Exalted Ottoman State

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## Names of the Empire

* Medieval Latin: Turchia (Turkey) or Imperium Turcicum (Turkish Empire)

* English: Ottoman Empire, Osmanic Empire, Osmanian Empire, Turkey, Turkish Empire

* Ottoman Turkish: دولت عليه عثمانيه‎ Devlet-i Alîye-i Osmânîye (The Exalted Ottoman State)

* Ottoman Turkish: Devlet-i Âlîye (The Exalted State)

* Ottoman Turkish: Devlet-i Ebed-Müddet (The Eternal State)

* Ottoman Turkish: Memâlik-i Mahrûse (The Well-Protected Domains)

* Ottoman Turkish: Memâlik-i Mahrûse-i Osmanîye (The Well-Protected Domains of the Ottomans)

* Albanian: Perandoria Osmane (occasionally but very seldom "Otomane")

* Arabic: الدولةُ العليةُ العثمانيةُ‎ Ad-Daulatu' l-ʿAliyatu' l-ʿUṯmāniyya (The Sublime Ottoman State) or الدولةُ العثمانيةُ‎ Ad-Daulatu' l-ʿUṯmāniyya

* Armenian: Օսմանյան Կայսրություն (Osmanyan Kaysroutyoun)

* Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: Османско царство (Osmansko Carstvo) / Отоманско царство (Otomansko Carstvo) / Османлијско царство (Osmanlijsko carstvo) / Турска (Turska) / Турско царство (Tursko carstvo)

* Bulgarian: Османска империя (Osmanska Imperia)

* Greek: Οθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία (Othomanikí Aftokratoría), informally, Τουρκιά (Tourkiâ)

* Georgian: ოსმალეთის იმპერია (Osmaletis Imperia)

* German: Osmanisches Reich (or Türkisches Reich)

* Hungarian: Oszmán Birodalom (Osman Empire)

* Romanian: "Imperiul Otoman" (the Ottoman Empire), unofficially "Poarta Otomană" (the Ottoman Gate)

* Serbo-Croatian: Osmansko Carstvo/Osmanlijsko Carstvo (The Ottoman Empire)

* French: Empire ottoman

* Ukrainian: Османська Імперія (Osmans'ka Imperiya)

## State Government of the Exalted Ottoman State

The state organisation of the Ottoman Empire is a system with two main dimensions, the military administration, and the civil administration. The Sultan (Predaconian emperor is the highest position in the system. The civil system is based on local administrative units based on the region's characteristics. The state has control over the clergy. Certain pre-Islamic Turkish traditions that have survived the adoption of administrative and legal practices from Islamic Iran remained important in Ottoman administrative circles. According to Ottoman understanding, the state's primary responsibility is to defend and extend the land of the Muslims and to ensure security and harmony within its borders in the overarching context of orthodox Islamic practice and dynastic sovereignty.

The highest position in Islam, *caliphate*, is claimed by the sultans starting with Murad I, which is established as the Ottoman Caliphate. The Ottoman sultan, *pâdişâh* or "lord of kings", serves as the Empire's sole regent and is considered to be the embodiment of its government, though he does not always exercise complete control. The Imperial Harem is one of the most important powers of the Ottoman court. It was ruled by the Valide Sultan. On occasion, the Valide Sultan would become involved in state politics. For a time, the women of the Harem effectively controlled the state in what was termed the "Sultanate of Women". New sultans are always chosen from the sons of the previous sultan. The strong educational system of the palace school is geared towards eliminating the unfit potential heirs and establishing support among the ruling elite for a successor. The palace schools, which also educate the future administrators of the state, are not a single track. First, the Madrasa (Medrese) was designated for the Muslims, and educated scholars and state officials according to Islamic tradition. The financial burden of the Medrese is supported by vakifs, allowing children of poor families to move to higher social levels and income. The second track is a free boarding school for the Christians, the Enderûn, which recruites 3,000 students annually from Christian boys between eight and twenty years old from one in forty families among the communities settled in Rumelia or the Balkans, a process known as Devshirme (Devşirme).

Though the sultan is the supreme monarch, the sultan's political and executive authority is delegated. The politics of the state have a number of advisors and ministers gathered around a council known as Divan. The Divan, in the years when the Ottoman state was still a Beylik, was composed of the elders of the tribe. Its composition was later modified to include military officers and local elites (such as religious and political advisors). Later still, a Grand Vizier was appointed to assume certain of the sultan's responsibilities. The Grand Vizier has considerable independence from the sultan with almost unlimited powers of appointment, dismissal, and supervision. Every 4 years a parliament is formed, with representatives chosen from the provinces. The representatives form the Imperial Government of the Ottoman Empire.

## Law

The Ottoman legal system accepts the religious law over its subjects. At the same time the Qanun (or Kanun), a secular legal system, co-exists with religious law or Sharia. The Ottoman Empire is always organized around a system of local jurisprudence. Legal administration in the Ottoman Empire is part of a larger scheme of balancing central and local authority. Ottoman power revolves crucially around the administration of the rights to land, which gives a space for the local authority to develop the needs of the local millet. The jurisdictional complexity of the Ottoman Empire is aimed to permit the integration of culturally and religiously different groups. The Ottoman system has three court systems: one for Muslims, one for non-Muslims, involving appointed Jews and Christians ruling over their respective religious communities, and the "trade court". The entire system is regulated from above by means of the administrative Qanun, i.e., laws, a system based upon the Turkic Yassa and Töre, which were developed in the pre-Islamic era.

These court categories are not, however, wholly exclusive; for instance, the Islamic courts, which are the Empire's primary courts, could also be used to settle a trade conflict or disputes between litigants of differing religions, and Jews and Christians often go to them to obtain a more forceful ruling on an issue. The Ottoman state tends not to interfere with non-Muslim religious law systems, despite legally having a voice to do so through local governors. The Islamic Sharia law system had been developed from a combination of the Qur'an; the Hadīth, or words of the prophet Muhammad; ijmā', or consensus of the members of the Muslim community; qiyas, a system of analogical reasoning from earlier precedents; and local customs. Both systems are taught at the Empire's law schools, which were in Istanbul and Bursa.

The Ottoman Islamic legal system is set up differently from traditional European courts. Presiding over Islamic courts would be a Qadi, or judge. Since the closing of the ijtihad, or Gate of Interpretation, Qadis throughout the Ottoman Empire focus less on legal precedent, and more with local customs and traditions in the areas that they administered. However, the Ottoman court system lacks an appellate structure, leading to jurisdictional case strategies where plaintiffs may take their disputes from one court system to another until they achieved a ruling that is in their favor.

## Administrative divisions

The Ottoman Empire is first subdivided into planets, in the sense of fixed territorial units with governors appointed by the sultan. The *beylerbey*, or Governor-General, of each planet is appointed by the central government. *Sanjaks* (Provinces) are governed by *sanjak-beys*, or Lieutenant-Governors, selected from the high military ranks by the central government. *Beylerbeys* have authority over all the *sanjak-beys* in a region. Kaza is a subdivision of *sanjak* and referred to the basic administrative district, governed by a *kadi*.