Between Two Worlds Kafadar.pdf

any more useful of course. But to establish such a dominance, one first has to
assume the existence of competing views and trace their interrelations. There is
no room for such an analysis in the schema of a unidirectional, step-by-step
development of ideology that does not take into consideration the complexity of
early Ottoman social structure and the tensions within it,
Moreover, to liken Apz to Einhard is unjustified and problematic because the
former is not a court historian. Though he does sing the praises of many
achievements of the Ottoman enterprise, his chronicle is also informed by a
critical streak that he shares, in varying degrees, with Urnç and the anonymous
chroniclers. Taken altogether and treated systematically, Apz's criticisms
consistently reflect the worldview of a certain milieu which, particularly after
the conquest of Constantinople and the adoption of the imperial project, stood
outside and in some opposition to the Ottoman court, or at least the dominant
centralist position upheld by most sultans and statesmen of the classical age.
Apz's personal and ideological connections to the gazi milieu have long ago been
identified.[114] It may well have been true that Apz decided to publish his
chronicle due to Bayezid's demand after 1484 to have the deeds of his ancestors
collected and told. This does not predicate either an ideological homogeneity or
an official character in the chronicles. Apz and the writers of the anonymous
chronicles may have modified the final versions of their books to some extent to
protect themselves from possible danger; they were also probably influenced to a
significant extent by the official ideology emerging throughout the fifteenth
century. Such compliances and convergences do not undermine their distinct
position, however. The specific criticisms in these chronicles consistently
reflect the views of the frontier warriors as opposed to the emerging central
state. Compare the accounts of the establishment of the pençik system (whereby
the Treasury's right to one-fifth of the gaza booty was extended to include
slaves), the objections to Bayezid I's lifestyle, the murdering of Haci Ilbegi ,
the application of a new monetary system by Çandarli Halil Pasa , and the
policies of Mehmed the Conqueror in terms of property rights and rents after the
conquest of Constantinople. All of these cannot be dismissed as slips or as a
mere show of righteousness.
And why should it be thought accidental that Apz had access to Yahsi Fakih's
chronicle and decided to rely on these traditions in his own book? Does he not
openly state his source rather than try to conceal it?
― 101 ―
In fact this passage and many others interspersed in his chronicle that tell us
of his friends and acquaintances who often serve him as oral sources provide the
reader with many precious dues about Apz's social network.
Growing up in a village of Amasya during the turbulent years of the Interregnum
(1402-13) when a century's worth of Ottoman acquisitions seemed to be up for
grabs, Apz apparently had a knack for being where the action was. In his teens,
he tagged along with the army of Prince Mehmed , the eventual winner. The young
dervish found himself on the winning side probably for no other reason than that
they were both based in the same area. While the forces of the future sultan
were proceeding to what proved to be the final showdown with the only other
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