Late Ottoman Period Research Articles

Islamism and Turkey’s foreign policy during the Arab Spring

ABSTRACTThe Arab Spring truly caught Turkey by surprise. In interpreting what was happening in the region, Turkey’s foreign policy-makers relied on a particular view, which helped steer Turkey’s foreign policy in the ensuing regional earthquake. This article seeks to dissect that view and deconstructs its main components mainly through the speeches of Ahmet Davutoğlu, who served as Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs during the heyday of the Arab Spring. The paper also illustrates how Davutoğlu’s interpretation heavily borrows from the Islamist interpretive frame of modern Turkish history. That frame, this article claims, originated in the late Ottoman period and has since evolved in contestation with alternative readings, both official and non-official. The article suggests that Davutoğlu’s view of the Arab Spring helps explain why Turkey welcomed the Arab Spring and advised Arab regimes to implement political reforms.

OSMANLI DAN GÜNÜMÜZE KIBRIS TA KARANTİNA KURUMU

Till last two centuries have come, Cyprus was known as a source of epidemic maladies between Asia and Europe. Plaque, Leprea, Tiphoid Fevers, Malaria and Cholera were ilnesses which could be easily met in the island. Because, the island take place just at the cross roads between three continents and had never had a complicated health syt/stem till the British Period of the island had begun. Thus, Plaque of China or India, Leper of Egypt and Malaria as a native inhabitant of Cyprus, had transfered to tje orher partsi of the world with the pilgrims who had to visit the island on the way of Jarussalem. Although, Quaratine was esthabilshed during the late Ottoman period and Cyprus had two Quarantine centers at Larnaca and Limassol ports, it is not possible to claim that thy had been used effectivly. Bristish administrators had managed to create an effective public health system including Quarentine centers at all of the ports of the island with edecuated health officers. Even in the airport, after 1946. All of the arrivals had controlled without any exception. Even Royal Army completely had applied the quarantine rules to the staff by it’s own authorities. Even today, the Quarentine Laws which have created during the British time, are in charge at the both sides of Cyprus. (Chapter 260 etc. which was first declared in 1937 by the British Colonial Government) After two centuries of performing those strict controls in the ports of island, Cyprus has lost her negative fame as a transfering station of epidemic maladies between Asia, Africa and Europe in current times.

CIRCASSIAN REFUGEES AND THE MAKING OF AMMAN, 1878–1914

AbstractIn the final decades of Ottoman rule, several waves of refugees from the Russian Empire's North Caucasus region immigrated to Transjordan, where they founded Amman and other agricultural villages. This article examines the economy of Amman in its formative years as a Circassian refugee settlement. By exploring connections between North Caucasian refugees, Syrian and Palestinian merchants, and Transjordanian urban and nomadic communities, this study posits refugees as drivers of economic expansion in the late Ottoman period. I argue that the settlement of North Caucasian refugees and their active participation in the real estate market in and around Amman contributed to the entrenchment of the post-1858 property regime in Ottoman Transjordan. Through a study of an upper-class Circassian household and its legal battles, this article also illustrates the rise of refugee elites who benefited from the commodification of land and the construction of state-sponsored infrastructure in the late Ottoman Levant.

THE OTTOMAN QUAGMIRE: MALARIA, SWAMPS, AND SETTLEMENT IN THE LATE OTTOMAN MEDITERRANEAN

AbstractDuring the late Ottoman period, a large influx of migrants and the expansion of cultivation created opportunities for new settlements in the countryside of Anatolia, Greater Syria, and Iraq. However, settlement often brought misery to newcomers in the form of malaria, especially when it occurred in the lowlands of the Mediterranean. This article traces the contours of the encounter with malaria that arose out of settlement, offering an overview of how Ottoman state and society confronted the conundrum of the swamp and examining the impact of this confrontation on local political economies. It demonstrates that swamps and malaria were a significant concern for late Ottoman state and society, and that policies adopted to address malaria sometimes facilitated the creation of large estates in the countryside of the Mediterranean littoral.

Importance of Typological Analysis in Architecture for Cultural Continuity: An Example from Kocaeli (Turkey)

