A Political Ritual in the Ottoman State: Gird Oneself with a Sword Ceremony

In the Ottoman Empire, the sword-wielding ceremonies held at the enthronement of the sultans since the foundation years have become a necessary political practice for the legitimacy of the sultanate. These ceremonies, which took their place among the ceremonies organized outside the palace within the Ottoman state tradition and are mentioned as “taklid-i seyf, takallüd-i şemşîr” in official documents, have been official since the 17th century. In the study, there is information about how the sword-wearing ceremonies, which have an important place in the Ottoman state ceremony, were performed. The research is aimed at examining how the sword-wearing ceremonies in the Ottoman Empire took place in the 18th century. At this opint, it is possible to find evaluations o how the general sword-wearing ceremonies in the Ottoman Empire were practiced by the sultans of the 18th century by making a reduction from the general to the specific in the study. For this, the first sultan of the century, Sultan III. Starting from Ahmed, the last sultan details of the sword-wearing ceremonies of other sultans up to Selim III are inclued. After examining the sources constituting the premise of the study, firstliy, by approacing from a broad perspective and creating the conceptual framework of the subject, concrete data that will reveal the main problematic were obtained. In the final analysis, it is possible to say that the sword-wearing ceremonies were performed as in the previous centuries and that they carried their meaning and importance to the next century, except for a few minor changes in the relevant century by the conditions of the period. © 2021, Selim Hilmi Ozkan. All rights reserved.