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, Ottoman historian. Among the Ottoman historians who bore the mak̲h̲laṣ ʿAbdī (cf. Babinger, 432 f.), the secretary ( kātib ) of Yūsuf Ag̲h̲a, chief of the eunuchs, is worthy of mention. He was an eye-witness of the magnificent festivities organized in Adrianople in June and July 1675 on the occasion of the circumcision of the crown-prince Muṣṭafā, son of Muḥammad (Meḥmed) IV, and of the marriage of the princess Ḵh̲adid̲j̲e with the second vizier Muṣṭafā Pas̲h̲a (cf. Hammer-Purgstall, vi, 307…

(a. nāḥiya “district, vicinity”), an administrative term of the Ottoman empire. It is found as a general term for the subdivisions of a wilāyet or province as early as the 9th/15th century, but only later becomes a specific term for the rural subdivision of a ḳaḍāʾ [ q.v.] or ḳażā ; this latter term may be compared with the French arrondissement and is governed by a ḳāʾim-maḳām [ q.v.], while the nāḥiye is under a mudīr . This official, who used to be appointed by the wālī , the governor of the province, received his instructions from the ḳāʾim-maḳām, to whom he was subordinate. The subdivis…

, an administrative district and a port on the Danube in Bulgaria (often wrongly called and written as Rus̲h̲čuk), officially in Bulgarian Ruse (Pyce). It is situated at the confluence of the Rusenski Lom (Tk. Ḳara Lom) and the Danube, which then reaches a width of 1,300 m/4,264 feet. It faces the Rumanian port of Giurgiu (Tk. Yer Köki) and spreads out along terraces of loess, above the level of flooding. It is the main port on the Danube and the fourth largest town of Bulgaria, being a rail and…

(t.), literally, “new system, re-organisation”, the new military units created by the Ottoman sultan Selīm III (1203-22/1789-1807 [ q.v.]). The Treaty of Sistova between the Ottoman Empire and Austria (August 1791) and that of Jassy between the Empire and Russia (January 1792) meant that Turkey had to recognise the loss of the Crimea and the fact of Russian control over much of the Black Sea, although Austria withdrew from its conquests in Serbia, Bosnia and the Danube Principalities. Moreover, the European powers…

, daughter of the Ottoman sultan Süleymān II the Magnificent (926-74/1520-66). Mihr-i Māh (sometimes also written Mihr-ü-māh: cf. Ḳaračelebi-zāde, Rawḍat ul-ebrār , 458) was the only daughter of Süleymān q.v., as well as F. Babinger, in Meister der Politik , ii2, Berlin 1923, 39-63). While still quite young she was married to the grand vizier Rüstem Pas̲h̲a (cf. Babinger, GOW, 81-2) at the beginning of December 1539 (cf. J.H. Mordtmann, in MSOS, xxxii, Part 2, 37), but the marriage does not seem to have been a happy one. She used her enormous wealth—St. Gerlach in …

(?-939/?1532-3), an Ottoman Grand Vizier, belonged to Amasya and was a descendant of the famous D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn of Aḳsarāy and therefore traced his descent from Abū Bakr. He took up a legal career and became successively ḳāḍī of Sofia, Siliwri and Galata, administrator of Meḥemmed IPs kitchen for the poor ( ʿimāret ) in Istanbul, and at the beginning of the reign of Bāyezīd II attained the rank of a first defterdār ( bas̲h̲ defterdār ). In the reign of Selīm I, he distinguished himself by his wise counsel in the Persian campaign (see J. von Hammer, GOR, ii, 412, 417 ff.), was sent in advanc…

, secretary of state for the Sultan’s ṭug̲h̲ra , chancellor, in Ottoman administration. The Sald̲j̲ūḳs and Mamlūks already had special officials for drawing the ṭug̲h̲ra, the sultan’s signature. As their official organisation was inherited in almost all its details by the Ottomans, this post naturally was included. Its holder was called nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲i̊ or tewḳīʿī . The nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲i̊ held the same rank as the defterdār s [ q.v.] and indeed even preceded them, for we find defterdārs promoted to nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲i̊s but never a nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲i̊ becoming a defterdār. The nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲i̊ was i…

