and contentment.
“Medine-i Ankara sûkunun dekakininde sakin Hayyat taifesinden Abdi
Çelebi ibn Ali ve ...... meclis-i şer’de taife-i mezburenin şeyhi ve yiğitbaşısı
olan işbu eshabu hazi’r-rakam El-Hac Mehmed bin Mehmed ve Hüseyin bin
Zülfikar ve Mehmed bin Ömer nam kimesneler mahzarlarında her biri bi’lasale
ve bi’l-vekale ikrar-ı tam ve takrir-i kelam idüb erbab-ı hiref beyninde
203
kadimden cari mutadımız esnaf ve sair ahbabımıza ziyafet hılalinde 180
şakirdimiz başka çıkmak için cümle olub her birinden müştemian akçe ve
eşyayı mezburuna ala tariki’l-emane virüb yevm-i ziyafetde harc ve sarfa
cümleye izn virüb mezburun bade’l-harc lede’l-muhasebe beynimizde
harcın kıllet ve kesretine müteallika münazaat-ı ekide vukuundan naşi
beynimize müslihun vesatetiyle müctemia olub yevm-i mezburda harc ve
sarflarından baki zimmetlerinde makbuz yirmidört guruş ve dört res ağnam
ve doksan adet sabunve altı vukıyye pirinç ve sekiz makrama üzerine
ahedihum aherin zimmetine lazım gelen hukukdan zimmetimizi ibra itmek
üzere inşa-ı akd eylediklerinde biz dahi sulh-ı mezburu kabul ........ fi
yevmi’s-sani min muharremi’l-haram sene 1110”.304
In this case record, a group of masters from the guild of tailors in Ankara acting
also as the proxies of other masters from the same guild who were not present in
the court explained how they amicably settled a dispute. The said dispute was
between the masters and the şeyh, El-Hac Mehmed and the two yiğitbaşıs of the
guild, namely Hüseyin and Mehmed. Rather than the dispute itself, this case is
important in providing us with clues on the process of becoming a notable
member of a guild while promoting from the position of a disciple to a master.
We understand from the allegations of the masters that the tailors organized a
banquet when their disciples that they had trained were ready to be promoted to
the status of a master. This organization was a customary (erbab-ı hiref beyninde
kadimden cari mutadımız) ritual with the participation of the tailor guild members
together with the members of other guilds and friends. The banquet as a ritual of
the guild of tailors indicated an entitlement for the disciples to practice their
profession on their own (başka çıkmak) and we understand that the number of the
disciples ready to be promoted was 180 for that year. As a part of fund-raising,
304 Ankara JCR 78: 15
204
money was demanded from the disciples to cover the expenses of the provisions
of the banquet and both the cash collected and the provisions were handed over to
the şeyh and the yiğitbaşıs of the guild. However the accounting of the revenues
and expenses led to a dispute between them, although amicably settled in the end
with the aid of mediators. Both parties discharged one another from further
obligations regarding the case. We do not know how long it took for the disciples
to be promoted to become masters in their profession. We do not either know
whether the period of training was same for each and every disciple. However,
this record shows that it was a process , most probably a long one, for the
disciples to be trained by their masters, learning the secrets of the profession, and
awarded at the end of this tiresome period with a banquet symbolizing their
maturation. It was a process in which not only the knowledge regarding the social
and occupational norms but also emotional norms of the group were transmitted
from masters to their disciples. It was this process of training and transmitting
knowledge that which also established affective ties between disciples and
masters. Once they were ripe and mature enough, they were ready to profess on
their own without the help of their masters, and only then, they had the right to
move into the domain of rıza ve şükran of the guild community. This case may
also be interpreted in yet another way. It also shows that emotions may be
expressed by actions or practices. Rituals like the banquet in this case, organized
for the disciples validating their mastering in a specific occupation, are also
mediums for expressing a communal gratitude. Emotions in this case are not
linguistically expressed through language; rather, they are expressed through
actions and practices.
205
Additionally, the disciples acted rather as a member of their masters’ family
establishing familial relations based on affective ties like that of a father and son
rather than a paid worker. Below case is an example providing evidence on the
features of a relation between a master and a disciple.
“Medine-i Ankara’da Hatuni mahallesinde mütemekkin Bedros veled-i
Samkonla şabb emred zimmi meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımü’t-tevkirde medinei
mezbure hısnı mütemekkinlerinden baisü hazi’s-sufr Minas veled-i Tobal
nam zimmi muvacehesinde üzerine takrir-i dava idüb hal-i suğramda
mezbur Minas’a şakird olmağla iyalinde olduğuma binaen sekiz sene bilaücret
hidmet idüb badehu beni hidmetinden red itmişidi hala akil ve baliğ
olmağla hidmet ittiğim gerek ücret-i mislini talep eylediğimde edadan
imtina ider sual olunub takriri tahrir ve alıvirilmek matlubumdur didikde
müdde-i mezbur Bedros ücret ile hidmet ider makulesinden olmayıb ve
mezbur Minas’ın akrabasından dahi olmadığı lede’ş-şer’ zahir olmağla
ücret tesmiye olunmadıkça ücret lazım gelmediğini kütüb-i fetava-yı
mutebereden kitab-ı Kadı-i Hedaya’nın bab-ı icaresinde mestur ve
mukayyed bulunmağla mezbur Minas’a sual tevcih itmemeğin müdei-i
mezbur Bedros muarazadan men’ olunub ma vaka bi’t-taleb ketb olundu. fi
23min saferi’l-hayr sene 1110”.305
In this case, Bedros, a non-Muslim resident of Hatuni quarter in Ankara, who
recently reached puberty came to the court and claimed against Minas, who is a
resident of the castle of Ankara. Bedros claims that he worked for eight years as
the diciple of his master Minas (Minas’a şakird olmağla) without being paid
(bila-ücret) on the grounds that Bedros was a family member of Minas (iyalinde
olduğuma binaen). After 8 years, Bedros was dismissed by Minas from his job
and now that he had reached puberty, he demands Minas pay for his daily
expenditures that which accrued during his 8 years of training. In his reply, Minas
305 Ankara JCR 78: case no 68
206
denied the claim and argued that the service given in the period under
consideration was not a paid service and he may not be regarded as a member of
his family. As a basis for his argument he also provided a fetva which states that
a service would not be paid unless the price of the service is explicitly determined.
The judge rejected the claim of Bedros stating that Bedros could not be regarded
as a paid worker (ücret ile hidmet ider makulesinden olmayıb) during the
mentioned 8 years period, and that it was apparent by law that Bedros was not a
member of the family of Minas (Minas’ın akrabasından dahi olmadığı lede’ş-şer’
zahir olmağla). He based his judgement also on the fetva of the judge Hedaya
regarding this case under the chapter of hiring one’s self to another (icare) which
demands that the price be specified beforehand (ücret tesmiye olunmadıkça ücret
lazım gelmediğini kütüb-i fetava-yı mutebereden kitab-ı Kadı-i Hedaya’nın bab-ı
icaresinde mestur ve mukayyed bulunmağla). This case also shows the difference
between a paid worker and a diciple. It is apparent that the disciple demanded to
be paid for his daily provisions in cash to himself similar to allowances paid to the
divorced women for their habitation and subsistence. The customs suggested that
the masters, independent of their familial ties with their diciples, had to take care
and provide the necessities of their diciples under training. The relation
established between a master and a diciple was quite different from that which
demanded a material payment in return for service. The bonds between the two
was based on affection rather than formal payment of service. This record is
dating 18th century which also indicates a change in the understanding of the ties
between the masters and the diciples, becoming more material.
207
The cases above show the process of moving into the domain of rıza ve şükran
both in mahalle cemaats and esnaf taifes and reflect the long process of
establising the affective ties among the community members. The process of, this
time moving out of the domain of rıza ve şükran, is analyzed below.
Usually the court cases recorded present us the last phase of the relations
established between the members of the emotional communities. Trying to
interpret the case at its final phase may distort our understanding of the past.
However, we should also keep in mind that the case reflects the end of a process.
The moving into the domain of rıza ve şükran was not a one-night process.
Likewise, the process of moving out of the domain also incurred several phases.
The cases of expulsion from the communities focusing on the terms and concepts,
is further analyzed which provide us, clues on the process of removal from the
domain of rıza ve şükran.
“Medine-i Brusa hısnı dahilinde İmaret-i İsa Bey mahallesi ahalisinden
işbu eshabü’l-kitab Mustafa Çelebi bin Osman ve Es-Seyyid Süleyman
Çelebi ibn Mehmed Çelebi ve Salih bin Mustafa ve Mehmed bin Süleyman
ve Osman bin Abdullah ve Ali bin Mehmed ve Hasan bin El-Hac İbrahim ve
Mehmed bin Yahya nam kimesneler ile nisa taifesinden Saliha bint-i Ali ve
Aişe bint-i Ali ve İhsan bint-i Mustafa diğer Aişe bint-i Mehmed ve Saliha
bint-i Mehmed ve Hatice bint-i Mehmed nam hatunlar meclis-i şer’-i hatır-i
lazımü’t-tevkirde mahalle-i mezburede Sultan Mustafa odaları dimekle
ma’ruf odalarda sakin Es-Seyyd Mehmed bin Es-Seyyid Numan ile Şerife
Fatma nam kimesneler mahzarlarında her biri takrir-i kelam ve dava’ ve
tasvir-i müddea idüb mezbure Şerife Fatma mahalle-i mezburede kendi
halinde olmayıb bu esnada diyar-ı aherden gelen hasebi ve nesebi meçhul
işbu mezbur Es-Seyyid Mehmed’i li-ebeveyn karındaşı beraber olmak üzere
menzilinde beytutet ittirdiğinden maada kendi daileri ile mukayyed olan
hatunları izlal kaydında olmalarıyla bundan akdem kendi hallerinde olmak
üzere bi’d-defat kendülere tenbih-i ekidd olundukda mütenebbih olmayub
ef’al-i kabihada ısrar üzere olduklarından emniyetimiz meslub olmağla
mahalle-i mezbureden ihrac olunmaları matlubumuzdur deyü
muvacehelerinde su-i hallerini haber virmeleriyle mezburan Es-Seyyid
Mehmed ve Şerife Fatma’nın mahalle-i mezbureden ihraclarına tenbih birle
208
mavakıa bi’t-taleb ketb olundu. fi’l-yevmi’s-sabi min şehr-i rebiü’l-ahir
sene tisın ve mie ve elf”.306
In the above case, men and women residents of the İmaret-i İsa Bey quarter came
to the court and claimed against Es-Seyyid Mehmed and Şerife Fatma. Es-seyyid
Mehmed was living in the rooms of Sultan Mustafa inn which was probably
located in the same quarter. In their allegations they stated that this Şerife Fatma
was offensive (kendi halinde olmayıb) and she let Es-Seyyid Mehmed whose
merits and familial ties were unknown (hasebi ve nesebi mechul) and his brother
to stay in her own house. Additionally, they humiliated other women who were
occupied with their own business (kendi daileri ile mukayyed olan hatunları izlal
kaydında olmalarıyla). The community members demand that both Es-Seyyid
Mehmed and Şerife Fatma be expelled from their communities grounding their
arguments on the threat of their safety. This case is an evidence of community
members demanding two of their members moved out of the domain of rıza
şükran. However, my main emphasis for the case is not the expulsion but rather
the phases of the process. The plaintiffs stated that they had repeatedly warned
Es-Seyyid Mehmed and Şerife Fatma strongly (bi’d-defat kendülere tenbih-i ekidd
olundukda) for their wrongdoing beforehand. However, the two were not obedient
(mütenebbih olmayub) and insisted on their wrongful acts (ef’al-i kabihada ısrar
üzere olduklarından). The warning then is a step before the formal demand of
expulsion in the court. This case shows that moving out of the domain of rıza
şükran was not a one-night process. The community members tried to solve the
306 Bursa JCR B-166: 62
209
problem first among themselves by trying to persuade the wrongdoers and warn
them. The process had a phase of admonition. The established affective ties in
other words were not to dissolve suddenly. A closer look at the terms and
concepts used, do offer us clues on the previous stages of the case.
The case record that has previously been utilized is quite similar to the one above
which also demands the expulsion of a community member whom they had
previously strongly warned (tenbih-i ekidd) but who insisted on her misconduct
(Edibe mahalle-i mezburede kendi halinde olmayıb ve na-mahremden dahi
ictinabı olmadığından maada medidü’l-lisan olmağla bundan akdem kendi
halinde olmak üzere kendüye tenbih-i ekidd olundukda mütenebbih olmamağla
mezbure Edibe’nin mahalle-i mezbureden ihracına….).307
The below case indicates another phase in the process of moving out of the
domain of rıza ve şükran:
“Medine-i Ankara hısnı ahalilerinden baisü hazi’l-kitab El-Hac Mehmed
bin İlyas ve Es-Seyyid El-Hac Hasan nam kimesneler meclis-i şer’-i şerif-i
enverde car-ı mülasıkları Es-Seyyid Osman bin Es-Seyyid Osman bin Es-
Seyyid Mehmed nam kimesne mahzarında her birileri üzerine dava ve
takrir-i kelam idüb mezbur Es-Seyyid Osman daima kendi halinde olmayub
şürb-i hamr ve fısk-ı fücur adet-i müstemiresi olmağla işbu gice haric kale
sakinlerinden eşkiya makulesinden birkaç nefer kimesneleri menziline davet
ve alet-i lehva ile adet-i melufeleri üzere şürb-i hamr ve fısk-ı fücura meşgul
oldukları halde halt-ı kelam savt-ı sekranı izhar ile bizleri ve sair civarını
iza ve taciz eylediklerinde bizler dahi gerek mezbur Es-Seyyid Osman ve
gerek validesi gaibe ani’l-meclis Zahide nam hatunu men’ ve zecrleri üzere
hayırla tavsiye ve fiil-i mekruh-ı mezkurdan fâriğ olmak içün nasihat
eylediğimizde mezburlar adem-i kabullerinden naşi herbirilerimize şetm-i
galiz ile şetm ve atale-i lisan eylediklerinden maada meşgul oldukları fiil-i
kerihde ısrar ve devama ikdam itmeleriyle mezburların keyfiyet-i ahvalleri
ahali-i mahalle ve sükkan-ı kal’adan sual ve istihbar olunub takrirleri tahrir
ve muceb-i muktezası bade’l-icra mahallemizden hurucları matlubumuzdur
307 Bursa JCR B166: 60
210
didiklerinde …….. fi evail-i receb bil ferd sene hamse ve sittin ve mie ve
elf”.308
In this case, we understand that El-Hac Mehmed and Es-Seyyid El-Hac Hasan
who were residents of Ankara castle came to the court and claimed against their
next-door neighbor (car-ı mülasık) Es-Seyyid Osman and made the following
allegation: “This Osman is harmful (kendü halinde olmayıb) and he is a habitual
debaucher (fısk ü fücur) and drinks wine. The night before the date of the case, he
invited some men who are regarded as brigands living in a foreign quarter outside
the castle and while drinking, acting immorally and shouting they annoyed the
community members. His mother Zahide kept company with him. We tried to
prevent and forbid their wrongdoings by kindly counseling both Es-Seyyid
Osman and his mother (men’ ve zecrleri üzere hayırla tavsiye ve fiil-i mekruh-ı
mezkurdan fâriğ olmak içün nasihat). However they did not listen to our advice
and insisted on their misbehavior by cursing us. We demand that their conduct be
inquired from the community members and expelled from our quarter.” When the
other community members were questioned they witnessed Es-Seyyid Osman’s
and his mother’s misconduct by emphasizing that such acts were habitual (adet-i
müstemirresi) for them. We frequently encounter the term “adet-i müstemirresi”
especially in cases with extreme penal sanctions like expulsion.309 Another term
308 Ankara JCR 135: 155-156
309 for example in the Ankara JCR 135: 132 “……işbu mesfuran Kirkor veled-i Melekut zimmiler
daima kendü hallerinde olmayıb ibadullahı taciz ve tekdirden hali olmadıklarından maada bunun
emsali gece ile ehl-i ırzın menziline duhul ve hetk-i ırz adet-i müstemireleri olmağla
mahallemizden aher mahalle hurucları matlubumuzdur.....” In another record,Ankara JCR 135:
133, “……mesfur Zakarya daima kendü halinde olmayıb nice bî-günah kimesnelerin mal ve
ırzlarına taarruz ve şutum ve darb ve itale adet-i müstemiresidir bizler bu hususa bu vech üzere
şahitleriz şehadet dahi ideriz deyu her birleri ala tariki’ş-şehade habir virdiklerinden sonra
211
synonymously used with “adet-i müstemire” is “mutadı olmağla” which also
denotes to the habitual feature of the misconduct.310 They both emphasize that the
wrongdoing is continual, perpetual or long lasting thus becoming habitual. This
constitutes yet another phase in the process itself. This case shows us the phases
of the process more clearly. The community members, long before demanding
their expulsion, had kindly tried to prevent them from their wrongdoings by
giving several advices. However, his habitual act of misconduct necessitated the
community members to demand their expulsion. The court case then shows only
the very last phase of deteriorating relations and affective ties between the
community members. They first tried their best to solve the problem within the
community without taking a legal action against the wrongdoers.
The below case is similar to the one above, in the sense that before the demand for
expulsion of Himmet and his wife Aişe from their community it is evidenced that
the community members repeatedly offered advice and admonition (pend ü
nasihat) for them in the first place. However, despite numerous efforts of the
community members to keep them in the domain of rıza ve şükran trying to
discipline the couple, they insisted on their indecent assaults (fiil-i şeni). Thus the
community members could not help but complain against them in the court and
demand their expulsion.
müstehiyye-i anhu mesfur Zakarya’nın mahalle-i mezburdan ihrac olunmasın iltimas
itmeleriyle…..”
310 For an example of a case where the habituation is emphasized see Konya JCR 35: 156/1;
“…..mezbur Musa kendi halinde olmayıb su-i hal (kötü hal) üzere olub nice kimesnelerin
avretlerin baştan çıkarub evine getürüb ve ecanib-i namahrem rical dahi getürüb sohbet ittirüb
pezevenglik itmek mu’tadı olmağla râzı ve şâkir değilleriz sual olunub mucebi icra ve
mahallemizden ihrac olunmak matlubumuzdur…..”
212
“Mahrusa-i Brusa mahallatından Veled-i Enbiya Mahallesi ahalisinden
işbu ashabü’l-kitab imam El-Hac Mehmed Efendi ibn-i Ali Efendi ve
Feyzullah Efendi ibn-i Abdülmecid Efendi ve El-Hac Süleyman ibni
Mehmed ve Ahmed Ağa ibn El-Hac Mehmed ve Molla Mustafa ibn El-Hac
Mahmud ve kul Süleyman Ağa ibn Mahmud ve Hasan Çelebi ibn Mehmed
ve Memiş Ağa ibn Ahmed ve Molla Hüseyin bin Bekir ve İsmail Ağa bin
Abdullah nam kimesneler ve sairleri meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımi’t-tevkirde
mahalle-i mezbure sükkanından Himmet bin Ahmed ve Aişe bint Abdülmelik
nam zevcesi muvacehelerinde her biri üzerlerine dava ve takrir-i kelam idüb
mezbur Himmet ile zevcesi Aişe kendi hallerinde olmayıb mürtekib-i münahi
olmalarıyla daima erazil ve nikbet ve zümre-i fevahişden avanet ile ülfet ve
menzillerine dahi sair müfsideden ........ herbirimiz mezburetandan
müteezziler olduğumuzdan bi’d-def’at kendülere pend ü nasihat
eylediğimizde asla iltifat ve rağbet itmeyüb hala efal-i şenilerinde ısrar
üzere olmalarıyla mahalle-i mezbureden ihrac olunmaları matlubumuzdur
deyu her biri zevcan-ı mezburanın su-i hallerini bi’l-muvacehe ihbar
itmeleriyle te’diben li-hüma zevcan-ı mezburanın salahları zahir oluncaya
değin mahalle-i mezbureden ihraclarına tenbih birle ma hüvel vaki bi’ttaleb
ketb olundu. fi’l-yevmi’l-rabi ve’l-işrıyn min şehr-i recebü’l-ferd li
seneti tisin ve mie ve elf”. 311
The cases above provide us important clues on the process of moving out of the
domain of rıza ve şükran. What they all show is that if someone becomes either
harmful to other members of the community or shows misconduct, the dissidents
are first given advice and admonition, not once but usually repeatedly (bi’ddef’at)
trying to hinder their wrongdoing. This is the first stage of disciplining.
Then the second phase starts in which the dissident may either revert back to the
domain of rıza şükran feeling regret for what he/she has done or insist on his/her
misconduct without taking the members’ advices into consideration. If someone’s
status were reversed back to the domain we would not probably be able to detect
it since there would be no demand for expulsion. The third stage is the one in
which the dissident gets into the habit of continual misconduct in which probably
311 Bursa JCR B 166: 63/ 5
213
the members take him/her under their surveillance watching and observing the
acts of the suspect. Only then, if the community members insure the habituation,
they appeal to the court, which constitutes the last phase of the process. Another
thing that we should keep in mind is that we only have an access to cases, which
already reached its final and were at an irreversible phase although giving us clues
on the previous phases of the process. However, we do not know whether there
were also many cases for which the efforts of the community members did work
out in hindering the wrongdoers’ behavior. It is quite probable that most of the
cases were solved within the community without any appeal to the courts.
Actually, this is quite similar to the state’s attitude towards the wrongdoers that I
have analyzed in the third chapter where the state also first tries to discipline the
dissident subjects showing compassion and trying to revert back to the state of
“telif-i kulüb” and only after it is evidenced that the offense is habitual, it takes
action.
The cases of expulsion from a neighborhood had been the topic of interest of
many historians.312 The demand of the community members for expulsion of one
312 See for example Özer Ergenç, “Osmanlı Şehrindeki Mahallenin İşlevleri ve Nitelikleri
Üzerine,” In Osmanlı Tarihi Yazıları Şehir, Toplum, Devlet (İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları,
2012), 75-85; Andre Raymond, Osmanlı Döneminde Arap Kentleri, trans. Ali Berktay, İstanbul,
1995; Nurcan Abacı, Bursa Şehrinde Osmanlı Hukukunun Uygulanması (17. Yüzyıl) (Ankara:
Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları, 2001); Özen Tok, “Kadı Sicilleri Işığında Osmanlı Şehrindeki
Mahalleden İhraç Kararlarında Mahalle Ahalisinin Rolü (XVII.ve XVIII. Yüzyıllarda Kayseri
Örneği),” Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi 18, no 1 (2005): 155-173; James E. Baldwin,
“Prostitution, Islamic Law and Ottoman Societies,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of
the Orient 55 (2012): 117-152. Baldwin examined the treatment of prostitution in several genres of
Ottoman legal writing like manuals and commentaries of Islamic jurisprudence, fetwas,
kanunnames and questioned how prostitutuion was dealt with in practice by using judicial court
records. Usually the remedy for the cases of prostitution was either banishment or expulsion from
a neighborhood. He argues that expulsion of prostitutes from a neighborhood reflected concerns of
the plaintiffs who were local residents unhappy living in close proximity to vice. They were in
other words less interested in seeing the offenders punished, more concerned with the ways
prostitution impinged on the rights of Ottoman subjects and disrupted Ottoman societies.
214
or more of the members seems to be the final and irreversible phase of the
process. However it still may not be so. Some court cases evidence for example
that even if the judge gives his decision that he/she be expelled from the
community, the dissident may still continue to live in that same community. The
case below is an example of such a case record.
“Mahmiye-i İstanbul’da Tabbah (debbağ) Yunus mahallesi sakinlerinden
işbu hafızu’l-kitab es-Seyyid Hüseyin b.es-Eyyid Ramazan ve Mehmed
Efendi b. Alaaddin el-imam ve Mehmed Efendi el-müderris ve Ali Subaşı b.
mezbur Hüseyin Çelebi ve Mehmed Çavuş b. Kasım ve Hüseyin Bey b. Memi
ve Mehmed Bey b. Mustafa el-cündi ve Behram b. İbrahim ve Osman Çelebi
ve el-Hac Şehabettin ve sairleri bi isrihim meclis-i şer’a, yine mahalle-i
mezbureden Sema Hatun bt. Mehmed’i ihzar ve mahzarında takrir ve dava
edip, mezbure Hatun evinde daima fesad üzredir olduğundan gayrı evine
na-mahrem girip çıkmaktan hali değildir, mahallemizde bu üslub üzre
sakine olursa fesad olmak mukarrerdir, kiraren mezbureye mahallemizden
çıkmaya tenbih olunmuş iken ahar mahalleye çıkmak ile mukayyed değildir,
hala mezbureyi mahallemizden ihrac olunmasını talep ideriz dediklerinde,
mezbure Hatun dahi rızasıyla çıkmaya istimhal etmeğin, tarih-i kitabdan üç
güne değin ahar mahalleye nakl olunmak için mezbureye tenbih olundu.
Hurrie fi 24 Cemaziyelahir fi-tarihi’l-mezbur”.313
In the case above, es-Seyyid Hüseyin, Mehmed Efendi, Alaaddin the imam,
Mehmed Efendi the müderris, Ali the subaşı, Mehmed and some others who were
all the residents of the Tabbah Yunus quarter came to the court and within her
presence claimed against Sema Hatun who was also from the same quarter and
they made the following allegation: “This Sema Hatun is in the habit of mischief
(daima fesad üzeredir). Additionally, there are always people entering her home
who are regarded canonically as strangers (evine na-mahrem girip çıkmaktan hali
313 Transcribed by İSAM. İstanbul JCR 03 v.13: 316
http://www.kadisicilleri.org/goster.php?blm=istanbul03&bsm=316hse316eg98
215
değildir). If she continues to stay in our community, malice in our community
would be inevitable. Although it had been legally ordered numerous times that she
be expelled (kiraren mezbureye mahallemizden çıkmaya tenbih olunmuş iken), she
did not leave this quarter and still lives in our neighborhood. We demand that she
be expelled again.” Then Sema Hatun requested a period of delay to leave the
community with her own consent (rızasıyla çıkmaya istimhal etmeğin) and the
judge ordered that she leave the quarter within three days. This case evidences
that even if Sema Hatun was expelled from the community and legally ordered
several times to leave, she still managed to live in the same quarter which shows
that even the latest phase of the process of moving a community member out of
the domain of rıza ve şükran may not be the final phase.
5.5. Variances in Drawing the Borders of the Domain of “Rıza ve Şükran”
It has been showed that moving in and out of the domain of rıza ve şükran was a
long process starting with counseling, warning, keeping under watch and continue
with legal actions. However, neither the constraints of becoming a pleased and
gratified member of a community nor the length of the process for each
community were the same. The limits for the period of advice or the limits drawn
to decide whether an act is habitual or not could be different in one taife/cemaat
from the next one. The case below further elucidates the claim;
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da Nehr-i Kafur Mahallesi ahalisinden işbu rafivaü’lkitab
el-Hac Mehmed bin Ahmed ve Molla Mehmed bin Hacı İbrahim ve
Hacı İsmail bin Mehmed ve Mehmed bin hacı Nurullah ve Hacı Mehmed bin
Hacı İsmail ve Mehmed bin Hüseyin ve Ahmed bin Emrullah ve sairleri
meclis- şer’de mahalle-i mezbure sakinlerinden Mehmed bin Osman ve
Marzıye bint-i Hasan mahzarlarında her biri üzerlerine dava ve takrir-i
216
kelam idüb mezburlar kendü hallerinde olmayub bir birlerine na-mahrem
iken gicede ve gündüzde bir birleri ile görüşmek için mezbur Mehmed
mezbure Marziye’nin menziline varır görüşürler ikisinden dahi emin ve
rahat değilleriz sual olunub cevapları tahrir ve ikisi dahi mahallemizden
ihrac olunmalarına tenbih olunmak matlubumuzdur.” 314
In the case above, some residents of the Nehr-i Kafur quarter came to the court
and claimed against two of their community members, namely Mehmed and
Marziye. In their allegation they claimed that Mehmed and Marziye were
offensive (kendü halinde olmayıb). Although they were defined as na-mahrem for
one another as per religious law, which denotes to a stranger canonically, they
would meet in the Marziye’s house for day and night. The community members
did not feel themselves safe and secure for being a member of the same
community and they demanded that both of them be expelled from their
community.
