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67-441: Hatt-i humayun ( Ottoman Turkish : خط همايون ḫaṭṭ-ı hümayun , plural خط همايونلر , ḫaṭṭ-ı hümayunlar ), also known as hatt-i sharif ( خط شریف ḫaṭṭ-ı şerîf , plural خط شریفلر , ḫaṭṭ-ı şerîfler ), was the diplomatics term for a document or handwritten note of an official nature composed by an Ottoman sultan . These notes were commonly written by the sultan personally, although they could also be transcribed by

134-498: A palace scribe . They were written usually in response to, and directly on, a document submitted to the sultan by the grand vizier or another officer of the Ottoman government . Thus, they could be approvals or denials of a letter of petition , acknowledgements of a report, grants of permission for a request, an annotation to a decree , or other government documents. Hatt-i humayuns could also be composed from scratch, rather than as

201-409: A Persian or Arabic active or passive participle to a neuter verb, to do ( ایتمك etmek ) or to become ( اولمق olmaq ). For example, note the following two verbs: Below table shows some sample conjugations of these two verbs. The conjugation of the verb "etmek" isn't straightforward, because the root of the verb ends in a [t]. This sound transforms into a [d] when followed by a vowel sound. This

268-435: A decorated frame. The note would emphasize a particular part of his edict , urging or ordering it to be followed without fault. These were called Hatt-ı Hümayunla Müveşşeh Ferman (ferman decorated with a hatt-ı hümayun ) or Unvanına Hatt-ı Hümayun ( hatt-ı hümayun to the title). The note might use a clichéd phrase like "to be done as required" ( mûcebince amel oluna ) or, "my command is to carried out as required and no one

335-676: A document but would use the native Turkish word bal ( بال ) when buying it. The transliteration system of the İslâm Ansiklopedisi has become a de facto standard in Oriental studies for the transliteration of Ottoman Turkish texts. In transcription , the New Redhouse, Karl Steuerwald, and Ferit Devellioğlu dictionaries have become standard. Another transliteration system is the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (DMG), which provides

402-595: A higher to a lower office ( şukka ), religious reports by Qadis to higher offices ( ilâm ) and record books ( tahrirat ). These would be called hatt-ı hümâyûn on arz , hatt-ı hümâyûn on mahzar , etc. depending on the type of the document. The Sultan responded not only to documents submitted to him by his viziers but also to petitions ( arzuhâl ) submitted to him by his subjects following the Friday prayer. Thus, hatt-ı hümayun s on documents were analogous to Papal rescripts and rescripts used in other imperial regimes. When

469-568: A loss of authority and independence in the grand vizier while other palace people such as the Master of the Harem ( Harem Ağası ) or concubines ( cariye ), especially ( Valide Sultan ) who had greater access to the Sultan gained in influence. The mothers of the sultans, such as Nurbanu Sultan and Safiye Sultan , during the reign of their sons, in order to exercise power, by secret alliance with

536-541: A negative verb, and a positive complex verb expressing ability. In Turkish, complex verbs can be constructed by adding a variety of suffixes to the base root of a verb. The two verbs are یازممق yazmamaq (not to write) and سوه‌بلمك sevebilmek (to be able to love). Another common category of verbs in Turkish (more common in Ottoman Turkish than in modern Turkish), is compound verbs. This consists of adding

603-477: A possessive pronoun if needed, and copula وار var , followed by the 3rd person singular form of the verb 'to do: ایتمك etmek attached as a suffix (or separate as a stanadalone verb); as conjugated in the above section. The verbs 'not to exist' and 'not to have' are created in the exact same manner and conjugation, except that the copula یوق yok is used. Turkish being an agglutinative language as opposed to an analytical one (generally), means that from

670-586: A response to an existing document. After the Tanzimat era (1839–1876), aimed at modernizing the Ottoman Empire, hatt-i humayuns of the routine kind were supplanted by the practice of irade-i seniyye ( Ottoman Turkish : اراده سنیه irâde-i seniyye ; French : iradé or less standardly iradèh , meaning 'ordonnance'), in which the sultan's spoken response was recorded on the document by his scribe . There are nearly 100,000 hatt-i humayuns in

