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The Islamic Roots of the Gülhane Rescript
Author(s): Butrus Abu-MannehSource: Die Welt des Islams, New Series, Vol. 34, Issue 2 (Nov., 1994), pp. 173-203Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1570929 .
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8/20/2019 Abu-Manneh, B. 'The Islamic Roots of the Gulhane Rescript'
2/32
Die
Welt des
Islams
34
(1994),
?
E.J.
Brill,
Leiden
THE ISLAMIC ROOTS OF THE GULHANE RESCRIPT*
BY
BUTRUS
ABU-MANNEH
Haifa
1. Mustafa Reqidand theDrafting of the GiilhaneRescript
Ottoman
historiography
of the
Tanzimat
period
generally
attrib-
utes the
drafting
of the
Giilhane
Rescript
to
Mustafa
Re?id
Papa.1
In
the
middle
and late
1830s
Re?id
served for a
number
of
years
as
Ottoman
ambassador to Paris
and
London,
which
brought
him
in
contact with
the
leading
statesmen of
Western
Europe,
and
obvious-
ly provided
him
with a
chance to
observe
closely
the
functioning
of
European political systems.2 Thus it is believed by modern histori-
ans
that
Re?id
and other
Ottoman
diplomats
who like him
served
in
the
capitals
of
Europe
at
this
time,
had an
opportunity
to
undergo
in
person
the
direct
impact
of the
West .3
He
acquired
the
French
language
noted
Henry
Layard,4
an
attache at
the
British
*
I
owe
gratitude
to several
institutes
which
facilitated the
researching
and
writing
of this
paper:
the
Ba*bakanlik Arqivi,
the
Atatiirk
(Belediyye)
Library,
and
the Orient Institute, all in Istanbul, and the Skilliter Centre for Ottoman Studies
at
Newnham
College,
Cambridge.
A
summary
of
this
paper
was read at the
Sixth
International
Conference of
the
Economic
and
Social
History
of the
Otto-
man
Empire
and
Turkey,
held in
Aix-en-Provence,
France,
in
July
1992,
and
a
fuller
version at
the
Institut ffir
Islamwissenschaft,
Freie
Universitat
Berlin.
My
thanks are
due to all
who
participated
in
that
discussion.
Professor Dr. F.
Steppat
had
read the full
version of
this article
and
suggested
valuable
remarks.
I
owe him
special
thanks.
1
On
Mustafa
Resid
Papa,
see
Re,at
Kaynar,
Mustafa
Resit
Pasa
ve Tanzimat
(Ankara,
1954);
Ali
Fuat,
Ricali
muhimme-i
siyasiye(Istanbul,
1928);
Abdulrahman
~eref, Tarih Musahabeleri(Istanbul, 1339/[1920-21]), pp. 75-87; Cevid Baysun
Mustafa
Resid
Papa
in
Tanzimat
(Ankara,
1940), pp.
723-46;
Erciiment Ku-
ran,
Resit
Papa
in
Islam
Ansiklopedisi
(hereafter
IA)
X,
701-
705;
F.E.
Bailey,
British
Policy
and the
Turkish
Reform
Movement
(Cambridge,
Mass.,
1942),
pp.
179ff.
2
Cf.
Ahmed
Lutfi,
Tarih, VI,
55,
59-60.
3
B.
Lewis,
The
Emergence
of
Modern
Turkey
(London,
1961),
p.
87.
4
On
Henry
Layard,
see
Dictionary of
National
Biography,
Supplement
III
(Lon-
don,
1901),
pp.
82-4.
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8/20/2019 Abu-Manneh, B. 'The Islamic Roots of the Gulhane Rescript'
3/32
BUTRUS
ABU-MANNEH
Embassy
in
Istanbul
in
the
late
1840s,
and
through
it
had
studied
much of the
political
literature of
Europe .5
It was
sweeping
and
weighty statements such as these which led modern historians to
conclude
that the Giilhane
Rescript
was written under the
impact
of
the
West.
Niyazi
Berkes,
for
instance,
had no
doubt
about it.
We
do
not
need
to
look
at
the
English
or French
political impact
in
order to discover
the
origins
of
the
ideas
contained
in
the
Tanzi-
mat
Charter
[sic],
and we shall not
find
them in the Muslim
political
thinking
of the
past ,6
he
wrote. S. Shaw
goes
yet
further
in
sug-
gesting Western origins for the Rescript: Though presented in the
context of
the
Ottoman
experience
and
expressing particular
goals
rather than
abstract
principles,
the
decree of Gfilhane thus encom-
passed
many
of the
ideals contained
in
the French
Declaration
of
the
Rights
of Man
and the Citizen of
1789 .7
On
the face
of it
thesis looks
plausible
and
fits
within the
widely
accepted
views that the
reforms
in
the
Ottoman
Empire
in
the
nineteenth
century
were,
as
a
whole,
undertaken
under
the in-
fluence of the West. However, it is our contention that while this
might
be
true of the
later
period
of the
Tanzimat,
as far
as
the
Gill-
hane
Rescript
is
concerned,
contemporary
evidence
tends to
con-
tradict such
views.
Moreover,
the
contents of
the
Rescript
itself
lend
no
evidence of
ideas
or ideals
borrowed from
Western
political
the-
ory.
On
the
contrary
the
traditional
state
philosophy
was
genuine-
ly apparent
in it
states Halil
Inalcik,
and the
basic
principle
of
legislation, also,
was ... not
in
natural
rights
but
in
the
practical
necessity
of
resuscitating
the
empire
.8
There is
no doubt
that
serving
in
West
European
countries im-
parted
Re?id
with
some
knowledge
of
the
political
systems prevalent
in
those
countries.
But
it
does
not seem
that
this
knowledge
served
him
in
the
drafting
of
the
Guilhane
Rescript,
suggesting
that
either
5
Quoted in A. Hourani, Arabic Thoughtin the LiberalAge, 2nd imp. (Oxford,
1969),
p.
44.
6
N.
Berkes,
The
Development
of
Secularism
in
Turkey(Montreal,
1963),
p.
144.
7
S.J.
Shaw
and E.K.
Shaw,
History of
the
Ottoman
Empire
and
Modern
Turkey
(Cambridge,
1977),
II,
61.
8
H.
Inalclk,
The Nature
of
Traditional
Society: Turkey,
in
R.E. Ward
and
D.A. Rustow
(eds.),
PoliticalModernization
inJapan
and
Turkey
Princeton,
1964), pp.
56
-7.
174
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8/20/2019 Abu-Manneh, B. 'The Islamic Roots of the Gulhane Rescript'
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THE ISLAMIC
ROOTS
OF THE
GULHANE
RESCRIPT
he had
partners
in
the act or the earlier and
perhaps
more
lasting
in-
fluence
of
his formative
years
prevailed
upon
him. That
influence
originated from Pertev Papa, his mentor and protector at the
Porte for
many years,
who
was
known to
hold an
extremely
Sunni-
orthodox
outlook.9
Indeed,
as
we
shall see
in
this
paper,
the
ideals
that
were to find
expression
in
the
Rescript
seem to
have been shared
by
many
members
of the
Ottoman
political
and
religious
elite,
and
were the
subject
of much
discussion
before the
drafting
of
the
Guilhane.
While
modern
historiography
has
put great emphasis
on the
role
played by
Re?id
personally,
and
by
a few
other
young
associates
in
the
drafting
of
the
Guilhane
Rescript
and on
its
promulgation
and
application,10
it
has,
at the
same
time,
ignored
many
other
impor-
tant
figures,
perhaps equally
motivated and
without
whose
support
and
backing
nothing
would have been
achieved. First
and foremost
among
these
was Sultan
Abdiilmecid. The
Sultan,
portrayed
as
young
and
inexperienced ,11
is
regarded
as
a
passive
witness,
as
are such old, experienced and powerful functionaries as the Grand
Vizier
Hfisrev
Papa,
and the Sheikh
ill-Islam
Mustafa
'Asim Efendi.