The below case is very similar to the one above,
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da Piresed Mahallesi ahalisinden Receb bin Hamza ve
Mustafa bin Ahmed ve Seyyid Ömer Çelebi ibn el-Hac Mehmed ve Mehmed
bin Mehmed ve Ahmed bin Musa ve Musli bin Mehmed ve Hasan bin Halil
ve Ömer bin el-Hac Mustafa ve Mevlud bin Rıdvan ve Abdülkadir bin
Mustafa ve Osman bib el-Hac Mustafa ve İbrahim bin Mirza nam
kimesneler meclis-i hatir-i lazımü’t-tevkirde mahalle-i merkume mescidinin
imamı olan Molla Mehmed bin İsa mahzarında her biri takrir-i kelam ve
tabir-i ani’l-meram idüb mezbur Molla Mehmed İsmihan nam hatun ile carı
mülasık olub mezillerinin arasında olan yerde divarı münhedim olmağla
mezbure İsmihan na-mahrem iken biri birlerinden ihtifa itmeyüb daima ülfet
ve ünsiyet ve ışret ve musahabet üzere oldukları eclden merkumun
imametinden istikrah eyledik mezbur Molla Mehmed ve gaibe-i ani’l-meclis
merkume İsmihan mahallemizden ihrac olunmaları matlubumuzdur deyu
314 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 53 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1148-1149 /1736-1737)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin (Konya: Selçuk Üniversitesi, 2014), 123. Quoted from Konya JCR 53:
52/4.
217
her biri mezburların su-i hallerini haber virmeğin merkuman Molla
Mehmed ve İsmihan’ın her birine mahalle-i merkumeden çıkmak üzere
tenbih bir le ma-vaka’a bi’t-taleb ketb olundu fi’l-yevmi’t-tasi aşer min
Zil’kadeti’ş-şerife li-sene selase ve mie ve elf” (19 Zi’l-kade 1103/2 Ağustos
1692)315
In this case, similar to the one above, the residents of Piresed quarter came to the
court and claimed against this time the imam of their quarter Molla Mehmed and
his next-door neighbor İsmihan, demanding Molla Mehmed be dismissed from his
duty as imam and both be expelled from their community based on the same
grounds of getting in close contact with someone who is namahrem. They further
added that Molla Mehmed and İsmihan were on sociable and familiar terms,
intimately acquainted with each other, carousing and having a friendly
conversation (daima ülfet ve ünsiyet ve ışret ve musahabet üzere).
What do the two cases, both from Konya, tell us about the boundaries of the
domain of “rıza ve şükran”? In both cases getting into close contact with someone
who is canonically a stranger (namahrem) seems to be one of the reasons for
moving somebody out of the domain, which is quite compatible with the religious
norms. The couples in both cases had pushed the limits of this domain so far that
the community members demand that they moved out. However, we may not,
based on two such cases, say that in every community, close contact with a
stranger would end up with an immediate expulsion. The fact that one of the
315 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 38 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1103-1104/1692-1693)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin (Konya: Selçuk Ünviversitesi, 2014), 126. Quoted from JCR 38: 81/2.
218
parties in Piresed quarter was an imam, a religious leader respected and
collectively selected by the members of the community, could have been the
reason for narrowing the boundaries of “rıza ve şükran”. If it had been someone
else, it wouldn’t maybe reach the final phase of expulsion but rather stay in the
phase of counseling only. We may also argue that, although just visiting the house
of someone namahrem may be a sufficient reason to demand an expulsion, in
another one, being intimately acquainted, carousing and having a friendly
conversation may constitute as a sufficient reason to take a legal action. Although
seems quite similar, in each case, the boundaries collectively determined by the
community members were different from one another. We may suggest that the
boundaries of the domain were looser for Piresed quarter than Nehr-i Kafur
quarter. The community members of Nehr-i Kafur in the first case are suspicious
of Mehmed and Marziye since they saw them meet in Marziye’s house. There is
no further and a detailed explanation regarding their behaviour. Their suspicions
were enough for their demand for expulsion. Additionally it is apparent that the
length of time elapsed between the first occurence of the misconduct observed by
the members and the legal action taken towards the misconduct was different for
each case, also denoting that each quarter was distinct in establishing their own
emotional norms.
The case below constitutes yet another one indicating the difference of boundaries
drawn of the domain of rıza ve şükran.
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da Hoca Habib mahallesi sakinlerinden imam El-Hac
Abdullah Halife ibn Abdülhalim ve Ahi Baba El-Hac Osman ibn El-Hac
Süleyman ve İsmail bin Nasrullah ve Molla Süleyman bin Nebi ve Mahmud
bin El-Hac Mehmed ve İbrahim bin Yakub ve Hasan bin Mehmed ve Molla
Mustafa bin Abdürrahman ve El-Hac Veli bin Nasrullah ve Mehmed bin
İvaz nam kimesneler ve sairleri meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımü’t-tevkirde
219
mahalle-i merkume sakinelerinden Gonca bint Abdullah nam hatunı ihzar
ve mahzarında her biri takrir-i kelam ve tabir-i ani’l-meram idüb;
“ tarih-i kitab gecesi beyne’l gurub ve’l a’şa mezbure Gonca’ya ecnebi ve
namahrem olan hazır bi’l-meclis El-Hac Seyyid Mehmed bin Mehmed nam
kimesne mezburenin menziline girib, biz dahi agah olub, hakimü’ş-şer’e ve
zabitine ilam ve her birinden birer adem ile mezburları ahz itmişidik.
Mezbure Gonca’nın bundan mukaddem dahi bu makule hilaf-ı şer’ evza’ı
mesmu’umuz olmağla mahalleden ihrac olunmak murad ideriz”deyub,
mezkure dahi istintak oldukda; “mezburun zevcesi benim ile bir husus için
niza’ ve cidal itmekle merkum El-Hac Seyyid Mehmed “zevcem ile niçin
niza eyledin” deyu” menzilim havlusuna girib bana hitab idüb ben dahi
cevap virirken mahallem ahalisi ahz ve ihzar eylediler deyucek mucebiyle
ma vak’a bi’t-taleb ketb olundu. Fi’l-yevmi’s-salis aşer min saferi’l-hayr
sene sitte aşereti ve mie ve elf.”316
The imam (religious leader) El-Hac Abdullah Halife, Ahi Baba El-Hac Osman,
İsmail, Molla Süleyman, Mahmud , İbrahim, Hasan, Molla Mustafa, El-Hac Veli
and Mehmed from the quarter of Hoca Habib in Konya came to the court and
claimed against the woman named Gonca bint Abdullah from the same quarter
and made the following allegation in her presence: “on the night of the date of this
document, during beyne’l gurub ve’l a’şa, the man named El-Hac Seyyid
Mehmed bin Mehmed who is ecnebi ve namahrem to Gonca, entered to her house.
Once that we have been informed about that, we took both of them to the judge
and the officer. We want her to be expelled from our quarter since we have heard
that the mentioned Gonca had previously similar misconduct, which was against
the sharia.” When Gonca was questioned, in her reply she said “I had a dispute
and cidal with the wife of El-Hac Seyyid Mehmed and he entered to the backyard
of my house to ask me why I had a dispute with his wife. While I was answering
316 Konya JCR 17: 179
220
his question, the community members of the quarter came and took me to the
court.” The case has been recorded as per request. The case continues however
with a next one.
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da Hoca Habib mahallesi ahalisinden El-Hac Abdullah
Halife ibn Abdülhalim ve Ahi Baba El-Hac Osman ibn El-hac ve İsmail
bin Nasrullah ve Molla Süleyman bin Nebi ve Mahmud bin El-Hac Mehmed
ve İbrahim bin Yakub ve Hasan bin Mehmed ve El-Hac Veli bin Nasrullah
ve Mehmed bin İvaz nam kimesneler meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımü’t-tevkirde
El-Hac Seyyid d bin Mehmed nam kimesne mahzarında her biri takrir-i
kelam ve tabir ani’l meram idüb;“tarih-i kitab gecesi beyne’l gurub ve’l
a’şa mezbur El-Hac Seyyid Mehmed mahallemiz sakinelerinden hazıra bi’lmeclis
Gonca bint Abdullah nam hatunun menziline girub, biri birlerine
ecnebi ve namahrem olmağla biz dahi zabitine ve hakimü’ş-şer’e ilam idüb
her birinden birer adem getirib, ahz ve ihzar eyledik sual olunsun
didiklerinde; gıbbe’s-sual,mezbur Elhac Seyyid Mehmed cevabında;
“mezkure Gonca benim zevcem ile mücadele ve münazaa’ itmeğle “niçün
idersin” dimek içün havlusuna girib, havlu içinde vech-i muharrer üzere
mükaleme iderken mezburlar ahz eylediler” deyucek mucebince ma vakıa
bi’t-talb ketb olundu. Fi’l-yevmi’s-salis aşer min saferi’l-hayr sene sitte
aşereti ve mie ve elf”. 317
El-Hac Abdullah Halife, Ahi Baba El-Hac Osman, İsmail, Molla Süleyman,
Mahmud, İbrahim, Hasan, El-Hac Veli and Mehmed, from the quarter of Hoca
Habib in Konya came to the court and made the following allegation against El-
Hac Seyyid bin Mehmed within his presence: “the mentioned El-Hac Seyyid
Mehmed entered into the house of the woman Gonca bint Abdullah. Since they
were ecnebi and namahrem to each other, we informed the judge and officer and
they took him to the court. We want him to be questioned.” When questioned the
defendant in his reply said that: “ since the mentioned Gonca and my wife had
been quarrelling and disputing, I entered into the backyard of her house to ask
why they were in dispute. While we were talking within the backyard of her
317 Konya JCR 17: 206
221
house, these men came and took me to the court.” The case has been recorded as
per request.
This case, although seems quite easy, is more complex to understand. At first
sight it seems that the community members saw Mehmed entering into Gonca’s
house and immediately demanded the expulsion of Gonca for being in close
contact with a stranger of opposite sex. In her reply, which had also been verified
by Mehmed, she gave further explanations on the entrance of Mehmed to her
house. She said that she was quarrelling with the wife of Mehmed and he entered
into her house just to inquire about the possible causes for such a dispute between
her and Mehmed’s wife. The case itself is another example of deterioration of the
domain of rıza ve şükran, which ended up with a legal action and a demand for
expulsion. However it does show something else which is given by the term
“mesmu’umuz olmağla” (hearsay) again. While in the previous case, the
community members verified that they have not yet heard of any mischief of
Simaven or any member of his family, this time members of another community
stated that they had previously heard similar mischief of Gonca before. It shows
that it was not the first time of Gonca probably taking home strangers, which
shows that she was still under watch of the community members. However the
last case could denote the final limit for their allowance of such sinful act
necessitating them to take legal action. However it also shows that the relative
allowance for sinful acts was unique. It is apparent that Gonca, although under
watch, was still living in the quarter.
The cases above show that not only the boundaries of the domain of rıza şükran
may be different for each taife/cemaat but also the allowance for pushing the
222
boundaries. In addition to that, how members expressed their displeasure to the
wrongdoers was also quite different from one another evidencing the presence of
not one but many unique emotional communities. Did they kindly counsel them,
for how long, or did they allow a long period of time for amelioration (ıslah), for
how long did they watch over the wrongdoers, how long did it take for them to
verify that the act was habitual for the wrongdoer? These are the questions that we
need to take into consideration. If the community members chose first to warn
those who misbehaved, how would they show or express their displeasure? It is
argued that the expressions of displeasure also differed from one community to
another. The below case will elucidate the difference more clearly.
“Mahrusa-i Bursa’da Mücellidi mahallesinden Sefer bin Kamber nam
kimesne meclis-i şer-i şerifde Ali bin Abdullah mahzarında takrir-i kelam
idüb hala mahalle-i mezburede sakin olduğum menzilimin kapısına mektub
bırağılıb içinde bana ve hala taht-ı nikahımda olan zevceme müteallik
fuhşiyat ve şer-i şerife muhalif bazı kelimat yazılmış mezbur Ali ile
beynimizde adavet-i dünyeviye olmağla zikr olunan fiili merkumdan sudur itti
zannederin sual olunsun didikde gıbbe’l-istintak ve bade’l-inkar müdde-i
mezburdan müddeasına mutabık beyyine taleb olundukda ihzarından aciz
olıcak müdde-i merkum talebiyle mesfur Ali’ye’e zikr olunan fiil kendüden
sudur eylemeyüb ve kimesneye dahi ittürmediğine yemin teklif olundukda
yemin bi’llahi’l-a’lâi’l-a’lâ ittikde ma hüvel vaki bi’t-taleb ketb olunub yedd-i
tâlibe vaz’ olundu. tahriren fi evahir-i muharremi’l-haram sene ihda ve elf.
Late muharrem 1001”. 318
Sefer in this case claims in the court that a letter had been left on the door of his
house the content of which was full of words of immorality (fuhşiyat), which were
also against law (şer-i şerife muhalif) regarding himself and his legal wife. Sefer
is suspicious of Ali and blames him for writing such a degrading letter to him. His
318 Bursa JCR B-7: 37/6
223
suspicion is based on the grounds of this-worldly hostility (adavet-i dünyeviyye)
established between himself and Ali. In this case, it is apparent that one of the
community members, Sefer, does not feel consent and gratitude towards another
member of the same community because of hostility between them. The striking
thing in this case is the expression of this hostility, which in this case is leaving an
anonymous letter with a degrading content in front of the house door. We may not
know whether the same mode of expression was practiced by all the community
members or not, however, it seems more likely that it was a customary practice
among the community members. This case evidences differences in how
individuals expressed their displeasure towards one another signaling
deterioration in the domain of rıza ve şükran. It also shows how in one
community the emotion of displeasure may be suppressed or implicitly expressed.
Leaving an anonymous letter to the door of somebody either as a slander to
degrade based on hostility or as a signal or warning that the community members
were well aware of one’s misbehavior was just one way of expressing displeasure.
However, there were also different modes of expression of displeasure such as
spreading tar on someone’s door (kapısına katran sürme) or hanging a horn on
someone’s door (boynuz asmak). Cases on “kapıya katran sürme” have been
studied so far as a social sanction. Ergenç was the first to bring about the topic of
katran sürme to the attention of historians.319 Several historians later added to our
knowledge of the issue by increasing the number of cases identified in various
319 Özer Ergenç, “Osmanlı Şehrindeki Mahallenin İşlevleri ve Nitelikleri Üzerine,” In Osmanlı
Tarihi Yazıları Şehir, Toplum, Devlet (İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2012), 75-85.
224
locations. 320 They all emphasized its practice either functioning as a social
sanction or as a tool for slander, and recent research evidences that it was a wide
spread practice among Ottoman neighborhoods. 321 It was not a practice that was
limited only to Muslims; it was rather practiced regardless of one’s religious
identity. For Example, Çetin identified that out of 52 cases, 44 of them were
Muslims, 13 of them Christians and one of the cases was an Armenian which was
parallel with the structure of the religious population.322 However, all the
research done so far could not go beyond identification of the cases of “katran
çalma” and all argued that it was one of the practices, which acted as a way to
denounce an illicit sex (zina) since it was not easy to testify, and the false
allegations of zina demanded severe punishments. It was also used as a message
to the community members implying a suspicion on one’s chastity or honor. The
example below is one such case of “katran sürme”, but unlike the previous
research it is used as an evidence for something different.
“Bi’l fiil eyelet-i Karaman’a mutasarrıf olan düstur-ı mükerrem müşir-i
mufahham vezir-i ruşen-i zamir izzetli saadetlü Halil Paşa edamellahü
te’ala iclaluhu hazretlerinin mütesellimi olan fahrü’l-emasil ve’l-akran
320 See for example; Cemal Çetin, “Anadolu’da Kapıya Katran Sürme Vak’aları: Konya Şeriyye
sicilleri Işığında Hukuki, Kültürel, Toplumsal Boyutları 1645-1750,” Turkish Studies 9 no 1
(2014): 133-156; Abdulmecid Mutaf, “Osmanlı’da Zina ve Fuhuş Olaylarına Karşı Toplumsal Bir
Tepki: Kapıya Katran Sürmek ve Boynuz Asmak,” In Osmanlı’dan Cumhuriyete Balıkesir, eds.,
Bülent Özdemir-Zübeyde Güneş Yağcı, Balıkesir: Yeditepe, 2007), 93-104; Zübeyse Yağcı, 2005.
“Osmanlı Taşrasında Kadına Yönelik Cinsel Suçlarda Adalet Arama Geleneği,” Kadın 2000 v.3
no.2 (2005): 51-81; Yılmaz, Fikret, “Zina ve Fuhuş Arasında Kalanlar, Subaşıya Karşı,”
Toplumsal Tarih 220 (2012): 22-31; Nurcan Abacı, Bursa Şehrinde Osmanlı Hukukunun
Uygulanması (17. Yüzyıl) (Ankara: Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları, 2001).
321 Cemal Çetin, “Anadolu’da Kapıya Katran Sürme Vak’alari: Konya Şeriyye sicilleri Işığında
Hukuki, Kültürel, Toplumsal Boyutları 1645-1750,” Turkish Studies 9 no 1 (2014): 133-156. Çetin
analyzed 48 judicial court registers from Konya for the time period spanning from 1645 to 1750
and identified 52 cases of “katran çalma” which were submitted to the court. According to Çetin
several cases were identified in the cities of Balıkesir, Bursa, Manisa, Ankara, Konya, Karaman,
Antep and Kayseri evidencing this practice for illicit sex accusations.
322 Ibid., 146.
225
Seyyid Mehmed Ağa tarafından husus-ı atiyyül’l-beyana mübaşir tayin
olunan Katip Yusuf Efendi meclis-i şer’-i şerife mahmiye-i Konya’da Şükran
mahallesi sükkanından hamil-i haze’s-sifr Simaven veled-i Kirkor nam
zimmiyi ihzar ve mahzarında takrir-i kelam ve tabir-i ani’l-meram idüb
tarih-i kitap gicesi merkum zimminin zokak kapusuna katran sürmüşlerdir
merkumun menzilinde olan iyalinin keyfiyet-i halleri ve mazınnası sual ve
istihbar olunması matlubumdur didikte gıbbe’s-sual merkum zimmi
cevabında tarih-i kitap gicesi benim zokak kapusuna katran sürülmüş lakin
faili malumum değildir ve iyalimde olanlar ehl-i ırz kendi hallerindedir
didikten sonar mahalle-i mezbure ahalisinden el-Hac Seyyid Mustafa ibn el-
Hac Osman ve ……… nam kimesneler li-ecli’l-ihbar meclis-i şer’a hazirun
olub eserü’l-istihbar mezbur Simaven kendi ve zevcesi ve iyalinde olanlar
bi’l-cümle ehl-i ırz müstakim kendü hallerinde kimesnelerdir ve haricden
dahi yaramaz makulesinden gelür gider yokdur bu ana gelince hükkam-ı
kiram tarafından dahl olunmak icab eder halleri mesmuumuz olmamışdır
deyu her biri habir virmeğin mübaşir-i merkumu mu’arazadan men bir’le
………. (13 Zi’l ka’de 1103/ 27 July 1692)”. 323
In the case above, Katip Yusuf Efendi, who is from the askeri class, brought the
non-Muslim Simaven to the court and stated that somebody spred tar on the door
of Simaven’s house. Based on this accusation he demanded that the conduct of
Simaven and his family be questioned from the community members. In his reply,
Simaven verified the spread of tar and added that he did not know who did it. He
also indicated that his family members were all inoffensive (kendühalinde) and
respectable (ehl-i ırz). When Simaven and his family had been questioned from
the community members they all witnessed that the family members are all
respectable (ehl-i ırz), upright, honest (müstakim) and inoffensive (kendü
hallerinde) people and they did not have any misconducting (yaramaz) visitors.
Until the day of the case, they had not even heard anything about them which may
necessitate the intervention of legal officials (bu ana gelince hükkam-ı kiram
tarafından dahl olunmak icab eder halleri mesmuumuz olmamışdır deyu…).
323 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 38 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1103-1104/1692-1693)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin (Konya: Selçuk Ünviversitesi, 2014), 114. Quoted from Konya JCR 38:
74/2.
226
The above case is an evidence of several claims of this research. The first thing
that it indicates is that each mahalle community had its unique mode of
expression for displeasure. Spreading tar to the door or leaving an anonymous
letter in front of the door constitutes just two different modes of expression. It
may also be interpreted as suppression of the expressions of emotions such as
anger or hostility explicitly. We may never know whether Simaven or any
member of his family did actually misbehaved or it was just a slander. However it
does signal the deterioration of the domain of rıza şükran. In the process of
deterioration, expression of displeasure like the ones above constitute yet another
phase in the process, similar to warning or counseling as efforts to revert
wrongdoers back to the state of being pleased from one another. It may also show
that the member for whom another community member or the community as a
whole may have doubts about and thus will be hold under watch for some time.
Lastly, this case also evidences the process of moving into the domain of rıza
şükran in the sense that being considered as someone of whom everybody is
pleased also takes time. The indicator of the length of period is hidden under the
term “mesmu’umuz olmamağla” which means we haven’t heard any of his/her
mischief by now. It takes time to be a part of the domain in that sense, which in
turn transforms into a public opinion about one’s conduct either as good or bad.
All of the cases of slander may also be considered as a part of the process itself.
227
5.6. Sustainability of the Domain of “Rıza ve Şükran”: Shame
Another question, which still remains to be answered, is how the sustainability of
this domain of “rıza ve şükran” was achieved? There were two main factors
behind. One of them was the personal interests of those who deserved to be a part
of the domain which itself was a result of a long process that I analyzed in the
previous section. It was in compliance with the personal interest to long for being
a part of the domain since it ensured protection and also eased the individuals’
liabilities towards the state. However there was yet another factor, or a
mechanism which ensured sustainability of the domain, which was an emotion;
namely, the emotion of shame. Shame, which is an emotion privately felt but
collectively constructed, acted as a fundamental factor in the sustainability of this
domain. Shame, defined as the fear from social disapprobation or fear of being
blamed or criticized, provided a willing obedience to social and emotional norms
thereby ensuring sustainability of the domain of rıza ve şükran. Actually Muslim
thinkers also saw shame as the most fundamental thing for proper social
functioning and adherence to law. Katz analyzed haya, which may be roughly
translated to English as shame, in ethical and legal works of scholars of Shafi
legal school in the 11th to early 12th centuries.324 She focused in her article
especially on works of Mawardi (d.1058), Ghazali (d.1111) and Juwayni. She also
argues that the ideas about haya in these texts are not specific for this period only,
rather consistency in historical period is observable. Indeed, several research
324 Marion Holmes Katz, “Shame (Haya) as an Affective Disposition in Islamic Legal Thought,”
Journal of Law, Religion and State (2014): 139-169.
228
asserts the centrality of the cultivation of right passions or emotions to the theory
and function of the classical sharia as a system.
Shame in this sense is important because it demands a presence of “other” to be
felt. In other words, one would not feel ashamed unless there is at least one
“other” than him/herself. By its essence it is social and acts as a tool to sustain
social order by providing willing obedience to social and emotional rules. In this
section I analyzed the emotion of shame in the Ottoman society because of its
crucial contribution to the sustainability of the domain of “rıza ve şükran” and
made a linguistic and contextual analysis of shame, which is an emotion for which
the society had stronger impact in its construction. It is relatively more socially
constructed and collectively regulated with implicit rules established as to when to
express, to whom and how. The differing choice of words for its expressions in
different contexts is also important in its conceptualization.
5.6.1. Descriptions of Shame
How a specific emotion is defined by a given society or a given language has been
the object of many research so far not only in history, but also ethnography, social
psychology and linguistics and it has now been widely accepted that325 emotion
words in one language hardly have an equivalent translations in any other
325 See for example; Nader Al Jallad, “ The concept of “shame” in Arabic: bilingual dictionaries
and the challenge of defining culture-based emotions,” Language Design 12 (2010): 31-57; Marry
H. Kayyal and James A. Russell, “Language and Emotion: Certain English−Arabic Translations
Are Not Equivalent,” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 32 (2013): 261-271; Anna
Wierzbicka, Emotions Across Languages and Cultures: Diversity and Universals (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1999).
229
language.326 It seems like evidence continues to mount that when we translate a
word, we risk changing its meaning. This is why emotion words demand a
broader explanation in their translation keeping in mind that they usually bear
different meanings in different contexts. Shame is one of the emotions, which
show high degree of variances between cultures, which evidences its social
construction, and also possess a scale in its expression by different shame-like
emotion words depending on the density of the feeling.
Al Jallad provided a linguistic framework for analyzing, understanding and
describing the emotion “shame” in contemporary Arabic by proposing a specific
linguistic, cognitive and cultural apparatus to define the emotion.327 She claims
that the essential component in defining an emotion is exploring what triggers the
emotion and the respond to it.328 She made a contextual analysis in her study of
six different emotion words used in contemporary Arabic, hacal, haya, hishmah,
ayb, faziha, ayb and ar and argued that there are basic differences in the
semantics, grammar and cultural aspects of shame between Arabic and English.
While all of the six Arabic shame-like words are translated into English as
“shame”, each word is different in its scale and meaning in Arabic. It is therefore
necessary to understand the culture in which the emotion of shame is being
326 Kayyal and Russell for example, in their research questioned whether 12 emotion words in
English; namely, happiness, sadness, anger, fear, interest, relaxation, embarrassment, disgust,
contempt, surprise, perplexity, and hesitancy had an equivalent words in Arabic. Translation–back
translation was used to obtain the best available Arabic translation for each word. They found out
that out of 12 words, only one translation (happiness-ferah in Ar.) passed the tests of equivalence,
while the remaining 11 words differed with culture and language.
327 Nader Al Jallad, “ The concept of “shame” in Arabic: bilingual dictionaries and the challenge
of defining culture-based emotions,” Language Design 12 (2010): 31-57.
328 Ibid., 32.
230
expressed to better understand its meaning. She argues for example that there is
no kind of shame in English, which is praised, recommended or respect-related.329
Although Al Jallad’s research is not a historical but a linguistic one, it serves as a
clue to how Ottomans themselves expressed their feeling of shame. It is quite
clear that many words related to shame and translated as shame in English, each
had different connotations used in different contexts.
Another interesting research on the subject is Abu-Lughod’s ethnographical study
based on a field work conducted among settled Bedouin nomads living west of
Alexandria, called Awlad Ali, which has previously been mentioned in literature
review section.330 Her book Veiled Sentiments is a seminal work in
conceptualizing honor and modesty in a Bedoian society. She argues that one of
the most complex concepts in Bedouin culture is hasham, the meaning of which
depends on the context. Although it means modesty, it’s a concept beyond that
meaning. It involves both feelings of shame in the company of the more powerful
and the acts of deference that arise from these feelings. Various words were
formed from the trilateral root hashama and were translated by a cluster of words
including modesty, shame and shyness. In its broadest sense it means propriety
(adab). Abu Lugdod’s linguistic approach to the word “hasham” which had
differing meanings in different contexts is especially important to understand how
329 For example, hacal, haya and hishmah are positive feelings like shyness. While haya is almost
like a moral power that guides one’s behaviour, hacal is more internal, personal and self-oriented.
Hishmah meaning highly sensitive to shame-inducing situations is a word which is recommended
and praised.
330 L. Abu-Lughod, Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society (Berkeley: Unv.of
California Press, 1986).
231
such culturally constructed concepts in societies may serve to regulate social
relationships. “Hasham” was distinctive to Awlad Ali community with its own
social and political functions for this Bedouin society.
There were also many different words in expressing their feeling of shame in the
Ottoman classical period differing in their scale and context. The words that they
preferred to use also differed in time and across space. Before analyzing different
expressions of shame in their historical contexts, first its lexicographic analysis is
made, which also evidences the richness of the vocabulary used in expressing
shame. For example, hacal (being or becoming confused with shame), hacalet
(struck with confusion and shame), haşmet (anger, irritation; shame with
annoyance; modesty, bashfulness, pudicity), haya (a feeling shame, modesty or
bashfulness; to feel ashamed of), faziha (a shameful act or quality, an infamous
crime), fazihat (shame, disgrace, infamy), ayıb (a fault, flaw, defect; anything
looked upon as shameful, a breach of manners; shameful), ar (cause of shame, a
shameful act or quality; bashfulness, shyness) constitute only some of the
different meanings of shame. However lexicographic analysis does not provide us
any clues on the intensity of being ashamed. Neither does it tell much about what
triggers them, the circumstances, which made it more suitable to express, nor their
nuances in various contexts. Therefore a contextual analysis of their use is
necessary.
Haşmet for example, which refers more the personal, like being afraid of in one’s
own, feeling uneasy about oneself, flushing of one’s face is quite different from
ar. Haya on the other hand, although similar to haşmet as a respected feeling, is
also different from either ayıb or ar.
232
In a court record of Konya register 53 (226-1) in the phrase “benim mezilimi ve
avratımı zabt eyledin yaramaz zalim ve utanmaz hayasız senin geçinmen benim
menzilimde olan konaklardandır deyu şetm”, haya also refers to ungratefulness,
the cause of which is a socially shaped conscience that monitors one’s actions.
