Ottoman Empire and Islamic Tradition (A Phoenix Book) by Norman Itzkowitz

Author:Norman Itzkowitz
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Turkey, Anatolia, Ottoman Empire, History & Theory, Midle East, History, Islam
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2008-03-25T21:00:00+00:00

THE TRUE OTTOMANS

The second change was the dual process of diversification and stratification that took place within the askeri class. By the reign of Suleiman the askeri class was composed of men who served the sultan within clearly defined careers—military, bureaucracy, and religion. The bureaucratic and the religious careers correspond to Tusi’s first social class, the Men of the Pen. He grouped together scribes, kadis, and teachers in a single class. In pre-Ottoman Islamic societies, however, and even in early Ottoman times, the distinction between scribes and ulema was not so sharply drawn. In that early period it makes sense to consider the ulema an undifferentiated group that supplied the state with both its scribes and its religious functionaries. Only as the nature of those official positions became more specialized and complex did separate careers develop, with their own systems of education and sources of manpower. More and more those sources tended to be the families of men already in those careers. Sons quickly followed in the footsteps of their fathers, to the applause of a society that believed in the value expressed in the proverb: “A son who resembles his father does no injustice.” This tendency was true in each of the three careers. It was most noticeable in the religious career, only slightly less so in the bureaucracy, and toward the end of Suleiman’s era it also was becoming apparent in the military. For the military, that tendency constituted a serious blow to the very nature of the ghulam system. The devshirme and the palace educational enterprise were designed to prepare people for the sultan’s service who placed nothing else above his cause. For highly placed officials in the military to preempt positions for their own sons was to undermine seriously one of the state’s fundamental pillars by making the family more important than the sultan.

These processes taking place within the askeri class ultimately divided that ruling class into two segments. The line along which the cleavage took place was education. Career specializations and the education necessary for success in a chosen career combined to produce within the broader askeri class an elite whose members deserve to be called the true Ottomans. The term “Ottoman” here has a meaning not merely dynastic, but also cultural. The Ottomans were a small minority in the askeri class, for, to be an Ottoman, one had to satisfy three conditions: serve the state; serve the religion; and “know the Ottoman Way.” Serving the state meant working for the government in a position that gave the privileged status associated with the askeri class. Serving the religion simply meant being a Muslim. “Knowing the Ottoman Way” involved being completely conversant with the High Islamic cultural tradition, including being at home in the Turkish language (for which a knowledge of Arabic and Persian was also necessary) and conforming in public to the conventional manners and customs for which that speech was the vehicle.

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