Suleiman the Magnificent 1520-1566 by Roger Bigelow Merriman

Author:Roger Bigelow Merriman [Merriman, Roger Bigelow]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781406772722
Publisher: Lundberg Press
Published: 2007-03-14T13:00:00+00:00

Suleiman (in 'pro-file and on horseback} near i '<? ^72ci (?f ^ procession through Constantinople

From a drawing by . iter Coeck van Aelst,

date 7553

c+* Vlil •**

The Seraglio; The Harem? The Sultan and His Subjects

iVe have hitherto discussed Suleiman's kullar as the nerve centre of the Ottoman army and government. It remains to consider it as a slave family and a nobility and as the dominant factor of the imperial court.

The coupling of the name "slave family" with that of a "nobility" may first provoke surprise, and a few words to explain the apparent contradiction are necessary to a comprehension of what follows. To begin with, it is essential once more to remind the reader that it was a highly desirable distinction to belong to the Sultan's kul-lar; no stigma whatsoever attached to it. Its members all wore a special costume which entitled them to the respect customarily due to those closely associated with monarchs. Their bodily wants were cared for, and they were generally exempt from taxation. Even the humblest of them, who never rose beyond the position of servant or under-gardener, was possessed of all these privileges. The 80,000 members of Suleiman's kullar were comparable, in fact, to the nobles of any one of the great Christian kingdoms of the West, with the important difference that the privileges conferred on them were, with a few exceptions, not hereditary. The whole system was based on the principle of advancement by merit. In a very true sense, indeed, the kullar was "a school in which the pupils were enrolled for life." Suleiman, it was said, "sows hope of

certain reward in all conditions of men, who by means of virtue, may succeed in mounting to better fortune," * but only those who made good progress were promoted and got to the top. For Ottoman political philosophy never contemplated the possibility of permitting any one of the members of the kullar to hand on to his descendants the position or the privileges he had been able to win for himself. His children might indeed be permitted to inherit a portion of his property, though even this was by Suleiman's gracious favor rather than of right; but his dignities and authority were regranted by his master after his death or disgrace to whatever member of the kullar was deemed most worthy to assume them. The Sultans did not propose to have their sovereign authority endangered by the power of great feudal families, as were the monarchies of England, France, and Spain at different periods in the fifteenth century. It was in order to avoid just this peril that the kullar was recruited in the way in which it was. Every member of it was considered to be "his own ancestor" and his tenure of office was terrifyingly insecure. The political pot was perpetually kept boiling. When any one died or was removed, his place was open to the ablest candidate, whose origin might well be totally different from that of his predecessor.

Western observers were

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