737-412: A separate summary document, the grand vizier or his deputy would write his summary and views diagonally, on the top or bottom margins of documents coming from lower functionaries (see an example in the first figure above). Such annotations on a written document were called derkenar . Sometimes the grand vizier would append a separate cover page on top of a proposal coming from a lower-level functionary like

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804-443: A sign of respect toward the Sultan, hatt-ı hümayun s on documents (petitions, reports, etc. ) were cut out and stored together with the hatt-ı hümayun s on the white, while the rest of the documents were stored elsewhere. These cut-out hatt-ı hümayun s were not cross-referenced with the documents to which they referred and were only annotated by the palace office using general terms and an approximate date. Because Sultans were not in

871-411: A single root verb, with the addition of a variety of morphemes and suffixes, multiple new and different verbs meanings can be expressed in single but larger words. Below table is a sample from the verb تپمك tepmek meaning 'to kick', whose root (which is also 2nd person imperative) is تپ tep . Each of the produced new verbs below can be made into an infinitive with the addition of ـمك -mek at

938-720: A special section of "cut-out hatt-ı hümayun s". Today all known hatt-ı hümayun s have been recorded in a computerized database in the Ottoman Archives of the Turkish Prime Minister ( Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri , or BOA in short) in Istanbul, and they number 95,134. Most hatt-ı hümayun s are stored at the BOA and in the Topkapı Museum Archive. The BOA contains 58,000 hatt-ı hümayun s. Because

1005-430: A vowel, when it comes to taking case suffixes, a letter - ـنـ [n] comes after the possessive suffix. For singular endings, the final vowel ی is removed in all instances. For plural endings, if the letter succeeding the additional - ـنـ [n] is a vowel, the final vowel ی is kept; otherwise it is removed (note the respective examples for kitaplarını versus kitaplarından ). Examples below : Below table shows

1072-502: Is an ezafe of Arabic إرادة ʾirāda and سَنِيّة saniyya , the feminine of سَنِيّ saniyy . Around the late Ottoman Empire, the word irade was often used in European publications, but by the 21st century it became disused in European languages: The hatt-ı hümayun would usually be written to the grand vizier ( Sadrazam ), or in his absence, to his replacement (the ka'immakâm ), or to another senior official such as

1139-530: Is not different from the grammar of modern Turkish .The focus of this section is on the Ottoman orthography; the conventions surrounding how the orthography interacted and dealt with grammatical morphemes related to conjugations, cases, pronouns, etc. Table below lists nouns with a variety of phonological features that come into play when taking case suffixes. The table includes a typical singular and plural noun, containing back and front vowels, words that end with

1206-507: Is referring. When palace bureaucracy was reorganized after the Tanzimat reforms , the Sultan's decision came to be written directly by the Chief Scribe at the bottom of the summary document, and this one writing applied to all decisions. When a petition or memo requiring the Sultan's decision was to be submitted to him, the grand vizier usually prepared an executive summary ( telhis ) as an attachment. In some cases, rather than prepare

1273-424: Is reflected in conventions of Ottoman orthography as well. In Turkish, there is a verb representing to be , but it is a defective verb. It doesn't have an infinitive or several other tenses. It is usually a suffix. Negative verb to be is created with the use of the word دگل değil , followed by the appropriate conjugation of the to be verb; or optionally used as a standalone for 3rd person. Generally,

1340-469: Is the latter's abandonment of compound word formation according to Arabic and Persian grammar rules. The usage of such phrases still exists in modern Turkish but only to a very limited extent and usually in specialist contexts ; for example, the Persian genitive construction takdîr-i ilâhî (which reads literally as "the preordaining of the divine" and translates as "divine dispensation" or "destiny")

