Political Change and Political Discourse in the Early Modern Mediterranean World

The political transformation to the early modern state occurred around 1500 not only in Europe but also in the Middle East. This transformation was marked in the Middle East by a political discourse about justice that emerged in several polities, contemporary with a similar discourse taking place in Europe. The concern for political justice, expressed in a variety of languages and genres, addressed a governmental change that occurred across the region and altered the relationship between different social groups and the state. That change was the transition from small, loosely ruled states to the larger, more consolidated ones characteristic of the early modern era.