İbrahim Nihâli’s Reports (Lâyiha) About the Deficiencies in State Services and The Actions to be Taken to Overcome Them: Mir'ât Ad-Dawlah (The Mirror of The State

Mir'ât ad-Dawlah is a work of report (lâyiha) written by İbrahim Nihâlî ibn-i Süleyman Halife in order to reveal the reasons of the 1768-1774 OttomanRussian War and the deficiencies in state services. In the introduction of the work, the reasons underlying the 1768 -1774 Ottoman-Russian War are focused on. In the first chapter, the changes in the traditional clothes by the influence of the western countries are criticized. It is also stated in this section that unnecessary expenses caused many problems such as the transfer of the sources of the state to foreign countries and disorder in the country. In the second chapter of the report, the reasons of high amount of public expenses and its negative effects are presented. The 1768-1774 War is reported to be the main reason of increase in public expenses. In the third chapter, the excessive number of the officials and their inefficiency are dealt with. In the first part of the fourth chapter, the reasons and drawbacks of the cruelty by the great viziers towards the citizens and some suggestions for the solution of this problem are introduced. The second part of the fourth chapter is about the oppression of the judges and vice judges over people and solutions for this case. The third part is, likewise, about the oppression and cruelty of taxmen over the people and how this problem can be prevented. In this part, also, the status of the incomes and lands which were hired out and the problems caused by this system is analyzed. As for the fourth part of the fourth chapter, it reports the oppression of the bailiffs and emphasizes that these behaviors should be prevented and people should be protected against such attitudes. Accordingly, the reasons why people left their hometowns and settled in İstanbul or its neighborhood and the problems caused by this case are mentioned and some solutions are suggested. In this study, in brief, the report (lâyiha) mentioned is introduced and analyzed in different aspects.