Hatt-i humayun
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Hatt-i humayun (
After the
There are nearly 100,000 hatt-i humayuns in the Ottoman archives in
The term hatt-i humayun can sometimes also be used in a literal sense, meaning a document handwritten by an Ottoman sultan.
Etymology
The terms hatt-i humayun and hatt-i sharif are
The term irade-i seniyye is an ezafe of Arabic إرادة ʾirāda and سَنِيّة saniyya, the feminine of سَنِيّ saniyy. Around the late Ottoman Empire, the word irade was often used in European publications, but by the 21st century it became disused in European languages:[4]
Types of hatt-ı hümayun
The hatt-ı hümayun would usually be written to the
- those addressed to a government post
- those "on the white"
- those on a document
Hatt-ı hümayun to a government post
Routine decrees (
Hatt-ı hümayun on the white
"Hatt-ı hümayun on the white" (beyaz üzerine hatt-ı hümâyun) were documents originating with the sultan (
There also exist hatt-ı hümayuns expressing the sultan's opinions or even his feelings on certain matters. For example, after the successful defense of
Hatt-ı hümayun on a document
In normal bureaucratic procedure, a document would be submitted by the grand vizier, or his deputy the kaymakam (Kâ'immakâm Paşa), who would summarize a situation for the Sultan, and request the Sultan's will on the matter. Such documents were called telhis (summary) until the 19th century and takrir (suggestion) later on.[11] The Sultan's handwritten response (his command or decision) were called hatt-ı hümâyûn on telhis or hatt-ı hümâyûn on takrir. Other types of documents submitted to the Sultan were petitions (arzuhâl), sworn transcriptions of oral petitions (mahzar), reports from a higher to a lower office (şukka), religious reports by Qadis to higher offices (ilâm) and record books (tahrirat). These would be called hatt-ı hümâyûn on arz, hatt-ı hümâyûn on mahzar, etc. depending on the type of the document.[11] The Sultan responded not only to documents submitted to him by his viziers but also to petitions (arzuhâl) submitted to him by his subjects following the Friday prayer.[5] Thus, hatt-ı hümayuns on documents were analogous to Papal rescripts and rescripts used in other imperial regimes.
When the sultan contacted the public for Friday prayer or other occasions, people would hand in petitions addressed to him. These were later discussed and decided upon by the council of viziers. They would prepare a summary of all petitions and the action decided upon for each one. The sultan would write on the same sheet "I have been informed" (manzurum olmuştur) multiple times, followed by the item number to which he is referring. When palace bureaucracy was reorganized after the Tanzimat reforms, the Sultan's decision came to be written directly by the Chief Scribe at the bottom of the summary document, and this one writing applied to all decisions.[6]
Practices
When a petition or memo requiring the Sultan's decision was to be submitted to him, the grand vizier usually prepared an
In most cases hatt-ı humayuns were written by the Sultan himself although there exist some that were penned by the chief scribe or another functionary. Important hatt-ı humayuns on the white were sometimes drafted by the head of diplomatic correspondence (Reis-ül Kuttab) or the Secretary of Navy (Kapudan Paşa). In some cases, there were notations as to who prepared the draft of the document that was then re-written by the Sultan.[6]
Hatt-ı hümayuns usually were not dated, although some, concerning withdrawal of money from the treasury, did carry dates. Most late-period hatt-ı hümayuns and irades had dates.
