Treasurer (hazinedar)

The treasurer (hazinedar, from hazina, treasury) was the official who kept, recorded and paid out the public treasury or the ruler's private treasury. The office was known by several names across the states: hazin, sahib bayt al-mal, khazin, and others. In the Ottoman palace the chief treasurer of the Enderun kept the inner treasuries. ¹

The word hazin (plural huzzan or hazana) is used in the Qur'an for the keepers of hell and of paradise, and the entry notes this as the origin of the title. Other names used in different states include hazinu'l-mal, hazindar, hizanedar, sahib bayt al-mal, nazir bayt al-mal and ra'is bayt al-mal. ¹

The entry reports that the Prophet described himself as a keeper of the public treasury who protects the sums collected and spends them where they are needed. In the Prophet's time cash from the treasury was kept in his house, and crops were kept in an upper room of the mosque in Medina. ¹

Umar, Bilal ibn Rabah (may God be pleased with him), Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah (may God be pleased with him) and Muadh ibn Jabal were appointed treasurers, with the title sahib bayt al-mal, and the payments from the treasury were carried out by them. In the time of Abu Bakr, Umar, Abu Ubayda and Muaykib ibn Abi Fatima were treasury officers. In 16 AH (637), at the Jabiya assembly, Umar said that God had made him the keeper and distributor of the treasury. He gave the judgeship to men he also made responsible for the treasury: Abdullah ibn Masud was both judge and treasury officer in Kufa. Ali appointed an official with the title hazin to the treasury. ¹

Under the Rightly Guided caliphs and the Umayyads there was only the public treasury (bayt al-mal al-amma). The caliph's private treasury (bayt al-mal al-khassa) was set up under al-Mansur (754–775). Its head was called hazin-i has, or hazin bayt al-mal al-khassa, and later sahib bayt al-mal al-khassa. ¹

In the Abbasid treasury office there were also a nazir, a musharif, a ra'is bayt al-mal, a sahib bayt al-mal, a mubashir and a mustawfi alongside the treasurer. The term hazin continued in use. When al-Muqtadir was deposed in 296 AH (908) and Ibn al-Mu'tazz was proclaimed caliph as al-Radi, Munis, who stayed with al-Muqtadir, held the title hazin. Servants and junior officials of the caliph's household were also called hazin at times: those who kept bedding were called huzzan al-faresh, and those who looked after the lamps were called hazin al-sham'. The Abbasids also used the term sahib al-mahzan. In 515 AH (1121) Ibn Talha, sahib al-mahzan, dressed the two sons of Sultan Muhammad Tapar in robes before the caliph al-Mustarshid. ¹

Under the Buyids the keeper of stores and goods was called hazin too. The treasurer counted booty taken after a war. In this period the treasurer drew his pay from iqta grants. Adud al-Dawla paid his officials in advance, gave his treasurer a monthly wage with winter and summer clothing, and set aside an allowance for the servants of his household. Later, Shaykh Abd al-Malik Abu Mansur ibn Yusuf repaired the Adudi hospital in Baghdad and appointed three treasurers to it along with twenty-eight physicians. ¹

The Samanid state also had a treasurer. In the Karakhanid state the treasurers were called agichi (agi meaning silk cloth), and the young ghulams who could write and calculate were chosen for the office. The officials under the agichi who kept the accounts were called bitigchi, or scribe. A treasurer's most important duty was to carry out the ruler's orders for gifts to soldiers and the deserving without delay, because otherwise servants turned away and the lords lost their credit for keeping their word. ¹

In the Ghaznavid state the official was called hazin or hazindar. Gifts given to the sultan and gifts he gave were written in registers by the treasurers. When Sultan Mas'ud came to the throne and wished to take back the accession bounties his brother Muhammad had distributed, the treasurers had recorded who had received what. Under the treasurer were the treasury inspectors (musrifan-i hizana), the treasury scribes (debiran-i hizana), apprentices and porters. Treasurers were also sent to the provinces, and the heirs and great officials each had their own. ¹

Under Muhammad Tapar the sultan's treasury was kept by Sabur al-Hadim al-Hazin. The historian and vizier Enushirvan ibn Khalid and Abu Ahmad al-Qazvini were also responsible for the treasury at the time. Under the Great Seljuks the treasurer was chosen from men known to be trustworthy and pious. If a treasurer died, his officers presented the treasury for the sultan's inspection. With the sultan's leave the treasurer could store valuables left in trust with him. His staff included a treasury kethuda, scribes, treasury officers and a treasury keeper (shahna). The treasurer of the great officials, including the historian Mustawfi Sharaf al-Mulk, also used the title hazin. ¹

