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, Ottoman historian. Among the Ottoman historians who bore the mak̲h̲laṣ ʿAbdī (cf. Babinger, 432 f.), the secretary ( kātib ) of Yūsuf Ag̲h̲a, chief of the eunuchs, is worthy of mention. He was an eye-witness of the magnificent festivities organized in Adrianople in June and July 1675 on the occasion of the circumcision of the crown-prince Muṣṭafā, son of Muḥammad (Meḥmed) IV, and of the marriage of the princess Ḵh̲adid̲j̲e with the second vizier Muṣṭafā Pas̲h̲a (cf. Hammer-Purgstall, vi, 307…

(a. nāḥiya “district, vicinity”), an administrative term of the Ottoman empire. It is found as a general term for the subdivisions of a wilāyet or province as early as the 9th/15th century, but only later becomes a specific term for the rural subdivision of a ḳaḍāʾ [ q.v.] or ḳażā ; this latter term may be compared with the French arrondissement and is governed by a ḳāʾim-maḳām [ q.v.], while the nāḥiye is under a mudīr . This official, who used to be appointed by the wālī , the governor of the province, received his instructions from the ḳāʾim-maḳām, to whom he was subordinate. The subdivis…

, an administrative district and a port on the Danube in Bulgaria (often wrongly called and written as Rus̲h̲čuk), officially in Bulgarian Ruse (Pyce). It is situated at the confluence of the Rusenski Lom (Tk. Ḳara Lom) and the Danube, which then reaches a width of 1,300 m/4,264 feet. It faces the Rumanian port of Giurgiu (Tk. Yer Köki) and spreads out along terraces of loess, above the level of flooding. It is the main port on the Danube and the fourth largest town of Bulgaria, being a rail and…

(t.), literally, “new system, re-organisation”, the new military units created by the Ottoman sultan Selīm III (1203-22/1789-1807 [ q.v.]). The Treaty of Sistova between the Ottoman Empire and Austria (August 1791) and that of Jassy between the Empire and Russia (January 1792) meant that Turkey had to recognise the loss of the Crimea and the fact of Russian control over much of the Black Sea, although Austria withdrew from its conquests in Serbia, Bosnia and the Danube Principalities. Moreover, the European powers…

, daughter of the Ottoman sultan Süleymān II the Magnificent (926-74/1520-66). Mihr-i Māh (sometimes also written Mihr-ü-māh: cf. Ḳaračelebi-zāde, Rawḍat ul-ebrār , 458) was the only daughter of Süleymān q.v., as well as F. Babinger, in Meister der Politik , ii2, Berlin 1923, 39-63). While still quite young she was married to the grand vizier Rüstem Pas̲h̲a (cf. Babinger, GOW, 81-2) at the beginning of December 1539 (cf. J.H. Mordtmann, in MSOS, xxxii, Part 2, 37), but the marriage does not seem to have been a happy one. She used her enormous wealth—St. Gerlach in …

(?-939/?1532-3), an Ottoman Grand Vizier, belonged to Amasya and was a descendant of the famous D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn of Aḳsarāy and therefore traced his descent from Abū Bakr. He took up a legal career and became successively ḳāḍī of Sofia, Siliwri and Galata, administrator of Meḥemmed IPs kitchen for the poor ( ʿimāret ) in Istanbul, and at the beginning of the reign of Bāyezīd II attained the rank of a first defterdār ( bas̲h̲ defterdār ). In the reign of Selīm I, he distinguished himself by his wise counsel in the Persian campaign (see J. von Hammer, GOR, ii, 412, 417 ff.), was sent in advanc…

, secretary of state for the Sultan’s ṭug̲h̲ra , chancellor, in Ottoman administration. The Sald̲j̲ūḳs and Mamlūks already had special officials for drawing the ṭug̲h̲ra, the sultan’s signature. As their official organisation was inherited in almost all its details by the Ottomans, this post naturally was included. Its holder was called nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲i̊ or tewḳīʿī . The nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲i̊ held the same rank as the defterdār s [ q.v.] and indeed even preceded them, for we find defterdārs promoted to nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲i̊s but never a nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲i̊ becoming a defterdār. The nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲i̊ was i…

