Introduction: Ceremonies, Festivals, and Rituals in the Ottoman World

Abstract

Introduction: Ceremonies, Festivals, and Rituals in the Ottoman World Ozgen Felek and Sinem Erdoğan İşkorkutan It all started with a “Günaydın!” In May 2016, our paths ironically crossed at the ceremonial center of the Ottomans, Topkapı Palace, in Istanbul. Following a brief greeting, as two strangers who met by coincidence at the same manuscript library, we began to chat about our research interests. While waiting for the manuscripts we requested, we discussed a number of conferences and workshops that enabled the introduction of new research on Ottoman ceremonies and initiated fresh discussions on methodologies, sources, and theoretical frameworks of studies on the topic.1 We realized that, despite the valuable studies on Ottoman ceremonies and rituals, these topics still needed further exploration and inquiry. We decided to reach out to other scholars interested in Ottoman ceremonies. The MacMillan Center at Yale University welcomed our proposal for an international symposium. In conjunction with the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, the MacMillan Center hosted a three-day international symposium titled, “Recent Perspectives of Ceremonies, Rituals, and Festivals in the Ottoman World” on 13–15 April 2017, with the participation of distinguished as well as emerging scholars. We are grateful to Alan Mikhail, the co-organizer of the symposium, and Frank Griffel, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the time, for their encouragement and support, [End Page 9] and Marwa Khaboor, the program coordinator and registrar for the MacMillan Center’s Council on Middle East Studies for facilitating the symposium. We are thankful to the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarkey Kempf Fund at Yale, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and the US Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center Grant for providing financial and logistical support to organize the symposium. We would also like to express our gratitude to the Barakat Trust for the generous grant to cover the publication of images and extra costs for the present volume. We are truly grateful to Suraiya Faroqhi, Jane Hathaway, and Leslie Peirce for expanding our intellectual horizons through their perceptive discussions of the papers presented at the symposium. Faroqhi further contributed to the symposium with her closing remarks. They generously shared their experiences with us in regard to publishing a volume on the topic as well. We are grateful to the attendees of the symposium for their interest in and insights on the papers during the discussions following the panels. We would also like to thank Choon Hwee Koh, a graduate student in the Department of History at Yale University, for sharing her observations on the symposium in a brief essay.2 Following the symposium, we agreed that the Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association would be one of the best venues for publishing some of the contributions in a special volume. Kent Schull, the editor of JOTSA at the time, enthusiastically welcomed our proposal. Any merits of this volume should be credited to those who have contributed to it at its various stages. A Brief Survey of the Secondary Literature The study of ceremonies, festivals, and rituals is an expanding sub-field in the European context, especially from the 1960s on. Characterized by the socio-anthropological, historical, or performance studies approaches, in diverse historical and chronological contexts, scholars have thoroughly analyzed a variety of aspects of these topics.3 In Ottoman studies, however, it has [End Page 10] not yet been established as a sub-field.4 The pioneering work for these topics is Metin And’s comprehensive study on Ottoman court ceremonies, namely Kırk Gün Kırk Gece (Forty Days, Forty Nights), which has been reprinted in three editions (1959, 1982, and 2000).5 In this study, which covers multiple centuries, Metin And mostly assesses Ottoman and European narrative and pictorial sources. Although he cites a few archival documents, he omits the catalog numbers. He analyzes these diverse sources in an uncritical and descriptive manner, and thus, offers a general outline of court ceremonies or festive events without addressing ceremonial changes over time, the semiotic aspect of certain rites that formed these events, the biased nature of some sources, or the social, financial, and material...