Legitimizing the Order

A dynasty that ruled for more than six centuries certainly developed many strategies to confront "e;legitimacy crises"e; and undertook various endeavors to legitimize their rule. After the introduction that establishes a theoretical framework for examining the Ottoman state's legitimacy, the present volume deploys into three sections. "e;The Well-Founded Order"e; deals with the question of how the Ottomans imagined the order of their polity and how they tried to live up to this self-representation. "e;Religiosity and Orthodoxy"e; turns to the question of religiosity and orthodoxy as defined by Ottoman political theory and how these concepts related to the issue of legitimacy. The last section discusses how the Ottoman notions of legitimacy were exposed to criticism, discussion or simply to transformations in situations of crisis, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries.