Imperial Council (Ottoman Empire)

Initially an informal gathering of the senior ministers presided over by the Sultan in person, in the mid-15th century the Council's composition and function became firmly regulated.

The Imperial Council remained the main executive organ of the Ottoman state until the mid-17th century, after which it lost most of its power to the office of the Grand Vizier.

[6] By the 16th century, however, the full Council met regularly on four days of the week, on Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays,[6][8] and sessions lasted from seven to eight hours, beginning at dawn and ending at mid-day in summer and mid-afternoon in winter.

[6] Although many decisions were taken outside the formal context of the Imperial Council, it was the main executive body of the Empire, conducting all kinds of tasks of government such as the conduct of foreign relations, including the reception of foreign ambassadors, the preparation of campaigns, the construction of fortifications and public buildings, the reception of reports from the provincial governors and the appointments to state office, as well as continuing to function as a court of law, particularly for members of the military class.

[11] Later foreign observers reporting on Ottoman affairs also stressed that the council was "purely consultative, the final responsibility resting with the Grand Vizier" (Bernard Lewis).

On the one hand, all decisions were made in his name and on his authority, and Ottoman law codes foresaw that the Sultan could make his wishes known to the Council through the Kapi Agha.

[12] In Ottoman legal theory, however, as codified in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Grand Vizier was the Sultan's "absolute deputy" and the sole intermediary between the sovereign and the administration.

[22] While the latter groups were from the outset recruited mostly from the Muslim Turkish population (although the kadi'askers tended to come from a very limited circle of legal families), the viziers were, after 1453, mostly drawn from Christian converts.

These were partly voluntary (including, until the early 16th century, members of Byzantine and other Balkan aristocratic families) but over time the products of the devshirme system, which inducted humble-born youths into the Palace School, came to predominate.

[23] An appointment to the ranks of the Imperial Council was an avenue to great power, influence and enormous wealth, which was matched by equally ostentatious expenditure for, as Colin Imber writes, "the sign of a man's status in Ottoman society was the size of his household and the size of his retinue when he appeared in public", meaning that the members of the Council often kept hundreds, if not thousands, of slaves.

[6] An ever-expanding scribal service, under the supervision of the reis ül-küttab, assisted the members of the Council, preparing the material for its sessions, keeping records of its decisions and creating the necessary documents.