Ph.D. Theses

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The ailing imperialists: the Ottoman Empire in British travel literature 1821-1876
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2003., 2003.) Göksel, Sema Emel.; Erdem, Hakan.
This study attempts an analysis of memoirs and travel-literature written about the Ottoman Empire during 1821-1876. They point to the way in which the Ottoman Empire, Turks, Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, as well as the customs and policies of the times were perceived and evaluated both by the authors themselves and by their reading public. Thus, the foremost aim of this study is to analyze the world created by these traveller-authors, to point to the construction and development of certain ideas and judgements about the Ottoman Empire and the Turks, and simultaneously to draw a parallel between the ways in which the Ottoman Empire and some of the empires and colonies of the time were perceived.The analysis of the work of more than 40 authors points not only to the presence of a dominant discourse, but also to the increasing importance of imperialist notions within this discourse, especially after the Crimean War of 1853-1856, and to the seemingly contradictory dual tendency to perceive the Turks as the colonizers as well as the colonized. Furthermore, the revelation of the development of some of the illusions about the Ottoman Empire and the Turks gains importance as some of these reign supreme even today.
Rules of the provincial empire: |Ottoman governors and the administration of provinces, 1895-1908
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Graduate Institute of Social Sciences, 2005., 2005.) Kırmızı, Abdulhamit, 1971-; Toprak, Zafer.
This study is a portrayal of the operation of provincial government in the last thirteen years of the first Ottoman constitutional period, from 1895 to 1908. The aim of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the mentality of the high officialdom of the late Ottoman Empire, to display the soul of the Ottoman fin de siécle, as well as the mechanisms of the provincial government apparatus, and the power struggle between the center and the provinces. This is a study of the functioning of the state from a provincial perspective that, while giving no privilege to the perspective of the imperial capital, tries to locate the interdependence of province and center in the question of state centralization. To focus on the provincial government will help understand the nature of Hamidian autocracy as a system of government and late Ottoman bureaucratic culture. I discuss how governors interacted within and influenced the decision making system of the Ottoman empire. I do this by analyzing who the governors were, how they functioned, and why they acted as they did and presenting them in light of ordinary events, coping with a wide range of problems, dealing with institutions, groups, and individuals at both the imperial and local level. The relationship between social and educational background and official career patterns is investigated to measure the success of the bureaucratic reforms.
Ottoman centralization and modernization in the province of Baghdad, 1831-1872
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2006., 2006.) Ceylan, Ebubekir.; Deringil, Selim,
The present study aims to explore Ottoman centralization and modernization in theprovince of Baghdad, between 1831 and 1872. The study, which was based upon a variety ofsources, and primarily upon the Ottoman and British archives, is an attempt to administrative and political history of Ottoman Iraq.The study is divided into six chapters. After an assessment of the literature andapproaches on studying the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, chapter one contains ageneral introduction on the geography, the people, and history of the Ottoman Iraq. The consequences of Iraq̕s geography on agriculture, Iraq̕s peripheral position on the Persianborder and its implications for provincial politics are underlined. In chapter two, the declineand fall of decentralist structures such as the Mamluks in Baghdad, the Jalilis in Mosul andthe Kurdish emirates in northern Iraq are explained. Parallel to the disintegration of the autonomous entities, the growing presence of Ottoman state (centralization) is emphasized.Chapter three attempts to explain changes in the borders among the Iraqi provinces andBaghdad̕s position as the provincial center. Then, the fluctuations in the authority of theprovincial governor are analyzed in relation to the centralist and de-centralist forces. As opposed to the common tendency in Iraqi historiography which distinguished Midhat Pashafrom the rest of the governors, this study brought Resid Pasha and Namık Pasha to theforefront as the harbinger of Midhat Pasha̕s reforms. The increasing Ottoman state controland the improvements in the general security of the province were also mentioned here. Chapters four and five seek to consider the extent to which the Tanzimat reforms werecarried out in the Ottoman Iraq. Special importance is given to the establishment of provincialadministrative councils and the implementation of two significant laws, namely the ProvincialLaw of 1864 and Ottoman Land Code of 1858 in the region. The Vilâyet