Civilian Society and Political Power in the Ottoman Empire: A Report on Research in Collective Biography (1480–1830)

1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suraiya Faroqhi
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Public Office ◽  
English Revolution ◽  
Research Technique ◽  
Collective Biography ◽  
Roman Antiquity

Prosopography, or collective biography, as this field of study is sometimes called by scholars dealing with periods later than Greek and Roman antiquity, is a relatively simple and unsophisticated research technique. Basically, it consists of assembling and comparing biographical data for all individuals belonging to a clearly circumscribed group of people. Frequently, but not necessarily, the individuals in question held public office of some kind. This technique recommends itself by the fact that it can be applied even to periods on which very little evidence is available, such as the Roman Republic But on a different level, prosopography can also contribute to our understanding of societies with a fairly rich documentation. Thus, quite a few items among the more recent literature cited by Lawrence Stone in his book on the causes of the seventeenth-century English revolution might be described at least in part upon prosopographical techniques. In the same vein, the research technique has been used by a number of scholars to shed some light upon the institutions and society of the Ottoman Empire.

Orthodox Radicals

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew C. Bingham
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Group Identity ◽  
Religious Toleration ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Infant Baptism ◽  
English Revolution ◽  
Baptist Identity ◽  
Ongoing Project

Orthodox Radicals explores the origins and identity of Baptists during the English Revolution (1640–1660), arguing that mid-seventeenth century Baptists did not, in fact, understand themselves to be part of a larger, all-encompassing “Baptist” movement. Contrary to both the explicit statements of many historians and the tacit suggestion embedded in the very use of “Baptist” as an overarching historical category, the early modern men and women who rejected infant baptism would not have initially understood that single theological move as being in itself constitutive of a new group identity. Rather, the rejection of infant baptism was but one of a number of doctrinal revisions then taking place among English puritans eager to further their ongoing project of godly reformation. Orthodox Radicals thus complicates our understanding of Baptist identity and addresses broader themes including early modern religious toleration, the mechanisms by which early modern groups defined and defended themselves, and the perennial problem of historical anachronism. By combining a provocative reinterpretation Baptist identity with close readings of key theological and political texts, Orthodox Radicals offers the most original and stimulating analysis of mid-seventeenth century Baptists in decades.

Fulke Greville and the Culture of the English Renaissance

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Sir Philip Sidney ◽  
English Renaissance ◽  
Poetic Form ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Stuart Period ◽  
The Status ◽  
Fulke Greville

This book intends to provide a comprehensive reappraisal of the work of the Renaissance poet and politician Sir Fulke Greville, whose political career stretched from the heyday of the Elizabethan age into the Stuart period. While Greville’s literary achievements have traditionally been overshadowed by those of his more famous friend Sir Philip Sidney, his oeuvre comprises a highly diverse range of works of striking force and originality, comprising a sonnet sequence, a biography of Sir Philip Sidney, a series of philosophical treatises, and two closet dramas set in the Ottoman Empire. The essays gathered in this volume investigate the intersections between poetics, poetic form, and political and religious thought in Greville’s work, arguing how they participate in all of the most important debates of the post-Reformation period, such as the nature of grace and the status of evil; the exercise of sovereignty and scope and limits of political power; and the nature of civil and religious idolatry. They examine Greville’s career as a courtier and patron, and foreground both his own concerns with the posthumous life of authors and their works, and his continuing importance during the Interregnum and Restoration periods.

Bilingual Heaven: Was There a Distinct Persianate Islam in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire?

