Annals of the Turkish Empire, from 1591 to 1659

by Mustafa Naima

Learned Men contemporary with Sultán Murád Khán.

Hamid Effendí was mufti when Murád ascended the throne, and died three years afterwards. Khoja Saadín Effendí was tutor to the emperor when he resided in his Sanjak. After his elevation to the throne, Saadín Effendí became his counsellor in what concerned the well-being of the state and in the art of government. Cazi Zádeh Effendí was a mufti who wrote a comment on the law, and was a guide to salvation. Malúl Zádeh Effendí was military judge in Romeili and succeeded Cazi Zádeh as mufti. In consequence of having failed to show some acts of politeness to the emperor’s adviser and spiritual counsellor, Khoja Hasan Ján Zádeh Saadín, and for some mistakes which he had committed, he was represented to the emperor, and deposed. He died in 992. Tchoí Zádeh Effendí was an interpreter of the law, and his decrees were esteemed more excellent than any of those of his contemporaries. He succeeded Malúl Zádeh as the mufti. He was a remover of oppression and injustice. He died in 995. His son, Shúkhjí Effendí succeeded him in the high priesthood, but was afterwards deposed. Bostán Zádeh Effendí is well known. Zekeriáh Effendí is the most honourable of all the interpreters of the law. On going into the imperial palace one day to receive a robe of honour from his majesty Sultán Murád Khán, he was seized with fainting fits, in one of which he died, 1001. Abdur-rahmán was contemporary with Sultán Soleimán and Sultán Selím, and was one of the military judges of those times in which they lived. He died in Rabia II. 983. Násir Zádeh Effendí died suddenly in 984, whilst Cazi of Constantinople. Ahkí Zádeh Effendí retired from his jurisdiction in Anatolia with a salary of 150 akchas. He died in 989. Bokhárí Zádeh Effendí was deposed from his jurisdiction in Tripoli, in Syria, and died in 986. Mehshi Sinán Effendí retired with a salary of 200 akchas from his office, as military judge, in Anatolia, and died in 982. Neshánjí Zádeh Effendí was deposed from his jurisdiction in Medina. Hemshíreh Zádeh Effendí died when he was lecturer in Sultán Selím’s academy, i.e. in 989. Sinán Zádeh Effendí died in 987. Kamí Ahmed Effendí died in the same year. Mualim Zádeh Mahmúd Effendí was raised from the academy of Sœhen to the office of recorder or chancellor. He was afterwards deposed, and died in 987, Bábá Effendí was tutor to Rustem Páshá. He was a pious and religious man. Sárí Kiris Zádeh Effendí died when he was Cazi of Haleb, in 987. Abdul Vafá Effendí was the son of Abú Saoúd. Ezumí Effendí was tutor to one of the royal princes. He died in 999. Hazár Beg Chelebí died in the academy attached to the convent of Brúsa. Khosrú Zádeh Mustafa Effendí was a man of various attainments, and an orthodox guide in religion. In 998 he was Cazi of Tripoli in Syria, where he caught a severe cold. He died at Aksheher, on his way to Turkey, in 1000. He was a well-informed, gentle, and humane man. He made a collection of all the vulgar errors, and translated the History of Kútb Mekí, and left several fine poems in Turkish. Vankúli Mohammed Effendí was a man of the most consummate skill and learning. From the academy of Sœhen he was raised to be Cazi of Magnesia. He held the same office, successively, in Thessalonia, in Kutahiah, and in Anatolia, and was afterwards raised to the chief Caziship in Medina. He retired from office with a salary of eighty akchés, and died in the latter city, in 1000. To his extensive information he added that of undaunted firmness, and was a perfect linguist. He wrote several pious epistles and translated the Seháh Júherí, which was deposited in the mosque of Sultán Mohammed Khán. He also translated the Kimiái Sa’ádet. Abdul Káder Effendí, son of Emír Gísúdárí, and known by the name of Yálánjek Effendí, was judge of Kutahiah, and afterwards held the same office in Tripoli. It was not with his will that he was restrained from denouncing the great men of his day; for which, in fact, he was at last banished the city. He was a man of great violence and excessive virulence. It is said in the Zeíli Shukáïk, that his composition is weak, and his sentiments incorrect. He was some time Cazi of Yení Sheher, but was degraded, and died in 1000. Mevlana Mohammed Aydin of Akhisar was some time Cazi in Egypt, and was afterwards chief-priest in Medina. He was a clever, excellent, and acute man. His poems were extant in the year 1003. There is also a translated compendium of his writings. He died in the year 1000, in Medina. Ismáíl Effendí was a complete separatist, and subsisted by teaching. He resembled a dervish: but having been a well-informed man, he wrote a commentary or paraphrase on the Mesnevi, the Diván of Háfiz, the Gulistán, and the Bostán, in Turkish. He died in 1000. Sevdí Effendí was a native of Bosnia. He was a person of great learning. After having travelled the whole path of literature, he was content to live on a small salary for teaching the domestics in the palace of Ibrahím Páshá. He died in the last-mentioned year. His explanations of the Mesnevi, and of the Diván of Háfiz, and his translations and explanations of the Káfi, the Sháfi, and the Gulistán, are still extant. Abd-ur-rahím Chelebí Kanáli Zádeh, was the younger brother of Alí Effendí. He too was a man of parts. He died in 1000. Mulla Abdul Kerím, a native of Magnesia, was Imám to the Sultán. He was studying in the academy of Magnesia when Sultán Murád Khán, son of Sultán Selím Khán, went to that quarter. The Imám of Magnesia having been removed by death at the time of the sultán’s visit, this man was appointed to succeed him in the office of Imám. After Murád ascended the throne of the Ottomans, he was created military judge. His learning and virtues, as well as his condescension to the poor and to strangers, are much celebrated. The following is one instance of his ingenuity and freedom. The Jews, both priests and laity, in contradistinction to all other people, would not wear orange-coloured turbans, and therefore could not be distinguished in the twilight of the morning and evening from others. On this account Mulla Abdul Kerím caused them to be obliged to wear scarlet bonnets. He was the means also of causing them to remove their dead in their burying-ground, near the Musselman streets in Kásim Páshá, to some other place; and, in one night, caused a mosque to be erected on the spot.