They
and
many
other
statesmen and
ulema are seen
as no
more
than
onlookers,
while
Re?id
upon
his
return from
Europe,
so
it
is
claimed,
was
immediately
received
by
the
Sultan
and
succeeded in
winning
him
over to
his views.12
To
my
mind,
the
prevailing
view of
the
origins
and
drafting
of
the
Giilhane
Rescript
does
not stand
up
to
closer
scrutiny.
While
the contribution of Mustafa Re?id and associates of his to the draft-
ing
of
the
Rescript
and to
other
measures
of
reform
cannot be
underestimated,
the
truth
was much
more
complicated.
The
fol-
lowing
is
an
attempt
to have a
fresh look at the
origins
and
making
9
serif
Mardin,
The Genesis
of Young
Ottoman
Thought
(Princeton,
1962),
pp.
158f.
On
Pertev,
see
note no. 70
below.
10 Modern historiography is virtually united in its claim that Resid was the sole
drafter.
See
Kaynar, p.
154;
5eref,
p.
48
and
Bailey, pp.
185f.
A
slightly
different
view
is
found
in
Shaw and
Shaw,
p.
60:
the
text itself
[was] prepared
under
Mustafa
Resid's
guidance
at the
Porte
by
its
Consultative
Council
...
The
authors
provide
no
evidence
for their
statement.
11
C.
Baysun,
Mustafa
Resid
Papa,
in
Tanzimat,
(Istanbul,
1940), p.
734.
12
Baysun,
Ibid.; see also
5eref,
pp.
61-2;
Bailey, p.
180
and
Tanzimat in
IA, XI,
719.
175
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8/20/2019 Abu-Manneh, B. 'The Islamic Roots of the Gulhane Rescript'
5/32
BUTRUS ABU-MANNEH
of the
Giilhane
Rescript,
to
suggest
new
avenues for
understanding
it,
and
to find out Sultan Abdiilmecid's
motivations in
promulgat-
ing it. Finally, we will try to briefly ascertain its immediate effects.
2.
The
Inner
Conditions
of
the OttomanLands in the 18th and
early
19th Centuries
In
the
period
of
decline,
especially
in
the 18th
century, govern-
ment
in
the Ottoman lands
degenerated
into
injustice
and
tyranny.
The sharia
and
laws,
were
disregarded
and
corruption
spread
through all governmental services and the judicial system.13 The
checks and balances of the
earlier
period
which
had
helped
to
keep
the
officials and
governors
of
the
provinces
under
control,
became
largely
ineffective.14 The
central
government,
concerned
primarily
in
obtaining
the
annual
tax,
turned
the
governors
of the
provinces
practically
into chief tax
farmers.15
Because
they
had to cover the
expenses
of
their
household and of the civil
and
military
administra-
tion
by
themselves
and had
in
addition
to
pay
for
various
influential
people
in
Istanbul
in
order to
secure their
next
appointment,
they
were
obliged
to collect much
more
in
taxes
than
they
actually
turned
over to the
treasury.
What is
more,
they
did
not collect
these taxes
directly
but
divided
them
up
and
farmed
them
out
to the
highest
bid-
der,
which
made
matters
worse since the main
burden fell
on the
peasantry. Many
governors
were
not
particularly
concerned with
the
welfare
of
the
subjects.
The
object
of
appointing
a
beylerbeyi
nd
a sancakbeyi .. is not to have them descend upon a province to exact
illegal
taxes
and
lay
to
ruins the
country
and
the
province
stated
a
rescript
of
justice
in
160916.
About a
century
later
Mehmed
13
See
W.L.
Wright,
Ottoman
Statecraft,
The
Book
of
Counsels
or
Vezirs
and
Gover-
nors ...
of
Sarz
Mehmed
Pasha
(Princeton,
1935),
pp.
53 and 91.
14
This
system
was
based
primarily
on
the Kazi
(Qadi)
whose
functions
in
the
Ottoman
system
were much
wider
than
dispensing
justice and
included
many
civil
duties. Cf.
H.A.R.
Gibb
and
H.
Bowen,
Islamic
Society
and
the
West, I, 2 (London,
1957),
pp.
125,
128.
On the
corruption
of
theJudicial
System,
see
132,
and
Wright,
p.
53.
15
Mustafa
Nuri,
Neta'ic
ul-VukuCat,
vols.
(Istanbul
A.H.
1294-1327),
see
III,
99.
16
Quoted
in
H.
Inalcik,
Centralization
and
Decentralization in
Ottoman
Ad-
ministration in
Naff,
Thomas
and
R.
Owen
(eds.)
Studies
in
Eighteenth
Century
s-
lamic
History,
(Southern
Illinois
Uni.
Press,
1977) pp.
27-52,
see
especially p.
28.
176
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8/20/2019 Abu-Manneh, B. 'The Islamic Roots of the Gulhane Rescript'
6/32
THE ISLAMIC
ROOTS
OF THE GULHANE
RESCRIPT
Sari
remonstrated
about the same
abuse:
The
giving
of office
means
the
giving
of
permission
to
plunder
the
property
of the
subject
people .17 When the Gfilhane Rescript stated that the harmful
practice
of
tax-farming
amounts
to
handling
over the financial and
political
affairs of
a
country
to the
...
grasp
of force
and
oppres-
sion ,
it
was
referring
to
exactly
this
situation.18
Since
they
were
in
constant need
of
money,
the
governors
did
not
hesitate to resort
to
tyrannical
measures: When
governors
and
mutesellims
a
substitute of a
governor]
in
towns and cities
happened
to
recognize
a
rich
man,
they,
because of a minor
offence,
or
merely
through
unbased fabrication
(iftira')
would threaten
him
with severe
punishment,
such
as
death
or exile
and exert a
fine
on him or confis-
cate his wealth and
property .19
To maintain their
rule,
governors
at this
stage
depended
on
troops
which
they
hired
at
their
own
expense.
The
power they
thus
acquired,
with
no checks to
stop
them,
they generally
abused
grossly
while on
the whole
behaving
like
tyrants.
The fate
[of
the
subjects]
was on the lips of powerful men, relates the historian Abdulrah-
man
5eref.
One
morning
a
vali
put
to
death a most trusted
person
of
his
men ,
and when
the kazi
inquired
about
the
reason,
the
Papa
answered,
I
had
a
dream
last
night
in
which he
frightened
me.
I
don't
trust
him
any
longer
. .
. .20 This
is
one
among
several sto-
ries
{eref
recounts
to
show to what low
level the
security
of the
sub-
jects
had
sunk.
By putting
to death
high
functionaries without
trial,
and confis-
cating their wealth and property, it was in fact the sultans themselves
who
set the
example
for such
oppressive
behaviour.21
In
other
words,
in
the
period
of
decline, life, honour,
and
property,
which
is the basic
duty
of
a
responsible government
to
guarantee
for
its
subjects,
were in
jeopardy
and
oppression
and
17
As
translated in
Wright, p.
88.
18 See the translation of the Giilhane Rescript in J.C. Hurewitz (ed.), The
Middle
East and North
Africa
in
WorldPolitics
(Columbia,
1975),
pp.
269-
71.
Inciden-
tally,
this
translation is
not
complete,
see
note 87 below.
19
Mustafa
Nuri, IV, 102;
Wright, p.
55,
cf.
also Ahmed
CAta, Tarih,
5
vols.
(Istanbul,
A.H.
1292-93),
III,
203-4.
