Ottoman State and Society: Themes in History and Historiography

Ben Gurion University

Dept. for Middle East Studies

Masters of Arts Program in Middle East Studies

Ottoman State and Society: Themes in History and Historiography

Instructor: Avi Rubin

Description

The course examines selected themes in the history and historiography of the Ottoman Empire, one of the most important states in world history from medieval to modern times. Topics in history will include: state formation, decentralization, social disturbances, integration to world economy, changing relations with Europe, ethnic structure, rural and urban life, Imperial life, family life, gender relations and nationalism.

We will examine major methodological changes in the study of history in general, namely, their academic/political motivations and their impact (or lack thereof) on the historiography of the Ottoman empire and the Middle East.

The students will be encouraged to discuss the importance of this chapter in world history for understanding today’s Middle East.

Note: A tour in Ottoman Beer Sheva TBA

Course Requirements

30%Class participation

10%In-class oral presentation

60%Final paper (12-15 pages)

Program

1 Nov“Osman’s Dream”: Introduction, overview of the Ottoman Empire and key debates.

8 NovEmirate turns into State and the gaza Debate

-J. McCarthy, The Ottoman Turks, An Introductory History to 1923, pp. 1-32.

-P. Wittek, The Rise of the Ottoman Empire, pp. 1-15

-C. Kafadar, Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State.

-Mottier, V., “The Interpretive Turn: History, Memory, and Storage in Qualitative Research”, Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 6(2), 2005

15 NovSocial/Economic structures and Transformations

-C. Kafadar, “The Ottomans and Europe”, Handbook of European History, 1400-1600.

-H. Inalcik, The Classical Age.

-H. Inalcik, “Military and Fiscal Transformation in the Ottoman Empire, 1600-1700”.

-J. Goldstone, “East and West in the Seventeenth Century: Political Crises in Stuart England, Ottoman Turkey, and Ming China”, Comparative Study of Society and History, 1988.

-Katib Çelebi, The Balance of Truth. pp. 50-64; 89-91; 101-2; 124-7

22 NovThe Question of Ottoman Decline

-B. Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, first chapter.

-B. Lewis, “Ottoman Observers of Ottoman Decline”, Islamic Studies, 1, 1962.

-C. Woodhead, “Perspectives on Suleyman”, Suleyman the Magnificent and his Age.

-C. Kafadar, “The Question of Ottoman Decline”, Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review, 4, 1997-8.

29 NovRe-thinking the State

-T. Mitchell, “Society, Economy, and the State Effect”, State/Culture: State Formation after the Cultural Turn (ed. G. Steinmetz).

-K. Barkey, Bandits and Bureaucrats.

-R.A. Abou-El-Haj, Formation of the Modern State.

-Leslie Peirce, The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire, "The Display of Sovereign Prerogative", pp. 186-218

6 DecThemes in Ottoman Economy and World Economy

-R. Shechter, “Market Welfare in the Early-Modern Ottoman Economy-A Historiographic Overview with Many Questions”, JESHO, 48(2), 2005

-B. Masters. The Origins of Western Economic Dominance in the Middle East, chs. 1 and 3: pp. 8-36 and 72-109.

-Immanuel Wallerstein, Hale Decdeli and Reşat Kasaba, “Incorporation of the Ottoman Empire into the World Economy”, The Ottoman Empire and the World Economy (Ed. Huri Islamoĝlu-Inan), 1987. pp. 88-97

-Ş. Pamuk, “Institutional Change and the Longevity of the Ottoman Empire, 1500-1800”, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 35 (2), 2004, pp. 225-247.

13 DecUrban and Rural societies

-E. Eldem at.al (eds.), The Ottoman City Between East and West, pp. 1-17; 135-207.

-E. Çelebi, Evliya Çelebi in Bitlis (trans. R. Dankoff), pp. 117-151.

