Ottoman Studies Research Articles

From the Persianate World to Multiple Worlds of the Persianate

ABSTRACT This article fleshes out two future directions for Middle Eastern studies as it puts the recent scholarship in Ottoman studies in dialogue with Alexander Jabbari’s The Making of Persianate Modernity. First, like Jabbari, who interpreted the sexual puritanism in modern Persian literary histories as a convention of Persianate modernity, the author notes that critics can analyze key claims in texts of Arabic and Turkish modernity as generic conventions rather than as facts that capture sociopolitical transformations of modernity. Second, the author argues that The Making of Persianate Modernity, which examines the “form that the Persianate takes” in modern Iran and South Asia, can serve as a point of departure for studying the diverse forms that the Persianate takes in other Middle Eastern contexts, which do not have to be subsumed to a single Persianate world. While the term “Persianate world” has served as a useful heuristic concept, critics can shift their focus to “the multiple worlds that the Persianate has taken” as they analyze communities, such as the Ottoman literati, who do not self-identify as members of a cosmopolitan Persianate community. The Persian textual heritage can cultivate multiple worlds that uphold different, and even contradictory, political ideals and aesthetic norms.

Hacer Topaktaş o poselstwie Franciszka Piotra Potockiego do Stambułu (1788–1793)

Reading Ottoman-Polish diplomatic relations leads to a clear conclusion that in the late 18th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had an opportunity to enter into an international alliance as a partner alongside the Ottoman Empire. Topaktaş has not attempted to create hypothetical scenarios regarding the survival or otherwise of the First Republic, but has reconstructed the idea of an Ottoman-Polish alliance in a scholarly manner, drawing on a rich body of historical sources. The publication contains innovative insights from the fields of history, political science and international relations. It takes into account the latest state of research and the results of searches personally conducted by the author. Topaktaş has almost managed to avoid factual mistakes and errors. The scale of the research apparatus used and the high specialisation of the technique of the historian of Polish-Turkish relations makes this monograph a work complementary to the diplomatic relations between the Republic of Poland and the Ottoman Empire. The reader is presented with a convincing argument alternating with a narrative that gives the impression of a reportage on the journey and stay of Franciszek Piotr Potocki - all wrapped up in academic terminology. The author has accomplished the research goals declared in the introduction. I personally believe that Topaktaşs book is a groundbreaking and inspiring treatise on the late 18th century. It is worth recommending to enthusiasts of Ottoman studies, but also to students of history interested in the subject.

Italy and the East Roman World in the Medieval Mediterranean. Empires, Cities and Elites 476–1204, Papers in Honour of Thomas S. Brown. Edited by Thomas J.MacMaster and Nicholas S.M.Matheou. Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies. Milton and New York: Routledge. 2021. xvii+381 pp. + 22 ill. £116. ISBN 978 1 138 09131 3 (hardback).

Italy and the East Roman World in the Medieval Mediterranean. Empires, Cities and Elites 476–1204, Papers in Honour of Thomas S. Brown. Edited by Thomas J.MacMaster and Nicholas S.M.Matheou. Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies. Milton and New York: Routledge. 2021. xvii+381 pp. + 22 ill. £116. ISBN 978 1 138 09131 3 (hardback).

Ottoman Landscapes: Over Mountains, Plains, and Waterways

ABSTRACT Two recent works in Ottoman history, Faisal Husain’s Rivers of the Sultan and Chris Gratien’s The Unsettled Plain have brought environmental themes to the forefront of the field. These works demonstrate the importance of attending to seemingly peripheral areas like the highlands of southern Anatolia and the Tigris-Euphrates basin in Iraq, where in fact central issues of Ottoman imperialism are most visible. In these works, we find the management of diverse ecological zones as a critical feature of how the Ottoman state functioned. By centering the experiences of people, animals, plants, and disease across highlands, waterways, farms, pastures, and marshes, Husain and Gratien have prepared the way for a more inclusive form of historical writing in Ottoman studies.

