The Ottoman Empire during the period between 1683 and 1839 CE was at its most powerful, but was frequently beset by revolts that threatened to break it apart, particularly in Egypt. However, the dynasts in Istanbul successfully retained power behind a protective veil of elite slaves, acquired by tribute from conquered provinces and raised and educated to run the government and military. The Ottoman ’slave-elite’ differed from that of the Mamluk Sultanate in that the Ottoman slaves could never achieve the position of sultan, which remained the hereditary property of the Osman dynasty. Although this failed to prevent palace intrigues or succession crises, the sultans of this period made progress toward greater unification of the empire’s dense patchwork of languages and ethnicities. Trading on their successful military conquests, the Ottoman sultans claimed the title of ’caliph of all the Muslims in the world’.
[1]
Population and political organization
The Ottoman Empire was a hereditary dynasty under the rule of an Ottoman Sultan.
[2]
The Ottoman ’slave-elite’ differed from that of the Mamluk Sultanate in that the Ottoman slaves could never achieve the position of sultan, which remained the hereditary property of the Osman dynasty. With its capital in Istanbul, the main organ of state power was the ’elaborate court, palace, and household government’.
[3]
Policy-making was weakly institutionalized: in theory, all decisions were made by the sultan himself, and so Ottoman policies were shaped by the sultan’s personal character and by the ’individuals or factions who had his ear’.
[4]
The sultans appointed their own staff and paid them with a wage or (increasingly after 1600 CE) a fief.
[5]
State funding came in large part from money raised by fief holders until Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha Kulliyesi introduced a property tax around 1718 CE.
[6]
The administrative and military officials around the sultan were slaves educated in palace schools.
[7]
The source of this non-Turkish administrative class was the devsirme tribute, which began in 1438 CE; by the 16th century about 1,000 boys were taken per year per recruiting province in the Balkans and non-Muslim communities in Anatolia. The system divided these slaves into those who would serve the bureaucracy and those who would form the elite military corps known as janissaries. In 1582 CE, recruits of non-devsirme origin, including free Muslims, were permitted to join the janissaries and after 1648 CE the devsirme system was no longer used to recruit for the janissaries.
[8]
The imperial household together with its armies and administrative officials was truly vast, numbering about 100,000 people by the 17th century.
[3]
Ottoman sultans issued decrees to their approximately 24 million subjects through an imperial council (divan)
[4]
and the chief executive power below the sultan, the grand vizier.
[9]
Although certain regions (Egypt, for example) may have differed slightly in their governing structure, Ottoman regional government typically involved governors (beylerbeyi)
[10]
whose provinces were split into districts (sanjaks) under district governors (sanjak beyi).
[11]
The sanjak beyi also was a military commander.
[12]
Fief-holding soldiers were responsible for local law and order within their districts.
[13]
By the late 16th century, the lowest level of this system had transformed into a system of tax farms or fiefs given to non-military administrators.
[14]
In 1695 CE, these tax farms were ’sold as life tenures (malikane)’, and later shares in tax farms were sold to the public.
[15]
Ottoman law was divided into religious - Islamic sharia - and secular kanun law.
[16]
Kanun law essentially served to fill the gaps left by the religious legal tradition, regulating ’areas where the provisions of the sacred law were either missing or too much at at odds with reality to be applicable’.
[16]
In the Ottoman Empire, this included aspects of criminal law, land tenure and taxation; kanun law drew its legitimacy from precedent and custom.
[16]
Military judges (kadi’asker) were the heads of the empire’s judiciary and heard cases brought before the imperial council.
[17]
[1]: (Inalcik and Quataert 1997, 20) Halil Inalcik and Donald Quataert. 1997. ’General Introduction’, in An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, Volume One: 1300-1600, edited by Halil Inalcik with Donald Quataert, 1-8. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[2]: (Imber 2002, 87) Colin Imber. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[3]: (Lapidus 2012, 437) Ira M. Lapidus. 2012. Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[4]: (Imber 2002, 154) Colin Imber. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[5]: (Imber 2002, 171) Colin Imber. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[6]: (Palmer 1992) Alan Palmer. 1992. The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire. London: John Murray.