20
5eref,
pp.
50ff.
21
On the
practice
of the
Sultans,
see Ahmet
Mumcu,
Osmanli
evletinde
Siyaset-
en
Katl
(Ankara,
1963),
pp.
147-62.
177
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BUTRUS ABU-MANNEH
tyranny prevailed
throughout
the land.22 This
state of affairs
en-
couraged
the
people
to seek other means for
protection
and
securi-
ty,23 which in turn accelerated the decline of the central govern-
ment and its
agencies
in the
provinces.
Perhaps
due to such
conditions,
or
for other
reasons,
there
emerged
in
the 18th
century
in
Anatolia local notables who
were
called
derebeys,
lords of the
valleys, indigenous
rulers
who were
inclined
...
to consider the interest of the
peasantry
more
sym-
pathetically
than the
...
governors
that
represented
the
sultan .24
Not only did the derebeysucceed in establishing ruling families and
achieve a
great
deal
of
self-rule,
their
rule was
hereditary.
They
con-
tinued to
acknowledge,
however,
the ultimate
sovereignty
of the sul-
tan
and
paid
him
tribute.
According
to
some,
their
dominions
were
far better
governed
than
those that were under
direct
government
control.25
About the
same time
in
the
towns and cities of
the
Balkans,
there
emerged
local notables
(ayain)
whose rise and
origin
perhaps
differed
from that of the derebeys,but who came to occupy a very similar sta-
tus.
As
the
derebeyshey
set out to
protect
the
subjects,
had
their own
troops
and
enjoyed
full control
over
their
districts,
while
paying
trib-
ute
to
Istanbul.26
Thus,
by
the
beginning
of
the 19th
century,
rule
in
the
provinces
of
the
Ottoman
Empire
resembled to a
large
extent to
a decentral-
ized
system
of
government.27
Aydan
and
derebeys
and other local
chieftains
were the
virtual
rulers of the
land.
Loyalty
to the
sultan
was
observed,
but
his
authority
in
most of the
regions
of the
Empire
was
ineffective.
22
Cf.
Wright,
pp. 54-5.
23
Inalcik,
pp.
47-8.
24
Gibb
and Bowen
I, 1,
p.
256.
On the
Derebeys
see
Lewis,
p.
440
and
El2,
III,
206-8
and
Gibb and
Bowen, I, 1,
256-7. See also
Yuzo
Nagata
The
Role
of Ayans in Regional Development During the Pre-Tanzimat Period in Turkey:
A
Case
Study
of
the
Kara-Osmanoglu
Family
in
Urbanism
n
Islam
Tokyo,
1989)
vol.
1
pp.
165ff.
25
A.
Slade,
Records
f
Travel,
2
vols.
(London,
1832);
I,
216f.
Inalcik,
pp.
45ff.
26
On
the
acyan
ee
Gibb
and
Bowen, I,
pp.
198-9
and
256-7;
Mustafa Nuri
IV,
98-9 and
EI2
I,
778. See
also
Yuzo
Nagata,
Muhsin-ZadeMehmed
asa
veAyan-
lk Muessesesi
Tokyo,
1976), pp.
27ff.
and
pp.
74ff.
27
Mustafa
Nuri,
IV,
46-58;
Inalcik,
pp.
51-3,
and
Lewis,
pp.
378-9.
178
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8/32
THE
ISLAMIC
ROOTS OF THE GULHANE
RESCRIPT
At
this
time,
too,
the
authority
of the sultans was
challenged
even
in
Istanbul,
the
seat
of
government.
As
had
happened
in
1806
-
1807
to Sultan Selim III,
Janissaries
or rather
Janissaries
together
with
a faction of
high
ulema
contested
his
freedom
of action.
For
the
Sul-
tanate of the House
of
Osman
this
meant
that it
had reached its
lowest
ebb.
Sultan Mahmud
II
rose to
the
Sultanate
after
great
disturbances
in
Istanbul which
had claimed
the
lives of his cousin
Selim III
and
of his
elder
brother
Mustafa
IV. He
himself was elevated to the
Sul-
tanate by an acyanof Rus~uk (Russe) in Rumelia named Mustafa
Bairakdar,
who had
occupied
Istanbul
with
his own
troops
and con-
trolled it for several
months,
a course of action unheard of
in
the
his-
tory
of
the
Ottomans.
It
seemingly
heralded the final
move of
the
acydnand
derebeys
owards
taking
control of
the
central
government
and
deciding
the fate of the
Empire.28
To attain
the
Sultanate
in
circumstances
such as these was not
a
particularly great
honour for
Mahmud,
nor indeed for the
Ottoman
dynasty, and he was determined to restore the power of the sultan
at
whatever
price
and
by
whichever means
necessary.29
First
of
all,
he
set out
to restore
centralization to the
system
of
government
in
the
provinces,
which
meant that he
had
to
destroy
the
power
of
the
a'ydn
and
derebeys
nd substitute
them
by governors
that he
himself
had
appointed
and
whose
powers
emanated
from
him.
Many
of
the
aydan
and
derebeys
were
moved to
other,
further
away
districts,
and
many were declared rebellious, attacked and destroyed, while others
were
done
away
with
by
other
means.30
Even
before the
annihilation of the
power
of the
acydn
and
derebeys
was
complete,
Mahmud
moved
against
the
Janissaries
and in
1826
had them
eliminated,
followed
by
the
suppression
of their
centuries-
28
See
especially
what Nuri
(p. 58)
and Inalcik
(pp.
52-3)
wrote
about the
Sened-i ttifak which the a5yan nd derebeysigned in Istanbul in the Fall of 1808;
see Ahmed
Cevdet,
Tarih,
12
vols.
2nd
ed.
(Istanbul
A.H.
1309);
see
IX,
278-82
(appendix 2)
for
the text of
the
Sened .
29
There is
no
monograph
on
Sultan
Mahmud II. Short
assessments,
however,
are
found in
Lutfi,
Tarih, VI,
pp.
32-7;
Lewis,
pp.
75ff; IA, VII,
165-70,
and
El2,
VI, 58-61
and
bibliography.
30
Mustafa
Nuri,
IV, 98;
Slade
I,
218-20 and Ch.
MacFarlane,
Constantinople
in
1828,
2
vols.
2nd ed.
(London,
1829),
II,
11Off.
179
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BUTRUS
ABU-MANNEH
long
allies,
the Bektashi order.31
The
destruction of the
Janissaries
had removed the
last
stumbling
block
in
Sultan Mahmud's drive
for
absolute power.32 Finally he could work unhindered to take full
control
over the
ulema and
state functionaries and subdue
the
Sub-
lime Porte to his absolute
will.
To
achieve his aim
he did not
hesitate,
to exile or
put
to death
without trial
many
of the
highest
and most trusted
functionaries,
for
the
slightest suspicion
on his
part,
confiscating
their wealth
and
property33.
In
short,
during
his
reign,
a
great many
atrocities
were
committed and much blood
was
spilled.
At
no other time
indeed,
both in
Istanbul and
in
the
provinces,
were life
honour and
posses-
sions of the
empire's
subjects,
as insecure
as
during
the
reign
of
Sul-
tan
Mahmud.34
In
one of the
provinces,
however,
he
was not
successful-
Muhammad
Ali
Pasha,
wali of
Egypt
since
1805,
and
himself
of
a'yan origin,
had
firmly
established himself and
had become too
powerful
for Sultan
Mahmud
to
remove
him.
