Ottoman Legacy Research Articles

Democracy exported, history expunged: John Dewey’s trip to Turkey and the challenge of building ‘civilised’ nations for democratic life

In 1924, John Dewey travelled to Turkey to make recommendations on the Turkish educational system. According to many existing accounts, Dewey brought a sorely needed progressive educational perspective to a nation emerging from centuries of despair. On the whole, these accounts dismiss the Ottoman legacy and overlook how Dewey’s historical thinking coloured his view of Turkish democracy. This article draws on these considerations to offer a critical re-reading of Dewey’s trip, arguing that the visit, rather than supporting the expansion of a bottom-up democratic perspective in the Turkish educational system, actually helped advance top-down Turkish nation-building. In so doing, it explores the connections between history and democracy in Dewey’s thinking, reclaims the significance of the Ottoman legacy, examines the role of education in radically remaking the Turkish public, and points to the need for studying places and times where schooling is used to expunge history in the name of exporting democracy.

The Avatars of the Miri 1 Land Regime in Post-Ottoman Dobrudja: Judicial Formulas and Ethno-Political Interests

Our study deals with the ways in which the Romanian and Bulgarian authorities have coped, after 1878, in Northern and Southern Dobrudja, with the Ottoman legacy in regards to land owning, particularly, the distinction between full property (mulk) and long lease (miri) property. These policies could be connected with the efforts of these two modern national states towards internal consolidation. The main sources we have used are, on one hand, a series of controversial Romanian and Bulgarian thematic brochures and articles from the Interwar period and, on the other hand, several papers and general works published by prestigious scholars, from the Western world, specialized in Balkan and Oriental studies. We have also included a few judicial sources in our research. In the absence of totally new elements, this endeavour’s originality lies in the attempt to present a general, systematic, and critical view of the objective information, and, starting from these, of the biased, unavoidably controversial interpretations related to the topic. The Romanian state chose a direct and effective way of combining the ethnic homogenization from Dobrudja with the necesity of modernizing state institutions, namely, that of unconditionally transforming the miri properties in full private properties in maximum 20 years. The Bulgarian state permited the seizure and partition of former Turkish properties and deliberately avoided to explicitly abolish the miri land regime. This term was sporadically mentioned in post-Ottoman Bulgarian laws and judicial studies, especially until 1892, but even after 1904. The resulting ambiguity, which was useful for Bulgarians after 1878, when they seized Turkish properties, would turn against them after 1913, when Southern Dobrudja was annexed by Romania. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n3p11

The Absence of Ottoman, Islamic Europe in Edward W. Said’s Orientalism

Edward W. Said’s Orientalism has attained canonical status as the key study of the cultural politics of western representation of the East, specifically the imaginative geographies underwriting constructions such as the Middle East and the Islamic world. The Ottoman Empire overlapped both European and exteriorized Oriental space during much of the period that Said dealt with, yet while the existence of the empire is referred to in Said’s study, the theoretical implications of that presence for his critique of Orientalist discourse are not. The material presence of the Ottoman state, in the Arabic-speaking lands, but also crucially, and for a longer period, much of south-east Europe and Anatolia, highlights long-standing Oriental geopolitical and cultural agency in the face of unidirectional narratives of western encroachment. Attention to the specific discursive manoeuvres undertaken by the West to handle that disruptive, intrinsic Ottoman presence in Europe itself may add traction to the notion that the Orient was imagined as a radically exterior point of comparison. It is argued that the history of western representation of the Ottoman Empire constitutes a pre-Orientalist discourse, whose dual, perennial purpose is to make pragmatic accommodation for an Ottoman Oriental material presence in Europe yet never to fully acknowledge its discursive presence as being of Europe. I argue that by supplementing Said’s critique with a full consideration of the Ottoman legacy, a reformulation is possible that integrates the Islamic Orient as an intrinsic component of historically informed notions of European space, while dissolving notions of the absolute distinction of that latter construct from the wider milieus in which it is embedded.

