Hierarchy and Status in the Political Organization and Institutions in Albania under Ottoman Domination
(55th Meeting, 2012)
Turks entered in Anatolia from Central Asia around 1240 like a tribal nomad tribes converting the religious. The Ottomans were the most successful tribe comparing with the other tribes. The Byzantines engaged them as mercenaries, but very soon they lost the control on them. In the 1352 the Ottoman mercenaries roamed the Europe, on the defensive of castle of Gallipoli that was placed in the occidental part of cannel (strait) of Dardanelles, and from that time they never leaved the region and converted it in an important place for new victories. In 1453 they conquered the Constantinople after attached Byzantine rundown from its rivals.
In the history of Albania the period of Ottoman Empire’s invasion took a very important place because it was a very long term coexistence with a new organization of the state, a new religion and new traditions. In the new well-organized and religious orientated state of Ottoman Empire all elements functioned in a perfect circle. The government guaranteed the justice and security of people. All the instances worked in the hierarchical way, the people became rich from the taxes helping the state and the army to become strong and to beware the good government that enabled the restart of the circle. This ideal hierarchy helps us to understand the sympathy that earned the Ottoman Empire in its infancy.
The new religion that was adapted during this period divided the society in two groups and the ethnical divisions here were not very important in proportion with this fact. The life of the people in the Ottoman system was checked, was determined and divided in a strict way. The division of the people according to the religion was the most important among the criteria of the hierarchy. In the “people’s” system people inter communicate with the state according to people’s mentors in a hierarchy that started with local representatives up to the highest representatives. The most skilful and clever people of the Empire were used for progressing of the state. People were estimated according to their skills, and educated in jurisprudence, in foreign languages, in science and for administration, in the future could become local executives, treasury officials, physicists, judges, architects, senior officials. These privileges were enable only for the talented people of all ethnical groups that had accepted the new religion and in this way this hierarchical group helped in progressing of the Empire and in creating of a great power.
In this paper we will try to describe some examples of hierarchy in the organization of the state and in some institutions and councils during Ottoman Empire’s domination. The hierarchical legislation took a very important place in the organization of the society during the coexistence with Ottoman Empire. Especially in the cities were more organized groups that had their deputies which got advices from the hierarchical system.