V. L. Ménage (1920-2015) was Professor of Turkish at SOAS, London.

Colin Imber was formerly a Reader in Turkish at the University of Manchester.

The Islamic Months
The Ottoman Sultans, c1300-1687
List of Illustrations
Preface
Maps
Figures

Chapter I: The Dynasty: Legitimation and Titulature

Section 1: The Assertions of the Chroniclers

1. The voice of the dervishes: the dream of Ertogrul
   a. From the Anonymous Chronicles
   b. From the Tevarikh-i Al-i ¿O¿man
2. The voice of the gazis: how ¿Osman became an independent ruler
3. The voice of the ¿ulema: how ¿Osman became an independent ruler
   a. Kitab-i Cihan-nüma about why ¿Osman is called gazi
   b. Kitab-i Cihan-nüma about how drum and standard came to ¿Osman
4. Pagan Turkish tradition: the genealogy of the Ottoman sultans
   a. Yazicioglu 'Ali on the line of ¿Osman
   b. Sükrullah on the line of ¿Osman
5. Conflation in the Oxford Anonymous Chronicle

Section 2: Titulature: Caliphal Claims

1. Inscription of Kay¿osrev II (1236-46) on the sea walls at Antalya
2. Inscription on the tomb of the Aydin-oglu Mu¿ammad (d. 1334) at Birgi
3. Inscription of 1337. from the Sehadet Mosque in Bursa
4. Inscription from a bridge in Ankara, dated 1375
5. Other inscriptions referring to Murad I
6. Dedicatory notice in a Qur¿an preserved in the mausoleum of Murad I
7. Inscription on the tomb of Bayezid I, dated 809/1406-7
8. Title-page of an almanac (in Persian), dated 824. (1421)
9. A reference in ¿ursun Beg's History of Me¿med II
10. A reference in Celalzade's History of Süleyman I
11. Ebu¿s-Su¿ud's proemium to his statement on 'state lands'
12. The second deposition of Mu¿¿afa I, 1623
13. Fatwas on the Ghalzay Ashraf, 1726
14. Süleyman I to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, 1554

Sources

Chapter II: The Dynasty: Princes

Section 1: The Appointment of Princes in the Early Fourteenth Century

1. ¿Osman's sons
2. Or¿an's sons
3. Or¿an's sons, after the conquest of Nicaea

Section 2: Princely Governorships

1. Prince ¿orkud leaves Istanbul for his governorship
2. A letter from Prince ¿Alemsah's mother Gülru¿ to Bayezid II
3. A decree of Prince A¿med to the yaya yoldaslar
4. A decree of Prince Selim [II]
5. A decree of Prince Me¿med [III]

Section 3: Fratricide

1. Statement of the former Byzantine Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos
2. The accession of Bayezid I, 1389
   a. From the Anonymous Chronicles
3. The civil war (1402-13)
4. The accession of Murad II, 1421
5. The accession of Bayezid II, 1481
6. The first accession of Me¿med II, 1444
7. The second accession of Me¿med II, 1451
   a. From Michael Doukas's Historia Turco-Byzantina
   b. From Ibn Kemal's Tevârih-i Âl-i Osmân
8. Popular criticism of fratricide: the story of the abdication of ¿Ali Pasha
9. The accession of Me¿med III, 1595
10. The accession of A¿med I, 1603

Sources

Chapter III: The Dynasty: Recruitment into the Sultan's Service

Section 1: Pencik and Devsirme

1. A decree regulating the pencik
2. Tolls to be levied on slaves taken across the Bosphorus
3. A template decree for levying boys for the devsirme
4. A Janissary lobbies the sultan on behalf of his family
5. Escaping the devsirme
6. The recovery of a captured novice

Section 2: Promotion to the Sultan's Service

1. Command to the aga of the Janissaries, 1562/3
2. Command to the aga of the Janissaries, 1567/8
3. Command to the aga of the Janissaries, 1560/1
4. Command to the aga of the Janissaries, 1573/4
5. Command to the aga of the Janissaries, 1583
6. The pay of palace servants: an account register from 1478

Section 3: Berats

1. The appointment of a preacher in Bursa
2. The appointment of a beglerbegi
3. The appointment of a ¿a¿i
4. The appointment of a metropolitan
5. The appointment of mountain guards

Sources

Chapter IV: The Vizierate and the Divan

1. The A¿af-name of Lu¿fi Pasa
2. The divan: a Venetian account
3. Submissions to the sultan
   a. Submission of the vizier Yemisçi ¿asan Pasa
   b. Submission of the vizier Yemisçi ¿asan Pasa
   c. Submission of the vizier Yemisçi ¿asan Pasa
   d. Submission of the vizier Yemisçi ¿asan Pasa
   e. Submission of Yemisçi ¿asan Pasa
   f. Submission of the grand vizier Me¿med Pasa
4. The sultan's written instructions
5. Death of a grand vizier: report of Henry Lello

