Ottoman History Research Articles

İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal İnal – the epitome of late Ottoman culture

İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal İnal was born in Istanbul as the son of a Pasha and, spending his entire working life as a bureaucrat, reached the highest levels in the Ottoman Civil Service. His career spanned the last years of the Ottoman Empire as well as the first decades of the Turkish Republic. As a result, he became uniquely qualified to write about people and events he had witnessed. He had a remarkably keen memory, and a high level of accomplishment in Arabic, Persian and French. With deep interests in literature, history, calligraphy, art and Turkish classical music, he almost became a one-man cultural institution. As a lifelong bachelor, he spent much time and effort in order to produce several encyclopaedic works on late Ottoman history, literature, music and culture.

Ali Anooshahr, Turkestan and the Rise of Eurasian Empires: a Study of Politics and Invented Traditions

Reviewed by: Turkestan and the Rise of Eurasian Empires: a Study of Politics and Invented Traditions by Ali Anooshahr Jonathan Brack Ali Anooshahr. Turkestan and the Rise of Eurasian Empires: a Study of Politics and Invented Traditions. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. 244 pp. Cloth, $78. ISBN: 978-0190693565. Ali Anooshahr's book offers an intriguing and valuable contribution to the growing field of comparative studies of the early modern Islamic Eurasian empires. The book explores how authors of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries engaged with the ancestries and origin stories of the dynastic founders of their royal Turkic-Mongol patrons. Anooshahr highlights the various, creative modes authors in service of the court draw on in order to refashion and remodel, and in some cases, altogether invent or erase, their patrons' Turkic-Mongol pedigrees. Doing so, these individuals sought to establish their patrons' rule on a more formidable royal-genealogical legacy that could offer them some advantage in the competitive, and overly crowded, Eurasian arena of early-modern imperial claimants. As Anooshahr demonstrates, these cultural brokers went even further as they sought to downplay and disavow the ancestral past of their patrons, which was largely situated within the context of "Turkestan," that is, in their nomadic and Central Asian—often beheld as "barbarian" and pagan—origins. In its place, they fitted their patrons with new imagined lineages that would better suit and serve their sixteenth-century Islamic, Persianate, imperial, and mostly sedentary, present. The book aims to apply a literary approach to unravel the discourses of political power underlying these Persian-language chroniclers' strategies to mis/represent their patrons' dynastic histories, which the author refers to as "the teleology of Islamic monarchies" (p. 2). Due to the state of the sources, historians of the early stages of the early-modern Eurasian polities are often confronted by three choices: attempt to "demythologize" and "historicize" the re-renderings of the dynastic foundational myths, seek an alternative avenue [End Page 259] by rejecting these sources altogether in favor of more "objective" external accounts, or rather, read them for the way they seek to promote certain visions of the dynastic past in the context of their present. Anooshahr opts for this latter option exploring the often "intentional process of 'myth-making'" (p. 31). Following a short introduction presenting the premise of the book, chapter 2 takes the reader on a slight detour by examining the seventeenth to nineteenth-centuries European intellectual debate on the roots of these "Asian empires" and the often contradictory observations Europeans made about the early-modern Ottomans, Mughals, Safavids, Uzbeks, and Mongols. The next five chapters, however, focus on five interrelated case studies of Persian historical writing that each relates to one of these Eurasian polities. Chapter 3 examines the Persian historical writing of Idris Bitlisi, a refugee from Safavid Iran in the Ottoman court of Sultan Bayezid II, who was commissioned to compose "a book of history in the style of Persian works produced for the Ilkhans (Mongol rulers of Iran) to accurately chronicle the House of Osman and its achievements" due to the alleged unreliability of Turkish historical writing (p. 30). Focusing on Idris's sections on the origins of the Ottomans, Anooshahr argues that Idris actively sought to distance the ruling Ottoman house from their Turkestani-nomadic roots by "mythologizing Ottoman origin narratives." To this end, Idris appropriated and manipulated biblical and Quranic imageries and genealogies that allowed him to maintain the Ottoman connection to Central Asia, but also to relegate it to the distant past, offering the Ottomans in its place a new imperial pedigree heavily informed by the Ottoman pivotal expansion into the former Byzantine lands. Anooshahr situates Idris's efforts in an intermediate moment in Ottoman history, as the dynasty transitioned from their predatory-pastoralist, Turkestani-Central-Asian traditions to a new Rumli identity. Thus, he fashioned the Ottoman sultan as a new Caesar, an Alexander-like ruler, standing for agrarian prosperity, constrained military force and just sedentary-styled government. Chapter 4 studies the origins of the Safavid state. Here Anooshahr deviates from the proclaimed goal of the book and explores not only the "myth-making" process of the early Safavids, but also...

