Albert Hourani described the Ottoman Empire as "a bureaucratic state, holding different regions within a single administrative and fiscal system".
Thus the Empire included an extremely diverse population ranging from the Muslim majority (Turks, Arabs, Bosniaks, Albanians, etc.)
As an imperial/colonial enterprise, the Ottoman system allowed some Greeks, Tatars, Italians, Albanians, Serbs, Hungarians, Georgians, Bulgarians, Ruthenians and Circassians, kul and azad, to attain high office as soldiers, viziers or members of the imperial family.
[7] Some of the most notable roles to fall under the askeri class were people who performed: praying, preaching, scribal service, superintendancy, tax and rent collection, trusteeship, couriers, falconers, guardians of bridges and passes, tent-makers, dealers of oil and butter, tent-pitchers, copper miners, rice-growers, judges, circuit judges, and city wardens, along with the sons and wives of askeri members and freed slaves.
[5] Ottoman officials sought to disarm this class and prevent them from achieving any sort of military status in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
[13] Each group had its own set of skills and societal roles that came with different privileges and social statuses: while the military and the intellectual classes were rather influential in politics, the peasantry was much more disenfranchised from the central power.
[13] From the Sultan’s point of view, that meant the loss of many supporting foundations: quickly, a new bureaucracy emerged as a symbol of Ottoman modernity, the effendis, whom could not be criticized and eventually came to assume government control.
[20] Nevertheless, conquered groups retained a great deal of agency: for instance, Muslim Bosniaks and Albanians were involved in the governance of the empire and were a part of the Janissary units.
[23] Jews and Christians were notably allowed to adjudicate legal disputes between members of their group: in Jewish communities, rabbinical courts could rule on criminal cases.
[24] Divisions between Millets were reflected in the organization of cities such as Istanbul: until the beginning of the nineteench century, religious groups inhabitied their traditional quarters.
[24] While some historians argue such a revolt was of a nationalist nature, others have claimed that it was a religious movement eager to liberate itself from Muslim oppression rather than a rebellion driven by the will to form a nation.
[13] The Orthodox patriarchate, though he did not participate in the uprising, was hanged; the post of dragoman (interpreter), who since the mid-seventeenth century had been reserved to Greeks, was given to a Turk.
[26] Around the early 18th century, the convenience model broke down such that administrative and military posts were mostly occupied by upper-middle class Muslim citizens.
[26] Unlike many European societies of the same period, women in the Ottoman Empire were considered legal entities and subjects distinct from their husbands or fathers.
The central government tended to confiscate and redistribute the land of widowed peasants without sons to maintain agricultural productivity.
[27] Islamic tradition viewed women’s sexuality as a force that needed to be controlled by a man, typically a father or husband.
[27] While a woman in the Ottoman Empire could not initiate the legal process of divorce without the permission of her husband, she did have the ability to seek an annulment.
[28] Divorced individuals typically remarried, however women had more restrictions in this process, including having to wait “three menstrual courses” before entering a new marriage.
The reaya included craftsmen and merchants in urban areas; however, the largest social group in the Ottoman Empire were rural farmers.
City life outside of the sultan’s palace centered around marketplaces and bazaars, in which people of many religions, ethnicities, and financial classes would interact.
[27] All farmland in the empire was deemed to belong to the current ruler, therefore the central government organized and controlled peasant land and the agricultural economy.
[27] The status of “slave” in the Ottoman Empire was a very broad category and could encompass many different kinds of activities and social positions.
[31] In fact, slavery did not equate a lower status than the rest of the population: not only did male slaves in the bureaucratic and military spheres and the females in elite harems have much more influence over the state’s affairs than most people did, but even some common domestic workers were better fed, clothed, and protected than many freed men.
In this system, young Christian boys would be sold into slavery, converted to Islam, and educated, all with the goal of assuming a high government post upon the completion of their training.