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 Encyclopedia of
the OTTOMAN empire

Gábor Ágoston
Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

Bruce Masters
Wesleyan University, Connecticut
 Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire

Copyright © 2009 by Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any infor-
mation storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the ­publisher.
For information contact:

Facts On File, Inc.

An imprint of Infobase Publishing
132 West 31st Street
New York NY 10001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ágoston, Gábor.
Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire / Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-6259-1
ISBN-10: 0-8160-6259-5
1. Turkey—History—Ottoman Empire, 1288–1918—Encyclopedias. 2. Turkey—
Civilization—Encyclopedias. I. Masters, Bruce Alan, 1950– I. Title.
DR486.A375 2008
956'.01503—dc22 2008020716

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Text design by Joan M. Toro, Erik Lindstrom

Maps by Sholto Ainslie

Printed in the United States of America

VB Hermitage 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is printed on acid-free paper and

contains 30 percent postconsumer recycled content.
 CONTENTS
Editors and Contributors vii Alemdar Mustafa Pasha 29 B
List of Illustrations and Aleppo 30 Baban family 70
Alexandrette 32 Baghdad 70
Maps xvii
Alexandria 33 bailo 72
Acknowledgments xxi Algiers 33 Balkan wars 73
Note on Transliteration Ali Emiri Efendi 34 banks and banking 74
and Spelling xxiii Ali Kuşçu 35 Barbarossa brothers 77
Introduction xxv Âlî Pasha, Mehmed Emin 36 Barbary states 78
Ali Pasha of Janina 37 Basra 78
aliya 38 bathhouse 79
Entries A-Z Alliance Israélite Universelle 38 Bayezid I 80
A American Board of Bayezid II 82
Commissioners for Bedouins 84
Abbas I 1 Foreign Missions 39
Abbas Hilmi 2 Beirut 86
amir al-hajj 40
Abbasid Caliphate 3 Bektaşi Order 88
Anatolian emirates 40
Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi 4 Belgrade 89
Anaza Confederation 42
Abduh, Muhammad 4 Black Sea 89
Anglo-Ottoman Convention 42
Abdülaziz 5 Bosnia and Herzegovina 91
Ankara, Battle of 43
Abdülhamid I 5 Branković family 93
Antioch 44
Abdülhamid II 6 Bucharest, Treaty of 94
Antun, Farah 44
Abdülmecid 9 Buda 94
Arabistan 45
Acre 9 budgets 96
Arab Revolt 45
administration, central 10 Bulgaria 99
architecture 46
administration, provincial 13 Bulgarian National
Armenia 51
Awakening 102
Adriatic Sea 17 Armenian Apostolic Church 53
Bulgarian Orthodox
al-Afghani, Jamal al-Din 18 Armenian Massacres 54 Church 103
agriculture 19 ashraf 55 Bursa 105
ahdname 21 Atatürk, Kemal 56 Büyük Süleyman Pasha 106
Ahmed I 22 Auspicious Incident 60 Byzantine Empire 107
Ahmed II 24 Austria 61
Ahmed III 24 ayan 64 C
Ahmed Cevdet Pasha 26 Azak 67 Caffa 112
Alawi 27 al-Azhar 67 Cairo 112
Albania 28 al-Azm family 68 caliphate 114
iii
iv Contents

calligraphy 115 Dawud Pasha 177 Greek War of

capitulations 118 death and funerary culture 177 Independence 240
caravan 119 debt and the Public Debt
Administration 180 H
caravansaray 120
devşirme 183 Hagia Sophia 243
cartography 120
dhimmi 185 hahambaşı 246
Caucasus 124
Dinshaway Incident 186 Haifa 246
Celali revolts 127
Dolmabahçe Palace 186 hajj 246
Cem 128
dragoman 188 Hama 248
censorship 130
Drava River 188 Hamidiye 249
ceramics 132
Druzes 189 harem 249
Cezzar Ahmed Pasha 134
Duwayhi, Istifanus 190 al-Hashimi, Faysal
charity 135
ibn Husayn 251
coffee/coffeehouses 138
E al-Hashimi, Husayn ibn Ali 251
Committee of Union and
Eastern Question 191 hayduk 252
Progress 139
economy and economic Hejaz 253
condominium 141
policy 192 Hejaz Railroad 253
Constantinople, conquest
Edirne 195 historiography 253
of 142
Edirne, Treaty of 197 Hungary 255
constitution/Constitutional
Periods 144 education 198 Hünkar Iskelesi, Treaty of 258
contraband 145 Egypt 204 Husayn-McMahon
conversion 145 England 206 correspondence 259
Copts 147 enthronement and
accession ceremony 207 I
corsairs and pirates 148
Euphrates River 209 ibn Abd al-Wahhab,
Cossacks 149 Muhammad 260
Evliya Çelebi 209
court and favorites 151 ibn Saud family 261
court chronicles 154 F Ibrahim I 262
court of law 156 fallah 211 Ibrahim Pasha 264
Cretan War 157 family 212 ihtisab and muhtesib 264
Crete 158 Farhi family 215 illustrated manuscripts
Crimean Tatars 158 Fatih mosque complex 216 and miniature paintings 265
Crimean War 161 fatwa 217 illustrated manuscripts in
Croatia 163 finances and fiscal structure 217 the Topkapı Palace
Cromer, Lord 164 firearms 218 Museum 270
cuisine 165 Fondaco dei turchi 220 imperial ideology 273
Cyprus 165 France 221 intelligence 276
Fuad Pasha 225 Iran 278
D Iraq 282
Dalmatia 168 G Ismail, Khedive 283
Damascus 168 Galata 226 Ismail I 284
Damascus Incident 171 Gaza 228 Istanbul 286
Damascus Riots 172 Germany 228 Izmir 290
Danube Province 172 ghaza 231
Danube River 173 Gökalp, Ziya 232 J
dar al-harb 174 Grand Bazaar 233 Jabal al-Druz 294
dar al-Islam 175 grand vizier 235 al-Jabarti, Abd al-Rahman 294
darülfünun 175 Greece 236 Jacobites 294
Davud Pasha 177 Greek Orthodox Church 238 Janbulad Ali Pasha 295
 Contents v

Janbulad family 296 Mahmud II 345 Mustafa Kamil 412

Janissaries 296 Malta 347 Mustafa Reşid Pasha 413
Jassy, Treaty of 298 mamluk 347 mutasarrafiyya 414
Jeddah 298 Mamluk Empire 348
Jerusalem 299 markets 349
N
Jews 300 Maronites 351 al-Nabulusi, Abd al-Ghani 415
jizya 303 martolos 353 Nadir Shah 415
Mawali Bedouin Nahda 416
K Confederation 353 Najaf 416
kadı 304 Mecca 354 Najd 417
kadıasker 305 Mecelle 355 Namik Kemal 417
Kamaniçe 306 medicine 357 Napoleon Bonaparte 418
kanun 306 Medina 362 Naqshbandiyya Order 419
Karadjordje 307 Mehmed I 362 nationalism 420
Karaites 308 Mehmed II 364 navy 425
Karbala 308 Mehmed III 368 neomartyrs 429
Karlowitz, Treaty of 309 Mehmed IV 370 Nestorians 430
Katib Çelebi 310 Mehmed V 371 newspapers 431
al-Kawakibi, Abd Mehmed VI 371 Nizam-ı Cedid 434
al-Rahman 311 Mehmed Ali 372 nomads 436
Khayr al-Din Pasha 311 Melkite Catholics 373 North Africa 438
khedive 312 menzil/menzilhane 374 novel 439
Kızılbaş 312 merchant communities 375
Knights of St. John 313 O
merchants 376
Köprülü family 313 Orhan Gazi 442
Mevlevi Order 377
Kosovo, Battle of 317 Osman I 444
Midhat Pasha 378
Küçük Kaynarca, Treaty of 317 Osman II 446
military acculturation 379
Kurds 318 Osman III 447
military slavery 382
Kuwait 320 Osman Pazvantoğlu 447
millet 383
Ottomanism 448
L missionaries 384
Özi 449
language and script 322 missionary schools 385
Lausanne, Treaty of 323 Mohács, Battle of 388 P
law and gender 325 Moldavia 389 palaces 451
Lawrence, T.E. 328 money and monetary Palace School 452
systems 391 Palestine 452
Lebanese Civil War 329
Mosul 394 Pan-Islamism 453
Lebanon 329
Mühendishane 395 parliament 456
Lepanto, Battle of 331
mukataa 396 Phanariots 457
Levant Company 333
Murad I 396 Philiki Hetairia 458
libraries 333
Murad II 399 photography 459
Libya 336
Murad III 401 plague 462
literature, classical
Ottoman 337 Murad IV 403 Poland 464
literature, folk 339 Murad V 404 political satire 465
literature, late Ottoman 340 music 404 population 467
Mustafa I 409 presidio 469
M Mustafa II 410 Prime Ministry’s Ottoman
al-Maani, Fakhr al-Din 344 Mustafa III 411 Archives 469
Mahmud I 344 Mustafa IV 412 printing 471
vi Contents

Q Sharif of Mecca 527 U

al-Qazdaghli household 475 Shaykh al-Balad 528 al-Ujaymi, Hindiyya 575
Shia Islam 528 Ukraine 576
R Shihab family 530 ulema 577
Ragusa 477 slavery 530 Uniates 578
railroads 478 Sobieski, Jan 533 Urabi, Ahmad Pasha 578
Rashid Rida, Muhammad 484 Sokollu family 534 Uskoks 579
reform 484 Spain 536
reisülküttab 486 V
Suez Canal 538
relazione 487 Venice 581
Sufism 539
revolutionary press 487 Vienna, sieges of 583
Süleyman I 541
Rhodes 489 Vlachs 585
Süleyman II 547
Rifaiyya Order 489
Sunni Islam 548 W
Russia 489
Svishtov, Treaty of 549 wagon fortress 587
Russo-Ottoman War of
Sykes-Picot Agreement 550 Wahhabis 587
1768-74 492
Syria 550 Wallachia 588
Russo-Ottoman Wars 494
waqf 590
S T warfare 591
Salafiyya 500 al-Tahtawi, Rifaat 551 weights and measures 595
salname 501 takfir 551 Weizmann, Chaim 598
Salonika 502 Takiyüddin 552 World War I 598
al-Sanusi, Muhammad 504 Tanzimat 553
Tawfiq, Khedive 555 Y
al-Sayyadi, Abu al-Huda 505
tax farming 555 Yazidis 602
sciences 506
telegraph 557 Yemen 602
Selim I 511
temettuat 558 Young Ottomans 603
Selim II 513
Tersane-i Amire 559 Young Turks 604
Selim III 514
Seljuks 515 Timur 562 Z
Serbia 517 Timurids 563 Zahir al-Umar 607
Serbian Orthodox Church 519 tobacco 564 Zand, Karim Khan 608
Sèvres, Treaty of 520 Topkapı Palace 566 Zionism 608
sex and sexuality 522 trade 568 Ziya Pasha 609
şeyhülislam 524 Transylvania 570
Shabbatai Zvi 525 Tripoli (Lebanon) 571
Chronology 612
Shadhliyya Order 525 Tripoli (Libya) 572
tuğra 572
Glossary 616
Shahrizor 526
Shammar Bedouin 526 Tunis 573 Bibliography 620
sharia 526 Turkey 574 Index 624
 EDITORS AND
CONTRIBUTORS
EDITORS is the author of several books and articles on Ottoman
Gábor Ágoston is associate professor at the Depart- architecture.
ment of History of Georgetown University. His research
focuses on Ottoman economic and military history from Ali Akyıldız teaches at the history department of Mar-
the 15th through 18th centuries, early modern Hungar- mara University (Istanbul). He has been one of the edi-
ian history, and on the comparative study of the Otto- tors of the new Turkish-language Encyclopedia of Islam
man and Habsburg Empires. In addition to his five (TDVİA) since 1997, and was a visiting professor at the
Hungarian–language books and numerous articles, he is universities of London and Tokyo. His Turkish–lan-
the author of Guns for the Sultan: Military Power and the guage publications include two books on the reforms in
Weapons Industry in the Ottoman Empire. the Ottoman central government during the Tanzimat
and on the introduction of paper money. His book on
Bruce Masters is the John Andrus Professor of History Ottoman Securities was published in both Turkish and
at Wesleyan University. He holds a Ph.D. in Near East- English.
ern Studies from the University of Chicago. His publica-
tions include Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab Hüseyin Al is board member of the Banking Regulation
World: The Birth of Sectarianism and The Origins of and Supervision Agency of Turkey. His research inter-
Western Economic Dominance in the Middle East: Mer- ests include the financial history of the Ottoman Empire
cantilism and the Islamic Economy in Aleppo, 1600–1750. with particular reference to banks, banking, capital mar-
kets, and relation with international money markets in
the 19th century. In addition to articles on the above
CONTRIBUTORS topics, he has published two books in Turkish on inter-
Erhan Afyoncu is assistant professor in the Department national capital and Ottoman finances in 1820–1875 and
of History at Marmara University, Istanbul. He teaches on Ottoman foreign debts in 1854–1856.
Ottoman political and military history in the 15th
through 18th centuries. He has published three books in Zeynep Atbaş has been a curator of manuscripts at the
Turkish, including a guidebook on how to conduct his- Topkapı Palace Museum since 1998. Her research inter-
torical research regarding the pre-Tanzimat era. est concerns Islamic manuscripts and she has published
several articles and papers on miniature paintings.
Zeynep Ahunbay is professor of architecture and head
of the Department on Restoration of Monuments at Cemil Aydın is assistant professor at the Department
Istanbul Technical University, and former president of History, University of North Carolina at Charlotte,
of ICOMOS Turkey (1999–2005). She teaches Otto- where he teaches courses on Middle Eastern and inter-
man architectural history and conservation of cultural national history. His recent publications include Politics
heritage. She has been involved in the restoration of of Anti-Westernism in Asia: Visions of World Order in
several war-damaged monuments in the Balkans. She Pan–Islamic and Pan–Asian Thought.