The treasurer was called hizanedar, hizanedar-i has, hizanedar-i hazret, hazin or hazinedar in the Anatolian Seljuk state. Princes and the sultans' wives also had their own treasurers. Treasurers were addressed in letters as melik al-huzzan. After the capture of Antalya in 603 AH (1207), the sultan's treasurer assessed and paid compensation to merchants whose goods had been plundered. In Egypt Saladin's treasury was first run by his father Najm al-Din Ayyub, and then by his close man Safi ibn Kabiz. Under the Ayyubids the hazin of the Diwan al-Mal received tax in kind and cash, kept it in state stores, and asked for payment from those who did not pay. ¹

Under the Mamluks the hazindar was responsible for keeping and disbursing the sultan's cash, jewels and precious cloth, and for distributing gifts on set ceremonial days. Under Baybars the treasurers were chosen from among the sultan's first-rank mamluks, the haseki. At first the treasurer was chosen from the emirs of the tablkhana, and later from the emirs of a hundred. In the list of twenty-five military offices in the sultan's household, the treasurer ranked twelfth. He sometimes collected taxes as well as keeping and spending the treasury. In the Bahri period the nazir al-khass, a civil officer at the height of his power, pushed the treasurer into second place, and supervised him in financial matters for the sultan. The duties were split among three posts: the hazindar al-sinf, who looked after the sultan's fine cloth, gold saddles and furs, and worked with the nazir al-khass; the hazindar al-ayn, who kept the sultan's jewels and precious stones, a post given to a eunuch because such things were kept in the harem; and the hazindar al-kis, who was responsible for the alms given to the poor on the sultan's parade days and for gifts to the sultan's guests. The head of the treasurers was called amir hazindar or hazindar kabir. In Damascus the deputy sultan appointed four eunuch emirs to take care of robes and gifts kept in the treasury. ¹

In the early Mongol period the treasury was badly run. The emirs and the ruler's close men used it as they pleased, and the bitikchi accountants could not get a proper account from the treasurers. Mahmud Ghazan Khan (1295–1304) corrected this. He split the treasury in two: money, gold and gold objects were kept in one, and other valuables and robes in the other. He appointed a trusted hacesaray and hizanedar to each treasury. Other treasurers and servants were not allowed to move around the chests where the goods were kept. Viziers inspected the treasury and its officers every six months, and every garment placed in it was sealed with a seal the treasurer had made, so that it could not be changed. Of each hundred dinars collected from the provinces for the treasury, two went to the treasurer as his salary, so that the officers would not be tempted to take from the treasury. ¹

The terms hazin, hazanedar, hazindar were used in the Timurid, Delhi sultanate and Babur states, and hazin al-mal in Umayyad Spain. ¹

In the Ottoman state the term hazinedar was used for any treasury official, public or private. It also named members of the palace staff who managed the private wealth of high officials, and some servants of the Enderun. The head of the Enderun treasury ward was the hazinedarbaşı, the chief treasurer, who was one of the inner-palace agha known as sahib-i arz in the Conqueror's code. Sometimes he was called serhazin. He was among the most powerful palace officials and in charge of the Bab-i Humayun and the robe treasuries. He was usually chosen from among the Has Odalilar, and he held the sultan's turban and prayer rug, and checked the prayer rug before prayers for any danger to the sultan. When promoted he became kapı ağası. He sometimes stood in for the chief of the girls' quarters and paid expenses of the harem agha. There was also a chief treasurer of the outer treasury (birun), who oversaw buying the robes, furs and stationery needed for the outer treasury and kept them under guard. In the sixteenth century the birun chief had eight treasurers under him; at the start of the seventeenth century there were four treasurers, four vezzan and one mehteran-i hassan, with others who were paid no wage. ¹

In the Ottoman palace other officials were also called hazinedar. The black eunuch who looked after harem expenses was the hazinedar agha. A concubine who dressed and undressed the sultan, prepared his meals, and kept guard at his door was called hazinedar usta. ¹

• TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, "HAZİNEDAR", vol. 17, Erdoğan Merçil, pp. 141–143, Istanbul 1998. ¹