A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire * By M. SUKRU HANIOgLU

Abstract

In his introduction, Șükrü Hanioğlu gives as a major goal of his book the rectifying of the erroneous vision of late Ottoman history which places it in a ‘narrative of imperial collapse to the relentless drumbeat of the march of progress—usually associated with Westernization, nationalism, and secularization’ (pp. 1–2). This simplistic framework, for so long appealing to so many, merely serves to obfuscate understanding and allow the creation of simplistic and linear interpretations of what is a far more dynamic and complex period of Ottoman history than emerges from standard accounts. Hanioğlu's book redresses this balance. A highly readable account, the book traces trends, rather than a trajectory of political events, and focuses in particular on centre–periphery relations (‘perhaps the principal theme of late Ottoman history’ (p. 203)), the economy, intellectual life and diplomacy. Forgoing ‘the worn-out paradigms of modernization and Westernization’ (p. 3), Hanioğlu opts instead for a consideration of Ottoman responses to the challenge of modernity, the second major theme of the period (p. 204). He also stresses something that should be self-evident but which has often been ignored, and that is the importance of Ottoman history as history, not a minority subject of questionable significance and the playground only of a select group of specialists, but a history indispensable for any understanding of modern Turkey and the entire region which once formed part of the empire, and essential for the study of European and world history (p. 211).