Although one should be grateful to those who let one to stay in their own house, it
seems like acting contrary to it indicates a lack of haya. Haya in this sense is
highly related to social values and traditions. Katz claims that the semantic range
of haya also embrace the English terms “modesty”, “bashfulness” but more
importantly “inhibition” in the sense that one is expected to feel haya not for what
he has done.331 Rather it’s an anticipatory shame (shame from what will happen in
the future) representing a fear of social disapprobation or disgrace.332
Faziha on the other hand is defined as “rezil rüsva olma hali”, which is like losing
face. It is felt when one’s fault comes out to be known by others, when a
previously secret thing is exposed. It is other-oriented and different from haya or
hacal. The shame of ar for example constitutes an extremity in its use. It is the
most intense feeling of shame. It is triggered by committing something that is in
extreme opposition to moral values or social norms. Different uses of different
shame-like words will be clearer as more examples are cited from our primary
sources.
331 Marion Holmes Katz, “Shame (Haya) as an Affective Disposition in Islamic Legal Thought,”
Journal of Law, Religion and State (2014): 143.
332 Ibid., 146. “For example, Miskawayh, the tenth century philosopher and historian defines haya
as “the soul’s constraint out of fear of committing repugnant acts and apprehension of criticism
and rightful blame. Likewise, Al-Mawardi discusses haya as an external and visible sign of
internal and invisible virtue and his arguments revolve around three imagined observers before
whom on emay feel haya; God, other people and oneself.”
233
Another shame-like word ayıb for example, is not as intense as ar. One is
expected to feel ayıb when he/she violates proper rules of behavior. Dankoff ‘s
study regarding Evliya Çelebi’s Traveller Account has to be mentioned here in
which he made both a linguistic and a historical analysis of the term “ayıb”
(shame). Dankoff made a contextual analysis of the word “ayıb” in Evliya
Çelebi’s Seyahatname arguing that different societies had different
understandings of shame in Ottoman Society.333 He also explored different words
of shame, each having a different meaning in different contexts. He emphasized
that the concept of ayıb changed geographically evidencing its culturally
constructed feature. For example, according to Evliya, while it was considered to
be ayıb (disgraceful) for women to go about in the marketplace in Ayntab (çarşu
u bazarda gezmeleri gayet ayıbdır), it was not the case for women in Istanbul.334
The women of Cairo on the other hand, Evliya continues “never go out in the
street during the day, except when it is an emergency and then they do it secretly.
But at night they light torches and visit their relatives attended by their servants,
otherwise it is shameful for women to go about in marketplaces (avret bâzârda
gezmek gâyet ayıbdır)”.335 In Peshpehil for example Evliya writes, “men and women
do not flee from each other, he notes, and women may go outdoors without their
husbands’ permission, and even sit and chat and drink “with us Ottomans,” and none
of this is considered shameful and they have behaved in this disreputable fashion ever
since the time of the Virgin Mary (Peşpehil’de ise erleri ve avratları birbirlerinden
kaçmayıb bizim Osmanlı ile avratları bir yerde oturub ayş u işret etdükte kocası
333 Robert Dankoff, “Ayıp Değil! (No Disgrace),” Journal of Turkish Literature 5 (2008): 77-90.
334 Ibid., 77.
335 Ibid., 78.
234
birşey demeyüb kapudan taşra gider, ayıb değildir, zira bu Kafiristan’ın
cümlesinde hüküm avratındır, ta Meryem Ana’dan berü ayin-i bedleri böyle
olagelmiştir).336
Ayıb then, refers more to social norms in Evliya’s Traveller’s Book. Evliya also
uses the shame-like words of hicab and hacalet to express shame or humiliation as
experienced by an individual.
In Ottoman court records, one of the shame-like words that we frequently
encounter is the emotion word of “ar”. It is however quite natural to see “ar” in
judicial courts more often than any other shame-like words like ayıb or hacalet
because it has the highest intensity. It is usually expressed as “bana ar lahık
oldu”. In the next section I made a contextual analysis of the emotion of ar,
which, it is argued, had wider social implications than just expressing the state of
being ashamed by the legal actors.
5.6.2. Ar
We may not know for sure how the litigants actually felt or how intense their
feeling were even if they had felt ashamed. However, we know that they preferred
to express their feeling of shame on specific conditions. It was even a requirement
for many to come to the court and declare their shame. By giving different
examples from judicial court records, it is argued that expressions of shame acted
as an emotive like the expression of rıza ve şükran. It usually acted as a signal
336 Ibid., 81.
235
sent to other members of the taife, reflecting a demand to reverse his questionable
status back to a state of being confirmed. Expression of shame may as well be
regarded as a condition of being someone that community members felt “rıza ve
şükran”. The examples cited below will further evidence the claims.
The court case cited below constitutes an interesting example for expressing one’s
emotions at court.
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da ....mahallesi sakinlerinden rafiü’l-kitap İmam
Hüseyin Hoca bin Hüsamettin meclis-i şer-i hatir-i lazımü’t-tevkirde
Poladlar mahallesi sakinlerinden Sefer bin ..... mahzarında üzerine dava ve
takrir-i kelam idüp, “mezbur Sefer bana iftira idüp, Ebubekir bin İvad’ın
zevcesi Rahime ile muamelesi vardır dimekle bana ar lahık oldu, sual
olunsun” didikde gıbbe’s-sual ve akibü’l-inkar mezbur Hüseyin Hoca’dan
takririne muvafık beyyine talep olundukda, udul-ı müsliminden Mehmed bin
Receb ve Halil bin hasan nam kmesneler liecli’ş-şehade meclis-i şer’e
haziran olup, istişhad olunduklarında “fi’l-vaki Sefer bizim huzurumuzda
merkum Hüseyin Hoca’ya mezkure Rahime ile muamelesi vardır dedi, biz
bu husussa şahitleriz, şehadet dahi ideriz” deyu eda-yı şehadet-i şeriyye
eylediklerinde şehadetleri hayyiz-i kabulde vakıa olmağın ma vakıa bi’ttalep
ketb olundu.”337
In this case, Hüseyin Hoca the imam of a neighborhood claimed against Sefer
from a different neighborhood and made the following allegation: “The
accusations of Sefer about me for having illicit sexual relationship with Rahime
who is the wife of Ebu bekir is a slander and I felt ashamed (bana ar lahık oldu).”
Hüseyin Hoca demanded Sefer be questioned. When Sefer denied the allegations,
the court demanded Hüseyin Hoca to produce evidence. Hüseyin then presented
337 Konya JCR 10: 134/2
236
Mehmed and Halil as his witnesses who confirmed that Sefer made the said
accusations within their presence. The case then has been recorded as requested.
We do not know how the lawsuit was concluded. Most probably, Hüseyin Hoca,
the plaintiff, will take a copy of the record from the qadi and together with the
legitimate evidence would demand Sefer to be penalized from the policing
official, “subaşı”.
The case is about a man is accused of slandering the religious leader of the
community stating that imam was having an affair with someone else’s wife. It
seems that Hüseyin Hoca, who is from notables of a community acting as their
imam, was afraid of loosing his prestige and power over the community members
and therefore decided to report the case to the legal authorities and wanted the
witnesses to confirm the accusations of the defendant. The close relationships
established between community members in traditional societies enhanced not
only strong friendships but also envy and hostility towards one another. Therefore
we frequently encounter cases in which the legal parties supported false
allegations or reflected imputations of such. There are many court cases revealing
disputes of imputations, often termed as “töhmet”, “isnat”, or rumors termed as
"goft u gû", “kil ü kal”, "dedikodu" or "hadd-i tevâtür”. We may not understand
from this case whether the accusations of Sefer were true or not. It could be a
false accusation based on a personal animosity between the two, or he could
actually have had an affair with a married woman, the exposition of which would
demand a feeling of deep shame. Such a rumour would lead to suspicion of the
community from the imam’s piety, loss of confidence of the community members
and also a state of humiliation. However, Hüseyin Hoca did not go to the court
237
only to accuse Sefer for his slandering and to express how deeply he was
ashamed. Shame in such cases, especially the expression of feeling ashamed
indicates an implict request from his community members to gain their confidence
back, to revert back to someone whom the members have consent in and feel
gratitude to. This feature of its expression perfectly fits to the definition of an
“emotive” in Reddy’s terminology. If emotions are goal oriented thought material,
the imam’s emotions of shame and its expression evidence that it was a goal
oriented thought material. The expression of shame in this case is not only
descriptive and performative but also emotive, since it also reflects a wish to
change the world. It also in itself has a social expectation from other community
members. It is not important for us to know “how” Hüseyin Hoca felt when he
heard the accusations of Sefer. How the case turned out, how the judge gave his
judicial decision, whether or nor Sefer had been punished is not for the time being
within the scope of this research. However, this case shows that ar as an emotion
of shame was socially constructed and there were implicit rules of when to feel,
what to feel, to whom and most importantly how to express it. It was only the
feeling of “ar” that could be expressed in a court with a specific purpose
implicitly reflected. It may also suggest that words give shape to one’s emotions
by choosing to identify and name one’s feelings in one way rather than another,
borrowing from Reddy, individuals define their emotions in the process of
expressing them. Ar in this sense, as a kind of shame to be felt most intensively,
perfectly fits to Reddy’s argument that “emotions are themselves instruments for
directing, changing, building hiding, intensifying emotions.”
Another example of “ar” is cited below which is also from Konya court registers:
238
“Bi’l-fiil eyalet-i Karaman’a mutasarrıf olan ................... izzetlü saadetlu
Mehmet Paşa hazretlerinin mütesellimi olan fahr’ül-akran Abdurrahman
Ağa tarafından husus-ı ati’ül-beyana mübaşir tayin olunan Mehmed Ağa
müzaheretiyle mahmiye-i Konya kazasına tabi Sahra nahiyesinde Damköy
sükkanından Mevlud bin Mehmed nam kimesne meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i
lazımü’t-tevkirde karındaşı Ebu Bekir nam kimesneyi ihzar ve mahzarında
üzerine dava’ ve takrir-i kelam idüp, “tarih-i kitabdan 4 gün mukaddem
mezbur Ebu Bekir zevcem Ayşe’ye kahbe ve rusbi deyu şetm idüp, bana ar
lahık olmuştur, sual olunub, muceb-i şer’isi icra olunması matlubumdur”,
didikde, gıbbe’s-sual mezbur Ebu Bekir cevabında tarih-i kitabdan 4 gün
mukaddem ben mezburun zevcesi Ayşe Hatun’a kahbe ve rusbi deyu şetm
eyledim deyu tavi’an ikrar ve itiraf itmeğin ma vakıa bi’t-taleb ketb
olundu.”338
In this case Mevlud bin Mehmed, brought his brother to the court by the aid of
subaşı and claimed against him. Mevlud made the following allegation: “4 days
ago this Ebubekir defamed my wife Ayşe by calling her a bitch (kahbe ve rusbik).
I felt ashamed (bana ar lahık oldu). I demand that he be questioned and the legal
requirement implemented”. Ebubekir accepted the accusation and confirmed that
he defamed his wife Ayşe. The case has been recorded as requested.
The reason of Mevlud bin Mehmed’s filing a lawsuit is different from the
previous one. He claims that his brother defamed his wife, which harmed her
chastity. His brother accepted the accusation. Mevlud’s feeling of shame should
have been quite intense that he accused his own brother and he got help even from
the subaşı to make sure that he be questioned. His insistence for his brother’s
chastisement evidences the scale of the problem. It seems that it was expected
from him to express his feelings of shame, how deeply he was ashamed in a court.
338 Konya JCR 35: 121/2
239
It also shows how important it is to be a member of community whom the
members have full confidence that his and his wife’s virtue and chastity are
unquestionable. The defamation of his brother may as well be due to a sudden
anger or a false accusation however, even if it were the case, he still could
demand that he be questioned. Again, like the previous case above, by his
expressions of shame and grief, he also implicitly demands that his virtue be
declared. Goal oriented feature of expressing one’s emotion of shame is clearly
evidenced reflecting also a demand from other community members’ consent and
gratitude and become a member that again they perceive as someone towards
whom they feel “rıza ve şükran”.
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da Sadırlar Mahallesi sükkanından rafi’ü’l-kitab imam
es-Seyyid Molla İbrahim bin Ahmed nam kimesne meclis-i hatir-i lazımü’ttevkirde
yine mahalle-i mezbureden Ebubekir bin Mirza nam kimesne
mahzarlarında üzerine dava ve takrir-i kelam idüb, tarih-i kitabdan bir gün
mukaddem mahalle-i mezburede huzur-ı müsliminde alenen bi’l-muvacehe
mezbur Ebubekir bana puşt ve dip satan deyu şütum-ı galize ile şetm idüb,
bana ar lahık olmağla sual olunub mucib-i şer’isi icra olunmak
matlubumdur didikde gıbbe’s-sual ve’l-inkar ve bade’t-taleb-i beyyine udulı
ahrar-ı rical-i müsliminden Abdurrahman bin Mehmed ve İbrahim bin
İbrahim nam kimesneler li-ecli’ş-şehade meclis-i şer’e haziran olub eserü’listişhad
fi’l-vaki merkum Ebubekir tarih-i kitabdan bir gün mukaddem
mahalle-i mezburede bizim huzurumuzda bi’l-muvacehe merkum es-Seeyid
Molla İbrahim’e puşt ve dip satan deyu şütum-ı galize ile şetm eyledi biz bu
hususa şahitleriz, şehadet dahi ideriz deyu her biri eda-i şehadet-i şer’iye
eylediklerinde gıbb-ı riayeti şerayitü’l-kabul mucibiyle mezbur Ebubekir’in
zabiti marifetiyle tazirine bade’t-tenbih ma-vaka’a bi’t-taleb ketb olundu
fi’l-yevmi’s-sani aşer min Şevvali’l-mükerrem li sene seman ve erba ve
mi’ete ve elf” (12 Şevval 1148/25 Şubat 1736)339
339 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 53 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1148-1149 /1736-1737)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin, (Konya: Selçuk Üniversitesi, 2014), 32. Quoted from Konya JCR 53:
14/3.
240
The above record is also a case of defamation in which es-Seyyid Molla this time
claimed against Ebubekir stating that one day ago he called him as pimp (puşt ve
dip satan). Seyyid Molla felt so much ashamed that he demanded the legal
requirements implemented. Although Ebubekir denied the accusations, Seyyid
Molla proved his case by the help of witnesses who confirmed Ebubekir’s curse.
The judge then decided that he be punished by the help of zabit, a member of the
“örf” class. Although cases differ in what triggered the feeling of ar as an intense
shame, they all serve for the same purpose, which is prevention of being a
questionable person for the community members whom they do not have consent,
whom they do no not feel thankful, and who pushed the constraints of the domain
of “rıza and şükran”.
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da Sarıyakub Mahallesi sakinlerinden rafi’ü’l-kitab
Molla Abdullah Halife bin Abdülehad nam kimesne meclis-i şer’-i münirde
es-Seyyid Mehmed bin Seyyid Ahmed nam kimesne mahzarında üzerine
dava ve takrir-i kelam idüb, tarih-i kitabdan bir gün mukaddem Külahçılar
Suku’nda mela-i nasda mezbur Seyyid Mehmed bi-gayrı vech benim yakama
yapışışup başından büyük tersek yersin deyu bana şütüm-i galize ile şetm
etmekle bana külli ar lahık olmuştur sual olunub takriri tahrir ve mucib-i
şer’isi icra olunmak matlubumdur didikde gıbbe’s-sual ve’l-inkar ve bade’-
taleb-i beyyine udul-ı ahrar-ı rical-i müsliminden Osman bin Hacı Ömer ve
Müsli bin İbrahim nam kimesneler li-ecli’ş-şehade meclis-i şer’e haziran ve
istişhad olduklarında fi’l-vaki tarih-i kitabdan bir gün mukaddem
Külahçılar Suku’nda mela-i nasda merkum Seyyid Mehmed müdde-i mezbur
Molla Abdülhay Halife’nin bizim huzurumuzda yakasına yapışışup başından
büyük tersek yersin deyu şütüm-i galize ile merkum Molla Abdülhay
Halife’ye şetm eyledi biz bu hususa şahitleriz, şehadet dahi ideriz deyu her
biri eda-i şehadet-i şer’iye eylediklerinde bade’t-tadil ve’t-tezkiye
şehadetleri makbule olmağın mucibiyle merkum Seyyid Mehmed’e tazir
lazım gelmekle tazirine tanbih bir le ma-vaka’a bi’t-taleb ketb olundu fi’lyevmi’l-
hamis ve’l-işrin min Zi’l-hicce li-sene seman ve erba’in ve mi’ete ve
elf” (25 Zi’l-hicce 1148/7 Mayıs 1736)340
340 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 53 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1148-1149 /1736-1737)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin, (Konya: Selçuk Üniversitesi, 2014),181. Quoted from Konya JCR 53:
77/5.
241
In the above case, Molla Abdullah Halil bin Abdülehad claimed against es-Seyyid
Mehmed bin Seyyid Ahmed and he stated in his allegation that, a day before the
date of the court, es-Seyyid Mehmed stuck to his neck without any reason and
cursed him by telling “büyük tersek yersin” (you will have a big shit on your
head) and thus he was ashamed (ar lahık oldu). He demanded that es-Seyyid
Mehmed be questioned and legal requirements implemented. However, when the
defendant denied the said claim, evidence was requested from the plaintiff to
prove his case. Some of the Muslim members of the community confirmed the
claim as witnesses of the case. This is another case similar to the above in which a
man felt ashamed, expressed his shame as “bana ar lahık oldu”, which was the
most intensive kind of shame.341 It was one of the emotional norms of the
community members to express this intensive feeling of shame. He not only
expressed how he felt in the court, bu also implicitly requested from other
community members to revert his position back to the domain of “rıza ve şükran”.
These cases show us the emotional norms of communities as to what to feel and
when and to whom. Actually all the cases that has been identified, it was always
341 For a similar case see. İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 53 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1148-
1149 /1736-1737) Transkripsiyon ve Dizin, (Konya: Selçuk Üniversitesi, 2014), 347. Quoted from
Konya JCR 53: 147/4:“Mahmiye-i Konya’da Uluırmak Mahallesi sakinlerinden rafi’ü’l-kitab es-
Seyyid el-Hac Ahmed bin Molla Abdullah meclis-i şer’-i münirde yine mahalle-i mezbureden es-
Seyyid Süleyman bin es-Seyyid Abdi nam kimesne mahzarında üzerine dava ve takrir-i kelam idüb,
tarih-i kitabdan üç gün mukaddem mezbur Seyyid Süleyman mahalle-i mezburede bana sen ne
zekerimsin ve ne necaset yersin deyu şetm-i galize ile şetm etmekle bana külli ar lahık olmuştur
mezbur Seyyid Süleyman’dan sual olunub takriri tahrir ve mucib-i şer’isi icra olunmak
matlubumdur didikde gıbbe’s-sual ve’l-inkar ve bade’l-istişhad udul-ı ahrar-ı rical-i müsliminden
el-Hac İsmail Halife ibn Molla Mahmud ve Ali Beşe ibn Abdülkadir nam kimesneler li-ecli’şşehade
meclis-i şer’e haziran ve istişhad olduklarında fi’l-vaki tarih-i kitabdan üç gün mukaddem
mezbur Seyyid Süleyman bizim huzurumuzda mahalle-i mezburede bi-gayrı vech merkum Seyyid
Hacı Ahmed’e sen ne zekerimsin ve ne necaset yersin deyu şetm-i galize ile şetm eyledi biz bu
hususa şahitleriz, şehadet dahi ideriz deyu her biri eda-i şehadet-i şer’iye eylediklerinde bade’ttadil
ve’t-tezkiye şehadetleri makbule olmağın mucibiyle merkum Seyyid Süleyman’a tazir ve
lazım gelmekle merkum Seyyid Süleyman’ın tazir ve habsine tenbih bir le ma-vaka’a bi’t-taleb
ketb olundu fi’l-yevmi’l-hamis min Rebi’ü’l-ahir li-sene tis’a ve erba’in ve mi’ete ve elf” (8
Rebi’ül-ahir 1149/ 16 Ağustos 1736).”
242
the men who expressed their shame at court with the phrase “bana ar lahık oldu”.
It also shows that the emotional norms also declared rules not only on what to
feel, when and to whom but also by whom. The women must have felt ashamed,
however it was not expected from them to express it as such. Or their feeling of
shame was termed by a different word. If people used different words for the
feeling of shame, it shows that they constructed different feelings of shame, which
is what Reddy had suggested and these cases support his arguments.
How are we then supposed to explain the fact that only men expressed their
feeling of shame as ar in courts and not the women? It is suggested that we must
try to understand why, in the first place, they feel ashamed to answer such a
question? Katz claims that al-Mawardi’s analysis of haya revolves around three
imagined observers: God, other people and oneself. Haya before God involves
obedience to His commands and avoidance of actions He has forbidden.342 Haya
before other people is also similar and denotes sensitivity to social perception of
one’s acts. The “other people” as an imagined community of observers,
necessitates one to act accordingly if one has haya. Haya before oneself on the
other hand is manifested through self-restraint or temperance and good behavior
in private. Katz argues that haya, especially one felt before the others as an
imagined community, is closely related to muru’a which is a complex and elusive
Arabic concept,343 used as mürüvvet in Turkish. Zachs defines muru’a as manly
virtue and examines the ways the modern Arab discourse of masculinity made use
342 Marion Holmes Katz, “Shame (Haya) as an Affective Disposition in Islamic Legal Thought,”
Journal of Law, Religion and State (2014): 147.
343 Ibid., 148.
243
of the pre-Islamic concept of muru’a during late 19th century.344 As a complex
term first consolidated among Arab tribes during pre-Islamic period but which
underwent significant modification in the succeeding centuries, it retained much
of its persuasive powers into the nineteenth century. Both terms, muru’a in Arabic
and mürüvvet in Turkish are derived from Arabic mar’, which means “man”, also
denoting to properties like bravery, generosity, chivalry or condescension of a
perfect man. Although it was originally a gendered term, in time it became a
neutral term used as a property of human nature (insaniye) in general when used
especially as generosity or acting humanely. However, it remained to be used as a
manly property. In other words, men had to have “muru’a” in Arabic and
“mürüvvet” in Ottoman-Turkish to be considered as praiseworthy by others in the
society. Ar and haya in this sense remained as fear from loosing a man’s mürüvvet
thereby facing social disgrace. The term’s close link with manliness may be one
reason for why only men express their feelings of ar. There should be “others” for
someone to feel either haya or ar. Although there are three imagined observers;
namely, God, other people and oneself before whom one may feel haya, the
emphasis is more on the “others” as observers for someone to feel ar making it a
more socially constructed emotion. Since men were the ones who were usually in
the public sphere, responsible for representing the honor of both them and their
wives, it was always men who should either display or linguistically express his
emotion of ar in the public. Ar in this context, also reflects shame as an emotional
344 Fruma Zachs and Sharon Halevi, Gendering Culture in Greater Syria: Intellectuals and
Ideology in the Late Ottoman Period (London: I.B.Tauris, 2015). Ibid.,66: Zachs argues that
scholars mostly agree on the two conjoined meanings of muru’a:”it describes the physical
qualities of a man (such as strength, bravery, fortitude, military prowess, and leadership abilities)
and his moral virtues (such as loyalty, chastity, dignity, politeness,hospitality, compassion,
religious observance, resolve, truthfulness and generosity).
244
norm, in Stearn’s terminology, as to when, where, how and by whom an emotion
should be expressed. For example, in the case quoted below,
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da Şeyh aliman Mahallesi sakinlerinden işbu rafi’ü’lkitab
el-Hac Abdülkadir Halife ibn Ahmed nam kimesne meclis-i hatir-i
lazımü’t-tevkirde zatı bi’t-tarifi’-şer’i muarefe olan Fatma bint-i Abdullah
nam hatun mahzarında üzerine dava ve takrir-i kelam idüb, merkume
Fatma’nın bizim mahallemizde mülk menzili olmayub vali ve hükkam-ı
kiram taraflarından bizlere mahallelerinizde kefilsiz kimesne koymayasız
deyu tenbihe binaen mezbure Fatıma’ya tarih-i kitabdan bir gün mukaddem
senin dahi kefilin var mıdır deyu sual eylediğimizde mezbure Fatma ben
mütevelli izniyle geldim eğer sen razı olmazsan karındaşım yeniçeri
Kabakulağ’a gice ile senin avradın tasarruf ve menzilin ateş yakdırırım
deyu bana mezbure Fatma itale-i lisan itmekle ol vecihden bana ar lahık
olmuşdur sual olunub mucib-i şer’isi icra ve keyfiyet-i ahvali mahalleden
istihbar ve mahalle-i mezbureden ihrac olunması matlubumdur didikde
gıbbe’s-sual ve’l-inkar ve ba’de talebü’l-beyyine udul-ı ahrar-ı rical-i
müsliminden Hacı Ebubekir bin Himmet ve Ali bin Hüseyin nam kimesneler
li-ecli’ş-şehade meclis-i şer’e haziran olub eserü’l-istişhad fi’l-hakika tarihi
kitabdan bir gün mukaddem merkum el-Hac Abdülkadir merkume
Fatıma’ya bizlere vali ve hükkam-ı kiram taraflarından mahallelerinizde
kefilsiz kimesne koymayasız deyu tenbih vardır senin dahi kefilin var mıdır
deyu sual eyledikde merkume Fatıma merkum el-Hac Abdülkadir’e ben
mütevelli izniyle geldim siz razı olmazsanz karındaşım yeniçeri
Kabakulağ’a gice ile senin avradın tasarruf ve menzilin ateş yakdırırım
deyu bizim huzurumuzda merkum Hacı Abdülkadir’e itale-i lisan eyledi biz
bu hususa şahitleriz, şehadet dahi ideriz deyu her biri eda-i şehadet-i
şer’iye eylediklerinde bade’t-tadil ve’t-tezkiye şehadetleri makbule olmağın
mucibiyle merkume Fatıma’nın tazirine tenbihden sonra mezbure
Fatıma’nın keyfiyeti ahali-i mahalleden istihbar olundukda zeyl-i vesikada
muharerrü’l-esami müslimin mezbure Fatıma’nın dilazar ve halkı ta’ciz ve
ızrar adet-i müstemeresi olub bir vechle kendüden razı ve hoşnud değilleriz
deyu her biri mezbure Fatıma’nın su-i halini haber virmeleriyle mucibiyle
mezbure Fatıma’nın mahalle-i mezbureden hurucuna tenbih bir le mavaka’a
bi’t-taleb ketb olundu fi’l-yevmi’s-sabi min Şevvali’l-mükerrem lisene
tis’a ve erba’in ve mi’ete ve elf” (7 Şevval 1149/ 8 Şubat 1737)”345
345 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 53 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1148-1149 /1736-1737)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin (Konya: Selçuk Üniversitesi, 2014), 600. Quoted from Konya JCR 53:
247/1.
245
El-Hac Abdülkadir Halife demands the expulsion of Fatma from their community.
He stated that since the officials required them that community members should
either be mutual guarantors to one another or that the members should be aware of
one’s guarantor, they asked Fatma who her guarantor was. Fatma however swore
el-Hac Abdülkadir and threatened him by telling that if they do not give consent
to her settlement in this quarter she would make her brother, who is a Janissary,
either to get possession of Abdülkadir’s wife to or burn his house. Because of
Fatma’s degrading language regarding his wife, Abdülkadir felt ashamed in front
of his fellows and expressed his shame in the court demanding Fatma’s expulsion
from their community. Even though it was not him but his wife who was imposed
by degradation, it was Abdülkadir who felt ashamed evidencing the gendered use
of the term “ar”.
5.7. Concluding Remarks
This chapter focussed on the intra-communal relations of the Ottoman subjects. It
has been showed in the previous sections that taife/cemaats were also distinct
emotional communities and their affective ties were most frequently expressed
with the term “rıza ve şükran”. Contextual analysis of the term “rıza ve şükran”
and several others used synonymously like “maiyyet üzere olmak”, “terazu ve
tevafuk eylemek” provided further clues on its broader meaning. The findings also
showed that the community members did not express this term only to describe
how they felt. Although it was an expression of expression it served for more. It
was rather like an emotion code commonly shared between community members
246
having specific functions and the process itself of moving in and out of the
domain of “rıza ve şükran” had several steps. Although all the taife/cemaats had
same constraints like law and customs in defining the domain of “rıza ve şükran”
however, each was also a distinct emotional community with variations in
drawing the boundaries of this emotional domain. And most importantly, being
well aware of the emotional norms of this domain, enabled community members
to bridge their religious, ethnic, occupational or legal disparities. “Shame” was
very crucial in providing willing obedience to social and emotional norms.