Restoration of the outer treasury and exhibition of the section of arms and armours in Topkapı palace museum

This article aims at telling the story of restoration and exhibition of the Section of Arms and Armours (the Outer Treasury) in Topkapı Palace Museum. During this process, not only was the structure experiencing restoration and consolidation, but also was the first archeological excavation being realized in a closed space in the Topkapı Palace complex, with the discovery of Byzantine reminiscences underground becoming a significant part of the new exhibiton.After being restored between 2008 and 2010, the Outer Treasury was transformed into a new exhibition project, aiming at the integration of contemporary strategies of exhibition design and technology. Its purpose was not simply to highlight the glory of the Ottoman history, but to engage visitors in a complete sensory experience by making full use of the esthetics of the work of art on display of the Ottoman legacy. Topkapı Palace's architecture, archeology and selected collection of arms and armours are being exhibited by means of contemporary media instruments, such as film, music, graphics and costume arts.

Ethnic Groups at ‘Critical Junctures’: The Laz vs. Kurds

The Turkish Republic emerged onto the world stage as a secular and centralized nation state in the early 1920s from the remnants of the multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual Ottoman Empir...

Boundaries and Crossings: Bridging the Gap of Fragmented Identity in Ivo Andrić’s Prose

Boundaries and Crossings:Bridging the Gap of Fragmented Identity in Ivo Andrić’s Prose Radmila J. Gorup Dictionaries give several definitions for the words “boundary” and “border,” all suggesting a division or margin, the other side of something: a limit. Throughout history, crucial boundaries were often created not only on geo graphical maps, but also in the minds of people. These constructed boundaries shift with time, but their symbolic significance is often hard to erase. In his 1924 dissertation, Ivo Andrić invokes such a division caused by the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans: So it came about that down the middle of the South Slavic lands a line was etched. … This dividing wall split in two the Serbo-Croatian ra cial and linguistic complex, and its shadow, where four centuries of ghastly history were played out, was to lie heavy on the landscape to either side into the far distant future.1 Complex divisions run deep within the Balkans and Andrić’s native Bosnia, but also in the relationship between the East and the West, all results of legacies of empires that dominated the region in the past. This fascinating area has been an enduring inspiration for the writer and served as a setting for most of his narratives, whose underlying theme was to reveal these lines of separa tion and seek to bridge the trauma caused by them. The famed East-West opposition invoked by Andrić refers to societies that co-exist side by side but are juxtaposed in the political, religious, and cultural senses. Bosnia, which can be seen as a microcosm of the former Yu goslavia and perhaps the whole of the Balkans, is a place where citizens are divided by religion: Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Islamic, and Jewish; cultural traditions: [End Page 1] Byzantine, Ottoman, and central East European; as well as other minor attributes. Several frameworks have been advanced for understanding the East-West division, the most famous being the theory of Orientalism advanced by Ed ward Said, according to which the West constructed the Orient in order to de fine itself against it with the intention of dominating and conquering it, both materially and spiritually.2 Milica Bakić-Hayden introduced the concept of “nestling Orientalisms” as a structural variant of Orientalism according to which each Balkan imagined community identified itself with the West and located its boundaries beyond its actual physical borders.3 In her seminal work Imagining the Balkans, Maria Todorova modifies Said’s model to fit the Balkans’ historical and geographical realities. Not only the Orient, but also the Balkans were constructed as Europe’s “other,” even though they were a geographical part of it. For Todorova, the Balkan alterity, which she calls “Balkanisms,” is similar, but not identical, to that of Said’s Orientalisms.4 Several past colonial legacies have produced deep fissures in the territory of the Balkans, but, according to Todorova, the 500-year Ottoman legacy is proving to be the most enduring. This legacy can be said to have the strongest influence on the Western perception of the region, and it has been invoked in the creation of the most recent stereotypes about the Balkans as a region of primitivism and barbarity in the 1990s. Seemingly different, all these approaches treat the West as the standard according to which the others are defined. The West invented not only the Orient, but also the other others, the Balkans and Eastern Europe, which are seen as part of a broader Oriental other. Tomislav Z. Longinović adds to this discussion by questioning whether the above models could account for the culture created by Ottoman-Balkan juxtaposition. He points out that Said’s concept of Orientalism was based on the premise of European domination of the East, while the Balkan types of Orientalisms were the result of a reversed situation in which an Eastern power colonized European territory in order to dominate and restructure it.5 [End Page 2] This idea of the borderline has been built into the creation of Andrić’s Orientalisms first elaborated in his Ph.D. dissertation, in which he blames the Ottoman legacy for the divisions and conflicts in Bosnia as well as the re gion’s...

