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Y309: The Ascendancy of the Ottoman Empire 1453–1606

Sultans and the organisation of the State: central political system, finances and the economy

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on the central political system, the Porte, the Divan, the Grand Vezir, the harem and influence of Sultan’s wives, religious administration and justice, integration of religion, politics and law, finances and the economy.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Explain the relationship between sacred law and the sultan's own law.

Who and when

How did the harem come to exert political influence in the later sixteenth century?

Key term

Besides the vezirs, name three kinds of officer who sat on the imperial council.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What was the Divan, and who presided over it?

    Model answer

    It was the imperial council that met several days a week to decide policy, justice and finance, and from Mehmed II's reign the Grand Vezir presided in the sultan's place.

  2. 2

    Explain what was meant by the Porte.

    Model answer

    It was the gateway of the Grand Vezir's headquarters where government business was transacted, and the word came to stand for the Ottoman government itself.

  3. 3

    Besides the vezirs, name three kinds of officer who sat on the imperial council.

    Model answer

    The kadıaskers, or chief military judges, the defterdars in charge of the treasury, and the nişancı who drew up documents and applied the sultan's monogram.

  4. 4

    How wide was the Grand Vezir's authority, and how secure was he?

    Model answer

    He held the imperial seal and could act with the sultan's full power, yet he served entirely at the sultan's pleasure, as Ibrahim Pasha found when Suleiman had him executed in 1536.

  5. 5

    Give an example of a Grand Vezir who effectively governed for weak sultans.

    Model answer

    Sokollu Mehmed Pasha directed the empire from 1565 to 1579, running affairs under Selim II and the young Murad III.

  6. 6

    How did the harem come to exert political influence in the later sixteenth century?

    Model answer

    As sultans stopped leading campaigns and stayed in the palace, the mothers of reigning sultans and the favourite consorts controlled access to him and shaped appointments and the succession.

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AA republic replaced the sultanate.
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