No disgrace was attached to the condition of being the sultan’s slave; on the contrary, the title of kul was felt to be an honor. Boys longed to bear it.[401] No one who had it desired to be rid of it. It carried marked distinction and secured deference everywhere. Those who revealed by their costume, bearing, or assertion that they were the sultan’s property were treated with the consideration always granted in monarchies to property and persons closely related to the sovereign.
This honor shown to the kullar rested, however, on no mere servile attachment to the sultan and on no mere fear of an Oriental despot. The sultan’s slaves from lowest to highest were set off from his subjects by a distinct set of privileges which in Western minds were associated only with nobility. Besides a general protection over them all by means of careful registration and watchful organization, the sultan bestowed upon all his kullar the personal rights of immunity from taxation,[402] and responsibility to none but their own officials and courts and to him.[403] At the same time he freed them all from anxiety about the necessities of life, and enabled most of them to enjoy its luxuries, by regular pay from his treasury, or, in the case of some high officials, by revenues from ample estates. In return for these privileges they were all sternly required to render him honorable service, usually of a military character. This service was not always of a character that the West considered honorable. The labors of the Ajem-oghlans, and the foot service of the Janissaries and auxiliary corps were not noble in Christian feudalism, which knew no implements but sword and spear and fought from the back of a horse. But these humble slaves of the sultan possessed the same privileges as the highest, and any service was honorable which would make their muscles stronger for fighting and teach them to contribute to the sultan’s military undertakings on sea and land. All members of the sultan’s family were supposed to use their income in strengthening his military forces. Janissaries had pay for themselves alone. Ghurebas had only enough to keep themselves and one horse for each man. Other Spahis of the Porte brought additional horsemen in accordance with their pay. Higher officials were expected to support armed households large in proportion to their revenues. After the model of the sultan’s household, every kul according to his means built up a military establishment which followed him and his master to war.
Immunity from taxation grew naturally out of the slave status. There would be no advantage to the sultan in exacting taxes from persons whom he supported and who were supposed to devote all their energies to his service and use all their income for him. As long as the Ruling Institution was kept firmly to its purpose, pressure was applied, not so that successful kullar would surrender part of their income to the master, but so that they would bring as large a contingent as possible to fight his battles. Suleiman’s grand vizier, Rustem, following a long-disused precedent of the time of Bayezid I,[404]—a reign which had in various ways foreshadowed later evils,—established a tax upon the greater offices of the empire;[405] but, since the sultan did not receive the whole of such charges, the custom amounted to the sale of offices. Not only was such a practice out of harmony with the theory of the Ruling Institution, but it proved very injurious in operation, and was rightly accounted one of the causes of the decay of the empire. The sultan took pay at the granting of an office, and so presently did every official from the men under him; until in time the practice became so systematized that a regular tariff was arranged and brought into use on the occasion of every appointment.[406] Those who thus were put to great expense on coming into office felt the necessity of recouping themselves by whatever means lay in their power.[407] Hence arose not merely oppression of the sultan’s subjects, both Christian and Moslem, but also a partial recovery of losses at the expense of the sultan himself. His servants were forced to devote to personal affairs a large part of the attention that should have been all his, and to curtail by various devices the contingent which they furnished for his military service. When the members of the Ruling Institution began to prey upon each other, the grand vizier, on behalf of the sultan, taking the lead, the solidarity of the institution began to be broken. It may be true that in the West, as Montesquieu said, the honor of a monarchy was not inconsistent with the sale of office;[408] but in the Ottoman Empire it opened the door to fatal corruption.
The members of the Ruling Institution had not always had their own system of justice; they had long been under the jurisdiction of the ordinary Moslem courts. This had led to an essential difficulty; the ordinary courts were part of another institution and were recruited in a wholly different way; their judges had risen through a rival system of education, and were men of letters rather than men of war; the favored kullar of the sultan had, therefore, come to feel averse to obeying them.[409] Accordingly, Bayezid II had ordered that the members of his family should be judged by their own officers.[410] This was a radical change; for it brought into prominence the distinction between the two institutions, and had the further effect of setting off the kullar from all the rest of the population of the empire, and of constituting them almost a separate nationality. Their position became one greatly to be desired. The Moslem-born population came to feel that somewhere there was a great injustice. They whose ancestors had shed their blood for the faith were, in the lands which their fathers had conquered, denied admittance to the class which not only filled most of the offices of army and state but enjoyed high privileges. Sons of the conquered inhabitants, infidel-born, might alone become nobles, paid by the state rather than contributing to its expenses, not subject to the judges trained from boyhood in the Sacred Law; while their own Moslem sons were rigidly excluded from the honored class, were obliged to bear a part in the burdens of the state with small hope of sharing its glory, and were expected to take their chances before the same courts to which Christians and Jews were brought for civil and criminal cases. The very extent of the privileges of the kullar made toward the break-down of the system.
The privileges of the sultan’s kullar fell short of those of Western nobility in one very important respect, namely, that they could not normally be handed on to the descendants and heirs of those privileged. This exception is so important that various Western writers have affirmed that the Turks had no nobles.[411] As the word is used in this treatise, heredity is not regarded as of the essence of nobility; the latter is considered to lie in the possession of special personal privilege, recognized in the structure of the state.
