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Ottoman Empire

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The field of Ottoman history has experienced dramatic growth since the 1980s. The traditional politically centered narrative inherited from 19th-century scholars, which emphasized Ottoman origins in the 14th century, the golden age of Suleiman, and decline beginning in the 17th century, has been supplanted by a picture that underlines Ottoman adaptation and ongoing viability well beyond 1600 in political, economic, military, and institutional arenas. Additionally, scholars have increasingly engaged a wide range of questions related to the social structures and functioning of the empire, the connection of art and architecture to imperial power, the standing of religious minorities in an Islamic state, and the status (including the roles, rights, and influence) of both women and men in Ottoman society.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
  6.  
  7. There are now numerous surveys of Ottoman history, though no single one provides comprehensive coverage of the empire’s long, rich history. Uzunçarşılı 1947–1962 is the essential Turkish survey of Ottoman history, from its beginning to the reign of Selim III. Imber 2002 focuses on law and bureaucracy, to the exclusion of society, economy, and religion, while İnalcık and Quataert 1994 gives particular attention to social and economic history. Finkel 2006 is more narrative in its treatment, as is the now dated Hammer-Purgstall 1835–1843, which goes into fascinating, exhaustive detail, primarily on the empire’s political and military history. Peirce 2004 provides a nice summary of recent Ottoman historiography, and Faroqhi 1999 is an essential introduction for researchers.
  8.  
  9. Faroqhi, Suraiya N. Approaching Ottoman History: An Introduction to the Sources. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
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  11. An essential introduction to the study of Ottoman history by a premier scholar in the field. Examines primary and secondary sources, general histories, and Ottoman historical works, and addresses the most important historiographical debates and questions.
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  13. Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
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  15. An accessible, well-researched introduction to and overview of Ottoman history from its beginnings to the creation of the Turkish Republic. More narrative in character than İnalcık and Quataert 1994, it focuses on high political history and traces a somewhat traditional rise-and-decline trajectory.
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  17. Hammer-Purgstall, Joseph von. Histoire de l’empire ottoman depuis son origine jusqu’à nos jours. 18 vols. Translated by J. J. Hellert. Paris: Bellizard, Barthès, Dufour, and Lowell, 1835–1843.
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  19. Though clearly dated, this work is still unsurpassed for its detailed narrative account of Ottoman history. Originally published in German in 1827–1835, the French edition was revised by the author and is to be preferred.
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  21. Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650: The Structures of Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
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  23. Surveys the first centuries of the Ottoman Empire, focusing mostly on the institutions of power (the palace, the military, the law), with little attention to society, culture, religion, gender, or commerce. Begins with a detailed chronological overview of Ottoman history from 1300 to 1650.
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  25. İnalcık, Halil. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age, 1300–1600. Translated by Norman Itzkowitz and Colin Imber. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1973.
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  27. A pioneering work, translated from Turkish, this book remains a valuable survey of early modern Ottoman history. It examines the state’s institutions, religion, and economic and social life, as well as providing an outline of Ottoman history from 1300 to 1600. The idea of an Ottoman classic age, followed by decline, has now been laid to rest, and this book has been in part supplanted by subsequent works.
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  29. İnalcık, Halil, and Donald Quataert. An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire. Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge Press, 1994.
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  31. This monumental synthetic overview of the Ottoman Empire, from its founding to its fall, brings together a “who’s who” of Ottoman studies. The authors focus on Ottoman society and economy, areas that have produced much useful recent scholarship.
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  33. Peirce, Leslie. “Changing Perceptions of the Ottoman Empire: The Early Centuries.” Mediterranean Historical Review 19.1 (2004): 6–28.
  34. DOI: 10.1080/0951896042000256625Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  35. Examines developments in Ottoman historical scholarship during the 20th century. Special attention is given to important debates in Ottoman studies on origins and decline.
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  37. Uzunçarşılı, İsmail Hakki. Osmanlı Tarihi. 4 vols. Ankara, Turkey: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1947–1962.
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  39. An exhaustive treatment of Ottoman history through the 18th century. Heavily political, the series is organized according to the reigns of sultans, with a rather static view of Ottoman history throughout this period.
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  41. Reference Works
  42.  
  43. Somel 2003 and Bayerle 1997 are concise, useful dictionaries of Ottoman offices, terms, individuals, and events. The Encyclopedia of Islam (Bearman, et al. 1954–2008) contains numerous entries related to Ottoman history and is much more extensive and in depth; it should be read in conjunction with İslâm ansiklopedisi 1949–1986, which is the essential Turkish-language encyclopedia. Pitcher 1972 has helpful, though limited, maps of the Ottoman Empire. Danişmend 1947–1961 is an old, but still essential, highly detailed chronology of Ottoman History.
  44.  
  45. Bayerle, Gustav. Pashas, Begs, and Effendis: A Historical Dictionary of Titles and Terms in the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul: Isis, 1997.
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  47. A slight but valuable dictionary of Ottoman official titles and terminology.
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  49. Bearman, P. J., Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs, eds. Encyclopaedia of Islam. New ed. 12 vols. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1954–2008.
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  51. A massive, ongoing scholarly endeavor that treats in admirable depth nearly any general topic relating to the Islamic world, with large numbers of entries devoted to Ottoman topics. Available in print and also in a regularly updated online version.
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  53. Danişmend, İsmail Hami. İzahlı Osmanlı Tarihi Kronolojisi. 4 vols. Istanbul: Türkiye Yayınevi, 1947–1961.
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  55. A minutely detailed chronological account of Ottoman history from its 13th-century foundations to its final days. Not always accurate but still a valuable starting point for research. Reprinted in five volumes in 1971–1972.
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  57. İslâm ansiklopedisi. İslâm âlemi coğrafya, etnoğrafya ve biyografya lûgati. 13 vols. Istanbul: Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı, 1949–1986.
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  59. The essential Turkish-language historical encyclopedia, with expansive entries on all aspects of Ottoman history.
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  61. Pitcher, Donald Edgar. An Historical Geography of the Ottoman Empire from Earliest Times to the End of the Sixteenth Century. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1972.
