Ottoman Studies

Devlet-i Âli Osmani emerged from a Beylik, that was founded in Bitinya region over the course of distribution of ruling that occurred after the dissolution of the Seljuk Empire and that turned into a young state as it expanded to cover a region including today’s Greece and Bulgaria on the Balkans and Aegean within less than 150 years and then reached the Adriatic, Tuna River, Black Sea coasts and Mesopotamia and that evolved into a multi-cultural and multi-national vivid Mediterranean Empire which maintained its rule for 600 years on a vast surrounding area including North Africa and excluding the North of Mediterranean. This book includes the high Ottoman bureaucratic story of the 600 years long history.

During the early Ottoman period (1300-1453), scholars in the empire carefully kept their distance from the ruling class. This changed with the capture of Constantinople. From 1453 onwards, the Ottoman government co-opted large groups of scholars, usually over a thousand at a time, and employed them in a hierarchical bureaucracy to fulfill educational, legal and administrative tasks. Abdurrahman Atçıl explores the factors that brought about this gradual transformation of scholars into scholar-bureaucrats, including the deliberate legal, bureaucratic and architectural actions of the Ottoman sultans and their representatives, scholars' own participation in shaping the rules governing their status and careers, and domestic and international events beyond the control of either group.

"This collection of original essays elucidates the structures and functions of five centuries of Egyptian administration, within the state and outside its framework, as well as the relationships between the administration, the state, and the people. By examining various bodies - including courts, the taxation system, guilds, and the state bureaucracy itselfit traces the evolution of Egyptian bureaucracy from the traditional Ottoman system through the more centralized structures of Muhammad Ali to the emergence of the modern state system." "The collection creates a much-needed framework for the study of the historical development of modern Egyptian administration, effacing in the process some of the artificial boundaries that have separated the Ottoman from the modern period. By looking at the evolution of Egyptian administration in a social context, the essays emphasize a continuity that permits a new look at Egyptian history. The volume includes essays by prominent historians, many of whom ordinarily publish in French or Arabic."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Why did the main challenge to the Ottoman state come not in peasant or elite rebellions, but in endemic banditry? Karen Barkey shows how Turkish strategies of incorporating peasants and rotating elites kept both groups dependent on the state, unable and unwilling to rebel. Bandits, formerly mercenary soldiers, were not interested in rebellion but concentrated on trying to gain state resources, more as rogue clients than as primitive rebels. The state's ability to control and manipulate bandits--through deals, bargains and patronage--suggests imperial strength rather than weakness, she maintains. Bandits and Bureaucrats details, in a rich, archivally based analysis, state-society relations in the Ottoman empire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Exploring current eurocentric theories of state building, the author illuminates a period often mischaracterized as one in which the state declined in power. Outlining the processes of imperial rule, Barkey relates the state political and military institutions to their socal foundations. She compares the Ottoman route with state centralization in the Chinese and Russian empires, and contrasts experiences of rebellion in France during the same period. Bandits and Bureaucrats thus develops a theoretical interpretation of imperial state centralization through incorporation and bargaining with social groups, and at the same time enriches our understanding of the dynamics of Ottoman history.

From the author's preface: Sublime Porte--there must be few terms more redolent, even today, of the fascination that the Islamic Middle East has long exercised over Western imaginations. Yet there must also be few Western minds that now know what this term refers to, or why it has any claim to attention. One present-day Middle East expert admits to having long interpreted the expression as a reference to Istambul's splendid natural harbor. This individual is probably not unique and could perhaps claim to be relatively well informed. When the Sublime Porte still existed, Westerners who spent time in Istanbul knew the term as a designation for the Ottoman government, but few knew why the name was used, or what aspect of the Ottoman government it properly designated. What was the real Sublime Porte? Was it an organization? A building? No more, literally, than a door or gateway? What about it was important enough to cause the name to be remembered? In one sense, the purpose of this book is to answer these questions. Of course, it will also do much more and will, in the process, move quickly onto a plane quite different from the exoticism just invoked. For to study the bureaucratic complex properly known as the Sublime Porte, and to analyze its evolution and that of the body of men who staffed it, is to explore a problem of tremendous significance for the development of the administrative institutions of the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic lands in general, and in some senses the entire non-Westerrn world.