Claiming Heritage, Renewing Authority

This article discusses the role and status of Sufi groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina today, an issue where Turkish influences are unavoidable, irrespective of whether the focus is on conceptions of the Balkans’ Ottoman legacy or on contemporary arenas for religious alternatives in public life. Today old Sufi establishments face competition from groups with roots abroad both in terms of community leadership and the relationship between the individual groups and the state administration. Sufi-orientated activities play a role within the established Muslim congregations, the ritual aspects in particular attracting previously non-practicing Muslims. Many aspects of the Sufi theme can and should of course be related to the region’s Ottoman past, the authoritarian repression of religion in the Yugoslav Federation, and the war in the 1990s. These particular features have had an impact on religious practices as well as on the institutional organisation of Islam in the region. The attraction of the Sufi groups active today in Bosnia comes from two sources: first, references to authentic tradition, charismatic leaders, fellowships and groups that offer lifestyles in line with Muslim conduct, and secondly, their tools for establishing independent theological interpretations and for highly individualised spirituality. Bosnian Sufi identity balances between national heritage (with or without political connotations) and a search for spirituality (with or without affiliation to a group or an order); it connects to the contemporary world and its specific issues in a way that is relevant for Bosnians today, as well as being symptomatic of late-modern religion worldwide.

The Persistence of Philanthropy

One of the most profound Ottoman legacies to contemporary Turkey is the central role of private philanthropy as a vehicle for shaping culture and society. Two principal legacies of Ottoman philanthropy exist in Turkey today. The first is cultural, apparent in the thriving practice of elite philanthropy; the second is physical, readily discovered in the urban fabric of most Turkish cities, notably Istanbul. This article examines these legacies in order to analyze the nature of state building and society formation in modern Turkey from a new perspective. Both continuities and changes are apparent from imperial to republican times: in the identity of the donors, the sources and locus of wealth, the importance of foundations, the motivations for giving, the choice of projects, the physical impact of donations, and the identity of the beneficiaries. The dynamic contemporary culture of private charitable giving in Turkey results from a unique interaction of inherited Ottoman ideology and practices, themselves the result of combined Muslim, Turco-Mongol, Byzantine, and Arab influences; the observed example of modern Western philanthropy, notably that of the United States; and the specific experiences of the republican Turkish state and society since 1923. The economic elite have replaced the sultans and pashas as premier benefactors, with personal or corporate donations even rivaling government sources of assistance. The motivations for contemporary philanthropy echo the Muslim consciousness of Ottoman donors, while philanthropy functions more to legitimize wealth than to ensure political legitimacy. Nonetheless, philanthropy remains the means to contribute to a wider community, whether it is the community of Turkish citizens; of Muslims or another confessional group; or of a town, a neighborhood, or a profession. As in Ottoman times, the beneficiaries are not limited to the materially poor and needy. Rather, private elite philanthropy contributes to many segments of society and in this reflects the manifold motivations for giving.

Introduction: The Ottoman Legacy for Contemporary Turkish Culture, Institutions, and Values

Introduction: The Ottoman Legacy for Contemporary Turkish Culture, Institutions, and Values

The Ottoman Legacy: Urban Geographies, National Imaginaries, and Global Discourses of Tolerance