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  63. A standard, if somewhat unwieldy, work that focuses solely on the political geography of the Ottoman Empire.
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  65. Somel, Selçuk Akşin. Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2003.
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  67. General, but still useful, reference on Ottoman history. Includes definitions of key terms, descriptions of institutions, and mini-biographies of important individuals, as well as lists of sultans and viziers, a chronology, and a lengthy bibliography.
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  69. Collections of Papers
  70.  
  71. Kunt and Woodhead 1995 provides a useful collection of essays that survey the reign of the great sultan, Suleiman. Aksam and Goffman 2007 is more expansive both in its chronological and topical focus, with a range of articles that cover the entire early modern Ottoman period. Faroqhi 2006 is an outstanding volume, more coherent than Aksam and Goffman 2007, which focuses on the latter part of the early modern empire; its companion covering the years from the conquest of Istanbul to 1600 is expected in 2010 or 2011. Güzel 2002 is a massive undertaking that makes the work of many Turkish scholars available in English, though it suffers from very poor translations and editing.
  72.  
  73. Aksam, Virginia, and Daniel Goffman, eds. The Early Modern Ottomans: Remapping the Empire. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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  75. Contains articles by top scholars that examine the Ottoman Empire from 1453 to 1839. Covers a range of subjects, from literature and gardens to cartography and communications. Essays illustrate the ongoing vibrancy of the Ottomans in the 17th and 18th centuries, and its attempts to modernize on its own terms, against the traditional paradigm of Ottoman decline.
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  77. Faroqhi, Suraiya N., ed. The Cambridge History of Turkey. Vol. 3, The Later Ottoman Empire, 1603–1839. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
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  79. A recent collaborative history of the early modern Ottoman Empire that surveys both center and periphery, popular and high culture, political and social history, and even the environment.
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  81. Kunt, Metin, and Christine Woodhead, eds. Süleyman the Magnificent and His Age: The Ottoman Empire in the Early Modern World. London: Longman, 1995.
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  83. A useful collection of essays on the reign of Süleyman II inserts places the Ottoman Empire into a broader, European context.
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  85. Güzel, Hasan Celâl, et al., eds. The Turks. 6 vols. Ankara, Turkey: Yeni Türkiye, 2002.
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  87. A multivolume encyclopedic survey of Ottoman and Turkish history, with lengthy, in-depth articles by specialists on a wide range of topics. Entries are very poorly translated, but they provide access in English to authors whose works are often published only in Turkish.
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  89. Journals
  90.  
  91. The field of Turkish, and specifically Ottoman, studies has experienced significant growth, as evidenced by the growing number of journals devoted specifically to Ottoman and Turkish research, and by various articles on these topics in journals more broadly devoted to Middle Eastern subjects. Archivium Ottomanicum is the only journal solely dedicated to Ottoman historical and philological studies. Turcica is the premier journal in Ottoman history. The Turkish Studies Association Journal and the International Journal of Turkish Studies publish works on all aspects of contemporary and past Turkish culture, as does New Perspectives on Turkey, which tends to present scholarship that addresses issues of debate in the field. The International Journal of Middle East Studies publishes scholarship on all aspects of Middle Eastern history, including many on Ottoman topics.
  92.  
  93. Archivum Ottomanicum.
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  95. Focuses primarily on the history and philology of the Ottoman Empire, with articles in English, German, and French.
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  97. International Journal of Middle East Studies.
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  99. The journal of the Middle East Studies Association, the largest body of scholars of all aspects of Middle Eastern history, from Muhammad to modern times. Topics covered range widely, and many articles address aspects of the Ottoman experience.
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  101. International Journal of Turkish Studies.
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  103. Journal devoted to all aspects of Turkish studies, both contemporary and historical, with a heavy emphasis on scholarship on the Ottoman Empire.
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  105. New Perspectives on Turkey.
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  107. Devoted to all aspects of Ottoman and Turkish culture, both modern and historical. Often publishes articles that challenge existing paradigms and are intended to foment scholarly debate.
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  109. Turcica.
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  111. This publication, based in France, is the premier journal of Ottoman historical studies.
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  113. Turkish Studies Association Journal.
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  115. Publishes articles, translations, and reviews on all aspects of Turkish culture, language, and history, including many pieces on the Ottoman Empire.
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  117. Art and Architecture
  118.  
  119. The field of art history experienced significant growth over the past several decades. Goodwin 1971 was the first extended treatment of Ottoman architecture and focuses primarily on its aesthetic and engineering aspects. There has been much recent work on architecture, most notably Necipoğlu 1992 and Necipoğlu 2005, which address cultural questions of power and patronage in Ottoman architecture; the former focuses on the place of Topkapi Palace in the construction of Ottoman power, while the latter addresses the work of the master architect Sinan. Żygulski 1992 approaches similar questions of symbol and authority through military material culture and art. Esin Atıl is one of the great art historians of the early modern Ottomans, and Atıl 1987 is a usefully broad entrée into his work. Çağman and Atasoy 1974 is a slight but valuable introduction to the rich tradition of Ottoman miniatures. Denny 2005 is an important recent work on the equally important Ottoman ceramic tradition.
  120.  
  121. Atıl, Esin. The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987.
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  123. This exhibition catalogue, from a 1987 show at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, provides a visual overview of the artistic culture of the rule of Sultan Suleiman II, as well as a useful discussion of artistic patronage in this important period. Focuses on Ottoman decorative arts, including textiles, ceramics, and furniture.
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  125. Çağman, Filiz, and Nurhan Atasoy. Turkish Miniature Painting. Istanbul: R.C.D. Cultural Institute, 1974.
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  127. Translated from the Turkish original, this work provides a brief, general, but valuable survey of the rich Ottoman tradition of miniature painting.
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  129. Denny, Walter B. Iznik: The Artistry of Ottoman Ceramics. London: Thames and Hudson, 2005.
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  131. Examines the highly developed Ottoman ceramic industry, with particular attention to a variety of stylistic elements, the relationship between the imperial palace and the ateliers, and the ceramic’s historical legacy.
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  133. Goodwin, Godfrey. A History of Ottoman Architecture. London: Thames and Hudson, 1971.
