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The Ottoman Empire existed from 1299 to 1922 and, at the height of its power in the 16th century, it included nearly 20 million km² in Anatolia (Asia Minor), the Middle East, parts of North Africa, and much of south-eastern Europe, and the Caucasus.

From its beginnings as a Seljuk vassal state (Uç Beyliği) in central Anatolia, the Empire over the years became an amalgamation of pre-existing polities, the Anatolian beyliks, brought under the sway of the ruling House of Osman. The hereditary rulers of these territories were known as beys and many of the continued to rule under the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultans. The term bey came to be applied not only to these former rulers but also to new governors appointed where the local leadership had been eliminated.

With the expansion of the Empire, the need for more systematic administrative organization arose. Over time a dual system of military and civil administration developed a kind of separation of powers with most higher executive functions carried out by the military authorities and judicial and basic administration duties carried out by civil authorities. Outside this system were various types of vassal and tributary states. Most of the areas ruled by the Ottomans were explicitly mentioned in the official full style of the sultan, including various lofty titles adopted to emphasize imperial rank and show the empire as being "successor-in-law" to conquered states. The Ottoman Dynasty article gives the titles of the sultan.

Military administration

The Ottoman Empire was, at first, subdivided into the sovereign’s sanjak and other sanjaks entrusted to the Ottoman sultan’s sons. Sanjaks were governed by sanjak beyis, military governors who received a flag or standard – a "sanjak" (the literal meaning) – from the sultan. As the Empire expanded into Europe, the need for an intermediate level of administration arose and, under the rule of Murad I (r. 1359-1389), a beylerbeyi or governor-general was appointed to oversee Rumelia. About the same time a beylerbeylik was established for Anatolia except for the Rum area around Amasya, then the seat of the Empire, which remained under the sultan’s direct control (usually through his grand vizier). Following the establishment of beylerbeyliks, sanjaks were relegated to second-order administration although they continued to be of the first order in certain circumstances such as newly conquered areas that had yet to be assigned a beylerbeyi. In addition to their duties as governors-general, beylerbeyis were the commanders of all troops in their province.

First-order administrative units

From the mid-14th century until the late 16th century, only one new beylerbeylik (Karaman) was established. However, new conquests of Selim I and Suleyman I in the 17th century required an increase in administrative units. By the end of the latter half of the century there were as many as 42 eyalets, as the beylerbeyliks came to be known, at a given time. The chart below shows the administrative situation as of 1609 followed by eyalets that existed before 1609 but disappeared and eyalets created after 1609.

Eyalets in 1609

Province Name Ottoman Turkish Name (Modern Turkish where different) Year Established Current Location
Abyssinia Habeş c. 1554 Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia Included areas on both sides of the Red Sea. Also called "Mecca and Medina"
Adana Adana c. 1608 Turkey
Aegean Archipelago Cezayir mid-1500s Greece Domain of the Kapudan Pasha (Lord Admiral); Also called Denizi, later Cezayir Bahr-i Sefid
Aleppo Haleb (Halep) c.1516-1521 Syria, Turkey
Algiers Cezayir-i Garb (Cezayir Garp) 1519 Algeria
Anatolia Anadolu c. 1365 Turkey
Baghdad Bağdad (Bağdat) 1535 Iraq
Basra Basra c. 1552 Iraq
Bosnia Bosna c. 1520s Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro
Buda Budin 1541 Hungary, Croatia, Serbia
Cyprus Kıbrıs 1571 Cyprus, Turkey c. 1660-1703 and 1784→ part of Aegean Archipelago Province
Diyarbekir Diyarbekir (Diyarbakır) 1515 Turkey, Iraq
Eger Eğri 1596 Hungary
Egypt Mısır 1517 Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia
Erzurum Erzurum c. 1514-1534 Turkey
Al-Hasa Lahsa c. 1579 Saudi Arabia Seldom directly ruled
Kefe (Theodosia) Kefe c. 1581 Ukraine, Russia
Kanizsa Kanije 1600 Hungary, Croatia
Karaman Karaman c. 1470 Turkey
Kars Kars 1579 Turkey, Georgia Merged with Samtskhe in 1604. Finally bounded to *Erzurum in 1845.
Marash Maraş, Dulkadır c. 1522 Turkey
Mosul Musul c. late 1500s Iraq
Ar-Raqqah Rakka c. late 1500s Syria, Turkey, Iraq Also called Ruha (Urfa)
Rumelia Rumeli c. 1365 Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Turkey With Anatolia, one of the original two eyalets
Samtskhe Çıldır c. 1579 Georgia, Turkey Also called Meskheti, later possibly coextensive with Akhaltsikhe (Ahıska) Province. Most of eyalet passed to Russia in 1829. Remained parts of eyalet bounded to Erzurum in 1845.
Shehrizor Şehrizor c. mid-1500s Iraq, Iran Also Shahrizor, Sheherizul, or Kirkuk. In 1830, this eyalet bounded to Mosul province as Kirkuk sanjak.
Silistria Silistre c. 1599 Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine Later sometimes called Ochakiv (Özi); First beylerbeyi was the Crimean khan
Sivas Sivas c. early 1500s Turkey
Syria Şam 1516-17 Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan
Timişoara Tımışvar 1552 Romania, Serbia, Hungary Also called Temesvar Province
Trabzon Trabzon c. late 1500s Turkey, Georgia Also called Trebizond Province
Tripoli (Tripoli-in-the-East) Trablusu-Şam (Trablusşam) c. 1570s Lebanon, Syria
Tripolitania (Tripoli-in-the-West) Trablusu-Garb (Trablusgarp) 1551 Libya
Tunis Tunus 1574 Tunisia
Van Van 1548 Turkey
Yemen Yemen 1517-18, 1539 Yemen, Saudi Arabia