Cities are formed from historical layers. When different periods are examined, it is possible to reach out the information about the relation with the built environment created with the society’s owned culture and the location where the built environment is through these historical layers. Cultural and natural values owned by the city, shape the city identity. To have a city identity, it is necessary to provide the continuity of these values and to protect moral and material values which transfer messages of city’s past to its future. City identities in the World and in Turkey have been gradually disappearing because of the immigrations which are the results of globalization and industrialization. This situation creates the feeling of “Alienation” in the people who live in the city. Also in Kocaeli, which lost its’ agricultural city feature owned until 1960s and whose industrial city feature has come into prominence for 50 years, same problems can be observed. Traditional houses are formed depending on the society’s different cultural values. Some places in the traditional houses have disappeared completely or have become useless time-dependently. That’s why it is very important to reveal the local similarities. Thanks to the datum gathered by analysing with the Typology method, the historical traces will be the guiding light of continuing structuring and future. On this purpose, Kapanca Street has been chosen as study area. This street is one of the historical layers of Kocaeli city and which is one of the rare places still protecting the authenticity. There are 10 traditional registered houses belonging to the late Ottoman Period in the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century on this street. The values of Kapanca Street, which constitutes an important place in the historical identity of Kocaeli and has a historical background more than a century are thought to be in need of being recorded to provide the cultural continuity and to be transferred to future. The study has been done as two-stage. Firstly; A wide literature search about traditional house in Turkey, history of Kocaeli, type, typology, and typological analysis method which are related to topic, and area survey have been done. Other studies done with this analysis method have been observed and transmitted briefly. In the second step, Typological features of Kapanca Street have been presented by using the typological analysis method. With this study, differences about the city will have been stated and will have contributed to the city’s identity value and cultural continuity will have been provided.

ÇANAKKALE’NİN GEÇ OSMANLI DEVRİ KÜLTÜR MİRASI: TİCARET VE ÜRETİM YAPILARI

Canakkale is located on an important transit route and was founded on the Asian side of the Hellespont, in the middle of 15th century. Because of the opportunities provided by its location and as an opening entrance to Istanbul, the city has become an important settlement in a short time. Afterward, it has been a multicultural trading center in the Late Ottoman period, and during this time (19th century) a lot of commercial and industrial buildings were built in the city. As well as military and political, the city began to gain importance a commercial center, as shown by the structures consisting of installations and workshops for production, along with various customs and trade buildings. And in this time span the market buildings and shops, where the local products were marketed by the merchants, also some inns and hotels with the similar buildings were built as for the trade and they were all gathered in the heart of the city. However, the buildings for the production and storage of the main local products, which are traded in the city and famous local products of Canakkale, were founded in rural areas. Almost all these buildings are important witnesses of Late Ottoman history and a tangible cultural heritage of Canakkale. Some of these buildings were unchanged and continued to be used until today with their original fabric, while some of them were regained new functions through restorations without losing their originality. However, it is clear that some of these structures which belong to the city’s commercial and industrial life are disappearing and some of are in danger. In this short paper, we will discuss the commercial and industrial buildings of Late Ottoman Canakkale as a whole. Also, we will try to evaluate them with an emphasis on their current situation with their effects on the social-economic development of the city.

An Essay on Economic Values of Akhism

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the Akhism with the special reference to its economic aspects. Akhism was effectively functioning from the end of the Seljuk to the late Ottoman period. Akhism, with some modifications, played an important role in the establishment of an effective economic and social structure, by bringing together socio-economic factors such as ethics, production and trade. Then, Akhism succeeded in creating an effective and reliable network of relationships between citizen and state, rich and poor, producer and consumer and labor and capital. Akhism also established the working and corporate principles based on morality and social justice. Akhiis is an Arabic word which is defined as a “brother” (Akca, 2004, 356). In another source it is stated that this word is derived from Aki which means in Turkish language bravery, heroism and generosity (Bayram, 1991, 131). The brotherhood culture prevalent in Akhism has also been effective in the formation of social order and spreading of tolerance and understanding in the society. Akhism institution and tradition has been influential in economical, financial, social and cultural aspects of life. In the past and even today it has been dominant in organizing craftsmen and artists and in integrating them in a definite system and order.

The Critical Review of the Westernized Late Ottoman Empire Education System in a Cinematic Context with an Education Related Focus

Objective - An individual improves his/her cognitive level by implementing terminal behaviour changes to his/her own life through educational institution located in his/her living space. In this context, the education system of a country is very important in terms of mental development and how people perceive the world. Developments in the world after the French Revolution had influenced Ottoman. Various institutional reforms had been required because of repeated military defeats in the late Ottoman period. In this regard, renovation of educational institutions modelled on Western-based was thought as a saver solution for the empire in period of regression but this modernization process also brought many problems with it. We can understand the approach to education of societies by way of literary works such as novels written in that period. Methodology/Technique - In this study, the late Ottoman education system is examined by the critical review of through novel. It is narrated the late Ottoman fall reflecting in the field of education. The irregularity system of that period is criticized. It has been adapted to Turkish cinema especially by adhering to the novel which is a remarkable reference about the history of Turkish education system. Findings - The quality difference in education between centrums and suburbans shows administration of suburban was omitted by Ottoman. Besides, the inequality between man and woman can be observed. It was emphasized that, in Ottoman, men is always right and strong and women are useless and not able to consider. Republic let the woman to arm their rights and gave us the belief that women can be powerful and right. Novelty - The study reviews the education system of Ottoman empire based on the novel. Type of Paper: Review Keywords: Late Ottoman; Modernization; Westernization; Education Problems. JEL Classification: I21, I24.