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  135. A groundbreaking survey of Ottoman architecture that focuses on both public and private works, including mosques, schools, fountains, and shops. Emphasizes the impact of a range of factors on the evolution of Ottoman architecture, including religion; conquest; contact with Persian, Syrian, and Italian architecture; and the evolving social realities of the growing empire.
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  137. Necipoğlu, Gulru. Architecture, Ceremonial, and Power: The Topkapi Palace in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992.
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  139. Through a detailed study of Topkapi Palace, Necipoğlu shows its relationship to other similar palaces, as well as the key symbolic role the complex played in underlining the majesty and sovereign power of the sultans as they shifted to cloistered lives removed from everyday contact with their subjects.
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  141. Necipoğlu, Gulru. The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.
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  143. The essential work on Sinan, the great Ottoman architect. Surveys his work with vivid illustrations, from mosques to more mundane commissions, and situates them in the wider cultural and historical context of the day. Necipoğlu argues that Sinan’s designs were heavily influenced by his court patrons, drawing parallels with contemporary Italian architecture, knowledge of which, she claims, circulated widely in the Mediterranean and heavily influenced the Ottoman architect.
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  145. Żygulski, Zdzislaw, Jr. Ottoman Art in the Service of Empire. New York: New York University Press, 1992.
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  147. This extensively illustrated book examines Ottoman military material culture in terms of its aesthetic, ceremonial, and symbolic role in constructing Ottoman sovereignty.
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  149. Economy
  150.  
  151. While Ottoman trade in the Mediterranean has attracted the most attention, such as in Goffman 1990 and Hanna 1998, Ottoman scholars have begun to focus on other trade contexts as well, such as in the Indian Ocean, as evidenced by Casale 2010. Hanna 1998 and McGowan 1981 consider Ottoman economic life in local, peripheral contexts. Gerber 1988 and Faroqhi 1984 take opposing views on the question of Ottoman decline. Pamuk 2000 is the essential work on Ottoman monetary history, while Quataert 2000 introduces consumption into the study of the Ottoman economy.
  152.  
  153. Casale, Giancarlo. The Ottoman Age of Exploration. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
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  155. This important work examines the little-studied Ottoman expansion into the Indian Ocean during the 16th century, as well as the empire’s rivalry with the Portuguese. Casale places this new frontier into the broader context of the more familiar Mediterranean Ottoman experience.
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  157. Faroqhi, Suraiya. Towns and Townsmen of Ottoman Anatolia: Trade, Crafts, and Food Production in an Urban Setting, 1520–1650. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
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  159. Examines in great detail the broad economic life of cities both large and small in Ottoman Anatolia. Focusing on trade, industry, and to a lesser extent agriculture, Faroqhi’s view of the Ottoman economy in this age is one of decline, a view that has been effectively debunked in subsequent decades. Quataert 2000 shifts the focus from production to consumption.
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  161. Gerber, Haim. Economy and Society in an Ottoman City: Bursa, 1600–1700. Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1988.
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  163. Through an overview of the social and economic life of a single Anatolian city, Bursa, the author convincingly argues against the paradigm of early modern Ottoman decline. Highly statistical in its analysis, this book examines the city’s demography, slave ownership, charity, prices and banking, trade and industry, and land ownership.
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  165. Goffman, Daniel. Izmir and the Levantine World, 1550–1650. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1990.
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  167. Argues, counterintuitively, that the rise of Izmir as a thriving international port was the result not of growing Ottoman political might, but of political decline. The weakening of the empire created a series of circumstances that facilitated the rise of Izmir as an important regional center of trade.
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  169. Hanna, Nelly. Making Big Money in 1600: The Life and Times of Ismaʿil Abu Taqiyya, Egyptian Merchant. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1998.
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  171. Through a close study of the life of an individual merchant, this book develops a detailed picture of the place of commercial life in the social, political, and cultural world of 17th-century Cairo. Hanna also debunks the myth that Ottoman conquest brought with it economic downfall.
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  173. McGowan, Bruce. Economic Life in Ottoman Europe: Taxation, Trade, and the Struggle for Land, 1600–1800. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
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  175. Examines the economic and social conditions of the Balkans under Ottoman rule, specifically addressing three themes: trade relations with Europe, Ottoman land expansion and taxation.
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  177. Pamuk, Şevket. A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
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  179. The essential work on Ottoman monetary history, synthesizes a wide range of scholarship into an accessible survey of the period from Mehmed II to the end of the empire in 1924. Suggests implications of monetary policies on broader sociopolitical matters.
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  181. Quataert, Donald, ed. Consumption Studies and the History of the Ottoman Empire, 1550–1922. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000.
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  183. An edited volume that shifts the focus of Ottoman economic history from production to consumption. Coffee, tobacco, tulips, clothing, and food are among the topics considered. The authors are influenced by studies on consumption in early modern Europe, but also willing to challenge some of these findings based on the Ottoman example.
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  185. Gender
  186.  
  187. One of the most productive and interesting areas of research has been Ottoman gender history. The initial work of Ronald Jennings and Haim Gerber was foundational (see Jennings 1975, Jennings 1993, and Gerber 1980). Peirce 1993 has been highly influential in challenging images of powerless harem women, while Tucker 1998 shows the flexibility of Islamic law in matters relating to women. Zilfi 1997 is a valuable collection on many aspects of gender in the Ottoman Empire. Hunt 2007 addresses the provocative question of the comparative status of Ottoman women and European women.
  188.  
  189. Gerber, Haim. “Social and Economic Position of Women in an Ottoman City, Bursa, 1600–1700.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 12.3 (1980): 231–244.
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  191. Examines the treatment and status of Ottoman women, which was inferior to men, but also describes various ways in which Islamic law and the Ottoman government attempted to protect women from maltreatment.
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  193. Hunt, Margaret R. “Women in Ottoman and Western European Law Courts: Were Western Women Really the Luckiest Women in the World?” In Structures and Subjectivities: Attending to Early Modern Women. Edited by Joan E. Hartman and Adelle Seeff, 176–202. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2007.
