Political Power and Social Networks: Popular Coexistence and State Oppression in Ottoman Syria

Four-hundred years of Ottoman rule in Syria (1516-1918) brought about profound changes in the relationship between the state and the people. The ruling institution, that is, the ‘askeri class which included the governor, the military forces, the tax farmers and the judicial officials governed the subject people, the ra‘iyya, who are usually divided into urbans and rurals. Each party had its own networks through which it defended its own interests.