The Death of Colonel ʿAdnān al-Mālkī in 1955 and the Intra-Sunni Balance of Power in Syria

ABSTRACT This article reconsiders the simple minority-majority dichotomy that surrounded the death of Colonel ʿAdnān al-Mālkī who was a Sunni killed by an ʿAlawi in 1955. Nevertheless, it was not the ʿAlawi minority, or other non-Sunni minorities that drove the subsequent power struggle that arose in Syria. Rather what occurred was a battle for control of the identity, direction, and economic organization of the young state contested by two alternative networks of Sunni elites, namely ʿulemaʾ (religious-scholarly) families, and ʿaskerī (military-administrative) families, both of whose social origins can be found in Ottoman history. This study argues that al-Mālkī’s assassination temporarily weakened the Syrian ʿulemaʾ families’ position in the civil-military balance that undergirded Syrian society and allowed the ʿaskerī class to gain the initiative. Such a change is evidenced by Damascus’s turn toward the Soviet Union for arms as well as other state-building materials. The inability of these two competing internal networks to resolve their differences throughout the Cold War resulted in political dysfunction throughout the Cold War era. The ascent of Gamal ʿAbd al-Nasser to power with the creation of the United Arab Republic in 1958 proved a temporary abeyance in this struggle, but a final resolution came only much later when Hafez al-Assad became leader in 1970.

Jason Goodwin’s ‘Possible Worlds’ Unveiled in Translation (Studies)

The books with a specific cultural theme written in a foreign language stand out as a remarkable type of texts in terms of Translation Studies. In such books, description of a native culture in a foreign language reflects features similar to a translation, and it is called ‘foreign language creation,’ the product of a translation process ongoing in the writer’s mind. While these books seem to be the translation of a native culture into a foreign language, their translation back into the native language represents a ‘back translation’ in cultural sense without a physically existing ultimate source text, in other words ‘textless back translation.’ Within this context, the present study deals with English author Jason Goodwin’s Ottoman-themed books titled Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire ([1998] 2000), The Janissary Tree (2006a), and The Snake Stone ([2007] 2008) as ‘foreign language creations’ and their Turkish translations as ‘textless back translations.’ Drawing on the portrayal of the Ottoman available in many passages, Goodwin’s texts are approached from the perspective of ‘orientalism’ and the distinction between ‘history’ and ‘fiction’ in the first place. While these focal points offer a better understanding and interpreting of the ‘orientalist’ marks and the ‘possible worlds’ in the texts, an analysis of the translation methods used by the writer in his ‘foreign language creations’ and by the translators in their ‘textless back translations’ provides useful insight into the reasons and the effects of certain translation decisions.

First Black Military Pilot of the World: Ottoman Lieutenant Ahmet Ali Bey 1883 – 1969

A forgotten prominent figure, Ahmet Ali Çelikten was the first black military pilot in world history. Of Nigerian origin, Ahmet Ali grew up in the Ottoman society and had the opportunity like any Ottoman Turkish citizen to study in the Ottoman naval force in 1903. He fought in the Italian-Turkish war with his South African coreligionists in Libya in 1911 and later against the allies in WW1 as the first black military pilot in the World. The Ottoman Empire was the last Islamic and multi-cultural empire in world history. Skin colour did not affect individuals' social standing or opportunities in the Ottoman society. The Ottoman Empire managed to rule several nations, even those with religious minorities and provide them equal rights. This article aims to highlight the events and experiences in the life of Pilot Ahmet Ali in the Ottoman territory. To achive this, Ottoman archival sources and otantique Turkish journals were used during the research. In addition, comparative method was used throughout the study by looking at the social life in the Ottoman Empire and in the Western world in the light of archival documents. In conclusion, this understanding and living conditions enabled Ahmet Ali to be the first black pilot in the world history. At a difficult time in the history of the Ottoman Empire, during the genesis of modern Turkey, Ahmet Ali Bey had sincerely contributed to establishment of a Turkish air force in the Republic of Turkey.