[7]: (Nicolle 1983, 10) David Nicolle. 1983. Armies of the Ottoman Turks 1300-1774. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.
[8]: (Nicolle 1983, 9-11, 20) David Nicolle. 1983. Armies of the Ottoman Turks 1300-1774. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.
[9]: (Imber 2002, 156) Colin Imber. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[10]: (Imber 2002, 177-78) Colin Imber. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[11]: (Imber 2002, 184) Colin Imber. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[12]: (Imber 2002, 189) Colin Imber. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[13]: (Imber 2002, 194) Colin Imber. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[14]: (Imber 2002, 209, 215) Colin Imber. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[15]: (Lapidus 2012, 473) Ira M. Lapidus. 2012. Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[16]: (Imber 2002, 244) Colin Imber. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[17]: (Imber 2002, 157) Colin Imber. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
| Turkish |
| Ottoman Empire IV |
| continuity |
| Preceding: Ottoman Empire II (tr_ottoman_emp_2) [continuity] |
| unitary state |
| 700,000 people | 1700 CE |
| 570,000 people | 1800 CE |
| 4,920,000 km2 | 1700 CE |
| [4,640,000 to 4,780,000] km2 | 1718 CE |
| 24,000,000 people |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| present |
| inferred present |
| present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| Year Range | Ottoman Empire III (tr_ottoman_emp_3) was in: |
|---|---|
| (1683 CE 1798 CE) | Crete Upper Egypt Southern Mesopotamia Konya Plain |
| (1798 CE 1838 CE) | Crete Southern Mesopotamia Konya Plain |
Western, Turkish, Arabic derived spelling of the name. [1]
[1]: (Palmer 1992) Alan Palmer. 1992. The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire.
Western, Turkish, Arabic derived spelling of the name. [1]
[1]: (Palmer 1992) Alan Palmer. 1992. The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire.
On a regional non-governing basis: "in no province of the Empire was there a unique language." [1] Other languages: Slavonic, Greek, Albanian, romance-speaking Vlachs, Greek, Armenian, Kurdish, Arabic, Persian. [2] [3]
[1]: (Imber 2002, 2) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan.
[2]: (Imber 2002, 2) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[3]: (Cosgel, Metin. Personal Communication to Peter Turchin. April 2020)
Inhabitants.
Istanbul
1700 CE: 700,000. 1800 CE: 570,000.
[1]
1700 CE: 700,000.
[2]
[1]: (Haywood 2011, 116)
[2]: (Chase Dunn Spreadsheet)
People.
Population of Ottoman Empire
[1]
1,000,000: 1325 CE
2,500,000: 1350 CE
5,000,000: 1400 CE
7,000,000: 1450 CE
9,000,000: 1500 CE
22,000,000: 1550 CE
28,000,000: 1600 CE
27,500,000: 1650 CE
24,000,000: 1700 CE
24,000,000: 1750 CE
24,000,000: 1800 CE
25,000,000: 1850 CE
25,000,000: 1900 CE
[1]: (McEvedy and Jones 1978, 137)
levels.
1. Capital city (Istanbul)
2. Provincial city3. District cityBy 16th century Sanjaks based around a town with a population of about 100,000.
[1]
4. Town5. Village6. Nomadic tribes (Turcomans)
[2]
[1]: (Imber 2002, 184 Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[2]: (Inalcik and Quataert 1997, 34)
[1]
1. Sultan
Suleiman I called himself "caliph of all the Muslims in the world"
[2]
2. Chief Mufticalled seyhulislam. Part of the ulema religious establishment.
3. Inner Circlecalled ilmiye. Part of the ulema religious establishment.
4. Imams
"The population of the Empire was heterogenous in religion, language and social structure. As the Faith of the sultans and of the ruling elite, Islam was the dominant religion, but the Greek and Armenian Orthodox Churches retained an important place within the political structure of the Empire, and ministered to large Christian populations which, in many areas, outnumbered Muslims." There were also Jews (especially after expelled from Spain 1492), Maronites and Druzes.
