Continuity and Discontinuity in Ottoman Administrative Theory and Practice during the Late Seventeenth Century

Abstract

The Ottoman Empire has long been recognized by social scientists as an ideal historical example for the study of bureaucratically run states. While considerable attention has been devoted to the initial phase of institution building in the Ottoman Empire up to 1600, on the one hand, and to the dismantling of these institutions during the nineteenth-century reforms, on the other, those factors that influenced the pace of bureaucratic change during the intervening centuries have yet to be systematically explored. The present study examines in particular the Ottoman institutional response to the experience of defeat at Vienna in 1683. The assumption that the Ottomans remained passive in the face of Europe's growing power in the late seventeenth century is reconsidered in the light of evidence from Ottoman narrative sources that indicates both increased levels and new dimensions of governmental activism.