vii
viii Editors and Contributors

Salih Aynural is professor of history at the Gebze Insti- Mustafa Budak is vice general director of the State
tute of Technology, Turkey, where he teaches Ottoman Archives of Turkey and director of the Prime Ministry’s
economic history. In addition to his articles in Turkish Ottoman Archives in Istanbul. His fields of research
and English on the provisioning of Istanbul, he has pub- include the history of the Caucasus, the Crimean War,
lished a book in Turkish on the Istanbul mills, millers, and Turkish foreign policy. In addition to his articles on
and bakers in the 18th and 19th centuries. these subjects, he has published a Turkish-language book
on Ottoman foreign policy before the Lausanne Peace
Yakup Bektaş is an historian of technology with the Treaty.
Tokyo Institute of Technology. His articles on the his-
tory of the Ottoman and American telegraph appeared Yücel Bulut is assistant professor at the Department of
in Technology and Culture and in the British Journal for Sociology of Istanbul University. In addition to his Turk-
the History of Science. ish-language book on the history of Orientalism, he has
published numerous articles on contemporary Turkish
Bestami S. Bilgiç is assistant professor at the Depart- thought and the history of Turkish sociology.
ment of International Relations, Çanakkale Onsekiz
Mart University, Turkey. He teaches courses on political Baki Çakır was a researcher at the Research Center of
history, Balkan history, and Turkish foreign policy. His the Istanbul Municipality, between 1995 and 2000. In
research field is history and politics of the Balkans. He addition to his articles on Ottoman financial and institu-
has published several articles on Turkish-Greek relations tional history, he has published a book in Turkish on the
in the interwar period. Ottoman tax farming system in the 16th through 18th
centuries.
Ö. Faruk Bölükbaşı is a Ph.D. student at Marmara Uni-
versity, Istanbul. His thesis focuses on the history of the Coşkun Çakır is associate professor at the University of
Ottoman Imperial Mint. His book on Ottoman financial
Istanbul. His research interests include Ottoman eco-
administration in the time of Abdülhamid II was pub-
nomic and social history. He is the author of two Turk-
lished in Turkish.
ish–language books on Ottoman fiscal policy during the
Tanzimat era and on a 19th-century Anatolian city.
Günhan Börekçi is a Ph.D. candidate in history at Ohio
State University. His dissertation focuses on the Otto-
Vanesa Casanova–Fernandez is a Ph.D. candidate in the
man royal court and favorites during the reign of Sultan
Department of History at Georgetown University. Her
Ahmed I (r. 1603–1617). His article on the Janissaries’
dissertation examines the construction of ethno-religious
volley fire tactic appeared in 2006. He is also the co–edi-
tor for the publication of Feridun Ahmed Bey’s illus- identities and hegemonic masculinities on the Spanish-
trated chronicle on Sultan Süleyman’s last campaign in Moroccan frontier in the 17th through 19th centuries.
1566.
Tûba Çavdar is assistant professor in the Department of
İdris Bostan is professor in the Department of History Information Management at Marmara University, Istan-
at the University of Istanbul, and an expert on Ottoman bul. Her main field of research is the history of Ottoman
maritime history. His publications in Turkish include libraries and books. Her book on the Rare Book Collec-
several monographs on the history of the Ottoman Naval tion of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce Library was
Arsenal (Tersane-i Amire), Ottoman sailing and rowing recently published.
ships, and the Aegean island under Ottoman rule. He is
also co–author of A Short History of the Period of Otto- Yüksel Çelik is lecturer in the Department of History at
man Sovereignty of the Aegean Islands, and The 1565 Marmara University, Istanbul, where he teaches courses
Ottoman Malta Campaign Register. on Ottoman military history and reforms. His research
interests include the Albanian National Awakening and
Palmira Brummett is professor of history and distin- Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha’s political and military activities
guished professor of humanities at the University of Ten- (1756–1855).
nessee. She is the author of Image and Imperialism in the
Ottoman Revolutionary Press, 1908–1911, and Ottoman Gökhan Çetinsaya is professor of history in the Depart-
Seapower and Levantine Diplomacy in the Age of Discov- ment of Humanities and Social Sciences at Istanbul
ery. Her current projects concern the Ottoman Adriatic Technical University. His main fields of research are
and early modern mapping, in narrative and image, of modern Turkish political history (19th and 20th centu-
Ottoman space and sovereignty. ries), Turkish foreign policy, and the history of the Mid-
 Editors and Contributors ix

dle East. He is the author of Ottoman Administration of Feridun M. Emecen is professor of history at the Uni-
Iraq, 1890–1908. versity of Istanbul. His research and teaching interests
include Ottoman chronicles, the history of the early
David Cameron Cuthell Jr. is the executive director Ottoman state, institutions, and provincial administra-
of the Institute of Turkish Studies in Washington D.C. tion, military, and urban history. He is the author of
and visiting adjunct professor at Columbia and George- numerous articles, encyclopedia entries and books on
town Universities. His research focuses on the 19th cen- early Ottoman history, the conquest of Constantinople,
tury immigration of Muslims from the Caucasus and the Jews of Manisa, and the administrative and economic
the Crimea and their role in transforming late Ottoman history of Manisa.
Anatolia.
Edhem Eldem is professor at the Department of His-
Géza Dávid is professor and head of department in the tory of Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, and has taught
Department of Turkish Philology at the University of as visiting professor at the University of California at
Budapest. His research interests include Ottoman demo- Berkeley and at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences
graphic and administrative history. Several of his articles Sociales, Paris. Among his fields of interest are foreign
appeared in his Studies in Demographic and Administra- trade in the Levant in the 18th century, Ottoman funer-
tive History of Ottoman Hungary. His recent publications ary epigraphy, the development of an urban bourgeoisie
include two co-edited books (with Pál Fodor): Ottomans, in late 19th-century Istanbul, the history of the Imperial
Hungarians, and Habsburgs in Central Europe, and Ran- Ottoman Bank, and late 19th-century Ottoman first-
som Slavery Along the Ottoman Borders. person narratives and biographies. His publications
include: French Trade in Istanbul in the Eighteenth
Fatmagül Demirel is assistant professor at Yıldız Tech- Century; A History of the Ottoman Bank; The Ottoman
nical University, Istanbul. Her research interests include City between East and West: Aleppo, Izmir and Istanbul
legal and cultural history of the late Ottoman period. (with Daniel Goffman and Bruce Masters); and Death
Her recent publications in Turkish include a mono- in Istanbul. Death and its Rituals in Ottoman–Islamic
graph on Ottoman censorship under Abdülhamid II (r. Culture.
1876–1909).
Sami Erdem is lecturer at the Divinity Faculty of Mar-
M. Uğur Derman has studied with the famous cal- mara University, Istanbul and was a visiting scholar at
ligrapher Necmeddin Okyay. He has published more the University of Jordan in 2005–2006. He has published
than 400 articles and encyclopedia entries and numer- on the modern history of Islamic and Ottoman law, the
ous books on Ottoman calligraphy and book culture, Mecelle, the Caliphate, and the modernization of law in
including Calligraphy Ottoman (1990), Letters in Gold the Muslim world. He was the chief editor of the Turk-
(1998), and The Art of Calligraphy in the Islamic Heri- ish-language journal Divan (Journal of Interdisciplinary
tage (1998). Studies, 2003–2007), and the co-editor of the TALİD’s
(Turkish Studies Review) special issue on the history of
Mehmet Ali Doğan is a Ph.D. candidate at the Middle Turkish law.
East Center of the University of Utah, where he studies
American missionary activities in the Middle East in the Zeynep Tarım Ertuğ is associate professor in the history
19th century. He is the co-editor of a forthcoming book department at Istanbul University, where she teaches
on American missionary enterprise in the Middle East in courses on Ottoman cultural history, visual sources,
the 19th and 20th centuries. and the Ottoman imperial court. Her research interests
include Ottoman manuscripts and miniatures, as well
Kathryn Ebel is academic and administrative director as court ceremony. Her book in Turkish on Ottoman
of Georgetown University’s McGhee Center for East- enthronement and funeral ceremonies in the 16th cen-
ern Mediterranean Studies in Alanya, Turkey. She is a tury was published in 1999.
specialist in the cartographic history of the Ottoman
Empire, including city views, miniature paintings, and Şeref Etker is consultant pediatric surgeon and urologist
other visual sources for the urban and historical geogra- at Zeynep-Kamil Hospital in Istanbul. His fields of inter-
phy of the Ottoman world. Her articles have appeared in ests include the medical interaction between the vari-
Imago Mundi and Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Der- ous religious communities in the Ottoman Empire, and
gisi. Her forthcoming book is titled City Views, Imperial modernization of Turkish military medicine. His articles
Visions: Cartography and the Visual Culture of Urban were published in Studies in Ottoman Science, among
Space in the Ottoman Empire, 1453–1603. others.
x Editors and Contributors

İhsan Fazlıoğlu is associate professor in the faculty essays: Rumeli under the Ottomans 15th–18th Centuries:
of Letters and Arts at Istanbul University. He holds a Institutions and Communities, and War and Peace in
Ph.D. in philosophy. He is an expert on the history of Rumeli, 15th to Beginning of 19th Century.
science and thought in the Ottoman Empire, focus-
ing his research on mathematical science and natural Molly Greene is a professor in the Department of His-
philosophy. tory at Princeton University, with a joint appointment
in the Program in Hellenic Studies. Trained as an Otto-
Aleksandar Fotić is associate professor at the Depart- man historian, she has a particular interest in the history
ment of History, University of Belgrade. He was visit- of the Greeks under Ottoman rule, as well as the history
ing professor at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, of the early modern Mediterranean. Her publications
Rethymno (Greece) in 2002 and 2004. His research include A Shared World: Christians and Muslims in the
interests include the history of the Ottoman Balkans, the Early Modern Mediterranean.
status of non-Muslims, urban culture, and everyday life.
In addition to his articles in Serbian and English, he has Feza Günergun is professor of history of science at the
published a book in Serbian on Mount Athos and Hilan- University of Istanbul. Her research fields include the
dar in the Ottoman Empire (15–17th centuries) and introduction of modern sciences to Turkey in the 19th
edited one on private life in Serbia at the dawn of mod- and 20th centuries with a special focus on educational
ern age. institutions, journals, translations from European texts,
biographies of Turkish scholars, as well as historiography
Mehmet Genç has taught Ottoman economic history of science and history of metrology. She is the editor of
at the Universities of Istanbul and Marmara, and more Studies in Ottoman Science, and numerous books includ-
recently at Bilgi University. He is the foremost authority ing Imperialism and Science, and Science Technology and
on Ottoman economic history in the 18th century. Sev- Industry in the Ottoman World.
eral of his studies were collected in his Turkish-language
book entitled State and Economy in the Ottoman Empire. Eren Jon Alexander Gryskiewicz is a graduate of
He is the co-author and co-editor (with Erol Özvar) of a Georgetown University who has studied at the Lon-
recently published two-volume book on Ottoman finan- don School of Economics and Pembroke College,
cial institutions and budgets. Cambridge. Currently he is an international develop-
ment consultant based in Washington, DC.
Ibolya Gerelyes is deputy head of the Department of
Archeology at the Hungarian National Museum. She Steven Chase Gummer is a Ph.D. candidate in modern
has written numerous articles on Ottoman material cul- German history at Georgetown University. His disserta-
ture, archaeology, and architecture. Her edited volumes tion focuses on German foreign policy and the press in
include: Süleyman the Magnificent and His Age; Archae- the Ottoman Empire from 1875 to 1915. He has writ-
ology of the Ottoman Period in Hungary and (with Gyön- ten articles on the Ottoman public debt and the German
gyi Kovács) Turkish Flowers: Studies on Ottoman Art in reaction to the Eastern Crisis of 1875–1878.
Hungary.
Emrah Safa Gürkan is a Ph.D. candidate in early mod-
John–Paul Ghobrial is a Ph.D. candidate in the Depart- ern European history at Georgetown University. His dis-
ment of History at Princeton University. His disserta- sertation focuses on the Ottoman-Habsburg rivalry in
tion explores the circulation of news and information the Mediterranean in the 16th century.
among Ottoman officials, European merchants and dip-
lomats, and ordinary taxpayers in Istanbul in the latter Gottfried Hagen teaches Turkish (including Ottoman)
half of the 17th century. language and culture at the University of Michigan. His
research focuses on Ottoman intellectual history, with
Rossitsa Gradeva is associate professor at the Ameri- a particular interest in geography, historiography, and
can University in Bulgaria, and research fellow at the religion as world interpretation. He is the author of Ein
Institute of Balkan Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sci- osmanischer Geograph bei der Arbeit. Die Entstehung
ences. Her research interests include Ottoman provincial und Gedankenwelt von Kātib Čelebis Ğihannümā, and
administration, application of Islamic law in the Otto- numerous articles.
man Empire, status of non–Muslim communities and
everyday life in the Ottoman Balkans, the Danube fron- Oleksander Halenko is head of the Center for Turkish
tier, and the decentralization processes in the pre–Tanzi- Studies at the Institute of History of the National Acad-
mat era. She has published two volumes of collected emy of Sciences of Ukraine and assistant professor of
 Editors and Contributors xi

history at the University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. His versity, Istanbul. Her research interests include west-
research focuses on Turko-Slavic relations and on the his- ern influences in Turkish literature and the history of
tory of the northern Black Sea region, including the Otto- Ottoman literature during the Tanzimat era. She has
man province of Kefe (Caffa), and the Crimean Khanate. published books in Turkish on the memoirs of Ahmet
His book in progress examines the slave trade in the Black Midhat Efendi, on Beşir Fuad, and on the Turkish novel.
Sea region from its origins to the 18th century.
Mária Ivanics is associate professor and head of the
M. Şükrü Hanioğlu is professor and chair in Near East- Department of Altaic Studies at the University of Szeged,
ern Studies and director of the Program in Near Eastern Hungary. Her research interests include the history and
Studies at Princeton University. He is a specialist on late sources of the Golden Horde and the Crimean Khan-
Ottoman history, with particular interest in the history ate. She is the author of a book in Hungarian about the
of the Committee of Union and Progress and the Young role of the Crimean Tatars in the Habsburg-Ottoman
Turk Revolution. His publications include The Young War of 1593–1606 and co-author (with Mirkasym A.
Turks in Opposition; Preparation for a Revolution; and A Usmanov) of a book in German on the Genghis-name, a
Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire. 17th–century historical source written in the Volga-Tur-
kic language.
Colin Heywood taught Ottoman history for 25 years at
SOAS, until his retirement in 1999, and was visiting pro- Ahmet Zeki İzgöer is an historian at the Prime Minis-
fessor at Princeton, Chicago, and Cyprus. He is now an try’s Ottoman Archives in Istanbul. In addition to his
honorary research fellow in the Maritime History Research monograph on Ahmed Cevdet Paha, he has edited and
Centre, University of Hull. He has published a number of published in modern Turkish more than 20 books origi-
articles on diverse aspects of Ottoman history and, more nally written in Ottoman Turkish, including the mem-
recently, on English and Mediterranean maritime history oirs of Cemal Pasha (1913–22), the works of Namik
and on the intellectual legacy of Fernand Braudel. Some of Kemal and Ziya Gökalp, and the Salnames of Diyarbekir.
the former have been collected in Writing Ottoman His-
tory: Documents and Interpretations. He is currently edit- Maureen Jackson is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of
ing The Levant Voyage of the Blackham Galley, 1696–8: Washington, Department of Comparative Literature. Her
the Sea Diary of John Looker, Ship’s Surgeon and (with areas of interest include Ottoman, Turkish, and Jewish
Maria Fusaro) After Braudel: The ‘Northern Invasion’ and social history, with a focus on Ottoman classical music.
the Mediterranean Maritime Economy, 1580–1820.
Mustafa Kaçar is professor at the University of Istanbul.
Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu is secretary general of the His research interests include the history of science and
Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). He was technology in the Ottoman Empire (17th –19th centu-
the founding chair of the first department of history of ries), introduction of modern sciences to Turkey, history
science in Turkey at the University of Istanbul (1984– of military engineering education, and Ottoman scien-
2000), and has taught at Ankara, Exeter, Istanbul, and tific instruments.
Munich universities. He is former president of IUHPS,
member of Academie Europea and the International Sevtap Kadıoğlu is associate professor in the Depart-
Academy of History of Science. He is the holder of the ment of History of Science at the University of Istanbul.
UNESCO Avicenna Medal; Alexandre Koyré Medal of Her research focuses on the modernization of scientific
the International Academy of History of Science, and and educational institutions in the Ottoman Empire and
numerous honorary academic titles. He was the found- on the history of science in Turkey. Her book on the his-
ing director general of OIC Research Centre for Islamic tory of Istanbul University’s faculty of science (1900–
History, Art and Culture (IRCICA, 1980–2004). He is 1946) was recently published in Turkish.
the editor and co-author of the 15 volume Series of His-
tory of Ottoman Scientific Literature; the two-volume Kemal H. Karpat is professor emeritus of history at the
History of the Ottoman State and Civilization; Culture University of Wisconsin, Madison. From 1967 through
and Learning in Islam; and author of Science Technology 2003 he was associated as lecturer, researcher, or scholar
and Learning in the Ottoman Empire; Turks in Egypt and in residence with several major Turkish universities as
their Cultural Heritage; and History of the Ottoman Uni- well as Montana State University, New York University,
versity (Darülfünun). Harvard, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, and Paris. He has
authored and edited more than 20 books, including his
Handan İnci is associate professor in the Department of last major work The Politicization of Islam: Reconstruct-
Turkish Language and Literature at Mimar Sinan Uni- ing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late
xii Editors and Contributors

Ottoman State. He is also the editor of the International of the Aegean island of Andros under Ottoman rule and
Journal of Turkish Studies, and occasional contributor to co-edited The Ottoman Empire, the Balkans, the Greek
Turkish newspapers. Lands.