British Workers and Ottoman Modernity in Nineteenth-Century Istanbul

AbstractIn the mid-nineteenth century, when the Ottoman state launched an industrialization campaign within the context of increasing contacts between the Ottoman and British governments, hundreds of British industrial workers migrated to Istanbul to work in Ottoman military factories, along with technology transfer from Britain. This article narrates the history of these workers and of the community they established in Istanbul in a period spanning four decades, from the beginning of the mechanization efforts in the 1830s until the economic crisis in the mid-1870s. Drawing on archival evidence from Ottoman and British sources, it analyzes the larger context of British workers’ migration from Britain, their relations with the Ottoman state officials and local workers, and their experiences and struggles in the workplace and the city. Although both British and Ottoman historians have largely ignored their experiences due to their marginal numbers and distinct statuses, these workers actively took part in the Ottoman industrialization process, in the development of capitalist class relations, and in the social, cultural, and spatial transformation of the capital city in the Ottoman age of reforms. By means of this analysis, the article aims to highlight the significance of immigrant workers as actors of the history of large-scale transformations in the late Ottoman Empire as well as underlining the role of trans-imperial labor migration in the history of modernity.

Neo-Ottoman Nostalgia in Contemporary Turkey

The article examines the phenomenon of neo-Ottoman nostalgia in the context of attempts to shape a new post-Kemalist civil identity. Today, neo-Ottomanism is making itself heard in various spheres of life in Turkish society: in culture, cinema and literature, politics and elsewhere. The new Turkey is making every effort to tie together individual parts of its fragmentary identity. This being said, an ambivalent approach to the Ottoman heritage is widespread amongst various strata of Turkish society. Most of the founding fathers of the secular republic took a negative view of the Ottoman past and blamed the empire for a string of failures that beset it at the dawn of its new existence – extensive territorial losses and numerous military defeats. The Kemalist nation building project gave rise to a modern Turkish nation which was supposed to become part of the Western world. At the same time, the appeal to Ottoman narratives reemerged after the transition to a multiparty system in the 1950s; admiration for the Ottoman past increased noticeably in the 1980s and has now reached its peak under the Justice and Development Party (JDP). The party leaders are striving to create a new identity for contemporary Turkey, construing and interpreting history in their own way. It should also be taken into account that the growing interest in Ottoman history in contemporary Turkey reflects changes in both the state’s political discourse and popular culture. This nostalgia for the past reinterprets and decontextualizes previously clearly formulated and enshrined symbols, ideas and historical facts.

Health Services on the Caucasus Front in the First World War and the First Typhus Vaccine Applications in Erzurum

The Caucasian Front, which is called the Eastern Front, is one of the biggest defeats in Ottoman history, and it is a front where we lost most of our soldiers in the 3rd Army before fighting with the Russian army and where the cold and epidemic disease are our main enemies. Typhus disease is defined as the terrible disaster of war periods, invaded the 3rd Army in the Caucasian Front during the Sarikamis Operation, which lasted 18 days during the World War I (22 December 1914 - 9 January 1915), and made the general massacre that the enemy could not succeed, caused much more soldier and civilian casualties than the war, and took its place in history as a disaster in the history of war. While being driven to war on the Caucasian Front, preparations were extremely inadequate. While the sanitary service and organization was the most important point to focus on, in this important struggle, which was entered under extremely difficult conditions in the middle of the severe winter, the sanitary equipment was completely neglected. The offensive operation launched in December 1914 by the order of Enver Pasha ended unsuccessfully, most of the soldiers who took action under the harsh winter conditions succumbed to hunger and cold, and the rest of them were destroyed by the typhus disease, which was an epidemic in the army. All these unfortunate circumstances came together and resulted in the loss of too many soldiers in the 3rd Army, even at the beginning of the war. The consequences of the Sarikamis disaster were felt by the country, the army and in the front for a long time. Dr. Tevfik Saglam, appointed as the head of the aid in the 3rd Army at the age of 32 and worked at this position for 3 years and a half, started the first typhus vaccine applications in Erzurum (Hasankale) by creating miracles in health services and concluding that the disease they could not diagnose when they encountered in Yemen before was ‘Typhus' and prevented even greater disasters that may occur with the ‘Typhus epidemic'. While our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic continued in today's possibilities are continuing, we once again commemorate our Turkish physicians who managed to defeat the typhus epidemic a century ago despite war, poverty and cold. © 2021. All Rights Reserved.