[3]
[1]: (Palmer 1992)
[2]: (Inalcik and Quataert 1997, 20)
[3]: (Imber 2002, 1-2) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
"On mobilization, one of every ten sipahis remained at home to maintain law and order. The rest formed into alay regiments under their çeribaşi, subaşi and alay bey officers. These led them to theş local sancak bey’s two-horse-tail standard. The men of each sancak then assembled around a provincial governor or beylerbeyi before riding to the Sultan’s camp."
[1]
Janissaries were organized into ortas (regiments) of 100 - 3,000 men.
[2]
1. Sultan
2. Commander in chief3. Beylerbeyi4. Sancak bey5. çeribaşi, subaşi and alay bey officers of the alay (regiment)6.7.8. Individual sipahissipahis (timar holders).
9. cebeluslarger timar holders of zeamets could equip mounted retainers (cebelus).
[1]
Version based on Shaw (the following structure was the same for the administration and military)
[3]
implies that the çeribaşi and subaşi Nicolle mentions are below the alay beys.
1. Sultan
2. Commander in chief3. eyalets lead by beylerbeyis or "beys of beys", ruled provinces4. sancak or liva commanded by sancek bays (who ruled local administration. They appointed police chiefs. Religious judges - kadis - oversaw justice).5. alay regiment, commanded by alay beys6. sipahitimar or fief holder (mounted soldier). Siphai had no rights of ownership, he was the Sultan’s representative, whose job was to maintain order, over-see agriculture and collect taxes from the peasants. Distribution most concentrated in Balkans and Anatolia.
[1]: (Nicolle 1983, 12)
[2]: (Nicolle 1983, 10)
[3]: (Shaw 1976, 24)
levels.
1. Sultan
Mehmet II also took the title "caesar" and "ruler of the two continents and the two seas"
[1]
The Ottoman Empire was a dynastic state. Rule was passed on to male heir.
[2]
Sultans "ruled the Empire through members of their own household, whom they had appointed to government office. This was a tendency which began probaby in the late fourteenth century, and had become very pronounced by the late fifteenth."
[3]
"The sultans ruled the Empire through their court as much as through formal organs of government" and sometimes by-passed formal structures of government such as in diplomatic negotiations. "There never, it seems, was a formal mechanism for policy making. All decisions in theory were the sultan’s own. What mattered, therefore, was the character of the sultan, and the individuals or factions who had his ear."
[4]
"At the center of the centralizing Ottoman state was an elaborate court, palace, and household government."
[5]
_ Central government line _
2. Imperial Council (divan) under presidency of the grand vizier
[4]
Issued decrees of Sultan and made less important and administrative policy decisions.
[4]
According to Ottoman tradition, grand vizirate may have come about after Mehmed II stopped attending meetings.
[6]
3. Military judges (kadi’asker)
[7]
3. Treasurers (defterdar)
[7]
of the Imperial Treasury of the Porte5. Clerks under the Treasurer6. Clerks under the TreasurerAccording to a register the suites of the Treasurers and Chancellor had a total of 18 clerks in 1527-1535 CE; 23 in 1531 CE; 34 in 1561 CE; 50 in 1605 CE; 64 by 1609 CE; 115 in 1627-1628 CE.
[8]
These numbers suggest more levels within these departments compared to previous periods.
3. Chancellor (nishanji)
[7]
"it was the chancellor who oversaw the clerks who drew up decrees and other documents"
[7]
4. Clerks under the Chancellor5. Clerks under the Chancellor6. Clerks under the Chancellor
3. Controller of Registers headed the land registry
[8]
4. Clerks of the land registry inferred
3. Head Clerk (reisu’l-kuttab)
[8]
Head clerk was in charge of the clerks. Office dates from early 16th century.
[8]
4. memorandum writer (tezkereji) under the Head Clerk
[9]
_ Provincial line _
2. Provinces with governors (beylerbeyi)
[10]
Governor-generals (beylerbeyi) were the Sultan’s appointees and they could be moved or changed at his request. They were not hereditary positions and not held for life.