Eugenia Kermeli is a lecturer in the history department Tijana Krstić is assistant professor at Pennsylvania State
at Bilkent University, Ankara. She had also taught at the University, where she teaches Ottoman and Mediterra-
universities of Manchester and Liverpool. Her primary nean history. Her forthcoming book is entitled Contested
fields of research are the transition from late Byzantine Conversions to Islam, and she is the author of articles on
to early Ottoman institutions, the position of dhimmis in religious politics in the early modern Ottoman Empire
the Ottoman Empire, and Ottoman legal history. She is that will appear in Comparative Studies in Society and
the co-editor of Islamic Law: Theory and Practice. She is History and the Turkish Studies Association Journal.
currently working on a monograph on parallel systems
of justice in the Ottoman Empire. Sadi S. Kucur is assistant professor at the Department of
History, Marmara University, Istanbul, where he teaches
Markus Koller is associate professor for South Eastern courses on the Seljuks. His research and publications
European history at the University of Gießen, Germany. concern Seljuk institutional, social and economic history,
His numerous studies on Ottoman and Balkan history as well as numismatics and epigraphy.
include Bosnien an der Schwelle zur Neuzeit. Eine Kul-
turgeschichte der Gewalt (1747–1798) (2004). He is also Nenad Moačanin is professor at the Department of His-
the co-editor (with Kemal Karpat) of Ottoman Bosnia: A tory, University of Zagreb. He teaches Croatian history
History in Peril and (with Vera Costantini) Living in the in the context of the history of the western Balkans in
Ottoman Ecumenical Community: Essays in Honour of the 16th–18th centuries, as well as Ottoman paleography
Suraiya Faroqhi (2008). and diplomatics. He has published four books that focus
on social and economic history, in particular taxation,
Dariusz Kołodziejczyk is associate professor at the demography, and rural economy, including Town and
Institute of History, University of Warsaw. He also holds Country on the Middle Danube, 1526 – 1690.
a position in the Polish Academy of Sciences and was
visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame. His Hidayet Y. Nuhoğlu was lecturer at Hacettepe Univer-
research interests include the history of the Ottoman sity (1978–82) and Istanbul University (1990–2000)
Empire and the Crimean Khanate, international relations and researcher and assistant director general at IRCICA
in early modern Europe, and multicultural experience of (Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture)
today’s Eastern Europe. His publications include Otto- in Istanbul (1980–2000). In addition to his articles he has
man-Polish Diplomatic Relations (15th–18th Century), edited works on Ottoman education and learning and on
and The Ottoman Survey Register of Podolia (ca. 1681). Ottoman postage stamps.

Orhan Koloğlu is assistant professor at the Press İlber Ortaylı is professor of history at the universities of
Museum of Istanbul. His fields of research include the Galatasaray (Istanbul) and Bilkent, and head of Topkapı
history of the late Ottoman Empire and modern Tur- Palace Museum. He is a specialist of 19th century Otto-
key, modernization, political movements, parties and man and Russian history, especially the history of public
their leaders, and the Ottoman and Turkish press. He administration, urban, diplomatic, cultural, and intel-
has published numerous books in Turkish on the Otto- lectual history. His articles in English were collected in
man and Turkish press, the history of the early Turkish Ottoman Studies, and Studies on Ottoman Transforma-
republic, Free Masonry in republican Turkey, as well as tion. He is also the author of numerous Turkish-language
biographies of Sultan Abdülhamid II, Kemal Atatürk, books on the 19th-century, post-Tanzimat era provincial
and former prime minister Bülent Ecevit. administration, the family in the Ottoman Empire, Ger-
man influences in the Ottoman Empire, westernization,
Elias Kolovos is lecturer in the Department of History and the Topkapı Palace.
and Archaeology at the University of Crete, Greece. He
taught as a visiting lecturer at the Ecole Pratique des Victor Ostapchuk teaches Ottoman studies at the
Hautes Etudes in Paris and at Boğaziçi University in Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations
Istanbul. His research interests include Ottoman peas- of the University of Toronto. His interests include the
ant history, the history of monasteries under Ottoman Ottoman Black Sea and the empire’s relations with Mus-
administration, and insular societies in the Ottoman covy, Poland, and Ukraine; Ottoman institutional his-
Empire. He has published a book in Greek on the history tory; Ottoman historical archaeology; and the history
 Editors and Contributors xiii

of the Great Eurasian Steppe. In addition to his numer- European countries (Dalla frontiera al confine). Lately
ous scholarly articles he is the author of a forthcoming she wrote a short history of the Ottoman Empire in Ital-
monograph entitled Warfare and Diplomacy across Sea ian and an historical play The Venetian Sultana, already
and Steppe: The Ottoman Black Sea Frontier in the Early performed in Ankara and Istanbul.
Seventeenth Century.
Şefik Peksevgen is assistant professor in the Department
Erol Özvar is associate professor in the Department of of History at Yeditepe University, Istanbul. His research
Economics at Marmara University, Istanbul. He is an interests include political history of the Ottoman Empire
expert on Ottoman economic and financial history. His in the early modern era, with a special emphasis on
publications in Turkish include a monograph on the life building and exercising sovereign power in a compara-
long tax farming (malikane) system in Ottoman finances tive perspective.
and a two-volume book on Ottoman financial institu-
tions and budgets which he co-edited and co-authored Christine Philliou is assistant professor in the Depart-
with Mehmet Genç. ment of History at Columbia University. She specializes
in the social and political history of the 18th- and 19th-
Sándor Papp is associate professor and chair of depart- centuries Ottoman Empire and is particularly interested
ment at the Gáspár Károli University of the Hungarian in the role of Phanariots in Ottoman governance. Her
Reformed (Calvinist) Church (Budapest) and associ- forthcoming book is entitled Biography of an Empire:
ate professor at the University of Szeged, Hungary. His Ottoman Governance in the Age of Revolution.
research interests include Ottoman diplomatics and
paleography, Ottoman–Hungarian relations, and the Andrew Robarts is a Ph.D. candidate in Russian and
history of Ottoman vassal states. He is the author of Die Ottoman history at Georgetown University, where he
Verleihungs–, Bekräftigungs– und Vertragsurkunden der also received a Master’s Degree in foreign service. His
Osmanen für Ungarn und Siebenbürgen. dissertation focuses on population movements and the
spread of disease between the Ottoman and Russian
Şevket Pamuk teaches economic history and political empires in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He has
economy at the London School of Economics and Politi- published articles on Bulgarian history and the Russian
cal Science where he directs the chair on contemporary Federation’s migration management policies.
Turkey and at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul. He is the
author of The Ottoman Empire and European Capital- Claudia Römer is associate professor and head of the
ism, Trade, Investment and Production, 1820–1913; A Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Vienna. Her
Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire, and A His- research interests include Ottoman diplomatics; early
tory of the Middle East Economies in the Twentieth Cen- modern Ottoman social and economic history; Ottoman
tury (with Roger Owen). Pamuk was the president of the historical grammar, syntax and stylistics; contact linguis-
European Historical Economics Society (2003–2005). tics; and Ottoman proverbs. Apart from articles on these
topics, she has published Ottoman documents: (with
Daniel Panzac was until his retirement director of research Anton C. Schaendlinger) Die Schreiben Süleymans des
at CNRS, University of Provance in Aix-en-Provance, Prächtigen an Karl V., Ferdinand I. und Maximilian II;
France. A former president of the European Association Die Schreiben Süleymans des Prächtigen an Beamte, Mil-
for Middle East Studies, Professor Panzac is a special- itärbeamte, Vasallen und Richter; Osmanische Festungs-
ist on Ottoman demographic and maritime history. His besatzungen in Ungarn zur Zeit Murāds III; and (with
many publications include: Barbary Corsairs: The End of Gisela Procházka–Eisl) Osmanische Beamtenschreiben
a Legend, 1800–1820; La caravane maritime: Marins euro- und Privatbriefe der Zeit Süleymāns des Prächtigen.
péens et marchands ottomans en Méditerranée, 1680–1830;
La peste dans l’Empire ottoman, 1700–1850 ; Quarantaines İlhan Şahin is professor at the Kyrgyz–Turkish Manas
et lazarets: l’Europe et la peste d’Orient, XVIIe–XXe siècles. University, Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan). In addition to his
numerous articles in Turkish and English on Ottoman
Maria Pia Pedani is associate professor in the Depart- administrative, social and economic history, he has pub-
ment of Historical Studies at the University Ca’ Fos- lished a book in Turkish on the Yağcı Bedir Yörüks. A
cari of Venice. She is the author of several books in selection of his articles on the nomads was published in
Italian, about Ottoman ambassadors to Venice (In nome his Nomads in the Ottoman Empire.
del Gran Signore), Ottoman documents kept in the Vene-
tian State Archives (I “Documenti Turchi” dell’Archivio Kahraman Şakul is a Ph.D. candidate in Middle East his-
di Stato di Venezia) and borders between Muslim and tory at Georgetown University. His dissertation focuses
xiv Editors and Contributors

on Ottoman-Russian relations in late 18th century. He cal Systems and Civilizations at Binghamton. He is the
has published articles on Ottoman military history and author of The Waning of the Mediterranean, 1550–1870:
the reforms of Sultan Selim III (1789–1807). A Geohistorical Approach, and co-editor of Landholding
and Commercial Agriculture in the Middle East; Informal-
Fikret Sarıcaoğlu is assistant professor in the Depart- ization: Process and Structure; and Allies As Rivals: The
ment of History at Istanbul University. His field of U.S., Europe, and Japan in a Changing World–System.
research is the history of Ottoman institutions in the
15th through 17th centuries, historical sources, and the Judith Tucker is professor of history and director of the
history of Ottoman cartography. He is the author of a Master of Arts in Arab Studies Program at Georgetown
Turkish-language book on Abdülhamid I (r. 1774–89). University, and editor of the International Journal of
Middle East Studies. Her research interests focus on the
Mustafa Şentop is associate professor at the Faculty Arab world in the Ottoman period, women in Middle East
of Law of Marmara University, Istanbul. His field if history, and Islamic law, women, and gender. She is the
research is the history of Ottoman and Turkish law. He author of many publications on the history of women and
has published studies on the sharia courts and Ottoman gender in the Arab world, including Women, Family, and
criminal law in the post-Tanzimat era. Gender in Islamic Law; In the House of the Law: Gender
and Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine; Women
Vildan Serdaroğlu has been a researcher at ISAM (Cen- in Nineteenth-Century Egypt; and co–author of Women
ter for Islamic Studies, Istanbul) since 2000. She provides in the Middle East and North Africa: Restoring Women to
entries on Turkish literature for the new Turkish-lan- History.
guage Encyclopedia of Islam (DVİA), teaches Ottoman
Turkish, Ottoman literature, and coordinates academic Yunus Uğur is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of
meetings at the center. Her book on the 16th-century History at Boğaziçi University. His research concentrates
divan poet Zati was recently published in Turkish. on urban historiography and Ottoman urban history. He
is also among the editors of a periodical titled Türkiye
Amy Singer is professor of Ottoman history in the Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi (Turkish Studies Review)
Department of Middle Eastern and African History at and was a chief editor of its special issue on urban his-
Tel Aviv University. Her major interests are in socio- tory of Turkey.
economic history, with a particular focus on charity and
philanthropy, in particular the large Ottoman public Ali Yaycıoğlu is a postdoctoral fellow at Hellenic Stud-
kitchens, and on agrarian history. She is the author of ies, Princeton University. His Ph.D. thesis from Harvard
Charity in Islamic Societies, and Constructing Ottoman is entitled “The Provincial Challenge: Regionalism, Crisis
Beneficence: An Imperial Soup Kitchen in Jerusalem; and and Integration in the late Ottoman Empire, 1792–1812.”
the co-editor of Feeding People, Feeding Power: Imarets
in the Ottoman Empire (with Nina Ergin and Christoph Asiye Kakirman Yıldız is assistant at Marmara Univer-
Neumann), and Poverty and Charity in Middle Eastern sity, Istanbul. Her research interests include archives,
Contexts (with Michael Bonner and Mine Ener). libraries, and information management. Her book on
Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha’s collection was published in 2006.
Selçuk Akşin Somel is assistant professor of Ottoman
history in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Hüseyin Yılmaz is visiting assistant professor at Stanford
Sabancı University, İstanbul. He is an expert on 19th- University. His research interests include pre-Tanzimat
century Ottoman education, focusing his research on political thought, Ottoman historiography, and constitu-
peripheral populations, gender history, legitimacy and tionalism in the Ottoman Empire.
power, and the modernization of central bureaucracy.
His recent publications include The Modernization of Nuh Yılmaz is a Ph.D. candidate in cultural studies at
Public Education in the Ottoman Empire (1839–1908), and George Mason University, where he teaches aesthetics and
Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. critical theory at Art and Visual Technologies as an adjunct
professor. His area of expertise includes visual studies,
Faruk Tabak was, before his untimely death in Febru- semiotics, non-western picturing practices, and aesthetic
ary 2008, Nesuhi Ertegün assistant professor of modern theory. He has published articles on contemporary Turkish
Turkish studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of For- politics and Islam, and on human rights issues.
eign Service at Georgetown University. Prior to George-
town he worked as a research associate at the Fernand İlhami Yurdakul is assistant professor in the Depart-
Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Histori- ment of History at the University of Harran, Şanlıurfa
 Editors and Contributors xv

(Turkey). His research interests include the history of tion of Israel. His research and teaching interests include
Ottoman religious institutions and urban history. He is Ottoman and post-Ottoman society and culture. His
the author of a recent book on the reform of the Otto- most recent book is Producing Desire: Changing Sexual
man religious institutions and a catalogue of the archives Discourse in the Ottoman Middle East, 1500–1900.
of the office of the Chief Mufti (Şeyhülislamık) in the
Ottoman Empire. Madeline Zilfi is associate professor of history at the
University of Maryland, College Park. Her research
Dror Zeevi teaches history of the Middle East at Ben focuses on Ottoman history of the 18th and 19th centu-
Gurion University of the Negev. He was the first chair of ries, particularly urban society, slavery, religious move-
the Middle East Studies Department from 1995 to 1998 ments, legal practice, and women and gender. She is the
and again from 2002 to 2004. He was also among the author of The Politics of Piety: The Ottoman Ulema in the
founders of The Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Post–Classical Age, and editor of Women in the Ottoman
Studies and Diplomacy and chaired it from its founda- Empire: Middle Eastern Women in the Early Modern
tion in 1997 to 2002. From 2006 to 2008 he served as Middle East, and has also written on Islamic revivalism,
president of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Associa- slavery, divorce, and consumption patterns.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
AND MAPS

