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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…

, Seyyid ʿImād al-Dīn , known as Nesīmī, an early Ottoman poet and mystic, believed to have come from Nesīm near Bag̲h̲dād, whence his name. As a place of this name no longer exists, it is not certain whether the laḳab should not be derived simply from nasīm “zephyr, breath of wind”. That Nesīmī was of Turkoman origin seems to be fairly certain, although the “Seyyid” before his name also points to Arab blood. Turkish was as familiar to him as Persian, for he wrote in both languages. Arabic poems ar…

Meḥmed Čelebi Pas̲h̲a , Yes̲h̲ild̲j̲e , known as Küčük Nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲i̊, an Ottoman historian. He was born in Merzifūn [ q.v.] and was the son of a certain Ramaḍān Čelebi. He was a secretary in the dīwān , became in 960/1553 chief defterdār , in 961/1554 reʾīs ül-küttāb or secretary of state, and in 965/1558 secretary of the imperial signature ( ṭüg̲h̲ra [ q.v.]). He was later appointed defterdār of Aleppo, then governor of Egypt and finally sent to the Morea to make a survey ( taḥrīr ). He retired in 970/1562 and died in D̲j̲umādā I 979/September-October 1571…

, also called Dimotiḳa , a town in the former Ottoman Rumeli. Dimetoḳa lies in western Thrace, in a side valley of the Maritsa, and at times played a significant role in Ottoman history. The territory has belonged to Greece since the treaty of Neuilly (27 November 1919), again bears its pre-Ottoman name of Didymóteikhon, and lies within the administrative district (Nomos) of Ebros. It has a population of about 10,000, and is the seat of a bishop of the Greek church as well as o…

, an old Ottoman noble family. This family traced its descent to the feudal lord Köse Mīk̲h̲āl ʿAbd Allāh, originally a Greek (cf. F.-A. Geuffroy, in Ch. Schefer, Petit traicte de l’origine des Turcqz par Th. Spandouyn Cantacasin , Paris 1696, 267: L’ung desdictz Grecz estoit nommé Michaeli … Dudict Michali sont descenduz les Michalogli ), who appears in the reign of ʿOt̲h̲mān I as lord of Chirmenkia (K̲h̲irmend̲j̲ik) at the foot of Mount Olympus near Edrenos, and later as an ally of the first Ottoman ruler earned great merit for his share in aiding the latter’s expansion (cf. J. von Hammer, in G…

, wife of the Ottoman sultan Ork̲h̲an and mother of Murād I [ q.vv.], apparently the Greek Nenuphar (i.e. Lotus-flower) (cf. J. von Hammer, GOR, i, 59), was the daughter of the lord of Yārḥiṣār (Anatolia, near Bursa; cf. Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī K̲h̲alīfa, D̲j̲ihān-numā . 659) and according to one story was betrothed to the lord of Belokoma (Biled̲j̲ik). ʿOt̲h̲mān [ q.v.], the founder of the dynasty which bears his name, is said to have kidnapped and carried her off in 699/1299 and to have destined her to be the wife of his son Ork̲h̲an [ q.v.], then only 12 years old. Idrīs Bitlīsī, and following hi…

, 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…

, S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Muṣliḥ al-Dīn b. Muṣṭafā, the head of an Ottoman Ṣūfī order and saint. Merkez Muṣliḥ al-Dīn Mūsā b. Muṣṭāfā b. Ḳi̊li̊d̲j̲ b. Had̲j̲dar belonged to the village of Ṣari̊ Maḥmūdlu in the Anatolian district of Lād̲h̲ikiyya. He was at first a pupil of the Mollā Aḥmad Pas̲h̲a, son of Ḵh̲iḍr Beg [ q. v.], and later of the famous Ḵh̲alwatī S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Sünbül Sinān Efendi, founder of the Sünbüliyya, a branch of the Ḵh̲alwatiyya, head of the monastery of Ḳod̲j̲a Muṣṭāfā Pas̲h̲a in Istanbul (see Bursali̊ Meḥmed Ṭāhir, ʿOt̲h̲mānli müʾellifleri , i, 78-9). When th…

, an Ottoman historian, according to popular tradition originally called Elkazović or Čaušević, who belonged to Bosna-Novi (Bosanski-Novi). Of his career we only know that he was acting as ḳāḍī in his native town when fierce fighting broke out on Bosnian soil between the Imperial troops and those of Ḥekīm-Og̲h̲lu ʿAlī Pas̲h̲a (1150/1737). ʿÖmer Efendi at this time wrote a vivid account of the happenings in Bosnia from the beginning of Muḥarram 1149/May 1736 to the end of D̲j̲umādā I 1152/end of March 1…

muṣtafā , Ottoman poet and stylist, as a poet known under the name of Ḥāletī. Born in the so-called laylat al-berāt in Istanbul on 15 S̲h̲aʿbān 977/23 Jan. 1570. He was the son of ʿAzmī-Efendi, who was the well-known and well-respected tutor of Murād IV as well as a poet, writer, and translator (died 990/1582). As a pupil of Saʿd al-Dīn [ q.v.] who became famous as a historian, he studied law, and to him he owed his special love for historical investigation. He became müderris at the madrasa of Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī-Ḵh̲ātūn in Istanbul, but in 1011/1602-3 he was transferred to Damascus as a ¶ judge. Two ye…

, lit “father of sheep”, a Turkish saint. He is thought to have been a contemporary of Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Bektās̲h̲ [see bektās̲h̲iyya ] and is said to have received his name from the fact that he did not speak, but only bleated like a sheep five times a day at the periods for prayer. Sulṭān Bāyezīd II, called Walī , built a splendid tomb and dervish monastery on the site of his alleged grave at ʿOt̲h̲mānd̲j̲i̊ḳ (near Amasya, in Anatolia) which was one of the finest and richest in the Ottoman empire. Ewliyā Čelebi in his Travels ( Seyāḥet-nāme , ii, 180 ff.) describes very ful…

, 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.].…