In the early Ottoman days, several of the high offices of state became the appanages of particular families. The family of Kara Khalil Chendereli held the office of grand vizier continuously for a century, and furnished an occupant of the office at a later date.[412] The descendants of Michael of the Pointed Beard led the Akinjis until the time of the first siege of Vienna.[413] The family of Samsamat Chaush held the office of master of ceremonies for generations.[414] A descendant of the thirteenth-century poet Jelal ad-din Rumi held office under Suleiman.[415] Some writers of the early sixteenth century said that, whereas Osman had been aided in winning his dominions by two Greek renegades, Michael of the Pointed Beard, and Malco, and by Aurami or Eurcasi, a Turk, he had promised that he would “never put hand in their blood or fail to give them a magistracy.”[416] The promise had been kept, and in 1537 one of the Michaloglou was Sanjak in Bosnia and one of the Malcosoglou was Sanjak in Greece. The other family was then extinct. It is said that these were considered to be of royal blood, and that in case of failure in the line of Osman the succession to the throne would fall to them.
Apart from these few exceptions, the principle of heredity in office had been excluded from the Ottoman system by the time of Suleiman. The Ottomans, by old Turkish rule probably derived from the Chinese, knew no nobility apart from office and public service. An exception was introduced by Islam in the case of Seids, or Emirs, descendants of the Prophet; but this modification the Ottomans did not wholly respect.[417] Accordingly, Ottoman nobility became official,[418] personal, and without hereditary quality. It was, in fact, the reverse of hereditary, since nobility in the father was an actual hindrance to the son and to all his descendants. But the kullar were not the only class in the Ottoman Empire which enjoyed official, personal nobility. The members of the Moslem Institution were also exempt from taxation, were supported out of public revenues, and were left in enjoyment of their own government as a part of their general jurisdiction in the empire. They had an advantage over the kullar in that their property was not subject to confiscation. Their position will be discussed later.[419]
In the program of the Ruling Institution the policy of avoiding heredity of nobility fitted in exactly with the slave system, the educational scheme, and the army arrangements; for the knowledge that every man was considered to be “his own ancestry,” and that increased honor and privilege depended on achievement alone, made every ambitious member a devoted slave, an indefatigable learner, and a dauntless warrior. The reasons for this policy, the method of applying it by advancement through merit, and the vivid impression which it made on thoughtful Western observers have been described already;[420] but for its observance an additional reason of great weight may be mentioned. Not only did it prevent the accumulation of property and power in the hands of the members of one family, but it allowed no influence to become intrenched in the offices of central and local government. No Beylerbey or Sanjak Bey could hope to rebel successfully. All were “but strangers and foreigners in the countries they ruled,”[421] and held their positions by the most insecure tenure. The Ottoman Empire was not destined to go the way of that of Charlemagne or of the Seljuk Turks. Whatever decay it might undergo, it could not break up into small independent states under officials who had converted their governorships into sovereignties, so long as its two great institutions were maintained consistently.[422]
Against this policy two main tendencies conspired, both based on “human nature,” the strife of favor against merit, and the desire of the excluded to share in privilege. The first was liable to disturb the order of promotion, the second to open the system to the sons and descendants of the officials and to other Moslems. No one but Selim the Grim was fitted to maintain the policy rigidly against such pressure. Suleiman yielded a little on the first point, in such matters as the promotion of Ibrahim and Rustem;[423] and the second began in his time to gain ground at the bottom, by the admission of sons of Janissaries to the ranks of the Ajem-oghlans. Within a generation after his death, however, the flood-gates were to be opened.[424] The body of Janissaries and the body of Spahis of the Porte were gradually but swiftly to be made Moslem and so cut off from the Ruling Institution; the age at which the pages passed out of the palace was to be postponed; and in time the divided Ruling Institution was to cease to be the admiration of the West and was to become its laughing-stock. But Suleiman was spared the sight of such a decadence. Near the end of his reign, after Rustem and Roxelana had ceased to disturb, the system brought to the top one of the greatest of Ottoman statesmen, Mohammed Sokolli. At about the same time the Moslem Institution also raised up a great legist, Ebu su’ud.[425] These two upheld the institutions and the empire at the height of their glory for nearly thirty years, of which fifteen lay after the death of Suleiman.
In the early stages of all monarchies the household of the prince and the government of the state have probably been identical.[426] After the period of establishment has come to an end and settled institutions have been organized, the household and the government have tended to draw apart into separate and distinct systems under different officials. Which of the two has become of the greater importance in the eyes of the sovereign and in influence upon the policy and destiny of the nation has depended on circumstances, and particularly on the character of individual monarchs. While such a state has been in a period of increase of power and influence, the government has regularly been the more prominent: men of practical experience in affairs and in the field have overshadowed the palace servants. When decay and decline have set in, the household, partly by way of cause and partly by way of effect, has risen to supremacy: individuals of more or less secluded life, but possessing opportunities for personal intercourse with the monarch,—favorites, body-servants, women, and eunuchs,—have made the men of affairs and of war dependent upon them for place and authority. The Ottoman Empire came clearly into the stage of differentiation between household and government after the conquest of Constantinople in the reign of Mohammed II. In the time of Suleiman the empire was still in the period when government was greater than household; but clear signs were appearing that a less active and more plastic sovereign would turn the scale.
The household of the Ottoman sultan was curiously divided and limited. An essential difference between the courts of Christian and Moslem monarchs was created by the seclusion of women in Mohammedan society. In the West, women appeared with the men of the court not only on occasions of amusement and diversion, but also in public parades and ceremonies of less and greater importance, and the ladies of the royal family led the fashionable society of the land. In the East, on the other hand, the visible court and retinue of the monarch was wholly ungraced by the presence of the fair sex; all the great ceremonies and cavalcades were participated in by men alone. It seems to be a fact that, before the middle of the reign of Suleiman, no woman resided in the entire vast palace where the sultan spent most of his time.[427] The women of his family were elsewhere, carefully guarded behind walls which with very few exceptions no man but himself might pass.[428] The men and the women who were associated with the sultan constituted two separate worlds, between which the only bond was himself.
