Note 456 — Chapter V · THE RULING INSTITUTION: AS A NOBILITY AND A COURT

Zinkeisen, iii. 181, states erroneously on the authority of Trevisano, 125 (meaning p. 128), that these were all Turks and of noble blood. The fact that Menavino, 146, calls them “schiaui” is sufficient disproof. Zinkeisen also quotes Spandugino, 114, to the effect that the Muteferrika were all lords, or sons of princes or of lords; but Spandugino, 62, says that pages pass to the office of Muteferrika from the highest four offices at least. Trevisano, 127, says, “Li quali sono giovani nati Turchi, e figliuoli d’uomini di autorità” (italics not in original); but “men of authority” were practically all renegades. Moro, 341, calls them, in 1590, sons of the principal Turks. The fact seems to be that most of the Muteferrika were Ottomans of the second generation (i. e., sons of renegades) and that the rest were regarded as ennobled by passage through the high offices of the Khas Oda.