The Ottoman sovereigns at first issued their new legislation as _firmans_, or ordinances,[527] but in the course of time they adopted from the Greek word κανών, or rule, the word _kanun_, which they applied to every general law. This Greek word as applied to law thus came to be used in contrary senses in the East and the West. To the canon law of the West corresponded the _Sheri_, and to the civil or rather the national law of the West, the _Kanuns_. It is to be noted, however, that the _Sheri_ had wider sway in Turkey in the sixteenth century than the canon law ever had in the West. Not only did it deal with a far larger field, but its judges seem sometimes to have administered the _Kanuns_ also; they had, further, the support of the national government, whereas the rival courts of the great officials had ordinarily a very limited jurisdiction. The position of the ecclesiastical courts of the Christian subjects was much more like that of similar courts in the West.[528] The _Kanuns_ were issued in accordance with a general formula of the Sacred Law. “The _Imâm_,” quotes Von Hammer, “has the right to make all civil and political regulations which are demanded by prudence, the circumstances, and the public welfare of the administration and the highest executive power.”[529] The _Kanuns_ of previous sultans were not binding upon a reigning sultan, except so far as he chose to put them in force;[530] but the necessity of preserving a continuous administration led ordinarily to the carrying over to a new reign of all _Kanuns_ that were actually in use. Reforms or readjustments were often accomplished by the revival, with modifications, of old _Kanuns_, rather than by wholly new legislation.[531] The _Kanuns_ dealt with matters of military, financial, feudal, criminal, and police law, and with the law of ceremonies.[532] All these were also covered in a measure by the Sacred Law, with two exceptions,—the feudal law and the law of ceremonies, which had to do with matters non-existent in the early Islamic state.[533] Within these two fields the sultans had a free hand; in all others their _Kanuns_ were strictly supplementary and administrative.[534]