The sultan’s household was divided in another way. By the maxims of despotic government it is forbidden that the ruler should associate on terms of intimate friendship with those who are his high officials of state. In order to avoid this regulation and yet provide his master with intelligent and amusing companionship, the Nizam-al-mulk advised the Seljuk sultan Melik Shah to choose as boon companions a band of courtiers who would be allowed to have no share whatever in the conduct of affairs.[429] This resource was hardly open to the Ottoman sultans, first because the dignity and independence of Moslem-born Ottoman Turks deprived them of the pliancy which is expected from courtiers, and second because the sultan’s Christian-born slaves, who had been led onward by ambition ever since they had entered his service, and at the end of their education were ready to become men of affairs, were not fitted to be mere courtiers. The difficulty became greater after Mohammed II, filled with the Byzantine notion of imperial sacredness, ordered that no one should sit with him at table.[430] A sultan was thus practically forced by a combination of principles and circumstances to spend his leisure hours with boys, eunuchs, and women.[431] The only mature men with whom he could converse freely were a small and select group of religious advisers, astrologers, and physicians; all the other men of his household met him only formally and for the transaction of business. So great limitations on his companionship could not fail to influence his character, and in the course of a few generations to tend greatly toward the predominance of household over government.
To confine the consideration of Suleiman’s court to his immediate household would be to narrow the discussion too much. The chief officers of government formed a part of his retinue on all ceremonial occasions, and had not ceased to be counted as his personal followers. In fact, all the members of the Ruling Institution, except the Ajem-oghlans and young pages, may be regarded as belonging to the sultan’s court in that large sense of the term which includes all those individuals who are attached to the person of the monarch as his daily associates, his councillors, the officers and members of his household, his body-guard and palace-guard, and his retinue on ceremonial occasions and in camp. The splendid court of Suleiman the Magnificent is worthy of separate and special treatment for which there is no room here; in describing it, as in describing his army, only those aspects which are of a governmental nature can be considered. The topics that will claim attention are the subdivisions of his household and the main features of its organization, the importance given to personal and public ceremony, the splendor of the court, and the influence of the court on the destiny of the empire.
The sultan’s household may be considered in three principal subdivisions, each of them composed of a number of parts: the outside service of the palace, the inside service of the palace, and the harem. The outside service was composed of men and Ajem-oghlans, the inside service of white eunuchs and pages, the harem of black eunuchs and women. The first two subdivisions were, in time of peace, in attendance at the principal palace which had been built by Mohammed II on the site of the acropolis of ancient Byzantium. The grounds of this palace were extensive: within the first gate was a large open space used on state occasions as a parade ground; within the second gate were the buildings of the palace proper, a beautiful garden, and an exercise ground for the pages. The members of the outside service, except the gardeners, did not ordinarily pass beyond the second gate of this palace. The harem was permanently located some distance away in the center of the city, in the first palace occupied after the conquest, known in the sixteenth century as the Old Palace.[433] In time of war, practically the entire outside service, and the principal officers and personal attendants from the inside service, accompanied the sultan. None of the women of the harem were taken with the army, as this was against the Ottoman custom, though permitted by the Sacred Law.[434] In excursions during time of peace some of the ladies might accompany their lord.[435] The three subdivisions of the household will be considered in the reverse order.
The harem was so distinct in Suleiman’s time from the rest of his household, so little seen and known, so much his personal affair, that it would seem scarcely to demand attention in a consideration of his court. The importance of its officials and personages was small as compared with later times, after the harem had been removed to the principal palace and the sultans had begun to spend a much larger portion of their time in its society. Yet the influence of two of its ladies upon Suleiman was so great as to give them a place in history and a relation to the destiny of the nation. Accordingly, the harem cannot be passed over without mention. Its organization has already been sketched so far as regards the recruiting, conversion, and education of the women;[436] its groupings and principal personages remain to be described.
The guard and order of the palace of the harem was committed to forty or more black eunuchs,[437] under an official known as the Kizlar Aghasi, or, literally, the “general of the girls.” This Agha was held in great honor, and was made administrator of many religious endowments for the benefit of various mosques, and particularly of the vakfs of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina. His importance in Suleiman’s time bears no comparison with what it became later. Other black eunuchs held official positions in the service of the principal ladies, and had the oversight of the education of the young princes.[438]
The greatest lady of the harem, while life was spared to her, was the sultan’s mother, the Sultana Valideh. Not only did she receive great respect and deference from her son, but she had a general oversight and authority over all his women. The next lady in importance was the mother of the sultan’s first son; and after her came the mothers of other sons. Mothers of daughters enjoyed much less consideration. Each of these favored ladies had her own suite of apartments, her business staff under a woman known as her Kiaya, which may here be translated as steward or housekeeper, and her group of personal and domestic servants. The Kiaya of the queen mother enjoyed great importance. The group of slave girls who were the sultan’s personal and domestic servants when he visited the harem were also under a Kiaya with assistants. Sons of the sultan lived with their mothers during their tender years. They were carefully educated in letters and arms, much as were the pages, but with greater deference.[439] At a suitable age they were sent out, with carefully selected little courts, to the governorship of provinces. Daughters were married at an early age to high officials of the sultan.[440] In later generations infant sons who might be born to them were not allowed to live, lest they might become a menace to the throne. This seems not to have been the case in the time of Suleiman, who avoided danger by excluding them carefully from office.[441]
Information about Suleiman’s harem and family comes guarded with explanations of the difficulty found in obtaining trustworthy reports. Some facts are known, and probabilities exist as to others. Suleiman’s mother lived until far along in his reign. The mother of his eldest son, Mustapha, held, according to custom, the next place in his harem. After the year 1534 she divided her time between the palace at Magnesia, where her son was Sanjak Bey, and the harem palace in Constantinople.[442] Khurrem, usually called Roxelana, had supplanted her in favor at some previous date, and, being legal wife of the Sultan, held a position superior to hers in some respects. Suleiman seems not to have visited his harem very often.[443] Mihrmah, his daughter by Roxelana, who became the wife of Rustem, was very dear to him.