In
the
end,
Muham-
mad Ali moved against Mahmud, and only the intervention first
of
Russia and then the
other
European
powers
(except
France),
appears
to have
saved
Sultan Mahmud.35
The
reign
of Sultan
Mahmud
was a hated one
throughout
the
provinces.36
In
Anatolia,
for
instance, the
aydan
and
conservative
masses were
hostile to
Mahmud's reform
and when the
army
of
Muhammad Ali
entered
Anatolia,
they
were
sympathetic
to
him .37
We are
told,
moreover,
that
several
deputations
arrived
31
On the
destruction
of the
Janissaries,
see
Mehmed
Es'ad,
Uss-i
Zafer,
2nd
imp.
(Istanbul,
1292),
Cevdet, Tarih,
XII,
177ff.;
Lufti, I, 136ff;
Mustafa
Nuri,
IV,
76ff,
and
IA, XIII,
394f.
32
On the
growth
of Mahmud's
despotic
rule,
see
Slade
I,
267-8
and
276,
Lewis,
75,
and
Ahmed
Rasim,
Istibdattan
Hakimiyet-i
Milliyeye,
2
vols.
(Istanbul
1342/1923-24),
I,
172ff.
33
Such as
Halet
Efendi in
1822
or Pertev
Pasha
in
1837
and
many
others sent
into exile who
never
put
a
foot
again
in
Istanbul.
34
Ahmed Rasim, I, 141ff; and ;. Mardin, The Genesisof YoungOttomanThought
(Princeton,
1962),
pp.
158f,
and n.
88,
and
Slade,
I,
209f.
35
See
my
forthcoming
article
Muhammad
Ali
Pasha and
Sultan
Mahmud
II,
the
Genesis of a
Conflict.
36
D.S. Frank
(ed.),
Islam n the
Modern
World(Washington,
1951), p.
42
(the
ar-
ticle of
Birge);
see
also I.H.
Danismend,
Izahli Osmanli
Tarihi
Kronolojisi
4
vols.
(Istanbul,
1947-61),
IV,
122-3.
37
Inalcik,
p.
54;
Mustafa
Nuri, IV,
95.
180
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8/20/2019 Abu-Manneh, B. 'The Islamic Roots of the Gulhane Rescript'
10/32
THE ISLAMIC
ROOTS
OF
THE
GULHANE
RESCRIPT
in
Egypt
from Asia Minor and
other
provinces
to
testify
to
him
the
good
will
of
the
people
there
.
..
.138
In the light of the policies of Sultan Mahmud and the attitudes
they provoked,
there
seems
to have been an
attempt
in
the late 1830s
to convince him to
proclaim
a decree
along
the lines we later
will
find
in
the Guilhane
Rescript.39
This is
reported
by
Abdulrahman
~eref,
the
last official Ottoman
historian
(VakCa
Nuves).
While
he
does
not
say
when
and
by
whom the
Sultan was
approached
on the
matter,
he
adds
that
Akif
Papa,
the minister of the
interior,
convinced
him
against
such
an act.
Sultan Mahmud
did, however,
at this
stage
decide
upon
a
num-
ber
of measures
of reform.
In
March
1838
he
established
the
High
Council of
Judicial
Ordinances
and
put
at its
head
the
veteran
officer and
statesman,
M. Hfisrev
Papa,
who
in
January
1837 had
been
dismissed from
the
office of Serasker.40
Moreover,
the
Sultan
cancelled the
arbitrary practice
of
miusdere,
the
confiscation of the
property
of a
deceased
high functionary.41
That Mahmud would not be persuaded to promulgate an edict as
the later
Guilhane
Rescript,
was
possibly
because
he
was still
hoping
for
a
military victory
over
Muhammad Ali. Such a
victory,
he
deemed,
would vindicate his acts
and
policies
and silence his
oppo-
nents. Whatever
reform measures
he
introduced,
Mahmud's
mo-
tives
were far
from
being
inspired
by
the
ideals
later
to
underpin
the
Guilhane
Rescript.
For
him
absolute
sultanic
power
was and should
remain
supreme
throughout
the
land.
38
[Anonymous],
Three Letters on
the
Policy of England
towards the Porte
and Mo-
hammedAli
London,
1840),
p.
18;
see
also
[Anonymous]
The Sultan
Mahmud and
Mehmet
Ali
Pasha
2nd
ed.
(London,
1835),
p.
24.
See
also
Y.
Hofman,
The
Ad-
ministration of
Syria
and
Palestine under
Egyptian
Rule
(1831
-
1840)
in M. Ma'oz
(ed.),
Studies
on
Palestine
During
the
OttomanPeriod
(Jerusalem,
1975),
pp.
311
-33,
see
p.
312-3
and
n.
12.
39
Abdulrahman
5eref,
Tarih-i Devlet-i
Aliyye,
2
vols.
(Istanbul,
A.H.
1315)
II,
317 and
idem,
Tarih
Musahabeleri,
p.
48;
and M.
Nuri, IV,
94; Danismend,
IV,
123.
40
On Mehmet
Hiisrev,
see
Ahmed
CAta,
Tarih,
II, 118-
27.
5eref,
TarihMusa-
habeleri,
p.
10-5.
Inalcik,
in
IA, V,
609-16.
41
On the
abolishing
of
the
Miisadere,
see
Cavid
Baysun
in
IA,
VIII,
673.
Mumcu,
pp.
16
If;
see also Carter V.
Findley,
Bureaucratic
eform
n
theOttoman
m-
pire,
The
Sublime
Porte,
1789-1922
(Princeton, 1980), pp.
145f.
Findley
states,
however,
that
according
to the Penal Code
of
1838 of Mahmud
only
what
is
termed
undeserved
expropriation
was
actually
abolished.
181
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8/20/2019 Abu-Manneh, B. 'The Islamic Roots of the Gulhane Rescript'
11/32
BUTRUS
ABU-MANNEH
3. The
Palace,
the
Porte and Sunni-Orthodox
slam
From his rise to the Sultanate at the beginning of July 1839, Sul-
tan
Abdiilmecid, however,
seems to
have
charted a course whose
ideals differed
vastly
from those
of
his
father. His
priorities,
too,
were
different. Whereas Mahmud
II
dedicated
his efforts
to restore
sultanic
power,
Abdfilmecid
put
his
emphasis upon
being regarded
as a virtuous ruler42 and
worked to
rectify
malpractices
and
to
up-
root the
oppression
and
abuses
of
power
briefly
discussed
in
the
previous
section.
How he
thought
to achieve
this
will
be discussed
in the following section. We shall try to find out what determined
the
convictions and
the
socio-political
outlook of
the
new
sultan
and
of
those
who were close
enough
to
him
to
be
able
to affect his deci-
sions and course of action.
Similarly,
we shall ask whether
there
were certain ideals common to
the
Palace
and the Porte
at
this
stage
because
it is
assumed
that the Guilhane
Rescript
would
not have
been
possible
without
complete understanding
between the sultan
and the
leading
bureaucrats.
It is known that three
high standing
ulema of Istanbul had been
the
private
tutors of Shah-zade
Abdfilmecid.
The first
of
these was
Mehmed
Emin
?ehri
Hafiz
Efendi,43
the
second Mehmed
Zeyn-uil
Abidin
Efendi,
the
first
imam
of
Sultan Mahmud in
his
later
years,44
and the third
Ak?ehirli
Omer
Efendi.45
We
do not know
whether
Abduilmecid
was
subjected
to a
systematic
course of
study.
42
In
an article
by
H.
Inalcik,
entitled
Sened-i Ittifak
ve GuilhaneHatt-i Hu-
mayun
and
published
in
Belleten
XXVIII
(1964),
a
summary
is
given
of a
procla-
mation
issued
by
Sultan
Abdiilmecid
at his rise. The
Sultan
proclaimed
that
God
has
appointed
me
Emir-illMiimininand a
Caliph
and he exhorted the
Muslims
to
perform
the five
daily prayers
and
called
upon
state
officials
that if
they
see men
in
the
streets
who did not
go
to the
mosque
they
should ask
them
about the
reason
. . .
p.
