Byzantine Traditions of the Sublime Porte: the Title qayṣar-i Rūm in the Ottoman Political Thought

Abstract

The article is focused on the problem of the title qayṣar-i Rūm, “Caesar of Rome”, which was a traditional title of the Byzantine emperors in Arabic and Persian sources. It is believed that the title was accepted by Mehmed II Fatih after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. It seems that the Ottoman chancery began to use the title only during the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent. The first evidence thereof was the famous inscription of Suleyman in the fortress of Bender (Bendery, in Moldavia/Moldova) in 1538—1539. The Ottomans recognized themselves as a new Rome only after they went into conflict with a great power in Persia, the state of the Aq-Qoyunlu and the Safawi Empire at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. They did so, however, in the categories of their Persianate political culture, and the title qayṣar-i Rūm was believed to have been an equivalent of the title padishah.