Were there political initiatives 'from the bottom up' in an empire where the sultan ruled over his 'flock' (reaya) rather than governing citizens with formal civil and political rights in the modern sense of these terms?

Taking as its point of departure the title of the ground-breaking article of 1986 by Suraiya Faroqhi, the aim of the 7th Halcyon Days in Crete Symposium, held in 2009, was to explore the nature and forms of political participation in the Ottoman Empire with an emphasis on a 'bottom-up' direction.

The result of this project is the 19 papers in this volume, which deal with the matter from various angles and perspectives, thus encouraging the reader to reflect on the meaning and uses of three key concepts: 'political', 'initiative', and 'bottom up', all in the context of the Ottoman Empire, its institutions and society.

(From the publisher)