The five chambers of pages, under the control of white eunuchs, and the doorkeepers supplied the inside service of the principal palace. The head of this service was the Kapu Aghasi, or “general of the gate,” a white eunuch, who was also charged with the management of many religious endowments. He had the right to speak to the sultan when he wished,[444] and hence was very highly regarded. The Kapuji-bashi, or head doorkeeper, was also a white eunuch, who had charge constantly of the second gate of the principal palace, with a company of twenty or more white eunuchs who were guards under him.[445] The pages have already received attention from the educational point of view. Nearest the person of the sultan were the pages of the Khas Oda, or Inner Chamber, of whom there were probably thirty-nine, the sultan himself being reckoned the fortieth.[446] A number of these pages later bore the title of Agha, but they seem not to have done so in Suleiman’s time. Their chief officer was the Khas Oda-bashi, or head of the Inner Chamber, one of the pages in Suleiman’s day, but in later times a white eunuch. The pages of highest rank were the Silihdar, who outside the palace carried the sultan’s weapons, the Chokadar, who carried his garments, and the Sharabdar, or cup-bearer.[447] The others took care of his apartments and his wardrobe, and brought his food to him. The second group of pages constituted the Khazineh Odassi, or treasury, under a well-paid white eunuch, the inside Khazinehdar-bashi. These, to the number of sixty or seventy, cared for all the treasures in the sultan’s palace, made all payments, and kept all accounts.[448] Another Khazinehdar-bashi took care of all the financial affairs of the inside service which needed attention outside the palace walls. The Kiler Odassi, or pantry, under a white eunuch called the Kilerji-bashi, cared for the bread, pastry, and game of the sultan; their chief controlled also the kitchen service of the palace. The pages of this chamber seem not yet to have finished their education.[449] They, together with the pages of the Inner Chamber, rode with the sultan whenever he left the palace. The remaining two chambers, the Large and the Small, or the Old and the New, were concerned wholly with the education of the pages.[450] They were under the general direction of the Ikinji-Kapu-oghlan, or eunuch of the second gate.[451] The entire personnel of the inside service amounted to from six to eight hundred persons. The eunuch officers maintained severe discipline, exact obedience, and perfect order among them all.[452] The groups of eunuchs who had charge of the colleges of pages in Pera and Adrianople may also be reckoned in the inside service. It would seem that the accounts of all these palaces were kept as one, and that therefore the chief officers of the principal palace must have supervised the officers of the others.[453]
The members of the household who were not held within the inner regions of the palace or near the person of the sultan were far more numerous. Many stood in close relations to the members of the inner service, either being under their authority or having regular dealings with them. All, of course, served the sultan, either directly or nearly so, through the mediation of one or more officers. To describe at length their subdivisions, duties, and officers would be to repeat an account which has been given often by others. Only a general sketch will be attempted here, by way of distinguishing the various groups of the service. Beginning with those in closest relations to the sultan, they were the learned associates of the master, the kitchen service, the body-guard, the palace-guards, the gardeners, the stable service, the tent-pitchers, the masters of the hunt, and the intendants.
The learned associates of the sultan belonged chiefly to the corps of the Ulema. They therefore represented the Moslem Institution near the person of the monarch. Chief among them was the sultan’s Hoja, or teacher, a confessor or adviser in religious matters, who was held in very great esteem and was often advanced to high judicial office. Next came two Imâms, or preachers to the sultan, associated with whom were a number of muezzins, or chanters. After these ranked the Hekim-bashi, or chief physician, who had ten or more associates; the Munejim-bashi, or chief astrologer, whose services were believed to have a very real value; and the Jerrah-bashi, or chief surgeon, with ten or more helpers.
The kitchen service under the oversight of the Kilerji-bashi comprised bakers, scullions, cooks, confectioners, tasters, and musicians, each to the number of from fifty to one hundred.[454] Allied to these were the companies of tailors, shoemakers, furriers, goldsmiths, and the like, who were employed exclusively in the palace service.[455] Each group had its responsible head and was subject to a thorough oversight, since even such remote affairs, when under the care of the Ottoman Ruling Institution, were regulated and ordered with great precision. A number of these servants, such as the scullions, wood-cutters, and water-carriers, were Ajem-oghlans.
The body-guards were three, the Muteferrika, the Solaks, and the Peiks. The Muteferrika, or Noble Guard, consisted of from one to two hundred of the choicest graduates from the page schools and of sons of high officials.[456] Among them, in 1575, were brothers of the Voivodes of Wallachia and Moldavia. The Muteferrika followed immediately after the sultan on horseback, and in time of battle were ready to defend him to the end. The Solaks were veteran Janissary archers, to the number of about one hundred and fifty, who marched on foot beside the sultan wherever he went, with bows and arrows ready for instant use. The Peiks were a picturesque company of halberdiers of about one hundred men,[457] which had been taken over, arms, costumes, and all, from the Byzantine emperors. They ran in front of the sultan when he rode, and were always ready to be sent on missions.