618.
Moreover,
at
his
rise
Abdiilmecid
ordered that
many
hundreds of
wine bottles
from the cellar of
his
father,
the late Mahmud
II,
to
be
poured
into
the
Bosphoros.
See Ch.
White,
ThreeYears
n
Constantinople,
vols.
(London, 1846),
III, 100-101.43
On
5ehri
Hafiz M.
Emin,
see
Ahmed
cAta, Tarih, III,
119
(he
calls him
Kankarilizade
el-Seyyid
el-Haj
Hafiz
Mehmed
Emin);
M.Z.
al-Kawthari,
Irghdm
al-Murid
Istanbul, 1328),
pp.
91-2;
Sicill-i Osmani
hereafter SO),
I,
433
and
IV,
718.
See
also
I.H.
Uzuncarilih,
Osmanli
Devletinin
Ilmiye
Teskilatz.
(Ankara,
1965)
p.
146,
n.
2
44
Ahmed
Lutfi, Tarih,V,
39
and
SO,
II, 435,
and
IV,
720.
45
On
Ak?ehirli
Omer, SO, III,
600-1.
182
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12/32
THE ISLAMIC ROOTS OF THE GULHANE RESCRIPT
Nothing
could be found of the
material of his
studies,
neither
sub-
jects
nor
books,
except
for the
fact
that
at the
age
of ten he
completed
the reading of the QurPn (hatm-i
Fur.kan).46
We may assume,
however,
that
he was
introduced to such
subjects
of Islamic
learning
that
a future Muslim ruler should
acquire.
This
makes the role
his
tutors
played
in his
education
exceptionally important.
Little is known
about
Zeyn-fil
Abidin Efendi and Omer
Efendi,
but
about
?ehri
Hafiz we
know
a
good
deal more.
When on a
visit
to
Makka,
he
was
initiated
and trained
in
the
Naqshbandi-Khalidi
suborderby Sheikh Abdullahal-Makki, a khalifadeputy) of Skeikh
Khalid,47and thus became
a
follower of the Khalidi suborder. This
is
important
for
our
discussions,
because to become
a
follower of this
order
required
certain convictions and
a
way
of
life
turned towards
Allah. The
Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi
order,
of
which the
Khalidi
suborder
is a
branch,
is
distinguished by
its strict adherence
to
Sunni-Orthodox
Islam,
and
by enjoining
its followers to abide
by
shariFa
recepts.48
Moreover,
it
enjoins
them
to
seek
influence
with
rulers and their men in order to insure the supremacyof the sharFia
in
the state
and thus to
bring justice
and
righteousness
into
their
acts.49
One
may
assume
that,
as a
Naqshbandi-Khalidi,
5ehri
Ha-
fiz
tried to influence
his
young
student
in
that
direction. When Ab-
duilmecidbecame Sultan he
gave
due
respect
to
his
former tutor
and
had him
appointed
as the
mufti
of
the
Imperial
Guard
(Hassa
Ordu
Humayunu).
This means
that
5ehri
Hafiz
continued
his
connections
with the Palace. He remained in this capacity until 1263 (1847).50
46
Lutfi,
IV,
102.
47
He was a
follower of Sheikh
Abdullah
al-Makki;
see
Kawthari,
and M. Fev-
zi,
Hediyyet-iil
Hilidin
(Istanbul,
A.H.
1313),
p.
24
and
Irfan
Giindiiz,
Giimiushanevi
Ahmed
Ziyaiiddin
(KS)
(Istanbul,
1984),
pp.
22-4.
48
On Sheikh Kh.lid
and the
Khalidi
suborder,
see A.H.
Hourani,
Sufism
and
Modern Islam:
Mawlana Khalid
and the
Naqshbandi
order in
idem,
The
Emergence
f
theModern
Middle
East
(London,
1981),
pp.
75-89. See
also Hamid Al-
gar A Brief History of the Naqshbandi Order in Marc Gaborieau et al. (eds.)
Naqshbandis
Istanbul,
1990), pp.
28ff. and
my
article The
Naqshbandiyya-
Mujaddidiyya
in
the
Ottoman
Lands
in
the
early
19th
Century,
Die Welt
des
Is-
lams,
XXII
(1982-84),
pp.
1-36
and n. 1 and n.
4.
49
Ibid.,
p.
14
and H.
Algar,
Political
Aspects
of
Naqshbandi
History
in
Marc
Gaborieau
et al.
(eds.),
op.
cit.
p.
126
and
p.
139ff.
50
On this
army corps,
see
M.Z.
Pakalin,
Osmanli
Tarih-i
Deyimleri
ve
Terimleri,
3
vols.
(Istanbul,
1946-56),
I,
763.
183
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BUTRUS ABU-MANNEH
At the
time,
the
Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya
had
a
long
tradi-
tion of more
than
one
hundred
and
fifty years
behind it in
Istanbul.
It was first introduced into the Ottoman capital by Murad al-
Bukharl,
towards the end of
the
17th
century.51 During
the
18th,
more missionaries
of
the
order arrived
in
Istanbul,
and
interest
in
its
teachings
grew.
Not
only
did
ulema or
higher
state function-
aries
join
the
order,
it
also found
many
followers
among
the
lit-
terateurs. Towards the
end of the 18th
century,
Sheikh Muhammad
Emin,
one
of the
order's
khalifas,
exerted a
growing
influence
among
those state functionaries who stood behind the military reforms un-
dertaken
by
Sultan Selim III.52
When
khalifas
of Sheikh
Khalid
began
preaching
in
Istanbul
a
lit-
tle before
1820,
many
people
of
high
rank
and
of
good
fortune
among
the
dignitaries
(rijdl)
and ulema
.
..
.53
joined
them. And
when
towards
the
end
of the
1820s
Sultan
Mahmud tried to
remove
the
Khalidi
sheikhs from
Intanbul
(which
turned out to be a tem-
porary
measure),
it
did
not halt the
expansion
of
the
Naqshbandi-
Mujaddidi order in the city. In the later 1820s a sheikh of Indian ori-
gin,
Muhammad
Jan
(al-Bajuri),
settled
in
Makka. He was a
khalifa
of the
famous
Sheikh
of
Delhi,
Shah
Ghulam
Ali,
who was also the
preceptor
of Sheikh
Khalid.
Muhammad
Jan
was active as of
the
1830s and
succeeded
in
gaining
many
followers
in
Istanbul.54
One
of
the
believers and
followers
of
Muhammad
Jan
in
Istanbul,
was
Abdiilmecid's mother
Bezmi-Alem.
Originally
a
Georgian
slave,
she
had
been
purchased
and
brought up by
Esma
Sultan,
a
sister of
Mahmud
II.55
Esma
Sultan
was
the widow of
Kuiuik
Hiiseyin
Papa
(d.
Dec.
1803),
the
celebrated
kapudan
(admiral)
of
51
On
Murad
al-Bukhari see
Khalil
al-Muradi,
Silk
al-Durar,
4
vols.
(Cairo
A.H.
1291-1301),
IV,
129-30.
52
See
my
article,
n.
48,
above,
pp.
17-21.
53
Suleiman Faik
Mecmulasi,
Istanbul
Universitesi
Kuitiiphanesi
TY
9577
fols.
4a-b; Lutfi,
Tarih
I, 286; and my article in n. 47, p. 24.
54
On sheikh
Muhammad
Jan,
see H.
Vassaf,
sefinet-ul
Evliya
Suleymaniye
Kiitiiphanesi
Yazma
Ba'gllar
2306,
fol.
