This is one of a series of term-courses reviewing
sources relevant for the study of Ottoman and Turkish
history in different periods, as well as methods that have
been developed and employed by historians
on the basis of different types of sources. Specifically for
the 17th and 18th centuries, HIST 572 starts out
with a review of the decline paradigm, which among
other things portrays the Ottoman Empire as a
stagnant, peripheral and passive spectator in Early
Modernity, and which has been persuasively challenged since
the 1970s. Building upon research based on the
central Ottoman archives over the last three decades, and
using the state as the key unit of analysis, the first
part of this course takes an in-depth look at people and
ideas in the Ottoman territories over 1600-1800, via (1) the
changing political economy, (2) the transformation
of agrarian relations, (3) the problems of provisioning
Istanbul, (4) struggles between the reforming
and conservative wings of the ruling elite, and (5) the
"women's sultanate", so-called, and the changing
legitimation patterns of the House of Osman.
A second part deals with (6) economic, social and cultural
life in the provinces, and (7) the growth of
international trading cities such as Thessaloniki, Izmir
or Aleppo. In concluding, historiographical attention
is devoted to the clichés or tropes of (8) the "Tulip
Age", (9) "Oriental despotism", and (10) "incorporation
into the world- system".
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