247
CHAPTER VI
THE OTTOMAN FAMILY AS AN AFFECTIVE UNIT
AND ITS EMOTIONOLOGY:
“HANE-İ ÜLFET VE MAHABBET”
Emotionology, a term coined by Stearns is defined as “the attitude or standards
that a society, or a definable group within a society, maintains toward basic
emotions and their appropriate expression and ways that institutions reflect and
encourage these attitudes in human conduct, e.g., courtship practices as
expressing the valuation of affect in marriage, or personnel workshops as
reflecting the valuation of anger in job relations” as it has been already mentioned
in Chapter II. In this section, the emotionology of the family as the most basic
legal and social unit in the Ottoman society is explored. The scholarship produced
so far on the subject346, mainly focused on Ottoman family as an institution.
346 There are many studies regarding Ottoman family in general and Ottoman women in particular.
It’s not possible to cite them all. For a few of them see: Ömer Demirel, “1700-1730 Tarihlerinde
Ankara’da Ailenin Niceliksel Yapısı,” Belleten LIV 211 (1990): 945-961; İlber Ortaylı, “Osmanlı
toplumunda ailenin yeri,” In Türk Aile Ansiklopedisi (Ankara: T.C. Başbakanlık Aile Araştırma
Kurumu Yayınları, 1991), 74-81; idem, Osmanlı Toplumunda Aile (İstanbul: Pan Yayıncılık,
2002); Hüseyin Öztürk, Kınalızâde Ali Çelebi’de Aile (Ankara: T.C. Başbakanlık Aile Araştırma
Kurumu Başkanlığı Yayınları, 1990); Alan Duben and Cem Bahar, Istanbul Households
Marriage, Family and Fertility 1880-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991);
Svetlana Ivanova, "The Divorce between Zubaida Hatun and Esseid Osman Aga," In Women, the
Family, and Divorce Laws in Islamic History ed. by A. E. A. Sonbol (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse
University Press, 1996), 112-125; idem, “Judicial Treatment of the Matrimonial Problems of
Christian Women in Rumeli During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” In Women in the
Ottoman Balkans, ed. Amila Buturović and Irvin Cemil Schick (London: Tauris, 2007),153-201;
248
Iris Agmon, "Muslim Women in Court According to the Sijill of Late Ottoman Jaffa and Haifa,"
In Women, the Family and Divorce Laws in Islamic History ed. A. E. Sonbol (Syracuse: Syracuse
Unv. Press, 1996), 126-140; idem, Family & Court: Legal Culture and Modernity in Late Ottoman
Palestine (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2006); Fariba Zarinebaf-Shahr, "Ottoman
Women and the Tradition of Seeking Justice in the Eighteenth Century," In Women in the Ottoman
Empire, Middle Eastern Women in the Early Modern Era, ed. M. C. Zilfi (Leiden: Brill, 1997);
idem, “Women, Law, and Imperial Justice in Ottoman İstanbul in the Late Seventeeth Century,” in
Women, the Family and Divorce Laws in Islamic History ed. Sonbol, A. E. (Syracuse: Syracuse
Unv. Press, 1996), 81-96; idem, "Women and the Public Eye in Eighteenth Century Istanbul," In
Women in the Medieval Islamic World, Power, Patronage and Piety, ed. G. R. G. Hambly (New
York: St. Martin's Press, 1998), 301-324; Abdurrahman Kurt, Bursa Sicillerine Göre Osmanlı
Ailesi (1839-1876) (Bursa: Uludağ Üniversitesi, 1998); Nelly Hanna, "Sources for the Study of
Slave Women and Concubines," In Beyond the Exotic: Women's Histories in Islamic Societies, ed.
A. E. A. Sonbol (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2005), 119-130; Madeline Zilfi, ed.,
Women in the Ottoman Empire, Middle Eastern Women in the Early Modern Era (Leiden: Brill,
1997); idem, "Women and Society in the Tulip Era, 1718-1730," In Women, the Family, and
Divorce Laws in Islamic History, ed. A. E. A. Sonbol (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press,
1996), 290-307; idem, "We Don't Get Along: Women and the Hul Divorce in the Eighteenth
Century," In Women in the Ottoman Empire, Middle Eastern Women in the Early Modern Era, ed.
M. C. Zilfi (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 264-296; idem, "Thoughts on Women and Slavery in the
Ottoman Era," In Beyond the Exotic: Women's Histories in Islamic Societies, ed. A. E. A. Sonbol
(Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2005), 131-138; Abdal Rahman Abdal-Rehim, “The
Family and Gender Laws in Egypt During the Ottoman Period,” In Women, the Family and
Divorce Laws in Islamic History ed. A. E. Sonbol (Syracuse: Syracuse Unv. Press, 1996), 96-112;
Marry Ann Fay, “The Ties That Bound: Women and Households in Eighteenth-Century Egypt,” in
Women, the Family, and Divorce Laws in Islamic History, ed. A. E. A. Sonbol (N.Y.: Syracuse
University Press, 1996), 155-173; Margaret L. Meriwether, "The Rights of Children and the
Responsibilities of Women: Women as Wasis in Ottoman Aleppo," In Women, the Family, and
Divorce Laws in Islamic History, ed. A. E. A. Sonbol (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press,
1996), 219-235; idem, The Kin Who Count: Family and Society in Ottoman Aleppo, 1770-1840
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999); A. E. Sonbol, ed., In Beyond the Exotic: Women's
Histories in Islamic Societies (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2005); idem, Women, the
Family and Divorce Laws in Islamic History (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1996).
249
Basing their claims on lack of evidence, not only European but also Ottoman
historians have either implicitly or explicitly assumed that marriages took place
more for social and economic status and reproduction than for individual
fulfillment and that love marriage could only emerge with modernity. This
chapter however, in quest for the emotional norms of the family, embodied in
social values and beliefs, scrutinizes the affective ties between husbands and
wives of Ottoman family before modernity.
6.1. How Did Ottomans Define “Home”?
Before moving on to explore the Ottoman family as an affective unit, this section
analyzes first, how Ottomans themselves defined a family. Did they make a
distinction between a house, household or a family? There were many words and
terms which have been used in Ottoman Turkish language like beyt (plural is
buyut), menzil, hane and ehl ü ‘iyal denoting either a house, household or family
and the distinct uses of those words in the sources are analyzed.
The second volume of Ahlak-i Alai, named as “ilm-i tedbirü’l-menzil
beyanınadır” defines “ilm-i tedbirül’l menzil” as the conduct of behaviour in the
menzil and among the members of the menzil. Members of the menzil are further
250
defined as “ehl ü iyal, hadem and havel”.347 In another place, he defines those
living in the menzil as “cemaat” and describes them as the chief pillars (erkan) of
the menzil where the basic life takes place. He further remarks the fundamental
elements of a menzil as five; the father, the mother, the children, the servants and
the sustenance.348 He depicts menzil not just as “a house (hane) made up of stone
or wood” but rather as “a place (mahal) which embraces all of the five
fundamental elements mentioned above”. In another context however, Kınalızade
uses the phrase “hane-i ülfet and mahabbet” where “hane” also denotes to a
family. In other words, in Ahlak-i Alai, although menzil is defined as a place
(mekan) to live, it is emphasized that it is not an inanimate structure; quite
contrary, it denotes those living in that physical structure which is closer in its
meaning to the word “family”. In different sources though, menzil may denote
only the physical building itself. In judicial court records for example, in most of
the sale agreements, the houses being sold or bought were termed as “mülk
menzil”. We also encounter the word “hane” especially in survey registers (tahrir
defterleri). In tahrir defterleri, the married taxpayers were denoted as “hane”,
whereas the bachelors as taxpayers were denoted as “mücerred”. It is evidenced in
these sources that the Ottoman officials used the word “hane” as the head of a
family, generating a taxable unit of income. “Ehl ü ‘iyal” is another term that we
encounter both in judicial court records and the conduct manuals, where the term
denotes to family members living under the same roof. For example, in a court
347 Mustafa Koç, ed., Kınalızade Ali Çelebi: Ahlak-ı Alâ’î (İstanbul: Klasik, 2007), 321.
348 Ibid., 322.
251
record from 17th century349 , a man claimed that the window of the house of his
neighbor got within sight of his “ehl ü iyal” intervening their privacy and thus
demanded that it be demolished. Beyt (pl. buyut) is also another term denoting to a
house. It is usually referred as a small house built within the complex of a menzil.
In the court record below, dating 1670, it is indicated that the sale agreement
regarding one menzil, constitutes of 2 one-floor houses (beyt-i süfli), one sofa, one
kiln and one small garden with fruit trees.
“......mahalle-i mezburede vaki’ bir tarafı İbrahim mülküne ve bir tarafı
Mustafa mülküne ve bir tarafı Hadice Hatun mülküne ve bir taraf-ı tarik-i
hassa müntehi iki beyt-i sufli ve bir sofa ve bir furın ve bir cabiye-i ma’i
cari ve muhavvata-yı yesireyi müştemil bir bab mülk menzilimi...”. 350
Menzil, then is defined as a set of independent small annexed buildings of “beyt”s
(buyut) and sometimes together with a garden, if it is a subject of a sale agreement
recorded in court registers. In another court record below dating 1640, it is
claimed by Mehmed Efendi that the inside of his house (dahil-i beyt) was within
the sight of the roof of his next-door neighbor (hemcivar) Hasan bin Abdullah’s
pergola (çardak). “Beyt” is used again as the physical building of a house.
“.....Mehmed efendi hemcivarı olan Hasan bin Abdullah nam kimesne
muvacehesinde üzerine dava ve takrir-i kelam idüb, “mezbur Hasan’ın
menzilinde vaki çardağının sundurması dahil-i beytime nazır olmağla
havalesi vardır men olunmak taleb iderim” deyücek .......”351
349 Konya JCR 10: 12/3
350 Nurcan Abacı, The Ottoman Judges and Their Registers. The Bursa Court Register B-90/295
(dated AH 1081/AD1670-71) (Harvard: Harvard University, 2007), 29 quoted from Bursa JCR B-
90/295: 44.
351 Bursa JCR 41: 25
252
To sum up, it may be claimed that while beyt usually denoted to a house as a
building, hane and ehl ü ‘iyal mostly denoted to a household or family, and menzil
was used interchangeably for both a house and a household. Those cluster of
words were being used either interchangeably or to enrich their meanings in
specific contexts. However, that does not mean that the same terminology was
consistent for all parts of the Empire. Relying on al-Jabarti for example, Ayalon
defined beyt in Egypt as a group or faction whose members were linked by both
Mamluk and family ties.352 Beyt therefore was used either in a wider sense, as the
Qazugli beyt or in the narrower sense as a group or faction within the beyt, such as
the ‘Aliwiyya faction within the Qazdugli beyt. Fay also argues that in the 18th
century in Egypt, beyt and ‘ila (colloquial word for ‘aila, family) were used
interchangeably and that a household was meant to be all those linked to the head
of the household through slavery, service, marriage, or blood, but do not
necessarily reside with him.353 In other words, co-residence was not required for a
household.
In search for affective ties within members of a family, the use of the word
“family” will denote in this chapter to those including the wife, the husband, the
children and the servants, if any, all residing under the same roof as dependants of
the men.
352 Marry Ann Fay, “The Ties That Bound: Women and Households in Eighteenth-Century
Egypt,” in Women, the Family, and Divorce Laws in Islamic History, ed. A. E. A. Sonbol (N.Y.:
Syracuse University Press, 1996), 155-173.
353 Ibid.
253
6.2. Prescription of Emotions
In search for emotionology of the family, which may also be referred as emotional
prescriptions, book of ethics of Kınalızade -Ahlak-i Alai-, Islamic court records
and related fetva collections had been utilized in this chapter. While Ahlak-i Alai
served as a tool to explore the social prescriptions, court records and fetva
collections served as tools to explore the legal and religious prescriptions.
Ahlak-i Alai is a conduct manual, which provides the most detailed information
regarding a family. Therefore Ahlak-i Alai’s relevant chapters on family relations
showing the rights and responsibilities of the husband and wife had been utilized
to explore the expected emotional standards as to what to feel to whom, when and
why embedded in social, religious and legal norms. Emotional prescriptions
mostly consist of the knowledge passed on from generation to generation showing
the idealized codes of behavior, which were expected from a husband and a wife
as the members of an affective unit of family. The fifth section of the second
volume in Ahlak-i Alai is named as “Ehl ü İyal Terbiyesi Beyanındadır” in which
Kınalızade gives details on the expected conduct of behavior in the relations
between husband and wife, the spouses and the children and the servants.
For Kınalızade the chief pillar of the family was the husband. However, the wife
(hatun) was also important since she was the one who reproduces offsprings and
who takes care of them. Additionally, she was the assistant of her husband and the
protector of the provisions, property and the belongings. He further notes that the
children were in need of their parents both for maintenance and education. It was
also necessary to have servants in the house. After this preview, the section gives
254
advice on how to discipline (terbiye etmek) the members of the family (ehl ü
‘iyal).
“..ve hatun-ı muvâfık ve karîne-i sâliha, zevcine tedbîr-i menzilde mu’âvin ü
müşârik ve gaybetinde mâl u ıyalini hâfız u nâyib, huzûrunda müşkilât-ı
umûrunda nâsih ü müşâvirdir ve şedâyid ü nevâyibinde gam-güsâr u
musâhibdir.”354
In the section quoted above, the role and the responsibilities of the woman as the
fundamental principle of the family unit is indicated. Accordingly, a suitable wife
should act as a companion, an assistant and a partner of her husband in bringing
and maintaining order in the family. In her husband’s absence she would act as
the head and the protector of the household. In his presence she would act like his
husband’s counselor and consultant. She was the husband’s confident in
overcoming difficult times and his most intimate companion in his days of
sorrow.
Kınalızade continues as follows;
“... ve hatunların efdali vü ekmeli oldur ki akl u diyanet ve iffet ü hasanet
ve edeb ü haya ve zevcine mahabbet ü safa ile mevsuf olub rıza-yı zevci
kanda ise ehemm-i mehammmı olup hıfz-ı namusu gayet meramında ola. Ve
zeban-dıraz u na-hak-şinas olmaya…”. 355
In this section, it is stated that a most preferable wife had to be wise and pious,
chase and virtuous, respectful and modest providing his husband a deep love,
pleasure and contentment. She should pay attention to his husband’s concerns and
354 Mustafa Koç, ed., Kınalızade Ali Çelebi: Ahlak-ı Alâ’î (İstanbul: Klasik, 2007), 344.
355 Ibid., 344.
255
consent and she should give utmost importance to protect her honour. The wife
should also be grateful and never long-tongued.
According to Kınalızade, a wife had to be under her husband’s control and
governance (Ve hatun, erinin siyaset ü zabtında 3 emri riayet ü iktisab ve 3 şeyden
taharrüz ü ictinab etmek gerek). Under this control and governance, there were 3
things, which were expected to be obeyed, and 3 things, which should be
refrained in a marriage. He lists them as follows:
“Riayet olunacak umurun evveli zevci zevcesinden heybet üzerine olmakdır,
zira zevc hatunun nazarında mehîb olmıyacak imtisal-i evamir ve ictinab-ı
nevahisinde ihmal üzerinde olup ahval-i menzile ihtilal arız olsa gerek. Ve
bu şart ehemm-i şuruttur. Ve bu şart mefkud olıcak avrat galib ve
muradatını calib olup belki zevcini teshir ve kendi hükmüne muti’ etmekle
amir memur ve muti’ muta’ olmakla fesadat (malice, depravity, mischief) u
fezayih kabahat u şenayi müterettib olur ki def’i na-mümkin ve ref’i nameysur
olur.” 356
Firstly, the man had to be the one who holds power (heybet) in a family. If the
wife would neglect his power and do not obey his claims, there would be no order
in the family. If the wife gets her own way and demands her husband to fulfill
every wish of her, then the chief and the officer would switch their positions thus
leading to malice, which is a case impossible to resolve. This is the most
important rule to be obeyed.
“İkinci oldur ki zevc hatununu tekrim ü riayet eyleye, ol kadar ki
mahabbetini isticlab ve meveddetini tahsil ü iktisab eyleye ki hatun ol
kerametin zevalini tasavvur edip ita’at u inkiyad ve muhalesat u ittihaddan
hali olmaya. Amma bu keramet ü ta’zim hadden birun olmaya ki bu, maglub
ve hatun mütegallib olmakla zarar-ı mezkur müterettib olmaya”.357
356 Ibid., 347.
357 Ibid., 347.
256
Secondly, the husband should treat his wife with honor and respect to gain her
heart and make her feel contented. The wife would then become deeply attached
to her husband strengthening the emotional ties between the two. However, the
husband should not be too generous in his display of love and affection exceeding
its limits, otherwise the wife could perceive herself as superior to her husband.
“Üçüncü emr –ki riayeti vacib idi- oldur ki hatununu bir şuglle mukayyed
edip battal oturmaya komayalar. Eğer zabt-ı menzil ve levazım-ı ma’aş
tertibinden ve ibâdât-ı mefrûza ve mendûbesinden fâriğ olursa evsât-ı
nâstan ise gazl-i kutn u kettâne ve ekâbirden ise zer-dûzluk ve ana mânend
sanayi’ azîzeye meşgul kılalar.”358
Thirdly, the husband should not keep his wife idle. On the contrary he should
provide the available conditions to keep her busy by housework, getting order in
the house, preparing the food and worship. In her spare times she should be
encouraged to keep herself busy with either needlecraft or similar preoccupations
as such.
“...ve mümkin oldukça hatunu a’râs ve mecâmi’-i nisa olan mevazi’den men
edeler, hususen bu zemanda ki nisa arasında esbab-ı heva meşhur ve
birbirine mahabbet –ki madde-i emr-i şenî’dir- ma’ruf u mezkurdur- pes
ihtimaldir ki ba’zı fasidata celîs olup umur-ı fâside canibine tahrik edeler.
Ve ekall-i zararı budur ki kendiden fâyik hulâ vü hulel sahibelerin görüp
tahassür ile gelip zevcine teklif-i umur-ı mezkure edeyâ kıllet-i mahabbet ü
hürmet-i zevce mü’eddi ola. Amma mecâmi-i ricalden men’ hod farz u vacib
idüğü zikr ü beyana muhtac değildir.”359
358 Ibid., 348.
359 Ibid., 349.
257
In the above text, Kınalızade suggests that the husband should be cautious in
letting his wife to socialize. The husband in that sense, is expected to prohibit his
wife from going to places where the women would get together like the wedding
ceremonies and similar occasions. Because when the wife would go to such
places, she could either demand from her husband the things that she had seen in
such places or feel the deficiency of them, which would diminish her love and
respect for her husband.
The three conducts, which the husband should refrain from (ol umur ki zevc
andan ihtiraz etmek vacibdir, üçtür) is as follows;
“Evvelkisi oldur ki gayet-i mahabbet izhar eylemeye. Eğer mihnet-i
mahabbete mübtela dahi olmuş ise setr ü ketm eyleye ki zen, mahabbet-i
zevce vakıf olıcak muhkem naz u idlal etmeğe azim olup ne derse imtisal
olunmaya cazim olsa gerek. Bu kesret-i idlal kesret-i izlale mü’eddi olmak
mukarrerdir.”360
Firstly, the husband should not show his love excessively. If he had such a
tendency, he should know how to hide his feelings so that his wife would not
know his affection. Otherwise, she could demand fulfillment of every wish of hers
by feigning reluctance.
“İkincisi oldur ki mesalih-i azime ve umur-ı külliyede anlar ile müşavere
etmeye ve cemî’-i esrâr u hafâyâ-yı umuruna muttali’ kılmaya.”361
360 İbid.
361 Ibid.
258
Secondly, the husband should not reveal all the important affairs to his wife, and
should not unveil his secrets to her.
“Üçüncüsü oldur ki havatini mebadi-i ömrden zabt edip melahi
istimâ’ından ve ricâl ve sâhib-cemâl cüvânlar müşâhede olunacak
mevâzi’den ve âşık u ma’şuk hikayetlerinden Hüsrev ü Şirin gibi, Veys ü
Râmîn gibi ve hezl kitapları tilavetinden ve istimâ’ından men’ edeler, belki
temâm bilmedikleri acûzu kat’â menzile koymayalar ve mehârime
karıştırmayalar.
İbn Arabşâh Tevarih-i Timur’da zikr eylerki “Cihanbaht Begüm –ki duhteri
Timur’dur- ibtidada ifife ve sâliha idi. Bagdâdiyyelerden ba’zı fâsideler
ana ittisal edip anı ifsâd eylediler. Hala andan hikayat-ı sû’ ve tevarih-i bed
nakl olunur.” Ve ba’zı ahbarda varid olmuştur ki “Hatunlarınıza Yusuf
kıssasın ta’lim eylemen, ya’ni ışk-ı Züleyha ve cemâl-i Yusuf mülahazası
tahrik-i silsile-i heva eylemeye. Ve şarab içmekten be-gayet tahzir edeler,
zira keyfiyyet-i şarab hayâyı ref’ ve şehveti tehyîc ve tâlib canibine inkıyad
ve semahat-ı tab’ verir. Ve bu hısâl hatunlarda cem’ olıcak fesâd-ı azîm ve
fitne-i külliye peyda olur.”362
Thirdly, the husband should govern his wife in such a way that she should be
prevented from going to public places where she could see other good-looking
men and to places where she could listen to stories of the lovers and the beloved.
The wives should be refrained from taking old women home and from letting
them to interfere in their personal affairs. Kınalızade in this section also cites a
story and gives an advice to husbands not to let their wives to listen to love stories
like Yusuf and Züleyha since they may arouse their passions. Likewise, wives
should be refrained from drinking wine because it may cause women to loose
their sense of shame and provoke sexual desire.
362 Ibid., 349.
259
6. 3. Prescription Versus Expression of Emotions
What do all these social norms tell us about emotional prescriptions? It is first and
foremost evidenced clearly that marriage is not considered, at least ideally, as a
purposeful rationality. The wife is expected to be under the control and
governance of the husband; however, that does not imply absence of affective ties
between the two. Quite contrary, although the husband is expected to be the pillar
of the family, the one having more power, should respect and honor her wife and
endeavor to gain her heart and make her feel contented. The wife on the other
hand is expected to be his assistant and companion in his days of sorrow; has to
be virtuous with a deep love for his husband. There should be mutual affection
and love between husband and wife. In all of these explanations, rights and
responsibilities in the common-life of husbands and wives are revealed giving
insights about the emotional norms within this familial ties. Although we know
that the husbands were superior in legal rights to those of wives, his power at
home does not originate solely from his legal superiority. It may only be possible
through the establishment of mutual understanding of one another built on
affection.
We first need to understand the phrase “zabt ve siyasetinde olmak” (under the
governance). Does it only refer to submission of the wife under oppression to his
husband who holds an indisputable power? We may interpret the relation with
Ze’evi’s “woman-as-an-imperfect-man” model.363 Ze’evi claims that the Ottoman
medical tradition remained under the influence of Galenic-humoral paradigm,
363 Ze'evi, Dror. "Changes in Legal-Sexual Discourses: Sex Crimes in the Ottoman Empire."
Continuity and Change 16, no. 2 (2001): 219-242.
260
which supported the notion of “single-sex” continuum. Influenced by the work of
Thomas W. Laquer on the history of Western conceptions of gender, Ze'evi
argues that the difference between men and women tended to be seen in terms, not
of an absolute binary opposition, but of a "woman-as-an-imperfect-man" model.
Women were seen as undeveloped males, flawed versions of males along this
continuum. He argues that this native medical paradigm was challenged by the
introduction of modern Western medicine only in the nineteenth century and this
“imperfect man” model was discarded which shows a paradigm shift from “onesex”
model to “two-sex” model. The governance of the wife by his husband may
be read within the older paradigm of “one-sex” model in which women had to be
protected and disciplined as underdeveloped versions of men. This paradigm was
also compatible with the Islamic religious discourse.364
The fetva quoted below is an evidence of this understanding.
“Amasya nisvanı cins ve akranı ile hamama gider olduklarında istishab
eyledikleri turşu ve fevake ve sair et’ame-i nefayisi hamamın bir köşesine
oturup tenavül ider olduklarında nice nice etfal-i fukara ve nice nice
marizat-ı bi-neva ırakdan tehassür ve umma didikleri illet ile tazarrur
olunduğundan başka nan-ı azizin ufakları ma-i müncesiye karuşub, hürmete
riayet olunmasa hükkam ve vulat hamamcı ve zevcat vasıtasıyla bu ef’al-i
gayrimüstahseneyi def’ itmek lazım mıdır? El cevab: Lazımdır.”365
364 Ze'evi, Dror. Producing Desire: Changing Sexual Discourse in the Ottoman Middle East, 1500-
1900. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
365 Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi, Belâbilü’r-Râsiye Fî Riyâz-ı Mesâili’l- Amâsiyye. I am thankful to Özer
Ergenç for sharing this manuscript from his private library with me. It is also translated into
modern Turkish by Ali Rıza Ayar and Recep Orhan Özel, eds., Amasya Fetvâları ve İlk Amasya
Şehir Tarihi (Belâbilü’r-Râsiye Fî Riyâz-ı Mesâili’l- Amâsiyye. Mustafa Vazıh Efendi (1764-1831)
(Amasya : Amasya Belediyesi, 2011), 17.
261
Question: When the women of Amasya go to the public baths with their fellows
and eat pickles, fruits and various other delicious foods that they have bought, the
poor and the sick would enviously watch them from a distance. In addition to that,
the breadcrumbs would mix with the wastewater constituting a sign of disrespect
to bread as God’s blessing. For all such reasons, should the women be restrained
from such behavior by the judges, the administrators and their husbands? Answer:
Yes, it is necessary.
What is striking in this fetva is that such improper behavior of women is expected
to be prevented by the aid of not only the official authorities bu also their
husbands.
Repression of display of emotions is also worth mentioning in Ahlak-i Alai. For
example, it is explicitly suggested that the husbands should not show their love
excessively. If he has such a tendency, he should learn how to hide his feelings so
that his wife would not know his affection. Limitations on excessive expression of
emotions especially on men’s part seems to be one of the most remarkable codes
of emotion. This code is clearly evidenced in the travelogue of Evliya Çelebi.
When Melek Ahmed Pasha, Evliya’s kinsman and patron, covered himself with
dirt at the grave of his beloved wife Kaya Sultan, the grand vizier Köprülü
scolded him by claiming that he should be ashamed of himself for crying for the
sake of a woman.366 Dunkoff rightly contends that such extreme displays of grief
on the part of the Ottoman elite were considered disgraceful. The repression of
display of love on the men’s side was so much advised that it was regarded as a
shameful act to weep for the sake of a woman, even if she were one’s beloved
wife. This emotional code is quite evident.
366 Robert Dankoff, “Ayıp Değil! (No Disgrace)” Journal of Turkish Literature 5 (2008): 79.
262
Repression of displays of love should not however be interpreted as absence of
love; rather it should denote to a code on its display in a traditional society.
Almost all of the advice books would suggest not to display love and affection,
izhar-ı mahabbet. Conforming to such expectations constituted the prescriptions.
Another important prescription was limitations on both the public behaviors of
women and public places that they may attend. Kınalızade also warns the
husbands to refrain their wives from attending to public events like wedding
ceremonies and the like or from places where they may encounter good looking
men or even from places where they may listen to love stories. Because when the
wife goes to such places, she may either demand from her husband the things that
she had seen in such places or feel the deficiency of them, which may diminish
her love and respect to her husband.
The fetva below evidences the mentioned prescriptions and their reflections in
daily life practices.
“Amasya’nın şebâb-ı nisvânı evvelâ çeşm ve âbrûy ve kisveye nizâm,
hilyeler ve reng ve bûlar ile kendülere intizâm virüb teşyî’-i hüccâcı ve
mecâlis-i vu’aâz ve huffâzı bahâne iderek kâffe-i hilyesi seçilmek üzere ince
börkler bürünüb zihâm-ı enâm olan tarîklerden hırâmânî hırâmânî meydânı
du’âya ve mecâlis-i vu’âz ve huffâz-ı mu’allâya varırlarsa da ol yerlerde
örtünerek açılarak dürlü fesâd îcâdına sebeb olsalar, hükkâm ve vulât
merkûmeleri ol mahallerden men’etmek lâzım mıdır ?
El-cevâb lâzımdır.”367
Question: The young girls of Amasya wore nice outfits, had their makeups on,
perfumed and pinned jewelries on while going to public places like namazgah or
367 Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi. Belâbilü’r-Râsiye Fî Riyâz-ı Mesâili’l- Amâsiyye.
