Koçi Bey (in older sources ''Kochu Bey'', died 1650) was a high-ranking Ottoman bureaucrat who lived in the first half of the 17th century.

Biography

He was an ethnic

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

(an

Arnaut Arnaut () is a Turkish ethnonym used to denote Albanians. ''Arvanid'' (), ''Arnavud'' (), plural: ''Arnavudlar'' (): modern Turkish: ''Arnavut'', plural: ''Arnavutlar''; are ethnonyms used mainly by Ottoman and contemporary Turks for Alban ...

), born in

Korçë Korçë (; sq-definite, Korça) is the List of cities and towns in Albania, eighth most populous city of Albania and the seat of Korçë County and Korçë Municipality. The total population of the city is 51,152 and 75,994 of Korçë municipal ...

in eastern

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

Bernard Lewis Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British-American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near ...

posits that he is of Albanian descent. Within the scope of the ''

devshirme Devshirme (, usually translated as "child levy" or "blood tax", , .) was the Ottoman practice of forcibly recruiting soldiers and bureaucrats from among the children of their Balkan Christian subjects and raising them in the religion of Islam ...

'' system, he studied in the Enderun (palace school) in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. He was assigned to various posts and became the consultant of two sultans,

Murad IV Murad IV (, ''Murād-ı Rābiʿ''; , 27 July 1612 – 8 February 1640) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, known both for restoring the authority of the state and for the brutality of his methods. Murad I ...

(1623–1640) and Ibrahim (1640–1648). He prepared a series of reports (

Risale A risale () is a small book in the form of a treatise on socio-economic, political or historical topics. This type of Ottoman literature became popular thanks to two risales written by Koçi Bey from the first half of the 17th century. In them, B ...

) about reforms in the empire. He presented his first report to Murad IV in 1631, and the second to Ibrahim in 1640. Although the literary style of the first was more elaborate than the second, the main points were the same. In his reports he emphasized that the cause of unrest in the empire was the corruption of the

timar A timar was a land grant by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, with an annual tax revenue of less than 20,000 akçes. The revenues produced from the land acted as compensation for military service. A ...

(fief) system. He suggested a smaller and more disciplined army and a more authoritarian leadership. His 1630 memorandum to Murad IV, highlighting the issues in the Ottoman bureaucracy and other institutions of power, has been celebrated both in Turkey and among Western scholars, leading the Austrian Middle Eastern historian

Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall (; 9 June 1774 – 23 November 1856) was an Austrian orientalist, historian and diplomat. He is considered one of the most accomplished orientalists of his time. Life Born Joseph Hammer in Graz, Duchy of S ...

to dub him the "Turkish

Montesquieu Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher. He is the principal so ...

". Towards the end of Ibrahim's reign he retired and returned to Korçë, his home town for the rest of his life. He was buried in Plamet village.

References

1650 deaths People from Korçë 17th-century civil servants from the Ottoman Empire Year of birth unknown 17th-century Albanian people {{Ottoman-bio-stub