While the Ottoman Empire reached its territorial peak in the sixteenth century, its social and administrative institutions assumed their classic forms and patterns. Therefore, the period of Süleyman the Magnificent provides a watershed for us to step aside from the confines imposed by individual reigns and examine the internal structure of the empire.

The Ottoman view of the purpose and structure of state and society appears to have come primarily from traditional Middle Eastern concepts developed by the Sassanids and introduced into the Islamic Middle Eastern civilization by the Persian bureaucrats in the service of the Abbasid caliphs. The philosophical basis of political organization was analyzed in the writings of Nizam ul-Mülk and al-Ghazzali, who emphasized justice and security for the subjects. The seventeenth-century Ottoman chronicler Mustafa Naima presented this view as a “Cycle of Equity.” He pointed out that: (1) There could be no mülk (rule) or devlet (state) without the military; (2) maintaining the military required wealth; (3) wealth was garnered from the subjects; (4) the subjects could prosper only through justice; (5) without mülk and devlet there could be no justice. Thus the production and the exploitation of wealth for purposes of supporting the ruler and the state and securing justice for the subjects were expressed as the basis of political organization and practice.