HIST 468: A 19th century History of Ideas in the Ottoman Empire

Ibn Haldun University 2018 Summer School

Dr. Uygar AYDEMİR

(25 June – 10 August)

The early modern Ottoman state went through an intensive process of bureaucratization
and legislation in the nineteenth century in an attempt to meet the requirements of modernity.
This process was accompanied by revising and reproducing prevalent Ottoman political
theories as well as importing or appropriating ideologies from Europe. While existing literature
on the nineteenth century Ottoman Empire concentrates predominantly on the institutional and
legal aspects of this transformation, its intellectual components have also received a gradually
increasing deal of interest in recent decades. This course aims to review and evaluate the
literature on the intellectual aspect of the Ottoman modernization in the nineteenth century
while approaching critically the established paradigms in the field.

This course is structured in terms of two parts. The first part follows a chronological
order of the development of Ottoman political thought in the nineteenth century. In this first
part, political struggles and ideological debates around constitutional developments in the
Empire set the framework for analyzing such topics as the position of state vis a vis individual,
the expansion of political participation, liberal and constitutional demands as opposed to
conservative or authoritarian tendencies. The second part consists of ideologies that became
prevalent at the dawn of the second parliamentarian period in 1908; therefore, it introduces
ideologies in question on a subject-based manner. A main theme of the course is to establish
the intellectual links between the classical and modern Ottoman political philosophies.

Evaluation:

Active participation in class discussions is a requirement of the course.

The students are required to write an end-term research paper based on primary or
secondary sources. The term paper should be on a topic you choose in relation to the content of
the course. It is encouraged to use at least one primary source, regardless of the source’s original
language. Those who do not know a language from the Ottoman dominions can write a

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comparative research paper in accordance with the content of the course. The paper’s length
should be 10-12 pages.

Class Participation: 25 points

Research Paper Outline: 25 points

Research Paper: 50 points

Research Paper Outline is due the 1st of August.

Research Paper is due the 16th of August.

Background Readings:

Students who are not familiar with the sociopolitical background of the Ottoman history
should read the relevant chapters in Hanioğlu’s following book for each week.

Şükrü Hanioğlu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire. Princeton University
Press, 2008.

Students who want to write a research paper are encouraged to read Faroqhi’s following
book before they come up with a research topic.

Suraiya Faroqhi, Approaching Ottoman History: An Introduction to the Sources.

Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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 Week 1: The Foundations of Nineteenth Century Ottoman Intellectual Life

Session 1: Introductory lecture part I

The first introductory session will introduce the students with the organization and
intended outcomes of the course. It will also discuss the Ottoman intellectual heritage of the
Ottoman Classical Age as well as that of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Essential Reading:

Gottfried Hagen and Ethan L. Menchinger, “Ottoman Historical Thought.” A

Companion to Global Historical Thought. Ed. Prasenjit Duara et al. Wiley-Blackwell, 2014:
92-106.

Further Reading:

Cemal Kafadar, “Introduction.” Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the

Ottoman State. University of California Press, 1995: 1-28.

Session 2: Introductory lecture part II

The second introductory session will elaborate on the Ottoman political tradition that
was nourished by Sunni Islam, Ibn Khaldunian sociopolitical approach, Sufism, Central Asian
political tradition, Byzantine political thought, and Indo-Iranian political wisdom.

Essential Readings:

Cornell Fleischer, “Royal Authority, Dynastic Cyclism, and 'lbn Khaldunism' in

Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Letters.” Journal of Asian and African Studies, vol. 18, no. 3-4
(1983): 198-220.

Rhoads Murphey, “Continuity and Discontinuity in Ottoman Administrative Theory and

Practice during the Late Seventeenth Century.” Poetics Today, vol. 14, no. 2 (1993): 419-43.

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 Session 3: The turn of the century

This session will discuss the initial challenges of modernity as well as Ottoman
responses to those challenges, including attempts of reinterpreting political tradition.

Essential Readings:

Virginia H. Aksan, "Ottoman Political Writing: 1768 – 1808." International Journal of

Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 25, no. 1 (1993): 53-69.

Carter V. Findley, “The Return toward Centralization.” Turkey, Islam, Nationalism, and
Modernity: A History, 1789-2007. Yale University Press, 2010: 23-34.

Week 2: Early Nineteenth Century Developments

Session 1: Decentralization versus centralization

This session brings into question the issue of decentralization versus centralization by
discussing the nature of Charter of Alliance in 1808 and the following centralization attempts
of Mahmud II (1808-1839).

Essential Readings:

Hüseyin Yılmaz, “Containing Sultanic Authority: Constitutionalism in the Ottoman

Empire before Modernity.” Osmanlı Araştırmaları / The Journal of Ottoman Studies, no. 45
(2015): 231-264.

