TURKOMANS BETWEEN TWO EMPIRES: THE ... - Bilkent University

3.3. OTTOMAN REGIME’S DISCONTENTS
3.3.1. Early Protests
The protest of the Turkoman milieu against the development of the administrative
apparatus and the growing Ottoman high culture is vividly reflected in the Anonymous
histories. As Fuat Köprülü put it, Anonyms were produced among lower strata of the
society and were written to be read by laymen. 321 Therefore, they are much closer to folk
sentiment and opinion than any other early chronicles. In the Anonyms there are clever
criticisms against centralization policies and bureaucratization of the state. As a strategy,
they never directly attacked the sultans but point their criticisms towards Çandarlı Kara
Halil and other danişmends who were responsible for establishment of the scribal base
of the state. They accused the newly emerging statesmen of innovating the ‘register’,
where the tax revenues were written down, which was previously unknown to them. 322
Another severe criticism of Anonyms pointed towards the arising ulemā and
bureaucratic elite was that these two groups were accumulating a large amount of money
in the state treasury but not delivering it to the gāzi-fighters. 323 This point appears to be
very important in order to understand the tribal nomadic mentality regarding a state
organization. These sources depict the piling up of money in the state treasury as a
321 Köprülüzade Mehmed Fuad, “Lütfi Paşa”, Türkiyat Mecmuası, I, 1926, p. 148.
322 Compare Halil Đnalcık, “Ottoman Methods of Conquest”, Studia Islamica, 2, 1954, pp. 104-5.
323 According to the tradition, the innovation of one-fifth rule that is taking one-fifth of the booty for the
treasury was first suggested by a danişmend came from ‘Karaman vilāyeti’, namely Kara Rüstem.
Aşıkpaşazāde narrates the innovation of this practice, which naturally created a serious discontent among
gāzi leaders, with a veiled criticizing manner. As will be delineated, the practice of one-fifth rule
constituted the starting point of the invention of the Janissary corps. See APZ, p. 35; Anonim Tevârih-i Ali
Osman, Giese Neşri, p. 25; Anonim Osmanlı Kroniği (1299-1512), pp. 28-9.
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