(d. 1023/1614), an Ottoman grand vizier, was of Christian descent and was born either in Gümüld̲j̲ine [ q.v. in Suppl.] (the modern Komotim, Thrace, Greece) or in Drama. According to some sources (e.g. Baudier and Grimestone, in Knolles), he was the son of a Greek priest; according to others (e.g. Naʿīmā, Taʾrīk̲h̲ 1 283, arnaʾud d̲j̲insi ), of Albanian origin. He came early in life to Istanbul, spent two years in the old Seray as a teberdār (halbardier) and left it as a čawus̲h̲ . Through the favour of the sulṭān’s confidant Meḥmed Ag̲h̲a, he rapidly attained high office. In ¶ quick successio…

, a petty Anatolian dynasty. The earlier history of the Ramaḍān og̲h̲ullari̊ is, like that of most of the minor Anatolian begs ( mülūk-i ṭewāʾif ), wrapped in obscurity. According ¶ to tradition, this Turkoman family came in Ertog̲h̲rul’s time from Central Asia to Anatolia where they settled in the region of Adana and founded their power. Their territory comprised the districts of Adana. Sīs, Ayās, a part of the territory of the Warsaḳ Turkomans, Tarsūs, etc. The date of the earliest known prince of the dynasty, Mīr Aḥmad b.…

, also called Mārsiwān, a town in the Anatolian wilāyet of Siwas [q. v.] and in the sand̲j̲aḳ of Amasia [q. v.] at the beginning of the fertile plain of Ṣulu Owa, with 11,334 inhabitants (in 1927), of whom the Armenians have had to migrate, which produces a good deal of wine and makes some cotton. Merzifūn before the World War was the centre of activity of the Protestant missions in this region and contained the Anatolia College. The town most probably occupies the site of the ancient Phazemon (Φαζημών) in the district of Phazemonitis; the name is probably a development of Φαζημών. Ibn Bībī (cf. Rec…

, Alb. Vlora, Valona, town in southern. Albania. (see arnawutluḳ ) Awlonya, usually called Valona, is today a town of about 10,000 inhabitants. It lies in the bay of the same name, and is some 2½ m. (4 km.) inland from the harbour. It played an important part in antiquity as Aulon (hence Avlona). Concerning its history in the Middle Ages, cf. Konst. Jireček, Valona im Mittelalter , in: Ludwig v. Thallcózy, Illyrisch-albanische Forschungen , i, Munich and Leipzig 1916, 168/87. In June 1417, the Ottoman armies entered the area of Valona, and occupi…

Mollā , a famous Ottoman jurist, whose real name was Meḥmed b. Farāmurz b. ʿAlī. According to one statement he was of Turkoman (tribe of Warsaḳ) descent and born in the village of Ḳarg̲h̲i̊n (half way between Sīwās and Toḳat); according to others, however, he was of “Frankish” descent and the son of a “French” nobleman who had adopted Islām. According to Saʿd al-Dīn his father was of Romaic ( Rūm ) descent. K̲h̲osrew became a pupil of the famous disciple of Taftazānī, Burhān al-Dīn Ḥaydar of Herat (cf. Isl ., xi, 61 and Saʿd al-Dīn, Tād̲j̲ al-tawārīk̲h̲ , ii, 430), and …

, the common European form of the name given to the light wooden warships built in Nassau or Hohenau (Lower Austria), the “Nassauer” or “Hohenauer”, Magyar naszád , pl. naszádok , Slav, nasad , which were used on the Danube. They were usually manned by Serbian seamen who were called martalos [ q.v.] (from the Magyar martolóc , martalóz , lit. “robber”). According to a Florentine account, this Danube flotilla in 1475 consisted of 330 ships manned by 10,000 “nassadists” armed with lances, shields, crossbow or bow and arrow, more ¶ rarely with muskets. The larger ships had also cannon. …

, Ottoman theologian and translator, was born in Anatolia but migrated while still quite young to Cairo where he studied all branches of theology and attained a high reputation. He died there in 1070/1659. He wrote a series of theological treatises, some of which are detailed by Brockelmann, II2, 407-8, S II, 432. His most important work, however, is his free translation and edition of S̲h̲āhrastānī’s celebrated work on the sects, his Terd̲j̲eme-i Milal we-niḥal which he prepared at the suggestion of a prominent Cairo citizen named Yūsuf Efendi (cf. Brockelmann, I2, 551, S I, 763). It…

