Containing sultanic authority: Constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire before modernity

• Published in: Osmanlı araştırmaları = The Journal of Ottoman studies no. 45; pp. 231 - 264
• Main Author: Yılmaz,Hüseyin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: İSAM 01-01-2015
• Subjects: Edebiyat; Tarih; İstanbul; Türkiye; Max Weber; Ulema; Hüccet-i Şer’iyye; Selim III; Hezarfen; Constitutionalism; Selim I; Sened-i İttifak; Janissary; Fetva; Osmanlı; Ottoman; Sultan; Grand Vizier; Şeriat; Sadrazam; Sharia; Meşveret; Yeniçeri; Ayan; Anayasacılık; Kanun
• ISSN: 0255-0636
• DOI: 10.18589/oa.570012

This study treats the advent of constitutionalist themes in the Ottoman
Empire from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Modern scholarship
tend to attribute the origins of Ottoman constitutionalism to nineteenth century
westernization through which European models and ideas were domesticated for
structural changes in government. In traditional Ottoman historiography, including
the very Ottoman observers themselves, the post-sixteenth century era was often criticizes
as one of increased arbitrariness in government. In disagreement with these two
positions, this study argues that the gradual transformation of the classical Ottoman
system of the sixteenth century brought about new social formations, administrative
structures, legal arrangements, and political principles of constitutional import. As
a result, throughout the early modern period, the sultan’s political power gradually
declined and countered by the power of newly arising groups that became part of
the decision making process.