Not much need be said about _Adet_ and _Urf_. _Adet_, or custom, corresponds primarily to the body of unwritten regulations under which the Turks of the steppe lands lived. As in most semi-civilized societies, it was at once far wider in scope, more rigid, and more binding, as enforced by popular opinion, than written laws in more advanced societies usually are. Something of these primitive characteristics were carried over into the Ottoman nation, with all its acquisition of new membership and incorporation of useful ideas. The conservative character of Islam strengthened the tendency to perpetuate established custom. It has been remarked of the caliphate that in no other state have little causes near the beginning produced such great effects, because of the tendency to follow precedent minutely.[545] A very similar observation has been made in regard to the Ottoman state: “The changeless perpetuity of a primitive institution appears at every step in Ottoman history.”[546] What has been shall be, was a precept observed by the Ottomans in matters small and great. The principles of the Sacred Law, the accepted _Kanuns_, and the local _Adet_ of towns, districts, and manors had almost equally binding force. In fact, to the unlettered citizen they probably formed one indistinguishable whole, which seemed almost a feature of the ordering of nature. Although such sentiments tended strongly toward stability, they were a great hindrance to improvement. The early Ottomans had adopted new ideas and institutions with great readiness; but, since they held to them with equal tenacity, in the course of time they had no room left for the admission of more novelties. As fusion and combination were processes little understood, the tendency was thus toward stagnation, interrupted violently and for short periods when evils became too great to be endured. But, while the disposition to adhere to the established order was exceedingly strong among the Ottomans, _Urf_, the will of the sovereign was recognized to be superior to _Adet_, much as the Creator was held to be superior to the ordinary operations of nature. The sultan’s will, however, penetrated but seldom so far as to the masses of the people.