Later Roman Empire

The Ottoman State in the 16th Century.

Until the time of Soliman the Ottoman State gradually evolved from a society whose institutions were fundamentally nomadic. The power was divided between two classes : the military class representing force and the ulema representing religion. The ulema was occupied with re ligious questions and civil transactions based on religious princi ples; the judges belonged to this class, but their judgments were executed by the military. All executive power centred in the mili tary ; and the sultan himself whose autocratic person was the sym bol of this power, was nominally a common soldier. The viziers, the leading administrators, were also soldiers. During war the governing body accompanied the army, this being the chief char acteristic of a nomadic system. Up to the time of Mohammed the Conqueror the medresses (the educational institutions where the ulema were educated), in addition to theology taught medi cine, mathematics and physics, derived from Arabic sources. Dur ing the reign of Soliman these subjects received serious attention and had special institutions devoted to them. The laws which pre ceded the time of Soliman and which were amended during his reign were mostly derived from the sheria (religious laws) or from nomadic traditions and customs. The religious and the communal affairs of the raya (Christian subjects) were left in the hands of their own religious bodies. The janissaries (kapi kuli—slaves of the palace) who comprised the most important part of the army received their military training in special barracks and received pay. The more intelligent among them were sent to a school at tached to the palace called the Enderoun-i-Humayoun. They were taught the Muslim humanities (Persian and Arabic), music and practical arts and crafts.

Soliman's administration was, relatively, one of the best of his time. The Christian population in Morea preferred the Turkish rule to that of the Venetians, and some Hungarian villages chose Turkish rule of their own accord. Financially Turkey was in a good position : she had been enriched by the addition of prosper ous lands, the revenue was 183,000,00o aspres, and no new tax was levied during this reign. The countries belonging to the em pire were administered in two different ways. One part was ruled by the central government and consisted of 24 vilayets (prov inces), four of which were in Europe and 20 in Asia and Africa. The second part was more or less self-governing under the suzerainty of the sultan and consisted of the kingdoms of Hungary and Transylvania, the principalities of Moldavia and Walachia, the khanalik of Crimea and the sherifate of Hejaz. The Garb Ojaklari (the States of Barbary), consisting of the provinces of Tripoli, Algiers and Tunis, had semi-independent governors who selected their own administrative bodies and later were empowered to make independent treaties. The sherifate of Mecca was ruled by the descendants of the prophet under the sultan as suzerain.

After the conquest of Constantinople and the transfer of the capital to the imperial city the Turkish system was somewhat in fluenced by that of the Byzantine empire. The affairs of state were discussed at the imperial Divan over which the sultan pre sided until the reign of Mohammed the Conqueror, after which the sultans thought it more in keeping with their imperial dignity to hear the proceedings from behind a grating. The permanent

members of the imperial Divan consisted of seven viziers (pashas with three horse-tails), the grand vizier being the chief of these and invested with supreme power by the signet of the sultan. He held the title of serdar-i-ekrem (generalissimo) when in command of the army, in which case one of the other viziers remained be hind as kaimmekam (lieutenant). The viziers in the Divan were called kubbe (cupola) viziers since they met under a cupola. The following dignitaries could attend the council : The kadi-askers of Rumelia and Anatolia (the two highest judges of the empire), the kadi of Stamboul (the judge of Con stantinople), the defderdar (the minister of finance), the nishanji (keeper of the great seal), the yenicheri agassi (the chief of the janissaries, who was responsible for the administration of disci pline of the corps). Later the office of Sheik-ul-Islam was insti tuted as the supreme authority relating to the ulema and the sacred law. The general secretary of the Divan was called the reis-ul kutab and later became the minister for foreign affairs and Captain Pasha (chief admiral of the fleet).

Each vilayet was governed by a pasha (two horse-tails) called a beyler-beyi. These provinces were divided into sanjaks, each being governed by a pasha (one horse-tail) called a mir-i-miran. The sanjaks were divided into kazas, each being governed by a kadi and the landowners elected by the people.

The Turkish army during Soliman's reign numbered between 200,000 and 300,000, and was one of the best disciplined and best equipped of the time. The army consisted of, firstly, the janis saries who were recruited from among Christian boys and prisoners of war, and were trained and quartered in barracks and received pay; and secondly, the feudal levies called jebelu. The janissaries comprised the jebeji (infantry, artillery, transport), the sepalii (cavalry), azarblar (responsible for the maintenance and repairing of the warships in ports), the bostanji (the imperial life guards and garden guards), the akinji (troops numbering from 6o,000 to 70,000 who carried out forays in the enemy's country) and the serden kajdi (storm troops).

The land was divided into several categories of fief :—khas, ziamet, timar, vakuf, yurklik-ojaklil. The tithes (revenues) of these lands were apportioned to the princes, the viziers, beyler beyis, the defterdars as salaries. They were not hereditary. A fief which had more than ioo,000 aspres of tithes was a khas: one from 2o,00o to Ioo,000 a ziamet: one from 3,00o to 20,000 a timar. During the war the fief-holders joined the army with the forces they raised known as jebelu. The revenues of the fiefs known as vakuf were used for the upkeep of mosques, medresses, schools, hospitals, asylums and fountains. The yurklik-ojaklil were the fiefs on the frontiers and their revenues were given to the frontier guards and were hereditary. The grant of a fief was conditioned by obligatory residence. The peasants owned the land which they cultivated so long as they paid the tithes to their landlord. The security of tenure of the Turkish peasant has prevented any revolution centring around the land problems in Turkey.