ABSTRACT
The chapter sets the comparative framework for the two Ottoman provinces on the eve of the Tanzimat through the examination of archival sources and the secondary literature. The province of Edirne was economically well-developed, located on important trade routes and had many middle-range local notables competing and cooperating with each other to get state and trade benefits. It was geopolitically important as the military and administrative center of Ottoman Balkans with a non-Muslim majority population. The province of Ankara was located in a secure part of Central Anatolia with Muslim majority. Once a lively trade center in the 16th century, it lost its significance by the 19th century. Relations with the state were mediated by smaller numbers of local notables and prominent families, unlike in Edirne. Adopting Charles Tilly’s paths of state transformation, the chapter argues that Edirne followed a capital-intensive path where commercial activity determined relations between the imperial center and local elites. The province of Ankara represented a coercion-intensive path where the state resorted to force in applying many reforms, and this approach dominated the imperial center’s relations with local actors.