, Turkish name for Lepanto, or Naupaktos, in Greece. It is on the Gulf of Corinth, has a picturesque position, but is—these days—an impoverished small town, called Epaktos by the people and Lepanto by the Italians. It is surrounded by crumbling walls which date from the times of Venetian rule, and is dominated by a fortress. In the Middle Ages, Aynabak̲h̲ti̊ ruled over the Gulf of Corinth, and in 1407 it came under Venetian rule (cf. Vitt. Lazzarini, L’acquisto di Lepanto, 1407, in: Nuovo Archivio Veneto , XV (Venice 1898), 267-833; in 1483 it was unsuccessf…

(t.), a word common to all Turkic languages (cf. W. Radloff, Versuch eines Wörterbuches der Türk-Dialecte , St. Petersburg 1888-1911, i/2, cols. 1015-16), found as early as Ork̲h̲on Turkic and meaning “offspring, child”, with a strong implication of “male child”, as opposed to ḳi̊z “girl” [ q.v.] (Sir Gerard Clauson, An etymological dictionary of pre-thirteenth century Turkish, Oxford 1972, 83-4), original plural og̲h̲lan , still thus in Kās̲h̲g̲h̲arī ( Dīwān lug̲h̲āt al-turk , facs. ed. Atalay, iv, Dizini , 425-6; C. Brockelmann, Mitteltürkischer Wortschatz …

, Ottoman historian. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAbdī Pas̲h̲a came from Anadolu Hisarī on the Bosporus, was educated in the Serāy, and finally attained the post of imperial privy secretary ( sirr kʿātibi ). In Muḥarram 1080/June 1669 he was promoted to the office of nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲i with the rank of a vizier, and later was appointed ḳāʾim-maḳām of the capital. In April 1679 he became governor of Bosnia, next year again nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲i, in March a so-called vizier of the cupola, in August 1684 governor of Baṣra (cf. Hammer-Purgstall, vi, 379). Deposed in 1686, he was in the next y…

(d. after 917/1511), Ottoman historian. There is little definite information about this historian apart from his mak̲h̲laṣ Rūḥī. From ʿĀlī’s [ q.v.] reference to him in the Künhü ’l-ak̲h̲bār as Edrenewī Mewlānā Rūḥī, it is probable that he was a member of the ʿulamāʾ and had a family or professional association with Edirne (J. Schmidt, Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī’s Künhü ’l-aḫbār and its preface according to the Leiden manuscript, Istanbul 1987, 58). Any identification with Rūḥī Fāḍi̊l Efendi (d. 927/1528), son of the s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Islām Zenbilli ʿAlī Efendi, remains hypothetical (Babinger, GOW, 4…

, Ottoman historian. The only information about his life is that he worked under the sultans Maḥmūd I and Muṣṭafā III, i.e. about 1730-64. His history, called either simply ʿAbdī Taʾrīk̲h̲i , or Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Sulṭān Maḥmūd Ḵh̲ān , deals mainly with the antecedents of Patrona Ḵh̲alīl’s rebellion and with the revolution itself (1730-1) and is one of the main contemporary sources for this event. MSS are to be found in Istanbul, Esʿad Efendī, 2153 and Millet Kütübk̲h̲ānesi 409. (Fr. Babinger) Bibliography F. R. Unat, 1730 Patrona ihtilali hakkinda bir eser Abdi tarihi, Ankara 1943 Osmanli Müel…

, Yaḥyā b. Pīr ʿAlī b. Naṣūḥ , an Ottoman theologian and poet, with the nom de plume ( mak̲h̲laṣ ) of Newʿī, was born in Malg̲h̲ara [see malḳara ] (Rumelia), the son of S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Pīr ʿAlī, in 940/1533. Up to his tenth year he was taught by his learned father and then became a pupil of Ḳaramānīzāde Meḥmed Efendi. His fellow pupils were the poet Bāḳī [ q.v.] and Saʿd al-Dīn, the famous historian [ q.v.]. He was an intimate friend of the former. He joined the ʿulamāʾ , became müderris of Gallipoli in 973/1565 and after filling several other offices became a teacher in the Medrese of Mihr u Māh Sulṭān [ q.v.].…