-D. Ze’evi, An Ottoman Century: The District of Jerusalem in the 1600s. chap.2

-E.R. Toledano, "The Emergence of Ottoman-Local Elites (1700-1900): A Framework for Research" in Pappe, Ilan, and Moshe Ma'oz, (eds.), Middle Eastern Politics and Ideas. A History from Within, pp. 145-162.

-A. Raymond, “Islamic City, Arab City: Orientalist Myths and Recent Views”, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.21 (1994), pp.3-18

-A. Singer, Palestinian Peasants and Officials, pp. 89- 118

20 DecLaw and Religion

-C. Imber, Ebu’s-Su’ud: The Islamic Legal Tradition, pp. 115-137

-Madeline C. Zilfi, The Politics of Piety: The Ottoman Ulema in the Postclassical Age (1600-1800) pp. 81-182

-Selim Deringil, The Well Protected Domains, pp. 44-67

-J. Tucker, In the House of the Law: Gender and Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine.

27 DecGoing Deeper: Microhistorical Observations

-G. Levi, “On Microhistory”, New Perspectives on Historical Writing (ed. P. Burke), 1991.

-E. Toledano, "Shemsigul: A Circassian Slave in Mid-Nineteenth Century Cairo" in Edmund Burke III (ed.) Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East, pp. 59-74

-P. Dumont, “Said Bey-The Everyday Life of an Istanbul Townsman at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century”, Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East (ed. P. Burke), 1993.

-A. Rubin, “Inside and out of the Nizamiye Court: The Trial of Hamdi Bey”.

3 JanOttoman Modernity I: the Practice and Mood of Modernity

-A. Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 1990. Chaps. I, II, VI.

-N.J. Rengger, Political Theory, Modernity and Postmodernity, 1995. pp. 39-76

-S. Deringil, The Well-Protected Domains, 1998. chap. 6

-F Müge Göçek, Fatma and Şükrü Hanioĝlu, “Western Knowledge, Imperial Control, and the Use of Statistics in the Ottoman Empire”, Cultural Horizons, vol.I (ed. J. L. Halman). Syracaus, NY: Syracaus UP, 2001

-I. Agmon, “Recording Procedures and Legal Culture in the Late Ottoman Sharia Court of Jaffa 1865-1890”, Islamic Law and Society, 3(11), 2004

-D. Ze’evi, “Back to Napoleon? Thoughts on the beginning of the Modern Era in the Middle East”, Mediterranean Historical Review, 19(1), 2004.

10 Jan Ottoman Modernity II: The Nation Factor.

-B. Anderson, Imagined Communities , pp. 1-46, 83-111, 187-206

-D. Ze'evi, "Kul and Getting Cooler: The Dissolution of Elite Collective Identity and the Formation of Official Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire" Mediterranean Historical Review, 11:2, (1996) pp. 177-195

-U. Makdisi, “After 1860: Debating Religion, Reform, and Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire”, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 34(4), 2002

-W. Haddad, “Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire”, Nationalism in a Non-national State (eds. W. Haddad and W. Ochsenwald), 1977

-H. Özoĝlu, “’Nationalism’ and Kurdish Notables in the Late Ottoman-Early Republican Era”, Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 33, 2001.

17 JanThe Armenian Question

-R. Melson, “Provocation or Nationalism: A Critical Inquiry into the Armenian Genocide of 1915”, The Armenian Genocide in Retrospective.

-M. Grigorian, Armenians in the Service of the Ottoman Empire, 1860-1908.

-S.R. Sonyel, The Ottoman Armenians. pp. 1-24; 245-313

-S. Deringil, “The Study of the Armenian Crisis of the Late Ottoman Empire, or, Seizing the Document by the Throat”, New Perspectives on Turkey, 27, 2002

-J. Salt, “The Narrative Gap in Ottoman Armeinian History”, Middle Eastern Studies, 39(1), 2003.

24 JanConclusion and Discussion of Final Paper

- E. Toledano, “What Ottoman History and Ottomanist Historiography Are – Or, Rather, Are Not: A Review Article”, Middle Eastern Studies, 2002.

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