1407-503: Is the predecessor of modern Turkish. However, the standard Turkish of today is essentially Türkiye Türkçesi (Turkish of Turkey) as written in the Latin alphabet and with an abundance of neologisms added, which means there are now far fewer loan words from other languages, and Ottoman Turkish was not instantly transformed into the Turkish of today. At first, it was only the script that was changed, and while some households continued to use

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1474-421: Is to interfere with its execution" ( emrim mûcebince amel oluna, kimseye müdahale etmeyeler ). Some edicts to the title would start with a note from the Sultan praising the person(s) to whom the edict was addressed, in order to encourage or honor him. Rarely, there might be a threat such as "if you want to keep your head, carry out this order as required" ( Başın gerek ise mûcebiyle amel oluna ). "Hatt-ı hümayun on

1541-519: Is used, as opposed to the normative modern Turkish construction, ilâhî takdîr (literally, "divine preordaining"). In 2014, Turkey's Education Council decided that Ottoman Turkish should be taught in Islamic high schools and as an elective in other schools, a decision backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , who said the language should be taught in schools so younger generations do not lose touch with their cultural heritage. Most Ottoman Turkish

1608-493: The Hatt-i Sharif of Gülhane of 1839, and part of the Tanzimat reforms. That document is also generally referred to as "The Hatt-i Sharif", although there are many other hatt-i sharifs, a term that is synonymous with hatt-ı hümayun . The term hatt-ı hümayun is occasionally used in the literal sense of the handwriting of the Sultan. For example, the imperial poet Nef'i has written a masnavi of 22 couplets describing

1675-477: The calligraphy of Sultan Murad IV , called Der-Vasf-ı Hatt-ı Humayun-ı Sultan Murad Han . The whole poem is a compliment to the writings of the Sultan. Ottoman Turkish language Historically, Ottoman Turkish was transformed in three eras: In 1928, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey , widespread language reforms (a part in

1742-463: The hatt-ı hümayun was to be delivered ceremoniously, with an imperial sword and a cloak, as in an appointment to a high rank, there would be a flowery salutation such as "after I have honored you with my glorious greeting you should know that..." ( seni selâm-ı şâhanemle teşrif eylediğimden sonra malumun ola ki... ). Correspondence to a military commander could have a lengthy and ornate salutation or just address him by his title. A note without an address

1809-608: The hatt-ı hümayun s were originally not organized systematically, historians in the nineteenth and early twentieth century created several catalogs of hatt-ı hümayun s based on different organizing principles. These historic catalogs are still in use by historians at the BOA: Hatt-ı Hümâyûn Tasnifi is the catalog of the hatt-ı hümayun s belonging to the Âmedi Kalemi. It consists of 31 volumes listing 62,312 documents, with their short summaries. This catalog lists documents from 1730 to 1839 but covers primarily those from

1876-462: The Arabic system in private, most of the Turkish population was illiterate at the time, making the switch to the Latin alphabet much easier. Then, loan words were taken out, and new words fitting the growing amount of technology were introduced. Until the 1960s, Ottoman Turkish was at least partially intelligible with the Turkish of that day. One major difference between Ottoman Turkish and modern Turkish

1943-770: The Grand Viziers and some important members of the Divan, they overshadowed the authority of the Sultan; Moreover separately by influencing the decisions of the Sultan, who had direct and intimate access to the Sultan's person, they often influenced government decisions bypassing the Divan and the Grand Vizier altogether. Even Handan Sultan , Halime Sultan , Kosem Sultan and Turhan Sultan acted on their behalf because of their sons' youth or incapacity and they were responsible for key decisions (removals and major promotions in

2010-495: The Imperial Reform Edict (or Islâhat Fermânı ) of 1856 is well enough known that most history texts refer to it simply as "Hatt-i Hümayun". This decree from Sultan Abdülmecid I promised equality in education, government appointments, and administration of justice to all, regardless of creed. In Düstur , the Ottoman code of laws , the text of this ferman is introduced as "a copy of the supreme ferman written to