Illustrations
Portrait of Sultan Abdülhamid II 7
The Hamidiye covered market in Damascus 8
The palace of Ibrahim Pasha in Instanbul 11
The Divanhane, the meeting place of the imperial council, and the
Tower of Justice 12
The gravestone of Yirmisekiz Çelebi Mehmed Efendi, ambassador
of Sultan Ahmed III to Paris 25
Ayyubid citadel of Aleppo 31
Selemiye mosque in Edirne, built in the 16th century 48
Süleymaniye complex of imperial Instanbul 49
The Mostar Bridge, over the Neretva River 50
Portrait of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey 56
Students in the courtyard of al-Azhar 67
Members of the Mawali Bedouin tribe 85
Beirut in the 1880s 87
Tomb of Bektashi dervish Gül Baba 95
Molla mosque in Sofia 100
The Great Mosque of Bursa 105
A street in the ibn Tulun quarter of Cairo 113
An example of calligraphy by Hafız Osman 117
Map of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, from Katip Çelebi’s
work Tuhfetü’l-kibar 121
Map of Venice from Piri Reis’s nautical atlas Kitab-i Bahriye 122
Map of Asia from Katip Çelebi’s book Cihannüma 123
The tomb of Cem Sultan in Bursa 129
The Gothic cathedral of St. Nicholas in Cyprus, converted into a
mosque after the 1571 Ottoman conquest 166
Street in the Salihiyya quarter of Damascus 169

xvii
xviii List of Illustrations and Maps

Section of the Damascus Umayyad mosque 170

Tombs of members of the Ottoman dynasty in Bursa 178
The Dolmabahçe Palace, opened in 1856 187
16th century mosque of Selimiye in Edirne 197
The Yeşil Madrasa in Bursa 198
The Harbiye Nezareti, now part of the Istanbul University campus 202
The Fondaco dei turchi, a Venetian center for Muslim merchants 221
The 14th century Galata tower, built for defense 226
Panoramic of the Galta district on the Golden Horn 227
The Grand Bazaar of Ottoman Istanbul 234
A modern mosaic in the Ecumenical Patriarchate, a Greek Church
in Istanbul 238
The Hagia Sophia, built in the 530s in Byzantine Constantinople 244
Thousands of pilgrims participating in the hajj 247
The private quarters of a harem 250
Gravestone of Abdurrahman Arnavud Abdi Pasha, last governor of
Buda 257
Map of Iran by Ibrahim Müteferrika, published in 1729 281
Portrait of Ismail Khedive 283
A tram in Bayezid square, in historic Istanbul, 1930 288
Horse and carriages in the waterfront district of Izmir 291
Courtyard of a Jewish merchant’s home in Damascus 301
Mosque of the Köprülü family 314
The Köprülü Library in Istanbul 316
A photograph of the Turkish representatives at the Lausanne
Conference 324
The Nuruosmaniye Mosque, exemplifying baroque style of Ottoman
architecture 345
The central market district of Aleppo 349
Rug merchants in Ottoman Cairo 350
Bayezid II’s hospital complex in Edirne 359
Portrait of the Sultan Mehmed II, by Gentile Bellini 365
The Rumeli Hisarı (the Rumelian castle), built before the 1453 siege of
Constantinople 366
The Yedikule, or “Seven Towers,” Fortress 367
The Mevlevi dervish order of the Ottoman Empire 378
Staff picture from a missionary school, Anatolia College 386
Music students of Anatolia College 388
Neyzen Emin Dede, a Mevlevi dervish member, playing the ney,
a musical instrument 404
Various musical instruments from the Ottoman Empire 405
Portrait of Tanburi Isak 408
Mosque of Orhan Gazi in central Bursa 443
Tomb of Osman Ghazi 444
 List of Illustrations and Maps xix

Photograph of the public square near the Dolmabahçe Palace 460

Photograph of a coffee house in Istanbul 461
A cartoon demonstrating political satire 466
Kaiser Wilhelm II arrives at a railway station in Hereke, 1898 482
The railway station and quay of Haydarpasa 483
Parallactic instrument of Takiyüddin at Istanbul Observatory 509
Sokollu complex in Payas 535
Opening of the Suez Canal in Payas 538
Mevlevi Sufis in Damascus 539
Portrait of Sultan Süleyman I 541
Mosque of Rüstem Pasha in Istanbul 544
The tuğra and decree of Sultan Süleyman 546
The shipyard of Alanya, built in the 1220s 560
The “Imperial Gate” of the Topkapı Palace 566
Topkapı Palace as seen from the Sarayburnu 567
An example of a sultan’s tuğra 572

Maps
Ottoman Expansion, ca. 1300–1683 xxvii
The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires in 1600 xxx
The Ottoman Empire, 1683–1914 xxxi
Ottoman Provinces and Vassal States, 1609 15
Istanbul in the 17th Century 289
Railroads, ca. 1914 481
Turkey and the Sèvres Treaties of 1920 521
Acknowledgments
An encyclopedia is by its nature a collaborative work, and this one is no
exception—indeed, to a greater extent than we could have imagined when
embarking on the project. Initially the editors planned to write the lion’s
share of the entries for this volume, commissioning only the articles that we
did not feel competent to write ourselves. As the process unfolded, however,
we ended up commissioning a substantial part of the work, ordering articles
from more than 90 colleagues. These submissions were all handled by Gábor
Ágoston, who wishes to express his gratitude to the contributors who shared
their expertise with us and braved many rounds of revision and clarification.
Our editors at Facts On File, Claudia Schaab (executive editor), Julia
Rodas (editor), and Kate O’Halloran (copy editor) rigorously vetted, que-
ried, and edited the text; we wish to thank them for their meticulous work
on the volume. Thanks also go to Alexandra Lo Re (editorial assistant);
Dale Williams and Sholto Ainslie (map designers), as well as to James
Scotto-Lavino and Kerry Casey (desktop designers), who reproduced and
sharpened our photos.
Some entries were written originally in Turkish and translated into
­English. The substantial work involved in re-writing and editing these articles
was done with the help of a number of talented graduate and undergradu-
ate students at Georgetown University. Elizabeth Shelton worked the most
on these articles, but I also got help from Ben Ellis, and Emrah Safa Gür-
kan translated two articles from French. As part of Georgetown University’s
Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (GUROP), Anoush Varjabe-
dian and Jon Gryskiewicz edited several entries, and Wafa Al-Sayed searched
the Library of Congress and other public domain sites for illustrations.
Finally, I wish to thank Kay Ebel and Scott Redford, directors of George-
town University’s McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies in
Alanya (Turkey), for their collegiality during my stay in Alanya in the spring
2008, when I finished the second round of editing. Most of the photos were
taken during our field trips to Bursa, Edirne, Istanbul, Syria and Cyprus. Kay
Ebel helped me in selecting the photos and writing the captions, and to get
through the last phases of the work.
—Gábor Ágoston

xxi
 NOTE ON
TRANSLITERATION
AND SPELLING
Because The Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire File to be foreign words, and thus are italicized. In these
was written with high school and college students in cases, we use modern Turkish transliteration, even if the
mind, we have tried to minimize reliance upon special- word is of Arabic origin (e.g., darüşşifa, lit. “the house
ized academic vocabulary as much as possible. How- of healing,” that is, hospital) However, proper names of
ever, we do expect our readers to have basic familiarity institutions are not italicized (Darülfünun-i Osmani,
with commonly used historical terms and geographical lit. “The Ottoman House of Sciences,” that is, The Otto-
names. With regard to foreign words, Facts On File fol- man University). We omitted the circumflex above
lows the conventions of Merriam Webster’s Dictionary a, i, and u that is used to denote lengthened vowels in
(MW). Consequently, Ottoman terms and expressions words of Arabic or Persian origin. The only exception
that have entered the English language are found using is the world âlî, (high/tall sublime, exalted etc.), such as
the spellings indicated in MW. Most such words are in Dergah-ı Âlî (Sublime Porte) or Âlî Pasha Mehmed
Arabic or Persian in origin and will be familiar to stu- Emin, to differentiate him from the many Ali Pashas.
dents of Islamic civilization. The reader will thus find Also, we do not generally use the Turkish capitalized
words like agha, caravansary, fatwa, hammam, madrasa, dotted İ for place and personal names that have entered
muezzin, pasha, sharia, and not the Modern Turkish common usage in English (Istanbul, Izmir, Ibrahim),
equivalents ağa, kervansaray, fetva, hamam, medrese, while lesser known names are given in their Turkish
müezzin, paşa or şeriat. Also, since these foreign terms orthography (e.g. İzzet). The dot also disappears from
have entered English they are not italicized. We go by words set in small caps (Selim, Nizam-i Cedid ). Slavic
this rule even when the term has become part of a proper names are transcribed according to MW, as are foreign
name (Osman Agha, Osman Pasha, etc.) However, when place names in general. We made, however, exception
a term found in MW forms part of a compound Otto- with some Turkish place names, where the name forms
man name or term (e.g. Kemalpaşazade, kapı ağası, we use are more easily recognizable for those familiar
kızlar ağası) we use the modern Turkish transliteration, with the geography of present-day Turkey. However,
for it would be confusing to the reader to see the Angli- in the case of the Ottoman imperial city we use “Con-
cized form of these compound phrases without their stantinople” and the present-day name of the same city,
grammatical inflections in Turkish. This also makes “Istanbul,” interchangeably. With this we hope to dispel
cross-referencing easier for the reader, since such com- a common misbelief according to which the Ottomans
pound phrases are usually given in the modern Turkish renamed the Byzantine capital after they conquered it
transliteration in other reference works and secondary in 1453. In fact, the Ottomans called their new capital
literature. city Kostantiniyye (the Arabic form of Constantinople)
Those Ottoman terms that are not found in the 11th on coins and official documents throughout the history
edition of Merriam-Webster are considered by Facts On of the empire, while the name Istanbul (a corruption of

xxiii
xxiv Note on Transliteration and Spelling

the Greek phrase meaning “to the city”) was also widely With regard to words of Arabic origin: the editors
used in both the official language and by the common have chosen to simplify the highly technical system that is
people. normally used when transcribing Arabic words and names
Modern Turkish contains letters that differ from stan- into English. We have done away with the diacritical marks
dard English orthography or pronunciation as follows: normally used to differentiate long from short vowels or to
distinguish aspirated from non-aspirated consonants. The
C, c = “j” as in jet Arabic letters hamza and ayn are not indicated other than
Ç, ç = “ch” as in cheer the use of double vowels: aa, ii, uu. These should be pro-
Ğ, ğ = soft “g,” lengthens preceding vowel nounced with a pause between the first and second vowel,
I, ı = undotted i, similar to the vowel sound in the example Shii is prounounced “Shi-i”. The consonant clus-
word “open” ters “kh” and “gh” represent guttural sounds in Arabic not
İ, i = “ee” as in see found in American English. The “kh” is similar to the “ch”
Ö, ö = as in German, similar to the vowel sound in the Scottish word “loch” or the German “Bach.” The
in the word “bird” “gh” is a soft, fricative “g” similar to the “g” sound before
Ş, ş = “sh” as in should back vowels (a, o, u) in Castillian Spanish, example “algo”
Ü, ü = as in German, or in the French “tu” and in Modern Greek, example “logos.”
 INTRODUCTION
WHO ARE THE OTTOMANS? ish-speaking and Muslim in religion. The influx of
The Ottomans, named after the founder of the dynasty, Turkic semi-nomadic peoples or Turkomans into west-
Osman (d. 1324), were one of many Turkic Anatolian ern Anatolia is closely related to the Mongol invasion of
emirates or principalities that emerged in the late 13th- the Middle East in the 1240s and 1250s. A western army
century power vacuum caused by the Mongols’ oblitera- of the Mongols invaded and defeated the Rum Seljuks
in 1243 at Kösedağ, northeast of present-day Sivas in
tion of the empire of the Rum Seljuks. They were driven
Turkey. In 1258, Hülegü, the brother of the great khan,
out of their central Asian homeland by the Mongols
Möngke Khan, conquered and sacked Baghdad, end-
in the 13th century and settled in north-western Asia
ing the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258).
Minor or Anatolia, in the vicinity of the shrinking East-
The Rum Seljuks soon became the vassals of the Ilkhans
ern Roman or Byzantine Empire shortly before 1300.
(“obedient khans”), the descendents of Hülegü, who
The region they settled had previously been ruled
established their own empire in the vast area stretching
by the Seljuks of Rum. Following the victory of the
from present-day Afghanistan to Turkey. As the Mon-
Great Seljuks over the Byzantine army in 1071, a branch
gols occupied more and more grasslands for their horses
of the Great Seljuks established its rule in eastern and
in Asia Minor, the Turkomans moved further to western
central Anatolia, known to them as Rum (i.e., the lands Anatolia and settled in the Seljuk-Byzantine frontier. By
of the Eastern Roman (Rum) Empire) and soon came the last decades of the 13th century the Ilkhans and their
to be known as the Seljuks of Rum. Under the Rum Seljuk vassals lost control over much of Anatolia to these
Seljuks, large numbers of semi-nomadic Turks migrated Turkoman peoples. In the ensuing power vacuum, a
from Transoxania in Central Asia to eastern and cen- number of Turkish lords managed to establish themselves
tral Anatolia, where the upland pasturelands and warm as rulers of various principalities, known as beyliks or
coastlands offered ideal conditions for the pastoralists’ emirates. The Ottomans, who were only one among the
way of life. numerous principalities, settled in northwestern Anato-
The Seljuks brought with them the religion of Islam, lia, in the former Byzantine province of Bithynia.
and conversion seems to have been widespread from the It was a fortunate location for many reasons. In
11th century onward. At the time the Ottoman Turks 1261, the Byzantines recaptured Constantinople from the
arrived in the 13th century, there was still a large popula- Latins, who had conquered the city in 1204 during the
tion of Greeks and Armenians in Asia Minor, especially Fourth Crusade, established a Latin Empire in Constan-
in the towns, and relations between Greeks and Turks tinople (1204–61), divided the former Byzantine territo-
were closer and inter-marriages more common than usu- ries in the Balkans and the Aegean among themselves,
ally assumed. Greeks worked in the Seljuk administration and forced the Byzantine Emperors into exile at Nicaea
in high offices, Turkish troops were often hired by the (present-day Iznik in Turkey). From 1261 onwards, the
Byzantine emperors, and fleeing Turkish rulers sought Byzantines were largely preoccupied with policies aim-
refuge in Byzantium more often than among their Mus- ing at regaining their control in the Balkans, and, in the
lim brethren in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Iran. words of the contemporary Byzantine chronicler Pachy-
By the time the Ottoman Turks settled in the Sakarya meres (writing circa 1310), “the defenses of the eastern
valley in the vicinity of the Byzantine Empire, the popu- territory were weakened, whilst the Persians (Turks)
lation of western Asia Minor had largely become Turk- were emboldened to invade lands which had no means of

xxv
xxvi Introduction

driving them off.” Owing to their location, the Ottomans an “Ottoman lake,” although their control of its northern
were best positioned to conquer the eastern territories of shores was never complete. In 1516–17 Sultan Selim I
the Byzantine Empire. However, the situation was more (r. 1512–20) defeated the Mamluk Empire of Egypt and
complex and to view the history of the northwestern Syria, incorporating their realms into his empire whereas
Anatolian frontier solely as a clash between Cross (Byz- Süleyman I (r. 1520–66) conquered central Hungary
antium) and Crescent (invading Muslim Turks) would and Iraq. By this time, the Ottoman Empire had become
be a mistake. The shift in Byzantine policy also offered one of the most important empires in Europe and in ter-
new opportunities for the Turkish principalities in west- ritories known today as the Middle East.
ern Anatolia, for the Byzantines needed allies and mer- Although Europeans called the Ottomans “Turks,”
cenaries. The Ottomans, who were perhaps the least they considered themselves Osmanlı (Ottomans), follow-
significant among the Turkish emirates and thus posed ers of Osman, the eponymous founder of the Osmanlı
the smallest threat to Byzantine authority around 1300, dynasty. In the early decades of the empire’s history
seemed to be perfect candidates for the job. Indeed, the everyone who followed Osman and joined his band was
Ottomans arrived in Europe as the allies of the Byzan- considered Ottoman, regardless of ethnicity or religion.
tines and established their first bridgehead in Europe in Later the term referred to the Ottoman ruling elite, also
Tzympe, southwest of Gallipoli on the European shore of known as askeri (“military,” after their main occupation),
the Dardanelles, in 1352. whereas the taxpaying subject population, Muslims and
Within 50 years, through military conquest, diplo- non-Muslims alike, was known as the reaya, the “flock.”
macy, dynastic marriages, and the opportunistic exploi- While the term “Turk” is not entirely incorrect to denote
tation of the Byzantine civil wars, the third Ottoman the Ottomans—for they were originally Turks—one
ruler Murad I (r. 1362–89) more than tripled the territo- should remember that the descendents of Osman were
ries under his direct rule, reaching some 100,000 square ethnically mixed due to intermarriages with Byzantine,
miles, evenly distributed in Europe and Asia Minor. His Serbian, and Bulgarian royal houses and the dynasty’s
son Bayezid I (r. 1389–1402), according to some schol- practice to reproduce through non-Muslim slave con-
ars the first Ottoman ruler to use the title sultan (“sover- cubines. More importantly, while superficially Islamized
eign,” ruler with supreme authority), extended Ottoman Turks comprised the largest group among the followers
control over much of southeastern Europe and Asia of Osman, the early Ottoman society was complex and
Minor, up to the rivers Danube and Euphrates, respec- included members of numerous religions and ethnicities.
tively. Alerted by this spectacular Ottoman conquest, Members of various Islamic sects, Orthodox Christians,
Europeans organized a crusade to halt Ottoman advance, Islamized and/or Turkified Greeks, Armenians and Jews
but were defeated in 1396. However, Ottoman expansion lived and fought alongside the Turks. The population of
was stopped by Timur or Tamerlane, a skillful and cruel the empire’s Balkan provinces remained largely ethni-
military leader of Mongol decent from Transoxania, who cally Slavic and Orthodox Christian in religion, despite
defeated Bayezid at the battle of Ankara (July 28, 1403, voluntary migration and state organized re-settlements
see Ankara, battle of). Bayezid died in the captivity of of Turks from Anatolia to the Balkans. In short, it was
Timur, who reduced the Ottoman lands to what they had a multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire ruled by the
been at the beginning of Murad I’s reign. Fortunately for Osmanlı dynasty from circa 1300 until its demise in
the Ottomans, however, the basic institutions of the Otto- World War I. The empire’s elites considered themselves
man state (tax system, revenue and tax surveys, central Ottoman and used the word Turk as a disparaging term
and provincial bureaucracy and the army) had already for the uneducated Anatolian subject peasant popula-
taken root and large segments of Ottoman society had tion. These Ottomans spoke the Ottoman-Turkish lan-
vested interests in restoring the power of the House of guage (see language and script) that, with its Arabic
Osman. Moreover, Bayezid’s victorious conquests served and Persian vocabulary, was different from the Anatolian
as inspiration for his successors who managed to rebuild Turkish spoken by the peasants. The Ottomans also pro-
the state, and half a century later, in 1453, Ottoman duced, supported, and consumed the Ottoman literature
armies under Sultan Mehmed II (r. 1444–46, 1451–81) that would largely have been unintelligible to the masses.
conquered Constantinople (see Constantinople, siege Thus, it is more correct to call this empire Ottoman than
of), the capital of the thousand-year-old Byzantine Turkish.
Empire. The Ottomans emerged as the undisputed power
in southeastern Europe, the eastern Mediterranean, and Why Study Ottoman History?
Asia Minor. Within another 50 years, in the possession of The Ottomans built one of the greatest, longest-lived, and
Constantinople that they made their capital and the logis- most splendid multi-ethnic and multi-religious empires,
tical center of their campaigns, the Ottomans cemented only to be compared to the better-known other Mediter-
their rule over the Balkans and turned the Black Sea into ranean empires of the Romans and Byzantines, the simi-
Introduction xxvii
xxviii Introduction