, wife of the Ottoman sultan Ork̲h̲an and mother of Murād I [ q.vv.], apparently the Greek Nenuphar (i.e. Lotus-flower) (cf. J. von Hammer, GOR, i, 59), was the daughter of the lord of Yārḥiṣār (Anatolia, near Bursa; cf. Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī K̲h̲alīfa, D̲j̲ihān-numā . 659) and according to one story was betrothed to the lord of Belokoma (Biled̲j̲ik). ʿOt̲h̲mān [ q.v.], the founder of the dynasty which bears his name, is said to have kidnapped and carried her off in 699/1299 and to have destined her to be the wife of his son Ork̲h̲an [ q.v.], then only 12 years old. Idrīs Bitlīsī, and following hi…

, K̲h̲od̲j̲a Meḥmed (1111-76/1699-1763), Ottoman Grand Vizier and littérateur. He was born in Istanbul, the son of the kātib Meḥmed S̲h̲ewḳī. and was soon on account of his unusual ability employed in the dīwān . He then acted as secretary and deputy-chamberlain to the governors of Van, ʿArifī Aḥmed Pas̲h̲a, and Köprülü-zāde ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aḥmed Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.], and, lastly, to Ḥekīm-zāde ʿAlī Pas̲h̲a. In 1141/1728 he returned to ¶ the capital and in the following year went back to Bag̲h̲dād as deputy to the reʾīs efendi . Soon after the conquest of Bag̲h̲dād in 1146/1733 he was appointed def…

, Ottoman statesman and historian. Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm, known as Resmi came from Rethymno (Turk. Resmo; hence his epithet?) in Crete and was of Greek descent (cf. Hammer-Purgstall, viii, 202). He was born in 1112/1700 and came in 1146/1733 to Istanbul, where he was educated, married a daughter of the Reʾīs Efendi Taʾūḳd̲j̲i Muṣṭafā and entered the service of the Porte. He held a number of offices in various towns (cf. Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿOt̲h̲mānī , ii, 380 f.). In Ṣafar 1171/Oct. 1757 he went as Ottoman envoy to Vienna and on his return made a written re…

, chef-lieu of a ḳadaʾ in Anatolia, 15 miles south-east of Mik̲h̲alid̲j̲ (cf. J. H. Mordtmann, in ZDMG, lxv [1911], 101) and 40 miles S.W. of Bursa with about 16,900 inhabitants (1960). The town lies on both banks of the Edrenos Čay (Rhyndacus), now called the Mustafa Kemal Paşa Çay. The origin of the name, often wrongly written Kirmāsli̊, which points to a Greek *Κερμαστὴ or *Κρεμαστὴ, is uncertain, nor is it known what ancient town was here. Perhaps the Kremastis in the Troas (cf. Pauly-Wissowa, ii, 743) mentioned in Xenophon, Hist , iv, 8, is to be connected wi…

, the mediaeval Arabic form of the name of the Dalmatian city of Ragusa , until the advent of Bonaparte a free state, the modern Dubrovnik in Croatia (see 2. below), situated in lat. 42° 40ʹ N., long. 18° 07ʹ E. 1. History up to the beginning of the 19th century. Ragusa, the Roman Ragusium (see PW, 2. Reihe, 1.A. 1, col. 130), is situated on the south side of a peninsula which runs out into the Adriatic, picturesquely situated (50 feet) at the foot and on the slopes of Mount Sergius, and was founded in the 7th century by Romance fugitives from Epidau…

, an Ottoman biographer of poets. Meḥmed Riḍā b. Meḥmed, called Zehir Mār-zāde, was born into a family living in Edirne. Of his life we know only that he was for a time, respectively, müderris with a salary of 40 aḳčes , nāʾib and müfti —he held this latter function at Uzun Köprü near Edirne—and that he died in his native town in 1082/1671-2. Besides a collection of poems ( Dīwān ) and a work with the title Ḳawāʿid-i fārisiyye (no manuscript of these works has yet been found), Riḍā wrote a Tad̲h̲kirat al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ , a biographical collection in which he dealt in al…

(d. 1023/1614), an Ottoman grand vizier, was of Christian descent and was born either in Gümüld̲j̲ine [ q.v. in Suppl.] (the modern Komotim, Thrace, Greece) or in Drama. According to some sources (e.g. Baudier and Grimestone, in Knolles), he was the son of a Greek priest; according to others (e.g. Naʿīmā, Taʾrīk̲h̲ 1 283, arnaʾud d̲j̲insi ), of Albanian origin. He came early in life to Istanbul, spent two years in the old Seray as a teberdār (halbardier) and left it as a čawus̲h̲ . Through the favour of the sulṭān’s confidant Meḥmed Ag̲h̲a, he rapidly attained high office. In ¶ quick successio…