АВСТРИЙСКИЕ И ВЕНГЕРСКИЕ ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛИ XIX–XX ВВ.: ВКЛАД В ИЗУЧЕНИЕ ИСТОРИИ И АРХИВОВ ОСМАНСКОЙ ИМПЕРИИ

The article analyzes the role of Austrian and Hungarian researchers of the 19th – 20th centuries in studying the history of the Ottoman Empire. It is noted that the earliest publications of the Ottoman documents were made in the first half of the 19th century. The orientalists J. von Hammer-Purgstall, A. Geway and A. Vambery made a significant contribution to the search for and use of archival documents during this period. In the first half of the 20th century, the Turkish scientists, with the active assistance of several European Orientalists, such as I. Karachon, P. Wittek and L.Fekete, began to reveal the contents of some Ottoman archives and systematize the documents. As a result of the activities of these researchers, a new stage was set in the study of the Ottoman history, diplomacy, and paleography, as well as in the development of archives administration in Turkey. The author concludes that the publication of the Ottoman documents, which contain valuable information about the socio-economic and political life of all the peoples of the Empire, contributed to the further scientific interest and analysis of the Ottoman documents. The studies conducted by the AustroHungarian scientists revealed that the archives of Turkey contain a large number of valuable materials that are important for studies in the history of the Turkish people and the peoples of the Arab countries, the Balkans, Iran, the Caucasus and all the countries that were under the Ottoman rule.

Some Qur'anic Verses in Hodja Sadeddin Efendi's Tâj al-Tawârîh

Hoca Sadeddin Efendi 16. yüzyılın en önemli tarihçilerinden biridir. Telif ettiği Tâcu’t-Tevârîh adlı eserinde, Osmanlı Devleti’nin kuruluşundan başlayarak Yavuz Sultan Selim’in vefatına (1520) kadar gerçekleşmiş olayları ele almıştır.Tâcu’t-Tevârîh, Osmanlı tarihini başlangıcından 16. yüzyılın sonlarına kadar anlatan güvenilir ve çok okunan bir kaynak eser olmuştur.Tâcu’t-Tevârîh 16. yüzyıl Osmanlı ilim dilinin en parlak örneklerindendir. Tarih ilmi açısından Türk tarihçileri ve dünya tarihçileri arasında önemli bir yere sahiptir. Bu nedenle de eserin bazı zeyilleri yazılmıştır. Tâcu’t-Tevârîh Avrupa’da büyük rağbet görmüş ve 17. yüzyıldan itibaren, Fransızca, Almanca ve İtalyanca’ya tamamen, Rusça, İngilizce ve Macarca’ya da kısmen tercüme edilmiştir.Hoca Sadeddin Efendi’nin Tâcu’t-Tevârîh’inde verdiği bilgiler, Osmanlı Tarihi’ne ışık tutmuş ve daha sonra telif edilen Osmanlı tarihlerine kaynaklık etmiştir. O, eserini telif ederken konunun önemine göre âyet, hadis, atasözleri kullanarak anlattığı olayları dini kaynaklarla desteklemiştir. Bu durum Hoca Sadeddin Efendi’nin dinî ve tarihî bilgiler konusuna çok hâkim olduğunu göstermektedir.Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, Yavuz Sultan Selim ve Kanuni Sultan Süleyman dönemi olaylarını yazma işinin kendisine kaldığını ifade eder ve eserinde övme ve yermede aşırı gitmeksizin “uslûb-ı itidâl” üzere bütün teferruatıyla yazdığını belirterek nasıl bir metot uygulayacağını ortaya koyar. Ancak eserinde kaleme aldığı ilk dönem konuları hakkında, belki aradan uzun zaman geçmesinden ve olayları nakledenlerin bilgileri karıştırmasından dolayı dikkatli olunması gerektiğini ve sağlıklı bilgiler veremeyeceğini belirtir.Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, ilk dönem olaylarının nakledilmesinde uzun yılların geçmesiyle, ravilerin bazı sözleri karıştırdığı, hatta kendi görüşünü de katmasıyla birtakım sapmaların olabileceğini ifade eder. Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, eserinde yakın dönem olaylarının doğru olduğunu ve ifadelerinde yalan haber bulunmadığını söyler. Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, bazı olayları özet olarak anlatma yoluna giderek, sadece isimleri zikretmekle yetinmiştir. Bunun nedeni ise ya olaylarla ilgili bilgi veya kaynak bulamamış ya da yararlandığı kaynakta ancak bu kadar bilgi bulmuş olmasından kaynaklanmaktadır.Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, olayları ele alırken, okuyucunun eseri bıkmadan okumasını sağlamak için bir kısım olayları “Latîfe ve Hikâyet” başlıkları altında anlatmıştır. Sadeddin Efendi bu metoduyla, eseri savaş sahneleri ile dolu bir eser olmaktan uzaklaştırmıştır. O, “Latîfe ve Hikâyet” başlığı altında anlatılan konularla; olayların daha iyi anlaşılmasını ve zihinlerde derin izler bırakmasını sağlamak, insanları iyiliğe teşvik etmek için onları daha cazip bir üslupla zihinlere yerleştirmek istemiştir. Hoca Sadeddin Efendi de modern tarih yazarları gibi, olayların temelindeki sosyal, ekonomik, siyasî ve dinî sebepleri aramaya ve araştırmaya çalışmıştır. Olayların sebeplerini belirtmiş ve gerekli yerlerde de eleştirilerini yapmıştır. Olayları ve kaynakları karşılaştırmıştır. Bu hareketiyle tarih bilgisini felsefî bir çehreye büründürmüştür. Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, dönemin sosyal olaylarından olan; kıtlık, deprem, yangın, ay ve güneş tutulması, törenler, salgın hastalıklar ve ölümler hakkında da bilgiler verir. Osmanlı tarihi yazarlarının, devletin ilk kuruluş ve takip eden yıllarla ilgili verdikleri bilgiler; genelde şifahi halk destanlarına dayanmaktadır. Bunlar ise bir milletin o dönemdeki kültürü, sosyal hayatı ve inancı ile ilgili değerli bilgilerdir. Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, Tâcu’t-Tevârîh’in mukaddimesinde; tarihin tanımı, konusu, amaçları ve bir tarihçide bulunması gereken özellikler, tarihçinin eserinde takip etmesi gereken metotlar hakkında bilgi verir. Ona göre tarih; millet ve din yolunda hizmet edenlerin hizmetlerini, güzel huy ve hayat hikâyelerini, yaptığı mücadelelerini kısaca, bunların durumlarını yazarak gelecek nesillere aktarmaktır.Hoca Sadeddin Efendi eserinde, Osmanlı Devleti tarihi alanındaki en önemli kaynaklardan biri olan ve Osmanlı Devleti’nin kuruluşundan Yavuz Sultan Selim dönemi sonuna kadar meydana gelen olayları aktarır. Tâcu’t-Tevârîh, dokuz bölümden oluşur ve her bölümde bir padişah döneminde meydana gelen olayları anlatır.