2077-666: The Ottoman archives in Istanbul . Among the more famous are the Hatt-i Sharif of Gulhane (Ottoman Turkish: خط شریف گلخانه , also known as the Tanzimat Fermani [ تنظیمات فرمانی ]) of 1839 and the Imperial Reform Edict ([اصلاحات خط همايونى] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |link= ( help ) ) of 1856. The first one, which opened the Tanzimat era, is so called because it carries a handwritten order by

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2144-474: The Persian character of its Arabic borrowings with other Turkic languages that had even less interaction with Arabic, such as Tatar , Bashkir , and Uyghur . From the early ages of the Ottoman Empire, borrowings from Arabic and Persian were so abundant that original Turkish words were hard to find. In Ottoman, one may find whole passages in Arabic and Persian incorporated into the text. It was however not only extensive loaning of words, but along with them much of

2211-464: The Sultan and thus the irâde (also called irâde-i seniyye , i.e., "supreme will", or irâde-i şâhâne , i.e., "glorious will") replaced the hatt-ı hümayun . The use of hatt-ı hümayun s on the white between the Sultan and the grand vizier continued on for matters of great importance such as high level appointments or promotions. Infrequently, the grand vizier and the Sultan wrote to each other directly as well. The large number of documents that required

2278-534: The Sultan would write his decision on a fresh piece of paper attached to the submitted document. In most cases hatt-ı humayun s were written by the Sultan himself although there exist some that were penned by the chief scribe or another functionary. Important hatt-ı humayun s on the white were sometimes drafted by the head of diplomatic correspondence ( Reis ül-Küttab ) or the Secretary of Navy ( Kapudan Paşa ). In some cases, there were notations as to who prepared

2345-685: The Sultan's decision through either a hatt-ı hümayun or an irade-i senniye is considered to be an indication of how centralized the Ottoman government was. Abdülhamid I has written himself in one of his hatt-ı hümayun s "I have no time that my pen leaves my hand, with God's resolve it does not." The early hatt-ı hümayun s were written in the calligraphic styles of tâlik , tâlik kırması (a variant of tâlik), nesih and riq’a . After Mahmud II , they were only written in riq’a. Ahmed III and Mahmud II were skilled penmen and their hatt-ı hümayun s are notable for their long and elaborate annotations on official documents. In contrast, Sultans who accessed

2412-433: The Sultan, and request the Sultan's will on the matter. Such documents were called telhis (summary) until the 19th century and takrir (suggestion) later on. The Sultan's handwritten response (his command or decision) were called hatt-ı hümâyûn on telhis or hatt-ı hümâyûn on takrir . Other types of documents submitted to the Sultan were petitions ( arzuhâl ), sworn transcriptions of oral petitions ( mahzar ), reports from

2479-591: The Treasurer ( Defterdar ) or the Minister of Defence ( Serasker ), introducing it as, for example, "this is the proposal of the Defterdar ". In such cases, the Sultan would write his hatt-ı hümayun on the cover page. In other cases, the grand vizier would summarize the matter directly in the margin of the document submitted by the lower functionary and the Sultan would write on the same page as well. Sometimes

2546-542: The draft of the document that was then re-written by the Sultan. Hatt-ı hümayun s usually were not dated, although some, concerning withdrawal of money from the treasury, did carry dates. Most late-period hatt-ı hümayun s and irade s had dates. Abdulhamid I was especially inclined to date his hatt-ı hümayun s. His grand vizier Koca Yusuf Pasha , later suggested this practice of dating hatt-ı hümayun s to Abdulhamid's successor Selim III so that he could follow up whether his orders were carried out. However, this suggestion

2613-493: The eighteenth century, Selim III became concerned by the over-centralization of the bureaucracy and its general inefficacy. He created consulting bodies ( meclis-i meşveret ) to share some of the authority with him and the grand vizier. He would give detailed answers on hatt-ı hümayun s to questions asked of him and would make inquiries as to whether his decisions were followed. The hatt-ı hümayun became Selim III's tool to ensure rapid and precise execution of his decisions. During