Stanford Shaw and Ezel K. Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey:
Volume 2. Cambridge University Press, 1977: 1-3, 36-54.

Further Reading:

Sened-i İttifak, in Ali Akyıldız, “Sened-i İttifak’ın İlk Tam Metni”, İslâm Araştırmaları
Dergisi, no. 2 (1998): 215-222. (in Turkish)

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 Session 2: The Edict of Gülhane

This session concentrates on continuity and discontinuity of Ottoman political tradition.

Essential Reading:

Butrus Abu-Manneh, “The Islamic Roots of the Gülhane Rescript.” Die Welt des Islams,
vol. 34, no. 2 (1994): 173-203.

In-class Primary Source Reading:

Gülhane Hatt-ı Hümayunu, in Şeref Gözübüyük ve Suna Kili, Türk Anayasa Metinleri
(Sened-i İttifaktan Günümüze). Ankara Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi Yayınları, 1983:
3-6. (in Turkish; an English translation will be provided.)

Session 3: Tanzimat-period political thought

This session concerns the combination of traditionalism and modernism in an age of law
and regulation making.

Essential Reading:

Roderic H. Davison. “Introduction: Decline and Reform to 1856.” Reform in the

Ottoman Empire, 1856-1876. Princeton University Press, 1963: 3-56.

Further Reading:

(in French) Carter V. Findley, “État et droit dans la pensée politique ottomane: Droits
de l’homme ou Rechtsstaat? À propos de deux relations d’ambassade,” Études turques et
ottomanes: documents de travail, no. 4 (1995): 39–50.

(a shorter version in Turkish was published in) Carter V. Findley, “Osmanlı Siyasal
Düşüncesinde Devlet ve Hukuk: İnsan Hakları mı, Hukuk Devleti mi?” Tanzimat: Değişim
Sürecinde Osmanlı İmparatorluğu. Ed. Halil İnalcık and Mehmet Seyitdanlıoğlu. İş Bankası
Yayınları, 2011: 491-502.

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 Week 3: The Reform Edict of 1856 and Its Aftermath

The main theme of this week will be reformist and conservative approaches to founding
a state based on law, order, and equality. The ideology of Ottomanism and explorations on how
to include Muslims, Christians and Jews into a single Ottoman body politic will be also
examined.

Session I: The Reform Edict of 1856

Essential Reading:

Roderic H. Davison, “The Hatt-ı Hümayun of 1856 and the Climate of Its Reception.”
Reform in the Ottoman Empire: 1856-1876. Princeton University Press, 1963: 52-80.

Further Reading:

Carter V. Findley, “The Acid Test of Ottomanism: The Acceptance of Non-Muslims in

the Late Ottoman Bureaucracy.” Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The Functioning
of a Plural Society, Volume 1. Ed. Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis. Holmes & Meier,
1982: 339-368.

In-class Primary Source Reading:

Islahat Fermanı, in Şeref Gözübüyük ve Suna Kili, Türk Anayasa Metinleri: 7-13. (in
Turkish; an English translation will be provided.)

Session 2: Constitutional developments among non-Muslim millets

Essential Readings:

Roderic H. Davison, “Reorganization of the Non-Muslim Millets, 1860-1865.” Reform

in the Ottoman Empire: 1856-1876: 114-135.

Vartan Artinian, “The Liberal Laity as Agent of Social and Administrative Change.”
The Armenian Constitutional System in the Ottoman Empire: A Study of its Historical
Development 1839-1863. Istanbul: s.n., [1988]: 59-74.

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 Session 3: Conservative responses to the Reform Edict and super westernization

Essential Readings:

Butrus Abu-Manneh, “The Sultan and the Bureaucracy: The Anti-Tanzimat Concepts
of Grand Vizier Mahmud Nedim Pasha.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 22,
no. 3 (1990): 257-274.

Şerif Mardin, “Super Westernization in Urban Life in the Ottoman Empire in the Last
Quarter of the Nineteenth Century.” Turkey: Geographic and Social Perspectives. Ed. Peter
Benedict et al. Brill, 1974: 403-442.

Further Readings:

(Mustafa Reşid Pasha’s memorandum against the Reform Edict) Mustafa Reşid Pasha.
“Reşid Paşa Layiha-i İtiraziyyesi.” Vakanüvis Ahmed Lütfi Efendi Tarihi, vol. 9. Ed. Münir
Aktepe. İstanbul Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Yayınları, 1984: 244-250.

(The official French translation of the Imperial Edict on Justice) “Iradéh imperial du
13 zilcade 1292 (12 décembre 1875).” État présent de l’empire ottoman. Ed. Abdolonyme
Ubicini and Abel Pavet de Courteille. Librarire Militaire de J. Dumaine, 1876: 254-261.