‘East’ and ‘West’ in contemporary Turkey: threads of a new universalism

The tired old civilisational categories of ‘East’ and ‘West’, loosely identified with ‘Islam’ and ‘modernity’, are alive and well, nowhere more so than in contemporary Turkey. The Justice Development Party (AKP) currently in government employs them assiduously to political advantage but they have a long history, having defined the parameters of societal identity and political discourse throughout the history of the Turkish Republic. The paper takes the strength of the categories as its starting point but moves beyond them by asking if discourses, narratives and identities, individual and collective, exist in Turkey which question, overcome and ultimately undermine the categories of ‘East’ and ‘West’. The paper starts by investigating the evolution of ideas about East and West since the late Ottoman period and accepts that they are still dominant. However, since the 1980s in particular, they are being undermined in a de facto way by cultural developments in literature and music, new trends in historiography and novel ways of relating to the past. In some ways in contemporary Turkey, the paper concludes, culture trumps the inherently essentialist idea of ‘civilisation’ and Turkish society is ahead of its political and intellectual elites.

Orphans and Destitute Children in the Late Ottoman Empire. By Nazan Maksudyan. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2014. Pp. xviii + 232. $39.95 (hardcover).

<i>Orphans and Destitute Children in the Late Ottoman Empire</i>. By Nazan Maksudyan. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2014. Pp. xviii + 232. $39.95 (hardcover).

A Perverted Balance: Modern Salafism between Reform and Jihād*

This article argues that there are structural affinities and continuities between the late nineteenth-century modernist reformers and today’s quietist, political, and jihādī Salafī factions. Salafism refers to the basic theological-ideological formation that postulates a return to pristine Islam to overcome tradition and bring regeneration. The Salafī balance between authenticity and modernization promoted by enlightened religious intellectuals in the late Ottoman period was shattered by the events of World War I and its aftermath. This resulted in its bifurcation between conservatives, who adopted literalist and xenophobic Wahhābī positions, and modernists, primarily the Muslim Brothers, who employed innovative means in their religio-political struggle to re-Islamize society and oust colonialism. The Salafī balance was reconstructed after independence on new, unenlightened lines in the Saudi Islamic Awakening (al-Ṣaḥwa al-Islāmiyya), which combined the erstwhile rigorous Wahhābī teachings with radicalized Islamism. Global jihādī-Salafism completed the perversion of the modernist Salafī balance by reducing the authentic way of the salaf to excommunication and violence and by using the most modern means in its war against both Westerners and indigenous Muslim governments.

Introduction

Cecilia Baeza, scholar on South American Arab diasporas, introduces three papers on the transnational mobility of Palestinians during the late Ottoman period and the British Mandate.

The Nationalization of Holy Sites: Yishuv-Era Visual Representations of the Western Wall and Rachel’s Tomb

The article studies visual representations of the burgeoning nationalization of the Western Wall and Rachel’s Tomb during the late Ottoman period and until the establishment of the State of Israel. It focuses on representations such as photographs and illustrations meant for sale and distribution to the general public; on ritual objects; on artisanal handicraft meant for hanging in the home; on practical items; and on jewelry. The visual representations of the sites are examined in this article using four dimensions. On the ideological side, the religious dimension, prominent in the Ottoman period, was coupled with the national dimension during the era of British rule, and even modified to focus on the renewed settlement of the land and the ingathering of exiles. In the practical realm, the domestic dimension defines the artifacts in their incarnation as artisanal handicraft and works of art with a purely domestic existence. The physical dimension relates to the relationship between people, artifacts, and sites. At the end of the process, this semiotic mediation grants a new interpretation to a geopolitical reality. The article’s claim is that national ideology used religious tradition as a platform to achieve its national goals: to unify the various identities in a multicultural society. Viewing visual commemoration of the burgeoning nationalism of Jewish holy sites in its two other dimensions—domestic and physical—gives this process further validation.

The Politics of church land administration: the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem in late Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine, 1875–1948

This article follows the course of the prolonged land dispute within the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem between the Greek religious establishment and the local Arab laity from the late Ottoman period to the end of the British Mandate (1875–1948). The article examines state policies in relation to Church-owned property and assesses how the administration of this property affected the inter-communal relationship. It is argued that both the Ottoman and the British authorities effectively adopted a pro-Greek stance, and that government refusal of the local Arab lay demands was predominantly predicated on regional and global political priorities.