Sources:

  • Colin Imber. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The structure of Power. (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.)
  • Halil Inalcik. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300-1600. Trans. Norman Itzkowitz and Colin Imber. (London: Weidenfield and Nicholson, 1973.)
  • Donald Edgar Pitcher. An Historical Geography of the Ottoman Empire (Leiden, Netherlands: E.J.Brill,1972.)

Eyalets which had disappeared before 1609

  • Abkhazia (Abhaz) (1578-?) (also called Sukhum or Georgia [Gürcistan and included Mingrelia and Imeretia as well as modern Abkhazia – nominally annexed but never fully conquered)
  • Akhaltsikhe (Ahıska) (c. 1603-?) (either split from or coextensive with Samtskhe)
  • Dagestan (Dağıstan) (1578-?) (also called Demirkapı – assigned a serdar * rather than a beylerbeyi)
  • Dmanisi (Tumanis) (c. 1584-?)
  • Ganja (Gence) (c.1588-1604)
  • Gori (Gori) (c. 1588-?) (probably replaced Tiflis after 1586)
  • Győr (Yanık) (1594-1598)
  • Kakheti (Kaheti) (c. 1578-?) (Kakhetian king was appointed hereditary bey)
  • Lorri (Lori) (c. 1584-?)
  • Moldavia (Boğdan) (1595 only)
  • Nakhichevan (Nahçivan) (c. 1603) (possibly never separate from Yerevan)
  • Poti (Faş) (1579-?) (may have also been another name for Trabzon)
  • Sanaa (San'a) (1567-1569) (temporary division of Yemen)
  • Shemakha (Şamahı) (c. 1583) (may have also been another name for Shervan)
  • Szigetvár (Sigetvar, Zigetvar) (c. 1596) (later transferred to Kanizsa)
  • Shervan (Şirvan) (1578-1604) (overseen by a serdar * rather than a beylerbeyi)
  • Tabriz (Tebriz) (1585-1603)
  • Tiflis (Tiflis) (1578-1586) (probably replaced by Gori after 1586)
  • Wallachia (Eflak) (1595 only)
  • Yerevan (Erivan) (1583-1604) (sometimes also included Van)
  • Zabid (Zebid *) (1567-1569) (temporary division of Yemen)

Eyalets established 1609-1683

  • Crete (Girid *) (1669/70- )
  • Morea (Mora) (1620-1687) and (1715-1829) (originally part of Aegean Archipelago Province)
  • Podolia (Podolya) (1674-1699 only) (overseen be several serdars * rather than a beylerbeyi)
  • Sidon (Sayda) (1660- )
  • Neuhäusl (Uyvar) (1663-1685)
  • Oradea (Varad) (1661-1692)

Eyalets established 1683-1864

19th century administrative reform

As the Ottoman Empire began to decline, the administrative structure came under pressure. After 1861 there existed an autonomous Mount Lebanon with a Christian mutasarrif, which had been created as a homeland for the Maronite Christians under European pressure. As part of the Tanzimat reforms, an Ottoman law passed in 1864 provided for a standard provincial administration throughout the empire with the eyalets becoming smaller vilayets governed by a vali or governor still appointed by the Porte but with new provincial assemblies participating in administration. The vilayets were subdivided into sanjaks and vassal states such as Serbia, Romania, and Montenegro remained separate from the provincial system.

Vilayets in 1877

Administrative changes 1877-1918
=Asia Minor (1915)
= After 1885, with the governing reforms of Tanzimat, the control of the Ottoman land in Asia Minor divided into 15 vilayets, one sanjak and one mutersaflik of the vilayet of Constantinople (both being on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus).

Every vilayet was further divided in a number of sanjaks.