Law extended the provincial administrative mechanism at the expense of tribal dominions. Through severaloffices (such as the office of kaymakam/mültezim and membership in the provincial councils)the tribal sheikhs were incorporated into the provincial administration. Having analyzedOttoman politics of tribe, chapter five focuses on the implementation of Land Code of 1858, which targeted the tribal structure that dominated the province for centuries. Although thecode aimed individual registration of the land, the tribal sheiks and city merchants emerged asbig landowners. However, despite this side effect, there appeared significant changes in thelandholding patterns and agricultural production. Finally, chapter six analyzed the modernization of various aspects of life in Baghdad. Specialemphasis was given to the introduction of steam navigation, telegraph communication,modern schools, print houses and publication of provincial newspaper. There is no doubt thatthese public works played crucial role in incorporating Iraq not only to the imperial center but also to the international networks. In this regard, the Tanzimat centralization andmodernization went hand in hand in Ottoman Baghdad. Therefore, one of the main points ofthis dissertation is to explore Ottoman origins of modern Iraq.
The transformation of Ottoman crete: cretans, revolts and diplomatic politics in the late Ottoman Empire, 1895-1898
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Şenışık, Pınar.; Karakışla, Yavuz Selim,
This dissertation aims to investigate Ottoman Crete during the late Ottoman Empire (1895-1898). It examines the internal dynamics of Ottoman Crete, the Cretan revolts of 1896 and 1897, massive involvement of Greece and the European states into the internal conflicts of the island, the establishment of the autonomous regime, and the withdrawal of the Ottoman forces from the island within a specific historical framework. This study analyzes the Cretan revolts of 1896 and 1897 as manifestations of nationalist ideology in the island. Particular attention is paid to the transformation of internal dynamics and contribution of the local inhabitants as the crucial driving force shaping the overall transformations within the island. Furthermore, it examines the infiltration of the Greek modern identity into Ottoman Crete and its impact on the Orthodox Christian inhabitants of the island. Contrary to the standard argument which is based on a notion that the main aim of the Cretan Christians was to unite with Greece, this dissertation argues that the Cretan Christians aimed to change the socio-economic and political structure of the Cretan society and to seize of power by overthrowing the Ottoman administration and the evacuation of the Ottoman troops from the island. The present dissertation is largely based upon the primary material produced during the period under the study. The Ottoman, British and American archives are the main archives that were used in this study. It is the first time that the holdings of the Ottoman Bank Archives and Research Centre on Crete are used in a doctoral dissertation.
Modernization through dancing bodies in Turkey
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Yüceil, Zeynep Günsür.; Öztürkmen, Arzu,
The present study aims to explore the first thirty years of State Ballet Institutions of Turkey. It was based primarily upon the oral interviews of Turkish ballet’s subjects and the critics’ reviews mostly published in journals and newspapers of the time. The study is divided into six chapters. An assessment of the foundation of institutional ballet in the world constitutes the first chapter. Chapter II is concerned with the dance scholarship in Turkey. Chapter III consists of two sections: The first one is based on a historical narrative related to the first state sponsored ballet institutions, namely the Ankara State Conservatory of Ballet and the Ankara State Ballet Company. The history of the foundation of the relevant educational framework combined with the professional company is explored through the readings and first hand witnesses’ memories. The second section of this chapter introduces the most significant actors of early Turkish ballet. The British teachers and choreographers as the initiators of ballet, Turkish bureaucrats as the representatives of the state and the first Turkish dancers as the pioneers of this art form have been presented. Chapter IV is concerned with the issues of institutionalization of Turkish ballet, followed by Chapter V which is involved with the debate on constructing ‘the national’. Different approaches were analyzed in relation to the presentations of the national. Finally, Chapter VI focuses on the individual stories as they are told by the first generations of the Turkish ballet artists. Their stories include gender perspectives, passion, frustration, and searching. Their memories are expressed as they are.|Keywords: Turkish ballet, institutionalization, modernization, memory, identity
Cultural identifications of the Greek Orthodox elite of Constantinople: discourse on music in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2009., 2009.) Erol, Merih.; Eldem, Edhem,
