The Ottoman Environments Revisited

Seeds of Power: Explorations in Ottoman Environmental History, 2019

2019

At its height the Ottoman Empire occupied an area that stretched from the Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea and from Poland in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south. Its success was based on strong and well-organised military and administrative structures, the control of trade routes and a diverse mix of geography, population and cultures.

The Ottoman Empire: A History, 2022

The Ottoman Empire was the last of the great empires that had dominated the Middle East and Mediterranean since the dawn of the history of civilisation. The Ottoman Empire began around 1300 as a late-medieval entity, and it transformed several times over its six centuries of existence as it adapted to the conditions of the early modern and modern periods, until its ultimate demise at the end of the First World War. The Ottoman Empire: A History surveys six hundred years of Ottoman history in a single, concise volume. This book covers the major political, diplomatic, and military events and social, economic, financial, administrative, and legal institutions of the Ottoman Empire from the early fourteenth to the early twentieth century. It also explores the political-administrative and socio-economic transformations the empire has undergone over the centuries. The book frames Ottoman institutional history in terms of the concept of the Circle of Justice in the Middle Eastern state tradition. In the conclusion, Çetinsaya discusses three key questions and offers some answers to them: What is the relative place of the Ottoman Empire in world history vis-à-vis that of other empires? What factors account for the great longevity of the Ottoman Empire? And how to deal with the controversial legacy of the empire in its successor states? In addition to a series of box texts and tables on various subjects throughout the book, a basic timeline of key dates and events is offered at the beginning of every chapter, and a list of suggested readings at the end.

Nazariyat İslam Felsefe ve Bilim Tarihi Araştırmaları Dergisi (Journal for the History of Islamic Philosophy and Sciences), 2018

2021

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.

Reflecting on the state of Ottoman social history poses a paradox. On the one hand, it is impossible not to appreciate the great strides accomplished over the past three decades. Earlier approaches have been challenged, topics that were previously untouched or unimagined have been studied, and the foundations of a meaningful dialogue with historiographies of other parts of the world have been established. On the other hand, the theoretical sophistication and methodological debates of Ottoman social history still look pale compared to European and other non-Western historiographies in the same period.

Kronik Kitap, 2018

“The Ottomans, in order to carry on a world-wide struggle for conquest in both the East and the West, were obliged to maintain all their resources in a state of permanent readiness and at the disposal of a single will.” HALİL İNALCIK This book collects together İnalcık’s pioneering works dealing with early Ottoman history, focusing on the role of sultan, society and economy and drawing on Ottoman archival materials. The book first explores historiographical issues by examining prevailing views on the periodization of Ottoman history as well as the life and work of ‘Āshiḳ Pashazāde. On the subject of sultans and their policies, it scrutinizes Osman’s appearance as a charismatic leader in the Bithynia frontier region after the battle of Bapheus (Koyun-Hisar), as well as the decision-making process in Ottoman government. The book also examines the Islamization of Ottoman state laws under Suleyman the Lawgiver and the position of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch under the Ottomans. THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE significantly traces the Islamization of the Turks in general, and the history of Islam in Asia Minor in particular; the rebuilding of the conquered city of Constantinople; the transformation of a Genoese city, Galata, into an Ottoman one; the important roles the Greek subjects of the Sultan played in the economy and finances of the empire; and how and exactly when the Ottomans established complete control of the Straits and traffic in the Black Sea.