Firmân

Firmân, a word of Persian origin, signifying an order, and used by the Turks to denote any official decree emanating from the Ottoman Porte. The right of signing any firman relating to affairs connected with his special department is exercised by every minister and member of the divan, but the office of placing at the head of the firman the tughra—a cipher, or monogram, containing the names of the sultan and of his father in interlaced letters, and which alone gives effect to the decree—is committed to the hands of a special minister, who is called nishânji-bashi (see S. Lane-Poole, Turkey, in the 'Story of the Nations' series). The name applied to such decrees as have been signed by the sultan himself is hatti-sherif (properly Khatt-i sherif). The name firman may also signify a more formal kind of Turkish passport, which can only be granted by the sultan or by a pasha.—A written permission to trade is called in India a firman.