This dissertation aims to explore the formation of a musical discourse among the Greek Orthodox educated elite of Constantinople in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This discourse was formed mainly through the practices and activities of the voluntary music associations and the debates on musicological issues in the columns of the Greek dailies and journals. This study analyzes the musical discourse within the issues of cultural nationalism, national and social identity formation and modernization. Particular attention is paid to the investigation of the musical discourse in its historical context, namely the social, economic and political transformations that the Orthodox millet underwent in the post-Reform Edict (1856) period, and the prospects of certain political and ideological schemes that became potentially available in this era. Furthermore, by uncovering the plurality of discourses, definitions and views pertaining to cultural identity and musical debates, this dissertation aims to contribute to the challenging of the standard approach which sees the Greek Orthodox millet as a monolithic unit. The main body of sources used in this dissertation consists of treatises on music, essays on music in periodicals and newspapers, speeches, patriarchal circulars, the statutes of musical associations and the prologues of the collections of ecclesiastical chants, popular and folk songs. The archives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Greek Orthodox Community of Stavrodromio (Beyoğlu), the Asia Minor Association ‘East’ and the Ottoman archive were used in this study.
The Transformation of the ‘modern’ axis of nineteenth-century Istanbul: property, investments and elites from Taksim Square to Sirkeci Station
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2009., 2009.) Tanatar-Baruh, Lorans.; Eldem, Edhem,
The “construction” of the “modern” axis of nineteenth-century Istanbul is analyzed through its three complementary facets: laws and regulations brought on property ownership including everyday practices; investments in “new” commercial buildings and apartment blocks at the core of the city; and the capitalist elite, who by taking advantage of the Tanzîmât reforms, which protected people from arbitrary interference in their private and commercial dealings, invested in these buildings. The dissertation tries to investigate, at a micro level, to what extent Istanbul’s urban fabric may have been the product of capitalism and of its elite consisting of both Ottoman bureaucrats and of the business elite as precursors of the modernization process, and sheds light on the power game between different agencies involved in the process. Such an analysis could only be possible through a multiplicity of perspectives and approaches. In an interdisciplinary fashion, political, economic, social, urban and institutional history is used in combination to trace the background of the transformation of the urban fabric. A quantitative approach is also applied to analyze the “modern” building stock, to follow its evaluation through time, define its peculiarities and trace its topography. This method also helps us to quantify the size of investments and to identify the family names which constitute our sample. To know more about the background of these families a prosopographic approach is also followed. This research is largely based on the sources of the Ottoman State Archive; on sources in private archives, such as the Ottoman Bank Archive and Research Centre, Saint Peter Church or Nissim de Camondo Museum archives; and printed sources such as insurance maps and trade directories.
Between voluntarism and resistance: The Ottoman mobilization of manpower in the First World War
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2009., 2009.) Beşikçi, Mehmet.; Deringil, Selim,
This dissertation examines the Ottoman experience of mobilization of manpower in the First World War. By focusing mainly on Anatolia and the Muslim population, it aims to explore how the Ottoman state tried to cope with the challenges of permanent mobilization for the war effort. The dissertation also aims to analyze how this process reshaped state-society relations in Anatolia. It is argued that social actors were not passive vis-à-vis the state during the Ottoman mobilization effort: they had agency and produced responses that would reshape the mobilizing policies that targeted them. Based on how social actors’ own expectations and priorities matched up with state policies under ever-deteriorating wartime conditions, the dissertation demonstrates that these responses constituted a wide spectrum ranging from voluntary support to open resistance. In turn, the state responded by revising its mobilization policies and reformulating new mechanisms of control at the local level. The research for this dissertation is largely based on the primary sources at the Ottoman State Archives (BOA), The Turkish General Staff Military History Archives (ATASE), and the National Archives of Britain. Moreover, the relevant newspapers and journals of the period under study, and the diaries-memoirs of various people who participated in the mobilization experience also constitute a major part of the documentary basis of this dissertation.|Keywords: the First World War, mobilization, conscription, volunteers, paramilitary associations, draft-evasion, deserters, gendarmerie.