Triangle from the Past: A Late Ottoman measuring instrument

In this study, we present an unusual instrument that is rarely seen in museum collections. This richly decorated brass triangle belongs to a group of objects used by Ottoman architects and engineers. The level or havāyī terāzū is an instrument that has a wide application in geometry, architecture, military engineering, hydraulic works, and topography. With its rich decoration, it can certainly be seen as a work of applied art and an artifact that – alongside its functional role – also has a symbolic value. Dating of the level is possible based on comparisons with other finds, especially those from the collections of the Pera Museum in Istanbul and the Petrovic Collection at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. However, the level from the Museum in Doboj is significant because it was cast in a form that is unique among levels known to date. Detailed descriptions of the instrument can be found in medieval Persian and Arabic treatises, later Ottoman studies, and Renaissance European publications. Finally, this study provides an opportunity for the wider public to learn about a lesser-known artifact, and to encourage the publication of similarly little-known ones.

An Overview On Ottoman Manuscript Collection in the Sayyid Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas Library

This paper endeavors to give a quick view of the Ottoman manuscript (Osmanlı elyazmaları) collection at Sayyid Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas Library (SMNAL) of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) by reviewing a published catalog. The Ottoman manuscripts, which mean texts written in the Ottoman Turkish language, were collected during the first part of the 1990s, inventoried, and cataloged during the early period of ISTAC. The collection possesses two hundred manuscripts on diverse subjects. This makes the SMNAL the most pertinent library in Southeast Asia, a place hoard of Ottoman Turkish manuscripts. This initiation of acquiring a certain number of Ottoman manuscripts by Sayyid Muhammad Naquib al-Attas which seems to have been purchased in the late decades of the twentieth century is no doubt an opening towards the path to the study of the Ottoman civilizational and intellectual eco-system among the Malay scholars and students of the Ottoman studies (Turcologists).

A Plea for Chivalry in Hašt Bihišt VI: Restoring Sermon 11 of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib

The important role that the Hašt Bihišt VI of Idrīs Bidlīsī (1457–1520) and the detailed accounts he devoted to the reign of Murād II (1421–1444; 1446–1451) played in the development of early modern Ottoman historiography cannot be denied. Although the work was popular in the Ottoman world, especially its court circles, where its handsome copies were avidly produced, it was never prepared as a critical edition in its original Persian in the modern Ottoman studies departments. The following discussion concentrates on an editorial emendation that shows the carelessness of Bidlīsī in the transmission of his quotations. The formation of the Sufi and Shiite elements within Book VI of Hašt Bihišt is only briefly discussed.

“This Camp Is Full of Hujaj!”

Historically, Islamic sharia courts across the Ottoman empire used a document called a hujja for registering property transactions. In present-day Jordan hujaj are illegal, yet in Palestinian refugee camps hujaj continue to be used for inheritance, buying and selling houses, and demonstrating occupancy. This is particularly true in camps unrecognized by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and deemed “squatter settlements” by Jordanian host authorities. This article contributes to the emerging study of property rights in Palestinian camps by focusing on the links between Ottoman property regimes, contemporary territorial claims, and legal pluralism. Using the case of a Palestinian camp built on land owned by the descendants of Ottoman Circassian refugees, the article illustrates how, on the one hand, Palestinians use hujaj to facilitate inhabitation of the camp; and how, on the other hand, private property rights intersect with the competing claims of refugees and the state, whose overriding power changed after the events of Black September in 1970. By historicizing the material processes of refugee land tenure and property creation, the article challenges the assumption that contested camps are part of the “informal” growth of Middle Eastern cities, thus, bringing so-called squatter settlements back into refugee studies, Palestine studies, and Ottoman studies.

Seyfi Kenan & Selçuk Akşin Somel, Dimensions of Transformation in the Ottoman Empire from the Late Medieval Age to Modernity: In Memory of Metin Kunt

Dimensions of Transformation in the Ottoman Empire is a book dedicated to honoring the life and academic career of Prof. Metin Kunt. Unfortunately, due to a significant delay in its publication, this book could only be released posthumously following his passing. Kunt, a distinguished scholar, made noteworthy contributions to Ottoman history, establishing himself as a pioneering figure across multiple disciplines. His unique perspectives on Ottoman studies and broad research interests have played a pivotal role in advancing scholarly understanding in various fields. As an individual who was once a student of Kunt and holds a particular interest in the early modern period, I regrettably observed that his remarkable contributions to the field have not received adequate recognition within the realm of revisionist historians. Furthermore, his pioneering work remains undervalued, failing to receive the level of appreciation it rightfully deserves. I hope that this book, dedicated to his memory, will make a humble contribution to the academic reception of Prof. Kunt’s works and scholarly heritage.