Language
The language of hatt-ı hümayuns on documents generally was a form of Turkish understandable (orally) even today and has changed little over the centuries.[7][10] Many documents or annotations were short comments such as "I gave" (verdim), "be it given" (verilsin), "will not happen" (olmaz), "be it written" (yazılsın), "is clear/is clear to me" (malûm oldu / malûmum olmuştur), "provide it" (tedârük edesin), "it has come to my sight" (manzûrum oldu / manzûrum olmuştur), "be it answered" (cevap verile), "record it" (mukayyet olasın), "be it supplied" (tedârik görülsün), "be they without need" ("berhûrdâr olsunlar").[6]
Some Sultans would write longer comments, starting with "It has become my knowledge" (Malûmum oldu), and continue with an introduction on the topic, then give their opinion such as "this report's/petition's/record's/etc. appearance and meaning has become my imperial knowledge"("... işbu takrîrin/telhîsin/şukkanın/kaimenin manzûr ve me'azi ma'lûm-ı hümayûnum olmuşdur"). Some common phrases in hatt-ı hümayuns are "according to this report..." (işbu telhisin mûcebince), "the matter is clear" (cümlesi malumdur), "I permit" (izin verdim), "I give, according to the provided facts" (vech-i meşruh üzere verdim).[5]
Hatt-ı hümayuns to the position often had clichéd expressions such as "To be done as required" (Mûcebince amel oluna) or "To be done as required, not to be contravened" (Mûcebince amel ve hilâfından hazer oluna).[6]
Hatt-ı hümayuns on the white were more elaborate and some may have been drafted by a scribe before being penned by the Sultan. They often started by addressing the recipient. The Sultan would refer to his grand vizier as "My Vizier", or if his grand vizier was away at war, would refer to his deputy as "
History
The earliest known hatt-ı hümayun is the one sent by Sultan
The content of hatt-ı hümayuns tends to reflect the power struggle that existed between the Sultan and his council of viziers (the
During the reign of Mahmud II, in the early 1830s, the practice of writing on the memoranda of the grand vizier was replaced by the Chief Scribe of the
The large number of documents that required the Sultan's decision through either a hatt-ı hümayun or an irade-i senniye is considered to be an indication of how centralized the Ottoman government was.
The early hatt-ı hümayuns were written in the
Archival
Hatt-ı hümayuns sent to the grand vizier were handled and recorded at the Âmedi Kalemi, the secretariat of the grand vizier. The Âmedi Kalemi organized and recorded all correspondence between the grand vizier and the Sultan, as well as any correspondence with foreign rulers and with Ottoman ambassadors. Other hatt-ı hümayuns, not addressed to the grand vizier, were stored in other document stores (called fon in the terminology of current Turkish archivists).[7]
Cut-out hatt-ı hümayuns
During the creation of the State Archives in the nineteenth century, documents were organized according to their importance. Hatt-ı hümayuns on the white were considered the most important, along with those on international relations, border transactions and internal regulations. Documents of secondary importance were routinely placed in trunks and stored in cellars in need of repair. Presumably as a sign of respect toward the Sultan,
Catalogs
Today all known hatt-ı hümayuns have been recorded in a computerized database in the
Because the hatt-ı hümayuns were originally not organized systematically, historians in the nineteenth and early twentieth century created several catalogs of hatt-ı hümayuns based on different organizing principles. These historic catalogs are still in use by historians at the BOA:[20]
Hatt-ı Hümâyûn Tasnifi is the catalog of the hatt-ı hümayuns belonging to the Âmedi Kalemi. It consists of 31 volumes listing 62,312 documents, with their short summaries. This catalog lists documents from 1730 to 1839 but covers primarily those from the reigns of Selim III and Mahmud II within this period.
Ali Emiri Tasnifi is a chronological catalog of 181,239 documents organized according to the periods of sovereignty of Sultans, from the foundation of the Ottoman state to the Abdülmecid period. Along with hatt-ı hümayuns, this catalog includes documents on foreign relations.
İbnülemin Tasnifi is a catalog created by a committee led by historian İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal. It covers the period of 1290–1873. Along with 329 hatt-ı hümayuns, it lists documents of various other types relating to palace correspondence, private correspondence, appointments, taxation, land grants (
Muallim Cevdet Tasnifi catalogs 216,572 documents in 34 volumes, organized by topics that include local governments, provincial administration, vakıf and internal security.
The Hatt-ı Hümâyun of 1856
Although there exist thousands of hatt-ı hümayuns,
The Reform Decree of 1856 is sometimes referred to by another name, "The Rescript of Reform".[22][23] Here, the word 'rescript' is used to sense of "edict, decree", not "reply to a query or other document."[24]
The Hatt-ı Hümayun of 1856 was an extension of another important edict of reform, the
The Sultan's script
The term hatt-ı hümayun is occasionally used in the literal sense of the handwriting of the Sultan.
Notes
- ^ In languages of ethnic minorities:[3]
- Armenian: kayserakan hramanagr
- Bulgarian: Imperatorskyi Ukaz.
- Greek: Αυτοκρατορικού Ιραδέ (Avtokratorikou Iradé)
- Ladino: irade imperial
References
- ^ a b c d "Hatt-ı Hümâyun". Retrieved 29 August 2012.