, a petty Anatolian dynasty. The earlier history of the Ramaḍān og̲h̲ullari̊ is, like that of most of the minor Anatolian begs ( mülūk-i ṭewāʾif ), wrapped in obscurity. According ¶ to tradition, this Turkoman family came in Ertog̲h̲rul’s time from Central Asia to Anatolia where they settled in the region of Adana and founded their power. Their territory comprised the districts of Adana. Sīs, Ayās, a part of the territory of the Warsaḳ Turkomans, Tarsūs, etc. The date of the earliest known prince of the dynasty, Mīr Aḥmad b.…

(d. after 917/1511), Ottoman historian. There is little definite information about this historian apart from his mak̲h̲laṣ Rūḥī. From ʿĀlī’s [ q.v.] reference to him in the Künhü ’l-ak̲h̲bār as Edrenewī Mewlānā Rūḥī, it is probable that he was a member of the ʿulamāʾ and had a family or professional association with Edirne (J. Schmidt, Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī’s Künhü ’l-aḫbār and its preface according to the Leiden manuscript, Istanbul 1987, 58). Any identification with Rūḥī Fāḍi̊l Efendi (d. 927/1528), son of the s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Islām Zenbilli ʿAlī Efendi, remains hypothetical (Babinger, GOW, 4…

, Ottoman historian. The only information about his life is that he worked under the sultans Maḥmūd I and Muṣṭafā III, i.e. about 1730-64. His history, called either simply ʿAbdī Taʾrīk̲h̲i , or Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Sulṭān Maḥmūd Ḵh̲ān , deals mainly with the antecedents of Patrona Ḵh̲alīl’s rebellion and with the revolution itself (1730-1) and is one of the main contemporary sources for this event. MSS are to be found in Istanbul, Esʿad Efendī, 2153 and Millet Kütübk̲h̲ānesi 409. (Fr. Babinger) Bibliography F. R. Unat, 1730 Patrona ihtilali hakkinda bir eser Abdi tarihi, Ankara 1943 Osmanli Müel…

, Yaḥyā b. Pīr ʿAlī b. Naṣūḥ , an Ottoman theologian and poet, with the nom de plume ( mak̲h̲laṣ ) of Newʿī, was born in Malg̲h̲ara [see malḳara ] (Rumelia), the son of S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Pīr ʿAlī, in 940/1533. Up to his tenth year he was taught by his learned father and then became a pupil of Ḳaramānīzāde Meḥmed Efendi. His fellow pupils were the poet Bāḳī [ q.v.] and Saʿd al-Dīn, the famous historian [ q.v.]. He was an intimate friend of the former. He joined the ʿulamāʾ , became müderris of Gallipoli in 973/1565 and after filling several other offices became a teacher in the Medrese of Mihr u Māh Sulṭān [ q.v.].…

, Aḥmed , an Ottoman poet, born in Istanbul, the son of a judge named Meḥmed Bey who had come from Merzifun. His grandfather (according to Gibb, HOP, iv, 30) was a military judge named Muṣṭafā. Aḥmed Refīḳ mentions as his great-grandfather Ḳara-Čelebi-zāde [ q.v.] Maḥmūd Efendi, who also was a military judge. The genealogy given by Aḥmed Refīḳ is, however, wrong because he confuses Ḳaramānī Meḥmed Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.] with Rūm Meḥmed Pas̲h̲a. The statement that Aḥmed Nedīm is descended from D̲j̲elāl al-Dīn is therefore simply the result of confusion. Little is known of his life. He was a müderris …

, aḥmad , imperial historiographer of the Ottoman empire, born in ʿAyntāb (the modern Gaziantep) in south-eastern Anatolia about the year 1755. He was the son of Seyyid Meḥmed, a clerk of the court, who became famous as a poet under the name of Ḏj̲enānī. His family was one of the old-established ones in the place. In his early youth he acquired an equally fluent knowledge of Arabic and Persian, and this helped him in later years to achieve his fame as a translator ( müterd̲j̲im ) of well-known dictionaries. To begin with, Seyyid Aḥmed was the secretary of th…