Social class in the Ottoman Empire

History of the Ottoman Empire
Social structure
Court and aristocracy
Ottoman court Slavery Devshirme
Ethnoreligious communities
Muslims Millets Greek Orthodox Armenian Aromanian Bulgarian Armenians Jews Greeks Great Fire of 1660
Rise of nationalism
Tanzimat Ottomanism
Classes
Askeri Ayan Giaour Rayah Vlachs
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There is considerable controversy regarding social status in the Ottoman Empire. Social scientists^[which?] have developed class models on the socio-economic stratification of Ottoman society which feature more or less congruent theories. Albert Hourani described the Ottoman Empire as "a bureaucratic state, holding different regions within a single administrative and fiscal system".^[1]

The Ottoman Empire lasted for over six hundred years (1299–1923) and encompassed present-day Turkey, the Balkans and the Fertile Crescent. Thus the Empire included an extremely diverse population ranging from the Muslim majority (Turks, Arabs, Bosniaks, Albanians, etc) to various minority populations, specifically Christians and Jews, whom Muslims referred to as "People of the Book". As an imperial/colonial enterprise, the Ottoman system allowed some Greeks, Tatars, Italians, Albanians, Serbs, Hungarians, Georgians, Bulgarians, Ruthenians and Circassians, kul and azad, to attain high office as  soldiers,  viziers or  members of the imperial family.

References

Bibliography

• Hourani, Albert Habib (1991). A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674395657.

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This page was last edited on 25 September 2022, at 17:18