Turkey emerged from the ruins of the multiethnic Ottoman Empire to become a secular, ethnically Turkish, and culturally Sunni Muslim nation. While the Ottoman legacy refers to an ideal of multiethnic tolerance located in the distant past, and is deployed as a critique against a presumably intolerant state, this legacy is produced by a diversity of social groups that compete for different imaginations of Turkey's national identity. This essay argues that the Ottoman legacy, and the discourse of tolerance it represents, has two important geographic dimensions. First, the Ottoman legacy relies on and is reproduced through Istanbul's urban geography; places and landscapes that represent a multiethnic tolerant past come to serve as evidence for what the Ottoman legacy represents. Second, while discourses of Ottoman tolerance are grounded in a local past, they are informed by, and thus respond to, very contemporary geopolitical notions of cosmopolitanism and of an imagined dichotomy between East and West. The Ottoman legacy is produced locally, in engagement with national imaginaries, while it is also meant to locate Istanbul internationally as a global city. The open struggle to critique state intolerance by invoking and representing an Ottoman legacy of multiethnic harmony illuminates the dynamic and contested nature of national identity in Turkey even while it is employed in processes that redraw national boundaries of belonging and exclusion.

The Ottoman Empire from Present to Past: Memory and Ideology in Turkey and the Arab World

he Ottoman Empire died in 1923 with the disestablishment of the sultanate and the proclamation of a new Turkish republic. For some years the empire had led merely a shadow existence. Defeated in World War I, shorn of its sovereignty, occupied by foreign armies, wracked by civil war, torn by ethnic conflict, and stained by state- led massacres of Armenian citizens, the empire ended badly and was little mourned. Paraphrasing Charles Dickens, one could accurately have said that the empire was dead to begin with. There was no doubt about that. But as the articles in this collection reveal, the death of the empire involved a creative rupture. This rupture involved both a dramatic break from each successor state’s imperial past as well as a continual reference to it, through successive iterations of what the Ottoman legacy could or should mean. Initially, elites in the Ottoman successor states wasted little time disowning the memory of the multinational state that they once had served. Political leaders, educators, and governments promoted ethnic nationalist ideologies (especially Turkish and Arab) as new, modern sources of political legitimacy. The Ottoman past, packaged as a story of political oppression, cultural stagnation, and long military decline, served mainly as a foil for the nationalist narrative, as an antithesis to the nation’s glorious past and its imminent rebirth. Yet so many centuries of history could not easily be tucked away. Nationalist narratives were, themselves, based on selective remembering and on wholesale suppression or forgetting. At moments of national crisis, or during episodes of acute power struggles within successor states, the Ottoman past broke its silence. Sometimes this past was invoked (negatively) as a “ghost” haunting the present, and other times as a rich reservoir of historical experience. Either way, the empire and its legacy proved not to be as dead as once imagined. 1 The articles collected here highlight a number of themes in understandings and evaluations of the Ottoman past from some of the empire’s successor states along the southern and eastern Mediterranean shores, areas conventionally lumped together as part of the “Islamic World.” Yet as these contributions demonstrate, they are areas that exhibit a fascinating diversity of issues and impasses associated with the Ottoman past. Contributors discuss con

When the Clock Strikes Twelve: The Inception of an Ottoman Past in Early Republican Turkey

This article contains, first, an analysis of some of the work done to date on the Ottoman legacy in republican Turkey, and, second, a consideration of the moment of transition from Ottoman to Turkish history. It argues that while a range of approaches and issues have been raised regarding the memory of the Ottoman past in the Turkish national present, little attention has been paid in this discussion to the moment the Turkish national present came into being—the 1920s. A short story, “Bir guguklu satin azizliği” (“A Cuckoo Clock's Prank”), published in 1922, and a satirical play, titled, Deli (Mad), written in 1930, both by by Refik Halit Karay, an intellectual and journalist living in exile in Aleppo, serve as two points of entry into this decade. The plot of the play, in which a man falls into a coma two days before the restoration of the constitution in 1908 and wakes up in the republican Turkey of 1929, serves as an excellent opportunity, both for the play's author and for readers today, to consider the experience of transition from Ottoman past to Turkish national present from a new vantage point. The short story, about a tea party in 1922 Istanbul, betrays a similarly critical distance on a very different set of circumstances and serves as a foil to “Deli.” Karay's position was not only geographically outside the Turkish nation-state but it was also an elite view that was intellectually removed from the Kemalist project, both as it took shape in 1922 and at its apex in 1930.

