Exploring Ottoman Sovereignty: Tradition, Image and Practice in the Ottoman Imperial Household, 1400-1800 by Murphey Rhoads

Author:Murphey, Rhoads [Murphey, Rhoads]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2011-10-19T16:00:00+00:00

The Festivals as a Forum for Demonstrating the Sultan’s Political Might

The surs were deliberately drawn out and extended affairs, designed to allow programmatic participation by the divergent political constituencies that made up the empire; these were summoned to make their contributions on the particular days set aside for their inclusion in the festivities. The classing and categorization of the participants was organized carefully in accordance with existing political arrangements and hierarchies. Although a more relaxed carnival atmosphere prevailed in the late afternoon and evening, which were devoted more overtly to revels, street entertainments and illuminations in the sky lasting until dawn, the morning and early afternoon were devoted to highly structured and carefully organized processions of dignitaries, both domestic and foreign, and to a sultanic review of nobles and luminaries of all description. The processing of the luminaries, especially the sultan’s own political agents and provincial governors – each being placed at the sultan’s express bidding, in the order of precedence and carefully calculated sequence determined by him – demonstrated their individual and collective homage and respect and at the same time their unqualified submission to the sultan’s sovereign will. On these occasions, the performance of the gesture of kissing the emperor’s hand as a token act of obedience was not a compulsory act but a particular favour, reserved for those who had gained the sultan’s unreserved trust and confidence. However, partaking in some form of ritual obedience was a universal requirement whose performance, over a deliberately elongated time scale lasting several days, served to accentuate and enhance the intended message conveying the universality of his dominion and the absoluteness of his power and authority. Those who were required to parade before his gaze in a seemingly unending stream of supplicants offering their submission to the royal will were by design the highest ranking members of the political elite, possessing considerable power and influence over the conduct of public affairs in their own right. By their attendance and by virtue of their passing by the foot of the sultanic throne, the high and mighty visually displayed their subservience, submission and obedience to the greater power of the ruling figure in full sight of the assembled crowds, composed not just of other dignitaries but of members of the public at large. The processions of the great were thus not so much spectator events as participatory occasions in which the spectators composed of an unusually indiscriminate mix of dignitaries of various ranks and capacities, joined together to observe one another and to take notice of the sultan’s reception and acknowledgement of each participant’s offer of obedience.

The sultan’s function in the proceedings was not just as passive recipient of gifts and tokens of homage and honour, but also as active reciprocal donor and provider of lavish feasts and luxurious robes of honour (hilat) in acknowledgement of loyal service.12 At the same time, he acted as generous host and entertainer to the assembled throngs of casual spectators from among the common folk of the city.

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