The Chief Black Eunuch, appointed personally by the Sultan, had both the ear of the leader of a vast Islamic Empire and held power over a network of spies and informers, including eunuchs and slaves throughout Constantinople and beyond. The story of these remarkable individuals, who rose from difficult beginnings to become amongst the most powerful people in the Ottoman Empire, is rarely told. George Junne places their stories in the context of the wider history of African slavery, and places them at the centre of Ottoman history. The Black Eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire marks a new direction in the study of courtly politics and power in Constantinople.

This study examines for the first time the finance procedures and documents of the post-classical Ottoman Empire. It provides an overview of institutional and monetary history and a detailed description of assessment and collection processes for Cizye, Avariz and Iltizam-collected taxes, the documents produced by these processes, and the information they contain. The finance department's detailed record-keeping, procedural continuity, and provision of economic justice made it a bulwark of stability in a period of turmoil. For specialists, this book introduces a multitude of sources on the economic and social history of the post-classical age, while for comparativists it places the empire in its seventeenth-century context. It links Ottoman administrative change with early modern state formation and reformulates the seventeenth century as a period of consolidation, not decline.

16. yüzyılın başlarında Batı Anadolu’da siyasi ve idari bir teşekkül kurmaya muvaffak olan Osmanlılar, kendilerinden önce kurulan muhtelif medeniyetlerin mirasından faydalanarak, uzun yüzyıllar boyunca mevcudiyetini sürdürecek köklü bir yönetim geleneği oluşturdular. Osmanlı Devleti’nin kuruluşundaki basit ve kabile geleneklerine dayalı hükümet mekanizmasının, büyük bir imparatorluğun yönetim müesseselerini ortaya çıkarması çeşitli yönlerden nicelenmesi gereken tarihi bir olgudur. Osmanlı devletinde Divaıı-ı Hümâyun, yasama (teşri), yargı (ka/a) vc yürütme görevlerini padişahın denetimi altında ve Divan-ı Hümâyun üyesi olan muhtelif görevlilerin sorumluluğunda yürüten en önemli icra organıydı. Osmanlı Devleti’nin idari ve siyasi karar mercii olan Divan-ı Hümâyun, bünyesinde teşekkül etmiş olan kalemiye teşkilatı vasıtasıyla dahili ve harici yazışmaları yürütüyor ve bunlar defterlere kaydediliyordu. Klasik dönem Osmanlı kayıt ve arşiv sisteminin esas unsurlarını defterler oluşturmaktadır. Divan-ı Hümâyun’a ait defterler Divan’ın teşkilat yapısını ve faaliyetlerini anlamamıza yarayan en önemli belgelerdir. Bu çalışmada Osmanlı bürokrasi tarihinin ve Divan-ı Hümâyun kalemlerinin kısa bir özeti verilerek XVI. yüzyılda Divan-ı Hümâyun’da tutulan ahkam, mühimme ve ruus defterleri incelendi. Bu araştırma, Divan-ı Hümâyun’da tutulan mühimme, tahvil ahkâm ve ruus defterlerinin mahiyetini ortaya çıkarmakta ve defter serilerinin birbiriyle ilgisini incelemektedir. Çalışmada yanlış tanımlamalar sonucu farklı tasniflere dağılan defterler yeniden düzenlenerek kronolojik listeleri oluşturulmuş ve defterlerin bir seri bütünlüğü içerisinde görülmesi sağlanmıştır.

In the 17th century, the elite household (kap?) became the focal point of Ottoman elite politics and socialization. It was a cultural melting pot, bringing together individuals of varied backgrounds through empire-wide patronage networks. This book investigates the layers of kap? power, through the example of ?eyhülislam Feyzullah Efendielite.

