9 - The Ubiquitous and Opaque Elites of the Ottoman Empire c.1300–c.1830

Summary

Classically, the Ottoman Empire was considered as a polity that broke aristocracies by raising armies and bureaucracies of slaves beholden only to the sultan and an ideology both of equality and subjugation. In this interpretation, conflict between the ‘state’ and kinship characterized the empire. In fact, the empire contained numerous kinship-based elites, both formally recognized and informal. The empire’s longevity and several of its main conflicts can be understood by studying the charismatic power and legitimacy of its most central kinship group: the Ottoman dynasty. However, kinship-based elites were (a) mostly informal, (b) kept isolated by the imperial centre and (c) dealt with in an improvised ad hoc manner rather than through institutionalized procedures and organizations. Kinship elites were central to the empire and to its legitimacy but they remained without a legitimizing framework. Thus, the most successful Islamic polity collaborated with its many kinship-based elites.