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

he blamed the statesmen and the scholars for being enslaved by the law and ordered
them to start the necessary preparations for the campaign ahead. Şükrī’s account reads,
Çün ekābir şah fermanın tamam / Dinledi ‘arz itdi k’iy pür-ihtişām
Ceddünüz kānunun icrā idelüm / Anların üslūbu üzre gidelüm
Đş bu sözden hışm-nāk oldı ferid / Kakıdı a’yāna tünd ol ehl-i dīd
Kim bu kanūn u kavā’id ü sübül / Gökten inmiş Hak kelāmı hod değül
Ne Resūl’ün sünnetidür bī-hilāf / Ni bu güft u gūda vardur ihtilāf
Kendu devrinde ne ihdās itse Şah / Ol anun kānunudur bī-iştibāh
Devr anundır, emr anun, kanūn anun / Bahr anundır, berr anun, hāmūn anun
Her zaman bir sūret ile iktiza / Nef’ virmez böyle demde mā-mezā
Uş bu kanūn-ı kavāid bi’t-tamām / Kim verüpdür nazm-ı eşyaya nizām
Âdemī-zād ihtirā’idür bu hep / Her tarīka bir farīk olmuş sebep
Siz hemān kanūn dip olmışsız esir / Kendü zātında habīr olsa vezir
..............................
Bunda şart olan ferāsetdür hemin / Yok suver yā reng yā dība-yı Çin
Đmdi sizde maslahat bābın açun / Defter-i tumār elkābın açun
Đttifāk idün bu yolda bī-nifāk / Kim bozar tedbiri gayr-ı ittifak 1737
These are only two accounts that leaked out through thick pro-Selim filters of the
Selim-nāme authors. Nevertheless, even these leakages are enough to observe the
reluctance of the leading statesmen to wage an all-out campaign on Shah Ismail. One
can easily discern in these accounts that Selim’s enthusiasm and resolution to handle the
qizilbash problem with severe measures including violence was not shared by the
members of the divan and the high ranking religious scholars. On the contrary, when the
fact that these narrations are seriously manipulated versions of events in favor of Selim
in which the ‘unpleasant’ elements were gravely tuned down is taken into account, it
stands to reason to propose that there was a considerable resistance against Selim’s
radical policy.
However, after viziers realized Selim’s firmly determinant attitude and became
exposed to his wrath, the viziers and pashas had to approve of Selim’s plans. 1738 Then,
1737 SKB, p. 139.
1738 SKB re-phrases their answer as follows:
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