Comic

Empire of Officials

Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Bureaucracy

"This book analyses the educational backgrounds, career trajectories and social networks of the some 3000 non-Muslim state officials of the Ottoman bureaucracy, revealing how individuals navigated a multi-confessional workplace, balancing their professional duties with their diverse religious and ethnic identities. This detailed prosopographic archival analysis complicates and challenges nationalist and ethno-centric views of non-Muslim's role and participation in the Ottoman state. It reveals the complex and shifting identities and loyalties of non-Muslim officials, addressing a critical gap in Ottoman historiography by focusing on the professional lives of non-Muslim officials who played crucial roles in the modernization and expansion of the state apparatus"-- Provided by publisher.