Favouritism at the Ottoman court in the eighteenth century 1

Today, court culture and especially court politics tend to generate negative connotations, as they are usually associated with the rule of vicious intrigue and personal whim. ² As courts were once a central feature of monarchic polities globally, it is important to understand how they worked not only in a particular society, but in various cultural contexts as well. It is also worth investigating how to relate the study of these courts to those of the better-known Christian courts of Western Europe.