The palace-guards were the Kapujis, the Chaushes, and the Bostanjis. The Kapujis, or gatekeepers, were Ajem-oghlans who, to the number of three or four hundred,[458] watched the outside gates of the principal palace and of the palace of the harem. Like all the other guards, they accompanied the sultan to war, where they were the guards of his tent. The Chaushes, who numbered about one hundred,[459] were ushers who acted as marshals on the days of Divan and of state ceremony, and who in time of war dressed the ranks of the troops.[460] They also acted as messengers of state within the empire. When a distant officer had been condemned to death, a Chaush was sent to execute the sentence and bring back the offender’s head.[461] Since among the Chaushes there were many renegades who knew various European languages, they were useful as interpreters and were sometimes sent as envoys on important missions.[462] The Bostanjis, or gardeners, were Ajem-oghlans, and as such have been mentioned already. To the number of about four hundred,[463] they cared for the garden and grounds of the principal palace, and rowed the sultan’s caiques when he wished to enjoy the matchless scenery of the Bosphorus. Their chief, the Bostanji-bashi, who had risen from their ranks, seems to have been the only adult man besides the sultan who resided within the inner regions of the palace.[464] His general charge over all the sultan’s gardens, wherever they might be, included oversight of the banks and shores of the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles.[465] This gave him great power, and his favor was much courted.
The stable service was exceedingly important in a nation which relied so much upon cavalry, and which was still under the influence of the tradition of the steppe lands. The sultan for his own use kept a stable of two hundred horses tended by a hundred men, and for the use of his retinue four thousand horses tended by two thousand men.[466] Besides these, a thousand or more Bulgarian Christians known as Voinaks tended herds of horses on the great domanial pastures.[467] All these followed the army to war as grooms. They were under the control of a very great official, the Emir-al-Akhor,[468] or grand equerry, who, with the second equerry, also had oversight of the numerous saddlers, camel-drivers, and muleteers of the imperial service, and control of all the domanial pastures and forests of the empire.[469]
The head gardener, the head gatekeeper, the grand equerry, the second equerry, and the Mir-Alem[470] or standard-bearer, constituted the special group of officers known as the Rekiab-Aghalari, or “generals of the [imperial] stirrup.” The Mir-Alem had charge of the imperial standards and the six horsetails which were borne before the sultan. He distributed standards and horsetails to Beylerbeys and Sanjak Beys, who thus in a way received investiture at his hands.[471] As a consequence he ranked first among the officers of the household as related to the government. He also had superior control over the gatekeepers, and he commanded the military music.
The tent-pitchers, under a Mihter-bashi, cared for the sultan’s tents in peace and war. Similar groups were the Veznedars (who weighed the money received by the sultan), the guards of the outside treasury, the purchasing agents of cloth and muslins for the palace, and the guardians of presents.[472]
The masters of the hunt were important officials in the time of Suleiman, who practised the ancient royal custom of going with great state and numerous attendants to hunt over a large region.[473] Heads of the dog-keepers, falconers, vulturers, gerfalconers, and hawkers held honorable position. A number of the pages of the higher odalar had subsidiary duties as falconers;[474] Ibrahim was chief falconer at the time of his promotion to the position of grand vizier. A part of the regular army aided in the hunts. The Janissaries show by the names of some of their chief officers that their corps grew in part out of the hunting organization of the early sultans.[475]
The intendants, or Umena, had charge of various departments of supply and administration. They were the Shehr-emini, or intendant of imperial buildings; the Zarabkhaneh-emini, or intendant of mints and mines; the Mutbakh-emini, or intendant of the kitchen and pantry; the Arpa-emini, or intendant of forage for the stables of the palace; and the Masraf-shehriyari, or substitute for the intendant of the kitchens.
This rapid survey, though by no means complete, shows something of the complicated organization, the numerous personnel, and the various functions of the groups of the imperial household. The number of individuals connected with it may be estimated to have been between ten and fifteen thousand, many of whom were not the sultan’s slaves, but his servants and employees in various capacities. All, however, except the few members of the Ulema, were under the complete control and command of members of the Ruling Institution. No confusion resulted from such great complexity, for each group of servants had its definite duties, and knew exactly from whom to receive orders and to whom to report accomplishment.
It is clear that the functions of many of the officials of the household, especially those of the head gardener, the grand equerry, and the standard-bearer, intrenched upon the province of government. The chief black eunuch and the chief white eunuch collected and administered the revenues of many parcels of land which were devoted to special purposes. The Umena were so clearly recognized as exercising governmental functions that they were regarded as chancellors,—an exception, made for the sake of convenience, to the rule of separating household and governmental officials. It resulted, therefore, that, while order was maintained with comparative ease within the mechanism of the household and, as will be seen, of the government, difficulty and confusion accumulated in the relations of the Ruling Institution to the rest of the empire. The splendid organization worked admirably down a certain distance from the top; but, as the energy of the single will became mediated by many officials, and as the multiplex land-ownership and varied population of the empire was approached, disorder to the extent of unworkability was so constantly threatened that only more or less convulsive readjustments, resorted to from time to time, enabled the institutions of the empire to remain in being.