161,
Abdulmajid
al-Khani
al-Hada'iq
al-
Wardiyya
Cairo,
A.H.
1308),
pp.
221-
2
and
M.
Murad
al-Qazani
al-Manzilawi,
Dhayl
al-Rashahat
(on
the margin
of
Rashahat
'Ain
al-.Haytah
(Makka,
A.H.
1307/[1889-90], pp.
81ff.
55
Charles
White, III, 2;
on
Esma Sultan
see M.
Qagatay
Uluqay
Padisahlarnn
Kadinlarz
ve
Kzzlarz
(Ankara,
1980),
pp.
111
-
2.
184
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14/32
THE
ISLAMIC ROOTS OF
THE
GULHANE
RESCRIPT
Selim III's
times
who
himself
originally
had
been
a
Circassian or a
Georgian
slave.56
Hfiseyin
Pa?a
was remembered
for his
firm
be-
lief and observation of his religious duties ,57 which may have left
their mark on
his
household
after
him.
Esma Sultan
presented
Bezmi-Alem
to her brother
to
become
his
second
wife and the
mother
of
his
son,
Abdiilmecid.58
According
to
all
surviving
evidence,
Bezmi-Alem was
a remarkable woman. Ab-
duilmecid
was
her
only
son,
and she adored
him.
Throughout
her life
(she
died
in
1853 after
an
illness),
she was
very
close to
him,
and
seems to have exerted a powerful influence
on
him,
both before and
after
his
rise
to the
Sultanate.59
Bezmi-Alem stood out
for her
generosity
and
her
piety.
Till
to-
day,
she
is
remembered,
especially
in
Istanbul,
for
her
many
benevolent acts.60
Her
piety
and
firm
religious
belief
may
have
originated
in the
household of Kfiufik
Hiiseyin,
but as mentioned
she was also a believer
in
Sheikh Muhammad
Jan.61
It is not ex-
actly
known how she learned
of
him,
but her
kethuda
(affairs
manager),
Hasan Tahsin Bey who had won her favour,62 was a
khalifa
of
Sheikh
Jan.63
A
sign
of her
veneration
of the
sheikh and
her
favourable attitude
towards
the
Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi
order
was the
building
of a zawiya in Makka
for
Sheikh
Jan
at her
ord-
er . She
did
so,
in
fact,
through
the services of Sheikh Shumnulu
'Ali
Efendi,
another
deputy
of
SheikhJan
and head
of the Bala
derga-
hi in
Istanbul.64
In other words, through his tutor on the one hand and his mother
on the
other,
it
is believed
that
Sultan Abdfilmecid at a
young age
56
On
Kuiiuk
Hiiseyin
see
Cevdet, Tarih,
2nd
ed.
(Istanbul,
A.H.
1309),
VII,
369;
and
CAta,
Tarih
II, 193-8,
and
El2, III,
627-8.
57
cAta,
II,
197.
58
On
Bezmi-Alem,
see
Uluqay,
pp.
120-
1;
see also
IA, XIII,
185 Valide
Sul-
tan ;
TiirkAnsiklopedisi,
VI,
306-7.
59
Ch.
MacFarlane,
Turkey
nd
its
Destiny,
2
vols.
(London,
1850),
see
II, 244f;
Lewis, p. 104.
60
On
the
benevolent
acts
of
Bezmi-Alem,
see reference in n. 57
and
5emseddin
Sami,
Kamus-ul
Aclam, II,
1307.
61
On
Bezmi-Alem
being
a believer in
M.
Jan,
see
al-Khani,
p.
222.
62
Ahmed
Cevdet, Tezakir,
I, 157,
nezdinde
hayli
mukbil
olup .
63
On Hasan Tahsin
Bey,
see
M.K.
Inal,
SonAsir
Turk
'airleri,III,
1866ff;
Lut-
fi,
Tarih
X,
64 and
SO,
II,
49.
64
Vassaf,
II,
fol.
161;
al-Khani,
222.
185
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8/20/2019 Abu-Manneh, B. 'The Islamic Roots of the Gulhane Rescript'
15/32
BUTRUS
ABU-MANNEH
was
exposed
to
Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi
belief and
that orthodox
Is-
lamic ideals
formed
the foundation
of his convictions
and
socio-
political outlook, which naturally after his rise and for some years
to
come,
continued
to
reflect itself
in
his
actions.
Moreover,
there
were other
people
related
to the Palace who at
this
stage
were followers
of
the
Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi
order.
First
of
all
the
Sultan's
sister,
CAdile
Sultan,
who in
about
1845 became
a follower of
Sheikh Shumnulu
CAli.65Two other
ulema
employed
at the
Palace
during
the later
days
of Sultan
Mahmud
were
Naqsh-
bandis.
The first
was
Eyyubi
Abdullah Efendi
(d. 1252/1836)
who
was
the
head
reciter of the
Qur'dn
re'is-il
kurra').66
The second was
the
calligrapher
Mustafa
Izzet. He had become a
khalifa
of
Sheikh
Muhammad
Jan
when
on
a visit
to Makka
in
1830. After
returning
to Istanbul
and because of
his
beautiful voice
he was taken to
the
Palace as muiezzin.
Prior to the death
of
Mahmud, however,
he be-
came
the khattbat the
Eyyup
mosque.
One
Friday
in
1845,
Sultan
Abdfilmecid
performed
his
prayers
at his
mosque
and heard
his ser-
mon. Much impressed by it, he took him back into the Palace service
as his second and soon thereafter his first imam.
In
1852, however,
Izzet left this
position
to
join
the
legal
service.67
Indeed,
it
would
appear
that not
only
the
Sultan,
the
Valide
Sultan,
and
a number of Palace functionaries were
influenced
by
Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi teachings
but that
many
members of the
upper
echelons
of the state
were
affected
by
them to one
degree
or
other.
Among
the
Khalidi followers
in
1839,
we find the
incumbent
Sheikh
il-Islam Mustafa
CAsim
Efendi who
had
occupied
this office
65
CAdile Sultan was the wife of
Damad
Mehmed CAli. She contributed a
chandelier
for
the
zawiya
of Sheikh M.
Jan
in
Makka. She is also
remembered
in
Istanbul for
her
many
benevolent acts. Cf. Vassaf
II,
fol.
161,
Inal,
I,
32
-3, SO,
III, 501 and
IA,
IV, 710-1.
66
Cf. M.T. Brussali,
Osmanli Miiellifleri,
3 vols. (Istanbul, A.H. 1333), I,
379-80 and
Lutfi,
V,
72-3
and
SO,
III, 396. His son Mehmed Emin
wrote a
biography
of
him,
Gelsen
Mesayihi
Selatin
(in ms.)
but it could not be
located.
Ac-
cording
to
Brussali,
Abdullah
Efendi was
the
author of
a number of
books one of
which was a translation
of
Naqshbandi
treatises,
another
Nasihat
l-Muluk
(Counsel
for
Princes).
67
On
Mustafa
Izzet,
see
M.K.
Inal,
Son
Hattatlar,
pp.
154ff,
and
Tarih
Musa-
habeleri,
pp.
316-8.
186
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8/20/2019 Abu-Manneh, B. 'The Islamic Roots of the Gulhane Rescript'
16/32
THE ISLAMIC
ROOTS
OF
THE GULHANE
RESCRIPT
twice
before,
but now
was to
serve
in
this
capacity
for about
14
years
successively
(1833
-1846)
and
there are
many signs
that he
enjoyed
a growing influence in the councils of the state, especially after the
death of
Sultan Mahmud.68
At the rise
of Sultan
Abdfilmecid,
the
aged
statesman
Hfisrev
Papa
occupied
the
post
of Grand
Vizier.