The muslim millet of autonomous Crete: An exploration into its origins and implications
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2009., 2009.) Kostopoulou, Elektra.; Eldem, Edhem,
This work is a reevaluation of nineteenth-century Cretan history. It aims to examine the manifold transformations of the island society during its transition from Ottoman rule to a brief period of autonomy and ultimate integration into Greece. The time period studied in this dissertation captures some of the variables that continue to vex modern historiography. While there is a tendency to think of the Ottoman Empire exclusively as an Islamic or perhaps proto- Turkish polity that ruled over non-Muslim minorities foreign to the essential character of the Ottomans, the history of Muslim populations in provinces that did not end up being part of the Republic of Turkey—such as Crete—is identified with imaginary minorities foreign to the locals. My exploration of Cretan history challenges the above approach by focusing on the continually evolving profiles of Muslims and Christians in Ottoman and Autonomous Crete through the examination of data collected from primary archival sources and published material produced during this period in the Ottoman Empire, Greece, western Europe, and Crete. This dissertation suggests that ‘majorities’ and ‘minorities’ in the Eastern Mediterranean were not clear-cut, monolithic, protonational categories, but constantly changing communities that interacted with each other through networks influenced by a variety of contingencies. The period deserves to be studied in its own right, rather than to continue to use it to legitimize certain ‘truths.’
Manumitted female slaves of the Ottoman Imperial Harem (sarayîs) in the eighteenth century Istanbul
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2009., 2009.) Argıt, Betül İpşirli.; Eldem, Edhem,
This dissertation restores the lives of a large body of manumitted female palace slaves (sarayîs), and explores their role and place at the imperial court through a study of various aspects of their lives in the eighteenth century. Affiliation to the imperial court opened up access to patronage networks that had been generated during their period of service in the harem and continued following their transfer from the imperial palaces. Manumission did not loosen the patronage ties with the imperial household, but signaled the beginning of a new kind of relationship based on mutual interest and interdependence between the two parties: manumitted female palace slaves and the imperial household which provided patronage. By examining various aspects of sarayî women’s lives, such as marriage, residential patterns, material world and philanthropic acts, through the perspective of patronage relationship, the present dissertation reveals the extent of this enduring patronage relationship and the implications for both parties. This ongoing affiliation to the imperial court left a considerable imprint on the lives of manumitted female palace slaves and provided them with benefits and advantages in various stages of their lives according to their status in the harem hierarchy. From another perspective, manumitted female palace slaves secured the interest of the imperial household even after leaving the imperial palaces. By establishing loyal households through marriage, contributing to the making of a court region, introducing court culture to the urban society, contributing to the wealth of imperial court members by bequests and endowments, and contributing to city life through architectural patronage, sarayî women of all levels demonstrated power and prestige of the imperial household which was important in the context of the century. At the final point this study reveals that, in the political context of the era, a complete understanding of the internal functioning of the imperial court politics cannot be fully understood without taking into consideration the role of these loyal allies of the imperial household who acted as component of the imperial court all through their lives.