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  195. A provocative essay which argues that Western perceptions of the status and treatment of Middle Eastern women ignore the many ways in which their standing surpassed those in Europe.
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  197. Jennings, Ronald C. “Women in Early 17th Century Ottoman Judicial Records: The Sharia Court of Anatolian Kayseri.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 18.1 (1975): 53–114.
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  199. In this pioneering essay, Jennings uses more than 1,800 court cases to examine women’s legal position, economic involvement, and social status, demonstrating in the process the ways in which Ottoman women utilized the courts to assert a degree of agency and independence.
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  201. Jennings, Ronald C. “Divorce in the Ottoman Sharia Court of Cyprus, 1580–1640.” Studia Islamica 78 (1993): 155–167.
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  203. In another influential essay, Jennings argues that, in contrast to assumptions about Islam and its treatment of women, divorce and remarriage were quite common in the Ottoman Empire.
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  205. Peirce, Leslie P. The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
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  207. The most influential work on Ottoman gender, this book debunks the myth of powerless women in the imperial harem, as well as the equally problematic concept of the sultanate of women. Peirce demonstrates how Ottoman women within the royal dynasties were actually able to assert power politically. Rather than neutralizing women, the dynasty’s harems empowered women by situating them closest to the sultan and the locus of power.
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  209. Tucker, Judith E. In the House of the Law: Gender and Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
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  211. Examines the treatment of a range of women’s and family issues by Muslim legal scholars in early modern Syria and Palestine. Demonstrates the significant attention to issues of gender among legal scholars, and finds Islamic law to have been more malleable in its treatment of women than is traditionally believed.
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  213. Zilfi, Madeline C., ed. Women in the Ottoman Empire: Middle Eastern Women in the Early Modern Era. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1997.
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  215. An essential collection of essays treating topics of gender history, including divorce, legal status, economic activity, and family life, drawn from throughout the Ottoman Empire during the early modern period.
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  217. International Relations
  218.  
  219. Both Darling 1998 and Kafadar 1994 provide provocative challenges to traditional paradigms of conflict and decline in Ottoman-European relations. Dursteler 2006 argues for a more nuanced understanding of Veneto-Ottoman relations that goes beyond simplistic models of conflict. Goffman 1998 looks at Anglo-Ottoman relations through the prism of trade, while Matar 1999 catalogues Ottomans in English literature; both insist on the need to include the Ottomans in our understanding of early modern England. While most work has focused on Ottoman-European relations (e.g., de Groot 1978, Goffman 2002), Faroqhi 1989 shifts the focus east to the Mughal state, and Faroqhi 2004 traces Ottoman relations over a broad arc from India to Europe.
  220.  
  221. Darling, Linda. “Rethinking Europe and the Islamic World in the Age of Exploration.” Journal of Early Modern History 2.3 (1998): 221–246.
  222. DOI: 10.1163/157006598X00199Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  223. An insightful corrective to the common tendency to isolate the Islamic world from early modern Europe, and to see the former as stagnant and in decline, in contrast to the vibrancy of the latter.
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  225. de Groot, A. H. The Ottoman Empire and the Dutch Republic: A History of the Earliest Diplomatic Relations, 1610–1630. Leiden, The Netherlands: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Institut, 1978.
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  227. Traces the establishment and course of Dutch relations with the Porte in the first half of the 17th century, with engaging portraits of the chief Ottoman and Dutch officials responsible for the granting of capitulations.
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  229. Dursteler, Eric. Venetians in Constantinople: Nation, Identity, and Coexistence in the Early Modern Mediterranean. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.
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  231. Through a focused study on the Venetian diplomatic and merchant nation in Istanbul in the 16th and 17th centuries, Dursteler argues that individual and communal identity was fluid and complex in the early modern Mediterranean, and that as a result coexistence was more common than conflict.
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  233. Faroqhi, Naimur R. Mughal-Ottoman Relations: A Study of Political and Diplomatic Relations between Mughal India and the Ottoman Empire, 1556–1748. Delhi, India: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli, 1989.
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  235. The Ottoman Empire’s eastern frontier has received much less attention than its Mediterranean border, but as this work shows, Mughal and Ottoman history cannot be understood in isolation. A chief issue in Mughal-Ottoman relations was their relationship with the Shia Safavids in Iran.
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  237. Faroqhi, Suraiya. The Ottoman Empire and the World around It. London: I. B. Tauris, 2004.
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  239. A valuable examination of Ottoman relations with European states, as well as Safavid Iran and Mughal India, at key historical moments from the 16th to the 18th centuries. More than a diplomatic history, this is a study of the breadth and complexity of cultural encounters between the Ottomans and their neighbors.
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  241. Goffman, Daniel. Britons in the Ottoman Empire, 1642–1660. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1998.
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  243. Surveys the Anglo-Ottoman relationship during a time of crisis in England, though because of sources, the work is more heavily weighted to the British side of the equation. Goffman examines the experiences of a number of English merchants and diplomats in the Ottoman Empire, arguing for the impact of these noncolonial encounters on Britain and the need to include them in the wider context of the expansion of England.
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  245. Goffman, Daniel. The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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  247. Although much of the Ottoman Empire was situated in Europe, it has traditionally been considered as essentially different and separate from Europe. This book argues that the Ottomans were tightly connected to the West and must be considered as an elemental part of early modern Europe. While acknowledging conflicts, the book emphasizes the nonmilitary connections that dominated Ottoman-European relations.
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  249. Kafadar, Cemal. “The Ottomans and Europe.” In Handbook of European History, 1400–1600. Vol. 1, Structures and Assertions. Edited by Thomas A. Brady Jr., Heiko A. Oberman, and James D. Tracy, 589–636. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1994.
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  251. A stimulating and provocative survey of Ottoman history in the early modern period that situates the empire within a European context and argues for a more nuanced understanding of Ottoman relations with Europe. Includes extensive bibliography.
  252. Find this resource:
  253. Matar, Nabil. Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
  254. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  255. Examines a wide range of English sources on the Ottoman Empire, including literature, broadsheets, travel narratives, and theater, to illustrate the range and complexity of Anglo-Ottoman encounters and their knowledge of each other. Also argues for the need to consider the English encounters with the Mediterranean and the New World in tandem.