larly multi-ethnic neighboring Habsburg and Romanov ganized by the Habsburgs following the Ottomans’ loss
Empires, and to the other great Islamic empires of the of Hungary, the population of the region became increas-
Abbasids, Safavids, and the Indian Mughals. In compari- ingly mixed, with more and more Serbs settling there.
son with many of these empires, the Ottomans’ record is This heavy Serbian presence was used by Serb nation-
impressive. alists for territorial claims in the 1990s leading to war
The Ottomans ruled with relative tolerance and flex- between Serbs and Croats. On the other hand, whereas
ibility for centuries over a multiplicity of peoples who Ottoman borders proved stable for centuries—the bor-
followed different religions and spoke languages as div- der between Turkey and Iran, for instance is essentially
ers as Turkic, Greek, Slavic, Albanian, Arabic, and Hun- the one established in 1639—border disputes and wars in
garian. At the height of their power, in the 16th century, the Middle East are often results of the artificial borders
their empire stretched from Hungary to Yemen, from established by the European Great Powers at the demise
Algiers to the Crimea and Iraq. They established peace, of the empire.
law, and order in the Balkans and the Middle East, terri- Yet despite its world historical importance and lega-
tories that have seen much violence since the breakup of cies, the Ottoman Empire has remained one of the less-
the empire. The Ottomans also brought economic stabil- studied and less-understood multiethnic empires, leading
ity and prosperity and cultural flourishing to many parts to many misconceptions and misinterpretations of Otto-
of their empire. The spread of local fairs and markets, man history in the generalist literature and college text-
the establishment of new towns (e.g., Sarajevo), and the books. This short introduction intends to acquaint the
population increase in the 16th century, are signs of this reader with some of the many labels by which histori-
economic prosperity. ans tried to describe the essential characteristics of the
From the conquest of the Byzantine capital city Con- empire. It is followed by a short overview of the past and
stantinople in 1453 until its demise during World War I, present state of Ottoman studies.
the Ottoman Empire was an important player in European
politics: in the 15th through 17th centuries as the preemi- WORLD EMPIRE, MERITOCRACY,
nent Islamic empire that threatened Christian Europe on HEIRS OF ROME?
its own territory, later in the 18th and 19th centuries as a Although modern sociologists do not consider the Otto-
weakening empire whose survival was a major factor in man Empire a world power for it was not a sea-borne
the balance of power. The empire’s possible partition either empire, for 16th-century Europeans it seemed the most
by the Great Powers and the empire’s neighbors (France, formidable of all empires Western Christianity faced on
England, Germany, Austria/Austria-Hungary, Russia) or its own territory. It held this image by virtue of its geo-
by the emerging nationalist movements became a major political situation, its enormous territory and popula-
concern of international politics, and was known as the tion, its wealth of economic resources, and a central and
“Eastern Question.” For the Ottomans it was a “Western provincial administration that was capable of mobilizing
Question”: How to withstand the pressure of the western these resources to serve the goals of the state. The effi-
Great Powers and Russia, as well as the nationalities sup- cient use of resources formed the base of the Ottoman
ported by them, and how to modernize the empire’s mili- army, which was considered to be the best and most effi-
tary, bureaucracy, and finances to do so. cient military known to contemporaneous Europeans.
As for the empire’s legacy, the roots of many These Europeans admired the territorial immensity and
of the ethnic conflicts we witnessed in the 1990s in the the wealth and power of the sultan, who, in the words of
Balkans can only be understood if one studies the wars, one Venetian ambassador, “is the most powerful.”
voluntary migrations, and state-organized forced reset- The sultan’s empire was feared and admired by con-
tlements in the Ottoman Balkans that radically changed temporaneous Europeans. Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq,
the ethnic and religious landscape of that region. For Habsburg ambassador to the Ottoman capital in 1554–
instance, the roots of the Serbian-Albanian struggle over 62, commended the Ottomans’ meritocracy noting that
Kosovo go back to Ottoman times, and are related to the Ottoman officials owed their offices and dignity to their
Ottoman expansion and the ensuing Serbian emigration “personal merits and bravery; no one is distinguished
from and Albanian immigration to Kosovo. The conflicts from the rest by his birth, and honor is paid to each man
between Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs in Kra- according to the nature of the duty and offices which
jina are likewise connected to the region’s Ottoman and he discharges.” Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) found
Habsburg history. Vojna Krajina or the Military Frontier in the Ottoman Empire many of the virtues associated
in Croatia was established by the Austrian Habsburgs with the Roman Empire. The French jurist and historian
from the mid-16th century on, in order to halt further Jean Bodin (1529–96) argued that “it would be far more
Ottoman expansion. In the 16th and 17th centuries, and just to regard the Ottoman sultan as the inheritor of the
in the 18th century when the Military Border was reor- Roman Empire.” While these European observers were
 Introduction xxix

certainly influenced by the success of the Ottomans, they Ottoman victory over the Mamluks in 1516–17 and
also had their own agendas. Busbecq, for instance, seems the introduction of Ottoman rule in these Arab lands
to have overemphasized the power of the sultan, for he had major ideological and political consequences. With
wanted to augment the power of his own ruler, Holy his conquests, Selim became the master of Mecca and
Roman Emperor Charles V, vis-à-vis the Estates, osten- Medina, “the cradle of Islam,” as well as of Damascus
sibly in order to better fight the Ottomans. However, and Cairo, former seats of the caliphs, the successors
these descriptions also reflect realities and the power and of Prophet Muhammad. Sultan Selim I and his succes-
ambitions of the Ottomans. Mehmed II’s sobriquet (‘the sors duly assumed the title of “Servant of the Two Noble
Conqueror’) and the Roman-Byzantine title of ‘Caesar’ Sanctuaries” (Mecca and Medina), and with this the task
that he assumed, indicated his ambitions for universal of protecting and organizing the annual pilgrimage to
sovereignty and the fact that he considered himself heir Mecca, which gave the Ottomans unparalleled prestige
of the Roman emperors. and legitimacy in the Muslim world.
This is not to say that the Ottomans did not use the
HOLY WARRIORS OR ideology of the “Holy War.” In the 1300s, the spirit of the
PRAGMATIC RULERS? holy war was alive in the Turco-Byzantine frontier. Situ-
The early Ottomans have often been presented as gha- ated in the vicinity of Byzantium, the seat of eastern Chris-
zis, who were fighting ghazas or ”Holy Wars against tianity, the Ottomans were strategically positioned to wage
the infidels.” However, recent scholarship has demon- such wars, and served as a magnet for the mighty warriors
strated that the early Ottoman military activity described of the Anatolian Turco-Muslim emirates, or principali-
as ghaza in Ottoman chronicles were more complex ties. By defeating repeated crusades, conquering Constan-
undertakings, sometimes simple raids in which Muslims tinople, and subjugating the Balkan Christian states, the
and Christians joint forces and shared in the booty and Ottomans emerged as champions of anti-Christian wars.
in other times “holy wars.” The Ottomans also fought Their successes against the Venetians in the Aegean and
numerous campaigns against fellow Muslim Turks, the western Balkans under Mehmed II and Bayezid II, and
subjugating and annexing the neighboring Turkoman against the Habsburgs in the Mediterranean and Hungary
principalities. However, aiming to portray the early under Süleyman I further enhanced the Ottomans’ pres-
Ottomans as “holy warriors,” 15th-century Ottoman tige as holy warriors and defenders of Islam.
chroniclers often ignored these conflicts, claiming that In their rivalry against the Habsburgs, Ottoman ideo-
the Ottomans acquired the territories of the neighboring logues and strategists used religion, millenarianism, and
Turkic principalities through peaceful means (purchase universalist visions of empire to strengthen the legiti-
and/or marriage). When they did mention the wars macy of the sultan within the larger Muslim community.
between the Ottomans and their Muslim Turkic neigh- Similarly, Ottoman victories against Habsburg Catholi-
bors, Ottoman chroniclers tried to legitimize these con- cism and Safavid Shiism formed an integral part of Otto-
quests by claiming that the Ottomans acted either in self man propaganda. In the early years of Süleyman’s reign,
defense or were forced to fight, for the hostile policies of grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha consciously propagated the
these Turkic principalities hindered the Ottomans’ holy sultan’s image as the new world conqueror, the successor
wars against the infidels. of Alexander the Great, whereas in his latter years the sul-
This latter explanation was used repeatedly by Otto- tan viewed himself as “lawgiver,” or “law abider” (kanuni)
man legal scholars to justify Ottoman wars against their a just ruler in whose realm justice and order reigned.
Muslim Turkoman neighbors, such as the Karamans In short, the early Ottoman sultans appear as prag-
and Akkoyunlus (1473). The justification of the wars matic rulers whose foreign policy was complex, as was
against the Mamluks was more problematic. The Mam- that of their European enemies and allies. There was no
luks followed Sunni Islam, as did the Ottomans, and iron curtain between the Muslim Ottomans and Chris-
the descendant of the last Abbasid caliph al-Mustansir tian Europeans, and the Ottomans masterfully exploited
resided in Cairo. The Mamluk sultans were also the the growing political (Habsburg-Valois) and religious
protectors of Mecca and Medina and guarantors of the (Catholic-Protestant) rivalries in Christian Europe, ally-
Muslim pilgrimage, the hajj. To justify his attack against ing themselves with France and England, against their
the Mamluks, Sultan Selim I advanced several pretexts common enemies, the Catholic Habsburgs.
and secured a legal opinion (fatwa) from the Ottoman
religious establishment. This accused the Mamluks with “GOLDEN AGE” AND “PERIOD OF
oppressing Muslims and justified the war against them DECLINE”
with the alleged Mamluk alliance with the Sunni Otto- Traditional historiography maintains that after the con-
mans’ deadly enemy, the Shii Safavids, who from the quest of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman sultans
early 1500s ruled over what is today Iran. embarked upon a centralizing project, which resulted in
xxx Introduction

the establishment of the “classical” absolutist Ottoman co-opted local elites into their military and bureaucratic
state, a patrimonial world empire, with its “peculiar” pre- systems; and adjusted their military according to new
bendal land tenure system and centralized administration. challenges.
Under Süleyman I the Ottoman central administration in Closely connected to the idealized view of the “classi-
Istanbul is said to have reached its perfection, increasing cal age” is the theory of “Ottoman decline.” According to
its control over the provinces and frontiers. Consequently this theory, by the end of the 16th century the Ottoman
frontier societies and institutions became similar to those expansion slowed down, the empire reached its limits and
in the core territories of the empire. Almost everything the porous frontiers, that had formerly been the major
that one may read in general historical works on the source of social dynamism, became rigid. Proponents of
empire’s central and provincial administration, and on the decline theory argue that this perceived age of decline
its army, economy, society, and culture, is limited to this was characterized by weak sultans, decentralization,
one-hundred-year period. Western observers and schol- destruction of the classical Ottoman institutions (land
ars, from the 16th-century Italian politician and philos- tenure system, taxation, revenue surveys, etc.), deteriora-
opher Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) to the Marxist tion of military capabilities, and by the disruption of the
historian Perry Anderson, have long focused on the idea “world order” (nizam-i alem), to use the expression of the
of “Turkish/Oriental despotism.” Recent research, how- Ottoman literature of advice to princes (nasihatname).
ever, has emphasized the limits to centralization, the In discussing the “classical age” and the “age of
regional differences, and the continuation of earlier, pre- decline” students often became victims of their sources.
16th-century Ottoman administrative practices. In recent If one looks at the sultanic decrees sent from Constan-
research, the Ottomans emerge as pragmatic and flexible tinople to the provinces during the mid-16th century,
rulers who accepted local forms of taxation, monetary the impression gained is one of an Ottoman central gov-
systems, and economic forms; compromised with and ernment whose will prevailed even in the most remote
 Introduction xxxi

