When the Ottomans commenced their modernizing reforms in the 1830s, they still ruled over a vast empire. In addition to today's Turkey, including Anatolia and Thrace, their power reached over Mesopotamia, North Africa, the Levant, the Balkans, and the Caucasus. The Sultanate was at the apex of a truly multi-ethnic society. Modernization not only brought market principles to the economy and more complex administrative controls as part of state power, but also new educational institutions as well as new ideologies. Thus new ideologies developed and nationalism emerged, which became a political reality when the Empire reached its end. This book compares the different intellectual atmospheres between the pre-republican and the republican periods and identifies the roots of republican authoritarianism in the intellectual heritage of the earlier period.

About the Author

Elisabeth OEzdalga is Professor of Sociology at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. OEzdalga, who is also affiliated to Goeteborg University in Sweden on a part-time basis, has also been the direct of The Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul. She is the editor of Sufism, Music and Society in Turkey and the Middle East (2001) and the author of The Veiling Issue (1998)

Reviews

'All of the articles in this volume are useful introductions to their respective areas of emphasis. This volume is highly recommended to students and scholars alike interested in the intellectual legacy of the late Ottoman Empire' - Kent Schull, Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, Volume 40 Number 2, December 2006

'Readers concerned with these subjects should not neglect this book, for which Ozdalga is to be greatly congratulated' -Omer Turan, International Journal of Middle East Studies, November 2007

Book Information
ISBN 9780415665445
Author Elisabeth OEzdalga
Format Paperback
Page Count 370
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 680g