The Government of the Ottoman Empire in the Time of Suleiman the Magnificent Volume 18 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 Excerpt: ...Bey, below, p. 265; Postel, iii. 66-70. was under the care of the two principal Defterdars, or treasurers, one for Rumelia and one for Anatolia, aided by two of lower rank, one for Aleppo and the southwest and one for the Danubian countries.1 The principal Defterdars were men of great position, with large incomes and households, and possessing the right of audience with the sultan in regard to matters of revenue.2 Under them were twenty-five departments or bureaus, as instituted by the Conqueror, each with a chief, or Khojagan, who directed a number of clerks of different grades. Between these and the Defterdars were several intermediate officials, of whom the most important were the two Rusnamekjis, or book-keepers. The total personnel of the treasury department numbered more than eight hundred.3 A list of the twenty-five bureaus, or kalems, with a statement of the provinces of each, will give an excellent idea of the complicated financial arrangements of the Ottoman government. Taken as a whole, they show in outline the economic substructure of the Ruling Institution, as well as that of the Moslem Institution, with exception of the sultan's private treasury, out of which most of the inner service of the court was paid, and of the provisions for the officers and judges of local government: --i. The Buyuk Rusnameh Kalemi, or greater book-keeping bureau, was the central office to which all the accounts were brought from the other bureaus. Once or twice a year it drew 1 The word means primarily "book-keeper." It is derived either from the Greek word SupBtpa or from a similar Persian word (Hammer, Geschichte, ii. 228). Ramberti (below, p. 247) mentions but two Defterdars, one who took care of the revenue from all the Asiatic provinces, Egypt, and the ...