The Sacred Law, based on the practice of Mohammed and the four early caliphs, discouraged display of every sort;[476] nor did the Seljuk Turks take readily to the magnificence which under Persian influence had prevailed at the court of the Bagdad caliphate.[477] So, too, the early Ottoman sovereigns appear to have maintained simplicity of life down to the time of Murad II. A contemporary observer said: “The very Magnates and Princes observe such simplicity in all things, that they cannot be distinguished from others. I saw the King going a long distance from his palace to Church accompanied by two youths.... I saw him also praying in Church, not in a chair (cathedra) or royal throne, but seated like the rest on a rug spread on the ground; nor was there about him any ornament, either suspended or exhibited or displayed. He used no singularity in regard to his garments or his horse, by which he could be distinguished from others. I saw him at the funeral of his mother, and I could not possibly have recognized him, had he not been pointed out to me.”[478]
In the understanding of Mohammed II, however, the capture of the imperial city seems to have included the appropriation of imperial forms and ceremonies; for no small number of his Kanuns dealt with matters of rank and ceremony.[479] By the time of Suleiman the Kanuni Teshrifat, or Law of Ceremonies, had become a collection of considerable magnitude.[480] It is significant that the regulations concerning such matters as the color and shape and material of robes and turbans, the order of precedence on small as well as great occasions, and the observances proper to each such occasion were made a matter of law. On the one hand, a body of practice was set up which, though not distinctly forbidden by the Sacred Law, was contrary to its essential spirit. On the other hand, to rules of court etiquette, which in the West are often unwritten and certainly have not similar standing with acts of legislation, were given the rank and authority of imperial laws. The Law of Ceremonies stood on a par with the Law of Subjects, the Law of Fiefs, the Law of Egypt, and the Law of Fines and Punishments. In fact, this law was observed even more carefully than the others, since the matters which it covered usually came under the eye of the sultan himself. It was as much the duty of an officer to wear the proper costume, and to appear in the right place and at the right time at public ceremonies, as to attend to the business connected with his position.
All the classes of members of the sultan’s household, all the high officers of government, and all the separate bodies of troops in the standing army were clearly distinguished from each other by costume or head-dress or by both. Each group and every officer in each group had his exact place in every ceremonial assembly and his exact rank in every procession. Each great official, beginning with the sultan, had his title for use in public documents, a designation which, though not exactly fixed, varied little from time to time.[481]
Ceremonial occasions were numerous and splendid. All were participated in by representatives from each division of the Ruling Institution, and on the greatest occasions practically its whole membership was present. The ceremonies may be grouped as simple occasions, religious festivals, and extraordinary ceremonies. Among the simpler ceremonial occasions were the regular meetings of the Divan, which in time of peace took place four times a week, on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. On Fridays the sultan rode forth to mosque in magnificent state.[482] On other days some of the officials made visits of state to their superiors. Every three months the Janissaries were paid with much ceremony in the parade-ground between the first and second gates of the palace. For the sake of giving an impression of wealth and magnificence, such occasions were frequently chosen for the reception of ambassadors.[483]
The great religious festivals of Islam, in which all the Moslems of the empire participated, were celebrated by the court with great pomp. These were the two feasts of Bairam, one of which comes at the close of the fast of the month of Ramazan, and the other and greater seventy days later.[484] On the great day of Bairam the ceremony of kissing the hand of the sultan was performed by all the officials of the household and government.
The principal extraordinary ceremonies were those in celebration of the birth of sons or daughters to the sultan, of the circumcision of princes and the marriage of princesses, the accession to the throne, and the going forth of the sultan to war. The greatest of all Suleiman’s celebrations was probably that of the circumcision of his sons, Mustapha, Mohammed, and Selim, in 1530. Twenty-one successive days of display, feasting, games, and formal presentation of gifts contributed to the unparalleled grandeur of the occasion.[485]
It is not impossible to obtain an idea of the appearance of the sultan’s court and retinue at this time of the empire’s greatest splendor. One observer, often quoted already, who was gifted with superb powers of expression, has left a clear record. Seer and seen alike vanished from the earth more than three centuries ago; yet through the keen eyes of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq the world has ever since looked upon the great Suleiman as he sat and rode in state. Busbecq, ambassador to the Ottoman court from Emperor Charles the Fifth and his brother Ferdinand, describes his first audience with Suleiman in camp at Amasia in 1555, also the train that attended the sultan as he went forth from Constantinople to war against his son Bayezid in 1559, and a Bairam ceremony in camp near Scutari a few weeks after the latter event. Some quotations from these descriptions will give a better idea of Suleiman’s court than any number of statistics. The first describes the audience at Amasia:—
“The Sultan was seated on a very low ottoman, not more than a foot from the ground, which was covered with a quantity of costly rugs and cushions of exquisite workmanship; near him lay his bow and arrows....
“On entering we were separately conducted into the royal presence by the chamberlains, who grasped our arms. This has been the Turkish fashion of admitting people to the Sovereign ever since a Croat, in order to avenge the death of his master, Marcus, Despot of Servia, asked Amurath for an audience, and took advantage of it to slay him. After having gone through a pretence of kissing his hand, we were conducted backwards to the wall opposite his seat, care being taken that we should never turn our backs on him....
“The Sultan’s hall was crowded with people, among whom were several officers of high rank. Besides these there were all the troopers of the Imperial guard, Spahis, Ghourebas, Ouloufedgis, and a large force of Janissaries.... Take your stand by my side, and look at the sea of turbaned heads, each wrapped in twisted folds of the whitest silk; look at those marvellously handsome dresses of every kind and every colour; time would fail me to tell how all around is glittering with gold, with silver, with purple, with silk, and with velvet; words cannot convey an adequate idea of that strange and wondrous sight: it was the most beautiful spectacle I ever saw.
“With all this luxury great simplicity and economy are combined; every man’s dress, whatever his position may be, is of the same pattern; no fringes or useless points are sewn on, as is the case with us, appendages which cost a great deal of money, and are worn out in three days. In Turkey the tailor’s bill for a silk or velvet dress, even though it be richly embroidered, as most of them are, is only a ducat. They were quite as much surprised at our manner of dressing as we were at theirs. They use long robes reaching down to the ankles, which have a stately effect and add to the wearer’s height, while our dress is so short and scanty that it leaves exposed to view more than is comely of the human shape; besides, somehow or other, our fashion of dress seems to take from the wearer’s height, and make him look shorter than he really is.
