The thesis is devoted to study the social and political structure of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century according to the sultan's legislative acts - kanunname. These acts were the result of the secular tradition of the ottoman lawmaking. The analysis of the texts of the kanunname gives author grounds to assert that their introduction by Fatih Sultan Mehmed II in the second half of the 15th century opened in the XVIth century a new page in the legislation of the Ottoman Empire. The act of the kanun of Selim I (1512-1520), Suleiman I (1520-1566), the regional kanunname during the reign of Murad III (1574-1595) extended to all spheres of governance of the multinational state. Kanunname also regulated the rights and responsibilities of various social groups, the sizes and terms of punishment for criminal proceedings, the economic, social and legal status of askeri and reaya; the size, forms and methods of collecting taxes from people etc. The official status of the kanunname, which were created by the orders of the sultans, opened an opportunity for the formation and the organization of central and provincial government, the proper functioning of the administrative apparatus and the social and political institutions of the Ottoman empire. Despite that most decisions of state importance were taken in different central bodies, the governance of large territory, control over the execution of orders, establishment of relations between different groups of multi-ethnic population of the empire, which lived mostly not in the metropolitan area, but in the provinces, needed the constant functioning of local authorities. The author notes that the system of local authorities was formed by representatives of the military-administrative (sipahi-timarli, sanjakbey, beylerbey, the Grand Vizier), judicial (qadis (judges), kazaskers, sheikh-ul-Islam) and financial (defterdars) lines of the Ottoman government, whose main task was to organize and strengthen the communications between the province and the center. Much attention in the thesis is given to the description of the place and role, rights and duties of beylerbey, sanjakbey, qadi (judge), defterdar and other local managers at the system of the ottoman provincial administration. Together with the establishment of a system of public administration ottoman rulers paid much attention to the social system of the empire. At the top of the ottoman society was the sultan, whose most important task was to support the existing social system. Ottoman society was divided into two main social groups: an askeri - a group of administrators and a reaya - a tax-paying lower group. The division in society was based on a hierarchical order, where the existence of privileges and limited access to power played a big role. The askeri is a privileged upper group, they had power and money. With the permission of the sultan they were given the right to manage the reaya, ensure the process of production and create a culture. The askeri divided into "kalemiye" - officials, "seyfiye" - the military and "ilmiye" - spiritual persons and judges. The reaya is a group of subjects. It was group of producers - peasants and townspeople, which provided the state materially by work and payment of taxes.
