Berats of the Serdarlik in the Düstûru’l-İnşâ of Sarı Abdullah

Abstract

In this article, three appointmental documents called serdarlık beratı have been examined. Serdarlık beratı is a kind of document which was bestowed by the Ottoman sultan to the grand vizier or to one of the viziers in order to appoint him as the commander-in-chief of the Ottoman army or admiral-in-chief of the Ottoman navy. A few examples of these documents are kept in the reisülküttâb Sarı Abdullah (ö. 1660)’s münşeât, collection of imperial edicts and correspondences of the Ottoman sultans. The first document is related to the appointment of Hâfız Ahmed Paşa as Admiral-in-Chief of the Ottoman Navy. The second document is related to Vizier Kuyucu Murad Paşa’s appointment as the Commander- in-Chief of the Ottoman Army in the Eastern Front. This document can be seen as an evidence of Sultan Ahmed I’s reverence for his old Grand Vizier. The third document is related to the vizier İbşir Mustafa Paşa’s appointment as the commander-in-chief of the Ottoman army in Hungary. These documents are an indispensable source in terms of how the Ottomans viewed the Safavids and Hungarians in the first half of the seventeenth century. The article aims at introducing a neglected source, i.e. serdarlık berats, to the historians who are interested in the seventeenth-century Ottoman empire. It can safely be argued that the Ottoman sultans addressed their perception of the contemporary states and events with a historical insight in these imperial edicts.