The Ottoman Empire, 1683–1914

0 300 miles

0 300 km

© Infobase Publishing
xxxii Introduction

frontier areas. Further, provincial tax registers also sug- “transformation” instead of decline with regard to Otto-
gest that the administrative and taxation system was man institutions and argued that the Ottoman economy,
extremely uniform and efficient. However, one should society, and military in the 17th and 18th centuries were
not forget that the systematic study of this rich material flexible and strong institutions. However, none of these
(tens of thousands of sultanic decrees and hundreds of new studies was able to satisfactorily explain the decline
provincial tax registers) has only started in recent years. It of the Ottoman military might in the late 18th and 19th
is symptomatic that whereas at around 1609 the empire’s century vis-à-vis the empire’s two major rivals, Habsburg
territories were divided into more than 30 provinces and Austria and Romanov Russia. Ottoman studies and
well over 200 sub-provinces (see administration, pro- accessibility to primary sources have, in the past two
vincial), we posses fewer than half a dozen monographs decades or so, improved considerably, and it is hoped
that are devoted to the comprehensive study of individual that future research will answer many of the remaining
provinces, and the number of case studies of sub-prov- questions about the Ottoman empire and its declining
inces is similarly limited. military.
Previous historical reconstructions of Ottoman
administrative practices and capabilities are based on OTTOMAN STUDIES IN TURKEY
random evidence, often from the core provinces of the Turkey has traditionally been the center of Ottoman
Balkans and Asia Minor, that have very little to say about studies. The Ottoman past is part of the national history
regional variations outside the core zones. The minutes of the country, no matter how ambivalent the approach
of local judicial courts, complaints of provincial authori- towards the Ottoman past might have been at different
ties, and the communication between the central and times. Turkish historians have both advantages and dis-
local authorities present a different picture and demon- advantages over their foreign colleagues in studying the
strate the limits to centralization. In these sources local history of the Ottoman Empire. During the Ottoman
and central government appear to have enjoyed a rela- Empire, Ottomanist historians were able to rely on a long
tionship that was far more complex than the one-sided tradition, accumulated knowledge, access to manuscripts
command-and-execute relationship put forward by his- and archival sources, and they did not have to deal with
torians in the past. linguistic or paleographical difficulties, for their sources
Furthermore, students of the Ottoman Empire have were written in the language and script they themselves
long relied on the so-called literature of advice to princes used. However, Ottoman historians of the late empire
as works that reveal the economic and social conditions also faced disadvantages. First, they were constrained by
of the “classical era” and that of the “period of decline,” tradition. Ottoman history as it was practiced in the 19th-
and as impartial writings elaborating sincere and selfless century meant mainly political history, which followed
reform proposals. However, recent research has ques- the official chronicle tradition started in the 15th century.
tioned the relevance of the Ottoman advice literature in The history as told by the chronicles was mainly the his-
reconstructing the economic and social conditions of tory of the Ottoman dynasty, which had very little to say
the empire; instead it is now accepted that these writings about the complex and colorful society and economy of
should be treated as political pamphlets, often partisan this multi-national, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural empire
and biased, that furthered the agenda of certain individu- (see historiography). Second, though accumulated
als or special-interest groups, often reflecting the subjec- knowledge was important, the lack of an Arabic letter
tive opinions and fears of a narrow elite of intellectuals printing press until 1729, and in fact until the late 18th
and bureaucrats who were rooted in traditions and often century (see printing) and private journalism until 1861
idealized the “classical era.” Therefore, while these politi- (see newspapers) hindered the dissemination of accu-
cal pamphlets are excellent sources for understanding the mulated knowledge in books and scholarly journals, and
fears and views of the tradition-bound old bureaucratic confined it to certain literate circles, whose membership
elite, they ought to be used with great caution when was far smaller than in contemporaneous Europe. Third,
attempting to reconstruct the nature of the Ottoman state since the sources (manuscript chronicles of the Otto-
in the 16th and 17th centuries. man dynasty and archival sources preserved in the Palace
Recent Ottomanist scholarship, inspired by such Archives) mainly concerned the dynasty and the central
diverse disciplines as literary criticism (Cornell Fleischer, government, the access to and utilization of them was
Gabriel Pieterberg); economic (Halil İnalcık, Mehmet controlled by censorship.
Genç, Linda Darling), monetary (Şevket Pamuk), The combination of restricted access to manuscripts
and military history (Gábor Ágoston, Virginia Aksan, and archival sources, the sensitiveness of Ottoman cen-
Rhoads Murphey); and sociology (Ariel Salzman) has sorship, and the lack of Ottoman printing houses had
questioned almost all the major arguments of the tradi- a number of serious consequences. Most importantly,
tional “decline schools.” This literature has emphasized there were no major systematic source publications
 Introduction xxxiii

in the late Ottoman Empire comparable to the multi- Social History at the University of Istanbul, where under
volume monumental source collections (Fontes, Akten, the leadership of Ö. L. Barkan invaluable source publi-
Documenti, Collection, Calendars, etc.) of European his- cations (including the Institute’s new journal) appeared.
tories published from the mid/late-19th century on. Landmark studies concerning the Ottoman land-tenure
Although some important Ottoman chronicles (Naima, system, taxation, population movements, and Ottoman
Silahtar, Peçevi, etc., see court chronicles) appeared economic and social history in general, were also pub-
in this period, these publications were usually based on a lished. Under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Public
single manuscript and cannot be considered critical edi- Education, between 1940 and 1987, the first edition of
tions, as their editors made no attempt to compare all the the Encyclopedia of Islam (originally published in Leiden
available extant manuscripts or verify authorship. These in 1901–39) was not only translated into Turkish but
publications also lacked all the usual features—such as augmented with substantial new material, concerning
indication of manuscripts versions, later insertions, notes mainly Ottoman and Turkic history, religion and culture,
and explanations—of the European edition critiques of such that the original 5-volume encyclopedia became a
classical and medieval texts. On the contrary, these early 15-volume handbook.
editions of Ottoman chronicles were often abridged and Although Turkish historiography during the Repub-
altered according to the expectation of the late-19th-cen- lican era tried hard to make up for what 19th-century
tury Ottoman censorship. A well-known example of such Ottoman historiography had missed, the lack of major
tampering with historical texts is the 10-volume descrip- source publications, together with the inaccessibility of
tion of the empire by the famous 17th-century Ottoman the Turkish archives, had significant consequences. On
traveler Evliya Çelebi, in which entire paragraphs and one hand, this situation hindered the ability of Turk-
pages, regarded by the censorship as unfavorable and/or ish historiography to produce basic handbooks, such as
critical of the sultan and the Ottoman elite, were omit- state-of-the art concise histories, historical, biographical,
ted. The situation was similar in the field of archival and prosopographical dictionaries, chronologies, histori-
source publications. Except for some pioneers—such as cal geographies, and histories of Ottoman institutions.
Ahmet Refik who published imperial orders concerning On the other hand, it made the incorporation of Otto-
a wide variety of themes (the history of Istanbul, Otto- man studies into western historiography very difficult.
man mines, various political affairs) from the mühimme Turkish and non-Turkish Ottomanist historians alike
(“important affairs”) collections that contained imperial used the bulk of their time during their research in the
orders sent to Ottoman provincial governors, judges, archives with locating, deciphering, and editing their
vassals, and foreign rulers—there was no large-scale documents. They had very little energy left over to chal-
scholarly undertaking comparable to the systematic pub- lenge old and new ideas put forward by Eurocentric and
lication of hundreds of thousands of sources concerning Orientalist historiography, to join in the major trends
European history in the monumental series of Diploma- of western historiography, or to formulate new theories.
taria et Acta and Documenti, among others. This situation has changed only during the last couple
Although ambivalent in its approach toward its Otto- of decades. In this, certain vital developments concern-
man past, Turkish historiography during the Republican ing higher education, the archives, research and scholarly
period improved Ottoman studies considerably. Seeking publication, have played a considerable role.
answers for the backwardness of the country, as well as During the past two decades or so, dozens of new uni-
facing the scholarly and political challenges in the suc- versities have been established in Turkey, many of them
cessor states of the Balkans and the Middle East, Turkish privately endowed (vakıf) universities. One might have
historiography undertook large-scale scholarly projects legitimate concerns about the quality of these institutions
initiated and supported by the Turkish Historical Asso- and their professors. However, the overall outcome of this
ciation (TTK), Ministries of Education and Culture, and mushrooming of universities is positive. New centers of
by some of the main universities. Ottoman studies have been established, some by top pro-
The TTK, which has its own printing press, pub- fessors from Istanbul and Ankara who took up jobs volun-
lished the multi-volume history of the Ottoman Empire tarily or were forced to do so for political reasons; others
and its institutions by İ. H. Uzunçarşılı and E. Z. Karal, by a younger generation of historians, who collectively
a series of shorter concise histories of European states, trained hundreds of MA and Ph.D. students in Ottoman
and some significant source publications. The history history. The number of new history journals, source pub-
departments of the universities of Istanbul and Ankara lications, MA and Ph.D. dissertations, and monographs
trained generations of able historians, did important increased substantially. This new generation of graduate
research work, and published their results in newly students and young historians not only played a crucial
established scholarly journals. New centers were estab- role in discovering, classifying, cataloguing, editing, and
lished, such as the Institute of Ottoman Economic and utilizing manuscript sources of local libraries untouched
xxxiv Introduction

for centuries, but also initiated important research in the A related important development is the publication
main Ottoman archives in Istanbul and Ankara concern- project initiated by the General Directorate of Archives.
ing the social and economic history of their own regions. This project includes the publication of an up-to-date
In addition, they have published important monographs Guidebook to the Archives, auxiliary handbooks, and
on the functioning of Ottoman administration in the various archival documents. Among the latter, the most
provinces and sub-provinces, including such topics as important is the publication of several volumes of müh-
land tenure, taxation, and population movements. imme defteris. These record books contain the shortened
The role of the top private universities (Bilkent, Koç, copies of imperial orders sent to governors, financial
Sabancı, Bilgi, Bahçeşehir, Kadir Has, etc.) in particular officers and judges of provinces and sub-provinces, to
should be emphasized. These institutions are often run the heads and leading communities of the vassal states,
and administered according to American or European and to the rulers of foreign countries both Muslim and
standards, and the language of instruction is English, Christian relating to all sorts of military, economic, reli-
which facilitates their integration into the international gious, social, and cultural affairs (military mobilization,
scholarly community. History departments are led by taxation, supply of Istanbul and other big cities, center-
prominent Ottoman historians, often brought back or periphery relationship, the religious communities of the
recruited from abroad. Among their faculty members are empire, crime and punishment, gender issues and so on).
foreigners and young Turkish colleagues trained in the However, despite these major advances there is much
United States or Europe, who, in addition to Ottoman work to be done. The entire collection of mühimme def-
history, also teach European and comparative history and teris catalogued so far contains 394 volumes and almost
incorporate Ottoman history into its broader Mediterra- 110,000 pages, out of which less than a dozen volumes
nean, Middle Eastern, and European context. have been published in facsimile and in summary trans-
literation with indexes.
ARCHIVES, MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS, In addition to archival sources, Turkey also houses
AND SOURCE PUBLICATIONS the richest manuscript collections related to Ottoman
Another breakthrough came in 1988 when Turkey liber- history. The total number of Arabic, Turkish, and Per-
alized its regulations concerning archival research, and sian manuscripts related to all disciplines is estimated at
initiated a large-scale project to classify and catalogue its 300,000, of which more than 105,000 volumes are in the
archives. Although regulations concerning the Topkapı seven main Istanbul libraries belonging to the Ministry of
Palace Archives, which belongs to the Ministry of Cul- Culture. Although some of the major manuscript libraries
ture, are still strict and research conditions have for the in Istanbul (Topkapı Palace Library, Süleymaniye Library)
past couple of decades been legendarily unwelcom- have compiled their own catalogues, until recently we
ing, permission to enter the most important Ottoman knew almost nothing about provincial libraries. As a
archives, the Prime Ministry’s Ottoman Archives or result of a massive Union Catalogue of Manuscripts in
Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (BOA) require only a simple Turkey (Türkiye Yazmaları Toplu Kataloğu/TÜYATOK)
formality, and research is as easy and efficient as in the project that started in 1978, the National Library (see
main European archives. Although not designed for the libraries) published more than 25 volumes and three
purposes of archives, the present building near Sultanah- CD-Roms. These contain the description of more than
met Square has plenty of space and light compared to the 126,000 manuscripts, mainly in Turkey, but the third CD-
old small building, and a modern and even more spacious Rom also includes data regarding Turkish manuscripts
archival complex is planned for the coming years. More in the United States and the main European, Balkan, and
important is the impressive classification and cataloguing Middle Eastern collections. In addition, the Research
work that started in the late 1980s. Out of the estimated Center for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA)
95 million documents and 360,000 record books (defters) published several useful catalogues, bibliographical guides
written in the Arabic alphabet in Ottoman Turkish and and handbooks in English, Turkish and Arabic.
preserved in the BOA, only 29,578 defters (revenue sur- In short, during the past two decades research con-
veys, population censuses, tax registers, financial account ditions in Turkey improved considerably and Turkey
books, etc.,) and about 1.5 million individual documents has become the major center of Ottoman studies in
were catalogued during the entire period from 1908 to every respect. New universities and research institutes
1987. However, from November 1987 to November 1988 employ an army of young Ottomanists, hundreds of MA
a total of 99,000 record books and more than 1.7 million and Ph.D. dissertations are written every year, and con-
documents were classified and catalogued. The classifica- ferences and symposia organized in Turkey bring the
tion and cataloguing work has proceeded with impressive crème of the profession to Turkey. New handbooks, cata-
speed and efficiency since then, thanks to some 350 newly logues, and web pages help foreign and Turkish scholars
hired archivists, trained in the mid-80s. in their research. One impressive achievement of these
 Introduction xxxv

positive developments in the field in Turkey is the new In recent years, however, Ottoman studies have been
Turkish Encyclopedia of Islam, launched in 1988 by the integrated into general historical studies and members of
Turkish Religious Foundation (Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı). the youngest generation try to keep pace with the major
The planned 40-volume handbook would contain some trends of the history profession as a whole. They are
17,000 articles by more than 2,000 Turkish and foreign especially strong in economic and military history, and
scholars. The 34 volumes published so far have proved there have been successful attempts to incorporate Otto-
to be an indispensable source for students of Ottoman man history into its European context by applying some
history. of the latest approaches and theories of European histori-
ography, such as those of the War and Society and Fron-
OTTOMAN STUDIES OUTSIDE TURKEY tier Studies.
In the 15th through late 18th centuries, the Ottomans In France, the emphasis has been on social and eco-
represented for Christian Europe a major “Islamic nomic history, and Ottomanists were influenced by the
threat,” prompting Europeans to study the history and Annales school of history writing, named after the famous
religion of “the Turks,” as the Ottomans were then French history journal Annales d’histoire économique et
and have been since referred to in Europe. By the late sociale (1929–to date in different names), which empha-
16th century, Europeans produced an impressive cor- sized long-term social and economic trends as opposed
pus of literature on the Ottoman Turks, known as Tur- to short-term political ones and used the methodology of
cica-literature, that is, works dealing with the history, a wide variety of social sciences. Besides traditional top-
religion, and culture of the Turks. While these works ics, such as French-Ottoman relations, French scholars
contain valuable data and observations for the historian also produced significant studies concerning the Arab
of the empire, they were written from a biased perspec- provinces of the empire, and compiled an up-to-date
tive and contain misconceptions that have persisted in concise history of the Ottoman Empire.
later European historiography on the Ottomans. The In the United Kingdom, the traditional centers for
history and nature of Ottoman studies, along with the Ottoman studies have been the School of Oriental and
image of the empire in the various European countries African Studies (SOAS), and the University of Oxford;
is complex and differs from country to country, reflect- however, several other universities have at least one
ing, among other things, the complex relationship that Ottomanist historian. In recent years, through its fellow-
these countries have had with the Ottomans through ships, conferences and symposia The Skilliter Centre for
the centuries. Until the 1920s or so, Turkish and Otto- Ottoman Studies (Newnham College, Cambridge), the
man studies in Europe were dominated by the German only research center devoted purely to Ottoman studies,
and Austrian history-writing tradition. Most works became a major center for scholars studying the history
were published in German, which by the 19th century of the Ottomans in its wider European and Mediterra-
had become the lingua franca of the field. From the nean context.
early 16th through early 20th centuries, these countries Ottoman studies have always been a strong disci-
had close contacts with the Ottoman Empire, and thus pline in the successor states of the empire in the Balkans
Turkish/Ottoman studies were very much a state activ- and more recently there is an interest in the history of
ity. Some of the early students of the empire in Austria the Ottomans in the Arab successor states, too. Some of
and Hungary were government servants, such as the these countries house considerable collections of Otto-
diplomat Josef Hammer von Purgstall, the author of the man documents. However, the fact that these countries
10-volume History of the Ottoman Empire (Geschichte were under Ottoman rule for centuries has proved to be
des osmanischen Reiches, Pest, 1827–35). As govern- a disadvantage, for Ottoman history was often subject
ment servants, they had the opportunity either to col- to political and ideological (nationalist, Marxist, etc.)
lect considerable Ottoman manuscripts, like Hammer, manipulations and distortions. The Ottoman Empire
or had access to Ottoman archival sources preserved in traditionally got bad press in these countries, starting in
European archives. the era of nationalisms (see nationalism). Unlike Turk-
Their access to primary sources, along with the general ish historiography that tended to focus on the “classical”
positivist mainstream of the late-19th-century German- or “golden age” of the empire (circa 1300–1600), histori-
Austrian-Hungarian historiography and the schooling of ans in the Balkan and Arab successor states studied the
these early Ottomanists, explains their Quellenkundliche 19th century, the era of “Ottoman decline” and “national
orientation, that is, their focus on source criticism and pub- liberation movements.” Whereas Turkish historiography
lication. It is hardly surprising that it was these European has emphasized the “Pax Ottomanica,” that is, the pros-
Ottomanists who first studied Ottoman manuscripts and perity of the empire, the meritocracy and efficiency of its
archival sources and who first introduced source criticism institutions, the relative religious tolerance of this multi-
into the field of Ottoman studies. religious and multi-ethnic empire in an age when most
xxxvi Introduction