Week 4: Young Ottomans and the Constitution of 1876

This week will focus on the emergence of Young Ottoman opposition against the
Reform Edict of 1856. The efforts of Young Ottomans in expanding the public opinion in the
Ottoman capital in order to strengthen the public basis for constitutional demands and the birth
of the first Ottoman constitution are among other topics of the week.

Session 1: Young Ottomans and constitutionalist demands

Essential Readings:

Nazan Çiçek, “Europe’s ‘Eastern Question’ or the Turks’ ‘Western Question’,” “The
Young Ottomans: the quest for a way out” and “The Triumvirate: Namık Kemal, Ziya Bey and

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Ali Suavi.” The Young Ottomans: Turkish Critics of the Eastern Question in the Late
Nineteenth Century. I.B. Tauris, 2010: 1-12, 24-50.

Erdem Sönmez, “From Kanun-ı Kadim (Ancient Law) to Umumun Kuvveti (Force of
People): Historical Context of the Ottoman Constitutionalism,” Middle Eastern Studies, vol.
52, no. 1 (2016): 116-134.

Session 2: The emergence of public opinion

Essential Readings:

Şerif Mardin, “Şinasi: The Birth of Public Opinion.” The Genesis of Young Ottoman
Thought: A Study in the Modernization of Turkish Political Ideas. Syracuse University Press,
2000: 252-275.
Johann Strauss, “Who Read What in the Ottoman Empire (19th and 20th Centuries)?”
Arabic Middle Eastern Literatures, vol. 6, no. 1 (2003): 39-76.

Session 3: The first Ottoman constitution

Essential Reading:

Robert Devereux, “Background,” “Drafting the Constitution” and “The Conference and
the Constitution”. The First Ottoman Constitutional Period: A Study of the Midhat Constitution
and Parliament. The Johns Hopkins Press, 1963: 21-59, 91-97.

Further Reading:

“The Ottoman Constitution, Promulgated the 7th Zilbridje, 1293 (11/23 December,
1876).” The American Journal of International Law, vol. 2, no. 4. Supplement: Official
Documents: 367-387.

Ali Haydar Midhat. “Second Grand Vizierate of Midhat Pasha.” The Life of Midhat
Paşa. John Murray, 1903: 116-131.

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 Week 5: The Hamidian Era

Session 1: Political thought during the era of autocracy

This session questions the nature of the Hamidian autocratic rule as a further stage of
the Tanzimat modernization. The synthesis of traditional patrimonial role of the Sultan and the
state policy of authoritarian progressivism is explored.

Essential Readings:

Robert Devereux, “Return to Despotism” and “Conclusion”. The First Ottoman

Constitutional Period: A Study of the Midhat Constitution and Parliament. The Johns Hopkins
Press, 1963: 235-256.

Stanford Shaw, “Sultan Abdülhamid II: The Last Man of the Tanzimat.” Studies in
Ottoman and Turkish History. The Isis Press, 2000: 329-349.

Abdülhamit Kırmızı, “Authoritarianism and Constitutionalism Combined: Ahmed

Midhat Efendi Between the Sultan and the Kanun-ı Esasi.” The First Ottoman Experiment in
Democracy. Ed. Christoph Herzog and Malek Sharif. Ergon, 2010: 53-65.

Session 2: The philosophical and political mindset of Young Turks

This session concerns the emergence of Young Turk opposition against the Hamidian
regime as well as the eclectic nature of their answers to the question of “how shall the state be
saved?”

Essential Readings:

Hasan Kayalı, “The Young Turks and the Committee of Union and Progress.” The
Routledge Handbook of Modern Turkey. Ed. Metin Heper and Sabri Sayarı. Routledge, 2012:
26-34.

Şükrü Hanioğlu, “Political Ideas of the Young Turks, 1902-1908.” Preparation for a
Revolution: The Young Turks, 1902-1908. Oxford University Press, 2001: 289-311.

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 Şerif Mardin, “Continuity and Change in the Ideas of the Young Turks.” Religion,
Society, and Modernity in Turkey. Syracuse University Press, 2006: 164-181.

In-class Primary Source Reading:

İsmail Kemal Bey, “Memorial presented to His Imperial Majesty the Sultan by Ismail
Kemal Bey, former Governor-General of Tripoli, dated February 12/24 TH, 1312/1897.” The
Memoirs of Ismail Kemal Bey. Ed. Sommerville Story. Paris: s.n., 1920: 387-397.

Session 3: Intellectual transformations in the nineteenth century in a global

framework

Essential Readings:

Ali Gheissari, “Intellectuals in the Constitutional Period.” Iranian Intellectuals in the

20th Century. University of Texas Press, 1998: 13-39.

