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; from ʿaskar , soldier; in Ottoman technical usage a member of the ruling military caste, as distinct from the reʿāyā —the subject population of peasants and townspeople ( reʿāyā sometimes means the subjects generally, sometimes only the peasants). The term ‘askarī denoted caste rather than function; it included retired or unemployed ʿaskarīs, the wives and children of ʿaskarīs, manumitted slaves of the Sultan and of the ʿaskarīs, and also the families of the holders of religious public offices in attendance ( mulāzemet ) on the Sultan. The Ottoman ʿaskarī class comprised both th…

, formerly also başbakanlik arşivi , the Archives of the Prime Minister’s office, the name now given to the central state archives of Turkey and of the Ottoman Empire. The formation of the Ottoman archives begins with the rise of the Ottoman state, but the present collection, though containing a number of individual documents and registers from earlier times, dates substantially from after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. The archives became really full from about the middle of the 16th century, and continue to the end of the Empire. The organisation of the Ottoman reco…

, an Ottoman title of Greek origin, from αὐθέντης, Lord, Master, (cf. authentic), probably via a Byzantine colloquial vocative form, afendi (G. Meyer, Türkische Studien , i, in SBAk . Wien (1893), 37; K. Foy in MSOS, i/2 (1898), 44 n. 3; Psichari, 408). The term was already in use in Turkish Anatolia in the 13th and 14th centuries. Eflākī indicates that the daughter of Ḏj̲alāl al-Dīn Rūmī was known as Efendipoulo—the master’s daughter (Cl. Huart, Les saints des derviches tourneurs , Paris 1922, ii, 429; on the later Karaite family name Afendopoulo or Efendipoulo see Z. Ankori, Karaites in Byza…

(a.), “servant of the two holy places” (sc. Mecca and Medina), a title used by a number of Muslim monarchs. Adopted by the Ottoman Sultan Selīm I after the conquest of Egypt in 922/1517 and used by some of his successors, it was regarded in late Ottoman times as a Caliphal title, and was said to have been taken over by Selīm from the last ʿAbbāsid caliph in Cairo. This does not correspond with the evidence, and appears to be part of the mythology of the Ottoman caliphate. As far as can be ascert…

, "the sons", a denomination applied to the following: (I) The descendants of Saʿd b. Zayd Manāt b. Tamīm, with the exception of his two sons Kaʿb and ʿAmr. This tribe inhabited the sandy desert of al-Dahnāʾ. (Cf. F. Wüstenfeld, Register zu den geneal. Tabellen der arab. Stämme ). (II) The descendants born in Yaman of the Persian immigrants. For the circumstances of the Persian intervention in Yaman under Ḵh̲usraw Anūs̲h̲irwān (531-79) and the reign of Sayf b. Ḏh̲ī Yazan, as told by the Arabic authors, cf. sayf b. d̲h̲ī yazan. After the withdr…

, literally “leaf”, which has become the usual term in modern Arabic for a newspaper, its adoption being attributed to Fāris al-S̲h̲idyāḳ [ q.v.]. Its synonym ṣaḥīfa is less used in the sing., but the plural ṣuḥuf is more common than d̲j̲arāʾid . Some interest in the European press was shown by the Ottomans as early as the 18th century and, it would seem, excerpts from European newspapers were translated for the information of the dīwān (Prussian despatch from Constantinople, of 1780, cited by J. W. Zinkeisen, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches , vi, Gotha 1859, …

, i.e., holder of a berāt, a name given in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to certain non-Muslim subjects of the Ottoman Empire, who held berāts conferring upon them important commercial and fiscal privileges. These berāts were distributed by the European diplomatic missions, in abusive extension of their rights under the capitulations. Originally intended for locally recruited consular officers and agents, they were sold or granted to growing numbers of local merchants, who were thus able to acquire a privileged and protect…

, the name given to the Ottoman imperial council, until the mid 11th/17th century the central organ of the government of the Empire. Evidence on the dīwān under the early Sultans is scanty. According to ʿĀs̲h̲iḳpas̲h̲azāde (ch. 31; ed. N. Atsız, Osmanlı tarihlerı , Istanbul 1949, 118; German trans. R. Kreutel, Vom Hirtenzeit zur hohen Pforte , Graz 1959, 66), the practice of wearing a twisted turban ( burma dülbend ) when attending the dīwān was introduced during the reign of Ork̲h̲ān. Probably a kind of public audience is meant. The Egyptian physician S̲h̲ams al-Dīn …

(Turkish eshām ), plural of Arabic sahm (Turkish sehim), share. In Turkey the word was used to designate certain treasury issues, variously described as bonds, assignats, and annuities. The es̲h̲ām are called annuities by Hammer ( Leibrenten ) and also in the Ottoman budget of 1862-3, where they are mentioned as rentes viagčres . The description is not strictly accurate, as although the eshām reverted to the state on the death of the holder, they could be sold, the state claiming a duty ¶ of one year’s income on each such transfer. According to Muṣṭafā Nūrī Pasha, the eshām …

, a name given in mediaeval times to the followers in Syria of the Nizārī branch of the Ismāʿīlī sect. The name was carried from Syria to Europe by the Crusaders, and occurs in a variety of forms in the Western literature of the Crusades, as well as in Greek and Hebrew texts. In the form ‘assassin’ it eventually found its way into French and English usage, with corresponding forms in Italian, Spanish and other languages. Af first the word seems to have been used in the sense of devotee ¶ or zealot, thus corresponding to fidāʿī [ q.v.]. As early as the 12th century Provençal poets compare the…