Rebelling for the old order: Ottoman Bosnia, 1826-1836
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2009., 2009.) Turhan, Fatma Sel.; Erdem, Y. Hakan,; Karakışla, Yavuz Selim,
This dissertation analyzes the reasons why the local people of Bosnia rebelled against the centralization and reform policies of the Ottoman Empire during the period between 1826 and 1836, the ways in which the rebels legitimized their actions and struggled for the acceptance of their demands and how those reactions were interpreted by the Ottoman statesmen. The present study mainly concentrates on the theme within a three partite theoretical framework, by examining it according to the cases of rebellion in that period, the centralization policies of the state and the borderland situation of the region. As this rebellion against the Ottoman center was a provincial one, the dissertation seeks to analyze the dynamics of the region as well as of the Ottoman center which led the people to rebel. Since the rebellion was an attempt to keep the ancien régime unchanged, the dissertation inquires into the reasons which turned Bosnia into one of the main battlegrounds for the conflicts between centralization and local autonomy. Hence, since the rebellion has direct relationships with the borderland situation of Bosnia, the dissertation concentrates on Bosnia in terms of changing conditions in its borderland position. Within this context, the study first examines the Bosnian rebellion against the abolition of the Janissary corps in 1826 and then focuses on the subsequent rebellion of 1831 against the new orders of the Porte, the nizâmât, including the changes in land tenure and in the military system, the changes in uniform as well as the changes in the status of some districts of Bosnia.
Martyrs and dervishes as witnesses : The transformation of Byzantine identity in the lands of Rum
(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2010.|Thesis (Ph.D.)-I'Universite de Paris 1-Pantheon-Sorbonne, 2010., 2010.) Bayrı, Buket Kitapçı.; Kaplan, Michel,; Necipoğlu, Nevra.
The transformation of Asia Minor and the Balkans between the eleventh and the fifteenth centuries constitutes one of the last chapters of social and cultural change in the Mediterranean basin in the Middle Ages. The focus of the dissertation is on the transformation of Byzantine identity between 1261 and 1453 in the former Byzantine lands, which were named as the lands of Rum by the Muslim sources. Due to incursions, raids, conquest, recolonization and reconstruction following the Turco-Muslim migrations and settlement, the physical and symbolic boundaries of the Byzantines as a group were trespassed, there was an encounter with the "other" and through conversion, enslavement and changing sides and places the Byzantines as a group became smaller. The effect of this change on Byzantine identity is researched through the examination of the deftion of "self' and "other" in Byzantine martyria and Turco-Muslim hagiographical sources (menakzbnames) and heroic epics. In this inquiry both Byzantine identity and the identity of "other" are historicized and underlined. The changing meanings of terms such as Christian, genos, patris and barbaros which appear most in the martyria and Muslim, Turk, Rumi and kafir in the menakzbnames and heroic epics which are used to identify "self' and "other" are examined. The close analysis of terminology and the relation of the "self' with the "other" in the sources reflect that while the Byzantine self identity became exclusive as a defense against the shrinking of the group, the Turco-Muslim identity formation was quite inclusive having fluid boundaries between "self' and "other". A dialectic formation of identity can be perceived where the newcomers were themselves being transformed while transforming their environment. This study brings a new approach and interpretation to the frequently assumed sealed civilizational identities.
Education in the Turcophone Orthodox Communities of Anatolia during the nineteenth century
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2010., 2010.) Benlisoy, Stefo.; Deringil, Selim,
From the second half of the nineteenth century onwards the Turcophony of the majority of the Orthodox population of Anatolia became to be treated gradually as an anomaly that has to be corrected. The ecclesiastic leadership of the Orthodox millet and the secular leadership of the Ottoman Greeks became increasingly more sensitive and anxious towards the dominance of Turkish in the Anatolian Orthodox communities. The present study claims that just like the Ottoman state authority, the leadership of the Ottoman Greek millet adopted a siege mentality. In this specific historical context modern education acquired an adversarial nature and educational competition fueled both state led and the non-Muslim educational endeavors. Towards the middle of the nineteenth century a new language hierarchy emerged and consolidated. According to this new linguistic hierarchy Greek started to represent progress, advancement, prosperity and a break away from the existing backwardness. The plain Turkish that is spoken is despised and is treated as an oriental sign of backwardness and poverty. The present study attempts to demonstrate the complex interrelationships between different actors in shaping the educational and communal affairs of Turkish speaking Anatolian Orthodox. Rather than a homogenous entity what we find is a socially, economically, culturally, linguistically and ideologically fragmented community in which different actors tries to assert themselves and to direct this process through factional politics. This study claims that education stopped and reversed the process of social and cultural integration of the Turkish-speaking Anatolian Orthodox to their Muslim compatriots and created a sense of Greek national identity and feeling among the younger generations. Despite the occasional expression of a local or Anatolian Orthodox conscience inside the Ottoman Greek millet, most of the time in response to defamatory arguments concerning their Turcophony, a political and cultural program that will emphasize their ethnic distinctiveness from the Rum millet in the sense of Bulgarian or Albanian examples never took hold. Until the “exchange of populations” the cultural and ideological program of integration to the Greek Orthodox millet/nation retained its hegemonic position and remained as the most convincing program for achieving progress and prosperity.
