Ottoman Political Thought and Patterns of Gift-Giving: Donations of Silahdar Mustafa Pasha in 18th-Century Bosnia, Selanik, and Ağrıboz

This study investigates numerous gifts and charitable contributions given by Silahdar (Perişan) Mustafa Pasha, the governor-general of Bosnia and the district governor of Selanik and Ağrıboz in the late 18th century. To trace the distribution of Mustafa Pasha’s gifts among various recipients, this study analyses his financial records, drawing primarily on a specific register from the Topkapı Palace Museum Archives (classified under TS.MA.d 2176.5). Following the contextualisation of the aforementioned source within the Ottoman sociocultural context, the study’s author makes the case that this account book contains gift-giving patterns that not only illuminate Mustafa Pasha’s spending patterns but also provide insight into the little-studied subject of gift-giving culture among the Ottoman military and administrative elite. In addition to establishing the recurring pattern of gift-giving and contrasting it with other comparable practices of sultans and other high-ranking dignitaries, this paper also explores their relationship to the political and religious ideas on government and benevolence that can be found in the political thought of prominent Ottoman scholars and classical Islamic authors.