- ^ Littré, Émile (1886). "iradé". Dictionnaire de la langue française (in French). Paris: Hachette. p. 205.
- Martin Luther University) - Cited: p. 40 (PDF p. 42) // "Other terms, like iradèh ("ordonnance;” Turkish irade), which have become obsolete today, were quite common at that time in the European press."
- Martin Luther University) // CITED: p. 39 (PDF p. 41/338).
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hüseyin Özdemir (2009). "Hatt-ı Humayın". Sızıntı (in Turkish). 31 (365): 230. Archived from the original on 19 April 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Hatt-ı Hümâyun". İslam Ansiklopedisi (in Turkish). Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı. 1988.
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(help) - ^ a b c d e f Bekir Koç (2000). "Hatt-ı Hümâyunların Diplomatik Özellikleri ve Padişahı bilgilendirme Sürecindeki Yerleri" (PDF). OTAM, Ankara Üniversitesi Osmanlı Tarihi Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi (in Turkish) (11): 305–313.
- ^ "Osmanlıca Tercüme". Retrieved 29 August 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-7007-0380-7.
- ^ a b Yücel Özkaya. "III. Selim'in İmparatorluk Hakkındaki Bazı Hatt-ı Hümayunları" (PDF) (in Turkish). Retrieved 1 December 2010.
- ^ a b c d e Osman Köksal. "Osmanlı Hukukunda Bir Ceza Olarak Sürgün ve İki Osmanlı Sultanının Sürgünle İlgili Hattı-ı Hümayunları" (PDF) (in Turkish). Retrieved 1 December 2010.
- ^ Mehmet İnbaşı (June 2010). "Murad-ı Hüdavendigâr'dan Gazi Evrenos Bey'e mektup... "Sakın ola kibirlenmeyesin!"". Tarih ve Düşünce (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
- ^ Hüseyin Özdemir (2009). "Hatt-ı Humayın". Sızıntı (in Turkish). 31 (365): 230. Archived from the original on 19 April 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
Benim bir vaktim yokdur ki kalem elimden düşmez. Vallâhü'l-azîm elimden düşmez.
- ^ Sertaç Kayserilioğlu. "Imperial Fermans" (in Turkish). Retrieved 23 March 2010.
- ^ Seyfullah Aslan. "Hazine-i Evrakın Kurulması" (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 1 November 2010. Retrieved 1 December 2010.
- ^ İshak Keskin (2007). "Osmanlı Arşivciliğinin Teorik Dayanakları Hakkında". Türk Kütüphaneciliği (in Turkish). 21: 271–303. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
- ^ Fatih Rukancı (2008). "Osmanlı Devleti'nde Arşivcilik Çalışmaları". Türk Kütüphaneciliği (in Turkish). 22: 414–434. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
- ^ Yunus Sarinay; et al. "Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi Rehberi". T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
- ^ "Başbakanlık archives" (in Turkish). Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ Mehmet Seyitdanlıoğlu (2009). "19. Yüzyıl Türkiye Yönetim Tarihi kaynakları: Bir Bibliyografya Denemesi". 19.Yüzyıl Türkiye Yönetim Tarihi (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 25 July 2010. Retrieved 2 December 2010.
- ^ "Islahata dair taraf-ı Vekâlet-i mutlakaya hitaben balası hatt-ı hümayun ile müveşşeh şerefsadır olan ferman-ı âlinin suretidir". Düstur (Istanbul: Matbaa-i Âmire) (in Turkish). 1. 1856. See footnote 4 in: Edhem Eldem. "Ottoman Financial Integration with Europe: Foreign Loans, the Ottoman Bank and the Ottoman Public Debt" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 May 2006. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
- ^ Boğaziçi University, Atatürk Institute of Modern Turkish History. "Rescript of Reform – Islahat Fermanı (18 February 1856)". Retrieved 5 December 2010.
- ^ Shaw, Stanford J. and Gökhan Çetinsaya. "Ottoman Empire". In The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford Islamic Studies Online. Archived from the original on 20 November 2009. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
- ^ "Rescript, n". Oxford English Dictionary. April 2010.
- ^ Ahmet Topal (2009). "Klasik Türk Şiirinde Tuğra Ve Bir Edebî Tür Olarak Tuğra" (PDF). Turkish Studies (in Turkish). 4 (2): 1008–1024. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2011.