Crisis and Recovery Narratives in Maghrebi Histories of the Ottoman Period (ca. 1870–1970)

This article examines the role of the Ottoman state as a reference point in Maghrebi historiography through two works from each of Algeria and Tunisia and from two generations of historical writers. Ahmad al-Sharif al-Zahhar (1781–1872), naqib al-ashraf of Algiers at the end of the Ottoman regency, and the Tunisian historian and reformer Ahmad Ibn Abi Diyaf (ca. 1804–74) wrote in conditions of “crisis” in the nineteenth century; the Tunisian establishment intellectual and educator Hasan Husni Abd al-Wahhab (1884–1968) and the Algerian nationalist journalist and publicist Ahmad Tawfiq al-Madani (1899–1983) each sought in different ways to “recover” their countries' histories in the twentieth century. Comparisons and contrasts across these generations and in each country, with their different relationships to the memory of Ottoman rule and their different colonial experiences, illustrate the different ways in which the Ottoman period has been interpreted in the Maghreb. Assimilated as a “natural” aspect of the region's history in the nineteenth century, the Ottoman presence required more overt interpretive work by writers in the twentieth. Across generations, differing preoccupations about the formation of community and state determined how writers approached the Ottoman legacy, which in both cases has generally remained marginal to more widespread perceptions of history and national origins.

İlk Dönem Cumhuriyet Türkiye’si Ulus İnşası Sürecinde Milliyetçilik ve Sivil-Etnik İkilemine Dair Teorik Tartışmalar

After the Cold War era and globalization, the fall and division of some federal states also leaded to the need for redefining the relations between state and nation and citizen in the context of national cultureand subculture. It draws the attentions of the researchers with the rise of ethnic separatist nationalism, racism, xenophobia in the national, regional and global politics of post-national terms. It is a systemic change from the macro national state order into more non-state micro level actors as sub-national groups in the international system. Thus, new regimes and orders favor full liberalizations, politics, economics, democracy and human rights. Nowadays, Turkey tries to rewrite its constitution so as to deepen its democratic structure with the help of socio-political dynamics in post-election process. It will be designed as a social contract with the relations of state-society and individuals within the framework of universal democratic standards rather than ethnic, ideological, religious, gender exclusions. Our purpose in this article, to reconsider alternatives and discuss the various types of nationalist ideologies, ethnic versus civic nationalism, during the early Republican period after the Ottoman Legacy and the Millet system. Having expressing the political, social, cultural context of the terms (Turanism, Panturkism, Misak-i Milli) we have mentioned about national building process. At last, we elaborated the formation of new state identity, secular state and society, nationhood, citizenship, nationality and perceptions of the Turkish nation state model: one nation, one state, one language, one flag…

Post-1989 shopping tourism to Turkey as prologue to Bulgaria's “return to Europe”

AbstractThe shift to a market economy is a more complex story than the standard “transition” narrative implies. Shopping tourism is a socio-cultural phenomenon that illuminates the shifting relationship between the state, its citizenry, and the market. Its existence is predetermined by a weak state and incorporation into a global economy. Shopping tourism offers a link between the socialist economy of shortage and the post-socialist informal economy. It has opened a survival niche for the unemployed and constitutes a school of entrepreneurship and consumer practices. The discourses surrounding shopping tourism have reflected anxieties about incorporation, social reordering, and blatant consumerism; recreational tourism mirrors their normalization. The Bulgarian suitcase trade to Turkey also elucidates the interplay between new consumerism and old nationalism and their insertion into the debates about Bulgaria's ideological reorientation. Bulgarian Europeanness in the 1990s was constructed against two principal foils—the socialist past and the Ottoman legacy. Ironically, the stereotypical East was constructed as the stereotypical West in a way in which market and ideological categories intermingle and foreshadow a Bulgarian consumerist “Return to Europe.” To elaborate these arguments, the article draws on an analysis of newspaper ads, statistical data, travel guides, internet travelogues, and interviews.