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attending public events like sermons. They even covered their face and head with
thin veils enabling them to show their beauty. Wiggling and jiggling along their
walk through crowded streets, they even let their faces show up by opening and
covering their veils intentionally. For all such reasons, should they be refrained
from attending such public events by the aid of judges and administrators?
Answer: Yes, it is appropriate to refrain them.
This fetva shows how the prescriptions regarding the prevention of women from
attending public places were reflected in daily lives of women. It also represents a
stance against the social norms and an attempt to expand the limits defined by
men in a men-dominated society. The improper code of behavior has been a
subject of a fetva because the act itself did not explicitly incur any opposition to
religious or administrative law; rather it was recognized as something pushing the
established and widely accepted limits. If the improper act could have been
evidenced as an act in strict opposition to law, it could have been easily punished.
However the young ladies in this fetva are trying to establish a new interpretation
of modesty without strictly opposing the law. That’s probably why it wasn’t a
subject of a case in a judicial court but required to issue a fetva regarding its
compliance/opposition to religious law. Although we understand that the opinion
of the mufti was against those women, it also evidences an expansion of the
women’s boundaries of freedom. The fetva was copied in the nineteenth century,
however its issuance may be much earlier. The context of the fetvas within this
collection reveals that they were most probably issued in the late 17th or the early
18th century. If it were issued in the 16th century however, the women’s code of
dressing and behavior in public places would probably evidence a different
264
portrait; maybe we would not be able to see any such fetvas. Law always precedes
the social progress. When novel acts or behaviours become widespread with
increased frequency, they would be regularized. Law on the other hand establishes
norms for such regular practices. We should also analyze fetvas in this respect.
Although change may not be established by fetvas, they function as tools
legitimizing changes in practice.
Sources quoted above actually denote an “emotional regime”, in Reddy’s
vocabulary, in the Ottoman society in expressing emotions both for men and
women. They were both refrained from expressing their emotions. While the
husbands were refrained to show their love to their beloveds in an excessive way,
the women were refrained from going to public places like public baths, wedding
ceremonies, sermons, or any public gatherings with their fellow women where
they may accidentally hear love stories. Such restraints would prevent them to
express their joy and happiness and even their desires for publicly showing their
beauty. However, it is also possible to interpret the above-mentioned two fetvas as
tensions involved between the prescriptions and the descriptions, or between
emotional precepts and their experience. As Stearns claims, “the distinction
between precept and experience should not be drawn too sharply, since both are
held in tension, and one is always tested against the other and each is understood
within the context of the other”.368 Issuance of a fetva regarding the behaviours of
women of Amasya is also an evidence of widespread practices of such. Recent
368 Peter Stearns and Carol Z. Stearns, “Emotionlogy: Clarifying the History of Emotions and
Emotional Standards,” American Historical Review 90, no 4 (1985): 813-36.
265
research shows that fetva collections in this respect are valuable sources for
identifying general tendencies rather than showing exceptional cases.
Both fetvas refer to public places often termed as “mecma-i nas” in Ottoman
Turkish. The first one is about the code of behavior of women in the public baths,
whereas the second one in crowded public streets, public places like mosques
where sermons were held.
If we regard the emotional codes of repressing the display of emotions as an
emotional regime and hold that there had always been a tension between the
emotional precepts and their expressions, public baths may easily be interpreted
as “emotional refugees” especially for women where they may express their
emotions, be it joy, happiness or anger. Public baths were public places originally
established for the protection of general hygiene, however they also contributed
much to the socialization process of individuals as a public place for gathering.
Lady Montagu identified public baths as “coffeehouses for women”, as important
public places where information was transmitted and scandals were created. She
emphasized the importance of public baths as places enabling Ottoman women to
socialize beyond their restricted lives in the houses with doors shut.369 Although
using public baths as a tool to socialize and a place for pleasure and enjoyment for
women was quite an exceptional practice for Lady Montagu, it was quite a regular
practice for Ottoman women in their daily life practices.
369 Ahmet Yaşar, “The Coffeehouses in Early Modern İstanbul: Public Space, Sociability and
Surveillance,” (Unpublished master’s thesis, İstanbul: Boğaziçi University, 2003), 47.
266
Public baths as “emotional refugees” served Ottoman women as public places
where they may express their feelings, not only joy, pleasure and happiness but
also their anger. Two cases that is quoted below evidences the expression of
women’s anger in the public baths that we frequently encounter in judicial court
records, evidencing public baths as their “emotional refugees”.
“Husus-ı atiyyü’l-beyanın mahallinde keşf ve tahriri iltimas olunmağın
savb-ı şer’-i kavimden Mevlana Başkatib Derviş Mehmed Efendi irsal
olunup ol dahi Piripaşa Mahallesi sakinelerinden iken bundan akdem Türbe
Hamamı’nda madrube olan Rahime bint-i Abdullah nam hatun li-ecli’l-keşf
Mahkeme Hamamı’nın nisa hamamına getirilüb kabile hatunlardan Ayşe
bint-i Mustafa ve Şerife bint-i Hacı Himmet ve Zeyneb bint-i Mustafa nam
hatunlara mezbure Rahime’nin azasını keşf ve iraet itdirdikde iki dizinde ve
iki kollarında ve eli barmaklarında hamam leğeni ile darb olunma ve
arkasında kara bere olduğunu muayene ve müşahede idüb mezburat haber
virdiklerinden sonra mezbure Rahime istintak olundukda tarih-i kitabdan
dört gün mukaddem Türbe Hamamı’nda işbu muayene olunduğu üzere
Celal Çelebi kızının cariyeleri Esber ve İsmihan beni darb ve kara bere
eylediler da’vam ancak mezburetana münhasıradır gayrı kimesnede asla
da’va ve niza’ım yokdur didiğini meylana-yı merkum mahallinde ketb ve
tahrir ve ma’a ba’s olunan ümena-yı şer’le meclis-i şer’a gelüb ala vuku’a
inha ve takrir etmeğin ma-hüvel-vaki bi’t-taleb ketb olundu fi’l-yevmi’ssadis
aşer min Zi’l-ka’de li-sene seman ve erba’in ve miete ve elf (29 march
1736)”370
In this record, we understand that in the Türbe Hamam of Konya, Rahime had
been beaten by two women, Esber and İsmihan, slaves of Mevlebi Celal Çelebi,
by a bowl usually used in the public baths and there were wounds and bruises in
her body evidencing the crime. Upon Rahime’s complaint, her body was checked
370 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 53 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1148-1149 /1736-1737)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin (Konya: Selçuk Üniversitesi, 2014), 297. Quoted from Konya JCR 53:
125/2.
267
by midwives (kabile hatun) in the women’s section of Mahkeme public bath,
which may be one located close to the judicial court. It is understood that Rahime
and the daughter of Celal Çelebi had a quarrel with each other and the women
slaves of the daughter of Celal Çelebi wounded Rahime. This case shows that
women felt themselves freer to express their emotions, anger in this case, towards
one another showing how public baths also functioned as emotional refugees for
women in Ottoman society. There are many similar cases evidencing quarrels
between women, recorded in judicial court registers, and one another example is
quoted below. In the case below, we encounter the quarrel between Sultan and
Hadice in which Hadice, together with her two daughters, beat Sultan’s belly and
face. Sultan claims that she had a miscarriage because of Hadice’s assault.
“Husus-ı atiyyü’l-beyanın mahallinde istima’ ve tahririiçün gıbbe’l-iltimas
savb-ı şer’den Mevlana Ömer Efendi irsal olunup ol dahi mahmiye-i
Konya’da Larende kapusu haricinde Sultan Hamamı’nınkapusu önüne
varub zeyl-i kitabda isimleri mestur olan müslimin ile akd-i meclis-i şer’-i
şerif olundukda el-Hac Cemal mahallesi sakinelerinden baisetü’l-kitab
Sultan bint-i Süleyman nam hatun meclis-i ma’kud-ı mezburda Bekir
Beşe’nin zevcesi olan Hadice bint-i Süleyman nam hatun mahzarında
üzerine da’va ve takrir-i kelam idüb tarih-i kitab günü işbu Sultan Hamamı
içinde ben kendi umurum ile iştigal üzere iken bi-gayr-ı hak mezbure
Hadice gayibetan-ı ani’-meclis iki nefer kızıyla ma’a benim başımı tasla ve
karnımı depme ile darb eyledi hala hamlim sakıt olmak nekazası vardır sual
olunub mucib-i şer’isi icra olunması matlubumdur didikde gıbbe’s-sual
mezbure Hadice cevabında mezbure Sultan’ı ben depme ve karnına darb
itmedim lakin yumruğla başına darb eyledüm deyü ikrar ve itiraf eylediğini
mevlana-yı mezbur mahallinde ketb ve tahrir idüp ba’dehu ma’a ba’s
olunan Halil Beşe ile meclis-i şer’a gelib ala vuku’a haber virmeğin
mucibiyle ma-vaka’a bi’t-taleb ketb olundu fi’L-yevmi’r-rabi min şehr-i
Şevvalli’l-mükerrem li-sene selase ve mie ve elf (19 June 1692)”371
371 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 38 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1103-1104/1692-1693)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin (Konya: Selçuk Ünviversitesi, 2014), 40. Quoted from Konya JCR 38:
29-2
268
Although we encounter many court cases372 where a men explicitly and publicly
expressed his anger or gaze (gazab), the cases which indicate women expressing
anger in public places open to both men and women are quite rare which is also
an evidence of emotional norms identified for women in expressing their
emotions publicly. The fetva collections are also replete with questions regarding
men who swear. The fictional legal characters in the fetvas regarding cases of
swearing are always either Amr or Zeyd, denoting men.373
Although it was not considered as a shameful act to express anger, “gazab halinde
olmak”, “gayz duymak”, “kedernak olmak” for men, it was just the opposite for
women especially in spaces outside the boundaries of their home like public
streets, market places and such. It was regarded as improper for women to have a
quarrel, to talk loudly or to explicitly express their emotions of anger. The court
372 For example; Ankara JCR 78: 17-3: “cima lafzıyla avretime, dine ve imanıma şetm”; Ankara
JCR 78: 99-2;“kafir ve kelb deyu şetm”; Konya JCR 35: 113-1; “ben fiil-i şeni ideyin, nice
kimesnelere de fiil-i şni ittireyim deyü şetm”; Konya JCR 53: 30-5; “şütum-ı galize ile ağzına
şetm”; Konya JCR 53: 82-5; “zalim ve yaramaz ve evi ve dini yıkılası tabiri ile şetm”; Konya JCR
53: 165-2; “valideme ve avratıma şetm idüb, merkum Osman dahi aralamak kasdıyla beni kakub
ve italet-i lisan eylemişdir”; Konya JCR 53: 213-1; “beyne’n-nas avratını yef'illediğim puşt gidi
deyu şütum-ı galiza şetm”. They are all men in cited cases that swore.
373 Kaya 2009: Süleyman Kaya, ed., Fetâvâ-yı Fevziye, Şeyhülislam Feryzullah Efendi (Istanbul:
Klasik, 2009), 114: “Zeyd Amr-ı müslime şetm kasdıya “İslamın ve dinin yoktur” dese Zeyd’e ne
lazım olur? el-Cevab: Taz’zir”; ibid,, 115: “Zeyd padişah-ı İslam hullidet hilafetuhu ila yevmi’lkıyam
hazretlerine ihanet ve tahkir edip “sikkesine yestehleyeyim” dese Zeyd’e ne lazım olur? el-
Cevab: Ta’zir-i şedid”; “Zeyd sülehadan Amr ile çekiştikde tehevvür edip Amr’ın sakalını çekip
“bre ırgad!” deyu şetmeylese Zeyd’e ne lazım olur? el-Cevab: Ta’zir”; “Zeyd ulemadan Amr’a
“Haramzade” deyu şetmeylese Zeyd’e ne lazım olur? el-Cevab: Ta’zir”; “Zeyd sadat-ı kiramdan
Amr’a “ Bre it oğlu it!” deyu şetmeylese Zeyd’e ne lazım olur? el-Cevab: Ta’zir”; ibid., 116:
“Zeyd-i zimmi Amr-ı müslime “bre pirsiz, bre erkansız” deyu şetmeylese Zeyd’e ne lazım olur? el-
Cevab: Te’dib”; “Zeyd gammaz ve telbis ile mevsuf olan Amr’a “bre gammaz, bre telbis” dese
Zeyd’e ta’zir lazım olur mu? el-Cevab: Olmaz”; ibid., 130: “Zeyd-i müslim babası Amr-ı müslime
“bre din ve imanını falan ettiğim kafir!” deyu cima’ lafzıyla şetmeylese Zeyd’e ne lazım olur? el-
Cevab: tecdid-i iman ve nikah lazım olur ve ta’zir olunur, ukukunun cezasını ahirette görür.”
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record quoted below is an evidence of such a precept for the women in Ottoman
society.
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da Boladlar mahallesi sakinlerinden baisü’l-kitab imam
Abdullah Halife ibn Burak nam kimesne meclis-i şer-i hatir-i lazımü’ttevkirde
mahalle-i merkume sakinlerinden Rahime bint Salih nam hatun
mahzarında üzerine dava’ ve takrir-i kelam idüb, “ben mahalle-i mezburede
imam olub, tarih-i kitabdan bir gün mukaddem salatü’l-‘aşa cemaatim ile
mescidden çıkıb menzilime giderken mezkure Rahime, bir hatun ile münaza’
ve mücadele üzerine olub, esvan-ı şedidleri münteşir omağla bazı
kimesneler imam ve cemaat mescidden çıkdıklarında nizaaınızı işidirler
dediklerinde merkume Rahime imam ve cemaate lanet, ağızlarına yesteh
ideyim didi” , sual olunub muceb-i şer’isi icra olunması matlubumdur
didikde, gıbbe’s-sual ve akibü’l-inkar ve bade’l-istişhad udul- müsliminden
mahalle-i merkumede sakin Hızır bin Ayvad ve Osman bin El-hac Halil
nam kimsneler li-ecli’ş-şehade meclis-i şer’e haziran olub eserü’l-istişhad
“fi’l vaki’ tarih-i kitabdab bir gün mukaddem imam-ı mezbur Abdullah
Halife ve sair cemaat ve biz bad-ı salat-ı aşa mescidden çıkıb menzilimize
giderken mezbure Rahime bir hatun ile münazaa üzere olub esvan-ı
şedidleri münteşir olmağla bazı kimesneler mezbureyi men’ kasdiyle
esvatınızı (çığlığınızı) imam ve cemaat işidirler didiklerinde mezbure
Rahime bizim huzurumuzda imam ve cemaate lanet, ağızlarına yesteh
eyledim dedi biz bu hususa şahitleriz şehadet dahi ideriz deyu eda-ı
şehadet-i şer’iyye bade’t-tadil ve’t-tezkiye şehadetleri hayyiz-i kabulde
vakıa’ olmağın mucebiyle ma-vakıa bi’t-taleb ketb olundu. fi’l- yevmi’l
hamis aşer min muharremi’l haram sene ısneyn ve mie ve elf (15 muharrem
1102)”374
This case is about anger and curse as an expression of anger. It is about a woman
cursing the “imam”(religious leader) and the “cemaat” (religious community), at
nighttime. The woman, named Rahime, while discussing and quarrelling with
another woman, some people warned her to lower her voice since the imam and
members of the cemaat may hear them shout. However, the lady cursed both the
imam and the cemaat using very strong words (imam ve cemaate lanet, ağızlarına
374 Konya JCR 35: 201/1
270
yesteh ideyim). The next day somebody from the same neighborhood came to the
court and claimed against her, demanding that she be questioned and explained
what happened in front of the judge. However, Rahime denied the claim. The
judge asked the people who were trustable Muslims from the same neighborhood
and they confirmed that they had witnessed the case and heard Rahime cursing.
What does this case tell us about emotions, their suppression, or expression, or the
emotives?
This case reflects an emotional norm of a specific time and place. This case is also
a record reflecting anger. It shows that it was not expected from women to curse
and to quarrel and shout in public places, in this case in a public sphere where the
mosque was located. We may never know why the two women were quarrelling,
however we do know that two women were angry, shouting loudly while the men
were coming out of the mosque, and they did not stop shouting when they saw
them. Additionally they were out in the public place at night. When some of the
community members tried to warn her, she cursed using the most defaming
words. The ideal type of women, or the role model of the neighborhood would not
go out at dark, or quarrel with another woman; rather she was expected to keep
silent when faced with men. This is also a case which shows how the colloquial
language is transformed into court jargon. Probably what she uttered was
something more vulgar, however the clerk changed the utterance with something
more polite. But the essence is not distorted.
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This case is not exceptional and evidences the emotional restraints upon women
in expressing their emotions. It was demanded that they repress their emotions
especially in places, which were open to public, and in the presence of men.
6.4. Expressing Emotions in Familial Ties
How then would husbands and wives express their feelings towards one another
in this emotional regime? What were the terms and phrases used which would
give us clues on how they feel about one another? In this section two different
phases of familial relations had been scrutinized. The first phase constitutes to be
the namzedlik (engagement) period while the second one is the divorce period.
Judicial court cases of namzedlik and hul type divorce are utilized since they
reveal how men and women uttered or displayed their feelings towards one
another, relatively in more detail.
6.4.1. Namzedlik
What was the preferred or the prevalent process for establishing this basic social
and legal unit for the Ottoman individuals? How did the couples decide to get
married and establish a family? On the path to establishing a family, the men and
the women usually had a period of engagement, which was termed as “namzedlik”
before getting legally married. (Literally namzed means a candidate.) The
presence of many court records throughout the Empire regarding the disputes of
the engaged couples or the writs (hüccet) for its termination evidences that
272
namzedlik was a prevalent practice in the Ottoman society not only for the
Muslims but also for non-Muslims. Abdal Rahman also argues that marriage in
Egypt in the Ottoman era almost always took place after an engagement period.375
There were also many non-Muslims appealing to Islamic judicial courts either to
settle the disputes regarding their engagement or to officialize its termination.376
In Islamic law, it was termed as “hıtbe” (a request that a girl be given in
marriage). It was a request initiated by the man, his family or proxy to marry a
girl, and the couples would get engaged (become namzed to each other) if the
man’s request was approved either by the girl herself or her family. In other
words, the parties involved had to have a mutual agreement. However, since it
was not regarded as a legal marriage contract, it was not legally binding and
imposed no obligation to register it in the judicial courts. It was considered to be
only a “promise to marry” (tezevvüc vaadi), which could be broken by both sides.
The court records that we encounter are related only to the termination of
namzedlik. There were mainly two reasons for bringing the case to trial or for
getting a hüccet from the court for its termination. One of the reasons was to
settle a dispute regarding the retrieval of the goods exchanged between the parties
375 Abdal Rahman Abdal-Rehim, “The Family and Gender Laws in Egypt During the Ottoman
Period,” In Women, the Family and Divorce Laws in Islamic History ed. A. E. Sonbol (Syracuse:
Syracuse Unv. Press, 1996), 96.
376 İzzet Sak, “Osmanlı Toplumunda Namzedin (Nişanın) Bozulması ve Sonuçları: Konya Örneği
(18. Yüzyılın İlk Çeyreğine Ait Konya Şeriyye Sicillerine Göre),” Selçuk Üniversitesi Sosyal
Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi 16 (2006): 519-21. For example, in the presence of her non-Muslim
(zimmi) namzed Hacetor veled-i Müyesser, the Christian (nasraniyye) woman Penbak bint-i
Andon stated in the court that she had consent for marrying her namzed. After her decleration and
the consent of her namzed their marriage was officially registered (merkum Hacetor nam zimmi
benim bundan akdem namzedlim olmağla hala üçer kat melbusat ve 1 sim kuşak mehr-i muaccel
ve beynimizde malum mehr-i mü’eccel ile ayin-i batılamız üzere nefsimi tezvice izin verdim)
quoted from Konya JCR 45: 47-4
273
during the namzedlik period when the promise to marry was broken.377 The
second reason was just to officialize the termination, which would enable the girl
to marry another man since it was disapproved (haram) to marry with a girl who
was still engaged with another man. However it was not obligatory.
The court records provide us with significant clues on how the institution of
engagement was practiced. Sak’s research drawn on judicial court registers is the
most comprehensive study on the practice of namzedlik.378 The results of the
research produced so far provide evidences that the parents usually initiated the
practice of namzedlik before the girl and the boy reached puberty. Probably for
this reason, we also know that it could last for five, ten and even twenty years. A
court record dating April 16th 1747 indicates that the non-Muslim İlya bt. Aslan
had been engaged with Hanna for 22 years and Hanna was out of their town for
the past 13 years.379 However, when the girl or the boy reached puberty, he/she
377 There are also several judicial opinions (fetva) given by the müftis regarding the exchange of
the gifts given during the engagement period. In one such fetva issued by Şeyhülislam
Minkarizade Yahya Efendi, it is not accepted for both sides to demand the goods back sent as gifts
during the engagement even if the marriage had not been consummated and the goods had been
already consumed. Bünyamin Karadöl, “Şeyhülsilam Minkarizade Yahya Efendi’nin Nikah
Akdi/Evlilik ile İlgili Fetvaları,” (Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Adana: Çukurova University,
2006), 104: “Mesele: Zeyd Hind-i bikre namzed oldukda tarafından hediye tarikiyle bazı eşya irsal
olunup her biri istihlak itdikten sonra nikah müyesser olmasa ol hedaya tarafından tazmin olunur
mu? El cevap : Olunmaz”. A contradictory opinion however is given by the Şeyhülislam Ebussuud
in which he claims that the gifts should be given back as evidenced in his fetva. Pehlul Düzenli,
Osmanlı Hukukçusu Şeyhülı̇slâm Ebussuûd Efendı̇ ve Fetvâları (Unpublished Phd Thesis, Konya:
Selçuk Üniversitesi, 2007), 115: “Zeyd Hind’in kızı Zeyneb’e bir kaç yıl namzed oldukdan sonra
Hind Zeyneb’i Zeyd’e vermez olıcak Zeyd-i mezbur nişan deyu ve bayramlık deyu Zeyneb’e verdiği
esbabın kıymetin Zeyd almaya kadir olur mu? El-cevab: Nişan kalın makulesindendir, kalanı dahi
öyle ise olur. Hediye makulesinden olanın baki olanı iki tarafdan alınır. Halik tazmin olunmaz”.
378 His article is drawn on 158 writs from 14 judicial court registers of Konya (register numbers
10,11,39-50) recorded in the 17th and 18th centuries.
379 Ahmet Kankal and Kenan Z. Taş, eds., 252 Nolu Mardin Şer’iye Sicili Belge Özetleri Ve Mardin
(İstanbul: Mardin Tarihi İhtisas Kütüphanesi, 2006), 101-2. Quoted from Mardin JCR
252:101/268.
274
could break the promise and terminate the engagement. Another common reason
for termination was the insufficient financial power of the man to pay for the
advance portion of dowry (mehr-i muaccel), which was cumpulsory for the
consummation of the marriage contract. It was also customary to send gifts to the
girl’s family or to determine the amount of the dowry to be paid when the couples
would get married. However, it should be noted that sending gifts to the girl’s
family had also its own rules regarding the value of the gift, sometimes implicitly
expressed but something that they were all well aware of. The case record quoted
below shows further evidences on the prescriptions of sending gifts to the girl’s
family dating 1692;
Mahmiye-i Konya’da Sadırlar Mahallesi sakinlerinden İsmail nam şab
tarafından husus-ı atiyyü’l-beyana vekil-i şerisi olan babası Halil bin Musa
nam kimesne meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımi’t-tevkirde baisetü’l-kitab Fati nam
bikr-i baliğanın babası ve velisi ve zikri ca’i hususa vekil-i şer’isi olan diğer
el-Hac Halil bin Musa mahzarındaa üzerine bi’l-vekale dava ve takrir-i
kelam idüb bundan akdem ben oğlum müvekkil-i mezbur İsmail içün
mezkurun kızı mezbure Fati’ye namzed itmişidim hala akd-ı nikah murad
eylediğimde muhalefet üzeredir su’al olunsun didikde gıbbe’s-sual merkum
el-Hac Halil cevabında mukaddema mezbur Halil vech-i muharrer üzere
namzed itmişidi likin tarih-i kitab gününe deign namzed helvasından gayri
asla bir akça ve bir habbelik şey virmeyüb ve ila haze’l-an akd-ı nikah vaki
olmamağla kızım mezbure bi’l-asale ve ben bi’l-velaye akd-i nikaha rıza
virmeyüb müfarekat ve ahara tezvic murad iderin deyucek bade’l-istintak
ila haze’l-an akd-i nikah olmayub ve helvadan gayri birşey virmediğini
mezkur Halil ikrar itmeğin kızı mezbureyi dilediği kimesneye tezvice mezkur
el-Hac Halil’e izin bir le ma-vaka’a bi’t-taleb ketb olundu fi’l-yevmi’lhamis
ve’l-ışrin min şehr-i Rebi’ü’l-evvel li-sene erba’a ve mi eve elf (4
December 1692)380
380 İzzet Sak and İbrahim Solak, 38 Numaralı Konya Şer'iye Sicili (1103-1104/1692-1693)
Transkripsiyon ve Dizin (Konya: Selçuk Ünviversitesi, 2014), 332. Quoted from Konya JCR 38:
201-1.
275
In this case record, El-Hac Halil, from the Sedirler quarter of Konya, initiated the
request of getting his son İsmail engaged to Fati. He claims in the court that
although his son was engaged with Fati with the approval of his request by the
father and proxy of the girl, now the girl Fati refrains from getting married to his
son (ben oğlum müvekkil-i mezbur İsmail içün mezkurun kızı mezbure Fati’ye
namzed itmişidim hala akd-ı nikah murad eylediğimde muhalefet üzeredi). El-Hac
Halil demands the father and the proxy of the girl be questioned. Fati’s father in
his reply accepted that he had approved el-Hac’s request for his daughter to be
engaged with İsmail, however he stated that his daughter did not have her consent
to get married and wanted to get married with someone else (kızım mezbure bi’lasale
ve ben bi’l-velaye akd-i nikaha rıza virmeyüb müfarekat ve ahara tezvic
murad iderin). It is also stated by the father of the girl that they did not receive
anything more than a box of halva by now from İsmail or his family, which
appears to be the main reason for their separation. The termination of engagement
is justified by the value of the groom’s present, which was only a box of halva.
The girl and her family regarded a box of halva as an insufficient present to be
given in the period of engagement. Although we may never know the actual
reasons behind the scene of the termination of engagement, most probably it was
not the sole reason to do so. However, at least it gives clues on the expected codes
of behavior from the families of the young boys and girls getting engaged.
The girl’s family could also send gifts to the boy’s family in return. Neither the
cases regarding the disputes over the retrieval of the goods and materials
exchanged during the period nor the ones, which kept silent for the reasons behind
the termination, provide us clues to the affective component of this relationship
276
between the couples in this basic route to a life-long companionship. They only
enable us to know how this institution was practiced in daily lives of men and
women and how the legal disputes over the goods given either as gift or dowry
were settled. However, some of the court records especially the ones in which the
woman refused to marry the man whom she was engaged either by her own
promise or her family’s and the terminology of the related texts give us clues on
the emotional ties in the relation between a man and a woman in their period of
engagement.
For example, in a court record dating April 25 1707381 Mehmed b. Şaban Beşe
claimed that 20 years ago, when Emine b. Ramamzan and himself were small
(sagir), his mother with the consent of Emine’s now deceased father had
determined that they get engaged, but they were not legally married (tarih-i
kitabdan 20 sene mukaddem ben sagir iken validem Rahime bint-i Habib nam
hatun mezbure Emine dahi sagire iken bundan akdem fevt olan babası Ramamzan
bib el-Hac Abdurrahman izniyle benim için namzed idüp lakin akd-i nikah cari
olmamış idi). Mehmed wants to get married with Emine, however Emine refuses
his request and Mehmed demands that she be questioned (hala akd-i nikah murad
eylediğimde mezbure Emine iba eder sual olsun). In her reply Emine declared that
she would get married with whom ever she wants to and that she is not willing to
marry Mehmed (ben nefsimi dilediğim kimesneye tezvic ve akd-i nikah ederim
merkum Mehmed’e akd-i nikaha rızam yokdur). The judge then, gave Emine the
permission to marry the one she wishes to.
381 İzzet Sak, “Osmanlı Toplumunda Namzedin (Nişanın) Bozulması ve Sonuçları: Konya Örneği
(18. Yüzyılın İlk Çeyreğine Ait Konya Şeriyye Sicillerine Göre),” Selçuk Üniversitesi Sosyal
Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi 16 (2006): 504-505. Quoted from Konya JCR 42: 218-1.
277
In another court record, dating April 29 1661382 Alime bt. İbrahim refuses to get
married to her namzed Hasan b. Mustafa because the engagement was made by
her sister’s husband without her knowledge and that she does not have her consent
to marry her namzed. She further states that she wants to get married to Satılmış b.
