About

The core research questions are as follows: What mechanisms enabled these diverse political and cultural units to remain together for nearly four centuries? How did political, economic, and military interactions function in a stable and long-term manner? To address these questions, the project employs a three-layered analytical framework consisting of micro, meso, and macro levels. At the micro level, the role of decision-making elites and administrative practices is examined; at the meso level, institutional and legitimacy-building mechanisms that structured political authority are analyzed; and at the macro level, the military, economic, and geopolitical strategies underpinning Ottoman power are explored. The research is based on a broad body of secondary literature accumulated in Ottoman historiography over recent decades, as well as primary sources, including approximately 200 Miri Ahkam and Mühimme Registers translated into modern Turkish by the Ottoman Archives.