An
Abaza
by origin
who
had been
brought
to Istanbul
as
slave,
Hfisrev started
his career
in
the
Palace,
then became
a
secretary
and afterwards
a kethuda o
Kui-
?uk
Hiiseyin
Papa.
After
his
mentor
had
died,
he maintained his
connections with the Palace and served Sultan Mahmud II faithfully
in
various
military capacities.
We
do
not
know of
any
sufi affiliations
he
may
have
had,
but
his
closeness
to
Kiiufik
Hiiseyin
in
his
early
life
might
have affected his
views.
In
old
age
we find
him
establish-
ing
a
Naqshbandi
tekke
n
Emirgan,
a
township
on the
Bosphoros,
beside his
mansion,
and
renovating
the
mosque
of the
place
and es-
tablishing
a
library
there.69
Moreover,
in
his
vakfiye,
he
assigned
an
adequate
amount
for the
upkeep
of the dervishes
of the
Naqshbandi
tekkeof Koca Mustafa Pa?a outside the Edirne gate in old Istan-
bul.70
Both
acts
suggest
a favourable attitude towards
the
Naqsh-
bandi order.
Not
only
the sheikh ill-Islam
or,
to some
degree,
the
Grand
Vizier
but also Mustafa
Re?id,
foreign
minister
in
1839,
had
been
exposed
to
similar influences.
His mentor at the
Porte,
Pertev
Pa?a-whom
Sultan Mahmud had
put
to
death
in
September
1837-had been a
Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi adept and a follower of Sheikh 'Ali Bahcet,
the
head
of the
Selimiyye
tekke
n
Uskiidar.71
Mustafa
Re?id
owed
much to Pertev and held his
memory
in
great
respect.72
In
summary,
when Sultan Abdfilmecid rose to the
Sultanate,
both
68
On
Mustafa
CAsim,
see
Ilmiyye
alnamesi,
.
580;
A.
Rifcat,
Devhat-iil
Meidyih
(Istanbul,
n.d.),
pp.
124f.
On
his
being
a
Khalidi see Ascad
Sahib
(ed.),
Bughyat
al-
Wajidfi
MaktubatMawlanaKhalid
Damascus, 1915),
p.
105f.,
p.
252f.;
Algar,
Political Aspects . . . , p. 140.
69
CAta, Tarih, II,
120.
?
70
On
Hiisrev,
see above n. 39.
71
On
Pertev
Pasa,
see M.K.
Inal,
SonAsir Turk
5airleri,
pp.
1301
-9;
TurkAn-
siklopedisi,
XXVI,
477-78,
and
my
article cited
above,
n.
47,
p.
21;
and
El2, III,
1066.
72
On
Resid's
debt
to
Pertev,
see
Baysun,
p.
725
and
n.
3,
4,
5
and
Mardin,
p.
161.
187
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8/20/2019 Abu-Manneh, B. 'The Islamic Roots of the Gulhane Rescript'
17/32
BUTRUS ABU-MANNEH
the
Palace and the
Porte
appear
to
have been motivated
by
the ideals
of Orthodox
Islam,
perhaps
more than at
any
time before. This
might have helped to determine their view as to the measures needed
to
put
an
end
to the
prevailing
malpractices
and
abuses of
power,
and
to restore
security
and
justice
into
the
acts
of the
government
and
throughout
the Ottoman
lands.
There is no doubt that it was this
united resolve
which
made
the
promulgation
of
the
Guilhane
Rescript possible.
In
this sense Mu-
hammad Ali was
right
when he wrote to his
son Ibrahim
in
Syria
to
keep on his guard because after the death of Sultan Mahmud
Istanbul started
...
to close
its ranks .73
As
a final
remark,
it
is
perhaps appropriate
to
add that
this
rise
of the
impact
of Sunni-Orthodox
Islam
in
Istanbul and
in
many
other
urban areas
of the
Empire
was
clearly
manifest
in the
cultural
field
in
the first half or so of the 19th
century. According
to
one
authority:
In
the field of literature
and
philosophy
the
Tanzimat,
as
a
whole,
was an era
during
which translations into
[Ottoman]
Turkish of Islamic literature reached unprecedented proportions
...
Conversely,
no translations from
European
thinkers,
philosophers,
or litterateurs were undertaken in
Turkey
[sic]
in the
first half of the nineteenth
century .74
Furthermore,
with the
ad-
vent
of
printing
both
in
Cairo
(the
Bulaq
printing
press)
and
in
Istanbul
many
of these translations found a
relatively
wide circu-
lation.
75
4. The
making of
the
Gulhane
Rescript
As we
saw
above,
prior
to his
rise Sultan
Abduilmecid
had been
exposed
to
Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi
beliefs
through
his
tutors,
espe-
73
A.
Rustum
(ed.),
al-Mahfu.zat
l-Malakiyya
al-Misriyya,
4
vols.
(Beirut,
1940-43), IV, 155,
Doc.
5918.74
Mardin,
p.
203;
see
also Tanzimat
(Ankara, 1940),
p.
445.
75
Translations
from
European
languages
took
place
in the fields of
engineer-
ing,
medical and
military
sciences for
specific
purposes only.
See
Ekmel
Eddin
Ihsan-Oglu,
Some critical
notes on the introduction
of modern
sciences to the
Ot-
toman
state
...
in
Jean-Louis
Bacque-Grammont
and Emeri
van Donzel
(eds.),
Comiti
International D'Etudes
. ..
Ottoman,
[the proceedings
of
the]
VI
Symposium
(Istanbul-Paris-Leiden,
1987),
pp.
235-52.
188
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8/20/2019 Abu-Manneh, B. 'The Islamic Roots of the Gulhane Rescript'
18/32
THE ISLAMIC
ROOTS
OF THE
GULHANE RESCRIPT
cially
~ehri
Hafiz
and,
through
his mother
Bezmi-Alem.76 How far
this influence went
and what
impact
it
left on him
could
only
be
ascertained after a study of the life at the Palace during this period
and
in
particular
of the life
and customs of the Sultan
himself.
But
the fact that he
gave
his
approval
of
and funded the
building
of a
mausoleum and
a
large
zawiya
over
the tomb
of Sheikh
Khalid
in
Damascus
(between
1842-
1846)
and
designated
evkaf
for their
up-
keep,77
was
undoubtedly
a sure
sign
of the
respect
in
which the
Sul-
tan
held the
memory
of
the
founder of
this
Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi
suborder.
One
other
spectacular
act of
religiosity
of the
Sultan
was the
building
anew
of the
mosque
of the
Prophet
in
Madina
(1270/
1854-1274/1858),
after he had the
old
building,
dating
from
the
late
15th
century,
demolished.78
The benevolence
the Sultan
had shown
towards the
followers
of
the
Khalidi
suborder
by
erecting
the
mausoleum
over the tomb of
the
founder must
have
endeared
him
to
them.
Abdulmajid
al-
Khani, the author of a history of the Naqshbandi order in Arabic,
eulogized
the
Sultan
as ahlam
muluk
bani
Cuthman
the
most cle-
ment
of
the
Ottoman
Sultans)79-an
epithet
of
high
praise, espe-
cially
in
a
ruler. On his
part,
Abdiilmecid seems to
have been
eager
to
live
up
to such
a
reputation.
Thus,
in
an
Imperial
edict
(Hatt-i
Hu-
mayun)
addressed
to
the
Grand Vizier80
three
days
after his
rise to
the
Sultanate,
Abdiilmecid wrote the
following:
The
Caliphate
has
passed on to us by inheritance and by right. Because of that and
because God
had
entrusted to our
care the
lands and the
people
(memalik
ve
Cibdd),
we have
to
depend
upon
divine
support
and
upon
the
spiritual
aid of
the
Prophet.