Mick Deneckere, “The Japanese Enlightenment: a Re-examination of its Alleged

Secular Character.” Global Intellectual History, vol. 1, no. 3: 219-240.

Bart Dessein, “On ‘Dark Learning,’ Uncertain Times, and How Immanuel Kant Revived
Confucianism.” Global Intellectual History, vol. 1, no. 3: 275-291.

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 Ottoman Ideological Landscape by the Second Parliamentarian Period

Week 6

Session 1: Reinterpretations of Islam under political pressure

Essential Readings:

Kemal H. Karpat, “Knowledge, Press, and the Popularization of Islamism,” The

Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late
Ottoman State. Oxford University Press, 2001: 117-135.

Ahmet Şeyhun, Islamist Thinkers in the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Turkish
Republic. Brill, 2014: 1-18.

In-class Primary Source Readings:

Mehmed Akif Ersoy, “Nationalism” and “European Civilization.” Islamist Thinkers in

the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Turkish Republic: 21-26.

İskilipli Mehmed Atıf, “The Civilization of the Sharia.” Islamist Thinkers in the Late
Ottoman Empire and Early Turkish Republic: 37-40.

İzmirli İsmail Hakkı, “Civil, Social and Political Duties and Obligations.” Islamist
Thinkers in the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Turkish Republic: 89-94.

Session 2: Scientific thought

Essential Readings:

Şükrü Hanioğlu, “Blueprints for a Future Society: Late Ottoman Materialists on

Science, Religion, and Art.” Late Ottoman Society: The Intellectual Legacy. Ed. Elisabeth
Özdalga. RoutledgeCurzon, 2011: 27-59.

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 M. Alper Yalçınkaya, “Science and Morality at the End of the Nineteenth Century.”
Learned Patriots: Debating Science, State, and Society in the Nineteenth-Century Ottoman
Empire. The University of Chicago Press, 2015: 180-206.

Session 3: Liberalism

Essential Readings:

Mehmet Seyitdanlıoğlu, "The Rise and Development of the Liberal Thought in Turkey",
H. Ü. Edebiyet Fakültesi Dergisi Cumhuriyetimizin 75. Yılı Özel Sayısı, (Ankara, 1998), 151-
162.

Ayşe Kadıoğlu, ‘An Oxymoron: The Origins of Civic-republican Liberalism in Turkey’

in Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 16:2 (2007), 171-190.

Further Reading:

Prens Sabahaddin, Gönüllü Sürgünden Zorunlu Sürgüne: Bütün Eserleri. Ed. Mehmet
Ö. Alkan. Yapı Kredi, 2007: 140-141, 144-145, 185-194; 270-280. (in Turkish)

Week 7

Session 1: Women as political agents

Essential Readings:

Elizabeth B. Frierson, “Women in Late Ottoman Intellectual History.” Late Ottoman

Society: The Intellectual Legacy. Ed. Elisabeth Özdalga. RoutledgeCurzon, 2011: 135-161.

Hülya Yıldız, “Rethinking the Political: Ottoman Women as Feminist Subjects.”

Journal of Gender Studies, vol. 27, no. 2 (2016): 1-15.

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 Session 2: Socialism

Essential Readings:

Ilham Khuri-Makdisi, “The Late Nineteenth-Century World and the Emergence of a

Global Radical Culture.” The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism,
1860–1914. University of California Press, 2010: 15-34.

Feroz Ahmad, ‘Some Thoughts on the Role of Ethnic and Religious Minorities in the
Genesis and Development of the Socialist Movement in Turkey: 1876-1923’ Socialism and
Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire 1876-1923. Ed. Mete Tunçay and Erik Jan Zürcher. I. B.
Tauris, 1994: 13-25.

Session 3: Nationalism

Essential Readings:

Kemal H. Karpat, “Ottomanism, Fatherland, and the ‘Turkishness’ of the State” The
Politicization of Islam: 328-352.

In addition to the article above, you should pick either of the following:

C. Ernest Dawn, “From Ottomanism to Arabism: The Origin of an Ideology.” The

Review of Politics, vol. 23, no. 3 (1961): 378-400.

Stavro Skendi, “The Struggle for a National Alphabet and National Schools.” The
Albanian National Awakening, 1878-1912. Princeton University Press, 1967: 366-390.

In-class Primary Source Reading:

Ziya Gökalp, “Three Currents of Thought” and “The Ideal of Nationalism.” Turkish
Nationalism and Western Civilization: Selected Essays of Ziya Gökalp. Ed. Niyazi Berkes.
Columbia University Press, 1959: 71-76, 79-82.

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