2680-417: The end. Ottoman Turkish was highly influenced by Arabic and Persian. Arabic and Persian words in the language accounted for up to 88% of its vocabulary. As in most other Turkic and foreign languages of Islamic communities, the Arabic borrowings were borrowed through Persian, not through direct exposure of Ottoman Turkish to Arabic, a fact that is evidenced by the typically Persian phonological mutation of

2747-538: The government) that were in the hands of the Sultan. By giving detailed instructions or advice, the Sultans reduced the role of the grand viziers to be just a supervisor to the execution of his commands. This situation appears to have created some backlash, as during most of the 17th century there were attempts to return to grand viziers' prestige and the power of "supreme proxy" ( vekil-i mutlak ) and over time hatt-ı hümayun s returned to their former simplicity. However, in

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2814-422: The grammatical systems of Persian and Arabic. In a social and pragmatic sense, there were (at least) three variants of Ottoman Turkish: A person would use each of the varieties above for different purposes, with the fasih variant being the most heavily suffused with Arabic and Persian words and kaba the least. For example, a scribe would use the Arabic asel ( عسل ) to refer to honey when writing

2881-432: The grand admiral ( Kapudan-i Derya ) or the governor-general ( Beylerbey ) of Rumeli . There were three types of hatt-ı hümayuns : Routine decrees ( ferman ) or titles of privilege ( berat ) were written by a scribe, but those written to certain officials and those that were particularly important were preceded by the Sultan's handwritten note beside his seal ( tughra ). The tughra and the notation might be surrounded by

2948-424: The grand vizier, perfected by decoration above with a hatt-ı hümayun ." So, technically this edict was a hatt-ı hümayun to the rank. The Reform Decree of 1856 is sometimes referred to by another name, "The Rescript of Reform". Here, the word 'rescript' is used to sense of "edict, decree", not "reply to a query or other document." The Hatt-ı Hümayun of 1856 was an extension of another important edict of reform,

3015-589: The grand vizier, were stored in other document stores (called fon in the terminology of current Turkish archivists). During the creation of the State Archives in the nineteenth century, documents were organized according to their importance. Hatt-ı hümayun s on the white were considered the most important, along with those on international relations, border transactions and internal regulations. Documents of secondary importance were routinely placed in trunks and stored in cellars in need of repair. Presumably as

3082-469: The greater framework of Atatürk's Reforms ) instituted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk saw the replacement of many Persian and Arabic origin loanwords in the language with their Turkish equivalents. One of the main supporters of the reform was the Turkish nationalist Ziya Gökalp . It also saw the replacement of the Perso-Arabic script with the extended Latin alphabet . The changes were meant to encourage

3149-471: The growth of a new variety of written Turkish that more closely reflected the spoken vernacular and to foster a new variety of spoken Turkish that reinforced Turkey's new national identity as being a post-Ottoman state . See the list of replaced loanwords in Turkish for more examples of Ottoman Turkish words and their modern Turkish counterparts. Two examples of Arabic and two of Persian loanwords are found below. Historically speaking, Ottoman Turkish

3216-405: The habit of dating their hatt-ı hümayun s until the late period of the empire, in most cases the documents associated with them are not known. Conversely, the decisions on many a memorandum, petition, or request submitted to the Sultan are unknown. The separation of hatt-ı hümayun s from their documents is considered a great loss of information for researchers. The Ottoman Archives in Istanbul has

3283-433: The letter ه ـه ([a] or [e]), both back and front vowels, word that ends in a ت ([t]) sound, and word that ends in either ق or ك ([k]). These words are to serve as references, to observe orthographic conventions: Table below shows the suffixes for creating possessed nouns. Each of these possessed nouns, in turn, take case suffixes as shown above. For third person (singular and plural) possessed nouns, that end in