[11]
3. Judgeship of a town or city judge"The judge, unlike the sanjak governor, had authority throughout his area, with judgeships forming what has been called ’a parallel system’ of administration
[12]
3. Districts (Sanjaks) under district governor (Sanjak beyi)
[13]
who was also a military commander
[14]
Role of sanjak included law and order (with fief holder), pursuing bandits, investigating heresy, supplying army, materials for shipbuilding, and those on the frontier special military duties.
[15]
4. Fief-holding soldiers responsible for local law and order
[16]
-- system declined late 16th century, reassigned as tax farms or to non-military nominees of Palace
[17]
"The troops of each sanjak, under the command of their governor, would then assemble as an army and fight under the banner of the governor-general of the province. In this way, the structure of command on the battlefield resembled the hierarchy of provincial government."
[11]
[15]
Fiefs were only one form of land-holder in Sanjacks. Other land was privately owned, formed part of a trust, or controlled by the Sultan. Beglik or miri land was given out by Sultan as fiefs.
[18]
By 1500 CE the smallest fiefs were called timar (village or group of villages and their fields). Larger ones subashilik (or zeamet). Largest called a hass.
[19]
Egypt: 1608-1718 CE
[20]
3. Imperial Treasury of the Portelocated at Ottoman central government
4. beylerbey (governor) Vali/Pasha in Egyptin 1527 Ottoman Grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha "issued an edict which, legally at least, was to regulate the civil and military administration of the province until the end of Ottoman rule in 1798. ... Henceforward, the governor was to be a wali, and his council a diwan"
[21]
beylerbey also held the title Pasha and was a minister in the Ottoman government
[22]
5. diwan council membersa diwan al-Ali (High Council) and Ordinary Council contained the establishment (officers, ulama, others of high status) and could advise and obstruct the beylerbey in the event of "arbitrary or tyrannical actions.
[23]
6. Scribe in council inferred
4. Nazir-i Emval, or Defterdar "Keeper of the Books" (Chief Treasurer)position "held by men sent from the Imperial Treasury of the Porte to represent the interest of the Sultan in Egypt." Initially appointed by Ottoman central government)
authority of the beylerbey was limited by the daftardar (treasury official appointed from Istanbul), the qadi (judge who had "direct links to Istanbul"), and the agha (appointed from Istanbul) of the janissary militia (odjaq)
[23]
6. Ruznameji department head "the director of the Efendis and scribes of the Treasury"previously the lowliest of the Efendis, now at the top
7. Ruznameji Chief Clerk (Bas Halife)8. Ruznameji Three Halife (Clerks)
7. Efendis who headed other departments8. Specialised assistants of the Efendis (Halife or Mubasir).
9. Apprentices (Sakird, plural Sakirdan) who did menial scribal work in departments.
7? beys (provincial governor) of a mamlakaRun by Mamluks. Following the Ottoman conquest mamluks had "kept control of administration in the provinces"
[24]
In Egypt "beneath the top level of Ottoman administration the old institutional structure remained intact."
[25]
"The title "bey" (bak or bayk), which originally denoted a rank and not specific function, was equivalent to the Mamluk title "emir of one hundred" (amir mi’a). There were in principle twent-four beys, just as there had been twenty-four first-class emirs. The title kashif for the governors of the provinces was also an inheritance from the Mamluk sultanate."
[26]
In Cairo there were "no specialized municipal administration or public institutions."
[23]
8? timar holders
[27]
9? Wali, governor of a small town
10? Village leader / tribal leader inferred’
Other provinces
[28]
[29]
2. beylerbeyliks
[30]
or BeylerbikProvince run by a beylerbey.
1500 CE four central provinces: Rumelia, Anatolia, Rum and Karaman under direct rule.
[30]
3. sanjak beyliks
[30]
or sanjakCounty run by a bey
4. timarliks
[30]
"districts assigned to military officiers in lieu of salary" 37,500 timar holders in 1527 CE
[31]
timar holder was chief law enforcement officer on his lands.
[30]
"In the early seventeenth century, they replaced assignment of tax revenues to timar holders with direct taxation. Timars were sold to wealthy investors as tax farms." 1597 CE. in 1695 CE tax farms "sold as life tenures (malikane).
