History

This special issue is a small collection of essays devoted to the history of the Janissaries, intended to be the first of a series of publications investigating the processes which made the Janissary Corps a formidable political and socioeconomic power both at the Ottoman center and in the provinces. The papers included here were originally presented in a workshop which took place at İzmir Kâtip Çelebi University in September 2021, organized within the framework of the ERC-funded project “JANET: Janissaries in Ottoman Port-Cities: Muslim Financial and Political Networks in the Early Modern Mediterranean”, a project dedicated to examining the functioning of Janissary networks in the Ottoman Empire, conceiving of them as inextricably connected to Muslim political and economic networks across a large part of the Mediterranean.

Editors' Introduction in the collective volume: Yıldız, Aysel, Yannis Spyropoulos, and M. Mert Sunar, eds. Payitaht Yeniçerileri: Padişahın “Asi” Kulları, 1700-1826 [The Janissaries of the Ottoman Capital: The Sultan’s “Rebel” Servants, 1700–1826]. Istanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2022.

Feridun Ahmed Bey’s Nüzhet-i Esrârü’l-Ahyâr der-Ahbâr-ı Sefer-i Sigetvar (Pleasures of the Secrets of Auspicious Men from the News of the Szigetvár Campaign), which we publish along with its facsimile here, has an exceptional place among the illustrated Ottoman chronicles produced in the mid-sixteenth century. Adorned with nineteen miniatures, which rival one another in excellence and which are believed to be painted by Nakkaş Osman, this voluminous manuscript of 305 folios was written in a neat nesih script, most probably by the author’s own hand, and completed on January 1, 1569 as stated in its colophon. As to its thematic coverage, Feridun Bey’s work narrates the details of the Ottoman siege of Szigetvár in 1566 along with prior and subsequent events, which was the final campaign of Sultan Süleyman I (r. 1520-1566), whom Europeans described as “The Magnificent” and “The Grand Turk,” and Ottomans as “The Lawgiver.” Süleyman the Magnificent, who remained on the throne for the longest time in Ottoman history with a 46-year reign and who had personally gone on campaign at the head of his army a total of 13 times, died during the siege of Szigetvár, leaving major victories and successes in his wake. By the time his only surviving son, Selim II (r. 1566-1574) ascended the Ottoman throne, the House of Osman, which Sultan Suleyman had transformed into a true world-empire during his lengthy reign, also saw its power and influence spread thanks to the successful administration of the Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasa. Nüzhet-i Esrâr, which you see here, is one of the most important historical narratives which sheds light on such a critical crossroads of Ottoman history in the sixteenth century. The work was written by Feridun Ahmed Bey, who had served in the Szigetvár Campaign as the private secretary of Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, and it chronicles the events of the period 1558-1568 and features the author’s patron, the grand-vizier, in a prominent role.

Nüzhet-i Esrâr is Feridun Bey’s first work that displays the amazing literary talents that would win him fame as one of the most skillful chancellors in Ottoman history in later years. Generally speaking, the title has misled many into believing the work to be only about the Szigetvár Campaign, thus it has been generally considered among other contemporary works known as Sigetvarnâmes. However, Feridun Bey provides important details concerning the events that took place during the last years of Sultan Süleyman’s long reign, such as the so-called Bayezid Incident, the last princely war of succession in Ottoman history. Similarly, in his capacity as private secretary of the grand vizier, Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, the author records several important historical events related to the political and diplomatic developments during the first two years of Selim II’s reign that he himself personally witnessed.

Nüzhet-i Esrâr is currently preserved at the Topkapı Palace Museum Library (TSMK, MS Hazine 1339). Though this work is well-known among Ottoman historians as a fundamental source for its rich content and illustrations, the lack of an edition which includes a fascimile has thus far prevented many scholars from utilizing it sufficiently. We hope that our book will contribute to future studies, especially on sixteenth-century Ottoman political, military, cultural, literary, diplomatic and art history.

Our book consists of two main parts: “Introduction” and “Edition.” In the first part are brief notices explaining the author and his work; in the second part, we present the Topkapı Palace and other extant copies of Nüzhet-i Esrâr, our transcription of the text, and a compressed fascimile of the work. In addition, we decided to translate the first part into English, as well as the miniature index which describes the illustrations found in the work, with the hope that this valuable manuscript would gain greater acknowledgment on an international level. We also added maps and an index of the text to the our work in the hopes that they would facilitate the use of the manuscript.