3350-490: The period of 1290–1873. Along with 329 hatt-ı hümayun s, it lists documents of various other types relating to palace correspondence, private correspondence, appointments, taxation, land grants ( timar and zeamet ), and charitable endowments ( vakıf ). Muallim Cevdet Tasnifi catalogs 216,572 documents in 34 volumes, organized by topics that include local governments, provincial administration, vakıf and internal security. Although there exist thousands of hatt-ı hümayun s,

3417-399: The positive conjugation for two sample verbs آچمق açmak (to open) and سولمك sevilmek (to be loved). The first verb is the active verb, and the other has been modified to form a passive verb. The first contains back vowels, the second front vowels; both containing non-rounded vowels (which also impacts pronounciation and modern Latin orthograhpy). Below table shows the conjugation of

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3484-436: The provided facts" ( vech-i meşruh üzere verdim ). Hatt-ı hümayun s to the position often had clichéd expressions such as "To be done as required" ( Mûcebince amel oluna ) or "To be done as required, not to be contravened" ( Mûcebince amel ve hilâfından hazer oluna ). Hatt-ı hümayun s on the white were more elaborate and some may have been drafted by a scribe before being penned by the Sultan. They often started by addressing

3551-469: The recipient. The Sultan would refer to his grand vizier as "My Vizier", or if his grand vizier was away at war, would refer to his deputy as " Ka'immakâm Paşa ". Those written to other officials would often start with an expression like "You who are my Vizier of Rumeli, Mehmed Pasha" ( "Sen ki Rumili vezîrim Mehmed Paşa'sın" ). The head of religious affairs ( Şeyhülislam ) or the Sultan's personal tutor would be addressed simply and respectfully. In cases where

3618-471: The reign of Mahmud II, in the early 1830s, the practice of writing on the memoranda of the grand vizier was replaced by the Chief Scribe of the Mabeyn-i hümayun ( Mabeyn-i hümayun başkatibi ) recording the Sultan's decision. After the Tanzimat , the government bureaucracy was streamlined. For most routine communications, the imperial scribe ( Serkâtib-i şehriyârî ) began to record the spoken will ( irâde ) of

3685-628: The reigns of Selim III and Mahmud II within this period. Ali Emiri Tasnifi is a chronological catalog of 181,239 documents organized according to the periods of sovereignty of Sultans, from the foundation of the Ottoman state to the Abdülmecid period. Along with hatt-ı hümayun s, this catalog includes documents on foreign relations. İbnülemin Tasnifi is a catalog created by a committee led by historian İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal. It covers

3752-433: The reigns of Sultans such as Abdülhamid I , Selim III and Mahmud II , who wanted to increase their control and be informed of everything. The content of hatt-ı hümayun s tends to reflect the power struggle that existed between the Sultan and his council of viziers (the Divan ). The process of using the hatt-ı hümayun to authorize the actions of the grand vizier came into existence in the reign of Murad III. This led to

3819-413: The successful defense of Mosul against the forces of Nadir Shah , in 1743, Sultan Mahmud I sent a hatt-ı hümayun to the governor Haj Husayn Pasha, which praised in verse the heroic exploits of the governor and the warriors of Mosul. In normal bureaucratic procedure, a document would be submitted by the grand vizier, or his deputy the kaymakam ( Kâ'immakâm Paşa ), who would summarize a situation for

3886-419: The sultan contacted the public for Friday prayer or other occasions, people would hand in petitions addressed to him. These were later discussed and decided upon by the council of viziers. They would prepare a summary of all petitions and the action decided upon for each one. The sultan would write on the same sheet "I have been informed" ( manzurum olmuştur ) multiple times, followed by the item number to which he

3953-600: The sultan to the grand vizier to execute his command. The term hatt-i humayun can sometimes also be used in a literal sense, meaning a document handwritten by an Ottoman sultan. The terms hatt-i humayun and hatt-i sharif are ezafe constructions of خط ḫaṭṭ ( Modern Turkish : hat , from Arabic خَطّ khaṭṭ , 'handwriting, command') and همایون hümayun (Modern Turkish: hümayun , from Persian همایون homâyun , 'imperial') or شریف şerîf (Modern Turkish: şerif , from Arabic شَريف sharīf , 'lofty, noble'). The term irade-i seniyye

