[1] Some historians attribute the origin of the janissaries to Orkhan; at the same time all agree that they were blessed by Hadji Bektash—forgetting that the said sheikh was only contemporary with Mourad, and not Orkhan. [↑]
CHAPTER XI.
SPIRITUAL BRANCH OF THE GOVERNMENT.
Turkey is a country where church and state are most eminently combined. The standard of every measure or act is the Koran; the administration of affairs, both civil and religions, must, therefore, be in conformity with the precepts of that sacred book; but since that book does not provide for all emergencies, and in many instances is not even explicit, those who made the Koran their special study have ever been consulted, and all matters referred to them for examination and sanction.
The entire body of these ecclesiastics are denominated the Ulema, or learned (in the Koran), and their expositions are termed Fetvas. These Fetvas constitute, as it were, the statutes of the state.
The sanction of these doctors in every measure being essential, each civil tribunal is supplied with one of their number, in order that their acts may be valid. Hence, even the Grand-Vezir, who only represents the sultan in temporal matters, is associated with the chief of the Ulema, viz., the Sheikh-ul-Islam, who, on his part, personifies his majesty in spiritual affairs. Bearing the title of Fetvayi-Pena, or the Grand Expositor, his approval is necessary even to the measures of the great viceroy himself, for no law can be promulgated without his sanction.
Considering then the importance attached to the study of the Koran, and the benefit derived from a full knowledge of its spirit and contents, which constitute the basis of the law and government, many have been induced to adopt it as a profession.
There are no less than forty thousand of these Ulema in Constantinople.
These men are of very low origin, and are generally the sons of poor peasants. They come to Constantinople and enlist themselves as Softas, or students of divinity or law, which are synonymous terms, in one of the principal mosques, where they go through a regular course of study.