Abd al-Rahim Abu Hussein (1951-2022): A Palestinian and Lebanese Historian of Ottoman Studies

Abd al-Rahim Abu Hussein (1951-2022): A Palestinian and Lebanese Historian of Ottoman Studies

Reflecting on Armenians in Ottoman Historiography

AbstractThe Workshop for Armenian/Turkish Scholarship (WATS) convened its first meeting at the University of Chicago in March 2000. Since then, the historical literature on not only the Armenian Genocide, but also Ottoman Armenians more generally, has grown ever more sophisticated. This essay takes stock of the growing visibility of Armenians in Ottoman historiography over the last two decades, and other developments. In particular, it asks why historical scholarship on Armenians has yet to have a transformative effect on the frameworks used to study the Ottoman Empire's history? The essay first identifies a series of obstacles that have prevented Armenian and Ottoman studies scholarship from developing a shared set of questions. It then offers suggestions for more carefully addressing the underlying problematics of empire that can bridge this divide without inadvertently reproducing national or regional paradigms that have long left an imprint on Ottoman historiography.

ENCIKLOPEDISTA MUHAMED ENVERI KADIĆ: VIZIJE I POUKE / ENCYCLOPEDIST MUHAMED ENVERI KADIĆ: VISIONS AND LESSONS

At the end of 2018, Gazi Husrev-bey library in Sarajevo and the renowned institution for historical research in the Republic of Turkey, Türk Tarih Kurumu, signed a protocol on cooperation on the project of preparing and publishing the regesta of the voluminous manuscript Tārīẖ-i Enveri, History of Muhamed Enveri Kadić. For the next four years, both of these institutions, which kept the first copies of the History, undertook a series of activities in order to realize the signed project. On January 13, 2023, the Gazi Husrev-bey library marked its 486th anniversary by promoting the planned and completed part of the work. The fact that the name and work of this special archivist, copyist, poet, epigrapher and bibliophile was known in detail by a limited number of people outside the fields of Orientalism, Ottoman studies and history, imposes the need to present, in a concise form, his character, work and visions.

In Memory of Rifa'at Hoca: What he wrote and could (not) prove in Ottoman Studies

Osmanlı tarihçisi Profesör Rifa’at Ali Abou-El-Haj 13 Mart 2022’de bu dünyadan ayrıldı, huzur içinde yatsın! Vefatının ardından Blumi, Kopuz, Gutman ve Tezcan tarafından değişik mecralarda kaleme alınan vefeyâtların da gösterdiği üzere hocanın ürettiği metinler Osmanlı ve Ortadoğu çalışmalarının 1990’lardan sonraki çizgisine yön veren temel metinlerdendi. Yazıları kadar etki ettiği öğrenci ve tarihçi çevresiyle de Osmanlı tarihçiliğinde güzel bir iz bıraktı.

From Decline to Transformation: Reflections on a New Paradigm in Ottoman History

This article addresses transformation as a newly emerging paradigm in the field of Ottoman studies. It examines the relationship between two historiographical sequences: first, the decline theories widely supported by Ottoman studies of the 16th to 18th century conducted over the last three decades of the 20th century are criticised; second, the characterization of the 19th century as a new golden age of transformation in articles and books published in increasing numbers during the last twenty years is put under scrutiny. After questioning the novelty of this paradigm in light of dominant yet hackneyed themes, this paper proposes to measure its usefulness in terms of challenges and opportunities for research. Overall, it appears on the one hand that if
 transformationism differs from declinism in that it denies providing a comprehensive model of analysis, on the other hand it mimics it insofar as it still depends on two dominant traits which it directly claimed to avoid - the omnipotence of the history of institutions and a theory of modernization that dares not speak its name. In short, under the pretence of an appeal to paradigmatic renewal, this statement of principle only reproduces old historiographical habits.