4020-453: The throne at an early age, such as Murad V and Mehmed IV display poor spelling and calligraphy. Hatt-ı hümayun s sent to the grand vizier were handled and recorded at the Âmedi Kalemi , the secretariat of the grand vizier. The Âmedi Kalemi organized and recorded all correspondence between the grand vizier and the Sultan, as well as any correspondence with foreign rulers and with Ottoman ambassadors. Other hatt-ı hümayun s, not addressed to

4087-438: The topic, then give their opinion such as "this report's/petition's/record's/ etc. appearance and meaning has become my imperial knowledge"( "... işbu takrîrin/telhîsin/şukkanın/kaimenin manzûr ve me'azi ma'lûm-ı hümayûnum olmuşdur" ). Some common phrases in hatt-ı hümayuns are "according to this report..." ( işbu telhisin mûcebince ), "the matter is clear" ( cümlesi malumdur ), "I permit" ( izin verdim ), "I give, according to

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4154-404: The verbs 'to exist' and 'to have' are expressed using what's called an existential copula , the word وار var . The verb 'to have' is expressed in the same way, except that the object noun will take a possessive pronoun, producing sentences that will literally mean "there exists house of mine". The verbs 'to exist' and 'to have' conjugated for other tenses, are expressed in the same way, with

4221-470: The white" ( beyaz üzerine hatt-ı hümâyun ) were documents originating with the sultan ( ex officio ) rather than a notation on an existing document. They were so called because the edict was written on a blank (i.e. white) page. They could be documents such as a command, an edict , an appointment letter or a letter to a foreign ruler. There also exist hatt-ı hümayun s expressing the sultan's opinions or even his feelings on certain matters. For example, after

4288-476: The words of Arabic origin. The conservation of archaic phonological features of the Arabic borrowings furthermore suggests that Arabic-incorporated Persian was absorbed into pre-Ottoman Turkic at an early stage, when the speakers were still located to the north-east of Persia , prior to the westward migration of the Islamic Turkic tribes. An additional argument for this is that Ottoman Turkish shares

4355-485: Was meant for the grand vizier or his deputy. The earliest known hatt-ı hümayun is the one sent by Sultan Murad I to Evrenos Bey in 1386, commending the commander for his conquests and giving him advice on how to administer people. Until the reign of Murad III , Viziers used to present matters orally to the Sultans, who would then give their consent or denial, also orally. While hatt-ı hümayun s were very rare prior to this, they proliferated afterward, especially during

4422-869: Was not adopted. Abdulhamid II used signatures toward the latter parts of his reign. The language of hatt-ı hümayun s on documents generally was a form of Turkish understandable (orally) even today and has changed little over the centuries. Many documents or annotations were short comments such as "I gave" ( verdim ), "be it given" ( verilsin ), "will not happen" ( olmaz ), "be it written" ( yazılsın ), "is clear/is clear to me" ( malûm oldu / malûmum olmuştur ), "provide it" ( tedârük edesin ), "it has come to my sight" ( manzûrum oldu / manzûrum olmuştur ), "be it answered" ( cevap verile ), "record it" ( mukayyet olasın ), "be it supplied" ( tedârik görülsün ), "be they without need" ("berhûrdâr olsunlar"). Some Sultans would write longer comments, starting with "It has become my knowledge" ( Malûmum oldu ), and continue with an introduction on

4489-515: Was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet ( Ottoman Turkish : الفبا , romanized :  elifbâ ), a variant of the Perso-Arabic script . The Armenian , Greek and Rashi script of Hebrew were sometimes used by Armenians, Greeks and Jews. (See Karamanli Turkish , a dialect of Ottoman written in the Greek script; Armeno-Turkish alphabet ) The actual grammar of Ottoman Turkish

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