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Lot Essay
This document was issued early in the reign of Sultan Mehmet II who had acquired his soubriquet "the Conqueror" as a result of his successful siege of Constantinople in the the spring of the year in which this firman was issued, 1453. The document relates to a grant of landed estates to Zaganos Pasha, a leading figure of the period. This act of Imperial favour marks the close connection between Zaganos and the Sultan. In 1444 Mehmed II's father, Murad II had retired from the sultanate and taken up residence in the city of Manisa in western Anatolia while the young Mehmed II ruled in his place. In 1446, however, Murad was forced by events to resume government of the empire and Mehmed was dispatched to Manisa where he stayed until his father's death in 1451. Between 1446 and 1451 Zaganos was resident in Manisa acting as a tutor to the heir apparent. He continued to play an important role as an adviser to the Sultan after his accession.
The estate in question consisted of a group of five villages and an adjacent area of land enclosed for pasturage of royal flocks known as a koru. The five villages lay in the district of Gördek and the koru in the district of Akhisar, all in the province of Saruhan of which Manisa was the capital. As a consequence of the gift, the Sultan had ordered the Qadi of Manisa to convene a meeting of the interested parties in order to establish the boundaries of the six properties. The present document incorporates a verbatim copy of the Qadi's report on the matter setting out the boundaries of each unit. From the text it is clear that the koru was a low, well-watered area and it may have consisted of marshland rich in wildfowl that was originally enclosed as a hunting ground. By the 1450's, however, part of it had been converted to rice cultivation, and two dams had been constructed to create reservoirs for irrigation purposes. The document gives details of how the irrigation of the rice fields was regulated. The names of seven of the participants in the qadi's inquiry are recorded in the main text.
The foremost of the four doctors of law was Ahmed Gurani, the Kazasker or chief justice of the empire, whose autograph authentication of the document appears next to the tughra. A native of Guran, in what is now northern Iraq, Molla Gurani became a leading expert on Islamic law in Egypt but was exiled for bad behaviour in 1440. He eventually made his way to the Ottoman court, where he was given a number of important teaching posts before being assigned responsibility for the religious education of the young Prince Mehmed which he oversaw with celebrated severity. After Mehmed II's accession in 1451 Molla Gurani was appointed Kazasker but the date of this appointment is not known and this document provides the ealiest evidence so far published for his tenure of office. The Molla held a number of other posts in the learned hierarchy and in 1481 he was appointed Shehhlislam, holding this post until his death in 1488.
The second of the authentications was added by Isa ibn Muhammad who was the qadi of the new capital of Istanbul. Despite the prominence of his position, Isa Efendi is a shadowy figure in early Ottoman sources, and the note he added to this document is useful confirmation of his tenure of office at this time. The third and fourth authentications are by two men charged with the enquiry into the boundaries, Muhammad ibn Ishaq Faqi, the qadi of Manisa, and Lutfullah ibn Ramadan ibn Khalil.
Many figures of historical significance also occur among the sixteen witnesses. There are members of the Imperial Council including the viziers Saruca Pasha and Ibrahim Pasha, and the two Registrars of the Imperial Treasury, Yusuf Chelebi and Ismail Chelebi, and numerous senior officers of Mehmed II's household. Several of these men were with Mehmed II and Zaganos Pasha in Manisa in 1446-1451 and the signature of Mahmud ibn 'Ali for example, may be that of Kassab-zade Mahmud Bey, who was one of Mehmed's tutors for a time.
The estate in question consisted of a group of five villages and an adjacent area of land enclosed for pasturage of royal flocks known as a koru. The five villages lay in the district of Gördek and the koru in the district of Akhisar, all in the province of Saruhan of which Manisa was the capital. As a consequence of the gift, the Sultan had ordered the Qadi of Manisa to convene a meeting of the interested parties in order to establish the boundaries of the six properties. The present document incorporates a verbatim copy of the Qadi's report on the matter setting out the boundaries of each unit. From the text it is clear that the koru was a low, well-watered area and it may have consisted of marshland rich in wildfowl that was originally enclosed as a hunting ground. By the 1450's, however, part of it had been converted to rice cultivation, and two dams had been constructed to create reservoirs for irrigation purposes. The document gives details of how the irrigation of the rice fields was regulated. The names of seven of the participants in the qadi's inquiry are recorded in the main text.
The foremost of the four doctors of law was Ahmed Gurani, the Kazasker or chief justice of the empire, whose autograph authentication of the document appears next to the tughra. A native of Guran, in what is now northern Iraq, Molla Gurani became a leading expert on Islamic law in Egypt but was exiled for bad behaviour in 1440. He eventually made his way to the Ottoman court, where he was given a number of important teaching posts before being assigned responsibility for the religious education of the young Prince Mehmed which he oversaw with celebrated severity. After Mehmed II's accession in 1451 Molla Gurani was appointed Kazasker but the date of this appointment is not known and this document provides the ealiest evidence so far published for his tenure of office. The Molla held a number of other posts in the learned hierarchy and in 1481 he was appointed Shehhlislam, holding this post until his death in 1488.
The second of the authentications was added by Isa ibn Muhammad who was the qadi of the new capital of Istanbul. Despite the prominence of his position, Isa Efendi is a shadowy figure in early Ottoman sources, and the note he added to this document is useful confirmation of his tenure of office at this time. The third and fourth authentications are by two men charged with the enquiry into the boundaries, Muhammad ibn Ishaq Faqi, the qadi of Manisa, and Lutfullah ibn Ramadan ibn Khalil.
Many figures of historical significance also occur among the sixteen witnesses. There are members of the Imperial Council including the viziers Saruca Pasha and Ibrahim Pasha, and the two Registrars of the Imperial Treasury, Yusuf Chelebi and Ismail Chelebi, and numerous senior officers of Mehmed II's household. Several of these men were with Mehmed II and Zaganos Pasha in Manisa in 1446-1451 and the signature of Mahmud ibn 'Ali for example, may be that of Kassab-zade Mahmud Bey, who was one of Mehmed's tutors for a time.