Âşıkpaşazâde Derviş Ahmed Âşıkî’ya Dair Biyografik Katkılar

One of the most prominent sources for the Early Ottoman History, History of Âşıkpaşazâde and its author Derviş Ahmed Âşıkî remain current in contemporary history research. Two different publications of this History in recent years and some other works written as graduate and dissertation works demonstrate the actuality of this historical source. This paper reevaluates the biography of the author, reviews and criticizes the engrained information which has been unfortunately repeated without further examination and make some important corrections and contributions. Investigating the biographical information derived from the work of Âşıkpaşazâde, questioning the various claims about his dates of birth and death, detecting his Sufi lodge as a dervish and identifying his family members (except the known daughter Rabia and his groom Seyyid Velâyet) are the main topics of this paper. The most important historical document presented in this paper is certainly the one which has been written and signed personally by Âşıkpaşazâde and presented to Beyazid II. This document is being published for the first time in this paper for researchers, additionally the original image of the document is added.

The horses taking wings towards the seventh heaven: the concept of martyrdom in Yahya Kemal Beyatli

Türk edebiyatının önemli simalarından biri olan Yahya Kemal Beyatlı, şiirlerini büyük ölçüde Kendi Gök Kubbemiz ve Eski Şiirin Rüzgârıyle adlı kitaplarında toplanmıştır. Bu şiirlerde hayat, yaşlılık, ölüm, sonsuzluk, özlem, ruh, musiki, mimari, İstanbul, Türklük, Osmanlı tarihi, fetih ve şehitlik gibi kavram ve mevzular öne çıkmaktadır. Onun şiirlerinde, temelleri Üsküp’te çocukluğunun geçtiği yıllarda atılmış, İstanbul’un eski semt ve mekânlarında olgunlaşmış tecrübe ve dikkatlerle teşekkül eden bir medeniyet tasavvuru görülmektedir. Bu tasavvur, onun Fransız düşünürlerinden aldığı tarih ve vatan telakkisiyle beslenmiş, kendi mimari, musiki ve şiir zevkiyle de estetik bir görünüm kazanmıştır. Dolayısıyla Yahya Kemal’in şiir sanatının önemli bir cephesini milli ve romantik bir duyuşla kaleme aldığı şiirleri oluşturmaktadır. Şairin yukarıda ismini zikrettiğimiz kitaplarında yer alan şiirlerinde, bilhassa Akıncı ve Mohaç Türküsü gibi destan-şiirlerinde, 26 Ağustos 1922 başlığı altındaki ebedîleşmiş dizelerinde şehit, şehitlik ve şehadet gibi manevi değeri yüksek kavramlar işlenmiştir. Bu şiirlerin yanı sıra Süleymaniye’de Bir Bayram Sabahı, İstanbul’un Fethini Gören Üsküdar, Koca Mustafapaşa, O Rüzgâr, Bir Tepeden, Ok, 1918, Akıncı ve Mohaç Türküsü, Kaybolan Şehir, İstanbul’u Fetheden Yeniçeriye Gazel, İstanbul’un Fethini Gören Üsküdar, Mihriyâr, Rubai ve Gedik Ahmet Paşa’ya Gazel ve Selimnâme’deki manzumelerinde de kahramanlık duygusu ile birlikte şehitlik kavramı işlenmiştir. Bu çalışmada yukarıda ismini zikrettiğimiz şiirlerden hareketle şairin şiir evreninde şehadet temasının nasıl teşekkül ettiği ortaya konulmaya çalışılacak, öncesinde Yahya Kemal’de milli romantizmin oluşmasıyla ilgili tetkiklerimiz olacaktır.