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 214-241
Author(s):  
Aslıhan Gürbüzel
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
The Other ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Sacred Text ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Legal Discourses ◽  
Other World

Abstract What is the language of heaven? Is Arabic the only language allowed in the eternal world of the virtuous, or will Muslims continue to speak their native languages in the other world? While learned scholars debated the language of heaven since the early days of Islam, the question gained renewed vigor in seventeenth century Istanbul against the background of a puritan reform movement which criticized the usage of Persian and the Persianate canon as sacred text. In response, Mevlevī authors argued for the discursive authority of the Persianate mystical canon in Islamic tradition (sunna). Focusing on this debate, this article argues that early modern Ottoman authors recognized non-legal discourses as integral and constitutive parts of the Islamic tradition. By adopting the imagery of bilingual heaven, they conceptualized Islamic tradition as a diverse discursive tradition. Alongside diversity, another important feature of Persianate Islam was a positive propensity towards innovations.

scholarly journals “Turkish” Textiles in South-Eastern and East-Central Europe in the Early Modern Period: The Evidence of Transylvanian Customs Accounts

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 363-382
Author(s):  
Mária Pakucs-Willcocks
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Serial Data

Abstract This paper analyzes data from customs accounts in Transylvania from the middle of the sixteenth century to the end of the seventeenth on traffic in textiles and textile products from the Ottoman Empire. Cotton was known and commercialized in Transylvania from the fifteenth century; serial data will show that traffic in Ottoman cotton and silk textiles as well as in textile objects such as carpets grew considerably during the second half of the seventeenth century. Customs registers from that period also indicate that Poland and Hungary were destinations for Ottoman imports, but Transylvania was a consumer’s market for cotton textiles.

Paths of Prayers in Ottoman North Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 295-341
Author(s):  
Deniz Beyazit
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
North African ◽  
The North ◽  
Local Traditions ◽  
First Time ◽  
Visual Apparatus

Abstract This article discusses The Met’s unpublished Dalāʾil al-khayrāt—2017.301—(MS New York, TMMA 2017.301), together with a group of comparable manuscripts. The earliest known dated manuscript within the corpus, it introduces several iconographic elements that are new to the Dalāʾil, and which compare with the traditions developing in the Mashriq and the Ottoman world in particular. The article discusses Dalāʾil production in seventeenth-century North Africa and its development in the Ottoman provinces, Tunisia, and/or Algeria. The manuscripts illustrate how an Ottoman visual apparatus—among which the theme of the holy sanctuaries at Mecca and Medina, appearing for the first time in MS New York, TMMA 2017.301—is established for Muhammadan devotion in Maghribī Dalāʾils. The manuscripts belong to the broader historic, social, and artistic contexts of Ottoman North Africa. Our analysis captures the complex dynamics of Ottomanization of the North African provinces of the Ottoman Empire, remaining strongly rooted in their local traditions, while engaging with Ottoman visual idioms.

Avârız and Nüzul Levies in the Ottoman Empire: A Case Study of the Province of Karaman 1620s-1700

Belleten ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 70 (258) ◽  
pp. 561-588
Author(s):  
Süleyman Demi̇rci̇
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Economic History ◽  
First Time

Basing on firsthand research on original, largely unused Ottoman archival registers (Anadolu ve Rumeli eyâletleri avârizhâne defterleri), this paper intends to examine in a systematic way avâriz and nüzul levies and their rates in the province of Karaman from 1620s to 1700. The focus of this paper will be the development of avâriz and nüzul levies as an alternative major source of regular taxation for the Ottoman government during the seventeenth century. It is a line of research that has so far attracted little attention from scholars despite the fact that there is now more debate on Ottoman socio-economic history generally.This examination will enables us to see for the first time how the avâriz and nüzul rates fluctuated during the seventeenth century down to the level of livas within the Province.

With Chibouk and Hookah: Coveted Escapes in Orient’s Fragrant Space

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-165
Author(s):  
Valentin Kitanov
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Cultural Representation ◽  
Cultural Characteristics ◽  
Tobacco Products ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
National Affiliation

The penetration of tobacco into the Ottoman Empire was followed by a ban on its production and use in the seventeenth century. The lifting of the ban in 1688 led to the rapid spread of production and trade with tobacco products and made smoking widely popular in the Ottoman society. Although smoking was prevalent mainly among Muslims, the chibouk and the hookah became distinctive attributes and, for generations, an integral part of the cultural characteristics of sultan’s subjects, regardless of their religious or national affiliation. Whether it was consumed free or secretly due to penal laws, smoking became emblematic of the social and cultural representation of the Ottoman realm and, in a way, it was affiliated with a particular zone of comfort and tranquillity, an escape from all worries and problems of everyday life.

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