More specifically the political division of Asia Minor in 1915 was as follows;

Also the
  • Independent mutersaflik of Izmit and
  • the sanjak of Uskudar

Vilayets in 1918

  • Adana
  • Ankara
  • Aydin
  • Bitlis
  • Diyarbekir
  • Edirne
  • Erzurum
  • Hudavendigar (Bursa)
  • Izmit
  • Istanbul
  • Konya
  • Mamuret-el-Aziz (Elazığ)
  • Sivas
  • Trabzon
  • Van

Second-order administrative units

The provinces were divided into sanjaks (also called livas) ruled by sancakbeys and were then subdivided into timars (fiefs held by timariots) and zeamets (also ziam; larger timars). Some, such as the Mutasarrifate (Sanjak) of Jerusalem, were not part of a province. Sanjak governors also served as military commanders of all of the timariot and zeamet-holding cavalrymen in their sanjak. Some provinces such as Egypt, Baghdad, Abyssinia, and Al-Hasa (the salyane provinces) were not subdivided into sanjaks and timars.

Government

See the article on state organisation of the Ottoman Empire for further information on the structure of power in the provinces.

Civil administration

Civil and judicial administration was carried out under a separate parallel system of small municipal or rural units called kazas administered by a qadi (kadı). Kazas in turn were subdivided into nahiyes. The qadis came from the ulema and represent the legal authority of the sultan. The civil system was considered a check on the military system since beys (who represented executive authority) could not carry out punishment without a sentence for a qadi. Likewiese, qadis were not permitted to personally effect punishemnt. In the areas of sharia and kanun law, qadis were responsible directly to the sultan.

Vassal or tributary states

Besides the provinces, there were a number of tributary or vassal states, usually on the periphery of the Empire under suzerainty of the Porte, over which direct control was not established, for various reasons.

Some of these states served as buffer states between the Ottomans and Christendom in Europe or Shi’ism in Asia. Their number varied over time but notable were the Khanate of Crimea, Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, and the Kurdish Emirates. Other states such as Bulgaria, Serbia, and Bosnia were vassals before being absorbed into the Empire. Still others had commercial value such as Imeretia, Mingrelia, Chios, the Duchy of Naxos, and the Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik). Areas such as holy cities and Venetian tributary areas of Cyprus and Zante were not fully incorporated either. Finally, some small areas such as Montenegro/Zeta and Mount Lebanon did not merit the effort of conquest and were not fully subordinated to the center.

Vassalage or tribute took several forms:

  • Some states within the eyalet system included sancakbeys who were local to their sanjak or who inherited their position (e.g., Samtskhe, some Kurdish sanjaks), areas that were permitted to elect their own leaders (e.g., areas of Albania, Epirus, and Morea (Mani Peninsula was nominally a part of Aegean Islands Province but Maniot beys were tributary vassals of the Porte.)), or de facto independent eyalets (e.g., the Barbaresque 'regencies' Algiers, Tunis, Tripolitania in the Maghreb, and later the khedivate Egypt).
  • Outside the eyalet system were states such as Moldavia and Wallachia which paid tribute to the Ottomans and over which the Porte had the right to nominate or depose the ruler, garrison rights, and foreign policy control.
  • Some states such as Ragusa paid tribute for the entirety of their territory and recognized Ottoman suzerainty.
  • Others such as the sharif of Mecca recognized Ottoman suzerainty but were subsidized by the Porte.

There were also secondary vassals such as the Nogai Horde and the Circassians who were (at least nominally) vassals of the khans of Crimea, or some Berbers and Arabs who paid tribute to the North African beylerbeyis, who were in turn Ottoman vassals themselves.

Other states paid tribute for possessions that were legally bound to the Ottoman Empire but not possessed by the Ottomans such as the Habsburgs for parts of Royal Hungary or Venice for Zante.

Other tribute from foreign powers included a kind of “protection money” sometimes called a horde tax (similar to the Danegeld) paid by Russia or the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was usually paid to the Ottoman vassal khans of Crimea rather than to the Ottoman sultan directly.

Vassal states 1877-1922

References and further reading

  • Colin Imber. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.)
  • "Illustrated Ottoman-Turkish Postmarks 1840-1929." At İstanbul Filateli ve Kültür Merkezi, A.Ş.
  • Halil Inalcik. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300-1600. Trans. Norman Itzkowitz and Colin Imber. (London: Weidenfield and Nicholson, 1973.)
  • Paul Robert Magocsi. Historical Atlas of Central Europe. (2nd ed.) Seattle, WA, USA: Univ. of Washington Press, 2002)
  • Nouveau Larousse illustré, undated (early 20th century), passim (in French)
  • Donald Edgar Pitcher. An Historical Geography of the Ottoman Empire. (Leiden, Netherlands: E.J.Brill,1972.) (Includes 36 color maps)
  • Westermann, Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte (in German) (includes maps)
  • WorldStatesmen Turkey; see also other present-day countries

Ottoman Empire | Subdivisions of the Ottoman Empire

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Subdivisions of the Ottoman Empire".

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