Geleneğin İcadı: Divançe ve Divan

Klasik Osmanlı şiiri konusundaki tartışmalar Türkiye’de modernleşme sürecinin en kritik konularından birini oluşturur. Bu tartışmalar özellikle Tanzimat döneminden başlayarak her dönemde çeşitli endişeleri kristalize eder. Osmanlı şiirine yönelik bütün yaklaşımlar açıkça ideolojiktir. Pek çok yazar dönemsel niyetleri göz önünde bulundurarak edebî kanonun teşkili için bu ideolojilerden yararlanır. Türk edebiyatında kökenleri Tanzimat’a kadar giden kutuplaştırıcı antagonist söylem gelenekle ilgili polemiklerde de belirleyici çizgi halini almıştır. Hem seküler hem de muhafazakar kesimin analizlerinde Osmanlı şiiri önemli bir semptoma dönüşür. Bu çalışma Osmanlı şiirinin alımlanmasının hikâyesinden yola çıkarak Cumhuriyet döneminde yazılan iki kitabı incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Behçet Necatigil’in Divançe (1964) ve Turgut Uyar’ın Divan (1970) isimli şiir kitapları Osmanlı şiiri tartışmalarında önemli bir ağırlığa sahiptir. Eleştirmenler her iki kitabı yapısal özellikleri nedeniyle Asya Tipi Üretim Tarzı aracılığıyla ele alır. Asya Tipi Üretim Tarzı’na ilişkin analizler kültürel alanda Osmanlı tarihi ve edebiyatının okunmasında önemli bir değişim yaratır. Bu makale Osmanlı şiiri tartışmalarını merkeze alarak ideolojik angajmanların rolünü Divançe ve Divan üzerinden incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

A Visual Source for The Ottoman Historical Narrative: Battle Engravings Reflected on the Dirk van der Hagen’s Atlas

Dünya haritacılık tarihinin yükselişe geçtiği XVI. yüzyılda ortaya çıkan atlas kavramı, başlangıçta harita derlemeleri için kullanılmış olsa da bu tarif zamanla değişikliğe uğrayarak, harita içindeki yerler hakkında bilgi veren kitap formu ile özdeşleşmiştir. Bölgenin coğrafyasına özgü topografik detayları içeren bu eserler, aynı zamanda devrin tarihi ve sosyal gelişimine ışık tutan resimlerle bezenmiştir. Bu türün ilk örneklerinden birisi de Hollanda Kraliyet Kütüphanesi’nde muhafaza edilen 1690 tarihli Dirk van der Hagen Atlası’dır. Dört cilt halinde hazırlanmış olan yapıt, tarih ve coğrafya atlası niteliğinde derlenmiş kompozit bir harita kitabıdır. Dönemin en erken tarihli ülke haritalarını kapsaması konusunda adeta bir model teşkil eden atlas, siyasi gelişmeleri ele alan resimlerden mitolojik sahnelere, şehir manzaralarından peyzaj görünümlerine kadar çok sayıda renkli baskıyı içinde barındırmaktadır. Makalenin konusunu, atlasın gravürleri arasında yer alan ve Osmanlı savaş tarihine görsel anlamda katkıda bulunan resimler oluşturmaktadır. Kandiye Kuşatması (1667-1669) ile başlayıp, II. Viyana Muhasarasıyla (1683) devam eden, Anabolu (1686) ve Belgrad (1688) mücadelelerini konu alan bu tasvirler, çalışmada metin-resim ilişkisi bağlamında ikonografik olarak yorumlanmıştır. Söz konusu gravürler üzerinden, devrin siyasi ve tarihsel süreci takip edilerek ressamın vermiş olduğu mesaj irdelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Bu sayede XVII. yüzyıl Osmanlı tarihinin savaş meydanlarındaki görsel anlatısına katkıda bulunularak resmin okunabilirliği tartışılmıştır.