Mevlud (ben akile ve baliğa olmam ile nefsimi hazırbi’l-meclis olan Satılmış bin
Mevlud nam kimesneye tezvic murad ederin mezbur Hasan’a rızam yokdur).
The case from Adana also represents an example in which the non-Muslim Vardar
refused to marry with whom she was engaged with. In this case383, the non-
Muslim (zimmi) Nihabet veled-i Merker, who is originally from the town of
Malatya (fi’l asl Malatya kazası ahalisinden olub) but currently living in the
Kırıtoğlu Lodge in Adana as a guest (misafiren mütemekkin), claimed in court
against Varvar bint Artin. Varvar, a Christian girl who had reached puberty (bikr-i
baliğa-i nasraniyye) and who had been brought to the court (ihzar) by Çukadar
Ali (delegated by the Adana mütesellimi Yeğen Ahmed Ağa), was a resident of
the Tendensisoğlu quarter, which is a part of a non-Muslim quarter (zimmiyan
mahallesi mülhakatından). Nihabet made the following allegation: “some time
ago, I wanted to marry Varvar (tezevvüce ragıb talibi olmağla) and therefore I
asked for her from her father Artin (babasından taleb eylediğimde). And her
father Artin, who is now present in the court (hazır bi’l meclis), one year before
the date of this document, delegated the non-Muslim Acemoğlu to come to the
church and make the betrothal prayer as per our ancient customs (ayin-i atılamız
382 İzzet Sak, “Osmanlı Toplumunda Namzedin (Nişanın) Bozulması ve Sonuçları: Konya Örneği
(18. Yüzyılın İlk Çeyreğine Ait Konya Şeriyye Sicillerine Göre),” Selçuk Üniversitesi Sosyal
Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi 16 (2006): 505.Quoted from Konya JCR 11: 38-1.
383 Adana JCR 14: 111/2
278
üzere) among our priests (papaslarımız beyninde) in our own church
(kinisemizde) and Acemoğlu accepted to be his proxy (vekil). Acemoğlu came to
the church and made the prayer. And I sent several goods to her through the
agency of Acemoğlu including a fabric of Karyağdı to make clothes, Sakız velvet
and red silk fabric to make shirt, İstanbuli sandal fabric and 2 pieces of Egypt
zincürlüsü gold. In addition to those, I sent 5 pieces of golden müctemia, 20
pieces of Egypt zincürlüsü gold in four times, 4 çeki cotton kunesi, 2 pieces of
broom, 10 kiyel wheat 200 batman grapes, 10 yük water melon and 15 yük yellow
melon on our special occasions (eyyam-ı mutade). Since her father Artin took the
goods that I had sent, which denotes his implicit approval, we got engaged
(beynimizde nişan kaim olmağla). Two days before the date of this document,
with the permission (izinname) that was given by the court (kıbel-i şer’den), I
demanded as per our ancient customs (ayin-i atılamız üzere) that we consummate
our marriage and make a marriage contract. However this Varvar abstains from
getting married and refuses to sign the marriage contract (nefsini tezvic ve akdden
bi’l külliye imtina eder). Her father Artin confirmed his receipt of some of the
goods that I had sent previously and the ones I had sent after our engagement,
while denying some of them. And her father Artin stated that they had already ate
and consumed the water melon, yellow melon and the grapes and that they made
bulgur from the wheat that I had sent, and sent back some of the wheat to me.
Artin further stated that they could deliver the remaining goods back, if I want
to”. Then, Nihabet the plaintiff demanded the legal requirements be implemented.
The judge made his decision and warned the plaintiff that marriage contract
279
would not be valid without the woman’s consent, and demanded that the
remaining goods, which have not yet been consumed, should be returned back.
There are several cases in which, like the ones mentioned above, the woman
refused to marry the man whom she was engaged stating that she does not have
the “consent” to marry (rızam yokdur). 384 What is common in such cases is the
use of the term “rıza” (consent) and I argue that it is the key word to our
understanding the relation between those engaged. In most of these cases, the
woman, if engaged by her family, refuses to marry her namzed and chooses to
marry rather someone whom she has rıza. The term “rıza” in such court records
imply the presence of a mutual understanding and an affective bond between
those who prefer to marry and establish a family. The man and the woman who
could not develop an emotional tie between them refused to get marry even if
their parents gave a significant amount of either money or goods/materials for
their own good or even if a significant amount of the advance portion of dowry
had been determined to protect the woman by financial means. It seems that the
reason to terminate an engagement by the adult women indicates their inability to
develop an emotional compatibility. The absence of any terms of endearment does
not imply an absence of emotions and may be interpreted in a number of ways.
The word “rıza” infers to being pleased, satisfied or contented which implicitly
shows a love and respect. Rıza in this sense was an overarching term denoting not
only to one’s consent but also to emotions or affective ties developed in this
384 For similar cases see İzzet Sak, “Osmanlı Toplumunda Namzedin (Nişanın) Bozulması ve
Sonuçları: Konya Örneği (18. Yüzyılın İlk Çeyreğine Ait Konya Şeriyye Sicillerine Göre),” Selçuk
Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi 16 (2006): 505.Quoted from Konya JCR 10:165-2
and Konya JCR 47/ 164-4
280
relation. The love and respect towards one another was not expressed openly, it
was rather embedded in the term “rıza” which we already saw see while analyzing
the relations between community (taife or cemaat) members representing a
mutual agreement. It is also compatible with the advices of Kınalızade regarding
the repression of emotions in Ottoman society.
The period of engagement, if successful, would be followed by the marriage of
man and woman who were expected to become a family entitling the members of
this household with social and legal rights and obligations and each had an
expected conduct of behaviour towards one another.
6.4.2. Hul Cases
Considering the family as a socially constructed unit on purely legal grounds, we
may easily present it as follows; family unit was established when the wife and
the husband got into a legal contract named akd-i nikah. This contract demanded
the men to pay the groom an agreed amount of dowry (mehr). The mehr
constituted of two portions; advance payment portion of the mehr (mehr-i
muaccel) which was due at the time of marriage and the delayed portion (mehr-i
müeccel) which was due in the termination of the marriage or the death of
husband. It was permitted for the husband to have more than one wife in Islamic
law, although research shows that the men usually tended to remain monogamous.
281
Although there are several records of marriage in court registers, mostly the
financial terms of the marriage contract regarding the dowry had been recorded,
similar to the one below:
“Mehmed Bey karyesi sakinelerinden Saniye binti Şahaboğlu Veliüddin
nam seyyibeyi Osman bin Hüseyin nam kimesne mahfil-i kazada 12.000
akçe mihr-i muaccel ve müeccele ile tesmiye-i mehr ile akd-i nikah
olduğu bu mahalle kayd olundu. fi. 2 rebiiül ahir sene 1198”385
In other words, records are silent on the affective ties with only the legal
responsibilities recorded, which is quite normal in its essence as a legal document.
How are we then supposed to find reflections of prescriptions of Ahlak-i Alai in
the daily lives of husbands and wives? The divorce cases give us clues on the
distorted relations between husbands and wive and show us expressions of their
emotions more vividly.
There were three types of divorces, all named under the term “talak”. In Islamic
law if the family union had to be terminated for any reason, it was the husband’s
right to do so. Although the women had the right to claim a divorce, it always
required the husband’s consent. The first type of divorce was called “talak” in
practice (although all three were basically denoted as talak), in which the men
repudiated his wife three times in the presence of witnesses. His words were
sufficient to terminate the marriage and did not require the wife’s approval. The
second type was called “hul” divorce, in which the women usually initiated the
divorce; however it was subject to the husband’s approval and additionally the
wife had to pay her husband compensation. This compensation may either be in
385 Sivas JCR 134: case no 7
282
the form of all or some of the dowry, her allowance for the three-month waiting
period, allowance for habitation or an allowance that she received for the children.
It was not required to register these two types of divorces in the court. The
research produced so far shows that there are more divorce cases of hul type
recorded in court registers, however that does not mean that hul type of divorces
were more common. Most probably it was due to material compensation, which
was required for hul divorces where the wife and the husband had to discharge the
other’s liabilities. Such statistical analysis regarding the percentage of talak or hul
cases in the registers may only indicate that hul divorce was also commonly used
to get a divorce because there was no legal obligation to register the divorce cases.
The third type of divorce was called “tefrik” in which the divorce may be initiated
by either the wife or the husband only for special conditions like mental or sexual
illness of one of the parties and it required the intervention of the kadı.386 The
lineage of the children and the inheritance rights were all determined by the
regulations of Islamic law. The established structure of the family, determined by
Islamic law was almost similar throughout the Ottoman Empire with slight
variances among mezhebs. However, the union of the family depended mostly on
the relations between the men, the wife, the children or the elder, if any. It’s not
possible to see the emotional motivations behind the scene by looking only
through the lens of structures be it legal or religious. How are we supposed to
recapture the emotional world of the family? Shall we accept the absolute
plasticity of the individuals living in these structures, which supports a totally
386 İsmail Kıvrım, “17. yüzyılda Osmanlı Toplumunda Boşanma Hadiseleri (Ayıntab Örneği:
Talak, Muhalaa ve Tefrik),” Gaziantep Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 10, no 1 (2011): 375.
283
social constructivist view? Although there were institutions and structures
constructed, in which the legal, social or religious rights and obligations of the
members were strictly defined, the court records are replete with deviations from
these formal prescriptions. These deviations from the prescriptions are important
to understand both the norms and the practice of these norms in daily-life. But
more important than that, the uttered words of the plaintiffs and the defendants
may give us clues regarding either the motivations behind, or the emotions which
led the men and women to act the way they did, transforming the parties involved
from being any statistical remark on an excel sheet to a distinct living presence.
The divorce cases in Islamic jurisdiction denoting the termination of a marriage
gives us clues on the emotional standards of the family unit. The hul type divorce
cases are analyzed because these cases are the ones that supply us more clues
regarding the motivations or the emotions behind the scene. There are several
valuable studies regarding divorce in general387 and hul type divorce in
particular388 in Ottoman history. But, this study does not analyze the legal
dimension of the hul divorces.389 Quite contrary, the cases are aynalyzed with a
387 See for example; Kıvrım, İsmail. “17. yüzyılda Osmanlı Toplumunda Boşanma Hadiseleri
(Ayıntab Örneği: Talak, Muhalaa ve Tefrik).” Gaziantep Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 10,
no 1 (2011): 371-400; Maydaer, Saadet. “Klâsik Dönem Osmanlı Toplumunda Boşanma (Bursa
Şer’iyye Sicillerine Göre).” Uludağ Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 16, no 1 (2007): 299-
320.
388 See for example; Madeline Zilfi, "We Don't Get Along: Women and the Hul Divorce in the
Eighteenth Century," In Women in the Ottoman Empire, Middle Eastern Women in the Early
Modern Era, ed. M. C. Zilfi, (Leiden: Brill, 1997); İzzet Sak and Alaaddin Aköz, "Osmanlı
Toplumunda Evliliğin Karşılıklı Anlaşma İle Sona Erdirilmesi: Muhâla`a (18.Yüzyıl Konya
Şer'iye Sicillerine Göre)," Selçuk Üniversitesi Türkiyat Araştırmaları Enstitüsü Türkiyat
Araştırmaları Dergisi 15 (2004): 91-140.
389 Most of these studies focus on how Islamic law was actually practiced in the Ottoman society
reflecting a legal approach. The most comprehensive research on the subject so far belongs to Sak
and Aköz 2004. In their research they utilized several fetva collections and Konya judicial court
records of 10(1070-1071), 39(1113-1113), 40(1115-1115), 42(1118-1119), 43(1118-1119),
284
specific focus on the linguistic and textual analysis of the terms and concepts used
in these seemingly formulaic uttered words recorded in court registers.
Hul cases constitute the basic sources for this section. The word “hul” has been
studied usually as a term with its legal connotations; a linguistic analysis would
also help. The word “hul” as a neutral term has underlying emotional meanings in
its essence. Hul is used in Islamic jurisprudence (fıkıh) as a term which annihilates
the material and non-material ties. Hul or nez’ means also a taking out of one’s
dress or annihilation of power. Bilmen claims that the close affective ties between
husbands and wives is represented by an immaterial dress and defines muhalaa as
taking that immaterial dress out from one another’s body. In other words, he
defines marriage as a dress that the parties of a marriage, husband and wife, put
on one another. In its negation, divorce is taking this dress out representing the
sensational essence of a marriage.390
Which methodological tools then can we use to explore the emotions or
motivations behind the legal sources which are seemingly formulaic and devoid of
feeling? Legal sources, however devoid of feeling they may seem, should not be
ignored; rather they serve as sources, which provide clues on human contours of
history. One possible approach may be exploring the broader meanings of terms
44(1121-1122), 45(1126-1127), 46(1125-1125), 47(1128-1129), 48(1130-1131), 49(1135-1136).
In these judicial court records they identified 611 cases regarding family law; 54.17% of the cases
were on hul divorce, while %19.97 on namzedlik, %8.67 on marriage, %15.88 on talak divorce
and %1.31 on tefrik divorce.
390 Ömer Nasuhi Bilmen, Hukukı İslamiyye ve Islahatı Fıkhiyye Kamusu v:2 (Istanbul: Bilmen
Yayınevi, 1968), 268.
285
used in Islamic jurisprudence. And secondly, by analyzing these terms
contextually.
The familial relations are analyzed by the phrase “beynimizde hüsn-i zindegani ve
musafaat”, as the most commonly encountered term used for hul divorce cases.391
The parties who initiate the divorce comes to the court claiming that they do not
have “hüsn-i zindegani and musafat” among them. What does this term mean? Is
it just a formulaic phrase to denote that the couples are not getting well together?
Or does it mean more than that? What were the conditions or expectations from a
marriage in which there exists “hüsn-i zindegani and musafaat”? Does it refer to
material well-being, or does it also imply emotional bonding between the men and
the wife? To what extent then, is it possible for a historian, to understand the
reasons behind divorce cases, which blemished the mutual understanding of the
couples hindering their love and friendship? How can we recapture the emotional
experiences of the couples before and during the termination of their marriage, or
their ways of expressing their emotions? Zindegani is defined as; life;
pleasant, joyous life; means of life, livelihood, sustenance. Hüsn on the other hand
means goodness, pleasantness, and politeness. The phrase “hüsn-i zindegani”
denotes a good, prosperous and pleasant life. Its synonym was taayyüş; an
391 Peirce, for example, argues that although the parallel terms, hüsn-i zindegani and hüsn-i
muaşeret, were used in 18th century İstanbul in records of women seeking divorce by making
reference to Zilfi (1997), she further claims that in 16th century Aybtab, such language was
limited to young girls in marriage on the grounds of a court record that she had encountered (AS2:
6b) in which a mother sued fort he release of her daughter from a loveless marriage, pleading that
“she has no pleasure in life and is utterly helpless” (hüsn-i zindeganisi yok ve kız kendüden
acizedir). Leslie Peirce, Morality Tales: Law and Gender in the Ottoman Court of Aintab
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 419. Based on my sicil readings, I think firstly
that those terms were used not only by women but also men (although rare) who were seeking
divorce regardless of their age and secondly it seems quite questionable to claim that the phrase
was limited to young girls for 16th century Ayntab.
286
obtaining a living; means of subsistence. The synonym of “hüsn-i zindegani” was
“musafat” meaning; a behaving sincerely, acting with pure affection towards
somebody, true friendship, sincerity. Drawn on a cluster of words and phrases we
may deduct that the expectations from a good marriage was denoted as achieving
a good, prosperous and pleasant life, with affection and sincerity between husband
and wife. There was, in other words, a reference not only material but also
emotional well being of husbands and wives, at least linguistically. Presence of
“hüsn-i zindegani” in a family demanded that the parties involved as members of
this social and legal unit would have rights and obligations towards one another
which were determined either by law, traditions and socially constructed
practices. Practices and traditions were learned knowledge, which were
transmitted from one generation to the next.
The case below represents an example of hul divorce;
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da merhum Pir Esad mahallesi sakinelerinden Hasene
bint Mehmed nam hatun meclis-i şer’i hatir-i lazımü’t-tevkirde zevci rafiü’l
kitab Bayram ibn Yusuf mahzarında üzerine dava ve takrir-i kelam idüp,
zevcim mezbur Bayram ile beynimizde hüsn-i zindegani ve musafat
olmamağla zimmetinde mütekarrer olan 400 akçe mehr-i müeccelimden ve
nafaka-i iddetimden ve zevciyete müteallika cem’i davamdan fariğa olub,
zimmetini ibra eylediğimde ol dahi beni muhalaa idüb, kat'-ı alaka eyledi,
min bad hak ve alakam kalmadı didikde gıbbe't-tasdik ma vakıa bi’t-taleb
ketb olundu.”392
In this court case dating 1660, recorded in Konya registers, we learn that the
women named Hasene initiated a hul divorce case and claimed that she and her
husband Bayram are not “getting well together” (beynimizde hüsn-i zindegani ve
392 Konya JCR 10: 160/6
287
musafaat olmamağla) and renounced her rights like delayed dowry to be paid at
the termination of a marriage or death of husband (mehr-i müeccel) amounting
400 akçe, her allowances for the 3 months waiting period (nafaka-i iddet), her
conjugal rights (zevciyete müteallika cem’i davamdan) and discharged her
husband from his liabilities (zimmetini ibra eylediğimde). And her husband
accepted the “hul” divorce. Various other cases also indicate that in hul divorces,
in addition to renouncing their rights of mehr-i müeccel and nafaka-i iddet,
women could also renounce their allowances for habitation (meunet-i sükna) or
give a material compensation to their husbands like cash, land, property or any
other belongings. Although it was the wife who initiated the proceeding of
divorce in this case, there are also cases, although quite rare, in which the case is
initiated by the husband. Among the many hul type divorce cases recorded in
Ottoman court registers, it’s hard to denote any distinctness to Hasene’s hul
divorce case. Hasene’s divorce looks much like any other hul divorce case in any
other Ottoman city or town, recorded in an absolute formulaic style leaving out all
the chances for a historian to make any interpretations except the practice of
Islamic jurisprudence in the Ottoman Empire. All we know for the reason of
divorce is that there is no “hüsn-i zindegani” or “musafat” among the couples.
It is not possible with a case record like the one quoted above, which may easily
be regarded as a template, the blanks of which filled by the scribes of the court, to
provide clues regarding either the emotions or the motivations behind the scene. It
is argued however in this research that, the use of records of hul divorce cases
may only be meaningful if each case is treated as a cultural product in itself if we
use Ze’evi’s terminology, and only if linguistic and contextual analysis of the
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specific terms and concepts used within the text is made which may enable us to
penetrate into intellectual and emotional worlds of the parties involved. The aim
in this study is neither standardizing hundreds of hul cases to make a statistical
analysis nor reflecting the actual practices of Islamic law in Ottoman society.
Quite contrary, what is aimed is to explore the emotions of husbands and wives
who had decided to terminate their life-long companionships by making use of
only those cases which intentionally or accidentally recorded or revealed the
emotions. Such records, within hundreds of others, which give clues on the
emotions behind the scene, constituted to be the main sources utilized. Only the
cases which had recorded the utterances of husbands and wives in much more
detail had been used. Rather than processing all the hul divorce cases in a specific
time and place, hul divorce cases, which provided details in understanding the
broader meaning of the terms “hüsn-i zindegani” and “musafat” had been
considered. These terms are conceptualized in an effort to understand their
meanings within different contexts, what those terms meant for couples, what
husbands and wives understood from these concepts, what the sensational
expectations of husbands and wives from a marriage were in which the couples
were “getting well together”.
In this section, three examples are given from judicial court registers to explore
the motivations and emotions behind the scene, hidden within the legal
expressions of Islamic jurisprudence. Although these three records are in their
essence just a registration of termination of three marriages by a mutual
agreement of the couples, the details in their context provide interesting clues to
historians making the cases not only unique but also valuable.
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The first case dating 1699 is a hüccet for a hul type divorce issued on behalf of a
woman named Saliha, daughter of El-Hac Ebulkasım, who was a resident of Ahi
Hacı Murat neighborhood in Ankara.
“Medine-i Ankara’da Ahi Hacı Murat Mahallesinde sakine Saliha bint El
Hac Ebulkasım nam hatun tarafından hul’-i cai’i’z- zikri ikrara vekil olub,
zat-ı mezbureyi marifet-i şer’iyye ile arifan olan fahrü’l-hüteba Es seyyid
Yahya Efendi ibn Es Seyyid El Hac Abdürrahim efendi ve Mustafa Çelebi
ibn El Hac Mehmed nam kimesneler şehadetleri ile şeran vekaleti sabite
olan zahrü’s-sadati’l-kiram Es Seyyid Recep Çelebi ibn Es Seyyid Mustafa
nam kimesne meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımü’t-tevkirde müvekkile-i mezbure
Saliha’nın zevc-i muhali’i işbu hafızü’l-vesika Abdullah Çelebi ibn Osman
Efendi nam kimesne mahzarında bi’l-vekale ikrar ve takrir-i kelam idüb,
müvekkile-i mezbure Saliha, zevcim mezbur Abdullah Çelebi ile nüşuz ve
i’raz üzere olub, hul’a taliba olduğum eclden zimmetinde mütekarrır olan
ve ma’kudun- aleyh olan 500 guruş mehr-i müeccel-i müsemmam ve nafakai
iddet-i malume ve me’unet-i süknamdan fariğa ve mal-i sarihimden dahi
70 guruş virmek üzere mezbur Abdullah Çelebi ile muhalaa-i sahiha-i
ser’iyye ile hul’ ve bedel-i hul’ olan 70 guruşu mezbur Abdullah Çelebi’ye
ba’d-def’ ve’t-teslim her birimiz aherin zimmetini hukuk-ı zevciyyete
müteallaka amme-i dava’ ve mütalabat ve i’man-ı muhasematdan ve bedel-i
hul’ olan 70 guruşdan ibra-i amm-i kâti’ü’n-niza’ ile ibra eyledik. bade’lyevm
hukuk-ı zevciyyete müteallaka tarafeynden dava’ ve niza sadır olursa
lede’l-hükkami’l-kiram istima’ olunmasın dedi didiği gıbbe’t-tasdik ma
vakıa bi’t-taleb ketb olundu. fi’l-yevmi’s-sani aşer min cemaziyü’l-ahere
sene 1110.
Şuhudü’l-hal: Ahmet Ağa bin Mehmed Ağa, Mustafa Ağa bin El Hac
Mehmed, Es Seyyid Ahmet Halife bin Mehmed Efendi, Es Seyyid Salih
Çelebi bin Hüseyin Bey, Es Seyyid Mustafa Çelebi bin Es Seyyid Receb
Çelebi, Bayram Ağa bin Yusuf.”393
Saliha delegated Seyyid Receb as her proxy (vekil) in her divorce from her
husband Abdullah Çelebi, the son of Osman Efendi. The divorce proceedings
were initiated by the proxy and there were two witnesses for this delegation; hatip
Seyyid Yahya Efendi and Mustafa Çelebi. The titles of the parties involved
indicate that both the wife’s and the husband’s families were from ulema class.
Saliha Hatun, via her proxy in the court stated that she had requested a hul divorce
393 Ankara JCR 78: 89
290
from her husband since there was “nüşuz” and “iraz” among them (nüşuz ve i’raz
üzere olduğumuzdan) and she renounced from her rights of mehr-i müeccel
amounting 500 guruş, allowances for waiting period (iddet nafakası) and
habitation (meunet-i sükna) and accepted to pay 70 guruş to her husband as a
compensation for her demand of hul divorce. After the payment, they discharged
one another from any further conjugal and legal liabilities.
If we try to interpret this legal document through its neutral tone, it may seem as if
there’s nothing, which would make this case special, similar to various other hul
hüccets registered offering us nothing regarding the motivations or the emotions
behind the scene. The reason for the divorce is stated as “nüşuz ve i’raz üzere
olmak”. In Islamic jurisprudence the couples’ turning away from one another is
expressed with these phrases. If the party who is non-willing to continue the
relationship is the husband, he’s called nâşiz, and if the nonwilling party is the
wife, she’s called nâşize. What makes this case distinct from the other hul divorce
cases is the phrase “nüşuz and i’raz”. In Islamic jurisprudence, nüşuz of the
husband is treating his wide cruelly (cefa) and considering her as disgusting,
detestable, abominable (kerih). Nüşuz of the wife on the other hand is the wife’s
rebelling (isyan), being in opposition to her husband and considering him as
disgusting (Bilmen 1968 v.2; 269).394 Lexicographic analysis of the words nüşuz
and iraz on the other hand give us clues on their emotional tone.
Lexicographically i’raz means turning away (from a thing); a declining, shunning,
394 Ömer Nasuhi Bilmen, Hukukı İslamiyye ve Islahatı Fıkhiyye Kamusu v: 2 (Istanbul: Bilmen
Yayınevi, 1968), 269.
291
avoiding. Nüşuz means a wife’s rebelling against her husband; a husband’s
treating his wife cruelly, and also turning away with hate. In these two
synonymous words, what is explained is a kind of turning away from one another
grounded on hate. Hate, is an emotion which does not suddenly incur, rather it’s
self-conscious and involves an appreciation of past experience which accumulates
in time. The contextual analysis of such words like nüşuz and iraz may lead us to
the emotional states of the parties and their expressions of them.
In this document we understand that they were in the termination period of a
marriage; however we do not know for how long they had problems, who the
liable one for the divorce was or who had a deeper hate, what lead them to hate
each other? However we also understand from the hüccet that Saliha Hatun not
only renounced her rights of mehr-i müeccel for 500 guruş, her allowances for
waiting period and habitation, but also accepted to pay 70 guruş to her husband
additionally as compensation. This may indicate together with her utterance of
words denoting a hate in her claim that it was the wife who demanded to
terminate this marriage revealing the wife’s excessive hate towards her husband.
Another case is given below from Konya court records.
“Mahmiye-i Konya Hoca Hasan mahallesi sakinlerinden Mustafa bin
Mehmed nam kimesne meclis-i şer’-i hatir-i lazımü’t-tevkirde bundan
akdem zevcesi olan baisetü’l-kitab Emine binti Abdülcelil mahzarında
üzerine dava ve takrir-i kelam idüb, mukaddema mezbure Emine benim
zevcim olub, tarih-i kitabtan 31 gün mukaddem beynimizde hüsn-i zindegani
ve musafat olmamağla, gazabım halinde ben mezbure Emine’ye iradetin
yeddinde olsun diyüb, ol dahi nefsini ol hinde ihtiyar itmeden müfarekat
idüb, menzilimden çıkıb, bu ana gelince aher menzilde sakine olmuş idi.
Lakin ol hinde mezbure nefsini ihtiyar etmedikçe, benden mutallaka
olmayıb, beynunet-i vakıa olmadığına yedimde fetva-i şerife olmağla, hala
menzilime götürüb, izdivac murad eylediğimde, muhalefet üzeredir, sual
olunsun didikte, gıbbe’s-sual mezbure cevabında vakt-i merkumda bir husus
için tarafeyn biribirimizle tenazu ve teşacür üzere iken mezbur Mustafa
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gazabı halinde bana hitab idüb, eğer sen benim zimmetimde olan mehr-i
müeccelinden ve nafaka-i iddet-i malüme ve meunet-i süknandan feragat
idersen iradetin yedinde olsun deyüb, ben dahi ol hinde mehr-i
müeccelimden ve nafaka-i iddet-i malüme ve meunet-i süknamdan fariğa
oldum, zevciyyet istemem, senden müfarakat eyledim dedim deyücek,
bade’l-istintak ve’l-inkar merkume Emine’den takriri meşruhu mübeyyine
beyyine talep olundukta, udul-i müsliminden merhum Şeyh Sadreddin
mahallesi sükkanından El Hac İbrahim bin Mustafa, ve Mevlud bin Satılmış
nam kimesneler li-ecli’ş-şehade meclis-i şer’e haziran olup, eserü’l-istişhad
fi’l-vaki’ tarih-i kitabdan 31 gün mukaddem mezbur Mustafa bizim
huzurumuzda gazabnak olduğu halde merkume Emine’ye eğer sen benim
zimmetimde olan mehr-i müeccelinden ve nafaka-i iddet-i malüme ve
meunet-i süknasından feragat idersen, iradetin yedinde olsun deyüb,
mezbure Emine dahi ol hinde senin zimmetinde olan mehr-i müeccelimden
ve nafaka-i iddet-i malüme ve meunet-i süknamdan fariğa oldum, zevciyyet
istemem, senden müfarakat eyledim dedi, biz bu hususa şahitleriz, şehadet
dahi ideriz deyu eda-yı şehadet-i şer’iyye eylediklerinde bade’t-tadil ve’ttezkiyye
şehadetleri makbule olmağın mucebiyle hükm ve dava-ı
merkumeden mezbur Mustafa’yı men’ birle ma vakıa bi’t-taleb ketb olundu.
fi’l yevmi’t-tasi’ min şevvali’l-mükerrem li seneti ihda ve mie ve elf.”395
Mustafa bin Mehmed from Hacı Hasan neighborhood in Konya, invited her wife
to the court and stated that 31 days before the court case, since they were not
getting well together (beynimizde hüsn-i zindegani ve musafat olmamağla)
suddenly upon his anger (gazab) he annulled the marriage giving her permission
to act however she wishes. The wife then, left the house. However, once the
husband’s anger passed away, he requested her to come back home but she
disagreed. The husband also had a fetva, which required his wife to move back
home since there was no hul divorce. His wife apparently rejected the claim. And
she stated that they had a severe quarrel and her husband with a great anger told
that he would divorce her by hul if she agreed to renounce advance portion of her
dowry and allowances. She accepted the payment and left the house telling him
395 Konya JCR 35: 129
293
that she does not want to continue this marriage anymore. Then witnesses were
requested from Emine who in the court confirmed Emine’s allegation. As a final
decision the kadı rejected the husband’s claim.