Report on Osark 2022: A Congress Dedicated to Ottoman Studies

The third meeting of OSARK, an international Ottoman Studies conference founded by members of the Sakarya University History Department, was hosted and coordinated by Istanbul Medeniyet University between September 7 and 9, 2022. It was supported by TİKA (Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency), YTB (Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities), the Üsküdar Municipality, and Turkish Airlines.

Melis Taner, Caught in a Whirlwind: A Cultural History of Ottoman Baghdad as Reflected in its Illustrated Manuscripts

Reviewed by: Caught in a Whirlwind: A Cultural History of Ottoman Baghdad as Reflected in Its Illustrated Manuscripts by Melis Taner Guy Burak Melis Taner, Caught in a Whirlwind: A Cultural History of Ottoman Baghdad as Reflected in Its Illustrated Manuscripts. Leiden: Brill, 2019. 210 pp. Hardback, $154. ISBN: 978-90-04-41269-9. Remarkably little attention has been paid to the history of the Ottoman frontier province of Baghdad from its conquest in 1534 through the eighteenth century. This historiographical gap is intriguing. It may be attributed, at least in part, to the difficulty in classifying this province in the historiographical scheme that has shaped specialization within Ottoman studies. In the very rough classification of the Ottoman Empire's provinces, which to a large extent follows the modern nationalist categories, the province of Baghdad is typically described as one of the Arab provinces. Ottoman sources, too, often refer to it as Arab Iraq rather than "Persian Iraq" (ʿIraḳ-i ʿacem). However, this classification of Baghdad as Arab fails to account for the multiple connections that shaped the province's history. Over the course of the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth centuries, Baghdad changed hands between the Ottomans and the Safavids, a situation Evliya Çelebi compared to a person caught in a whirlwind. The province was also connected to the Indian Ocean, the Levant, and Anatolia. Additionally, the province was home to a large Shiʿi population and famous for numerous important Shi'i and Sunni shrines. Melis Taner's richly documented and nuanced Caught in a Whirlwind: A Cultural History of Ottoman Baghdad as Reflected in Its Illustrated Manuscripts successfully fills a major historiographical gap in the history of pre-modern Baghdad by examining an idiosyncratic body of mostly Turkish and Persian manuscripts that were compiled and illustrated in the province in the decade that followed the 1590 Treaty of Constantinople between the [End Page 338] Ottomans and the Safavids. Several scholars have noticed and analyzed the corpus's distinctive visual idiom (occasionally referred to as the "Baghdad school"). While building on these scholars' work, Taner elegantly uses these manuscripts to narrate the cultural history of the province and, indeed, the Ottoman and the Safavid empires in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. This unique textual and artistic production in the province of Baghdad overlapped with the emergence of a market for these manuscripts and single-page illustrations. The position of the province between the Ottoman and the Safavid empires created fairly unique opportunities for governors and local power brokers to amass political power and wealth, both crucial to the patronage of scholars, poets, and illustrators as well as architectural projects in the province and elsewhere. Moreover, certain governors and local chieftains took advantage of the distance from the imperial centers of Istanbul and Isfahan to promote their political claims. The texts they commissioned helped them articulate these claims at the provincial and imperial levels. The liminal position of the province is also reflected in the visual idiom of the manuscripts, which is in conversation with—but also distinct from—those evolving in the Ottoman and Safavid imperial capitals. Caught in a Whirlwind meticulously explores the dynamics between the Ottoman imperial center, the province of Baghdad, and the Safavid court across different works and genres. A universal history, titled Cāmiʿü's-Siyer, which was composed for the Ottoman governor of Baghdad, Sokulluzade Hasan Paşa, is a case in point. Hasan Paşa employed an Ottoman courtly genre to highlight his lineage and vizierial role. While emphatically engaging with an imperial genre, the work also served the governor to legitimize his rule and acts in the province. Other works, such as Fuzuli of Baghdad's Ḥadā'iḳü's-Süʿedā, a popular work on the Karbala tragedy, or the hagiographical works devoted to Sufi masters and Jalal al-Din al-Rumi, were primarily read by local Bektashi and Mevlevi circles in the province (although copies of these works found their way to Istanbul and other provinces as well). In other instances, compilations produced in Baghdad, such as the genealogical treatise (silsilanāma) studied in the book's fifth chapter, were made for Safavid patrons...