, Ottoman Turkish writer, was born in Istanbul in 1260/1844, the son of a poor draper called Sulaymān Ag̲h̲a and a Circassian ¶ mother. He lost his father in early childhood, and was for a while apprenticed to a shopkeeper. When he was 10 years old the family moved to Vidin, where his half-brother Ḥāfiẓ Ag̲h̲a was the mudïr of a kaḍā . Ḥāfiẓ, however, fell into disgrace, and in 1859 Aḥmed returned to Istanbul, where he began his schooling. In 1277/1861 Ḥāfiẓ Ag̲h̲a, having won the favour of Midḥat Pas̲h̲a, was reinstated and given an …

(a.), pilgrimage to Mecca, ʿArafāt and Minā, the fifth of the five “pillars” ( arkān ) of Islam. It is also called the Great Pilgrimage in contrast to the ʿumra [ q.v.] or Little Pilgrimage. Its annual observance has had, and continues to have, a profound influence on the Muslim world. Those not taking part follow the pilgrims in thought; the religious teachers, and nowadays the press, radio and television help them in this by providing doctrine and news bulletins. For the Muslim community itself this event is the occasion fo…

( Banu ’l-ʿAbbās ), the dynasty of the Caliphs from 132/750 to 656/1258. The dynasty takes its name from its ancestor, al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib b. Hās̲h̲im, the uncle of the Prophet. The story of the origins and nature of the movement that overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate and established the ʿAbbāsid dynasty in its place was for long known only in the much-revised version put about when the dynasty had already attained power, and, with it, respectability. A more critical version was proposed by G. van Vloten ( De opkomst der Abbasiden in Chorasan , Leiden 1890, and Recherches …

, Deryā-beyi , sea-lord, a title given in the Ottoman Empire to certain officers of the fleet. In the 9th/15th century the term deryā-beyi or deñiz-beyi is sometimes used of the commandant of Gallipoli [see gelibolu ], who had the rank of Sand̲j̲aḳ-beyi, and was the naval commander-inchief until the emergence of the Kapudan Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.]. In the 10th/16th century the Kapudan Pas̲h̲a became, as well as an admiral, the governor of an eyālet , which consisted of a group of ports and islands [see d̲j̲azā’ir-i baḥr-i safīd ]. This province, like others, was divide…

, (also s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-islām kapi̊si̊ , bāb-i fetwā and fetwāk̲h̲āne ), a name which became common in the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century for the office or department of the S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Islām [ q.v.], the Chief Muftī of Istanbul. Until 1241/1826 the Chief Muftīs had functioned and issued their rulings from their own residences or, if these were too distant, from rented quarters. In that year, after the destruction of the Janissaries, Sulṭān Maḥmūd II gave the former ¶ residence of the Ag̲h̲a of the Janissaries, near the Süleymāniyye Mosque, to the Chief Muftī, who …

, S̲h̲īʿite heretic, flourished in the second century A.H. He lived in Kūfa and earned his living by selling barley ( s̲h̲aʿīr ), whence his name. According to the Minhād̲j̲ and the Muntahā , he was sometimes mistakenly referred to as al-As̲h̲ʿarī, instead of the correct al-S̲h̲aʿīrī. According to traditions related by al-Kas̲h̲s̲h̲ī, he was repudiated and disowned by the Imām D̲j̲aʿfar al-Ṣādiḳ ( Rid̲j̲āl 252-4; cf. 197, where ʿAbū Bas̲h̲s̲h̲ār al-As̲h̲ʿarīʾ is denounced as a liar, together with such notorious heretics as al-Mug̲h̲īra …

, Ottoman jurist and theologian. Born in Istanbul in 1004/1595-6, he was the son of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Efendi, a Ḳāḍīʿasker of Rumelia, and the grandson of the historian Saʿd al-Dīn. Entering upon the cursus honorum of the religious institution, he became mudarris and molla and was appointed ḳāḍī first in Salonica and then, in 1043/1633-4, in Aleppo. A heavy smoker, he was reported by the Beylerbey Aḥmed Pas̲h̲a, with whom he was on bad ternis, and in 1044/1634-5 was dismissed and exiied to Cyprus as a punishment for w…

, known as ṣāḥib al-zand̲j̲ , was the leader of the Zand̲j̲ [ q.v.], the rebel negro slaves who for fifteen years (255-270/868-83) terrorised southern ʿIrāḳ and the adjoining territories. He was born in Warzanīn, a village near Rayy, and is said by some authorities to have been of Arab origin, being descended from ʿAbd al-Ḳays on his father’s side and from Asad on his mother’s. His name is generally given as ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm. According to Ibn al-Ḏj̲awzī ( al-Muntaẓam , Hyderabad 1357, v, 2, 69) his real name was ¶ Bihbūd̲h̲. Al-Bīrūnī ( Chronology , 332;…

, a Turkish dervish who acquired some celebrity in the time of the Il-Ḵh̲āns. He is said to have been a disciple of the famous Sarǐ Saltuk [ q.v.], and is mentioned in connexion with the Bābāʾī, Bektās̲h̲ī, and Mewlewī movements. His followers were called Baraḳīs; his Ḵh̲alīfa was Ḥayrān Emird̲j̲i. A story preserved by Yazǐd̲j̲ǐog̲h̲lu ʿAlī makes him a Sald̲j̲ūḳ prince, converted to Christianity by the Greek patriarch and then reconverted to Islam by Sarǐ Saltuk, who transmitted his supernatural powers to him and gave h…

or serʿasker kapi̊si̊ , the name of the War Department in the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century. After the destruction of the Janissaries in 1241/1826, the Ag̲h̲a of the Janissaries was replaced by a new commanding officer, the Serʿasker [ q.v.]. The title was an old one, given to army commanders in former times. As applied by Maḥmūd II, it came to connote an officer who combined the functions of commander in-chief and minister of war, with special responsibility for the new style army. In addition, he inherited from the Ag̲h̲a of…