Examination of Ottoman siyasat namehs in the context of administrative ethics

Siyasat namehs which are important in terms of Turkish administration thought have been important for rulers since they emerged. This is because they have offered recommendations that rulers need to follow and avoid in ruling activities. That's why, the importance of siyasat namehs revealed in understanding the administration thought of their periods. The administration understanding discussed in the siyasat namehs is formed in the pre-modern social relations, in other words in the order of agricultural society. From this point of view, it needs to be addressed the ruling issue in the policymaking with ruler-ruled aspect in basic. In this respect, the character, morality and behavior of the rulers are more prominent in the ruling process compared to modern administration. It can be assumed that both the sovereign as the top ruler and other executives and civil servants are influential in each other's behavior and thus their moral responsibilities. Siyasat namehs are developed in the sphere of administration thought, whose basic charactere are justice, morality and order. Morality, in this respect, can also be considered as an indicator of the quality of administration. In other words, the search for good and bad administration in siyasat namehs can be linked to morality. Morality has been examined with different schools and contexts in Islamic thought and discussed at every level from individual to family/society and state. Siyasat namehs are advice works concerning how a good administration would be possible. Considering the advice to ruler, these kinds of works, which can be found in most societies, have also included administrative failures of their periods. In this context, it is meaningful to consider these texts in a continuity in the history of Islamic-Turkish thought. In this study, Ottoman siyasat namehs were selected as sample texts and their statements about the morality of administration were analyzed with descriptive method. The morality of ruling in the mentioned siyasat namehs was examined in terms of the sovereign (ruler), vizier, other senior civil servants, and finally the civil servants. When the moral sphere is examined from this respect in the siyasat namehs of Ottoman period, it can be stated that there is an obligatory relationship between the administrative ethics and good administration.