  256. Find this resource:
  257. Law and Legal Institutions
  258.  
  259. The field of Ottoman legal studies has experienced significant growth. The somewhat static view of law in Imber 1997 contrasts with the more pliable application evidenced in Peirce 2003. Heyd 1973 focuses on kanun, or secular law, while Gerber 1994 and Imber 1997 both address the debate over the relationship of secular and religious law.
  260.  
  261. Gerber, Haim. State, Society, and Law in Islam: Ottoman Law in Comparative Perspective. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.
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  263. With a focus on the 16th and 17th centuries, this book examines the structures and institutions of the Ottoman legal system, as well as the relationship between Ottoman law and Islamic Sharia law, which Gerber sees as complementing rather than competing with each other.
  264. Find this resource:
  265. Heyd, Uriel. Studies in Old Ottoman Criminal Law. Edited by V. L. Ménage. Oxford: Clarendon, 1973.
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  267. A foundational work on Ottoman kanun, or secular law, that examines a wide range of legal documents and attempts, rather problematically, to create a composite Ottoman legal code. Also examines the administration of justice, the empire’s various legal officials, court proceedings, and punishment.
  268. Find this resource:
  269. Imber, Colin. Ebuʾ-suʿud: The Islamic Legal Tradition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997.
  270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  271. Tests the long-held tradition that the influential Ottoman jurist and mufti of Istanbul, Ebuʾ-suʿud, harmonized secular and religious law. Imber examines the jurist’s findings in areas such as legal sovereignty, taxation, marriage and family law, and crime. More generally, he provides a valuable window into Ottoman law during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent and places this into the longer arc of Hanafi legal tradition.
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Peirce, Leslie. Morality Tales: Law and Gender in the Ottoman Court of Aintab. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
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  275. Using the court records of a provincial town, Peirce opens a window onto both the Ottoman legal system and, more broadly, the life of an early modern Ottoman community. Issues of class, gender, religion, and the law are explored.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Literature and History
  278.  
  279. The literary history of the Ottoman Empire remains comparatively underdeveloped. Gibbs 1900–1909 is old but still useful; Andrews 1985 challenges many of Gibbs’s contentions. Bombaci 1968 is, in its French translation, still influential. The study of Ottoman historiography, in contrast, has attracted somewhat more attention: Thomas 1972 is a useful window into the life of an important Ottoman historian, while Piterberg 2003 is theoretically more sophisticated in its reading of historical narrative and political exigencies. The most important recent work is Andrews and Kalpaklı 2005.
  280.  
  281. Andrews, Walter. Poetry’s Voice, Society’s Song: Ottoman Lyric Poetry. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1985.
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  283. Though often overlooked, this revisionist study of Ottoman poetry challenges Gibbs on a number of fronts and overturns the view that Ottoman poetry was just a poor imitation of the Persian. Also provides insight into broader society, including its aesthetics and sensibilities in the early modern period.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Andrews, Walter G., and Mehmet Kalpaklı. The Age of Beloveds: Love and the Beloved in Early-Modern Ottoman and European Culture and Society. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005.
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  287. A fine example of collaborative scholarship by specialists on European and Ottoman poetry, this important work illustrates the cross-pollination between Ottoman and European love poetry in the 16th and 17th centuries.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Bombaci, Alessio. Histoire de la littérature turque. Translated by Irène Mélikoff. Paris: C. Klincksieck, 1968.
  290. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  291. Provides a concise survey of Turkish literature from its earliest days to contemporary times.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Gibbs, E. J. W. A History of Ottoman Poetry. 6 vols. London: Luzac, 1900–1909.
  294. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  295. Dated and decidedly Victorian in tone, this massive study and anthology of more than five hundred texts remains, nonetheless, a valuable catalogue of Ottoman literary styles and their influences over the entirety of the empire’s existence.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Piterberg, Gabriel. An Ottoman Tragedy: History and Historiography at Play. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
  298. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  299. Through a close reading of the tumultuous events surrounding the assassination of Osman II, Piterberg examines both the historical events themselves, in the context of the changing Ottoman state, and the way that the various accounts evolved into the official narrative.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Thomas, Lewis V. A Study of Naima. Edited by Norman Itzkowitz. New York: New York University Press, 1972.
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  303. A useful study of one of the important 17th-century Ottoman historians, about whom surprisingly little is known. Focuses on Naima’s life, his ideas, and his works and their influences.
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Military and Warfare
  306.  
  307. Ottoman military historiography was relatively neglected, particularly the post-1600 period, until quite recently. In part this was a result of assumptions about general Ottoman decline, and in part it was a result of a general decline in interest in military history. Aksan 2007 and Finkel 1988 are two examples of recent scholarship that debunks assumptions about premature Ottoman decline and its impact on the military. Ágoston 2005 challenges the view of Murphey 1999 that Ottomans depended on European producers for gunpowder and weapons. Har-El 1995 examines the Ottoman expansion in Egypt, while Dávid and Fodor 2000 focuses on a later example, the military administration of another peripheral region, Hungary. Bostan 1992 focuses on the Ottoman naval administration and the arsenal in Istanbul.
  308.  
  309. Ágoston, Gábor. Guns for the Sultan: Military Power and the Weapons Industry in the Ottoman Empire. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
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  311. Examines the Ottoman manufacture and employment of gunpowder weapons in the early modern period. Effectively argues against the view that Islamic conservatism prevented the Ottomans and other Muslim states from adapting to changing technologies and techniques of warfare.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Aksan, Virginia H. Ottoman Wars, 1700–1870: An Empire Besieged. Harlow, UK: Longman, 2007.
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  315. Examines Ottoman military history following its defeat at Vienna in 1683. Through analyses of select campaigns, as well as placing the military into broader intellectual, cultural, and political trends within the empire, Aksan highlights the impact of the accelerating Ottoman decline on the sultans’ armies.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Bostan, Idris. Osmanlı Bahriye Teşkilatı: XVII. Yüzyılda Tersane-i Amire. Ankara, Turkey: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1992.