Trading in the shadow of wars : commercial correspondence of a late-Ottoman Muslim trading house
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2011., 2011.) Mataracı, Aliye F.; Eldem, Edhem,
This work discusses the transformation of a late-Ottoman Muslim trading house in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars based on its commercial correspondence for most of the year 1914. It follows different courses and patterns of transformation through the general practice of commercial correspondence, the commercial networks that evolved around the trading house under scrutiny and the discourse exploited in the narration of commercial practices and the dramatic instances witnessed through the interwar period between the Balkan Wars and World War I. Pointing to a rupture rather than a continuum between the imperial and the Republican business cultures and practices, this work suggests the outbreak of World War I rather than the wake of the Balkan Wars as the actual turning point. The research for this dissertation is largely based on the commercial correspondence of the Mataracızâde trading house, the primary sources at the Ottoman State Archives (BOA), Ottoman and European collections of model letters, urban commercial directories published in the Ottoman Empire, specifically the Annuaire Oriental, local histories of the eastern Black Sea region and secondary literature.|Keywords : Commerce, commercial correspondence, letter-writing manuals, münşeât, commercial networks, merchant, the Balkan Wars, boycott, National Economy, Muslim bourgeoisie, World War I.
Exploring church-state relations in modern Japan: count Ōtani Kōzui’s quest for the pure land in an age of turbulence
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2012., 2012.) Küçükyalçın, Erdal.; Esenbel, Selçuk,
Ōtani Kōzui (1876-1948), the twenty second patriarch of the Honpa Honganji denomination of Buddhist Jōdo Shinshū sect (True Pure Land or Shin Buddhism) and the chief-abbot of its head-temple Western Honganji, Kyoto. He lived through the Meiji, Taishō and the first half of the Shōwa periods and witnessed the rapid transformation from pre-modern to modern his society went through. Likewise, Western Honganji, the largest and most influential religious institution in the country had played a crucial role in the making of the Meiji Restoration and in the settling of secularism in Japan. Ōtani Kōzui was the leader of this institution between 1903-1914, but then he resigned and started living a secular life in China. He is known for the three Ōtani Expeditions into Central Asia but most of his other deeds remain in obscurity. Kōzui was an Asianist who, in ten volumes of his Kōa Keikaku (The Construction of Asia Project) had proposed a Tokyo-Istanbul-Berlin railway. He was an agriculturalist who had plantations in Johor (Malaysia), Singapore, Sulawesi and Java islands (Indonesia), Kaohsiung (Taiwan) as well as investments in Ankara Gazi Farm and Bursa Turkish-Japanese Silk Weaving Factory. He was the adviser to the Konoe and Koiso cabinets, and a public opinion leader whose followers had established “The Gate of Kōzui Society” (Zuimonkai ). The dissertation focuses on Count Ōtani Kōzui’s multi-faceted life and demonstrates the role of a religious institution,Western Honganji in the making of modern Japan.
