In Partners of the Empire, Ali Yaycıoğlu provides an account of Ottoman crisis and reform efforts for a stable order during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The central aim of the book is to emphasize the active participation of provincial notables, the ayan, and their determining role in the processes of crisis and reform. He investigates the provincial notables as important actors with their leadership claims, economic potential and threats of rebellion and, the ways the Ottoman government dealt with their power. Several studies have already attempted to explore the role of local notables in the Ottoman Empire during the eighteenth century; Partners of the Empire is distinguished from these with its consideration of provincial notables as “partners” of the Ottoman government.