“I was greatly struck with the silence and order that prevailed in this great crowd. There were no cries, no hum of voices, the usual accompaniments of a motley gathering, neither was there any jostling; without the slightest disturbance each man took his proper place according to his rank. The Agas, as they call their chiefs, were seated, to wit, generals, colonels (bimbaschi), and captains (soubaschi). Men of a lower position stood. The most interesting sight in this assembly was a body of several thousand Janissaries, who were drawn up in a long line apart from the rest; their array was so steady and motionless that, being at a little distance, it was some time before I could make up my mind as to whether they were human beings or statues; at last I received a hint to salute them, and saw all their heads bending at the same moment to return my bow.[486] On leaving the assembly we had a fresh treat in the sight of the household cavalry returning to their quarters; the men were mounted on splendid horses, excellently groomed, and gorgeously accoutred. And so we left the royal presence.”[487]
On the second occasion, when Suleiman was going forth to war, Busbecq obtained a place at a window:—
“From this I had the pleasure of seeing the magnificent column which was marching out. The Ghourebas and Ouloufedgis rode in double, and the Silihdars and Spahis in single file. The cavalry of the Imperial guard consists of these regiments, each of which forms a distinct body, and has separate quarters. They are believed to amount to about 6000 men, more or less. Besides these, I saw a large force, consisting of the household slaves belonging to the sultan himself, the Pashas, and the other court dignitaries. The spectacle presented by a Turkish horseman is indeed magnificent. His high-bred steed generally comes from Cappadocia or Syria, and its trappings and saddle sparkle with gold and jewels in silver settings. The rider himself is resplendent in a dress of cloth of gold or silver, or else of silk or velvet. The very lowest of them is clothed in scarlet, violet, or blue robes of the finest cloth. Right and left hang two handsome cases, one of which holds his bow, and the other is full of painted arrows. Both of these cases are curiously wrought, and come from Babylon,[488] as does also the targe, which is fitted to the left arm, and is proof only against arrows or the blows of a mace or sword. In the right hand, unless he prefers to keep it disengaged, is a light spear, which is generally painted green. Round his waist is girt a jewelled scimitar, while a mace of steel hangs from his saddle-bow.... The covering they wear on the head is made of the whitest and lightest cotton-cloth, in the middle of which rises a fluted peak of fine purple silk. It is a favorite fashion to ornament this head-dress with black plumes.
“When the cavalry had ridden past, they were followed by a long procession of Janissaries, but few of whom carried any arms except their regular weapon, the musket. They were dressed in uniforms of almost the same shape and colour, so that you might recognize them to be the slaves, and as it were the household, of the same master. Among them no extraordinary or startling dress was to be seen, and nothing slashed or pierced. They say their clothes wear out quite fast enough without their tearing them themselves. There is only one thing in which they are extravagant, viz., plumes, head-dresses, etc., and the veterans who formed the rear guard were specially distinguished by ornaments of this kind. The plumes which they insert in their frontlets might well be mistaken for a walking forest.[489] Then followed on horseback their captains and colonels, distinguished by the badges of their rank. Last of all, rode their Aga by himself. Then succeeded the chief dignitaries of the Court, and among them the Pashas, and then the royal body-guard, consisting of infantry, who wore a special uniform and carried bows ready strung, all of them being archers.[490] Next came the Sultan’s grooms leading a number of fine horses with handsome trappings for their master’s use. He was mounted himself on a noble steed; his look was stern, and there was a frown on his brow; it was easy to see that his anger had been aroused. Behind him came three pages, one of whom carried a flask of water, another a cloak, and the third a box.[491] These were followed by some eunuchs of the bedchamber, and the procession was closed by a squadron of horse about two hundred strong [the Muteferrika].”[492]
Busbecq spent three months in Suleiman’s camp near Scutari:—
“I should have returned to Constantinople on the day before the Bairam, had I not been detained by my wish to see that day’s ceremonies. The Turks were about to celebrate the rites of the festival on an open and level plain before the tents of Solyman; and I could hardly hope that such an occasion of seeing them would ever present itself again. I gave my servants orders to promise a soldier some money and so get me a place in his tent, on a mound which commanded a good view of Solyman’s pavilions. Thither I repaired at sunrise. I saw assembled on the plain a mighty multitude of turbaned heads, attentively following, in the most profound silence, the words of the priest who was leading their devotions. They kept their ranks, each in his proper position; the lines of troops looked like so many hedges or walls parting out the wide plain, on which they were drawn up. According to its rank in the service each corps was posted nearer to, or farther from, the place where the Sultan stood. The troops were dressed in brilliant uniforms, their head-dresses rivalling snow in whiteness. The scene which met my eyes was charming, the different colours having a most pleasing effect. The men were so motionless that they seemed rooted to the ground on which they stood. There was no coughing, no clearing the throat, and no voice to be heard, and no one looked behind him or moved his head. When the priest pronounced the name of Mahommet all alike bowed their heads to their knees at the same moment, and when he uttered the name of God they fell on their faces in worship and kissed the ground.... When prayers were finished, the serried ranks broke up, and the whole plain was gradually covered with their surging masses. Presently the Sultan’s servants appeared bringing their master’s dinner, when, lo and behold! the Janissaries laid their hands on the dishes, seized their contents and devoured them, amid much merriment. This licence is allowed by ancient custom as part of that day’s festivity, and the Sultan’s wants are otherwise provided for. I returned to Constantinople full of the brilliant spectacle, which I had thoroughly enjoyed.”[493]
