ENGLISH

Bandits and Bureaucrats: The Ottoman Route to State Centralization

By Karen Barkey

Book information

Publisher
Cornell University Press
Year
2018
ISBN
9781501720871
DOI
10.7591/9781501720871
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
22 MB (22763209 bytes)
Pages
304\299
Library
degruyter.com
Time added
2023-08-23 19:03:37

Description

Why did the main challenge to the Ottoman state come not in peasant or elite rebellions, but in endemic banditry? Karen Barkey shows how Turkish strategies of incorporating peasants and rotating elites kept both groups dependent on the state, unable and unwilling to rebel. Bandits, formerly mercenary soldiers, were not interested in rebellion but concentrated on trying to gain state resources, more as rogue clients than as primitive rebels. The state's ability to control and manipulate bandits—through deals, bargains and patronage—suggests imperial strength rather than weakness, she maintains.

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