  318. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319. An essential study on Ottoman naval organization and sea power, and particularly the shipyards in Istanbul, in the 17th century.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. Dávid, Géza, and Pal Fodor, eds. Ottomans, Hungarians, and Habsburgs in Central Europe: The Military Confines in the Era of Ottoman Conquest. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2000.
  322. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  323. This collection of essays examines the Ottoman central European frontier from the 15th to the 17th centuries. It highlights the administrative and defensive systems, manpower, and other aspects and challenges of ruling on the imperial periphery.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Finkel, Caroline. The Administration of Warfare: The Ottoman Military Campaigns in Hungary, 1593–1606. Vienna: Verband der wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaften Osterreichs, 1988.
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  327. An important study of the mobilization, provisioning, and organization of the Ottoman army during its prime. Finkel compares it to other early modern armies and argues that, contrary to the model of Ottoman decline, Ottoman forces in Hungary continued to function and perform effectively.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Har-El, Shai. Struggle for Domination in the Middle East: The Ottoman-Mamluk War, 1485–91. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1995.
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  331. A valuable study focusing on a particular military episode during the first stage of Ottoman expansion. Provides insights into the specific conflict itself, as well as into larger issues of warfare and political policy, frontier relations, and diplomacy.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. Murphey, Rhoads. Ottoman Warfare, 1500–1700. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999.
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  335. The first general text on Ottoman warfare; provides a solid general overview of the organization, logistics, leadership, and methods of the Ottoman army, with special attention to the Iranian and Austrian fronts. Challenges the gazi thesis of Ottoman expansion being driven by religious zeal, and places Ottoman military developments into the broader debates about the military revolution.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Minorities
  338.  
  339. The label “Ottoman” masks a complex admixture of religious, geographical, and ethnic diversity that made up the empire. The nature of these communities and their relationships to each other and to the state have produced a large body of scholarship. Braude and Lewis 1982 takes on the fraught question of the millet system. While nationalist historiographies of areas formerly under Ottoman rule have often exaggerated or ignored this period, recent work such as Greene 2000, Jennings 1993, and Sant Cassia 1986 has developed a more complex picture of interreligious and cross-cultural relations in the Greek Aegean that undercuts views of impenetrable religious and cultural boundaries. (Greene 2000 focuses on Crete, while Sant Cassia 1986 and Jennings 1993 both treat Ottoman Cyprus). Masters 2001 develops a similar picture for Ottoman Syria.
  340.  
  341. Braude, Benjamin, and Bernard Lewis, eds. Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The Functioning of a Plural Society. 2 vols. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1982.
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  343. This uneven collection of essays examines the functioning and history of the famed Ottoman millet system and its implications in maintaining generally peaceful relations between the diverse religious groups that made up the Ottoman state.
  344. Find this resource:
  345. Greene, Molly. A Shared World: Christians and Muslims in the Early Modern Mediterranean. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.
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  347. Employing both Venetian and Ottoman sources, Greene examines the ways in which Crete changed, or did not, under Ottoman rule, and the varied relationship between Christians and Muslims on the island. Emphasizes the Mediterranean, hybrid, and fluid character of Ottoman Cretan society.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Jennings, Ronald C. Christians and Muslims in Ottoman Cyprus and the Mediterranean World, 1571–1640. New York: New York University Press, 1993.
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  351. A companion to Greene 2000, this book examines the impact of Ottoman rule on Cyprus and argues against the traditional view that conquest brought decline to the island. Examines a wide range of topics, from women to non-Muslims, the military to the courts. Also looks at forced transfers and conversions to Islam and their impact on the demographic makeup of the island.
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Masters, Bruce. Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World: The Roots of Sectarianism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
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  355. The primary focus is on the expansion of Catholicism among Arab Christians in early modern Syria, including the related religious tensions that developed between Christians and Muslims. Masters places these developments solidly into their local Ottoman and Muslim setting and shows both how diverse religious communities coexisted and the limits of tolerance. The discussion covers 20th-century tensions as well.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Sant Cassia, Paul. “Religion, politics and ethnicity in Cyprus during the Turkocratia (1571–1878).” Archives Européennes de Sociologie 27.1 (1986): 3–28.
  358. DOI: 10.1017/S0003975600004501Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. Explores inter- and intra-ethnic conflicts on Ottoman Cyprus, and considers how Ottoman rule impacted indigenous Cypriot society, particularly in terms of social mobility. The primary thesis is that in premodern Cyprus neither religion nor ethnicity were major sources of conflict.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Christians
  362.  
  363. Frazee 1983 is solidly Eurocentric in its reading of Ottoman Christianity, whereas Heyberger 1994 (like Masters 2001, cited under Minorities) is more effective in situating it in its Ottoman, Muslim context.
  364.  
  365. Frazee, Charles A. Catholics and Sultans: The Church and the Ottoman Empire, 1453–1923. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
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  367. Provides a broad overview of Roman Catholicism and other Christian sects under Ottoman rule, Christian missions in Ottoman lands, and the papacy’s relationship with the Ottomans and with other European patrons of Ottoman Christian churches. The book’s focus is primarily on Rome, to the exclusion of the Ottoman context.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Heyberger, Bernard. Les Chrétiens du Proche-Orient au temps de la Réforme catholique: Syrie, Liban, Palestine, XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles. Rome: École Française de Rome, 1994.
  370. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  371. A valuable study of Christian communities in the Ottoman Empire during the Catholic reform movement of the 17th and 18th centuries. Very effective in placing these communities into their Arab and Islamic, as well as European and Christian, contexts.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Jews
  374.  
  375. The study of Ottoman Jews has flourished since the 1980s. Rozen 2002 examines the Jewish community in Istanbul more from the viewpoint of Jewish sources, whereas Cohen 1984 looks at Jerusalem’s Jews from an Ottomanist perspective. Levy 2002 examines Jewish-Muslim relations throughout the Ottoman Empire from the conquest of Istanbul to the fall of the empire.
  376.  
  377. Cohen, Amnon. Jewish Life under Islam: Jerusalem in the Sixteenth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.