Sources

Chapter V: The Provincial Administration and the Timar System

1. From the report of Iacopo de Promontorio, c1475-80
2. An entry in a timar-register, with marginal notes
   a. Timar of Inebegi and ¿üseyn, sons of ser¿asker ¿asan
   b. [Possibly relating to the village of Yilinça]
   c. [possibly relating to the village of Pirvol]
3. Two entries from the detailed register of Amid, 1518
   a. Timar of Yemini the Kurd, a sipahi of the sanca¿ of Amid
   b. Timar of Sa¿du¿llah the ya¿avul, a sipahi of the sanca¿ of Amid
4. Sundry marginal notes in a summary-register of c1445, Thessaloniki etc.
5. Marginal notes in a similar register of 1455, Skopje
   a. Timar of Musa, retainer (¿idmetkar) of ¿Isa Beg
   b. Timar of Yusuf, kinsman of the mir-a¿ur ¿amza Beg
6. Two timar grants
   a. Thessaloniki: the timar of Me¿med
   b. Yala¿abad [in the sanca¿ of] ¿ocaeli
7. Conversion of privately-owned revenue to a ¿a¿¿-estate
8. A call for volunteers before the Moldavian campaign, 1484
9. Submissions by and to the sanca¿ begi of Bosnia, c1512-14
   a. The sanca¿ begi of Iskodra to Yunus Pasa of Bosnia
   b. The sancak begi of Zvornik to Yunus
   c. The sanca¿begi of Bosnia to the na¿ib of Visoka
   d. The sanca¿ begi of Bosnia to the Porte
   e. The sanca¿begi of Bosnia to the Porte
   f. The sanca¿begi of Bosnia to the Porte
   g. The sanca¿begi of Bosnia to the Pasa
   h. The sanca¿begi of Bosnia to the Pasa
10. 'The good old days'

Sources

Chapter VI: The Religio-Legal Institution

Section 1: Law and Religious Practice

1. Passages on the law of sale from ¿anafi legal texts
   a. From al-Matn of al-Quduri (d. 1037)
   b. From al-Ikhtiyar fi ta¿lil al-Mukhtar of al-Mu¿ili (d. 1284)
   c. From al-Fatawa of Qa¿ikhan (d. 1195)
2. A fatwa on the application of Shafi¿i doctrine
3. A fatwa on acquiring land for a new mosque construction
4. A fatwa on taxing land occupied by descendants of the Prophet
5. A fatwa on a ¿a¿i granting unauthorised tax exemptions
6. A fatwa on Rumelian ¿a¿is issuing ¿üccets
7. A fatwa on sipahis taking a tithe
8. A fatwa on Muslim villagers neglecting prayer
9. A fatwa on money fines for neglecting prayer
10. A fatwa on executing a repentant heretic sey¿
11. Command to the sanca¿begi of Amasya
12. Command to the sanca¿begi of Amasya, Ilyas beg
13. To the sanca¿begi of Kastamonu and the ¿a¿i of Küre
14. To the ¿a¿i of Niksar

Section 2: The Administration of Law

1. A ¿üccet on repairs to a monastery on Mount Athos
2. A ¿üccet on returning a defective slave-girl to the vendor
3. A sicill-entry on the sale of a vacant site by a Muslim to a dhimmi
4. A sicill-entry on a debt owed by a dhimmi to a Muslim
5. A sicill-entry on a money loan
6. A sicill-entry on the daughter of a recent convert
7. A sicill-entry on divorce and the legality of the wife's second marriage
8. A sicill-entry on cloth measuring short
9. A sicill-entry on unsatisfactory goods
10. A sicill-entry on a complaint by the weavers' guild
11. A sicill-entry on a smith not receiving his dues
12. A sicill-entry on the payment of tax on a slave girl
13. A sicill-entry on the ownership of sheep
14. A sicill-entry on a burglary
15. A sicill-entry on a violent argument between father and son
16. A sicill-entry of a command to the sanca¿begis and ¿a¿is of Ana¿oli
17. A sicill-entry of a command to the ¿a¿i and the inspector of mu¿a¿a¿as
18. A fatwa on contracting marriage between minors
19. A fatwa on the validity of contracting marriage without the ¿a¿i
20. A fatwa on re-marrying without intermediate marriage
21. A fatwa on giving customs money as zakat
22. A fatwa on giving alms
23. A fatwa on a preacher's statement about a ¿a¿i
24. A fatwa on the testimony of foreign merchants (¿arbi) against a dhimmi
25. A fatwa on a Christian woman's charitable endowment
26. A fatwa on the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul and its surroundings
27. A fatwa on slaves purchasing slaves of their own
28. A fatwa on the sultan's slaves contracting marriages
29. A fatwa on a ¿a¿i acting outside his jurisdiction
30. A fatwa on the dismissal of a debauched ¿a¿i
31. A fatwa on the death of a falsely accused person after wrongful torture
32. A fatwa on extortionate loan transactions
33. A fatwa on tax income for sipahis
34. A fatwa on tax income, including in kind, for sipahis
35. A fatwa on bennak tax
36. A fatwa on capitation tax (ispençe), grape tithe and taxes on pigs
37. A fatwa on a rebellious son of the sultan
38. A fatwa on those who lead the sultan astray
39. A fatwa on deposing a sultan who disturbs order by accepting bribery
40. A fatwa on the legality of killing fomenters of corruption
41. A fatwa on punishment for a thief stealing from the imperial treasury

Sources

Chapter VII: ¿anunnames

1. The 'Kraelitz text'
2. The ¿anunname of ¿üdavendgar, 1487
3. Extracts from the 'general' ¿anunname, c1500
4. The ¿anunname of Siverek,...