The influence of the Ottoman court may be looked at in three ways,—as affecting the sultan, the Ruling Institution, and the destiny of the empire; but all three ultimately reduce to the last. The sultan was influenced by his personal relationships with the different individuals or groups which came into closest contact with him. Reference has already been made to Roxelana. Undoubtedly she had much influence over her imperial husband, but to what extent she pushed him toward particular decisions and actions cannot be known. It is improbable that she had anything of consequence to do with the death of Ibrahim, since the favorite’s own actions had brought matters to such a pass that he was a menace to the throne; moreover, her influence in public affairs seems not yet to have become great. Some writers of that date do not mention her at all, though she had already won the supreme affection of Suleiman, and had, so to speak, passed round the superior position of the mother of the first-born son by being made a legal wife.[494] Seventeen years later the situation was clear: Roxelana had triumphed completely over the mother of Mustapha; her son-in-law Rustem, married to Suleiman’s well-beloved daughter Mihrmah, had held the supreme office of grand vizier for nine years; her hump-backed son Jehangir was Suleiman’s favorite child. Nevertheless, as late as the beginning of 1553 Suleiman seems to have intended still that Mustapha should occupy the throne.[495]
Mustapha became a victim less of Roxelana and Rustem than of the indeterminate and dangerous condition of the rules of succession to the throne.[496] Had primogeniture been the established order, Mustapha need only have been on his guard against poison; he would have lacked motive for rebellion, and his father would not have been in fear of deposition. Had not Mohammed II established the terrible Kanun which ordered the execution of the brothers of a sultan at his accession, Roxelana need not have feared for the lives of her own sons. Had not the Janissaries helped Selim to the throne ahead of time and against the wishes of his father, their favor toward Mustapha would not have forced a crisis. If Suleiman really desired Mustapha to succeed him, he made a great mistake in sending him far away to the governorship of Amasia. Bayezid, the ablest living son of Roxelana, was in Karamania; and Selim, the least promising of Roxelana’s children, but apparently her favorite, was assigned to the governorship at Magnesia. Selim was thus removed from the capital by a journey of only five or six days, Bayezid by a somewhat greater distance, and Mustapha by a journey of twenty-six days.[497] Suleiman may have meant by these appointments only to promote his sons to more distant governorships as they grew in experience and could be entrusted with greater responsibilities; they, on the other hand, could hardly fail to suspect that he had different intentions. Without further discussion, suffice it to say that, with custom and law as it was, the situation was untenable. First Mustapha, and later Roxelana’s own son Bayezid, became the victims of inexorable circumstances in which she undoubtedly played some part, though exactly what it was cannot be known.[498] In so far as she contributed to the fatal outcome, she hastened the fall of the empire. If ever a government demanded a strong man to keep it in operation, the Ottoman government needed one to maintain its Ruling Institution. From the beginning there had been as yet no failure; but after Suleiman the Magnificent, the Legislator, was to come Selim the Sot, the Debauché!
Nor was the beloved and pious Mihrmah without her influence on the fate of the empire, if it be true that she urged her father on to the great expedition against Malta.[499] His reign had opened with two great triumphs: the fortresses that had defied the great Conqueror, Belgrade and Rhodes, had fallen before his troops. He had failed before Vienna, it is true; but in the thirty-five succeeding years he had made large conquests, he had strengthened his power, and his prestige had grown steadily. Now, near the close of his life, his mailed fist was broken upon a rocky isle in the Mediterranean. What but the confidence gained by that successful resistance gathered and nerved the Christian fleet that won the day at Lepanto? The influence of Roxelana and Mihrmah foreshadowed the power exerted in later reigns by far inferior and far worse women.
The influence of Ibrahim, for whose promotion Suleiman violated the rules of advancement in the government service, and of Rustem, for whom he broke the rule of giving no high place to relatives of the imperial family, has been discussed already.[500] In his late years the Sultan came greatly under the influence of the Ulema, who had readier access to him than had any other outside force,[501] and whose power over him has been thought by some to have been unfavorable. Just what ills it brought about in his own time, however, are not easily to be discovered.
The Ruling Institution was affected strongly by the splendor and luxury of the court of Suleiman. The Sultan had so enormous an establishment, and was so fond of display and ceremony, that a similar spirit developed in all his kullar. Each officer of position became inordinately ambitious to have a large household, many horses, much portable wealth, and superb equipment for his horses and servants on state occasions and in time of war. Just as Suleiman’s splendor embarrassed his finances, so that he was willing that Rustem should require payment for office from newly-appointed great officials, so most of his kullar, in order to keep up display, were led to undignified and extortionate procedures. In the time of Suleiman’s grandfather the Ottomans of high position had already been excessively grasping. “And to tell the truth,” writes Spandugino, “in that country they are more eager after money than devils after souls. And one cannot accomplish anything with the princes or lords except by the power of money. In general, as well the emperor as his princes and lords have mouths only for eating, for if you go to them without giving them some present you will accomplish nothing.”[502]
That eagerness for wealth with which Spandugino reproached the Turks became only worse under the Magnificent sultan’s example. The members of the Ruling Institution might prey on each other to a certain extent by the sale of offices; but the ultimate evil effect fell upon the subjects outside. They in the end must pay for all the luxury and splendor of the great court and the little courts. The pressure upon them tended to become worse and worse. Lands began to grow less productive and to pass out of cultivation. That dead blight began to descend upon agriculture and trade which persists in Turkey to the present day.[503] Yet in the time of Suleiman this weakness hardly appeared. Although his best two sons had come to cruel deaths, although twenty thousand of his troops had lately died in vain at Malta, he went forth to his last campaign with a train which surpassed in pomp and splendor all that he had led before.[504]