| Summary: | This dissertation is an overview of the life and the career of Ottoman grand vizier Rustem Pasha and contextualization of his grand vizierate with respect to foreign policy, bureaucratization and economic policies. This dissertation shows that beginning in the mid-sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was transformed from an expansive Muslim empire into a bureaucratic state and that Rustem Pasha was the architect when he was acting its primary promoter and designer.
The dissertation analyzes the religious and political reforms of Ottoman grand vizier Rustem Pasha (1544-1561), which led the way for restructuring the empire and transforming it into an early modern bureaucratic state. It explores the stages of his life as a Christian boy who converted to Islam and was educated in the Ottoman palace and, after serving in several provincial governorships, attained the position of the grand vizierate. It also shows how his career was structured and enhanced through Ottoman educational institutions, as well as how he envisioned and enacted an institutionalized government system by creating new methods of record keeping in decision-making, and developing a record tracking system, as well as by standardizing career paths for officers. Having witnessed the inconclusive and draining wars with both the Safavid and the Habsburg empires, Rustem Pasha abandoned the traditional universalist claims and engagement in gaza (holy raiding) activity, which had been the most conspicuous feature of Ottoman ideology since its inception in the fourteenth century, and instead adopted more peaceful relations with the empire's neighbors. The dissertation also shows how he contributed to the spread of an orthodox Sunni Islam as faith and practice within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire and how he influenced the territorialization of Shiite Islam promoted by the Safavids in neighboring Iran. Signing peace agreements with the Safavids (1555) and the Habsburgs (1547) also enabled him to focus on the efficient use of internal resources by initiating new fiscal institutions to channel the economic resources into the central treasury.
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