Scholars and Sultans in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire

by Abdurrahman Atçil

Overview

During the early Ottoman period (1300–1453), scholars in the empire carefully kept their distance from the ruling class. This changed with the capture of Constantinople. From 1453 onwards, the Ottoman government co-opted large groups of scholars, usually over a thousand at a time, and employed them in a hierarchical bureaucracy to fulfill educational, legal and administrative tasks. Abdurrahman Atçıl explores the factors that brought about this gradual transformation of scholars into scholar-bureaucrats, including the deliberate legal, bureaucratic and architectural actions of the Ottoman sultans and their representatives, scholars' own participation in shaping the rules governing their status and careers, and domestic and international events beyond the control of either group.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108106047
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/24/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Abdurrahman Atçıl is an assistant professor and a Fellow of the Brain Circulation Scheme, co-funded by the European Research Council and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, at Istanbul Şehir University. He also holds an assistant professorship in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Queens College, City University of New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. Scholars during the Early Ottoman Period (1300–1453): 1. Post-Mongol realities in Anatolia and the Ottomans; 2. Madrasas and scholars in Ottoman lands; Part II. The Formation of the Hierarchy (1453–1530): 3. Introducing the Ottoman empire; 4. Scholars in Mehmed II's nascent imperial bureaucracy (1453–81); 5. Scholar-bureaucrats realise their power (1481–1530); Part III. The Consolidation of the Hierarchy (1530–1600): 6. The focus of attention changes; 7. The ascendance of dignitary scholar-bureaucrats (mevali); 8. The growth and extension of the hierarchy; 9. The rules and patterns of differentiation among scholar-bureaucrats; 10. The integration of scholar-bureaucrats in multiple career tracks; Conclusion; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.