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

Ottoman begs, until Bayezid I, never drank wine and followed the words of sincere
ulemā. The Ulemā in their time, on the other hand, prudently followed the orders of the
religion, but looked not for posts in the state machinery, which naturally made them
indifferent to the orders of the religion. By the time of Bayezid I, however, the new type
of ulemā organized drinking parties with the sultan and engaged in all sorts of immoral
acts. The Serbian wife of Bayezid I is also said responsible for making the sultan
addicted to the wine. Aşıkpaşazāde writes,
Bayazıd Han sohbet esbābın Laz kızı elinden öğrendi. Ali Paşa mu’āvenetiyilen
şarap ve kebap meclisi kuruldı. ... Bunlar bir sādık soydur. Hiç bunlardan
nāmeşru hareket vāki olmamış idi. Ulemā bir nesneye kim yazuk deye, Āl-i
Osman andan kaçarlar idi. Orhan zamanında ve Gāzi Murad Han zamanında
ulemā var idi. Ve illā müfsid değüller idi tā Candarlu Halil’e gelince. Kaçan kim
Candarlu Halil geldi, Türk Rüstem geldi, Mevlāna Rüstem dediler, āleme hile
karuşdurdılar. Halil’ün oğlı Ali Paşa kim vezir oldı danişmend dahı anın
zamanında çoğ oldı. Bu Āl-i Osman bir sulb kavm idi, anlar kim geldiler fetvāyı
hile etdiler, takvāyı götürdiler. Üşbu vilāyetde kim eski akçeye kimse satu bazar
etmeye ve hem gayri vilāyete gitmeye, Ali Paşa zamanında oldı. Bu Ali Paşa
zevvāk kişiydi. Müsāhibleri dahı zevvāk oldılar. ... Zira anun yanına hīle eder
Acem danişmendleri çok gelürler idi. 327
Both Aşıkpaşazāde and Anonymous history incline to see the reasons of Bayezid
I’s defeat against Timur in the aforementioned ‘irreligious’ innovations, which distanced
the ruling elite from the subjects. A close examination would show that this account
reflects the historical fact in a sense that the accelerated centralization process of the
administration, which went hand in hand with the growth of ‘Ottoman elite’, created a
vast discontent among Turkoman subjects, who still constituted the majority, as well as
widening the socio-cultural distance between the two. Furthermore, Bayezid I attempted
105. Likewise, differing from his predecessors who referred themselves as ‘gāzi’, Bayezid I, for the first
time, claimed the title Eşrefu’s-Selâtin, the most distinguished and honored of the Muslim rulers. See
Đnalcık, “The Rise of Ottoman Historiography”, p. 166. Nonetheless, the heavy blow by Timur in 1401
postponed Bayezid’s project half a century.
327 APZ, pp. 138-9. Also see Anonim Tevârih-i Al-i Osman, Giese Neşri, pp. 31-4; Anonim Osmanlı
Kroniği (1299-1512), p. 36.
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