The Crisis of Kingship in Late Medieval Islam

Examines how ideological and administrative crises within Islamic lands in the late fifteenth century brought about a new conception of kingship for the early modern period. Through Idris Bidlisi, a major intellectual and statesman, this book paints a picture of a changing Ottoman Empire: shifting from regional dynastic kingdom to global empire.

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In the early sixteenth century, the political landscape of West Asia was completely transformed: of the previous four major powers, only one - the Ottoman Empire - continued to exist. Ottoman survival was, in part, predicated on transition to a new mode of kingship, enabling its transformation from regional dynastic sultanate to empire of global stature. In this book, Christopher Markiewicz uses as a departure point the life and thought of Idris Bidlisi (1457–1520), one of the most dynamic scholars and statesmen of the period. Through this examination, he highlights the series of ideological and administrative crises in the fifteenth-century sultanates of Islamic lands that gave rise to this new conception of kingship and became the basis for sovereign authority not only within the Ottoman Empire but also across other Muslim empires in the early modern period.