Ottoman Ayan
The Ottoman ayan (singlular: ayn) were local notables or dynasts that maintained different extents of administrative control over swaths of land in the Ottoman Empire from the 16th to the early 19th centuries. These dynasts held significant autonomy from the central Ottoman government but did not challenge the state. Though the title could only be earned by Muslims, their leadership was secular. This elite class consisted of, “Wealthy merchants, heads of Janissary garrisons, leaders of important craft guilds, those who had bought the right to collect taxes for the government in Istanbul, and those who supervised the distributions of wealth generated by, and the maintenance of, pious endowments.” Ultimately, their presence was a part of a greater decentralizing trend experienced in the Ottoman Empire beginning in the 16th century, one which would come to define the Empire’s structure until its fall in the early 20th century.
Ottoman entry into World War I
On 11 November 1914 Sultan Mehmed V declared war on Britain, France and Russia. On 13 November 1914 there was a ceremony in which justification of the war was presented to the Sultan Mehrned V. On 14 November came the official declaration of war by the CUP (party of majority at the chamber). The Chamber's declaration (CUP's) could be stated as "declaration of existence of the war". The entire affair was completed in three days. The Ottomans prepared an offensive against Egypt in early 1915, aiming to occupy the Suez Canal and cut the Mediterranean route to India and the Far East. The war began in August 1914 in Europe, and the Ottoman Empire had joined the war on the side of Germany and Austria within three months. Hew Strachan wrote in 2001 that in hindsight, Ottoman belligerence was inevitable, once and were allowed into the Dardanelles and that delays after that were caused by Ottoman unreadiness for war and Bulgarian neutrality, rather than uncertainty about policy.