Religion and Political Philosophies

Religion and Political Philosophies went hand in hand for the Ottomans. The laws for governance where considered holy, holy laws that were believed to be the only means for maintaining order and civility within the Ottoman Empire. With these laws being “divine revelation”, to understand and disperse the law must also take diving understanding; thus sultans were considered to be mouth pieces of divine justice. According to Bogaca A Ergene, “The Ottoman sultans possessed the ability to establish justice not only because justice is "bonded in the character of the Ottoman sultans," who are the "shadows of God's several mercies," but also because they promoted what is "canonically permissible" with reference to the holy law.” In other words, sultans possessed a divine wisdom for governance and justice. With the religious and political structures tied, citizens of the Ottoman Empire would have felt religion as an ever present and all pervading influence on their lives.