The changing of conception of time: calendar and clock from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey

Abstract

This thesis explores the changing conception of time and the time measurable tools and its symbologies from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey. My aim is to describe the Ottoman and Republican experiences on the issue of time and compare these with the European experience. In the Ottoman Empire, from the fifteenth century on, the calendars were prepared by the palace müneccims, or astronomers. The Hicri calendar was used at the officially level until the end of the Empire; however, at end of the eigthteenth century, the Rumi calendar was introduced as the Hicri calendar was not connected to the seasons. Apart from this, the hour system was used ezani (alaturka) until the modernization period; then the hour system began to change. These alterations caused some dichotomies in social life. In the Republican period, time was adapted to the Western standards. The modernization and secularization of time in the Ottoman era resembled that of Europe in its early modernization phase. The constituting of the time symbologies and the time disciplines differed according to societies. It was realized that time could aid in the secularization and modernization of society by the power. From this point of view, this paper seeks to establish methodological roots for the conception of time and its effects of secularization and modernization.