Nation and Migration in Late-Ottoman Spheres of (Legal) Belonging: A Comparative Look at Laws on Nationality

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
A. Ebru Akcasu
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Power Laws ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Semantic Shift ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Late Ottoman ◽  
Nationality Law

Abstract The last century of the Ottoman state’s existence witnessed the transformation of the term “Ottoman” from an elite, class-based, and exclusive designation to one including and identifying all whose allegiances were tied to the state. Despite this semantic shift, the verdict is still out on the question of late-Ottoman inclusivity. Indeed, exclusivist is a term more frequently coupled with policy and law. Though the former can be considered exclusivist in many instances from the late 19th century through the dissolution of the empire, the designation does not fit the legal framework and terminology that articulated belonging. To recognize this, it is imperative to approach the 1869 Ottoman Nationality Law from a comparative perspective, especially, though not strictly, with reference to Great Power laws, since these legalities are the yardstick by which Ottoman rational modernity has been measured. This article considers access to actual and potential membership in various nationality laws in relation to their Ottoman counterpart and concludes that the exclusivist designation is questionable. Instead, Ottoman law does not present an anomaly and was in many instances both more expansive and more inclusive than others—even if it has been subjected to a different vocabulary than contemporaneous laws with similar stipulations.

The Invention of ‘National Antiquities’ in the Late Ottoman Empire. Archaeological Interrelations between Discourses of Appropriation, Preservation and Heritage Construction

DIYÂR ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-328
Author(s):  
Sebastian Willert
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
German Empire ◽  
Cultural Objects ◽  
Cultural Activities ◽  
The Will ◽  
Late Ottoman Empire ◽  
Late Ottoman

In the late 19th century, the German Empire intensified its economic, military, and cultural activities on Ottoman territory. Within the field of archaeology, the Royal Museums in Berlin endeavoured to demonstrate their hegemony. Thus, they focused particularly on the acquisition of ancient objects from the Ottoman territory. The Ottoman authorities’ responses differed between political and cultural actors: While Sultan Abdülhamid II used Hellenistic and Byzantine antiquities as diplomatic gifts to improve his foreign relations to Berlin, the Müze-i Hümayun (Imperial Museum) appeared as an antagonist to foreign claims in the Ottoman Empire. Its directors, Osman Hamdi and Halil Edhem, aimed to rectify the discrepancy between political concerns and the will to preserve antiquities within the Ottoman realm. However, German archaeologists, museum representatives and diplomats strived to benefit from this discrepancy to obtain cultural objects for Berlin. The article argues that Prussia’s strategies of appropriating ancient objects for the Royal Museums correlated and entangled with the valorisation of antiquities in Istanbul.

Meiji Japan and Cold War Japan

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-97
Author(s):  
Manjari Chatterjee Miller
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Meiji Japan ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Rising Power

Japan was considered a rising power in the late 19th century and again during the Cold War. But it rose to become a great power in only the former period. This chapter examines the rise of Meiji Japan and Cold War Japan to show how, despite growing military and economic power in both eras, Japan’s behavior was different—Meiji Japan was active and Cold War Japan was reticent. Examining the narratives in both periods, it finds that in the former it had narratives about how to become a colonial great power, and in the latter it lacked narratives of great power.

DOCUMENTING COMMUNITY IN THE LATE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-443
Author(s):  
Henry Clements
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Alternative Strategy ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Local Practice ◽  
Protracted Conflict ◽  
Holy Places ◽  
Late Ottoman Empire ◽  
Late Ottoman ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis article traces a conflict that erupted in the late 19th century between the Armenians and the Süryani. This conflict, I argue, precipitated nothing less than the creation of the Süryani community itself. The dispute began over the key to a closet in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but it quickly evolved. Soon, the Armenians and the Süryani were clashing over holy places all around Jerusalem. The dispute centered on an Ottoman administrative arrangement which had been institutionalized nearly 400 years earlier:yamaklık. The Ottoman investigators, however, were unfamiliar with this archaic arrangement and had to be reeducated as to its terms and its history. The Süryani and the Armenians offered divergent accounts. Where the Armenians furnished hard documentation, however, the Süryani could produce only claims to tradition and local practice. In this article I argue that, through this protracted conflict, the Süryani came to understand the importance of the documentary record in a post-Tanzimat Ottoman world. They thus turned to an alternative strategy that would conform to this documentary sensibility and render their community visible to the state: a series of petitions with thousands of Süryani signatures from around the Ottoman Empire.

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