This comparative and broad-ranging book spans three centuries of Ottoman history. It offers a new interpretation of the relations between the central Ottoman empire and provincial Iraqi society in the early modern period, and demonstrates that, contrary to the accepted view, their military, fiscal and political links strenghtened rather than weakened over the period. The book will be of interest to historians of the Middle East and to Ottomanists, as well as to political scientists and those concerned with the process of state formation.