European monarchs tried to impose religious homogene- tional politics. Since then, many have likened the United
ity upon their subjects, historians in the successor states States’s (temporarily) unrivaled power to that of the
stressed the backwardness and oppressive nature of the Romans and of other past empires. Many study the his-
late empire, and often projected their negative experi- tory of ancient empires in order to search for lessons as
ence onto earlier periods. These one-sided and distorted to how these empires ruled and dominated international
images have, however, changed in the past two decades, politics in the past.
for Ottoman studies had become an international field of The Balkan wars of the 1990s as well as the religious
study, not least because of the development of the disci- and ethnic conflicts in the Middle East have dramatically
pline in the United States. increased interest in the history of the Ottoman Empire,
The study of the Ottoman Empire in the United which ruled these regions for centuries. Nevertheless,
States has been influenced by many of the same trends scholarship on the history of the Ottomans continues to
that shaped Islamic and Middle Eastern studies in gen- lag behind that of other empires. Not counting popular
eral. Most early students of the Ottomans were trained in histories, there are only half a dozen scholarly histories
departments and centers for Near/Middle Eastern stud- of the empire written in the past decade by Ottomanists,
ies, often established in the United States by European and most cover only parts of the empire’s 600-year his-
scholars along European traditions. Ottoman history was tory. Historical dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other
thus studied mainly by Turkologists, that is, specialists in handbooks are also rare.
the languages and culture of the Turkic peoples who were The present volume is the first and only English-lan-
usually not trained in history, or by historians who used guage Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Its intended
mainly European sources and either did not know Otto- readership is high school and college students who are
man Turkish or had no access to Ottoman sources for taking courses in Middle Eastern, Balkan/eastern Euro-
other reasons. Like students of other “Oriental” empires pean, and/or world history. Keeping our readership
and civilizations, many of these scholars displayed Ori- in mind we tried to create larger headings in English,
entalist and/or Eurocentric bias. This has changed in the instead of having separate entries on a myriad of Otto-
past couple of decades due to a new generation of Otto- man Turkish terms. Thus, for instance, the reader will
manists who were trained jointly by history and Middle not find separate entries on vilayet/eyalet/beylerbeylik,
Eastern departments and thus acquired the skills of the sancak, nahiye, kaza, that is, on terms used to denote
historian along with the necessary languages. administrative units in the empire; instead there is a lon-
Changes in attitudes toward empires have also ger article on Ottoman provincial administration (see
played a role. Prior to the 1990s, the political and intel- administration, provincial). Similarly, instead of
lectual left equated “empire” with “imperialism” and having entries on the various terms related to the Otto-
“colonialization,” while the political and intellectual man land tenure system, we chose to commission a lon-
right also used it in negative terms, characterizing, in the ger essay on agriculture. Readers interested in special
words of President Ronald Reagan, the Soviet Union, the Ottoman terms are referred to the detailed index that will
West’s main rival, as “evil empire.” By the 1990s, how- direct them to entries where they are discussed. Given
ever, empires and “imperial endings” had again become that this is the first encyclopedia of its kind we hope that
fashionable as an object of study, largely brought on by graduate students and our colleagues will also find our
the dissolution of the Soviet empire and the emergence encyclopedia a useful handbook.
of the United States as the dominant power in interna- —Gábor Ágoston, Georgetown University
Entries A to Z
Abbas I (Shah Abbas the Great) (b. 1571–d. 1629) (r.
1587–1629) outstanding shah of Safavid Persia When
A
and 12,000 infantrymen armed with muskets. In order
to pay these soldiers from the central treasury, the shah
Abbas became the Shii shah (ruler) of Safavid Persia (pres- increased royal revenues by converting the military fiefs
ent-day Iran), approximately half of his country was of the Turkoman chieftains into crown lands. In so doing
occupied by the Safavids’ traditional Sunni enemies, the Abbas further weakened the power of the Kızılbaş emirs.
Ottomans and the Shaybanid Uzbeks. In order to avoid He also brought many of the empire’s autonomous and
conflict on two fronts, Abbas concluded a humiliating semiautonomous regions under direct royal control. By
peace treaty with the Ottomans in 1590, ceding all recent the end of Abbas’s reign, some half of the provinces of
Ottoman conquests in western and northern Iran to Persia, traditionally controlled by the Kızılbaş chieftains,
Istanbul, including the first Safavid capital, Tabriz. With were administered by the military commanders of the
his western border secured through peace, Abbas turned new ghulam, answerable and loyal only to the shah.
against the Uzbek Turks. By 1603, through successive Shah Abbas also realized the economic and political
wars, Abbas had reconquered the provinces of Khurasan significance of Armenians and other religious minorities
and Sistan, thus stabilizing his eastern frontier. Turning (Jews, Zoroastrians, and Hindus) living in Iran. To take
his attention westward, the shah now challenged the Otto- advantage of the commercial expertise of Armenians
mans, whose resources were tied up by the long Hungarian and other Christian minorities, such as Jacobites and
War (1593–1606) (see Hungary) and the Celali revolts Chaldeans, the shah created separate town quarters for
in Anatolia. Abbas not only managed to retake substantial them, supported their trade, and protected them. He also
amounts of former Safavid territory, he also conquered allowed various Roman Catholic orders (Carmelites and
Baghdad and Diyarbakır, albeit only temporarily. Capuchins) to settle and work in Iran. He hoped that his
Abbas’s military achievements were partly due to, tolerance toward his non-Muslim subjects and the Cath-
and went hand in hand with, his military, administra- olic religious orders would enable him to form alliances
tive, and financial reforms. By establishing an indepen- with various European Christian powers against the
dent standing army, answerable to and paid by the shah, Ottomans and Uzbeks, his Sufi neighbors and adversar-
he considerably curbed the influence of the Kızılbaş ies. Although in 1621 he ordered the forcible conversion
Turkoman tribes and their emirs (chieftains), who had of many Armenians, in general Persia’s Christian popula-
in the past composed the bulk of the Safavid army. Like tion prospered under him. According to historian Roger
that of the Ottoman Empire, Abbas’s new army was based Savory, the shah’s “grand experiment in the creation of a
on military slaves or ghulams, recruited, in this case, multicultural state, based on religious tolerance” elevated
from among Circassians, Armenians, and Georgians. Persia “to unprecedented heights of economic prosperity
Abbas’s permanent army is said to have included a per- and artistic achievement.”
sonal bodyguard of 3,000 men, a cavalry force of 10,000 The remarkable flourishing of Persian arts and cul-
men, an artillery corps of 12,000 men with 500 cannons, ture under his rule was especially visible in Isfahan,
1
2 Abbas Hilmi

which the shah made his new capital. Isfahan’s main of Egypt, the political status of Egypt was complicated.
square (Maidan-i Naghsh-i Jahan) is a remarkable exam- It was still technically an Ottoman province but its gov-
ple of imperial urban planning and construction. One ernors, who later held the title of khedive (viceroy),
of the largest city squares in the world and listed as one enjoyed complete independence of action. Further com-
of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites, the square is sur- plicating the situation, Great Britain occupied the coun-
rounded by the Royal Palace, mosques, colleges or madra- try in 1882 and declared it a British protectorate, all the
sas, shops, markets, caravansaries, and public bathhouses, while asserting that the khedive governed Egypt as an
many of which were built during Abbas’s reign. The mon- Ottoman province. When the reigning khedive, Tawfiq,
umental entrance of the Royal Palace, the Âlî Qapu or died in 1892, his son Abbas was only 17 years old and
Exalted Gate, was meant to rival the Imperial Gate (Bab-ı legally could not ascend the throne. But Lord Cromer,
Hümayun) of the Ottoman sultans’ Topkapi Palace. The Egypt’s unofficial British governor, stepped in to suggest
English traveler and Byzantinist Robert Byron (d. 1941) that according to the Muslim lunar calendar Abbas was,
compared the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque on the square to in fact, already 18. Legality aside, Abbas Hilmi assumed
Versailles, Vienna’s Schönbrunn, Venice’s Doge’s Palace, the title of khedive and received an imperial patent
or Rome’s St. Peter, remarking that “All are rich; but none from Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid II (r. 1876–1909)
so rich” as Isfahan’s Lotfollah Mosque. The Royal Maidan, confirming his office. Cromer’s intervention in his
with its shops and bazaars, became a commercial and enthronement was emblematic of the troubled relation-
economic hub of the city. To further strengthen the city’s ship that Abbas had with his country’s British occupiers.
economic life, Abbas forcefully resettled thousands of While he owed his throne to the British, he sought to
Armenian, Persian, and Turkish artisans and merchants establish his own independent course, especially when
from Julfa in Armenia and Tabriz in Azerbaijan, creating promoting Egyptian sovereignty over the recently con-
two new town quarters. He also invited European mer- quered territory of Sudan. In 1894 Abbas clashed with
chants and experts to his realm. Lord Kitchner, the British commander of the Egyp-
While Abbas’s rule restored Safavid Persia’s former tian army in the Sudan, and demanded his resignation.
status in the region, curtailed Kızılbaş factionalism, and Again Lord Cromer intervened, and Kitchner remained
cemented royal authority with regard to the nomadic in his post.
tribes, the shah’s dynastic policy ultimately weakened For the rest of his reign, Abbas Hilmi looked for
Persia. Before Abbas, royal princes were sent to the prov- allies who might get the British out of Egypt and thus
inces as governors, where they acquired useful admin- help establish him as sole ruler of the country. Initially he
istrative and military skills. Fearing rebellion and coups contacted the French and the Ottomans for help; when
from within the royal family, Abbas ended this practice neither seemed willing to take on the British over the
and kept the princes in his harem. Consequently, most question of who rightly governed Egypt, Abbas Hilmi
shahs after Abbas lacked the experience and skills neces- turned to the Egyptian nationalists who were agitating
sary to govern well. However, Abbas’s economic, admin- for British withdrawal. Abbas supported several nation-
istrative, and military reforms strengthened Safavid royal alist newspapers and for a time was a political ally of
authority, resulting in another century of royal power Mustafa Kamil (1874–1908), who became the founder
despite inferior rulers. of the National Party. He also consistently supported the
Gábor Ágoston Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid II as the champion of Mus-
See also Hungary; Qajars. lim countries’ resistance to European imperialism. But
Further reading: Charles Melville, ed., Safavid Persia: with the sultan’s fall from power in 1909, Abbas Hilmi
The History and Politics of an Islamic Society (London: I. B. developed a grander scheme that would designate him
Tauris, 1996); Eskandar Beg Monshi, History of Shah Abbas caliph of a revived Arab-Muslim empire.
the Great, 2 vols., trans. Roger M. Savory (Boulder, Colo.: The khedives often spent their summers in Turkish
Westview, 1978); David Morgan, Medieval Persia, 1040– Istanbul, and Abbas Hilmi chose do so in the summer of
1797 (London: Longman, 1988); Roger Savory, Iran under 1914. When the Ottoman Empire entered World War
the Safavids (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, I (1914–18) as an ally of Germany on October 29, 1914,
1980); Roger M. Savory, “Relations between the Safavid Abbas did not immediately return to Egypt, thus rais-
State and Its Non-Muslim Minorities.” Islam and Christian- ing British concerns about his intentions and loyalties.
Muslim Relations 14, no. 4 (2003): 435–58. When the khedive finally returned to Cairo in Decem-
ber, the British quickly acted by declaring unilaterally
on December 18, 1914 that Egypt was independent of
Abbas Hilmi (b. 1875–d. 1944) (r. 1892–1914) last the Ottoman Empire, but still a British protectorate. The
khedive of Egypt After 1841, when Sultan Mahmud II next day the British deposed Abbas Hilmi in favor of his
(r. 1808–1839) made Mehmed Ali hereditary governor uncle, Husayn Kamil (1853–1917), who was given the
 Abbasid Caliphate 3

title sultan of Egypt. Egypt’s place as a part of the Otto- Abbasid Compromise to refer to the agreement. It pro-
man Empire had come abruptly to an end. vided a balance between religious and secular authority
Bruce Masters that all subsequent states embracing Sunni Islam would
Further reading: Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot, Egypt and follow until the modern era. This was in contrast to the
Cromer: A Study in Anglo-Egyptian Relations (New York: Shia Islam model of government, which envisioned the
Praeger, 1969). caliph also as the imam, a spiritual leader and model for
the world’s Muslims, thereby giving the office both polit-
ical and religious authority.
Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate ruled At the height of its power in the early ninth century,
much of the Muslim world from 750 c.e. until 1258. the Abbasid state controlled territories stretching from
Many Muslims consider it to have been the Golden Age Morocco to the borders of China; however, it weakened
of Islam, a period when the visual arts, sciences, math- over time. By the 11th century it had lost control over
ematics, and literature flourished. The Abbasid fam- most of its territory to local Muslim dynasties. Accord-
ily came to power in a revolution that brought down ing to Muslim political theory as it developed during
the Umayyad Caliphate, which had ruled the Islamic this period, the world’s Muslims should acknowledge
Empire since the death of the fourth caliph, Ali, in one political ruler, the caliph. Due to the strength of
661. The new dynasty traced its origins to Abbas (d. that ideal, most of these independent Sunni Muslim rul-
653), the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad (570–632), ers, who emerged as the power of the Abbasids declined,
and sought to make a clean break with its predecessors maintained a nominal allegiance to the caliph. The alter-
by building a new city to serve as their capital in 762. native for such a ruler was to declare that he was the
The Abbasids called the city Madinat al-Salam (City of caliph (or, with Shii Muslims, the imam), something no
Peace), but everyone else called it Baghdad, after a vil- Sunni leader would do as long the Abbasid family sur-
lage that previously existed on the site, and that was the vived. Thus even as its actual power diminished, the
name that stuck. By the late ninth century its popula- Abbasid Caliphate remained a potent symbol for political
tion is estimated to have reached half a million, mak- unity. That dream came to an end with the destruction of
ing it one of the largest cities in the world in that era. Baghdad and the murder of the last reigning caliph, al-
The population declined in the following centuries Mustasim, by the Mongols in 1258.
as the power of the dynasty diminished, but Baghdad For the sultans who ruled the Ottoman Empire
remained one of the most important centers for the beginning in the early 14th century, the Abbasid Caliph-
study and production of philosophy, religious studies, ate served as a model for good government as it had been
mathematics and science in the Muslim world, attract- the last strong, centralized Sunni Muslim state. The Otto-
ing scholars, philosophers, and poets from across North mans chose as their official interpretation of Islamic law
Africa and the Middle East. the Hanafi school favored by the Abbasid state. Politi-
When the Abbasid family came to power some Mus- cal treatises written by scholars in the Hanafi tradition,
lims hoped that they would take a more forceful role in such as those of Abu Yusuf (d. 798) and al-Mawardi (d.
making the caliphate a religious, as well as a political, 1058), served as the basis of Ottoman legal and political
office. The people in this group had favored one of the theory. The Ottomans also consciously modeled many
surviving descendants of Ali, the Prophet Muhammad’s of their state’s political and religious institutions after
son-in-law and the father of the Prophet’s only grand- those of the Abbasids. In the 17th century, Ottoman
children, to be the caliph. This faction believed that court historians began to include an account that the last
only someone from the Prophet Muhammad’s direct surviving descendant of the Abbasid line, the Caliph al-
line should rule as caliph, but many acquiesced to the Mutawakkil, handed his robe of office as caliph to Sultan
rule of a family descended at least from the Prophet Selim I (r. 1512–20) after his conquest of Egypt in 1517.
Muhammad’s more extended relations. Besides the Although no contemporary accounts recorded such a
question of who should serve as Muhammad’s successor transfer, the story became the justification for the Otto-
or caliph, there was also the question of what the office man sultan’s claim to be caliph of all Muslims during the
of the caliphate should entail. The debate was between 19th century.
those who wanted a more spiritual caliph and those Bruce Masters
who wanted a merely administrative one. The Abbasids Further reading: Selim Deringil, The Well-Protected
offered a compromise whereby they promised to rule Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Otto-
according to Islamic law but would make no claim to man Empire, 1876–1909 (London: I.B. Tauris, 1998); Hugh
spiritual authority for themselves. As long as they did so, Kennedy, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise
the religious scholars would recognize the legitimacy of and Fall of Islam’s Greatest Dynasty (Cambridge, Mass.: Da
their rule. Western historians have coined the term the Capo, 2006).
4 Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi

Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi (Abd el-Kader) (b. 1808–d. ern age, producing a large body of essays on both topics.
1883) Algerian resistance fighter, intellectual, and emir After his death, Abd al-Qadir’s sons buried him next to
of Mascara Abd al-Qadir “the Algerian” was a war- ibn al-Arabi’s grave.
rior, statesman, and religious philosopher. He was born Bruce Masters
in a village near Oran in present-day Algeria. His family Further reading: Itzchak Weismann, A Taste of Moder-
had been prominent in the Qadiriyya Order of Sufism, nity: Sufism, Salafiyya, and Arabism in Late Ottoman
which followed the teachings of Abd al-Qadir Ghilani (d. Damascus (Leiden: Brill, 2001).
1165), for more than a century. Raised within that tradi-
tion, Abd al-Qadir went on the hajj in 1826–27 with his
father, Muhy al-Din, leader of the Qadiriyya Order in Abduh, Muhammad (b. 1849–d. 1905) Egyptian
the region. Together they visited Cairo, Damascus, and judge and religious scholar, a founder of Islamic modern-
Baghdad. In each place, Abd al-Qadir held extensive ism Muhammad Abduh was one of the leading fig-
discussions with various scholars representing different ures in the Salafiyya, the Islamic reform movement
Sufi traditions from whom he gained a wide knowledge that sought to adapt Islamic law to meet the needs of the
of Islam’s philosophical and mystical traditions. modern world. Abduh was born in a village in the Egyp-
He was transformed from religious scholar to war- tian delta. After receiving a traditional education there,
rior with the French invasion of Algeria in 1830. Initially, he went to al-Azhar, the central mosque of Cairo,
Abd al-Qadir’s father led the Algerian resistance, but for further study. There Abduh met political philoso-
the leadership of both his Sufi order and the resistance pher Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and became one of his
soon passed to the son. Abd al-Qadir fought a guerrilla students. Al-Afghani introduced Abduh to the study of
campaign against French occupation, encouraging the Islamic and Western philosophy that would have a pro-
various Berber tribes in the Algerian mountains to par- found impact on all his future writings. After graduation,
ticipate in the struggle. It was a cruel war in which tens Abduh began to teach at al-Azhar, but he also contrib-
of thousands Algerians died either directly from the uted articles to Egypt’s burgeoning secular press, which
fighting or as a result of the famine that followed the led to frequent clashes with the government of the khe-
French destruction of Algerian croplands and orchards. dive. After Colonel Urabi’s revolt in 1882 and the Brit-
In the end, French power prevailed, and Abd al-Qadir ish occupation of Egypt, Abduh’s writings ultimately led
surrendered in 1847. He was taken to France and lived to his exile. Joining al-Afghani in Paris, Abduh helped
there under minimum-security house arrest until 1852. publish the protest newspaper Al-Urwah al-wuthqa (The
In France, he observed and appreciated the material firm grip). He also met with British and French intel-
progress the West was making due to their embrace of lectuals to discuss what had become the two main issues
scientific rationalism, but he was also drawn further into of his intellectual inquiry: how to respond to colonial-
the study of the writings of ibn al-Arabi, the great 13th- ism, and the compatibility of Islamic religious belief with
century Sufi intellectual. ideas of science and progress that had grown out of the
When he was released from house arrest Abd al- European Enlightenment.
Qadir went first to Istanbul, then traveled throughout Abduh returned to Egypt in 1888, largely through
the Ottoman Empire. He finally settled in Damascus in the intercession of the British, and was appointed a judge
1855. Abd al-Qadir brought with him a fairly large group in the Muslim court system. In 1899 he became the chief
of Algerian exiles, and he established an intellectual salon Muslim jurist, or mufti, of Egypt, a position he held
in his home where Muslim scholars could meet and dis- until his death in 1905. As the principal legal authority
cuss various Sufi texts. in Egypt, Abduh’s judicial rulings (fatwa) helped shape
Abd al-Qadir again gained the attention of the West the country’s legislative and educational bodies. Among
during the anti-Christian Damascus Riots in 1860. his many writings were a commentary on the Quran and
When the riot started, Abd al-Qadir sent his armed a treatise on the unity of God (Risalat al-tawhid). In all
Algerian retainers into the Christian quarter to resi- his work, Abduh stressed two points: that it is possible
dents to safety, even giving refuge to several hundred to be both Muslim and modern, and that true moder-
in his own house. In gratitude, the French government nity requires religious belief. In other words, Abduh
bestowed upon him a medal for bravery, an irony that saw Islam as providing a necessary moral balance to a
was not lost on Abd al-Qadir. After this incident, there modernity that stresses the importance of worldly mate-
was much wishful speculation in the West that he might rial success.
emerge as the “King of the Arabs” in a state independent Abduh’s writings sought to prove that Islam was not
of Ottoman control. But Abd al-Qadir turned his atten- inherently hostile to technological and intellectual inno-
tion instead to the study of the works of ibn al-Arabi and vations coming from the West. Rather, Abduh argued
to questions of how to adapt Islamic laws to the mod- that Muslims must return to the underlying principles of
 Abdülhamid I 5

Islam and not rely on the exterior traditions of ritual and recognition of the Bulgarians as a separate religious com-
practice that had developed over the centuries. Abduh munity or millet (1870).
wrote that if Muslims truly understood what God had Abdülaziz visited Egypt in 1863, and was the only
said to them in the Quran, they would adapt to a modern Ottoman sultan who also made state visits to European
world and still remain comfortably Muslim. In Abduh’s countries. Receiving his first invitation from Napoleon
view, there was no inherent clash of civilizations between III in 1867, Abdülaziz initially went to Paris to attend
the West and Islam. Rather, he saw both civilizations as the Paris Exhibition, where he met the king and queen.
needing to seek a balance between material progress and Other heads of state followed with their own invitations
spiritual goals. With his teaching and writing, Abduh and the sultan’s trip expanded to 46 days as he trav-
influenced a whole generation of Islamic scholars in both eled to London to meet the Prince of Wales, Edward II,
Egypt and Syria. and Queen Victoria of England; he later visited King
Bruce Masters Leopold II in Brussels, the king and queen of Prussia
Further reading: Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the in Koblenz, and the emperor of Austria-Hungary in
Liberal Age, 1798–1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Vienna.
Press, 1983). As Abdülaziz traveled, a group called the Young
Ottomans was at home forming an opposition against
the bureaucratic domination of Âlî Pasha and Fuad
Abdülaziz (b. 1830–d. 1876) (r. 1861–1876) Otto- Pasha. Following the death of Âlî Pasha in 1871, Grand
man sultan and caliph, ruled during second phase of the Vizier Mahmud Nedim Pasha encouraged Abdülaziz
Tanzimat Abdülaziz was the son of sultan Mahmud II to rule as an autocrat, but the lack of effective political
(r. 1808–39) and Pertevniyal Valide Sultan. He was born forces to help control the sultan led to general adminis-
on February 8, 1830, in Istanbul and came to the throne trative and political chaos. By 1875, this resulted in the
upon the death of his elder brother, Sultan Abdülmecid bankruptcy of the state. When Mahmud Nedim Pasha
(r. 1839–61) on June 25, 1861. He ruled the Ottoman failed to suppress the revolts in Bosnia and Herzegov-
Empire from 1861 until shortly before his death in 1876. ina (1875) and in Bulgaria (1876), Midhat Pasha, one
One of his 13 children, Abdülmecid, became the last of the most influential and powerful politicians of the
Ottoman caliph (1922–24), but he never ruled as sultan. later Tanzimat era and a staunch advocate for constitu-
Abdülaziz was well educated thanks to his elder tional reform, together with the heads of the army and
brother Abdülmecid. In addition to Arabic and Persian, the religious establishment (ulema), organized a coup
he studied French and was interested in music, cal- d’état, which led to the deposition of Abdülaziz (May
ligraphy, and poetry. Unlike his brother, Abdülaziz 30, 1876) in favor of his nephew Murad V (r. 1876). On
was physically strong and tall; he was a good archer and June 4, 1876, Abdülaziz was found dead in his room, but
hunter, and a brilliant wrestler. whether he was assassinated or died of natural causes
His brother, Abdülmecid, had initiated a period of remains a subject of debate.
reform known as the Tanzimat (Reorganization) that Selçuk Akşin Somel
aimed to modernize the institutions of the Ottoman Further reading: Roderic H. Davison, Reform in the
Empire. In the first decade of Abdülaziz’s rule, statesmen Ottoman Empire, 1856–1876 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
such as Mehmed Emin Âlî Pasha and Fuad Pasha con- University Press, 1963); Caroline Finkel, Osman’s Dream:
tinued to direct reform measures in central and provin- The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923 (London: John
cial administration, law, finances, education, and the Murray, 2005); Stanford J. Shaw and Ezel K. Shaw, History
military. These reforms included the introduction of the of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, 2 vols. (Cam-
Provincial Law Code (1864) and the establishment of the bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977).
Audit Department (1862), the State Council (1868), and
the Justice Ministry (1868). Abdülaziz focused his ener-
gies on the creation of a powerful armada and the con- Abdülhamid I (b. 1725–d. 1789) (r. 1774–1789) Otto-
struction of important railroads in Anatolia. man sultan and caliph Abdülhamid I was the son of
Despite the fact that Abdülaziz, together with Âlî Sultan Ahmed III (r. 1703–30) and the concubine Şermi
Pasha and Fuad Pasha, promoted a universalizing politi- Rabia Kadın. After spending most of his life in the seclu-
cal approach called Ottomanism as an ideological mea- sion of the palace, he succeeded to the throne at the
sure to combat separatism, the empire saw the increasing relatively advanced age of 49. He was the oldest male
autonomy of Serbia and Egypt, as well as significant member of an Ottoman dynasty endangered by the lack
political events such as the Revolt of the Montenegrins of princes. Abdülhamid compensated for his compara-
(1862), the unification of the principalities of Wal- tively advanced age by presenting himself as a saintly
lachia and Moldavia into Romania (1866), and the figure. Making his grand viziers the primary authority
6 Abdülhamid II

in running the government, he acted more as an advisor of Bombardiers, and Corps of Miners, and enlarged the
and arbitrator than as an absolutist sultan. Corps of Rapid-fire Artillerymen organized by Baron de
Abdülhamid came to power near the close of the Tott in 1772. The opening of the Imperial Naval Engi-
devastating Russo-Ottoman War of 1768–74, and his neering School (Mühendishane-i Bahri-i Hümayun) and
reign was characterized by an ongoing threat from Rus- the School of Fortification (Istihkam Mektebi) for the
sian military and political forces. The Treaty of Küçük education of trained officers, as well as the reinstatement
Kaynarca, signed with Russia on July 21, 1774, ended of the printing house founded by Ibrahim Müteferrika in
the war, but set disastrous terms for the Ottomans, the 1730s, should be counted among the achievements of
declaring the Crimea, formerly an Ottoman and Muslim Abdülhamid’s reign.
vassal principality that had guarded the Ottoman Empire Abdülhamid also acted as the benefactor and super-
against Russian expansion, an independent polity. Begin- visor of the city of Istanbul when it was ravaged by a
ning with the treaty, the Russian menace continued series of fires in 1777, 1782, 1784, and 1787. He oversaw
throughout Abdülhamid’s time in power with the steady the provisioning of the city and founded the Beylerbeyi
advance of Russia into the Crimea. and Emirgan mosques on the Bosporus, as well as spon-
Two political factions arose in direct response to this soring public institutions and charities such as librar-
threat. A hawkish faction was headed by Grand Admiral ies, schools, soup kitchens, and fountains. His Hamidiye
Cezayirli (“Algerian”) Gazi Hasan Pasha and Koca Yusuf Library was the first sultanic library founded for its own
Pasha, a future grand vizier (1787–90). Gazi Hasan Pasha sake outside of a mosque complex with an independent
became a hero and grand admiral of the Ottoman navy administration and was frequented by the Orientalists
after a 1770 naval disaster when he expelled the Rus- and foreign travelers of the time.
sians—who had set the Ottoman navy ablaze at Çesme, Abdülhamid kept at least seven concubines who
near Izmir—from the island of Lemnos, a strategic point bore him as many as 24 children, including 10 sons.
from which the Russians could have threatened the Otto- One of these, the celebrated Sultan Mahmud II (r.
man capital. Koca Yusuf Pasha propounded an aggressive 1808–39), laid the groundwork for the important Tanzi-
stance against the belligerent Russia that had annexed the mat reform period that began in 1839. Beginning with
independent Crimea in 1783 and penetrated the Cauca- Mahmud II, the last three generations of the House of
sus. A rival faction, headed by Grand Vizier Halil Hamid Osman descended from Abdülhamid. Abdülhamid died
Pasha (1782–85), argued for a more cautious diplomatic of a stroke when reading the news regarding the Russian
stance, pointing to both the need for military reform capture of Özi on the right bank of the estuary of the
and the empire’s economic instability. This approach was Dnieper River in the Russo-Ottoman War of 1787–92. He
effectively silenced, however, when Halil Hamid Pasha was succeeded by his nephew, Selim III (r. 1789–1807).
was beheaded after rumors suggested he was plotting Kahraman Şakul
for the succession of the future Selim III (r. 1789–1807), Further reading: Caroline Finkel, Osman’s Dream: The
Abdülhamid’s nephew. Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923 (London: John
As the war party rose in power, the Ottoman Empire Murray, 2005), 372–400.
went to war with the Habsburg and Russian empires
(1787–92) (see Russo-Ottoman wars) in the hope
of recovering the Crimea. Hasan Pasha also organized Abdülhamid II (b. 1842–d. 1918) (r. 1876–1909) Otto-
punitive expeditions to Syria and Egypt to put down man sultan and caliph Born to Abdülmecid I (r.
local rebellions. However, the total destabilization of 1839–61) and Tir-i Müjgan Kadın, Abdülhamid II came
the social-economic life of the empire and the contin- to power at a time of political upheaval. He succeeded
ued disruption of administration that resulted from the his brother Murad V (r. 1876), who reigned briefly after
earlier Russo-Ottoman War limited the success of such their uncle Abdülaziz (r. 1861–76) was deposed in the
measures. coup d’état of May 30, 1876, a political emergency that
Despite disagreement over foreign policy, the neces- arose out of the administrative chaos of the early 1870s,
sity for military reforms along the Western model was the agricultural crisis of 1873–74, and the general inabil-
universally recognized. Halil Hamid Pasha paid special ity of the Ottoman government to contain revolts in the
attention to strengthening the Ottoman fortresses along Balkans (1875–76). Unable to cope with the stress of the
the Russian frontier and in the Caucasus and worked throne, the liberal Murad was forced to give way to his
with the French military mission to strengthen fortresses more autocratic younger brother, Abdülhamid, whose
along the Turkish Straits (Bosporus and Dardanelles) and reign was characterized by an ongoing sense of threat
the Gallipoli Peninsula. Halil Hamid Pasha also under- in response to strong modernizing influences and wide-
took the modernization of the technical branches of the spread revolutionary movements throughout the Otto-
Ottoman army such as the Corps of Cannoneers, Corps man Empire and greater Europe.
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