Although this is also a hüccet for a hul divorce, its context gives us further clues
on the husband-wife relations. The husband claimed that marriage contract could
not be terminated if the uttered words had been pronounced upon sudden anger
and he had a fetva, which confirmed to be so. However, the wife rejected his
claim and insisted that it did not constitute a talak type divorce but a hul divorce
since her husband stated that he would divorce her if had she renounced some of
her rights and that she had accepted it. This case record is also distinct in the sense
that it gives us further explanation regarding the anger of the husband. The wife’s
words furthermore give us more clues on their emotional states. The wife, instead
of claiming that they did not have hüsn-i zindegani and musafat between
themselves, provided us with further evidence by using the words tenazu and
teşacür. While tenazu means contending, quarrelling or litigating with each other,
teşacür means a struggle in opposition or squabbling together. The witnesses as
well informed that the husband was in strong anger (gazabnak). The wife declared
that their divorce of hul had been legally valid, and her husband’s anger was not a
sudden and an unexpected display of anger, severe intensity of which was also
testified by the witnesses. The testimonies of the witnesses indicate however
something more. We learn that the witnesses are from the neighborhood Mevlud
Şeyh Sadreddin. However, the couples are from Hacı Hasan neighborhood.
Although these two neighborhoods were close to each other, it is evident that the
witnesses did not live next door (car-ı mülasık) to the couples. While testifying
294
however, they declared that they witnessed the husband’s words uttered in anger,
which seems to be violent anger, close to rage. It is evident that the witnesses
were in the couple’s house and they violently quarreled within their presence.
We may not know from this record why they quarreled, or how their marriage was
before. However we may at least argue that the husband felt repentance for what
he had said during his sudden anger. We do not either know if he tried to work
things out by the help of any mediator before appealing to court. However we
may say that he did not want to divorce his wife and that he got prepared for the
case beforehand by obtaining a fetva from the müfti, and felt sorry for what he had
done and he tried his best to reverse the things back. Although there are no
evidences in the case, we may think of why the wife refused to go back home and
continue her marriage. Probably their marriage had long been stormy and there
had been several cases beforehand when she had to leave the house but had
returned back with the mediator’s advise and that it was hard for her to believe in
her husband’s resentments anymore.
The case given below is from Konya court records.
“Mahmiye-i Konya’da Dolab Ucu mahallesi sakinelerinden zatı muarefe
olan Fatma bint Ali nam hatun meclis-i şer’-i enverde işbu rafiu’l-kitab
zevc-i muhali’i Ahmed bin Emrullah mahzarında ikrar-ı tam ve takrir-i
kelam idüb zevcim mezbur ile beynimizde şikak ve adem-i vifak vukuundan
naşi hüsn-i zindeganimiz olmamağla zimmetinde mukarrer ma’kudun aleyh
13 guruş mihr-i müeccelim ve iddet nafaka ve meunet-i süknam kendi
üzerime olub, hamlim dahi zuhur ider ise bir şey talebinde olmayıb, kendüm
infak ve iksa itmek üzere cümlesinden fariğa olub, muhalaa-i sahih-i şer’i
eylediğimde ol dahi ber minval-i muharrer hul’ itmeğle, ibtida-i zevciyetden
tarih-i kitaba gelince hukuk-ı zevciyete müteallika cüzzi ve külli amme-i
deavi ve mutalabat ve kaffe-i muhasematdan zevcim mezburun zimmetini
ibra-i amm ile ibra ve iskat-ı dava eyledim zimmetinde bir akçe ve bir habbe
hak ve alakam kalmadı didikde gıbbe’t-tasdik-i’ş-şeri ma vakıa bi’t-taleb
ketb olundu. fi 3 rebiü’l ahir 1177.
musa efendi, hatib süleyman efendi, hüseyin bin ahmed, ibrahim bin
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mustafa, Anbdurrahman Beşe bin Ahmed.”396
This case provides further clues about the broader meaning of the term “hüsn-i
zindegani”. Fatma bint Ali claimed that there was no hüsn-i zindegani in their
marriage on the grounds of presence of şikak and absence of vifak. Absence of
vifak denotes that they could not establish an emotional symbiosis. Vifak means
mutual agreement, existence of being together in a peaceful way and şikak means
an incompatibility, quarrelling and contending. Her utterance makes us think that
they were recently wed and did not have a long lasting marriage. Further in her
utterance, she stated that she was suspicious of her pregnancy and in case of
giving birth to her child, she would be the one taking care of her child with no
responsibility whatsoever on the husband’s part. This case is important in the
sense that it evidences marriage as an emotional community between men and
women.
The next example is not a hul divorce case. It is about a marriage, although legally
valid, in which the wife had no consent in conjugal relationship and is important
for giving us clues on the emotions of women getting married to someone that she
could not have established an affective tie.
“Medine-i Adana mahallatından Saçlı Hamid mahallesi sakinlerinden işbu
rafiü’l kitab İbrahim bin Mehmed nam kimesne meclis-i şer’i hatir-i
lazımi’t-tevkirde mahalle-i mezkure sakinelerinden olub, zatını ma’rifet-i
şer’iyye ile aliman olan Ahmed bin Veli ve Hasan bin İbrahim nam
kimesneler tarifleriyle muarref olan Fatma binti Veli nam bikr-i baliğa
mahzarında üzerine dava ve takrir-i kelam idüb, “bundan akdem mezbure
396 Konya JCR 58: 7/5
296
Fatma’yı tezevvüce tâlib ve râgıb olduğum ecilden merkume Fatma tarih-i
kitabdan 2 sene mukaddem Receb-i Şerif gurresinde muaccel ve müeccel
mecmu’u 50 guruş mehr tesmiyesiyle nefsini bana tezvic ve tenkihe gaib
ani’l-meclis Gazioğlu dimekle ma’ruf Ömer Bey’i lede’ş-şuhud tarafından
vekil ve naib-i menâb nasb ve tayin itmekle ol dahi vekalet-i merkumeyi
bade’l-kabul yine tarih-i mezkurda vakt-i zahrda mahalle-i mezkurda vaki’
kendünün sakin olduğu menzilinde lede’ş-şuhud ol mikdar guruş mehr
tesmiyesiyle müvekkilesi işbu Fatma binti Veli nam bikr-i baliğayı bi’lvekale
bana inkah ve tezvic idüb ben dahi ber minval-i muharrer nefsim
içün tezevvüc ve kabul itmekle mezbure Fatma yevm-i mezkurdan beri
benim zevce-i menkuhem olmuşiken hala nefsini bana teslimden imtina ider
sual olunub takriri tahrir ve nefsini şer’an bana teslime tenbih olunması
matlubumdur didikde gıbbe’s-sual merkume Fatma cevabında tevkil-i
mezkuru ve ber vech-i muharrer tezvic ve tenkih olduğunu bi’l-külliye
münkire olmağla müddei-i mezbur İbrahimden davasına mutabık beyyine
taleb olundukda udul-ı ahrar-ı rical-i müsliminden olub, Şam mabadi
Türkmeni cemaatinden zat-ı merkumeye bi’l marifeti’ş-şer’iyye arifân Molla
Receb ve İsmail ve Pehlivanlı Türkmanı cemaatinden Osman bin Osman
nam kimesneler li-ecli’ş-şehade meclis-i şer’e haziran olub eserü’l-istişhad
fil-hakika zatına kemal-i irfan ile arifan olduğumuz işbu hazıratü bi’l-meclis
Fatma binti Veli bin Abdullah nam bikr-i baliğa sabıkü’l-ism Gazibeyzade
Ömer Bey’in menzilinde “besleme” tabir olunur hidmetkarı olduğu halde
nefsini tezevvüce talibi olub, işbu müddei-i merkum İbrahim bin Mehmed
muaccel ve müeccel mecmu’u 50 guruş mehr tesmiyesiyle inkah ve tezvice
hidmetinde olduğu mezbur Gazibeyzade Ömer Bey’i tarafından bizim
huzurumuzda vekil ve naib-i menâb nasb ve tayin eyledi. Ol dahi yine
huzurumuzda vekalet-i mezkureyi bad’et-kabul müvekkilesi işbu merkume
Fatma binti Veli bin Abdullah’ı bi’l-vekale muaccel ve müeccel mecmu’u 50
guruş mehr tesmiyesiyle İbrahim bin Mehmed’e tezvic ve tenkih idüb
müddei-i mezbur İbrahim dahi nefsi içün tarih-i mezkurda merkume
Fatma’yı tezevvüc ve kabul itmekle emr-i akd-i nikah temam olub, hala
müvekkile-i merkume ol vechle müddei-i merkumun “helali” ve zevce-i
menkuhesidir. Biz bu hususa bu vech üzere şahidleriz şehadet dahi ideriz
deyu eda-ı şehadet-i şer’iyye ittiklerinde gıbbe’t-tadil ve’t-tezkiyye
şehadetleri makbule olmağın mucibiyle sıhhat-i nikaha ve nefsini zevci
merkuma teslim ve temkine bade’l-hükm ve’t-tenbih ma vakıa bi’t-taleb
ketb olundu. 6 rebiü’l-ahir sene erbaa ve erbain ve mie ve elf. 397
397 Adana JCR 14: 87/1
297
This case is about a phenomenon, examples of which were encountered not only
in the Ottoman society bu even our modern society. We understand that the
women named Fatma, who had reached her puberty (bikr-i baliğa), most probably
was given to Gazioğlu Ömer Bey in her childhood. The girls who were either
coming from a poor family or were orphans with nobody to take care of them,
would be given to those who would take care of their necessities in return for the
their assistance in domestic housework. They were usually termed as “besleme”.
When they grew up reaching puberty, they would usually get married by their
patrons. The girls by this practice then, would not be left desperate on the streets;
rather they would be given a chance to establish their own homes and families.
Fatma in this story was one of such girls. She also got married by the help of her
patron Gazioğlu Ömer Bey who had taken care of her during her childhood. In
strict compliance to legal terms of a marriage contract, Fatma gave permission to
her patron to act as her proxy when she reached puberty, and accepted to get
married with someone whom her patron would approve. However, it is
understood from the case that Fatma could not whole-heartedly approve and
accept İbrahim from a nomadic community as her husband. Fatma insisted that
she did not give her consent to Gazioğlu Ömer Bey to act as her proxy in this
marriage and rejected the claim that they had a marriage contract refusing to be
the wife of İbrahim. She further added that they did not have conjugal relationship
for two years, which is also confirmed by her husband İbrahim. It seems that
Fatma could resist to her getting married without her consent for two years.
However when her husband İbrahim proved that their marriage was legal with the
statements of witnesses, the judge ruled that their marriage was legal and valid,
298
and Fatma was the legal wife of İbrahim. We may never be sure about the story of
Fatma and her actual motivations. Since the judge ruled the validity of the
marriage, it seems that they did have a legally valid marriage contract in the
beginning of this process. But how could Fatma refrain herself from her husband
for two years? Ibrahim could prove his claim with the witnesses. However,
neither Fatma nor her patron and her proxy Gazioğlu Ömer Bey were present in
the court. Initially he should have been the first one to be questioned. There is no
way to understand the possible reasons for his absence from the record. However
it is clear that the case had been ruled against Fatma declaring that she is the legal
and valid wife of İbrahim.
We need to think about not only what had been uttered in this case but also those
that were kept silent. It is clear that Fatma did not have her consent in this
marriage. We also do not know how their relationships proceeded as a legal wife
and husband even if the judge ruled so. What this case demands us to think is the
fact that every formal relationship established between two parties had also an
emotional dimension. The usual story for the “besleme” girls is that they would be
thankful to their patrons for their attempts to get them married. One may easily
hold that the feeling of gratitude of the beslemes would be apparent towards their
patrons. However, Fatma seems to have a different story, unique in itself and that
she wanted to get disposed of this marriage that she had no consent in spite of
Ömer Bey. We would not dare to understand the story of Fatma if we don’t regard
the family not only as a social unit but also an emotional community in which
affective ties would count. However the reality is hidden within this story. Even if
we accept it as a fact that Fatma first gave her consent to this marriage, even if it
299
was a legally valid marriage, she did not have consent within her heart and mind.
And that’s why the case has been the subject of the judicial court.
All the cases regarding either the termination of namzedlik or the marriage and the
utterances of the women in these cases reveal the features of Ottoman emotional
regime in which especially the women had to be silent in their expressions of
emotions. They were supposed to repress their feelings. That’s why the court case
records are silent regarding the utterances of women, the reasons for terminating
their engagement or marriage. The repressed display of emotions however was
revealed within such phrases like the absence of “rıza” or “hüsn-i zindegani” or
“musafat” or “vifak” or the presence of “nüşuz” or “teşacür”. Their emotions were
hidden under such terms. The absence of explicit expression of emotions cannot
and should not be regarded as absence of emotional conflicts between the
partners. Even the renouncing of women from their legal and material rights from
their husbands with their own consent should be regarded as evidences of
presence of affective ties that could not have been explicitly expressed.
6.5. Concluding Remarks
In this chapter the emotional dimension of the relations established between
husbands and wives in particular and between men and women in general are
elaborated. The general assumption for Ottoman husbands and wives holds that
the marriages were grounded on rational purposefulness which served as a tool for
reproduction and material means of the couples in pre-modern era. The affective
ties between the couples were promoted and achieved only after modernity.
300
However, it has been showed that marriage also demanded love and affection
between husbands and wives. In other words, couples did pursue their emotional
well being when they got married in addition to pursuing their material or
otherwise well beings. However, prescriptions of emotions demanded to repress
or hide the expressions of love and affection for both men and women.
For women it was even demanded to repress their emotions of anger, joy and
happiness. In that sense, Ottoman society may well be regarded as an “emotional
regime” in Reddy’s terms. In this emotional regime, women sought for refugees
to more openly express their feelings and public baths for example served as
“emotional refugees” for women. The tension between the prescriptions and
descriptions of emotions was however apparent and they tried to push the
prescribed boundaries.
Individuals developed their own emotional scripts in which some terms and
concepts acted as emotion codes reflecting implicit expression of one’s emotions.
One such term was “rıza” which although literally means consent, it reflected the
motivations and the emotions of individuals in various contexts. “Hüsn-i
zindegani” and “musafahat” were also such terms, which denoted expressions of
emotions, especially in married couples. Taking each court record as a cultural
product on its own, focusing on the broader meanings of some seemingly
formulaic phrases and identifying cases, although quite rare, which provide
additional clues on the broader meanings of phrases may be regarded as a new
approach to better understand why people acted the way they did in the past. This
approach may be also utilized as a tool that which may release the historians from
the so-called impressionistic narration of history.
301
CHAPTER VII
CONCLUSION
This thesis, as an attempt to do history from the “inside out” by taking emotions
into consideration, should first and foremost be regarded as “muhassıla”, the
findings of which is a synthesis drawn upon a collection of quite many things. It
would be inadequate in other words, to say that the primary sources that I actually
quoted and used in this thesis form the only foundation of its findings. They
constitute only a selected a part of what had been utilized, exemplifying the ones
that could not been quoted. In one way or another however, they all had been
reflected in this narration, which lied behind a short sentence or a paragraph. If
the topic of this thesis had been a specific historical event, which took place at a
specific time and place, or if it had attempted to explore the meaning of a specific
concept, it would have been easier to cite the primary sources that had been
utilized. However, since the attempt had been to explore emotions, which are
almost everywhere, in almost every source that a historian encounters, to
understand how Ottomans gave meaning to their lives, how they justified their
acts, why in other words, they acted the way they did, it would necessitate to
utilize as many sources as possible, some of which though, may not be properly
302
quoted. Although regarded as secondary, the scholarship produced so far on the
subject of emotions in the fields of not only history by also psychology,
neuroscience, sociology and political science, constitute another important part of
the collection. They acted in this synthesis as crucial as the primary sources
utilized, especially in drawing and specifying the main route of this search. They
not only shaped the methodological approach but also provided tools for a
comparative analysis enabling the similarities/variances with emotional language
of other political entities or societies. My never-ending intellectual discussions
with my advisor on the history of the emotions of pre-modern Ottoman society
formed the last but not the least contribution enlightening my way; thus should
also be considered as one of the crucial pieces of this synthesis. If one of the
constraints cited above were absent from this research, it would not bear anything
novel and just remain to argue that Ottomans did also cry, feel happy, show grief
and were frightened just like we do. Quite contrary though, the main intent of this
research had been to develop a counter argument against this presentist view,
showing that the displays of emotions and the linguistic representation of the
displays were not the same as today.
Although there are quite few studies which traced emotions in Ottoman history
from different perspectives, like fear in the travelogue of Evliya Çelebi or
emotions in Ottoman literary sources, this research may be considered among the
first in its counterparts taking a rather holistic approach, drawing its findings on
not only literary sources but also archival sources and judicial court records.
This research considered emotions as a factor in shaping human motivation,
which had long been unacknowledged by the Ottoman historians. Neglecting
303
emotions however, automatically subdues the humane texture of the historical
actors which is quite paradoxical since historians usually strive to understand the
motivations and intentions of the people who lived in the past. Exploring the
history of the institutions formed by ration may serve as explanations as to why
people acted the way they did, however; this research aimed to present novel
explanation to this question by taking emotions into consideration.
The findings of this research had been systemized basically on three different
relational dimensions. While the relations established between the ruler and the
ruled constituted one dimension, the intra-communal relations within
taife/cemaats and the relations between men and women in general with a focus
on the marital relations between husbands and wives constituted the second and
the third dimensions, respectively.
Under the basic assumption that emotions are a result of not only neurobiological
but also cognitive processes and are thus shaped by antecedent experience,
present goals and expectations, the recent findings of the research on emotions
had been confirmed in this thesis that, unlike our beliefs in emotions primarily
residing in the private sphere of individuals or intimate relations, emotions had
significant implications in the public sphere as well, filling the gap between the
private and the public, the individual and the collective.
This research, by focusing on the collectivity of the emotions shared by the
groups and their collective expressions in all three dimensions mentioned above,
and by tracing emotions within linguistic expressions, regardless of the implicit or
explicit use of emotion words, showed that the State/Sultan and the ruled together
304
with those whom were delegated to rule by the Sultan, the sub-communities
within the Ottoman society which were termed as taife/cemaat and families acted
as emotional communities, each having same goals and stakes, each having their
own established emotional scripts.
The emotional script of the emotional community consisting of the rulers and the
ruled was best reflected in the primary sources as “telif-i kulûb and mahabbet”. In
their political negotiations, both sides were well aware of the established
emotional codes that were expressed in their political rhetoric. They had
collectively constructed emotional expectations from one another. In Reddy’s
wording, even if all the people had the same potential to feel the same emotions,
the patterns in who expressed which emotions to whom and when, assumed real
political significance in the Ottoman political domain. The ruler was expected to
protect and govern by compassion, where as the ruled were expected to submit to
their rulers with affection. The moralists defined not only the innate nature of the
emotions but also instructed what the rulers and the ruled should feel towards one
another and how they should express them. It has been evidenced that the rules of
feeling, theorized in ethic manuals, were indeed duly practiced in daily political
negotiations and adopted as a rule of thumb. There was in other words, always a
room for emotions in the idealized Ottoman political order and its daily practice.
In their attempt to ensure compliance to religious and sultanic laws, the rulers
always referred to emotional states’ of the subjects in their political rhetoric.
Likewise, the subjects also relayed their political demands on the grounds of their
emotional states whenever they were displeased of their current conditions. The
emotional well being of the subjects in other words, also counted just as much as
305
their material well beings. They remained as loyal subjects so long as they were a
member of this emotional community, in this case the Ottoman State, having the
same stakes and goals, bonded with one another by affective ties regardless of
their secondary identities of faith or occupation. However, it should not be
inferred as a claim for a permanent presence of affective ties between the Ottoman
rulers and the ruled. Primary sources are replete with those who were displeased
of their material conditions demanding a change in the current regulations, but
they all pursued their emotional well being and expressed their emotional
displeasure in their political requests. Emotional well being of the subjects then,
also constituted one of the constraints of political order; supplementing the
remaining rational and logical constraints of law (both religious and sultanic) and
cultural constraints of customs. Emotions acted as a tool for political
communication and negotiation and remained as such until modernity, which in
this sense represented an era with laws and regulations formalized, mainly by
reason and logic as their basic foundation. However, the persistence of the value
and meaning of the symbolic and emotions codes of the preceeding era is best
reflected in the verses of an Ottoman intellectual; namely Ziya Paşa (1825-1880)
who lived in a period when most of the traditional Ottoman institutions were
being renewed and restructured. His famous poem “terkib-i bend” implicitly bears
a criticism of modernity, a part of which is quoted below:
Evrâk ile i'lân olunur cümle nizâmât
Elfâz ile terfîh-i ra'iyyet yeni çıkdı
Evrak (pl. of varak: sheet of paper) denotes the new statutes, written rules or
regulations, encated during the Tanzimat era as a requisite of modernity. Elfaz (pl.
of lafz: word, letter) on the other hand, denotes literal understanding of law.
306
“Evrâk ile i'lân olunur cümle nizâmât” indicates enactment of the new rules and
regulations, which were publicized in their written forms. The second line of the
verse however, “Elfaz ile terfih-i raiyyet yeni çıktı” indicates his criticsm of the
new regulations. It may roughly be translated as: “a recent practice of prospering
the subjects verbally”. The most crucial word of his verse is “elfaz”. There are
several interpretations of law, some of which are still under debate. One rule for
interpretation is the “literal rule” which is interpreting law in a literal and ordinary
sense in plain language. The words and terms used in the statutes in other words,
are construed in their plain sense with the presupposition that they are precise
enough with no need to take into consideration the function or the “sense” or the
“spirit” of law. Ziya Paşa criticizes the Tanzimat regulations lacking sense, while
aiming at the prosperity and welfare of the subjects. They were all void of
emotion with no reference to emotional codes that which make the state and the
subjects an emotional community. The new codification of law was solely based
on logic, without any embedded accompanying and supporting emotion codes. In
other words, he criticizes the seperation of reason and emotions in political
thought. Modernity, for Ziya Paşa denotes a political ideology void of emotions
and the codified law was purely rational in its essence with no considerations of
emotions whatsoever. The regulations were so precisely defined that there was no
room left for negotiation, which lies in contrast with the previous practices of
legislation. It seems that Ziya Paşa stands as the last representative of the classical
period.
Likewise, the emotional script of the taife/cemaats, each being a different
emotional community, was best reflected in the primary sources as “rıza ve
307
şükran”. Similar to telif-i kulûb, this expression of emotion for the members of the
emotional community acted as a secret code of emotion, again the rules of which
were well known by the members. While telif-i kulub served as a bond among the
subjects regardless of their secondary identities, rıza ve şükran as an expression of
emotion, acted as a tool for establishing solidarity among the members. Rıza ve
şükran was an expression of a collective emotion and it did not apparently express
one’s own emotional state. It was rather relational, in the sense that it was
collectively shared as an expression of emotion for a member of this community
in relation to its supposed position within the community. Linguistic expression of
collective emotions was not just an indication of emotional states’ of the
community members; rather they acted as a tool for social communication. As
long as individuals were a part of this emotional domain, they were protected, not
only physically from the outside threats but also materially, financially and
emotionally. It has been shown and evidenced that becoming a member of this
emotional community, sharing the same emotional script, following the same
emotionology with the group members had larger political, social and economical
implications. Taking emotions into consideration therefore enabled us to better
interpret how the taife/cemaats themselves could succeed in bypassing the
disparities among them, be it religious, occupational, financial or otherwise. It has
also been showed that both the acceptance and the termination of becoming a
member of this emotional domain necessitated a long process. In some cases, like
the banquets of the guilds, rituals represented the culmination of the process of
acceptance. In other cases, easing the financial liability of a community member
in tax payments represented the validity and confirmation of one’s membership.
308
The length of the process of becoming a member, also helps to give a more
nuance explanation as to why the Ottoman subjects in pre-modern period, could
not easily change their residential or occupational communities. Likewise, cases
of expulsion from this emotional domain were a sign of termination of
membership, which though, involved several phases like efforts to persuade or
discipline. Only if the preceding phases had remained futile, and only if the
actions of the dissident had been validated as habitual, the member would be
officially expulsed. Although we may not assertively know the length of
preceding efforts, it seems that there was always a room for negotiation before
appealing to official and legal authorities. This was quite similar to the practices
implemented in the emotional community of the rulers and the ruled where the
rulers tried first to persuade the dissident subjects by showing compassion and
then to discipline them as an effort to reverse the conditions of the subjects back
to the state of “telif-i kulûb”. Only if such efforts had remained futile and the
dissident subject had remained still displeasured of being a member of this
emotional community would the state resort to severe punishment, moving to the
phase of “iğbirar-ı kulûb”.
It has also been showed that, although it demanded the same utterance of the
emotional expression as “rıza ve şükran” for membership for all the subcommunities,
each community was different from one another, especially in terms
of its drawing its own borders for the wrong-doers. The limits for bending the
rules in other words, remained different from one another.
The search for the sustenance of the established emotional domain by the
members also resulted in evidencing larger social implications of the cultivation
309
of an emotion; namely, the shame. Shame, as an emotion, probably the most
socially constructed one among its counterparts, was termed in quite many ways,
confirming Matt’s suggestion that “words give shape to one’s emotions by
choosing to identify and name one’s feelings in one way rather than another”.398
Different uses of shame-like words in different contexts, even gendered
expressions of the emotion of shame, showed that, as a cultivated emotion by the
society and also religion, it acted as a crucial tool to sustain the rules and
regulations of the emotional domain of “rıza ve şükran”. The cultivation of shame
by the society in other words, ensured the members’ submission to the implicit
rules of the emotional domain willingly.
As the third dimension of relations, the emotional script of the familial relations
between husbands and wives, which denoted the smallest emotional community,
was best reflected in the sources either as “mahabbet” or “musafat”. Contrary to
some of the historians’ who claimed that love between couples in Ottoman
husbands and wives started in late nineteenth century, exploring emotionology of
the pre-modern Ottoman family indicated presence of affective ties between
couples long before modern times, however different in its expression. It also
contradicts with the claims of historians who saw a purposeful rationality as the
foundation of marriages in pre-modern or traditional societies. While ethic
manuals showed what husbands and wives should feel towards one another, when
and how in an idealized form of marital relations, Ottoman judicial records
398 Susan J. Matt, “Recovering the Invisible: Methods for the Historical Study of the Emotions,” in
Doing Emotions History, ed. Susan J. Matt and Peter Stearns (Urbana, Chicago: University of
Illınois Press, 2014), 43.
310
validated the expected form and expression of emotions. The expression or
display of “mahabbet”, love and affection, was strictly regulated. Both men and
women were not supposed to openly express their emotions to their beloveds in
this emotional regime. The men for example; were not supposed to show or
express their love, not even after the loss of their beloveds. However they had an
emotional script of their own. Willingness or reluctance to getting married for
example; was implicitly expressed with the term “rıza” which was an all-catch
phrase for emotions. The public baths on the other hand, served as emotional
refugees especially for women to freely express their emotions. It has been
showed that, Ottoman husbands and wives in their familial relations within this
emotional community pursued not only their physical or material but also their
emotional well beings which was evidenced in the judicial court records with the
use of phrases like hüsn-i zindegani and musafat.
311
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APPENDICES
APPENDIX I.
Yahya Koç, “149 No’lu Mühimme Defteri (1155-1156/1742-1743) İncelemeÇeviriyazı-
Dizini” (Unpublished Master’s thesis, İstanbul: İstanbul Üniversitesi,
2011), 268-269.
