Document 1
In the halls of the United States
Congress are images of some of the
greatest lawgivers of all time.
Included in that group are such
persons as Thomas Jefferson, Moses
and Suleyman.
Suleyman’s law code prescribed
penalties for various criminal acts
and for bureaucratic and financial
corruption. He also sought to reduce
bribes, did not allow imprisonment
without a trial, and rejected
promotions that were not based on
merit. He also introduced the idea of
a balanced budget for government.
Document 2
The Ottomans had an ingenious way to help eliminate
corruption. Public agents and officials that abused their
power and the peasantry were subjected to a special laws
called the siyasa.
The siyasa were a set of severe punishments imposed by the
Sultan on corrupt officials; there was no way out, no cash
compensation could take the place of the corporeal or,
more often, capital punishments which swiftly and severely
rooted out to corrupt officials.
In the siyasa system, the following crimes were considered
severe: illegal taxation or forced labor of the peasantry,
staying in peasants homes without permission or requiring
peasants to provide food and housing for soldiers. Such
crimes almost certainly meant the death penalty.
Document 3
Perhaps the most important aspect of Ottoman
centralized government was universal access to
centralized authority. The highest reaches of
power—with the exception of the person of the
Sultan—was available to each and every citizen of
the Empire. Every single member of Ottoman
society could approach the Imperial Council with
grievances (complaints) against government
officials; these official petitions were called ard-i
mahdar and were always treated with the utmost
seriousness. If the Imperial Council ruled against the
officials, they would often be subjected to the
siyasa.
Document 4
In order to prevent
fraudulent (false) taxes and
arbitrary (random) laws by
public officials, the Sultanic
"orders" and taxes were
declared and posted in
public. There was, then,
always direct dissemination
(distribution) of the laws and
taxes of central government
to the Ottoman people.
Document 5
Soldiers were not allowed to mistreat
peasants nor take anything from them
without their permission or reimbursement.
All the Ottoman wars of conquest in the
sixteenth century were planned years in
advance. The government would lay up
stores of supplies all along the campaign
route so that the armies could feed
themselves without taking anything from
the general population. The Ottoman
conquerors believed that no conquest
could stand without the goodwill of the
general population of the conquered, so
military campaigns were remarkably fair
and easy on the average person.
Document 6
The Ottomans paid attention to an early form of public opinion polling
and were probably the first government to actively monitor public
opinion through quantifiable means. The "opinion poll" that they used
was the Friday prayers.
In most Islamic states, one of the aspects of Friday prayer is to pray for
the welfare and life of the ruler. This is an optional part of the Friday
prayer, so its inclusion generally means that the members of the mosque
think well of the ruler. Its omission frequently means the opposite.
The Ottomans paid very strict attention to Friday prayers throughout the
Empire in order to accurately measure public sentiments about their
ruler.
Document 7
Document 8
In Islamic tradition, the Shari'ah, or laws originally derived from the Qur'an are
meant to be universally applied across all Islamic states. No Islamic ruler has the
power to overturn or replace these laws. To the Shari’ah, the Ottoman Sultan,
Suleiman, added kanun laws.
The kanun laws refer to decisions that are not covered by the Shari'ah . Even
though the Shari'ah provides all necessary laws, it's recognized that some
situations fall outside their parameters. In Islamic tradition, if a case fell outside
the parameters of the Shari'ah , then a judgement or rule in the case could be
arrived at through analogy with rules or cases that are covered by the Shari'ah.
The Ottomans, however, elevated kanun into an entire code of laws
independent of the Shari'ah . The first two centuries of Ottoman rule, from 1350
to 1550, saw an explosion of kanun rulings and laws, so that by the beginning of
the sixteenth century, the kanun were a complete and independent set of laws
that by and large were more important than the Shari'ah.
Document 9
Suleiman undertook to make Istanbul the center of Islamic civilization. He
began a series of building projects, including bridges, roads, hospitals,
mosques, and palaces, that rivaled the greatest building projects of the
world in that century. Payroll registers that survive testify to the breadth
of Suleyman's patronage of the arts: "The earliest document, drawn up in
1526, lists 40 societies with over 600 members; by the 17th century the
number of societies had increased and their membership had risen to
some 2,000. In addition to the artists employed in the imperial societies,
Istanbul, like all the major centers of the empire, had diverse guilds of
artisans which supplied both domestic and foreign needs."
Document 10
Suleiman was a great cultivator of the arts and is considered one of the
great poets of Islam. Under Suleiman, Istanbul became the center of
visual art, music, writing, and philosophy in the Islamic world. This cultural
flowering during the reign of Suleiman represents the most creative
period in Ottoman history; and was similar to the European Renaissance.
Painters and poets looked to Persia and Arabia for models to express
original Ottoman ideas in the Turkish style.