Senate of the Ottoman Empire

The Senate of the Ottoman Empire (Ottoman Turkish: Heyet-i Âyân ,مجلس أعيان‎ or Meclis-i Âyân; Turkish: Ayan Meclisi; lit. "Assembly of Notables") was the upper house of the parliament of the Ottoman Empire, the General Assembly. Its members were appointed notables in the Ottoman government who, along with the elected lower house Chamber of Deputies (Turkish: Meclis-i Mebusan), made up the General Assembly. It was created in its first incarnation according to the Ottoman constitution of 1876, which sought to reform the Ottoman Empire into a constitutional monarchy.

Members of the Senate were selected by the Sultan and their numbers were limited to one-third (1/3) of the membership of the representative Chamber of Deputies. Members and the president of the Senate were designated to be reliable and reputable leaders of the country, required to be at least 40 years old. Furthermore, according to the 62nd clause of the 1876 constitution, government ministers, provincial governors, military commanders, kazaskers, ambassadors, Eastern Orthodox patriarchs, rabbis, and army and navy feriks, if they met certain conditions, could also become Senate members through their offices.

Members of both houses, along with the government ministers led by the grand vizier (the de facto prime minister of the Ottoman Empire), met together once a year to discuss and compile a list of things for the sultan to enact in the following year, and to review his actions taken in the previous year. The same day, Senators would swear oaths to stay loyal to the constitution, the sultan, the nation, and their duties.

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