A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire

Contributions to the History of Concepts, 2019

In this article, we discuss the pitfalls and benefits of conceptual history as an approach to Ottoman studies. While Ottoman studies is blossoming and using a wider set of tools to study the Ottoman past, Ottoman intellectual history is still resigned to a life-and-works approach. Th is absence of synthesizing attempts has left intellectual history in the margins. In addition to the lack of new, theoretically sophisticated accounts of how Ottoman intellectual and political changes were intertwined, the old Orientalist works still hold canonical status in the field. Drawing on recent developments in social and political history, conceptual history may be a good way of doing self-reflective longue durée intellectual history. Ottoman conceptual history may also off er nonspecialists more sophisticated bases for comparison with non-Ottoman cases.

This dissertation aims to analyze the formation of the Ottoman Empire and to make a contribution to the scholarship by presenting a possible new perspective. The inspiration to choose this field as a dissertation subject stemmed not only from my personal interest in the problem, but also from the rather obvious observation that the academic discussion of the socio-political dynamics of the empire's formative period has been locked into hardened factions and false debates. Because of the limited temporal and spatial scope of the existing studies and because of the lack of a comparative approach, the issue has not been seen in its totality and has therefore not been resolved. A rather "closed" viewpoint has prevented Ottoman historians from benefiting from potentially very useful social-scientific, world-historical, and comparative tools that might provide them with new insights. In sum, the debate has been deadlocked to such an extent that it is an absolute must for researchers to now look beyond the conceptual, temporal, and spatial limits of the current historiography in order to produce any useful contribution.

Course Description: This course is a seminar exploration of the Ottoman Empire’s history and cultural legacies from its formation in the late 13th century until 1789 – with a strong concentration on the “classical age” of Ottoman rule. The course will concentrate on the historical evolution of the Ottoman Empire’s political, religious, cultural, and institutional aspects. There is no prerequisite for this course, although it is preferred that students have taken at least one Middle East History course prior to enrollment. This course also covers intellectual issues the face Ottomanists. We explore how Ottoman historians think about, analyze, and interpret the past; discuss the nature of our historical knowledge; and evaluate different theories that ground our view of that history. Finally, we examine the role of historiography in shaping Ottoman historians’ work.

Süleymân the Second and his Time, edited by Halil İnalcık and Cemal Kafadar, 1993

Towards u,e end of his re;go (and life), Murad Ill (r. 1574-95). grandson of Siilcyman llie Magnificent, was haunted by occurrences which he read as signs of the corruption of his time. In I 594, for inscance, lsUlllbul suffered a devastating fire, not a11 infrequent hazard of life in tbe ci1y; but !his time names reached lhe gates of Ille pak1ce whereupon Murfld is reponed to have said: wn,is occurence in our vicioi1y is a sign for us!" 1 And be is related 10 have shed blood-filled tears soon ti>ereaftcr when one of the ships passing by lhe shore pavillioo whc-re die sultan was resting, blasted salutatory cannon shots as was custom which, on u,at inauspicious occasion, shauered the glass windows of the J.ctosk a.5 well as a piece of crystal righ1 next to the sovereign. 2 Yet it must simply have l)een too overwhelming for Mwiid 10 show any reac.tion, for be dismissed it a.5 a "jumbled reverie," when his favored slave-servant Sa•a1~i ijasan Pa~. a graduate of the rcceolly~cablished watch-makers' atelier in u,e palace and "unequalled in the science of the stars'" according 10 Lhe hiswrian • An. communicated a dream be hadl lo 1:1:isan's dream. he and lbe sultan are walking in 1.he garden of the Topkap1 l'alaee when a renowned preacher appears and presents something lllat looks like a stick (of admonition?). II is U,e key given 10 him by Mur §d. the preacher says, but ii does 001 move die lock it was meant 10 unlock. Al that momem, Sultan Suleyrnan. now dead for oeNJy three detades, appears in his august majesty. Murad immediately walks over 10 his grandfather paying respect as c.ustom dictates, but Siileyman remains cold "turning his faoe ... and looking like he bas been offended." While ijasan interferes and asks tbat Murad be rorgiven, U,e preacher now produces a sundial which, he says, is a t1ble-nllmli, namely a compass that poinL~ at the direction of Mecca. the pivot or orientation 1 Tarih~i St.lftnikt. ed. M, lpqir-li, 2 ~ols. (lsunbul. 1989). 1:416. 1".i~a/1 •Ar.. fiiMU'/..a~M.r (hereafter. KU.nh). 418b. 3rbid .. 417a-418a. A few d.ays lacer, however, whtG Murid became aware of h.is (e\•eatuaily fatal) .fffidioa, he decided ~ l&h $Ul'l,c. a.rooa ""as required by 1he h~.a's] dr~am."

Modern Intellectual History, 2024

Although the establishment of history as a discipline has been examined extensively for European, North American, and, partly, Asian contexts, the Ottoman case still constitutes a neglected issue in the study of the global history of historiography and, in broader terms, of modern intellectual history. The present article focuses on the late Ottoman intellectual world and explores the making of the historical discipline in the Ottoman Empire. It argues that this transformation was the consequence of a number of interrelated factors, such as the turbulent developments in late Ottoman politics, Ottoman(ist) efforts to forge a “national” historical master narrative after the 1908 Constitutional Revolution, and Ottoman historians’ engagement with European historical thought and writing. Besides examining these factors and the ways in which they interacted, the article deals in detail with the works of late Ottoman historians to probe the Ottoman case of the professionalization of history.

Contributions to the History of Concepts

In this article, we discuss the pitfalls and benefits of conceptual history as an approach to Ottoman studies. While Ottoman studies is blossoming and using a wider set of tools to study the Ottoman past, Ottoman intellectual history is still resigned to a life-and-works approach. Th is absence of synthesizing attempts has left intellectual history in the margins. In addition to the lack of new, theoretically sophisticated accounts of how Ottoman intellectual and political changes were intertwined, the old Orientalist works still hold canonical status in the field. Drawing on recent developments in social and political history, conceptual history may be a good way of doing self-reflective longue durée intellectual history. Ottoman conceptual history may also off er nonspecialists more sophisticated bases for comparison with non-Ottoman cases.

Journal of Islamic Studies, 2009

4 0 4 T H E H I S T O R I A N 4 0 5 B O O K R E V I E W S of a constructive model for the ideal Islamic democracy of the twenty-first century.