On Empire and Exception

AbstractWere Ottoman autonomous provinces nation-states in the making or signs of a semicolonial and irredeemably weak empire? Or, were they evidence of alternative arrangements of imperial sovereignty? By taking a long view of Ottoman history and examining “exceptional” provinces such as the Khedivate of Egypt, the Sharifate of Mecca, and the mutasarrifiya of Mt. Lebanon, this reflection seeks to recast new and reorganized configurations of administrative power in the nineteenth century as part of a broad repertoire of Ottoman autonomy. In lieu of characterizing these territories as flawed or imperfect sovereignties, we question the utility of these terms and argue that arrangements often referred to as exceptions were normative and central to the empire's survival. Drawing on our work on international law, autonomy, pilgrimage, and migration, we consider how Egypt and the Hijaz—two provinces that are often treated as exceptionally exceptional—serve as productive sites to examine how Ottomans engaged with the international legal order and posed alternative visions of authority that informed not only the end of the empire but also its afterlife.

Ottoman History, Neohellenic History, and Maritime History on the ‘Dispersed City’ of the Islands of the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman History, Neohellenic History, and Maritime History on the ‘Dispersed City’ of the Islands of the Ottoman Empire

Yeni Bulunan Avârız Defterlerine Göre 17. Yüzyılın İlk Yarısında Amid (Diyarbekir)/Amid (Diyarbekir) in the First Half of the 17th Century according to Newly-Found Avârız Defters

Öz Osmanlı tarihçilerine nitelikli istatiksel veriler sunan 15-16. yüzyıl tahrir defterleri, 17. yüzyılda tahrirlerin terk edilmesi sonucu yerini avârız defterlerine bıraktı. Dolayısıyla avârız defterleri, 17. yüzyıl Osmanlı sosyal, ekonomik ve demografik tarihinin en önemli kaynaklarından biri haline geldi. Birçok eyalet merkezi ve şehir, bu kaynaklarla incelenmişken Diyarbekir’e ait defterlere arşivlerde rastlanmamıştı. Yakın zamanda Osmanlı Arşivi’nde tasnif edilmeden bırakılmış bazı defter ve belgeler arasından Amid’e (Diyarbekir) ait iki icmâl avârız defteri bulundu. Bu çalışmada, 1618 ve 1652 yıllarına ait yeni bulunan iki defterin tanıtımı ve içerik analizi yapıldı. Defterlerin sunduğu verilerle Amid’in 1618-1652 yılları arasındaki mahalle, köy ve aşiret yapısı incelenerek 17. yüzyılın ilk yarısında Amid’in yerleşim ve ekonomi tarihinin bazı yönlerine ışık tutuldu. Şehirde yaşayan Müslümanlar ile gayrimüslimleri oluşturan Hristiyan, Yahudi ve Şemsilerin yerleşim yerlerine dağılımı ve vergi durumları ortaya konuldu. Böylece 17. yüzyılda Osmanlı İmparatorluğunun yüz yüze kaldığı krizler, mali buhranlar ve dönüşümlerin taşraya yansımaları Diyarbekir eyaletinin merkezi Amid’de gözlemlenmeye çalışıldı. Abstract Tahrir defters of the 15-16th century, which provided statistics data to the Ottoman historians, were replaced by avârız defters as a result of the abandonment of the tahrirs in the 17th century. Therefore, avârız defters became one of the most important sources of 17th century Ottoman social, economic and demographic history. While many Ottoman cities were examined with these sources, the defters of Diyarbekir were not found in the archives. Among defters and documents left unclassified in the Ottoman Archives, two defters of Amid (Diyarbekir) found recently. In this study, the introduction and content analysis of two newly-found books belonging to 1618 and 1652 were made. With the data provided by the registers, the neighborhood, village and tribal structure of Amid between 1618-1652 was examined, and some aspects of Amid’s settlement and economic history in the first half of the 17th century were shed light on. The pattern of Christians, Jews and Shamsi, who constitute non-Muslims and Muslim living in the city, to the settlements and tax conditions were revealed. Thus, the crises, the financial difficulties and the reflections of the transformations in the countryside faced by the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century, were tried to be observed in Amid, the center of the province of Diyarbekir.

