Page 289 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

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Journal of the I mr.nrnn Oriental Society, U0.3 (l!)7())
01-
Volunteer Corps were kept on file in Istanbul they joined local anti-Ottoman rebel groupd.33*
Lahsa had, however, in comparison with certain
too.2:0
The provincial clerks had a tendency to let other eastern provinces, a relatively quiet garrison,
their paperwork slide, it would seem, and were
77ie jwliciary
often late with their annual reports. Given the
climate of LahsA this might perhaps be excused; Judicial affairs were handled in Lahsa in the
but in time of war, especially war on the eastern same fashion as elsewhere in the Ottoman prov-
frontiers, it made campaign planning difficult. In inces. Indications are that one chief judge was ap- .
1">S0, with the Safavid war in its second season, pointed to the province,137 and that he in turn was ;
Istanbul sent a rather short note to Lafisfi, re* aided by district judges ((opnlk k<hftlarl).~'
minding them that an annual account report on The Ottoman judge was directly involved in a :
the salaried army (’ulufeli kill (d'ifcsi) was ex­ good deal more than everyday civil cases, in !
pected of them.331 Not content with this, an im­ Lalisit as elsewhere. He shared responsibility with
perial courier (cavu.$) was sent out to LafisS, a few the governor general in the matter of establishing - x
months after to examine all of the military roll fair market prices77* and of supervising the ca­ \
books of the province.333 dastral surveys.310 He prosecuted cases of em- '•
These problems of living conditions and salary bezzlement of state moneys,3*1 of forged fief ]
payments were manipulated by the district officers papers.313 Despite the relative importance of the*!
to obtain advantageous positions of political judge, however, the muhimme documents fail to |
strength in the provinces. In 15S0, for example, offer material sufficient to develop an adequate \
the district officer of Tuhaymiye, Ahmed, acting picture of his activities and authority in the i
chief officer of the province in the absence of the provincial government of Lahsa. )
governor general, took the opportunity to buy to .1 f
his side a number of officers and many men of the ”• M 3:1633, copied 20 Safer 963/10 May 1560; M 52: :
garrison with promises of fief and salary increases. 1002, n.d. (990/1582-83). 1
117 In 990/1582-83, a document was addressed to “the j
When the governor general proper arrived, he
judge of LahsA and Kafclf, the bearer [of the document; !
found that Ahmed was willing to relinquish the
dareruU] 'Abdulbari" (M 53:S95-96, 20 Safer 992/3 )
title but not the authority of governor general to March 1584). All other documents addressed specifically*
him.331 Ahmed was arrested, but the new governor to judges were sent to “the judge of Lahsi,” See, for -, >
general was obliged to let the fief and salary in­ example, M 3:1123, 21 $a'bin 967/17 May 1560 (Mevllnd ’
Huseyn); M Zeyli 3: p. 170, 29 Safer 983/9 June 1575 I
creases stand.334 The problems also increased the
Uhnud); M 23:13 n.d. (984/1576-77) (Mevldwl Wired), j
difficulties of relations between the people of
My assumption is that these judges were from outside!
Lahsa and the Ottoman government. Soldiers the province. There is no clear evidence of this in the ;
despairing of pay took matters into their own documents, however. \
hands and plundered villages and pilgrims.335 Or, » M 39:346, 24 Safer 987/22 April 1579. For this term^
see Heyd, p. 61 footnote 3. Uzunsar^Ul’s suggestion that^j
“• M Zeyli 3: p. 211, n.d. (983/1575-76), in which it the loprak kadUX was simply a circuit judge (ieyyarf
was stated that the Istanbul copy of the pay records of kad[[klar) is attractive, but the evidence which heJ
the Lahsa Volunteers had been mixed up (mtZjevpej) and adduces for this is not entirely convincing. (I. H. U*un-^
that therefore a new copy was to he made and sent to the ^ar^lll, OrmanlX DcoUlinin llmiy* Te^kildti, Ankara, 1966/
caPitaJ- pp. 126-23).
m M <3:348, n.d. (989/1581-82). »• M 39:585, n.d. Gate 987/late 1579-80).
m M 42:502, Receb 989/1 August 1581. Lafisi was not *>• M 27:272, 25 Sa’bflm 983/29 November 1575. Fop
being singled out for scrutiny, however. The courier was the usual role of the Ottoman judge in land and
also to examine the books of Bagdad, Basra, Diyarbekir, affairs, see Tayyibi Gokbilgia, “XVI aslrda raukataa ve
and Damascus. For another example of this centralized iltixam i$lerinde kadilik mQessesesinin rolu,” IV Ttlrh
accounting system at work in LahsA in the 17th century, Tarih Konyrcri, Ankara (1952) pp. 433-44. j
n d* 10$2/1642). Ul M 3:49, 18 Ramazan 966/24 June, 1558; M 7:2160,
M 43:568, n.d. (988/1580-81). 8 RA 976/1 October 1568; M 53: 895-96, 20 Safer 992/
iv*1 39;503. mid-987/August 1579; M 43: n.d. (988/ 4 March, 1584.
"* M 16:12, 11 CE 979/1 October 1571; M 28:13, n.d
M 53:895-96, 20 Safer 991/3 March 1584. (984/1576-77).

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