Consequently
it is
our
wish to
see
that the
exalted
fericat
s
applied
in
all
matters
and that
all the
in-
habitants
(kaffeyi
ehali
...
ve
beraya)
should
enjoy
tranquility
and
peace.
76
See
above,
pp.
183-186.
77
CAbd
al-Razzaq
al-Bitar,
.Hilyat
al-Basharfi
Tarikh
al-Qarn
al-Thalith
CAshar,
3
vols.
(Damascus,
1961-63),
I,
586.
78
Ibid.,
II, 1036.
79
al-Hada'iq
al-Wardiyya,
p.
268.
80
Ahmed
Lutfi, Tarih,
VI,
39-40 cf.
also Ed.
Engelhardt,
La
Turquie
et
Le
Tan-
zimat,
2
vols.
(Paris,
1882),
I,
35.
189
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8/20/2019 Abu-Manneh, B. 'The Islamic Roots of the Gulhane Rescript'
19/32
BUTRUS
ABU-MANNEH
Two
weeks
later,
on 17
July
1839,
Sultan
Abdfilmecid
issued an
irade to be read
to
the ministers
who,
it
seems,
were
meeting
at
the office of Sheikh ill-Islam, in which he exhorted them to follow
the law
of
justice
and
equity
in
all matters and to observe
constant-
ly
the
application
of the
honoured
erPiat
n
all the affairs
of the
ex-
alted sultanate
...
Moreover
he
called
upon
all
officials
not
to
deviate from the
ways
of
uprightness
and
honesty
and
to avoid
bribery
.
..
and
repugnant
and
oppressive
acts
.
..
[and]
to be ex-
tremely
careful
not to
give
room
to the rise
...
of
unacceptable
methods.
All the
inhabitants of our protected lands,
rich
and
poor,
he
emphasized,
should
enjoy tranquility
and
repose.
It
is
our most
special imperial
desire that
in
my
exalted
sultanate,
property,
soul,
dwelling,
and
place
should be secure
and safe
from
...
offence and
aggression
...
(mal ve can ve mahall ve makdnindan
miisterih ve emin ve adsri rencis ve
taddidenmasuinve mutma'in
olmalarn
ahass-i matlabi
iihdne).81
It
was not
unusual for a new
sultan,
at
his
ascent,
to address state
functionaries and enjoin them to act justly, to avoid corrupt methods
and to
care
for his
subjects,
which all fell
within the
duties of a Mus-
lim
ruler
towards his
subjects. Many
such
exhortations
survive of
former
sultans and are known
as
justice
decrees
(adaletnames).82
But these
decrees differ
from
Abdiilmecid's irade
in
that
they
were
normally
addressed
to
governors, judges,
or
military
commanders
in
the
provinces
and
concerned
with
abuses of
authority
committed
by
them or
by
their
subordinates there. This
irade of
Sultan
Abdiil-
mecid was
issued to his
own ministers
meeting
in
council
and
was
concerned not
with
specific
abuses
but with
general principles.
This
is
what makes it of
special
interest to us
here
because it
contains basic
principles
that were to
appear
afterwards in
the
Giilhane,
for
exam-
ple,
that the sharPia
hould be
applied,
that
justice
and
righteousness
should
prevail,
and
that care
should be
given
to all the
subjects
of
His
Majesty,
as well
as the
required guarantees
for
their well-
81
Published
in
Takvim-i-Vakayi,
no.
182,
on
the
16th
CA
(Cemaziyelevvel)
1255,
but
it
was read to the
ministers on
the
5th of
CA
(17 July
1839).
82
Halil
Inalcik,
The
Ottoman Decline
and its
effects
upon
the
Reaya, pp.
342-6,
(Article
no.
13 in
the
author's
collected
studies: The
Ottoman
Empire:
Con-
quest,
Organization
and
Economy,
Variorum
Rep.,
London,
1978);
see
also
idem,
Adaletnameler in
Belgeler,
Turk
Tarih
Belgeleri
Dergisi,
II
(1955),
pp.
49-145.
190
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8/20/2019 Abu-Manneh, B. 'The Islamic Roots of the Gulhane Rescript'
20/32
THE ISLAMIC
ROOTS
OF THE GULHANE RESCRIPT
being.
Furthermore,
this iradewas drafted
at the Palace while
Re?id
was still
in
London and about two months
before
his
return,83
which means that such ideas were not exclusively Re?id's and his
young
associates but shared
by
others.
As we
shall
see,
it
was the
death of
Sultan Mahmud and the rise of a new sultan of a
different
mind which
created
the
opportunity
to voice
such ideas.84
In
other
words,
we wish
to
suggest
here to
regard
this
irade
of
Ab-
dfilmecid
as
a
prelude
to
the Giilhane
Rescript.
Since, however,
the
Rescript
carries more
than is
contained
in
the
irade,
our next
ques-
tion is:
what was the source of the other
ideas of
the
Gulhane?
Late in summer
1839,
according
to
directives
of
His
Majesty,
a
meeting
of the
Meclis-i
?ura
was held at the
Sublime Porte
in
order
to discuss
foundations
upon
which
the
gerCi
aws should
be
enact-
ed
in
the
spirit
of the
above-mentioned irade of the sultan. A
memorandum was
read-though
it is
not stated
by
whom
it
was
pre-
pared
or
read-and at
the
end of the
meeting
a
petition
was
drawn
up
and submitted to the Sultan which
carried the
seals
of
38
digni-
taries who apparently attended the meeting. The list was headed by
Husrev
Pa?a,
the
Grand Vizier
to be
followed
by
the Sheikh
uil-
Islam
Mustafa cAsim
Efendi. Halil
Rifcat,
the
Seraskerand
Ra'uf
Pa?a,
the
Chairman
of
the
Council of
Judicial
Ordinances,
came
third
and fourth.
Mustafa
Re?id's
seal
is number
seven.
It
would
ap-
pear
that half
of the
signatories
were
ulema
and
the
others
high
state
officials.85
The
petition opens
with
the
statement that
there
should be full
guarantees for soul and property and for the preservation of honour
and
dignity
according
to
the
requirements
of
the
erFiat .
This basic
right
was to
extend
to
all
His
Majesty's
subjects,
the
Muslims
and
83
Re?id
arrived
in
Istanbul on
4
September
1839;
see
Bailey,
p.
184,
n.
21.
84
See,
e.g.
on
Ibrahim
Sadib
Efendi in
Ba~bakanhlk
Arpivi
(hereafter
BBA),
Da-
hiliye
Iradeleri
no.
197,
dated
18
Ramazan,
1255.
85
This
document
is found in
Topkapi
Saray
Arpivi,
no.
3084/2.
My
thanks
are
due to Ms. Ulkii Altindag, the director of the Archives, for providing me with a
clear
photocopy.
A
photocopy
is
found in
Tanzimat
(Ankara,
1940),
opposite
p.
708,
and a
transliteration into modern
Turkish in R.
Kaynar,
Mustafa
Re;id
Papa
ve
Tan-
zimat
(Ankara,
1954),
pp.
172-
73.
A
photocopy
was
also
published
in
an
article
about the
archives
by
U,
Altindag
in
Sanat,
no.
7
(Istanbul, 1982), p.
81. None
of
these writers
commented on the
document.
Berkes in
his book
(n.
6)
referred to it
as
A
protocol
prepared
by
a
Consultative
Council
without further
additions,
see
p.
145.
191
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BUTRUS ABU-MANNEH
the various
other communities
(ehli
Islam
ve mileli
sa'ire).
Conse-
quently,
the
petition
demanded
public
trials for
criminals,
and that
no one should be put to death openly or secretely, by execution or
by poison
without a verdict
according
to the
erMiat
nd
the law of
the
state.
An