A New Shahrazad

Abstract In 1945, Mahmooda Rizvia, a prominent Urdu author from Sindh, published a travel account of her journey across the Arabian Sea from British India to Iraq during World War II. In her travel account, Rizvia conceptualized the declining British Empire as a dynamic space for Muslim renewal that connected India to the Middle East. Moreover, she fashioned a singular autobiographical persona as an Urdu literary pioneer and woman traveler in the Muslim lands of the British Empire. In her writings, Rizvia focused on her distinctive observations of the ocean, the history of the Ottoman Empire, and her home province of Sindh's location as a historical nexus between South Asia and the Middle East. In contrast to the expectations of modesty and de-emphasis on the self in many Muslim women's autobiographical narratives in the colonial era, Rizvia fashioned a pious, yet unapologetically self-promotional, autobiographical persona. In conversation with recent scholarship on Muslim cosmopolitanism, women's autobiographical writing, and travel literature, this article points to the development of an influential project of Muslim cosmopolitanism in late colonial Sindh that blurred the lines between British imperialism, pan-Islamic ambitions, and nationalism during the closing days of World War II.

The Conscription of Greek Ottomans into the Sultan's Army, 1908–1912

AbstractWith the reinstatement of the parliament in 1908, the Ottoman state faced new challenges connected to citizenship. As a policy to finally make citizens equal in rights as well as duties, military conscription figured prominently in this new context. For the first time in Ottoman history, the empire's non-Muslims began to be drafted en masse. This article explores meanings of imperial citizenship and equality through the lens of debates over the conscription of Greek Ottomans, the largest non-Muslim population of the Ottoman Empire. In contrast to the widespread suggestion of the Turkish nationalist historiography on these matters, Greek Ottomans and other non-Muslim populations enthusiastically supported the military service in principle. But amidst this general agreement was a tremendous array of views on what conscription ought to look like in practice. The issue came to center on whether Greek Ottomans should have separate battalions in the army. All units would eventually come to be religiously integrated, but the conscription debates in the Ottoman parliament as well as in the Turkish and Greek language press reveal some of the crucial fissures of an empire as various actors were attempting to navigate between a unified citizenship and a diverse population.

Tarih Yazımında Sınırlandırmalar: Tarihçi İçin Ceteris Paribus

Diğer bilimlerde olduğu gibi tarih biliminde de araştırmacının ele aldığı problematiğin sınırlandırmalarını doğru tespit ederek çalışmasını buna uygun olarak yönlendirmesi beklenir. Bu sınırlandırmalar birkaç şekilde düşünülebilir: I-Yazım amacına göre sınırlandırmalar: Doktora veya kitap çalışmaları, makale çalışmaları, bildiri tebliğ çalışmaları. II-Kaynak kullanımına göre sınırlandırmalar: Özellikle Osmanlı tarihi ile ilgili birçok çalışma belli bir kaynağa göre yapılmaktadır. III-Kronolojik sınırlandırmalar: Tarih yazımında en çok rastlanan sınırlama şeklidir. Birçok kez izah edilen sınırlamalara rastlanılsa da kimi zaman hiçbir anlamı olmayan ve tamamen keyfi kronolojik sınırlamalar da görülmektedir. IV-Olay ve olgulara göre sınırlandırmalar: Problematik olarak tanımlanan konunun analizinde, binlerce değişken/etken faktörün sabit olduğu varsayımı ile hareket edilerek sadece bir değişken analizi esasına dayalı bu çözümleme kuramsal olarak analiz yeteneğimizi güçlendirecektir. Çalışmamızda yapılamayan sınırlandırmaların oluşturduğu bilimsel problemler; yanlış yapılan sınırlandırmaların oluşturduğu problemler örneklenerek sınırlamalara dair önerilerimiz sunulmaktadır.