The predicaments of alla franca: visions of proper behavior in late Ottoman etiquette literature
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2012., 2012.) Yaşar, Fatma Tunç.; Esenbel, Selçuk,
This dissertation is about late Ottoman etiquette (âdâb-ı mu’âşeret) books published between 1889 and 1918. It examines these books as behavioral literature and discusses the emergence of this literature within the late Ottoman socio-political and cultural milieu and contemporary world context. It analyses late Ottoman etiquette books in terms of context, content and agenda as the visions of proper behavior of each etiquette author. By studying this genre and the manners it introduced, this study aims to obtain insights into how contemporary men of letters understood, confronted, negotiated and coped with change and transformation and how they define Ottoman etiquette under different circumstances and situations. In this manner, firstly, it analyzes late Ottoman etiquette books as a literature with all its differences and common points within a conceptual framework. Then, it reveals how it defines its audience and delineates different realms of life from dress to domestic life to patterns of sociability.
Elemterefiş: superstitious beliefs and occult in the Ottoman Empire ( 1839 - 1923 )
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2013., 2013.) Uluğ, Nimet Elif.; Karakışla, Yavuz Selim,
Tills doctoral thesis has been prepared in order to write the social history of superstitious beliefs and especially magic and sorcery. Mainly, we tried to examine how superstitious beliefs and magic had transformed the daily life of Ottoman Empire into the world of superstitions in nineteenth century. However, we obliged to go further back when I deepened my research into the origin of superstitious beliefs and magic which were widespread in almost every period of the Ottoman Empire. I had to look at polytheistic religions like Shamanism, Animism, Manichaeism, Buddhism and Hinduism which were the common religious belief of former Turkish World. Also I studied various pagan religions and cultures underlying the past of Ottoman geography spreading over three continents; polytheistic religion belief systems of cultures like Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece and Roman culture; and the four major heavenly religions from these lands which each of which would be included in the Ottoman territories later such as Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam as well as the Sky God belief in the Central Asia. I tried to focus particularly on the magic subject while studying on superstitious beliefs and magic in Ottoman Empire. The focal point of my thesis became how magic had been utilized especially in Muslim Ottoman society rather than how the magic had been created. Therefore, I particularly stayed away from getting involved with amulets. How amulets or magic had been perceived in the society, why these had been needed and how they had been used became much more important than what was written in them. In the Ottoman Empire, while "professional" magicians were among individuals of ulema class who were not reluctant to utilize religious knowledge for their personal interests and began to live immoraly; "amateur" magicians were composed of occult groups who had unknown origins. I referred to them as pseudoclergy in the thesis. I followed magic and magicians included in the documents of Prime Ministry Ottoman State Archives only when caught as a result of a complaint. Ottoman literature and especially the novels of the period served as an efficient resource coming to my aid where limited information in the archival documents and secondary resources were insufficient about this kind of secret sciences (ilm-i nucum).
The historical interaction of the city with Its mahalles: Ottoman Edirne in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2014., 2014.) Uğur, Yunus.; Eldem, Edhem,
This study analyzes the spatial, demographic, and socio-economic structures of Edirne –the second capital of the Ottomans- in the 1700s. The main aim of this dissertation is to understand the Ottoman city in the case of Edirne (Adrianople), taking its mahalles as the main unit of analysis. In doing this, I, based on a relational approach to the city, examine different layers of city life simultaneously, e.g. its physical, demographic, and socio-economic structures on the basis of the socio-spatial dimension of the mahalle. I analyze the primary sources such as avârız and kefâlet (surety) registers of Edirne through quantitative methods including hierarchical clustering, correspondence analysis and through GIS (Geographic Information Systems) applications. In this study, I focus on a single city and study it in a detailed manner with a methodology through which I will be able to, in the future, compare its socio-economic and topographic structures and historical development with those of other cities. I try to interpret the attributes derived from the archival sources, such as titles, occupations, ethno-religious identities, gender, and properties of the people in relation to the city spaces and to describe the ecological position of the city by focusing on the spatial neighborliness/conjunctions or distinctiveness of these attributes. In other words, I was able to reveal how these attributes concentrate at the mahalle level and how mahalles differ in terms of these attributes. Accordingly, mahalles got multi-definitions constituting certain zones or sectors with other mahalles on the basis of qualitative resemblance to each other different than the conventional districts (semt) defined by on the basis of topographical neighborhood. Besides, I was also able to visualize the change undergone by the city of Edirne in two different periods –1686 and 1703 – via different attribute profiles in two successive phases. This was an opportunity both to see what changed in the city and what did not and to interpret the interaction of the inner changes with the general historical context of the period under study. In this way, important developments were actualized in the relational methodology regarding the problem of following continuity, discontinuity and the change routes of different time series (sequences), which is among the most important methodological problems of historical studies.
