Wealth, Power and Death Capital Accumulation and Imperial Seizures In the Ottoman Empire (1453-1839) Ali Yaycıoğlu1 Kim kul olurdı ri‘ayet olmasa Söz tutulmazdı siyaset olmasa [Who would be sultan’s slave, if there was no subjugation, His words wouldn’t be obeyed, if there was no execution.] Asafi Dal Mehmed Çelebi Șeca‘atname (1586) Mal canın yongasıdır. [Property is a piece of the soul.] Turkish proverb Introduction It is a well known, but oddly very little studied phenomenon that from the mid-15th century, when the Ottoman imperial enterprise was consolidated with the conquest of Constantinople under Mehmed II (the Conqueror) (r. 1451-81), to the decree of Tanzimat in 1839, thousands of individuals, who acted as offices-holders or contractors of the Ottoman state, were executed without any judicial inquiry, solely with the decrees of the sultans or imperial grandees acting on their behalf. As dramatically, the properties of thousands of individuals and families, who performed as office-holders or contractors, were confiscated either after their executions or their natural deaths, without any legal justification. In Ottoman political and economic culture, such extra-inquisitory imperial executions and confiscations without due process were considered as two main components of the 1 Assistant Professor of History, Stanford University. 450 Serra Mall, Building 200, Stanford, CA 94305. Email Address:
[email protected] This is a very early stage of an ongoing project. Please do not circulate without permission. 1 Ottoman imperial order. Although it was never formulated in full clarity into constitutional language, according to imperial custom and law those individuals, whose status and wealth came from the sultan, state, and/or public (miri), were to be regarded as stripped of their private rights, and their life and property were to be under the absolute jurisdiction of the sovereign sultan.