He was in the habit of making poor wretched apes to perform astonishing feats, alleging they were only made to be instruments of sport; and was thus the cause of many a poor innocent creature’s death. He died in 1002.

Reverend Doctors contemporary with Murád Khán.

Sheikh Yolluk Mohammed Chelebí was preacher in the mosque of Sultán Mohammed, and taught theology. Sheikh Mohammed Effendí was an illustrious preacher in St. Sophia, and, in fact, a brave fearless man. He was the cause of serious difficulties to Sheikh Emír Effendí, who was preacher in the Soleimáníyeh. Sheikh Khezr Effendí was the son of a chief of a cohort of Janissaries, and a pious chaste preacher and a good speaker. Sheikh Tátár Ibrahím Effendí was a practical man and a historian: he explained and taught extempore in the mosque of Sultán Mohammed. Sheikh Shabán Effendí was a painter. He perfected himself in Emír Bokhárí’s convent, and chose the life of a Dervísh. His imperial majesty was in the habit of paying him visits. Sheikh Kúrd Effendí was a very able expositor. Sheikh Hasan Effendí officiated in the mosque of Khoja Mustafa Páshá. Sheikh Mohammed Effendí, after the death of Bábá Effendí, by the recommendation of Siná Allah, military judge of Romeili, was appointed to the mosque of Sultán Mohammed, by Ferhád Páshá. He captivated, by his lofty eloquence, the heart and the affections of the great, and secured the respect of the emperor’s tutor and his family. These things caused his patron, Siná Allah, to regret his having recommended him. Jaghala Zádeh and other vezírs were assiduous in attending the assemblies on Thursdays and Fridays to hear his orations. In short, so great was his fame, that even the emperor and the great men of the state were included in the number of his hearers, which increased every day. The wife of Rustem Páshá built for him a mosque and a small meeting-house, when of course he ceased preaching any more in Sultán Mohammed’s mosque. Sheikh Abú-vafá was employed by the Khalifs in many cities for the purpose of extending religion. He was in great favour with the late lamented emperor Murád-khán when he was in Magnesia. In consequence of his great fame he was called from that city, after Murád’s inauguration, to Constantinople, put in possession of a splendid mansion, and allowed a suitable salary. He was generally known by the appellation Pádisháh Sheikhí (the emperor’s spiritual guide). He had a great deal in his power, being keeper, as it were, of the emperor’s conscience; and it was, therefore, an easy thing to secure offices of trust and importance for those who found access to him. In a certain sense he was a sort of asylum to the members of the diván. Doubtless those who had posts, and who were deprived of them, found it their interest to wait upon his eminence, and show him the respect due to him. He died in 998.

Facts relative to the new Emperor Sultán Mohammed Khán III.

On the third day after Sultán Mohammed Khán succeeded to the throne of his ancestors, i.e. on the third day after his return to Constantinople and after his father’s interment, the whole of the nobles and dignitaries of state laid aside their mourning, waited on his majesty to congratulate him on his elevation, and to receive tokens of his favour, which were liberally distributed on this occasion. To the Janissary body alone six hundred and sixty thousand pieces of gold were given. The Bostánjí Báshí, Ferhád Aghá, who brought the intelligence to Magnesia, where the young prince then was, of the late emperor’s demise, received in money and presents to the amount of twenty thousand ducats, and was, agreeably to his own request, confirmed in his office. Lála Mohammed Páshá, who accompanied Mohammed Khán from Magnesia, and who was the husband of the new monarch’s nurse, was rewarded with a vezírship. The soldiers who came along with him were registered, and a suitable provision made for them. Some of their ághás were made masters of the royal stables: others of them were made Kapújí Báshís; and others again were made colonels of regiments. As the office of chief judge happened to be vacant at the time we are speaking of, by reason of death, the emperor’s tutor, Sa’d ud-dín Effendí, was appointed to fill it.

On the 27th of the month (Jemadi I.) an official was sent by night to the Seven Towers, who dispatched Ibrahím Páshá, who had been degraded and sent thither from Diárbeker, in the former reign, for having been guilty of tyranny and oppression. The ághás, khojas, and others who had rashly meddled with the affairs of government, were also brought forth. Most of them were sent to Egypt, and a certain allowance was given to each of them by way of salary: the rest were set at liberty.