Lot Essay
Sitti Hatun was the daughter of Fatma Sultan, sister of Sultan Murad II, and hence granddaughter of Sultan Mehmed I. She was married to the the famous Zaganos Mehmed Pasha, one of the two most important viziers of his time. He was a close adviser to Mehmed who was promoted to Grand Vizier in June 1453 just after the siege of Constantinople. He became the sultan's absolute representative in the process of government, was entrusted with the imperial seal and, as a result of fiefs and revenues granted him, became the wealthiest Ottoman after the sultan. He was also appointed governor of Rumeli which gave him control of the army in both the capital and Europe. (Shaw, S.J.: History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Cambridge 1976, vol.1, pp.56-59)
A sinirname was a boundary deed for landed property that had been alienated by the Sultan usually so that the individual to whom it was given could then endow the land as waqf. In this case it refers to a village in North West Anatolia, where twenty impartial witnesses went to ascertain the village boundaries.
The document is not a firman or berat, but a copy of a report of the Kadi of Balikesir written in the first person. The original document would have been drawn up and entered in the register of the Kadi of Balikesir and this might have been the second or third fair copy and would have been for the records of the Imperial Court.
Not only does this document provide information on a less well-known member of the Ottoman family and on a complex legal process involving ordinary people as well as officials in fifteenth century Anatolia, but it tells us the members of the Imperial Divan present on the day it was approved. These were: Mahmud son of Abdullah - Mahmud Pasha who was Grand Vizier between 1453 and 1466; Ibrahim son of Abdullah - vizier Ibrahim Pasha; Isa son of Muhammad - Isa Chelebi, the kasasker or chief justice of the Empire; Yusuf son of Abdullah, the defterdar - Yusuf Chelebi, head of the public treasury; Mahmud ibn Ahmad ibn Muhmmad al-Jazari, Chezeri-zade Mahmud Chelebi, the nisanji or chief tughra writer.
The dedication to God at the begining reads: He is my sufficiency.
The name of the village is given as Chiktehor, not Choknehor, on the cloth cover.
Other similar documents prepared for Sultan Mehmed II are published in Europa und das Orient, exhibition catalogue, Berlin 1989, p.260, Imperial Ottoman Firmans, exhibition catalogue, Istanbul 1986-7, pp.34-37, and Christie's, 24 April 1990, lot 152
We are grateful to Tim Stanley for his help in the cataloguing of this and the following lot.
A sinirname was a boundary deed for landed property that had been alienated by the Sultan usually so that the individual to whom it was given could then endow the land as waqf. In this case it refers to a village in North West Anatolia, where twenty impartial witnesses went to ascertain the village boundaries.
The document is not a firman or berat, but a copy of a report of the Kadi of Balikesir written in the first person. The original document would have been drawn up and entered in the register of the Kadi of Balikesir and this might have been the second or third fair copy and would have been for the records of the Imperial Court.
Not only does this document provide information on a less well-known member of the Ottoman family and on a complex legal process involving ordinary people as well as officials in fifteenth century Anatolia, but it tells us the members of the Imperial Divan present on the day it was approved. These were: Mahmud son of Abdullah - Mahmud Pasha who was Grand Vizier between 1453 and 1466; Ibrahim son of Abdullah - vizier Ibrahim Pasha; Isa son of Muhammad - Isa Chelebi, the kasasker or chief justice of the Empire; Yusuf son of Abdullah, the defterdar - Yusuf Chelebi, head of the public treasury; Mahmud ibn Ahmad ibn Muhmmad al-Jazari, Chezeri-zade Mahmud Chelebi, the nisanji or chief tughra writer.
The dedication to God at the begining reads: He is my sufficiency.
The name of the village is given as Chiktehor, not Choknehor, on the cloth cover.
Other similar documents prepared for Sultan Mehmed II are published in Europa und das Orient, exhibition catalogue, Berlin 1989, p.260, Imperial Ottoman Firmans, exhibition catalogue, Istanbul 1986-7, pp.34-37, and Christie's, 24 April 1990, lot 152
We are grateful to Tim Stanley for his help in the cataloguing of this and the following lot.