OSAMER Konuşmaları Serisinin İlk Halkası: “Mütevazı Bir İnsan, Mütebahhir Bir Alim: Mehmet Genç” Faaliyet Raporu

13 Mayıs 2022 günü Osmanlı Araştırmaları Merkezi tarafından vefatının sene-i devriyesi nedeniyle OSAMER Konuşmaları serisinin ilk bölümünde Mehmet Genç anıldı. Beşir Ayvazoğlu, A. Mesud Küçükkalay, Cengiz Aydoğdu ve İhsan Ayal’ın katılımıyla gerçekleşen etkinlikte, Mehmet Genç’in başta biyografisi olmak üzere Osmanlı iktisat tarihi çalışmalarında devrim niteliği taşıyan ekonomik modeli incelenerek, çok yönlü kişiliği konuşulmuştur.

Virtue, Piety and the Law: A Study of Birgivī Meḥmed Efendī’s al-Ṭarīqa al-Muḥammadiyya By Katharina Anna Ivanyi

Birgivi Mehmed Efendi (d. 981/1573) ranks among the most prolific and controversial scholars of early modern Ottoman history. However, despite his significance, especially for the Muslim revivalist tradition, we have seen very little scholarly interest in his life and work in Western academia, and certainly no dedicated studies in the English language. That is until now. Katharina Ivanyi’s examination of Birgivi’s monumental al-Tariqa al-Muhammadiyya (TM) marks what I hope will be a reversal of the status quo. This meticulous study (volume 72 of Brill’s ‘The Ottoman Empire and its Heritage’ series) departs from the typical historical/historiographical approach in Ottoman studies and adopts instead careful textual excavation and exploration along thematic lines. Along the way, Ivanyi engages with an impressive range of primary and secondary scholarship in several languages, including Ottoman, modern Turkish, Arabic, French, German and Bosnian. The end product is an engaging monograph replete with original insights. Neatly spread over five chapters, with extensive footnotes throughout, the book begins with a survey of Birgivi’s life, scholarly oeuvre and historical epoch, then examines the intellectual framework of TM, before presenting its close textual study of the TM in the final three chapters. The first of these (ch. 3) provides an overview of the structure and contents of TM, the second (ch. 4) addresses a key strand in the text, namely sincerity, and the last (ch. 5) explores issues related to the Ottoman moral economy, including Birgivi’s position on cash waqfs. Through her close analysis of TM, Ivanyi sheds light on Birgivi’s thought as it relates to practical ethics, exhortation and advice. Her most significant finding is that Birgivi’s project of individual and societal reform was premised on an uncompromising rigidity of approach that led to inevitable clashes with powerful members of the Ottoman state, not least Ebu’s-Sucud Efendi, Shaykh al-Islam of the realm from 952–82/1545–74.

The Conquests of Adrianople by the Turks: Reflections on the Ottoman Expansion in Thrace

Abstract This article is an attempt to construct a new approach to and narrative of early Ottoman conquests in Thrace in the 1360s and 1370s. It argues that the so-called second capital of the Ottomans, Adrianople (Edirne), was conquered three times through a detailed evaluation of known, neglected, or unknow sources. The second conquest was almost certainly by frontier lords who conquered the city for their own interests. At the same time, the article challenges the unilinear rise paradigm within the Ottoman studies. It showcases that, in the given period, the political arena between Ottomans, Byzantines, and other Turkish lords was open to various contingencies and dominated through constant negotiations among various parties. The practices of conquest, loss, and reconquest by those various parties determined the color of struggles not only in the case of Adrianople but also various other Thracian towns. The article finally sheds light on the role of a suppressed group of frontier lords who had their own political claims and agenda, betimes contrary to the Ottoman center. In the final analysis, this is an attempt to understand how new historical reconstructions may open up ways to conceptualize the political and social nature of the region in this period.

Critical Approaches to Digital Ottoman Studies: Promises and Challenges

Critical Approaches to Digital Ottoman Studies: Promises and Challenges