[32]
5. Council of Elders / Intermediaries of timar holders
[30]
run by headman or mayor
[33]
"timar holders themselves used intermediaries to oversee their domains. Local landowners, merchants, and village notables or headmen were important in tax collection and the administration of local affairs."
[30]
2. Vassal provinces
"In matters of provincial government, the empire was never truly centralized. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it was still common for newly conquered regions to remain vassal provinces, under the control of their former lords, often Christians, in return for tribute and military manpower."
[34]
[1]: (Inalcik and Quataert 1997, 18)
[2]: (Imber 2002, 87) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[3]: (Imber 2002, 148) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[4]: (Imber 2002, 154) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[5]: (Lapidus 2012, 437)
[6]: (Imber 2002, 156) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[7]: (Imber 2002, 157) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[8]: (Imber 2002, 169) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[9]: (Imber 2002, 169-170) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[10]: (Imber 2002, 177-178) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[11]: (Imber 2002, 182) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[12]: (Imber 2002, 191) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[13]: (Imber 2002, 184) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[14]: (Imber 2002, 189) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[15]: (Imber 2002, 190) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[16]: (Imber 2002, 194) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[17]: (Imber 2002, 209, 215) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[18]: (Imber 2002, 193) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[19]: (Imber 2002, 193-194) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[20]: (Shaw 1962, 338-348)
[21]: (Oliver and Atmore 2001, 28) Oliver R, Atmore A. 2001. Medieval Africa 1250-1800. Cambridge University Press.
[22]: (Raymond 2000)
[23]: (Raymond 2000, 238)
[24]: (Raymond 2000, 195-196)
[25]: (Lapidus 2002, 294)
[26]: (Raymond 2000, 203)
[27]: (Shaw 1962)
[28]: (Palmer 1992) Alan Palmer. 1992. The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire.
[29]: (Nicolle 1996, 135-181)
[30]: (Lapidus 2012, 443)
[31]: (Lapidus 2012, 440)
[32]: (Lapidus 2012, 473)
[33]: (Shaw and Shaw 1977, 90)
[34]: (Lapidus 2012, 442)
In 1660 CE just under 100,000 salaried personnel.
[1]
"By 1400, therefore, most of the troops in the Ottoman army served on a contractual basis, allowing the sultan to levy a predictable number of reliable troops year after year."
[2]
Emir Orhan: "A regularly paid force of Muslim and Christian cavalry and infantry was created by his vizier, Allah al Din. The horsemen were known as müsellems (tax-free men) and were organised under the overall command of sancak beys into hundreds, under subaşis, and thousands, under binbaşis. The foot-soldiers, or yaya, were comparably divided into tens, hundreds and thousands. These infantry archers occasionally fought for Byzantium, where they were known as mourtatoi. Müsellems and yayas were at first paid wages, but by the time of Murat I (1359) they were normally given lands or fiefs in return for military service, the yayas also having special responsibility for the protection of roads and bridges."
[3]
"Both [yaya] and the müsellems were gradually relegated to second-line duties late in the 14th century, and by 1600 such units had either been abolished or reduced to non-military functions."
[3]
Janissaries were paid a monthly salary.
[4]
In Egypt, "janissaries and the azab drew a large part of their income ... from urban tax-farms (muqata’at) and from the payment they received for the protection of artisans and shopkeepers in the city."
[5]
[1]: (Murphey 1999, 16) Murphey, Rhoads. 1999. Ottoman warfare 1500-1700. UCL Press. Taylor & Francis Group.
