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Festivities of Curfew

Centralization and Mechanisms of Opposition in Ottoman Politics, 1582-1583

Levent Kaya Ocakacan    Marmara University - Istanbul    

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abstract

The Ottoman Empire was a dynastic state, as were its counterparts in Europe and Asia in the early modern period. In order to explain the characteristics of this dynastic governance model, it is essential to focus on how the Ottoman ‘state’ mechanism functioned. One of the prominent aspects of the dynastic state was the integration of politics in household units (For the Ottoman household system Cf.: Gürkan 2015; Kunt 1974; 1975; 1978; 1983; 1995; 2007; 2011; 2012). Direct or indirect connection of people to these households was the main condition of legitimacy. Thus, the redistribution and succession strategies had a centralized importance in dynastic states. Since being a member of the dynasty was a given category, the state could be reduced to the house of the dynasty at the micro levels. This house transcended those living in it, and in order to sustain the continuity of the house, there was a need to create a ritual showing ‘the loyalty to the dynastic household’. This loyalty was the dominant factor in ensuring the continuity of the house, in other words, the ‘state’, and therefore, the succession strategies in dynastic states had a key importance.

Published
Sept. 27, 2018
Accepted
Feb. 19, 2018
Submitted
Jan. 19, 2018
Language
EN
ISBN (PRINT)
978-88-6969-261-1
ISBN (EBOOK)
978-88-6969-260-4

Keywords: Ottoman household systemOttoman Empire16th century centralizationMurad IIISehzade MehmedMehmed III

Copyright: © 2018 Levent Kaya Ocakacan. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.