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The manuscript translated here contains one of the most important texts for understanding the development of early Ottoman historiography in the fifteenth century. The so-called Oxford Anonymous chronicle is a comprehensive history of the Ottoman dynasty in Turkish, compiled from various sources to tell the story of the dynasty from its rise to the year 1484 (AH 889). Like several other histories produced around the same time, some of which it influenced, it presents the Ottomans in the context of wider Islamic history and contains a coherent argument for their superiority over other dynasties. The manuscript had previously belonged to the Dutch orientalist Jacob Golius (d. 1667). Although i...
The Civil War of 1402-1413 is one of the most complicated periods in Ottoman history. This book is the first full-length study of that chapter in history, which began with Timur's dismemberment of the early Ottoman Empire following his defeat of Bayezid 'the Thunderbolt' at Ankara (1402). This book is a detailed reconstruction of events based on available sources, as well as a study of the period's political culture as reflected in its historical narratives.
The civil war of 1402-1413 is one of the most complicated and fascinating periods in Ottoman history. It is often called the interregnum because of its political instability, but that term does not do justice to the fact that the civil war was a chapter of Ottoman history in its own right. This book is the first full-length study of that chapter, which began with Timur’s dismemberment of the early Ottoman Empire following his defeat of Bayezid “the Thunderbolt” at Ankara (1402). After Timur’s departure, what was left of the Ottoman realm was contested by Bayezid’s sons in a series of bloody wars involving many internal factions and foreign powers. As part of those wars some of the earliest Ottoman historical literature was produced in the courts of the warring princes, especially Mehmed Çelebi, who was the final winner and needed to justify killing his brothers. This book is a detailed reconstruction of events based on the available sources, as well as a study of the period’s political culture as reflected in its historical narratives.
Ottoman historical writing of the 15th and 16th centuries played a significant role in fashioning Ottoman identity and institutionalizing the dynastic state structure during this period of rapid imperial expansion. This volume shows how the writing of history achieved these effects by examining the implicit messages conveyed by the texts and illustrations of key manuscripts. It answers such questions as how the Ottomans understood themselves within their court and in relation to non-Ottoman others; how they visualized the ideal ruler; how they defined their culture and place in the world; and what the significance of Islam was in their self-definition.
Warriors, Martyrs, and Dervishes: Moving Frontiers, Shifting Identities in the Land of Rome (13th-15th Centuries) focuses on the perceptions of geopolitical and cultural change, which was triggered by the arrival of Turkish Muslim groups into the territories of the Byzantine Empire at the end of the eleventh century, through intersecting stories transmitted in Turkish Muslim warrior epics and dervish vitas, and late Byzantine martyria. It examines the Byzantines’ encounters with the newcomers in a shared story-world, here called “land of Rome,” as well as its perception, changing geopolitical and cultural frontiers, and in relation to these changes, the shifts in identity of the people inhabiting this space. The study highlights the complex relationship between the character of specific places and the cultural identities of the people who inhabited them. See inside the book
Imagined Geographies in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Beyond is a collaborative volume focusing on imagined geography and the relationships among power, knowledge, and space--including connections within this region and with Iran, Inner Asia, and the Indian Ocean. It is a sequel to Imperial Geographies in Byzantine and Ottoman Space.
The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 marked the end of a thousand years of the Christian Roman Empire. Thereafter, world civilisation began a process of radical change. The West came to identify itself as Europe; the Russians were set on the path of autocracy; the Ottomans were transformed into a world power while the Greeks were left exiles in their own land. The loss of Constantinople created a void. How that void was to be filled is the subject of this book. Michael Angold examines the context of late Byzantine civilisation and the cultural negotiation which allowed the city of Constantinople to survive for so long in the face of Ottoman power. He shows how the devastating impact of its fall lay at the centre of a series of interlocking historical patterns which marked this time of decisive change for the late medieval world. This concise and original study will be essential reading for students and scholars of Byzantine and late medieval history, as well as anyone with an interest in this significant turning point in world history.
The Ottoman lands, which extended from modern Hungary to the Arabian peninsula, were home to a vast population with a rich variety of cultures. The Ottoman World is the first primary source reader to bring a wide and diverse set of voices across Ottoman society into the classroom. Written in many languages—not only Ottoman Turkish but also Arabic, Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, and Persian—these texts, here translated, span the extent of the early modern Ottoman empire, from the 1450s to 1700. Instructors are supplied with narratives conveying the lived experiences of individuals through texts that highlight human variety and accelerate a trend away from a state-centric approach to Ottoman history. In addition, samples from court registers, legends, biographical accounts, hagiographies, short stories, witty anecdotes, jokes, and lampoons provide exciting glimpses into popular mindsets in Ottoman society. By reflecting new directions in the scholarship with an innovative choice of texts, this collection provides a vital resource for teachers and students.
Controversial scholarly debates around the beginnings of the Ottoman Empire in the last century are not only rooted in the scarcity or heterogeneity of sources, but also in the mentalities and ideologies that canonised thought paradigms. This book uses an interdisciplinary approach at the interface between Ottoman, Byzantine, Mediterranean and Southeast European studies. Unusual sources such as Western Anatolian numismatics and predominantly European documents met innovative methods from the study of violence and power networks. Making a case study around the military aḳıncı institution, the author re-evaluates the emergence of the Ottoman polity in dealing with various warlords and across multiple identities and political affiliations.
This is the first systematic scholarly study of the Ottoman experience of plague during the Black Death pandemic and the centuries that followed. Using a wealth of archival and narrative sources, including medical treatises, hagiographies, and travelers' accounts, as well as recent scientific research, Nükhet Varlik demonstrates how plague interacted with the environmental, social, and political structures of the Ottoman Empire from the late medieval through the early modern era. The book argues that the empire's growth transformed the epidemiological patterns of plague by bringing diverse ecological zones into interaction and by intensifying the mobilities of exchange among both human and non-human agents. Varlik maintains that persistent plagues elicited new forms of cultural imagination and expression, as well as a new body of knowledge about the disease. In turn, this new consciousness sharpened the Ottoman administrative response to the plague, while contributing to the makings of an early modern state.