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  379. Much Jewish historical scholarship has tended to consider Jews in isolation from the societies and cultures they inhabited, while also being based primarily on Jewish sources. This work uses Ottoman court records to describe the Jewish community in Jerusalem’s composition and institutions, and to situate it in its urban setting (as well as a much broader Ottoman context). Cohen argues that Jews were highly integrated into wider Ottoman society.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. Rozen, Minna. A History of the Jewish Community of Istanbul: The Formative Years, 1453–1566. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2002.
  382. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  383. A detailed survey of life in the largest Jewish community in the Ottoman Empire, that of Istanbul. Examines the demography of the community and its diverse makeup; migration and settlement patters; structures and institutions; family, social, and economic life; and relations with the broader Muslim culture.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Levy, Avigdor, ed. Jews, Turks, Ottomans: A Shared History, Fifteenth through the Twentieth Century. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002.
  386. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  387. Contributors examine a wide, and at times disparate, range of topics related to Muslim-Jewish relations in various regions of the Ottoman Empire, from the conquest of Istanbul to the fall of the empire.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Political Structures and Ruling Class
  390.  
  391. Gibb and Bowen 1950–1958 presents a more traditional, Eurocentric picture of Ottoman institutions, while Kunt 1974 and Kunt 1983 examine aspects of Ottoman ruling elites from a more nuanced, Ottoman-centered angle. While previous scholarship largely ignored the history of the Ottoman provinces, more recent work, such as Khoury 1998, has addressed these regions and their relationship to the center. Kafadar 1995 is an outstanding discussion of the much-debated question of Ottoman origins, emphasizing both the religious, gazi aspect of the Ottoman rise and the fluid and complex frontier politics of this process. Brummett 1994 emphasizes the commercial rationale and motivation of Ottoman conquest in both the Mediterranean and Iran. Fleischer 1986 is a fascinating study of an important government official and literary figure, though adhering to a more traditional model of early modern Ottoman decline. Barkey 2008 is more nuanced and up-to-date on the issue of decline, seeing adaptation rather than degradation. Alderson 1956 is more of a reference; it is a useful tool that examines the structures and functioning of the Ottoman ruling dynasty.
  392.  
  393. Alderson, A. D. The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956.
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  395. A useful genealogical survey of the Ottoman dynasty, though not without errors. Provides a helpful window into the activities and rituals that made up the lives of the sultans.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Barkey, Karen. Empire of Difference: The Ottomans in Comparative Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
  398. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  399. Analyzes how the Ottoman Empire functioned as an empire, including its imperial life cycle. Places the Ottomans in comparative dialogue with other contemporary empires—and with sociological literature—to engage current debates about empire. Emphasizes Ottoman flexibility, resource control, and center-periphery relations in the empire’s longevity.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Brummett, Palmira. Ottoman Seapower and Levantine Diplomacy in the Age of Discovery. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.
  402. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403. Traditional historiography long ignored any explicit commercial motivation in Ottoman policies of expansion. This book shows the mercantile intent and rationale behind Ottoman expansion, rather than simply being driven by a gazi ethic of religious warfare.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Fleischer, Cornell H. Bureaucrat and Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire: The Historian Mustafā Ālī. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.
  406. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  407. This seminal biography of the influential late 16th-century Ottoman official and man of letters, Mustafa Ali, provides a fascinating and unique window into larger political, social, and cultural issues that inform early modern Ottoman history. Adheres to a rather dated paradigm of Ottoman decline, effectively challenged by many other scholars.
  408. Find this resource:
  409. Gibb, H. A. R., and Harold Bowen. Islamic Society and the West. 2 vols. London: Oxford University Press, 1950–1958.
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  411. An influential early work on the structures and institutions of the Ottoman state and their relationship to Western models. Not based on archival materials, and Orientalist in its approach, this work has now been largely superseded by more recent scholarship.
  412. Find this resource:
  413. Kafadar, Cemal. Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
  414. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  415. A historiographical survey of the debates on the origins of the Ottoman Empire, including the author’s own interpretation. Kafadar problematizes but does not discard the gazi, holy war thesis of Paul Wittek, arguing for a more fluid, adaptable frontier pragmatism for the successful rise of the Ottomans.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Khoury, Dina R. State and Provincial Society in the Ottoman Empire: Mosul, 1540–1834. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
  418. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419. A valuable study of the functioning of the Ottoman state in a provincial setting (Mosul, in modern-day Iraq) over a three-hundred-year period. Argues for a nuanced (as opposed to simplistically antagonistic) understanding of the relationship among central, regional, and local power. Khoury contends that interactions were shaped by two forces: war and taxes.
  420. Find this resource:
  421. Kunt, I. Metin. “Ethnic-Regional (Cins) Solidarity in the Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Establishment.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 5 (1974): 233–239.
  422. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  423. This influential article examines the experience of imperial slaves in the Ottoman Empire and demonstrates that, contrary to the traditional view, they did not severe all ties with their birthplaces, and indeed formed ethnic cliques within the Ottoman ruling elite.
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Kunt, I. Metin. The Sultan’s Servants: The Transformation of Ottoman Provincial Government, 1550–1650. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.
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  427. Analyzes changes in the military administration and organization of the empire during the 16th and 17th centuries. Shows how governors initially came from the military-administrative elite but increasingly came to be drawn from the palace service or from the inexperienced sons of officials. Also includes an excellent discussion of the Ottoman system of landholdings.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Religion
  430.  
  431. The topic of religion in the Ottoman Empire has attracted significant attention. Until recently, one of the more surprising lacunae in the scholarship has been the Islamic institutions of the Ottoman state. Repp 1986 is important, as is Zilfi 1988, in addressing this matter. The seemingly peripheral areas of heterodoxy, heresy, mysticism, and syncretism have attracted significant study as well: important works include Hasluck 1929 and Veinstein 2005, as well as Mélikoff 1998 on Sufism. The study of religious conversion has also attracted significant attention of late. Minkov 2004 considers conversion on the periphery of the empire, while Baer 2008 looks at conversion at the center and within a broader, imperial political context. Bulliett 2004 is more theoretical and broad, proposing a provocative reworking of the concept of Judeo-Christian civilization in favor of an Islamo-Christian one.
