The Making of a Notable Politician: Muhammad Sultān Pasha (1825–1884)

Abstract

For a generation of scholars aware of the informal ways in which power is acquired and built up in the Middle East, yet dissatisfied with Western “institutional” approaches, Albert Hourani's insightful essay on the politics of notables has had a profound impact. Describing a form of politics that existed in the urban centers of the Ottoman empire, Hourani distinguishes between two political roles: that of governing, which belonged to the Ottoman authorities; and that of directing and mobilizing local opinion, which lay in the hands of certain urban grandees. grandees. These two kinds of power were interrelated. The grandees became truly influential only by having connections with the Ottoman authorities, who in turn needed them because of the social influence they possessed. When Ottoman power became weakened, or during interregnums, these notables came forward to form coalitions that were used to lead revolts and occasionally displace the ruling authority altogether. A politics of notables, therefore, exists when men possessing an independent source of power and access to the ruler are able to attain a measure of free action and so shape political activity.