[2]: (Imber 2002, 256-257) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[3]: (Nicolle 1983, 9)
[4]: (Nicolle 1983, 10)
[5]: (Raymond 2000, 204)
"Religious employees included the imams , the hatibs and the muezzin, who led daily prayers and served in local mosques. Some state employees, such as the muftis, the kadıs and the muderris, had both a legal and religious identity. The Ulema, scholars of the Quran and the holy law, were not priests in the sense of rituals." [1]
[1]: (Cosgel, Metin. Personal Communication to Peter Turchin. April 2020)
Emir Orhan: "A regularly paid force of Muslim and Christian cavalry and infantry was created by his vizier, Allah al Din. The horsemen were known as müsellems (tax-free men) and were organised under the overall command of sancak beys into hundreds, under subaşis, and thousands, under binbaşis. The foot-soldiers, or yaya, were comparably divided into tens, hundreds and thousands. These infantry archers occasionally fought for Byzantium, where they were known as mourtatoi. Müsellems and yayas were at first paid wages, but by the time of Murat I (1359) they were normally given lands or fiefs in return for military service, the yayas also having special responsibility for the protection of roads and bridges." [1] "Both [yaya] and the müsellems were gradually relegated to second-line duties late in the 14th century, and by 1600 such units had either been abolished or reduced to non-military functions." [1]
[1]: (Nicolle 1983, 9)
Bureaucracy was staffed mostly from a slave class of boys raised from the devsirme tribute system, every five years, from Christian families (mostly from the Balkans region). They were taught Turkish, converted to Islam and educated from childhood to work in the military and government, excluding sons of most Muslim fathers within the Empire.
[1]
Present in the Egyptian financial administration: "All the positions of Efendi in the Treasury were established as Muqata’at which were distributed when vacant at auctions held in the house of the Ruznameji to the highest bidder from amongst those members qualified to hold them, and whose price was delivered to the Vali as part of his Hulvan revenues. For that reason, the departments were also called Muqata’a and the Efendis Muqata’a’i, "holder of the Muqata’a",in the registers. Only those possessing the requisite qualifications, as manifested by prior membership in the scribal corporation of an Imperial Treasury, whether in Egypt or elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire, could bid for these positions."
[2]
[1]: (Palmer 1992)
[2]: (Shaw 1962, 346)
"Appointments to judgeships required the attainment of appropriate levels in the educational system."
[1]
"The iç oğlani were trained forup to seven years in palace schools which concentrated on character-building, leadership, military and athletic prowess, languages, religion, science, and a creative art of the pupil’s choosing. Three further examinations selected men for the Kapikulu cavalry, to be Kapikulu officers and, at the top of the tree, to become military or administrative leaders. All remained bachelors until their training ended, when most married women who had been through a parallel schooling in the Palace harem."
[2]
[1]: (Lapidus 2012, 440)
[2]: (Nicolle 1983, 10)
Called a Kadi.
[1]
"The Ottoman state appointed all important judges, jurisconsults, and professors of law."
[2]
Military judges (kadi’asker) were the "chief judges of the Empire, who were responsible for judicial matters that came before the council."
[3]
Judges in towns.
[4]
[1]: (Finkel 2012)
[2]: (Lapidus 2012, 440)
[3]: (Imber 2002, 157) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[4]: (Imber 2002, 171) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
From 15th century Ottomans had secular law called kanun which coexisted with the religious law, shari’a.
[1]
"Kanun regulated areas where the provisions of the sacred law were either missing or too much at at odds with reality to be applicable. These, in the Ottoman Empire as in other Islamic polities, were above all in the areas of criminal law, land tenure, and taxation. The origins of the secular law lay in custom, and it was long usage that in the first place gave it legitimacy."
[1]
Justice system was the seriat, Islamic law, decided by the ulema religious establishment.
[2]
Mehmet II "promulgated the first systematic legal codes dealing with the organization of the state and the obligations of subjects."
[3]
"In matters of government administration, Ottomman law applied to all subjects, but in matters of family and business law, it applied only to Muslims. Non-Muslims had their own communal law and courts. In practice, however, Jews and Christians commonly had recourse to Ottoman courts in order to assure enforcement, or to have state guarantees for commercial and property transactions, or to win an advantage in marital and inheritance disputes."