Van beylerbeyisi Üçüncü-zâde Ömer -dâme ikbâluhû-ya hüküm ki, Hakkari
hâkimi İbrahim -zîde uluvvuhû-nun hakikat-i sû-ı hâlini müş’ir mukaddemâ vârid
olan arz ve mehâzırın mefhûmlarına binâ’en azl ve tenkîliyle (..?) hükûmet-i
mezbûra tevcîhi evâmir-i şerîfesi egerçi ısdâr olunup, lâkin bu hılâlde ol
serhadlerin ihtilâl-i intizâmını mûceb hareketden dahi mücânebet lâzime-i
mehâmm ve ihtiyât olmak hasebiyle mîremrinde
ba‘zı tekellüf ve su‘ûbet rû-nümâ olur ise vakt-i âhara ta‘lîk ile evâmir-i
şerîfe gelmesi ihfâ olunmak bâbında keyfiyet sadr-ı azam ka’imesiyle sen ki mîr-i
mîrân-ı mûmâ-ileyhsin, sana ta‘lîm ve inhâ olunmuşidi. Ancak mukaddemâ
mulâhaza ve tefkîr olunduğu üzre husûs- -i sûret
bulmayup, tarafından mukatele ve muhârebeye mü’eddî olmağla, ber-minvâl-i
muharrer sana tahrîr ve tefhîm olunduğu vechile işini bu mertebeye getürmeyüp
ketm-i mâdde ve keyfiyet birle vakt-i âhara ta‘lîk ve te’hîri lâzıme-i hâlden iken
noksân-ı avdet-i hiddetinden nâşî sen dahi mîrtesyîr
ile güyâ temşiyet-i maslahata mübâderet eylediğini bu def‘a ol taraflardan
331
vürûd eden mevsûkun-bihim kimesneler ihtiyâr eylemişlerdir. Şmdi işin bu
dereceye reşîd olması bir dürlü vakt ü hâle münâsib olmadığından mâ-adâ
ma‘âzallâhi te‘âlâ bâ‘is-i şamata-i iğrâ ve mûcib- i neş’et-i şeml-i ârâ olacak bir
emr-i nâ-becâ olmağla, keyfiyyetin bu vechile vukû‘ına aslâ ve kat‘â rızâ-yı
hümâyûnum olmayup, nâriye-i mücâdele ve muhâsamanın vech-i suhûlet ile itfâsı
alâ eyyi-hâl matlûb olduğuna binâ’en, hâkim-i mûmâ-ileyh yine Hakkari
hükûmetini îfâ ve tevcîh ve beyninizde ârız olan münâkaşa ve mu’âraza
derûnlarınızdan külliyen tard ve teb‘îd ve ıslâh-ı zâtü'l-beyn ile tarafeyni taltîf ve
te’mîn olunmak üzre bi'l-iktizâ nevâziş ve istîmâleti hâvî başka emr-i şerîfin îfâsı
emr-i şerîfi ısdâr ve irsâl olunmuşdur. İşbu emr-i şerîfim ( ) ile vusûlünde o
havâlîlerin bu esnâda âsâyiş ve emniyetini ne mertebe matlûb ve mültezim idüğü
takdîrden müstağnî olmağla, zinhâr ve zinhâr bâ‘is-i nizâ‘ ve cidâl ve mü’eddî-i
hurûb ve kıtâl olacak harekâtdan keff-i yed ve mübâşeret olunmuş ise dahi bieyyi-
hâl men‘ ve sedd edüp, keyfiyyet-i vâkı‘ayı pes-mânend-i sâhâ-i imhâl ve
îbkası emrini ve nevâziş-nâme-i mülûkânem tarafına irsâl ve miyâneden ârızâ-i
bürûdet ve adâvete endâhte-i (..?) imhâl ederek, ke'l-evvel hâkimi mûmâ-ileyh ile
tarz-i ülfet ve muhabbet ve celb-i kulûb ve hâtırına mübâderet ve istîmâlet
vererek, idhâl-i dâ’ire-i itâ‘at-i mülâyemet ve müsteclibün aleyh ve mukadderi
olan ittihâd-ı derûn kaidesini ne vechile olur ise olsun hâllen ve ka’ilen vücûda
getürmeğe bezl-i makderet ve'l- hâsıl i‘mâl-i tedâbir-i hasene ile mâdde-i
mübâlâtın su‘ûbet ve germîyete tahvîline nisâr-ı nakdîne-i gayret ve azîmet
eyleyüp, iktizâ-yı nefsâniyet ve dâ‘iye-i şiddet ve hiddet hasebiyle ıyâzen billâhi
te‘âlâ nâ-mülâyim nesne hudûsundan ve hılâf-ı emr-i şerîf vaz‘ ve hareketden
gayetü'l- -ı âlî-şânım sâdır
332
olmuşdur, buyurdum ki,.........Fî evâhır-ı Câ [Cemâziye'l-evvel] sene [1]155
333
APPENDIX II.
10 Zilhicce 1046 / 5 Mayıs 1637
Umera ve elviye-i mezburede olan kadılara ve Altı Bölük Kethüda Yerlerine ve
Yeniçeri Serdarlarına ve sair İş Erlerine hüküm ki;
Merasim-i adl ü dad ve levazım-ı nizam-ı umur-ı bilad ve terfih-i kulub-ı reaya ve
ecnad iktiza-ı murad-ı fuad olub, her bar muhfi ve aşikar etraf ve cevanibe
ademler gönderib, reaya ahvaline takayyüd-ı hümayünüm mukarrer olub ve
bundan akdem vezir-i azam-ı sabık Mehmed Paşa zamanında reayaya zulm ve
teaddiye müteallik nice tekalif teklif olunmağla, enva-i cevr ve teaddi ve zulm ve
te’ezzi olunduğu semm-i hümayunuma ilka olunmağın tevaif-i reaya ki vedayi-i
halik- kibriyadır haklarında mezid refet ve şefkat ve vufur-ı mekremet ve
merhametim zuhura getürdüb, minbad ol makule zulm ve bid’at tekalif
olunmayub, her biri eyyam-ı devlet-i hümayun ve hengam-ı hilafet-i saadetmakrunumda
müreffeh ve muntazamü’l-ahval olmaları içün tenbih-i hümayunum
ve ferman-ı saadet-makrunum olduğundan gayri bi’l-fiil vezir-i azam ve serdar-ı
ekremim olub şark seferine âzim olan düstur-ı ekrem müşir-i efham nizamü’l-alem
müdebbir-i umurü’l-cumhur bi-fikri’s-sakıb mütemmimu mehami’l-enam bi’rreyi’s-
saib mümehhidu bünyani’d-devleti ve’l-ikbal müşeyyidu erkani’l-iz ve’liclal
el-mahfufu bi-sunuf-ı avatıfi’l- meliki’l- a’la vezir-i azam ve serdar-ı ekrem
Bayram Paşa –ademallahu teala iclalihu ve yesseru bi’l-hayr amalihu- nun
cibilliyet-i zat-ı merhamet-nihad ve esniyye-i murad-ı fuadi’l halisi’l-itikadında
asar-ı merhamet ve ref’et mevzu’ ve izhar-ı adl ve atıfet mevdu’ olub, ecnad-ı
zafer-itikadım ile cihad-ı zafer-itiyada müteveccih ve âzim oldukda reayaya mahz334
ı merhamet ve şefkat içün sürsat-ı zahire salmayub, narh-ı ruzi üzere bulunan
yerde zadu zadesin akçesiyle alub, rıza-ı yümm iktiza-i padişahaneme muvafık
reayaya şefkat ve fukara ve zuefaya merhamet ile hareket eyleyub, bundan sonra
reaya taifesine mezalim ve bid’aiyyete müteallik nesne teklif olunmayub, her biri
eyyam-ı devlet ve a’vam-ı saltanatımda asude-hal ve müreffehü’l-bal olmaları
babında mufassal ve meşruh ferman-ı şerif-i kadr-i tuvanam sadır olmuşdur.
Buyurdum ki vusul buldukda bu babda sadır olan ferman-ı saadetim mucebince
amel ve bu ferman-ı kadr-ı tuvanımı sicillatta kayıd ittirdükden sonra mecma-ı
nas olan mahallerde ve cemaat-pazar yerlerinde her birine nida ve izan ve tefhim
ve ilan ittüresin ki bundan evvel olan mezalim ve bid’aiyetten hilaf-ı şer ve kanun
reayaya bir nesne teklif olunmayub ve hayf ve teaddi ittürmeyüb, her biri eyyam-ı
devlet hümayunumda asude-hal ve müreffehü’l-bal kar ve kisblerinde olalar ve
dahi mezalim ve bid’atten bir ferd-i reaya ve berayaya iştigal üzere ve
ittirmeyesün ve emr-i şerifim ile varan avarız ve harac kullarına muhkem tenbih
ve te’kid eyleyesin ki cem’ eyleüğü.... ve avarızları kanun ve defter mucebince
alub gulamiye-i hidmet ziyadedir deyu ol vechle akçelerin almayalar ve
aldırmayasuz ve bi’l-cümle tevaif-i reaya ki vedayi’-i halikü’l- berayadır
cümlesine şefkat ve merhamet olunmak ve hallerine istikrar ve intizam virilmek
aksa-ı murad-ı hümayunumdur. Ana göre her birine agah idüb, her biriniz
takayyud ve ihtimam eyleyüb, eyyam-ı devlet-i adalet-makrunumda tekalifleri
tahfif ve kalblerin tatyib ve taltif eyleyesüz müşarünileyh serdar-ı zafer-şiar
tarafından hufyeten ademler gönderilmiş idi şöyle ki bundan sonra reayaya ve
fukaraya ümeradan ve gayriden cevr ve teaddi ve zulm ve te’ezzi olunduğu istima’
oluna her ahval sizden bilinüb, ve bir vechle özrünüz makbul ve cevabınız mesmu’
335
olmayub eşedd-i hakaret ile haklarınızdan gelinmek mukarrerdir ve ana göre
basiret ve intibah üzere olasız ve men’le memnu’ olmayan ehl-i fesad ve zalemeyi
ism ve resimleriyle yazub, müşarünileyh vezir-i azam ve serdar-ı ekrem Bayram
Paşa –ademallahu teala iclalehuya arz ve ilam eyleyesüz ki zalim ve ehl-i fesad
olanlara asla aman ve zaman virmeyüb, kayd ve bend ile ordu-ı hümayunume
götürüb, bir vechle haklarından geleler ki sairlere muceb-i ibret ve nicelere
sebeb-i nasihat ola şöyle bileler.
336
APPENDIX III.
Ankara JCR: 135/ case no 280.
Hala Ankara sancağ mutasarrıfı izzetlü, ref’etlü Paşa hazretleri –dame ikbalehuve
şerai-şiar sancak-ı mezbure kazalarında vaki’ kudât ve nüvvâb efendiler –zide
fazlihum- ve mefahirü’l-emasil ve’l-akran voyvodalar ve kethüda yerleri ve
yeniçeri serdarları ve a’yan-ı vilayet ve iş erleri –zide kadrihum” inha olunur ki,
memalik-i mahruse-i bilâd-ı İslamiyye’de vaki’ sükkân-ı memleket ve kuttan-ı
vilayet ki vedayi’-i Haliki’l-beraya olan fukara-i raiyyet ve mürûr ve ubûr iden
ebna-i sebîlin kutta’-i tarik ve haramzâdeden himaye ve siyanetde ve herkes kar u
kisblerine istigâl ile fariza-i zimmet-i enam olan dua’-ı devlet-i hazreti padişâhiye
müdâvemet ve mevaziyyet ve cümlenin emn ü asayiş ile müstedîm olmaları vulât
ve hükkâm üzerlerine lazime-i zimmet olub liva-i mezburda geşt ü güzâr ve nvâ-i
fesâd ve şekavete içtirâ ve fukaranın rahatları meslûbuna bâdi ve muhtel-i nizâm-ı
bilâd olan muharriklerin te’dib ve gûşmalleriyle tathir-i memleket zımnında
Anadolu valilerinin senede bir kaç defa bayrakları geşt ü güzâr ve birer bahane
ile cem’-i mebaliğ ve yem ve yiyecek ve konakcı ve bayrak akçeleri namıyla
fukaraya teaddileri cümlenin ma’lumu olub ve kazalarınızda zuhur iden haşeratı
cümle ittifakı ile ahz ve elegetirilmesine dikkat eylemeniz içün bundan akdem
buyruldumuz ile tenbih olunmuşken mütenebbih olmayıb, eslâfımız müsillü
bayraklarımız ile külliyetli mübaşir ile teftîş olunmak lazım gelse ve bir pâre ve
bir akçe alınmasa dahi yine yem ve yiyecek içün bu kadar mesarifiniz zuhur
337
ideceği malumumuz olduğundan fukarayı siyanete hafifü’l-müenne mübaşir ta’yin
ve irsal kılınmağla ol makule erâzil ve eşkiya her gangınızın taht-ı kaza ve
hükümetlerinde bulunur ise marifet-i şer’ ve zâbitân ve ta’yin olunan mübaşir
marifetiyle ahz ve suret-i sicillatla mübaşir-i mümaileyhe teslîme ve ibreten li’lsâirîn
te’dib ve guşmâl içün ihzar idüb ve bundan maada ber mutad-ı kadim
tarafımıza ait olan demm öşrü ve aidât-ı sairemizi mübaşir-i mümaileyhe telîm
eylemeniz içün teftîş-i mutazammın divan-ı Anadolu’dan işbu buyuruldu tahrir ve
ısdar kılınıb ve kıdvetü’l-emacid ve’l-a’yan mühürdarımız izetlü Hüseyin Ağa -
zide mecdihu- ile irsal olunmuştur. inşallahü taala vusulünde vech-i meşruh üzere
amel ve hareket ve sen ki bu hususa ve teftişe memur mübaşir-i mümaileyhsin
fukara-ı ibâd ve ebnâ-yı sebîlin adem-i emniyetleriyle bais ve bâdi olan yaramaz
ve eşkıyayı teftîş ve ‘alâ eyyi hâlin ahz ve suret-i sicillatlarıyla ihzar idüb ve ol
makule haramzade ve eşkiya güruhundan olanları zâbitân ve a‘yan taraflarından
ketm ve ihtifâ veyahud firar ittirilmek ihtimalleri olur ise haklarından gelinmek
içün isim ve resimleriyle tarafımıza i’lam idüb ber mutad-ı kadîm demm öşrü ve
sair tarafımıza olan aidatı ahz ve kabz idüb hilaf-ı şer’ ve mugayir-i kanun
hareketten hazer ve mücanebet idüb mucib-i buyruldu ile amil olasız deyü.......fi
gurre-i muharrem 1165
bâ mühr-i vezir-i muhterem Yahya Paşa
vali-i Anadolu haliyâ
338
APPENDIX IV.
Ankara JCR: 135/ case no 262
Kıdvetü’n-nüvvabbi’l-müteşerri’în Ankara kazası naibi mevlana ....... –zide
ilmihu- tevkii refii hümayun vasıl olıcak malum ola ki; sen ki mevlana-i
mümaileyh Mehmed Aziz –zide ilmihu-sun südde-i saadetime mektub gönderib
Ankara kasabası ahalisi kasaba-i mezbure mahkemesinde meclis-i şer’de liva-i
mezbur mutasarrıflarına mukaddema imdad-ı hazeriye tertib ve tayin olundukda
vali ve sancak mutasarrıfları seferler vukuunda ferman olunan imdad-ı seferiyye
ve sefersiz vakitlerde tayin olunan hazeriyyelerin şurutu mucebince aldıklarından
sonra devr namı ve kaftan baha ve zahire ve nal baha ve öşr-i diyet ve sair
bahane ve illet ile bir akçe ve bir habbe almayıb ve mücerred tecrîm kasdıyla
fukara üzerine müsfedde ile bölük ve mübaşir göndermeyib her halde tanzim-i
umur-ı memleket ve terfih-i ahval-i raiyyete ihtimam eylemeleri içün sâdır olan
evamir-i aliyyemde ve elli üç senesi tarihiyle müverrah hatt-ı hümayun-ı şevketmakrunumla
mu’anven emr-i şerifimde dahi tasrîh ve liva-i mezbur mutasarrıfları
ita’at ve inkıyad ve fukara-i raiyyete taarruzları olmayub, cümlesi asude-hal
üzereler iken bir kaç seneden berü liva-i mezbur mutasarrıfları hilaf-ı hatt-ı
hümayun ve mugayir-i şurût vaz’ ve hareket ve müsvedde ile fukara üzerine bölük
gönderib bi-gayrı-hakk tecrîm ve zahire baha namıyla tacîz ve tekdîr ve celb-i
mâle mübaderetden hâli olmayıb ahvalleri diger-gûn olmağla şurût mucebince
amel ve hareket ve mugayir-i şurût devr namı ve zahire baha mütalebeleri men’
ve ref’leri içün emr-i şerîfim sudûrunu istirham eylediklerin sen ki mevlana-i
339
mümaileyhsin arz ve divan-ı hümayûnumda mahfûz hazeriyyet tertîbi defterlerine
ve ahkam kuyudlarına müracaat olundukda Ankara sancağında vaki kazalardan
liva-i mezbur mutasarrıfları içün senede üç taksit ile topdan 4750 guruş imdad-ı
hazeriyye tesfiye kılındığı tertib defterlerinde ve vüzera-i i’zâm ve mirmiran-ı
kirâm ve ümerâ ve mütesellim havza-i hükûmetlerinde olan ahali-i memleket ve
zîr-i destan-ı raiyyetden mukaddema ref’ olunan devr namı ve kaftan baha ve
zahire baha ve öşr-i diyet ve sair illet ve bahane ile takdîr ve ta’yin olunan
hazeriyyelerinden ziyâde bir akçe ve bir habbe almayub ve müsvedde ile
üzerlerine bölük göndermeyüb hilaf-ı şer’-i şerîf ve mugayir-i kanun-ı münîf ve
bilâ-emr tecrîm kasdına fukara tekdîr ve rencîde olunmamaları içün tenbîh-i
ekîddi hâvi hatt-ı hümayun-ı adalet-makrunum ile muanven evamir-i şerife
verildiği divan-ı hümayunumdan ihrâc olunmağla bu suretde ahali-i kaza-i
mezburdan sancak mutasarrıflarına sefersiz vakitlerde tayin olunan hazeriyye
müfredat üzere olmayıb topdan tayin olunmağla kaza-i mezbur ahalisi
hazeriyyenin ibtidâ-i vaz’ında liva-i mezbur mutasarrıflarına tesfiye kılınan
hazeriyyeden cümle marifeti ve marifet-i şer’le hadd-i i’tidâl üzere hisselerine
isabet iden her ne ise sicilden ba’de’l-ihrâc ahali-i kaza-i mezbure şurût
mucebince vakt ve zamani ile eda eylediklerinden sonra hilaf-ı şurût ve mugayir-i
hatt-ı hümayûn vucûh-ı mezalim ve teaddiyat-ı beyhude ile fukara-i raiyyet
rencide ve remide olunmayub gereği gibi himayet ve siyânet olunmaları içün
hazeriyye şurûtu ve mukaddema verilen emr-i şerifim mucebince müceddeden
emr-i alişanım suduru içün iftiharü’l-emacid ve’l-ekarim bi’l-fiil reisü’l-küttâbım
olan Abdullah Naili –dame mecdihu- i’lam itmeğin i’lamı mucebince amel
olunmak babında emr-i alişanım sâdır olmuştur; buyurdum ki, hükm-i şerifim
340
vusûl buldukda bu bâbda sâdır olan emrim üzere amel dahi hususu-ı mezbura
temâm mukayyed olub göresiz arz olunduğu üzere ise eyyâm-ı saadetimde reaya
fukarasına ve bir ferde ol vechile ve sair bahane ile zulm ve teaddi olunduğuna
kat’a rıza-i şerifim yokdur. kaza-i mezbur ahalisi liva-i mezbur mutasarrıflarına
sefersiz vakitklerde tayin olunan ol mikdar guruş hazeriyyeden cümle marifeti ve
marifet-i şer’le hadd-i i’tidâl üzere hisselerine isâbet ideni şurûtu mucebince vakt
ve zemanıyle eda eylediklerinden sonra hilaf-ı şurût ve mugayir-i hatt-ı hümâyûn
ol vechile sair vücûh-ı mezâlim ve teaddiyât-ı beyhude ile fukara-i raiyyeti
rencide ve remide ittirmeyüb gereği gibi himayet ve siyanet eyleyüb mazmun-ı
emr-i şerifimle âmil olasın şöyle bilesin alamet-i şerife itimad kılasın tahriren fi
evasıt-ı zilkâde sene erbaa ve sittin ve mie ve elf (1164)
341
APPENDIX V.
Ankara JCR: 135/ case no 248
Düsturun-ı mükerremun müşirun-i mufahhamun nizamü’l-alem medebbiru
umuri’l-cumhur bi’l fikri’s-sakıb mütemmimu mehamü’l-enam bi’r-reyi’s-saib
mümehhidu bünyani’d-devleti ve’l-ikbal müşeyyidu erkani’s-saadeti ve’l-iclal el
mahfufunu bi-sunuf-ı avatifi’l meliki’l- ‘ala Anadolu valisi vezirim ..... Paşa ve
Erzurum valisi vezirim .... Paşa ve diğer Diyarbekir valisi vezirim .....Paşa ve
Karaman valisi vezirim .....Paşa ve Sivas valisi vezirim ..... Paşa -ademallahu
teala iclalehum- ve emirü’l-ümerai’l-kiram kebirü’l-küberai’l-fiham zu’l-kadr
ve’l-ihtiram sahibü’l-iz ve’l-ihtişam el-muhtasu bi-mezidi’l-inayeti’l-meliki’l-‘ala
Maraş Beylerbeyisi .... Paşa -damet mealihu- ve akdau kudati’l-müslimin evlau
vulati’l-muvahhidin meadini’l- fezail ve’l yakin rafiu alamı’ş-şerife ve’d-din varis
u ulumi’l-enbiya ve’l-mürselin el-muhtassin-i bi-mezidi inayeti’l meliki’l-muin
Amid ve Erzurum kadıları –zidet fezailihuma- ve mefahirü’l-kudat ve’l-hükkam
meadini’l- fezail ve’l-kelam Sivas ve Adana kadıları ve Kütahya ve Konya ve
Maraş naibleri ve zikr olunan eyaletlerden Kuds-i Şerif’e varub gelince yol
üzerinde vaki’ sair kudat ve nüvvab –zidet fazlium- ve mefahirü’l-emasil ve’lakran
mütesellimler ve yeniçeri serdarları ve kethüda yerleri ve Adana ve şark
pare ağası ve Ayntab kaymakamı ve sair zabitan ve a’yan-ı vilayet ve iş erleri –
zidet kadrihum- tevki-i refi-i hümayun vasıl olıcak ma’lum ola ki;
342
Kuds-i Şerif’de vaki’ merhum ve mahfirunleh Haseki Sultan –tabe serahuma-‘nın
kaim-i makam-ı mütevellisi ve Yafa gümrüğü emini kıdetü’l-emasil ve’l-akran
Abdullah –zide kadrihu- südde-i saadetime mühürlü arz-ı hal gönderib, vakf-ı
mezburun iradı beher sene etraf ve eknafdan Kuds-ı Şerif’de vaki’ Kamame
ziyaretine gelen Rum ve Ermeni taifelerinden hasıl olub, tertib kılınan erbab-ı
vezaifin vazifeleri irad-ı mezkurdan virigeldiğine binaen Sivas ve Erzurum ve
Diyarbekir ve Anadolu ve Karaman ve Adana ve Maraş eyaletlerinde vaki’ elviye
ve kazalardan Lazkiye ve İskenderun ve Antakya ve sair mahallerden Kuds-ı
Şerife gidib gelen Rum ve Ermeni taifesi Adana’dan ve mahall-i mezbureden
mürur ve ubur ve gidişde ve gelişde kasabat ve kurada ve derbend ve geçitlerde
esna-i rahda bir ferd mesfurları rencide ve remide idegelmiş değil iken mahall-i
mezburede olan ehl-i örf taifesi ve sairleri siz Kuds-i Şerif’e gidersiz, bize virgü
ve gufr namıyla akçe virin deyü nice müddet tevkif ve yollarından alıkoyub külli
akçelerin ahz ve cevr ve teaddi eylediklerinden gayrı iskele eminleri daha sefine
kapudanları ile yek-dil ve matlubları olan sefinelere süvar olmağa mümanaat ve
ziyade navl ile diledikleri aher sefineye koyub bu vechile cevr ve teaddileri
hadden ziyade olmağla emin ve salim varıb gelib himayet ve siyanet olmaları içün
müceddeden emr-i şerifim sudurunu istidâ ve Divan-ı Hümayunumda mahfuz
kuyud-ı ahkama müracaat olundukda beher sene berren Kuds-ı Şerif’e gidib gelen
ziyaretci Ermeni taifesinin esna-i rahda mürur ve uburlarına mümanaat
olunmayıb zulm ve teaddiyatdan ve celb-i mal’den istihlas olunmaları içün (1)140
senesi evasıt-ı rebiü’l-ahirinde ber vech-i meşruh emr-i şerifim virildiği mestur ve
mukayyed bulunmağın mukaddema sadır olan emr-i şerifim mucebince amel
olunmak (babında) ferman-ı alişanım sadır olmuşdur, buyurdum ki, ........ vusul
343
buldukda bu babda mukaddema ve hala sadır olan evamir-i şerifem mucebince
amel ve dahi siz ki vüzera-i müşar ve sair mümaileyhimsiz beher sene ziyaretci
namıyle Kuds-ı şerife azimet iden Rum ve Ermeni taifesi havza-i hükmetinizde
zihab ve iyablarında (gidiş gelişlerinde) ber vech-i muharrer mezalim ve
teaddiyat ile bir dürlü rencide ve remide olunmayub ve ahere dahi ittirmeyüb
emnen ve salimen imrarları ile himayet ve siyanetlerine cümleniz say’ ve dikkat ve
mazmun-ı şerifimin hilafına harekete bir ferde cevaz ve ruhsat göstermekden ve
hilaf-ı şer ve kanun kendülerine ve emvallerine taarruz ve teaddiden ziyade hazer
ve mücanebet eyleyesiz. şöyle bilesiz, alamet-i şerife itimad kılasız. tahriren fi
evail-i şabani’l-muazzam sene erba’ ve sittin ve mie ve elf.
344
APPENDIX VI.
85 Numaralı Mühimme Defteri (1040-1041(1042)/ 1630-1631(1632), (Ankara:
Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü, 2002), 32-33.
“Meğri nâyibi ile Döğer nâyibi Südde-i Sa‘âdetüm'e mektûb gönderüp; "Meğri ve
Döğer ve Pırnaz ve Üzümlü ve Eşen ve Ağırtas kazâları Menteşe sancağıbeği
oturduğı yirler olup Muğla kasabası dört günluk mesâfe olup Hamîd ve Teke
sancaklarınun mâbeyninde vâkı‘ olmağla dâyimâ ehl-i fesâd zuhûr idüp Menteşe
sancağıbeği veyâhûd kethudâsı üzerlerine vardukda firâr idüp ba‘dehû yirlerine
gelüp üç sancağun mâbeyninde bir mahall olmağla haklarından gelinmek mümkin
olmayup fesâdları günden güne izdiyâd bulmağın müderrisînden ve kuzâtdan ve
a‘yân-ı vilâyetden nice kimesneleri katl ve emvâl ü erzâkın gâret idüp zikrolunan
mahallerde bölük-bölük otuzar-kırkar nefer eşkıyâ tahassun idüp re‘âyâ vü
berâyâ zulmü te‘addîlerinden perîşânu perâkende olup ol sebebden emr-i
şerîfümle vâkı‘ olan umûr-ı mühimme görilmeyüp mâdâm ki, bir müstekîm
kimesne ol mahalleri hıfz u hırâset idüp mezkûrûn eşkıyâyı elegetürüp
haklarından gelmeyince re‘âyâ vü berâyâ terk-i diyâr u celâ-yı vatan itmeleri
mukarrer olup ve sen ümerânun ihtiyârı ve a‘yân-ı vilâyet ef‘âl ü akvâlünden rızâ
vü şükrân üzre olduklarından mâ‘adâ ol diyârlarda sâkin ve eşkıyâ-i mezbûrûnı
elegetürmekde vukûfun olup zikrolunan mahalleri hıfzu hırâset eylemen bâbında
a‘yân-ı vilâyet recâ eyledüklerin" arzeyledükleri ecilden, zikrolunan mahalleri
sen hıfz u hırâset eylemen bâbında fermân-ı âlî-şânum sâdır olmışdur. Buyurdum
ki:....”
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