Writing History at the Ottoman Court: Editing the Past, Fashioning the Future

by H. Erdem Cipa (Editor), Emine Fetvaci (Editor), Giancarlo Casale (Contribution by), Dimitris Kastritsis (Contribution by), Baki Tezcan (Contribution by)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253008640
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	06/06/2013
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

H. Erdem Çipa is Assistant Professor of Ottoman History in the Departments of History and Near Eastern Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Emine Fetvacı is Assistant Professor of Islamic Art at Boston University and author of Picturing History at the Ottoman Court (IUP, 2012).

Table of Contents

Preface
Note on Transliteration
Acknowledgments

1. The Historical Epic Ahvāl-i Sultān Mehemmed (The Tales of Sultan Mehmed) in the Context of Early Ottoman Historiography \ Dimitris Kastritsis
2. The Memory of the Mongols in Early Ottoman Historiography \ Baki Tezcan
3. Imperialism, Bureaucratic Consciousness, and the Historian's Craft: A Reading of Celālzāde Mustafā's Tabakātü'l-Memālik ve Derecātü'l-Mesālik \ Kaya Şahin
4. Conversion and Converts to Islam in Ottoman Historiography of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries \ Tijana Krstić
5. Seeing the Past: Maps and Ottoman Historical Consciousness \ Giancarlo Casale
6. From Adam to Süleyman: Visual Representations of Authority in 'Ārif's Shāhnāma-yi Āl-i 'Osmān \ Fatma Sinem Eryılmaz
7. The Challenge of Periodization: New Patterns in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Historiography \ Hakan T. Karateke

Bibliography
Contributors
Index

What People are Saying About This

Universityof Birmingham - Rhodes Murphey

Brings together in a single volume a treatment of the diversity present in Ottoman historiography with coverage of prose, verse, panegyric, and court chronicles, as well as cartography and book illustration."

Editorial Reviews

"Brings together in a single volume a treatment of the diversity present in Ottoman historiography with coverage of prose, verse, panegyric, and court chronicles, as well as cartography and book illustration."—Rhodes Murphey, University of Birmingham

"[T]he rich and nuanced exposition of the wide range of texts and images explored . . . that constitutes [the] valuable contributions to scholarship.June 2014"—Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

"[T]his volume's great strength is its many original contributions to the study of the long sixteenth century. Those looking for the freshest new work on the classical age, along with a wonderful essay on nineteenth-century Ottoman historiography, will find this book a rich read."—Journal of Arabic Literature

"Collectively, the essays in the volume merit recognition in their effort to recover the lesser-heard voices of Ottoman historiography while engaging with the question of how history writing was used in constructing, questioning, and negotiating what constituted 'Ottomanness' at certain critical historical moments. In so doing, the volume contributes to a wider understanding of the contexts of textual and visual production, reading, and using history that extend beyond the confines of the Ottoman Empire."—Journal of World History

"The cliché 'a gem of a book' holds true for this volume, as it is the crystallized form of seven Ottoman specialists' groundbreaking, extensive research."—international Journal of Turkish Studies

"[T]his edited book is highly recommended to scholars who are interested in early modern and modern Ottoman history writing."—The Muslim World

"[These essays] make a significant contribution to a relatively new strand of Ottoman research that takes as its subject Ottoman reading communities, literacy practices, and the roles that particular texts played in Ottoman society."—SHARPNews

"Each article has the potential to spark lively academic discussion and offer alternative vistas in Ottoman historiography . . . Such ground-breaking edited volumes will set the intellectual agenda for future studies as long as they adopt a rigorous methodological approach, as this volume clearly does."—Journal of Ottoman Studies

From the Publisher

[T]he rich and nuanced exposition of the wide range of texts and images explored . . . that constitutes [the] valuable contributions to scholarship.June 2014

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

The cliché 'a gem of a book' holds true for this volume, as it is the crystallized form of seven Ottoman specialists' groundbreaking, extensive research.

international Journal of Turkish Studies

[These essays] make a significant contribution to a relatively new strand of Ottoman research that takes as its subject Ottoman reading communities, literacy practices, and the roles that particular texts played in Ottoman society.

SHARPNews

[T]his volume's great strength is its many original contributions to the study of the long sixteenth century. Those looking for the freshest new work on the classical age, along with a wonderful essay on nineteenth-century Ottoman historiography, will find this book a rich read.

Journal of Arabic Literature

Each article has the potential to spark lively academic discussion and offer alternative vistas in Ottoman historiography . . . Such ground-breaking edited volumes will set the intellectual agenda for future studies as long as they adopt a rigorous methodological approach, as this volume clearly does.

Journal of Ottoman Studies

Collectively, the essays in the volume merit recognition in their effort to recover the lesser-heard voices of Ottoman historiography while engaging with the question of how history writing was used in constructing, questioning, and negotiating what constituted 'Ottomanness' at certain critical historical moments. In so doing, the volume contributes to a wider understanding of the contexts of textual and visual production, reading, and using history that extend beyond the confines of the Ottoman Empire.

Journal of World History

[T]his edited book is highly recommended to scholars who are interested in early modern and modern Ottoman history writing.

The Muslim World

The cliché 'a gem of a book' holds true for this volume, as it is the crystallized form of seven Ottoman specialists' groundbreaking, extensive research. . . . Ottoman specialists already familiar with the doctoral theses and publications of the contributors will still find fascinating new material in it. Students of Ottoman history must be encouraged to use this volume as a starting point for thinking about their sources. Non-specialists wondering where to start for contextual insight into Ottoman historiography need not look any further.

Questia

"Brings together in a single volume a treatment of the diversity present in Ottoman historiography with coverage of prose, verse, panegyric, and court chronicles, as well as cartography and book illustration."" —Rhodes Murphey, University of Birmingham

Rhodes Murphey