Persistence of the Islamic Millet as an Ottoman Legacy: Mono-Religious and Anti-Ethnic Definition of Turkish Nationhood

The definition of Turkish nationhood after the founding of the Republic has been evaluated and labelled very differently by various scholars. The classical view paralleled the official representation of Republican policies in describing Turkish nationhood as being based on a civic and territorial understanding of nationality. More recent and much more critical scholarship, which enjoys a near-hegemonic position in the study of Turkish nationalism today, claims that the official definition of Turkish nationhood has a clearly identifiable mono-ethnic orientation, manifest in a series of policies and institutions. This article argues that the definition of Turkish nationhood as manifest in state policies is neither territorial nor mono-ethnic, but rather ironically for the adamantly secular Turkish republic, the definition of Turkish nationhood is mono-religious and anti-ethnic, in striking continuity with the Islamic millet under the Ottoman Empire. The reason critical scholars perceive Turkish nationhood as mono-ethnic might stem from the dichotomous view of nationalisms as civic versus ethnic, a dichotomy that has recently been repudiated by some of its erstwhile proponents. Supremacy of the religious over ethnic categories in Turkey, as a historical legacy of the Ottoman millet system, might be applicable to most post-Ottoman states in the Islamic Middle East and North Africa, in contrast to the interplay of ethnicity and religion in Western Europe. This view of Turkish nationhood is confirmed by a dozen interviews that the author conducted with members of the political and intellectual elite of different ideological orientations in Turkey. It is then demonstrated how the new efforts at reformulating modern Turkish identity with reference to Ottoman and Islamic conceptions lead to new inclusion–exclusion dynamics with the Kurds and the Alevis, suggesting that a truly inclusive reformulation has to follow secular and territorial principles.

Mosul, the Ottoman legacy and the League of Nations

This article looks into the workings of the special Commission on Mosul sent by the League of Nations after World War I. The Commission was assigned to determine whether the province of Mosul should be part of the new Republic of Turkey or of British mandatory Iraq. Its chief guiding principal was the new notion of national self-determination. Yet the people of Mosul, like other Ottoman communities, had belonged to multiple groups simultaneously, identifying by family, location, occupation and faith. Such plural notions of identity were inconsistent with the nation-state model that had recently been reified by the League of Nations. The effort to define affiliations based on a European taxonomy that emphasized ethnicity and nation clashed with Mosulis' older Ottoman-style affiliations, proved initially confusing and then quite frustrating to the Commissioners.

Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire

Once stretching from Vienna in the north to Iraq and Yemen in the south, the Ottoman has played an integral role in the history of Eurasia and the Middle East. The dynamics and complexity of the present-day Middle East and Balkans cannot be understood without an examination of the history of the Ottoman that ruled these regions for centuries.Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire provides a thorough overview of the history and civilization of the Ottomans, with approximately 450 A-to-Z entries focusing on major events, personalities, institutions, and terms. With signed articles by experts in the field, this comprehensive one-volume resource also includes essential information regarding imperialism and the emerging Balkan, Arab, and Turkish nationalism; the demise of the empire; and Ottoman legacy in the Balkans and the Middle East. Further readings, approximately 80 black-and-white photographs and maps, cross-references, a chronology, glossary, bibliography, and an index complement the text and give readers an in-depth understanding of the broad and fascinating history of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey's Imperial Legacy: Understanding Contemporary Turkey through its Ottoman Past

The modern Turkish Republic emerged from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire less than 85 years ago. Yet the majority of analysis and writing on contemporary Turkey neglects or superficially treats the Ottoman historical legacy. This chapter argues that contemporary Turkey is very much shaped by the legacy and identity that the Ottoman Empire left it as a clear imperial successor state. A key contention is that understanding Turkey's Ottoman legacy and the historical memory of past leadership among the Turkish public, in the region and globally, is instrumental for any analysis or discussion about Turkey's present or future. By looking at Turkey's identity and international behavior since the Republic, the chapter seeks to develop a better understanding from which to analyze the historical roots of many of the values, tensions, institutions, and motivations that permeate contemporary Turkey today. Keywords:international relations; Ottoman Empire; Turkey

Fighting the Spectres of the Past: Dilemmas of Ottoman Legacy in the Balkans and the Middle East

‘Ottoman legacy’ is not a term that invokes a positive image in the countries that remained under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans and the Middle East for varying periods of time. Even...