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, basic meanings: 1. Command, 2. (preparation in writing of a command) Edict, Document. Ancient Persian framānā ( fra = “fore”, Greek πρό), modern Persian farmān through dropping the ending ā and insertion of a vowel owing to the initial double consonant (still fra- in Pahlavi). In the derived verb farmūdan the ā of the stem became ū (after the third century: far-mūdan , analogous to āz-mūdan “to try”, pay-mūdan “to measure”, numūdan “to show”, etc.). In Firdawsī farmān is found with the following meanings: command, authority, will, wish, permission; and farmūdan accordingly: to comma…

(fine) (in the Ottoman Empire). Though fines are unknown to the criminal law of the s̲h̲arīʿa , some fuḳahāʾ admitted of monetary penalties in certain cases (see e.g., Dede Efendi, Siyāsetnāme , at end). The Ottoman ḳānūnnāmes ([ q.v.]; see also d̲j̲azaʾ ), while pretending merely to apply and complete the s̲h̲arīʿa, prescribed fines ( d̲j̲ürm , d̲j̲erīme or d̲j̲ereme , ḳi̊nli̊ḳ , g̲h̲arāmet ) for a large number of offences. These even included crimes liable to ḥudūd [ q.v.] penalties, such as adultery, theft, the drinking of wine, etc. Generally fines were imposed in addi…

, the body of the higher Muslim religious functionaries ( ʿulamāʾ [ q.v.]) in the Ottoman Empire, especially those administering justice and teaching in the religious colleges [see madrasa ]. Their elaborate hierarchy, unprecedented in Islam, was headed, from the 10th/16th century onwards, by the muftī [ q.v.] of Istanbul called s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-islām [ q.v.]. ¶ The organization of the ḳāḍīs , who formed the highest order of Ottoman ʿulamāʾ, changed over the centuries as a result of Ottoman expansion and withdrawals and of the variations in the relative importance a…

(), also buyrultu, buyurdu, etc., order of an Ottoman grand vizier, vizier, beglerbegi , defterdār , or other high official to a subordinate. The term is derived from the word buyuruldi̊ , ‘it has been ordered’, in which the order usually ends and which gradually developed into a conventional sign. Buyuruldu s are of two main types: a) decisions written in the margin ( der kenār ) of an incoming petition or report, often ordering that a fermān (or berāt , etc.) be issued to a certain effect (cf. Ḳānūnnāme-i Āl-i ʿUt̲h̲mān , TOEM, Suppl., 1330, 16); b) orders issued independently ( reʾsen , beyāḍ ü…

, Moses , chief Jewish physician to Süleymān I. His father, Joseph Hāmōn, a native of Granada, served as physician at the court of Bāyezīd II and Selīm I. Probably born ca. 1490, Moses Hāmōn became a leading court physician and influential courtier under Süleymān I. He seems to have allied himself with the powerful court faction headed by K̲h̲urrem Sulṭān [ q.v.], the Sultan’s favourite consort, her daughter Mihr-i Māh [ q.v.] and the latter’s husband, the Grand Vizier Rüstem Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.], who, inter alia, conspired against the heir presumptive, Prince Muṣṭafā [ q.v.], executed in 1553…

, the “Imperial Gate”, the principal entrance in the outer wall of the Sultan’s New Serail or Ṭop-ḳapu Sarāyi̊ [ q.v.] at Istanbul. Situated behind the Aya Sofya mosque, the massive rectangular building gives access to the first court of the Serail through a high, double-arched portai. On either side of the passage between the outer and the inner door are the rooms of the Ḳapud̲j̲i̊s who guarded the gate. In or near the deep niches in the façade the heads of political delinquents used to be exposed. Over the doorway is a beautiful Ḳurʾān…