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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…

, 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.…

, 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.].…

, Aḥmed , an Ottoman poet, born in Istanbul, the son of a judge named Meḥmed Bey who had come from Merzifun. His grandfather (according to Gibb, HOP, iv, 30) was a military judge named Muṣṭafā. Aḥmed Refīḳ mentions as his great-grandfather Ḳara-Čelebi-zāde [ q.v.] Maḥmūd Efendi, who also was a military judge. The genealogy given by Aḥmed Refīḳ is, however, wrong because he confuses Ḳaramānī Meḥmed Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.] with Rūm Meḥmed Pas̲h̲a. The statement that Aḥmed Nedīm is descended from D̲j̲elāl al-Dīn is therefore simply the result of confusion. Little is known of his life. He was a müderris …

, aḥmad , imperial historiographer of the Ottoman empire, born in ʿAyntāb (the modern Gaziantep) in south-eastern Anatolia about the year 1755. He was the son of Seyyid Meḥmed, a clerk of the court, who became famous as a poet under the name of Ḏj̲enānī. His family was one of the old-established ones in the place. In his early youth he acquired an equally fluent knowledge of Arabic and Persian, and this helped him in later years to achieve his fame as a translator ( müterd̲j̲im ) of well-known dictionaries. To begin with, Seyyid Aḥmed was the secretary of th…

, 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…

, 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…

, an Ottoman Grand Vizier and poet, was born in 1065 or 1066/1654 in Eyyūb, a suburb of Istanbul, the son of a certain Ḥasan Ag̲h̲a. He entered the chancellery of the Reʾīs Efendi as a probationer ( s̲h̲āgird ), and through the poet Yūsuf Nābī [ q.v.] received an appointment as maṣraf kātibi̊ , i.e. secretary for the expenditure of the palace. In 1095/1684 through the influence of his patron, the newly-appointed Ḳapudān Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.] Muṣṭafā Pas̲h̲a, he became dīwān efendi , i.e. chancellor of the Admiralty. He took part in his chief’s journeys and camp…

( kestelī , kestellī ), muṣliḥ al-dīn muṣṭafā , Ottoman theologian and Ḥanafī jurist, d. 901/1495-6. He was a native of Kestel (Latin Castellum ), a village near Bursa, where later in his career he built a mosque; from this village comes his nisba of Kestel(l)ī or, more grandiloquently, Ḳasṭallānī. He studied at Bursa under the famous scholar K̲h̲iḍr Beg, mudarris at the Sulṭān madrasa there, and after concluding his legal and theological studies became himself a teacher in Mudurnu, in the Urud̲j̲ Pas̲h̲a madrasa at Dimetoḳa (Demotica), and then in one of Meḥemmed II’s newly-fo…

, the names of two Ottoman poets. 1. ʿAbd al-Razzāḳ , known as Newres, or more accurately, Newres-i Ḳadīm, “Newres the Elder”, to distinguish him from ʿOt̲h̲mān Newres [see below], came from Kirkūk in northern ʿIrāḳ and was probably of Kurdish origin. He seems, however, to have come to Istanbul at an early age to prosecute his studies. Here he became a müderris but in the year 1159/1746 entered upon a legal career. According to the Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī , he held the office of ḳāḍī in Sarajevo and Kütahya. His sharp tongue, which found particular expressi…