Ottoman Empire III

  General Description   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.