Contrary to popular belief, factions in the policy making process existed in the Ottoman Empire. Usually, we define Ottoman State as a monolithic state in which decisions were made by the Sultan as a rational autonomous ruler, but in realty in Ottoman State many factions existed in provinces and also in the central government who took part in the decision making process. When we compare Ottoman Chronicles with the European Ones, we don’t get any details about factions in the Ottoman History, all we see is a sacred state who dictates everything, where in the European Chronicles, we can see different positions of different factions and members of these factions like the senators and administrators who defend different approaches.
Emrah Safa Gürkan talked about the role of the factions in the decision making process. He argues that, different factions with different political agendas existed in the Ottoman State who helped the decision making in the long run by creating more options. At the 16th century, the biggest decisions to be made was about war and peace where the states were mostly seen a war machine. Different factions created different options for the decision making process, which resulted in a more reasonable decision. These factions had some…show more content… In the 1570 war against the Venetians, we can see an example of a complicated relationship between the faction and the state. Ashkenazi was a traitor in the war who worked for Venetians. Sokollu used his grand vizier powers to get Ashkenazi out of prison and after this event Ashkenazi started to work for Sokollu’s faction. Even though Ashkenazi was a traitor of the state, Sokollu used him as a tool for the benefit of his own faction and indirectly for the benefit of the state. At first point, freeing a traitor was against the benefit of the state but Sokollu managed to transform the situation for the convenience of the state in the