A Muslim ruler’s subjects were distinguished between the faithful and the unbelievers. The latter, in Ottoman territories, were the Christians and the Jews, who were allowed to live under the protection of the sultan as dhimmis. having the obligation to pay two special taxes, namely the poll tax (djizyet) and a land tax (kharadj).
About 1430, the Ottoman state had sixteen provinces (sandjaks) in Anatolia and twelve in Rumelia. Most of the territories were distributed as timars to cavalrymen (sipahi). A timarwas a parcel of land, with its cultivators, granted by the state to provide a livelihood to its holder, who had to appear whenever summoned by the sultan for a campaign. There were timars of higher and of lower revenue demanding greater or smaller obligations from their holders. The cadastre (defter) of a land census (tahrir), made in Albania in the year 1432, has been preserved, and gives a fairly clear picture of the timar system. The smaller sandjaks offered up to 1,000 horsemen, while the larger ones provided up to 6,000. In addition to the regular cavalry deriving from the provinces, there was the light cavalry of the raiders (akindji) in the service of the udj-beys, which comprised nomads (yuruk) as well as Christians (martolos and voynuk).
The sultan also had his personal army, the janissaries (yenipn). In this matter the Ottomans followed an old Oriental custom going back to the Abbassid Khalifs, whereby the ruler’s army was composed of soldiers who, being slaves, were his personal property (kapu kulu). In Murad’s court there resided a body of 3,000 janissaries, mainly Albanians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Bosnians and others. In the early years of the Ottoman state these men were taken from the young prisoners captured in raids or in war, as the Islamic sacred law allotted one fifth (pendjik) of the booty, including captives, to the ruler. Later, perhaps in Murad II’s years, periodical levies (devshirme) of the sons of the dhimmis were made. This institution, reducing the dhimmis to the status of slaves, was con trary to the sacred law, but it was a source of special power for the sultan, as the youths, uprooted from their natural milieu, were wholly dependent on his person, considering him as their own father. The boys, once recruited, were given a training aimed at their Islamisation and Turkification. The most promising were taken into the palace as pages, others into the sultan’s bodyguard, others, still, into the army. The highest posts of the Empire became open to them with increasing frequency. The uj-beys of Rumelia, such as Evrenos and Turakhan, the son of Pasha-Yigit, also had their own private armies of slaves within their domains.
Christian authors commented ironically on the sultans who used to fraternise with individuals of very low origin, sons of shepherds and farmers. On the other hand, high Ottoman dignitaries were proud of their humble origins and praised the sultans who wisely recruited both officials and leaders and those who would act as exemplars of Islam from among the lowest levels of peasant society.
In Anatolia, the sultan received military aid from his four Turkish vassals, the Karamanoglu, the Isfendiyaroglu, the Dhulkadiroglu and the lord of Alanya. In Rumelia there were also the sultan’s Christian vassals who governed their territories under the obligation of paying an annual tribute to him, and of offering military aid or some other kind of service. Under this conventional rule Serbia, the Morea, the island of Lesbos, Ainos, Phocaea and several other territories were administered by their Christian lords. According to an old Oriental custom, adopted early by the Ottomans, they were obliged to appear in front of the sultan at fixed intervals to bring their tribute and presents. The sultan responded by offering a robe of honour (khilat). Several vassals, especially from Albania and Epirus, had sons who stayed in the palace as hostages, having the opportunity of an apprenticeship with the Ottoman way of life, so that some of them embraced Islam. Such was the case of George, the son of the Albanian lord, Kastriotes, who became better known by his Muslim name, Iskender (Skender bey), given to him at the Ottoman court: later, he would become famous for his resistance to the Turks in his own country. Daughters of vassals were also kept in the Harem, as wives of the sultan. Murad II’s Harem included the daughter of his Turkish vassal, Isfendiyaroglu, and the famous Mara, daughter of the Serb lord, Brankovic. These ladies were also part of the ruling system as they played the role of intermediaries between the sultan and their fathers’ courts.
The sultanic family was the only one in Ottoman society for which descent by blood, and even then only on the male side, counted. From the fifteenth century, in particular, most sultans were born of slave, non-Turkish mothers. The imperial household, which constituted the summit of Ottoman society, thus comprised two sections: the sultan’s personal servants and bodyguards, and the sultan’s Harem, in both of which individuals of non-Turkish origin were to be found.
Agriculture, constituting the basis of the Ottoman economy and the financial support of the army, was closely connected to the timar system. In theory, the land belonged to the state which exercised strong control over the peasants (reaya). Most of them lived in lands granted as timars by the sultan and were obliged to pay the tithe (ashr) and other taxes to the timar-holder. The peasant possessed only the right of usufruct, which was inherited by his sons. There were also lands which belonged to individuals in full property (mulk), and also extensive lands dedicated to charitable institutions (vakf).