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Ben Gurion University
Dept. for Middle East Studies
Masters of Arts Program in Middle East Studies
Ottoman State and Society: Themes in History and Historiography
Instructor: Dr. Avi Rubin
[email protected]
Description
The course examines selected themes in the history and historiography of the Ottoman
Empire, one of the most important states in world history from medieval to modern times.
Topics in history will include: state formation, decentralization, social disturbances,
integration to world economy, changing relations with Europe, ethnic structure, rural and
urban life, Imperial life, family life, gender relations and nationalism.
We will examine major methodological changes in the study of history in general,
namely, their academic/political motivations and their impact (or lack thereof) on the
historiography of the Ottoman empire and the Middle East.
The students will be encouraged to discuss the importance of this chapter in world history
for understanding today’s Middle East.
Note: A tour in Ottoman Beer Sheva TBA
Course Requirements
20%
10%
70%
Active participation
In-class oral presentation
Final paper (15-20 pages)
Program
1. “Osman’s Dream”: Introduction, overview of the Ottoman Empire and key
debates.
2. Emirate turns into State and the gaza Debate
- A. Hourani, “The Ottoman Background of the Modern Middle East”, in The
Ottoman State and its Place in World History (Ed. K. Karpat), 1974, pp.60-78
- C. Kafadar, Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State, 1995,
(Intro and “The Sources”)
-
Mottier, V., “The Interpretive Turn: History, Memory, and Storage in Qualitative
Research”, Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 6(2), 2005
3. Dynasty, Elite, and State
- C. Imber, The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power, 2002, Chapter 2:
The Dynasty, pp. 87-127
- Leslie Peirce, The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire,
"The Display of Sovereign Prerogative", 1993, pp. 186-218
- H. Inalcik, The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300-1600, 1994, pp. 65-69, 76118
- Melek Hanım, Thirty Years in the Harem, 1872, pp. 119-129
4. Social/Economic structures and Transformations
- H. Inalcik, “Military and Fiscal Transformation in the Ottoman Empire, 16001700”, 1980.
- J. Goldstone, “East and West in the Seventeenth Century: Political Crises in
Stuart England, Ottoman Turkey, and Ming China”, Comparative Study of Society
and History, 1988.
- H. Inalcik and D. Quataert (eds.), An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman
Empire, vol. II, 1997, pp. 545-575
- Katib Çelebi, The Balance of Truth. pp. 50-64; 89-91; 101-2; 124-7
5. The Question of Ottoman Decline
- H. Inalcik, The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300-1600, 1994, pp. 41-52
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B. Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, 1961, first chapter
C. Woodhead, “Perspectives on Suleyman”, Suleyman the Magnificent and his
Age, 1995.
C. Kafadar, “The Question of Ottoman Decline”, Harvard Middle Eastern and
Islamic Review, 4, 1997-8.
6. Re-thinking the State
- T. Mitchell, “Society, Economy, and the State Effect”, State/Culture: State
Formation after the Cultural Turn (ed. G. Steinmetz), 1999.
- K. Barkey, Bandits and Bureaucrats.
- G. Piterberg, An Ottoman Tragedy: History and Historiography at Play, 2003, pp.
135-184
7. Themes in Ottoman Economy and World Economy
- R. Shechter, “Market Welfare in the Early-Modern Ottoman Economy-A
Historiographic Overview with Many Questions”, JESHO, 48(2), 2005
2
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Immanuel Wallerstein, Hale Decdeli and Reşat Kasaba, “Incorporation of the
Ottoman Empire into the World Economy”, The Ottoman Empire and the World
Economy (Ed. Huri Islamoĝlu-Inan), 1987. pp. 88-97
Ş. Pamuk, “Institutional Change and the Longevity of the Ottoman Empire, 15001800”, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 35 (2), 2004, pp. 225-247.
8. Urban and Rural societies
-
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E. Eldem at.al (eds.), The Ottoman City Between East and West, pp. 1-17; 135207, 1999.
E.R. Toledano, "The Emergence of Ottoman-Local Elites (1700-1900): A
Framework for Research" in Pappe, Ilan, and Moshe Ma'oz, (eds.), Middle
Eastern Politics and Ideas. A History from Within, 1997, pp. 145-162.
A. Raymond, “Islamic City, Arab City: Orientalist Myths and Recent Views”,
British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.21 (1994), pp.3-18
A. Singer, Palestinian Peasants and Officials, 1994, pp. 89- 118
9. Law and Religion
-
Madeline C. Zilfi, The Politics of Piety: The Ottoman Ulema in the Postclassical
Age (1600-1800), 1988, pp. 81-182
- H. Inalcik, The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300-1600, 1994, pp. 70-75
- I. Agmon, Family and Court: Legal Culture and Modernity in Late Ottoman Palestine,
2006, chap. 6, pp. 168-195
10. Ottoman Modernity I: the Practice and Mood of Modernity
-
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A. Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 1990. Chaps. I, II, VI.
N.J. Rengger, Political Theory, Modernity and Postmodernity, 1995. pp. 39-76
S. Deringil, “The Invention of Tradition as Public Image in the Late Ottoman
Empire, 1808 to 1908”, Comparative Studies in Society and History 35.1, 1993,
pp. 3-29
D. Ze’evi, “Back to Napoleon? Thoughts on the beginning of the Modern Era in
the Middle East”, Mediterranean Historical Review, 19(1), 2004.
11. Ottoman Modernity II: The Nation Factor
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D. Ze'evi, "Kul and Getting Cooler: The Dissolution of Elite Collective Identity
and the Formation of Official Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire"
Mediterranean Historical Review, 11:2, (1996) pp. 177-195
3
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U. Makdisi, “After 1860: Debating Religion, Reform, and Nationalism in the
Ottoman Empire”, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 34(4), 2002
W. Haddad, “Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire”, Nationalism in a Nonnational State (eds. W. Haddad and W. Ochsenwald), 1977
H. Özoĝlu, “’Nationalism’ and Kurdish Notables in the Late Ottoman-Early
Republican Era”, Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 33, 2001.
12. The Armenian Question
- R. Melson, “Provocation or Nationalism: A Critical Inquiry into the Armenian
Genocide of 1915”, The Armenian Genocide in Perspective, 1986.
- M. Grigorian, Armenians in the Service of the Ottoman Empire, 1860-1908.
- S.R. Sonyel, The Ottoman Armenians. pp. 1-24; 245-313
- S. Deringil, “The Study of the Armenian Crisis of the Late Ottoman Empire, or,
Seizing the Document by the Throat”, New Perspectives on Turkey, 27, 2002
- J. Salt, “The Narrative Gap in Ottoman Armeinian History”, Middle Eastern
Studies, 39(1), 2003.
13. Ottoman Beer Sheva: A Study Tour, Conclusion
- S. Deringil, “They Live in a State of Nomadism and Savagery: The Late Ottoman
Empire and the Post-Colonial Debate”, Comparative Study of Society and History, 2003
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