As the Ottoman Empire crumbled, the Middle East and Balkans became the site of contestation and cooperation between the traditional forces of religion and the emergent machine of the sovereign state. Yet such strategic interaction rarely yielded a decisive victory for either the secular state or for religion. By tracing how state-builders engaged religious institutions, elites, and attachments, this book problematizes the divergent religion-state power configurations that have developed. There are two central arguments. First, states carved out more sovereign space in places like Greece and Turkey, where religious elites were integral to early centralizing reform processes. Second, region-wide structural constraints on the types of linkages that states were able to build with religion have generated long-term repercussions. Fatefully, both state policies that seek to facilitate equality through the recognition of religious difference and state policies that seek to eradicate such difference have contributed to failures of liberal democratic consolidation.

Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda, 18. yüzyıl ortalarından Cumhuriyet'e kadar geçen süre reformlar dönemidir. Carter V. Findley idari reformları, Osmanlı mülkiye memurlarının toplumsal tarihi açısından inceliyor. Nezaretler ve diğer dairelerdeki "sicill-i ahval"lerden yola çıkarak memurların kökenlerine iniyor. Bu kitap, modernleşme çabaları içerisinde, kalem efendisinin mülkiye memuruna evriminin öyküsü

Osmanlı Devleti’nin klasik bürokratik yapısı, modernleşme sürecinin etkisiyle 19. yüzyılda köklü bir değişim geçirmişti. Daha önce yayınladığımız Para Pul Oldu: Osmanlı’da Kâğıt Para, Maliye ve Toplum adlı kitabıyla bankacılık ve finans tarihi yarışmasında birincilik ödülü kazanan Ali Akyıldız, Osmanlı Bürokrasisi ve Modernleşme’de derlenen yazılarında 19. yüzyıl boyunca Osmanlı bürokrasisinde yaşanan merkezîleşme, genişleme ve reform sürecini ayrıntılarıyla ele alıyor.

Prof. Dr. Mehmet ARSLAN tarafından hazırlanan Osmanlı Sadrazamları -Hadîkatül-Vüzerâ ve Zeylleri- Adlı elinizdeki bu kitap, Osmanlı döneminde sadrazamlar konusunda yazılmış ilk eser olan Osmân-zâde Tâibin Hadîkatül-Vüzerâ adlı eseriyle bu esere daha sonra yapılan beş zeylin (1. Dilâver Ağa-zâde Ömer Vahîd Efendinin İcmâl-i Menâkıb-ı Vüzerâ-yı İzâm adlı zeyli, 2. Şehrî-zâde Mehmed Saîdin Gül-i Zîbâ adlı zeyli 3. Ahmed Câvid Efendinin Verd-i Mutarrâ adlı zeyli 4. Abdülfettâh Şefkat-i Bağdâdînin zeyli 5. Ahmed Rifatın Verdül-Hadâik adlı zeyli) yani toplam altı eserin transkripsiyonlu metinlerini ihtiva etmektedir. Bu eserde her metnin sonunda ayrıntılı bir indeks de yer almaktadır.
Bu kitapta Osmanlı dönemindeki 215 sadrazamdan 178 sadrazamın isimleri, milliyetleri, tayinleri, azilleri, görev süreleri; sadrazamlıktan önce ve sonra bulundukları görevler, kişilikleri, dönemlerindeki hizmetleri vb. konularda geniş bilgi verilmektedir.

Bu kitabın amacı, bir bakıma, işte bu sorulara yanıt vermektir. Elbette bundan çok daha fazlasını da yapacak ve zaman içinde, ortaya çıkan egzotizmin yer aldığından oldukça farklı bir düzleme doğru hızla ilerleyecektir. Zira tam olarak Babıâli adıyla bilinen bürokratik yapı üzerinde çalışmak, bu yapının ve onun kadrolarını oluşturan insan topluluğunun evrimini incelemek, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun, genel olarak İslâm ülkelerinin ve bazı durumlarda da dünyanın Batı dışında kalan tüm bölümlerinin idari kurumlarının gelişimi için çok büyük önem taşıyan bir sorunu araştırmak demektir.