  432.  
  433. Baer, Marc D. Honored by the Glory of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
  434. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  435. Addresses the question of religious conversion in the Ottoman Empire. Focuses on the proselytizers, specifically Sultan Mehmed IV, and more broadly on the place of conversion in Ottoman religious and political strategies. Also seeks to rehabilitate the reputation of Mehmed.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. Bulliet, Richard W. The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
  438. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  439. A provocative essay that emphasizes the shared roots and common history of Islam and Christianity, as well as their long history of exchange and cross-pollination. Through a wide-ranging historical survey, Bulliet takes the hopeful view that this shared history can be the basis for peaceful relations between Christians and Muslims.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. Hasluck, F. W. Christianity and Islam under the Sultans. Oxford: Clarendon, 1929.
  442. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  443. An older but still important work on the intersection of Christian and Muslim religious practice and belief in the early modern Ottoman Empire. Shows convincingly the many transferences in the fluid and heterodox religious world of the Mediterranean.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Mélikoff, Irène. Hadji Bektach: un mythe et ses avatars; genèse et évolution du soufisme populaire en Turquie. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1998.
  446. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  447. A useful synthesis of the specialized studies produced over a lifetime of research by the most important scholar of popular Sufi mysticism in the Ottoman Empire. Supplements the more institutional focus of other studies.
  448. Find this resource:
  449. Minkov, Anton. Conversion to Islam in the Balkans: Kisve Bahası Petitions and Ottoman Social Life, 1670–1730. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2004.
  450. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451. Examines the process of Islamization within the Ottoman Empire broadly, and in the Balkans during the early modern period more specifically. Considers the fraught question of forced conversion and the devshirme. Quantitative in approach, the book also provides a fascinating analysis of who converted and what their motivations were.
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Repp, Richard. The Müfti of Istanbul: A Study in the Development of the Ottoman Learned Hierarchy. London: Ithaca, 1986.
  454. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  455. An often overlooked study of the mufti of Istanbul, this book traces the rise of the mufti from relative obscurity to the head of the ulema hierarchy of the Ottoman Empire by the middle of the 16th century, including its incorporation into the imperial hierarchy. Includes an exacting prosopographical and biographical recreation of the individuals who served as mufti.
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Veinstein, Gilles, ed. Syncrétismes et hérésies dans l’Orient seljoukide et ottoman (XIVe–XVIIIe siècles). Paris: Peeters, 2005.
  458. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  459. A collection of articles on heterodox religious practice and belief, intended to underline the religious complexity of the Ottoman Empire and the broader Middle East.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Zilfi, Madeline. The Politics of Piety: The Ottoman Ulema in the Postclassical Age, 1600–1800. Minneapolis, MN: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1988.
  462. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  463. An important work that examines the relatively ignored Ottoman religious hierarchy, the ulema, in the early modern period, and its growing domination by an “ulema aristocracy.” Also treats the 17th-century fundamentalist movement of theKadizadelis.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Society
  466.  
  467. One of the most interesting areas of Ottoman research in recent decades has been social history. Winter 1992, Singer 1994, and Hathaway 1997 all examine society in the periphery of the empire. Singer 1994 gives particular attention to the peasantry, Hathaway 1997 to the military elite. Mantran 1962 is a fascinating and broad examination of the social world of the Ottoman capital, while Eldem, et al. 1999 is a comparative look at urban society that examines several major Ottoman cities. Barkey 1994 looks at banditry in the context of state centralization. Faroqhi 2000 provides an engaging survey of life in the early modern Ottoman Empire.
  468.  
  469. Barkey, Karen. Bandits and Bureaucrats: The Ottoman Route to State Centralization. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994.
  470. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  471. Combining sociological theory and historical method, Barkey examines the relationship between provincial banditry and Ottoman efforts at centralization. She argues that changes in the state alienated men from traditional roles, giving rise to banditry, which in turn legitimized state attempts at reestablishing order. Through a comparison with China, Russia, and France, Barkey challenges the traditional narrative of Ottoman decline during the early modern period.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Eldem, Edhem, Daniel Goffman, and Bruce Masters. The Ottoman City between East and West: Aleppo, Izmir, and Istanbul. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
  474. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475. Through a comparative study of three important and unique Ottoman cities, the authors discredit the concept of a monolithic, “Oriental” or Islamic city, popular in earlier generations of urban scholarship.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Faroqhi, Suraiya. Subjects of the Sultan: Culture and Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire. London: I. B. Tauris, 2000.
  478. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  479. An engaging look at everyday life and culture within the early modern Ottoman Empire. Its strength is in its tremendous richness of detail, rather than a specific thesis. New edition published in 2005.
  480. Find this resource:
  481. Hathaway, Jane. The Politics of Households in Ottoman Egypt: The Rise of the Qazdağlis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  482. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  483. A revisionist study that examines Ottoman provincial military society in Egypt, emphasizing the importance of patron-client relationships and the place of the household in political culture.
  484. Find this resource:
  485. Mantran, Robert. Istanbul dans la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Librairie Adrien Maisonneuve, 1962.
  486. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487. Though now somewhat dated, this work provides a detailed and engaging window into the world of 17th-century Istanbul. Particularly strong on the geographic, demographic, and institutional history of the capital city.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Singer, Amy. Palestinian Peasants and Ottoman Officials: Rural Administration around Sixteenth-Century Jerusalem. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
  490. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  491. This work is important because of its treatment of the oft-neglected history of Ottoman peasantry, and because it addresses the growing literature on the Ottoman provinces. By examining the interaction between local villagers and Ottoman officials, Singer is able to paint a nuanced and complex picture of village administration and center-periphery relations during the height of Ottoman power in Palestine.
  492. Find this resource:
  493. Winter, Michael. Egyptian Society under Ottoman Rule, 1517–1798. London: Routledge, 1992.
  494. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  495. A useful survey of society in Egypt under Ottoman rule during the early modern era. Focuses on the chief Egyptian social groups, including the political and religious elite, the Bedouin tribes, Sufis, and non-Muslims.
  496. Find this resource:
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