Lybyer on Democracy and Despotism in the Time of Suleiman the Magnificent

In The Government of the Ottoman Empire in the Time of Suleiman the Magnificent , Albert Howe Lybyer controversially maintained that Ottoman government was composed of two distinctly separate institutions. These were the ruling institution and the Moslem institution, and their rivalry was exacerbated by the fact that the ruling institution was almost exclusively manned by Christian renegades, who had been levied as tribute boys from the Christian subjects of the empire or otherwise enslaved. For Lybyer, the renegades’ superb education, advancement on the basis on merit, and access to privilege was a unique case of democracy in the sixteenth century

Ancient history · Art · Democracy · Political science · Politics · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law