Socio-political reflections and expectations of the Ottoman Armenians after the 1908 revolution: between hope and despair
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2014., 2014.) Kılıçdağı, Ohannes.; Kechriotis, Evangelos.
This thesis aims to shed light on perceptions and evaluation of the Ottoman Armenians in the second constitutional period about their relations with the state and the other groups and also about the changes in the state apparatus in making the constitutional government. Besides, it explores the internal relations between different segments of the Armenian community. By doing so, it tries to widen the perspective of the historiography of the second constitutional period in which non-Muslims are rarely handled as autonomous subjects. In the thesis, those Armenians’ societal relations are analyzed under the categories of internal and external. Internal relations mean the relations among Armenian institutions, parties, and social classes. External relations, on the other hand, are analytically divided into two as vertical and horizontal relations where the former denotes the relations with the state and the latter the relations with non-Armenian ethno-religious communities, i.e. Turks, Kurds. In order to understand Ottoman Armenians’ subjectivity this work largely utilizes the texts, i.e. newspaper articles, books, and booklets which they produced, and which are expected to reflect their mentality. The larger portion of the material are the Armenian newspapers published in Anatolian cities such as Sivas, Tokat, Erzurum, Trabzon, Harput, Adapazarı, and Izmir which constitutes a representative sample of the Anatolian Armenians who constituted the vast majority of the Ottoman Armenians. On the basis of all primary resources it can be concluded that the Ottoman Armenians were living in a continuous ebb and flow of hope and despair, optimism and pessimism just before the catastrophe of the First World War.
The Han in eighteenth- and early nineteenth- century Istanbul: a spatial, topographical and social analysis
(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2016., 2016.) Yaşar, Ahmet, 1978-; Kafesçioğlu, Çiğdem.
This thesis aims to examine the han in Ottoman Istanbul in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. By thinking on history in its spatial dimensions, it attempts to analyze early modern Istanbul hans within the framework of four main concepts: space, construction, conviviality, and surveillance. Through the focus on urban hans, this thesis endeavours to offer new perspectives on a number of issues regarding the city. These issues include the spatial topography of the urban hans within the city, the construction of the urban commercial infrastructure, everyday interaction in public spaces, and the morality-centered surveillance mechanisms of the political power over these spaces. This thesis argues that the commercial spaces of the early modern Ottoman capital took their ultimate form in the eighteenth century. This process started with the closing of the market region with a roof in 1701, quickened by the construction of the Nuruosmaniye Complex near the Bedestan in 1755, and continued with the construction of Büyük Yeni Han in 1763 and multitude of others in the commercial district. By focusing on the new han projects in the eighteenth century with their transformative consequence on the landscape of Istanbul and their revitalized role, this thesis claims that the Ottoman sultan, by getting involved in the economic and spatial realms, reestablished the presence of the dynasty in the commercial district of the Ottoman capital. This thesis also attempts to make new contributions to the study of Istanbul hans particularly focusing on their use and the political authority’s control over them. In this manner, it spatializes the public realm within the context of early modern Istanbul, as a domain where conviviality, sociality, and theatricality are embedded. By analyzing the Ottoman political language that dealt with the public manifestations shaped in and around the han as mefasid (evils), it also examines the surveillance mechanisms of the political authority over the hans in the context of public order.

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