Translating Ottoman into classical Arabic: nahḍa and the Balkan Wars in Aḥmad Shawqī’s “The New al-Andalus”

ABSTRACTThis article reassesses the typical scholarly projection of Turk–Arab relations in the late Ottoman Empire as an imperial center hegemonizing the Arab periphery. The article demonstrates that early modern neoclassical Arab poets drew upon the Arab-Islamic heritage, turāth, to provide their interpretation and even critique of the late Ottoman period. As a case study, I give a close reading of Aḥmad Shawqī’s poem on the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), “The New al-Andalus.” My reading departs from the common assumption that Shawqī’s pan-Ottomanist poems express uncritical admiration for the caliphate. Through revealing the nuanced interpretive dynamics in Shawqī’s poem, I draw upon translation theory and propose that early modern neoclassical poetry refracted rather than reflected political transformations of its period. This refraction played a crucial role in shaping the vision of nahḍa, because Shawqī, like other Arab thinkers, believed that the empire needed to go through “renaissance” after the Balkan defeat.

Jerusalem: From the Ottomans to the British

Jerusalem: From the Ottomans to the British

Yörük Legacies: Space, Scent, and Sediment Geochemistry

This paper explores ephemeral landscapes of smell using datasets from ethnographic fieldwork, archaeological survey, and sediment geochemistry in western Anatolia. Our analysis brings together regional datasets from the late Ottoman period to the present to understand the places that mark the transition from the agropastoral migratory lifeways of Yoruk tribes to settled communities. We explore one Yoruk-legacy (Tekeli tribe) compound to understand ‘settled’ lifeways over three generations, and how study of these legacy traditions may be a valuable contribution to experimental archaeology. Our entry into this discussion is a study of food – its preparation, storage, and consumption – and its associated olfactory landscapes. While ethnography helps determine how aromas define active and contemporary spaces and spheres of intimacy, sediment geochemistry offers a method for investigating archaeologies of aroma.

Cumhuriyetin İlk Dönemlerinde Dewey Pragmatizmi ile Türk Eğitim Sistemi İlişkisi

Beginning in the late Ottoman period through the first decades of the Republic, Turkey (and Ottoman) experienced a series of significant changes in educational policy and practice aimed at improving the quality of education and underwriting the modernization of Turkish society. One of the most significant outside influences on this process, especially after the inauguration of the Republic of Turkey, was American pragmatism. Pragmatism was introduced into the country and popularized by the visit of the great American pragmatist philosopher, John Dewey— then at the height of his international fame as a proponent of progressive, democratic education—who was asked by Turkish officials to assess the country’s educational system and offer his recommendations for its improvement. The result of his three-month visit was an important indicator of influence of pragmatic educational philosophy on the development of Turkish educational system. This historical and philosophical analysis will trace the influence of pragmatism on Turkish education from the “village institutes” of the 1930s and 1940s through its height of influence in the 1950s to its lasting influences on the goals and principles of contemporary Turkish education.

Beyond Stereotypes of Bedouins as ‘Nomads’ and ‘Savages’: Rethinking the Bedouin in Ottoman Southern Palestine, 1875–1900

This article explores and contests dominant representations of the Bedouin in Historic southern Palestine as nomads and savages, through the study of inter-Bedouin land conflicts in the second half of the nineteenth century. By studying the late Ottoman period, the author seeks to examine Bedouin-State interactions surrounding the question of territoriality and space-making, as well as the long-standing impact of the Ottoman heritage in southern Palestine. The available Ottoman archival resources shed important light on Ottoman representations of the Bedouin, their space and modes of living, and challenge hegemonic representations of the Bedouin as well as the broader pre-Beersheba Bedouin historiography. More specifically, the archival material shows that research categories that are dominant and prevalent in the study of the Bedouin today, such as ‘nomadism’ and ‘pastoralism’, need to be re-thought, and new approaches to the study of the Bedouin need to be employed.

A model for Islamic education from Turkey: the Imam-Hatip schools

The aim of this article is to examine the Imam-Hatip schools and their basic features, the characteristic model of Islamic education in Turkey that was proposed as an alternative model for other Muslim countries during their madrasa reform movements in the aftermath of the September 11 events in the USA. In the continuation of the madrasa tradition during the Saljuki period under state supervision, along with the modernisation efforts in education since the late Ottoman period, these schools have been revitalised and adapted to the contemporary conditions of educational institutions. At the foundation of these schools, there lay a notion of reconciliation between the ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’. Throughout the years of the Turkish Republic, these schools have constantly become a controversial issue in terms of their number, structure, and student and alumni profiles. Especially after the opening process of the Turkish people and Turkish foreign policies to the world, the issue has become an international one since the 1980s. After the events of 11 September 2001, these schools were offered as an alternative model for madrasas in Muslim countries and therefore drew international attention to themselves.