The millet: an intermediate body of the Ottoman religious and legal pluralism

Even if there still is a wide debate about the nature and the de nition of the empire, most scholars agree that every empire consists of something called a ‘core’ and something called a ‘periphery’. Furthermore, most of them agree that both ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ are situated in geographically bounded spaces inhabited by culturally differentiated elites and populations. The Ottoman Empire (1302-1923) was one of the most important and long-lived traditional empire of European history. Like others (Habsburg and Romanov) it was characterized by the vastness of the territory and by the ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity. The Ottomans successfully maintained the imperial rule over a vast domain for many centuries thanks to their intrinsic exibility and ability to integrate diverse populations through pragmatic and tolerant policies. To do that, the Ottomans created new institutions as intermediate bodies, between the core and the peripheries culturally and geographically conceived. Among these the institution of millet represents an original example of a vertical integration model as well as an innovative instrument involved in the management of interethnic relations. The term millet, originally used to refer both to one of the religions and the religious community itself, has been used to account for the administrative and legal status of the large numbers of non-Muslim under the Ottomans between the 15th and the 20th century.