[4]
[1]: (Imber 2002, 244) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[2]: (Palmer 1992)
[3]: (Ira Lapidus with Lena Salaymeh 2012, 442)
[4]: (Lapidus 2012, 442)
Mehmet II built commercial centres including a covered bazaar in the Old City of Istanbul. ( [1] Endowment funds were invested in bazaars and shops. [2] Fixed economy in Istanbul. "The state required traders to guarantee the delivery wheat, salt, meat, oil, fish, honey, and wax directly to the palace and the capital city at fixed prices. Merchants were thus made agents of the state to meet the fiscal and provisioning needs of the capital." [3] In Cairo, the waqf instigated urban development of Ridwan Bey (a "powerful emir" in the late seventeenth century) over one hectare included a "commercial structure" containing shops. [4]
[1]: (Inalcik and Quataert 1997, 18)
[2]: (Lapidus 2012, 449)
[3]: (Lapidus 2012, 450)
[4]: (Raymond 2000, 237)
Rebuilt Egyptian irrigation systems. [1] Maintained Egyptian irrigation systems with wood brought from Anatolia. [2]
[1]: (Lapidus 2002, 294)
[2]: (http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_interdisciplinary_history/v043/43.1.greene.html)
Ottoman famine relief policy was based on moving food from surplus areas to regions suffering the shortage. This was most expensive for eastern Anatolia which was least accessible by sea. Other measures included price fixing, tax breaks or adjustments, and deferring (or substituting) the tax obligation. The Ottoman imperial granary system was designed to ensure the capital Istanbul received a consistent supply of grain. [1] [2]
[1]: Yaron Ayalon. 2015. Natural Disasters in the Ottoman Empire. Plague, Famine, and Other Misfortunes. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. pp. 74-75
[2]: R J Barendse. 2009. Arabian Seas 1700 - 1763. Volume 1: The Western Indian Ocean in the Eighteenth Century. BRILL. Leiden. p. 53
Aqueducts in Istanbul. [1] 111 drinking fountains built in Cairo during three centuries of Ottoman rule, 46 between 1626 and 1775 CE. Western area of Cairo two fountains built between 1517 and 1725 CE. [2] Water was brought to fountains or to the door of residents manually, via camel and water carriers (up to 10,000 daily), and the fountains were built by waqf foundations and individuals rather than a municipal authority. [3]
[1]: (Imber 2002, 172) Imber, Colin. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. The Structure of Power. PalgraveMacmillan. Basingstoke.
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 220, 223)
[3]: (Raymond 2000, 245-250)
Network expanded under Bayezid II (1481-1512 CE) [1] In Cairo, according to Jean de Thevenot in 1658 CE "There is not one fine street in Cairo, but a great number of small ones that twist and turn, showing that the houses in Cairo were all built without benefit of a city plan." [2]
[1]: (Hodgson 1961, 563)
[2]: (Raymond 2000, 242)
In Egypt financial registers "were written in the special Siyaqat script, developed for financial purposes out of the Arabic script and introduced into the Treasury during the 10/16th century by the scribes who were sent to it from the Porte. The concise and regular nature of this script made it ideal for use in the limited space available in the registers, and is lack of the normal Arabic diacritical marks and violation of the usual rules for the formation and connection of Arabic letters made it incomprehensible to all but those especially initiated into the secrets of its formation and use." [1]
[1]: (Shaw 1962, 341)
In the field the tabur fortification system was used, waggons would be chained together to protect artillery and manned by Janissaries. [1] "Ottoman strategy relied on mobility and offensive tactics during their era of expansion, but from the second half of the 17th century, as they lost the tactical initiative, the Turks were increasingly obliged to rely on elaborate field fortifications." [2]
[1]: (Nicolle 1983, 7)
[2]: (Nicolle 1983, 6)
Present in Mamluk Egypt e.g. Cairo (mentioned in the context of riding so pack use must be inferred) where foreign travellers were "particularly impressed by the omnipresence of donkeys. ... Abu Sa’id is quoted as remarking that he had never before seen so many donkeys in any city he had visited." [1]
[1]: (Shehada 2013, 19) Housni Alkhateeb Shehada. 2013. Mamluks and Animals. Veterinary Medicine in Medieval Islam. BRILL. Leiden.
In the 17th century "The Mediterranean fleet now consisted of three squadrons based in North Africa, Egypt and the Aegean. But a serious decline did set in with financial corruption in the Istanbul naval yards and the loss of direct control over Algeria and Tunisia." Magahāribad, North African corsairs, "were first recruited as marines in the 17th century." [1]
[1]: (Nicolle 1983, 25)