Imperial Legacy [Hardcover]

L. Carl. Brown (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0231103042 | ISBN-13: 978-0231103046 | Publication Date: October 15, 1997

-- Choice

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A feast of thoughtful and informative essays, this timely collection explores an age-old issue: the impact of the past on the present. Contributors -- whose names make a very impressive list -- consider... influences of the Ottoman Empire on its successor states in the Balkans and the Arab world. If, as the editor remarks, the studies 'aim more for broad themes than discrete details, ' they provide substance enough for thorough lessons in historical influence." -- "Choice"

About the Author

L. Carl Brown is Garrett Professor in Foreign Affairs Emeritus at Princeton University, and a former director of the interdisciplinary Program in Near Eastern Studies.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (October 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231103042
• ISBN-13: 978-0231103046
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,113,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very timely, scientific, relevant and looks beyond cliches., July 31, 1999

By 

Alaturka (Northport, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Imperial Legacy (Paperback)

Imperial Legacy, composing of various chapters contributed by numerous Ottoman experts, sheds light, especially for non-academicians, on the legacy of a great empire and its imprint on current Middle East, Balkan, Caucases and North Africa geopolitics, culture, religion and daily life. Most revealing is how the Ottoman history is not synonomous with Turkish history. Rather, it is a history of a particular dynasty, and the history of the peoples, of numerous religious, ethnic and racial background it ruled over centuries. It is a history of Greeks, Armenians, Arabs, Serbs, Albanians, and many others. In an effort to distance themselves from the Ottoman past, which was the anti-thesis of that most powerful 19th century invention of nation-state, all nations that have emerged from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire have very diligently and actively ignored or denied the Ottoman heritage. Most zealous among them was the new Republic of Turkey of course. In many cases the legacy is very tangible and measurable, like the current political and ethnic borders of lands that directly or indirectly, at some time or another, came under Ottoman rule. In other cases, it is intangible but very omnipresent, like very centralized governments, elite bureaucrats, lack of noble classes, administrative traditions, obsession with internal peace at any cost etc.. In other cases, the legacy is there by its absence, like lack of strong free markets, industrial and technological underdevelopment. It is a delicate matter though at times to seperate the pre-Ottoman traditions that Ottomans absorbed and carried over from Byzantine and Seljuk empires, or very regional characterisitcs that can not be attributed to Ottomans solely, from the true and unique imprints of the Ottoman Empire. The various facets of the legacy is investigated at some depth, albeit very unevenly in each chapter. While Maria Todorova dives into phlisophy and theory of history in the 4th Chapter on Balkans, Norman Itzkowitz gives a very superficial treatment in Chapter 3. Present day perceptions, impact on Arab world and Balkans, administarative and diplomatic heritage, language, education, economics and cultural legacies have been specifically treated with adequate references. The militray subject was very lightly covered given its enourmous significance for the Ottomans. The imprint on the modern Turkish history and how the young Turks, CUP and CHP and their struggles with opposing forces play out and shape politics in Turkey even today, does not get the focus it obviously deserves. Two other areas left out of the picture were music and architecture. They do fall a little out of the area of expertise of the historians contributing to the book but still, Classical Turkish Music is a very living part of the Ottoman legacy. It exists solely because of the imperial heritage, and it has been refined over the centuries by very significant contributions from non-Turks and non-muslims alike. There are experts who could have been called on to fill these gaps. In short, a very timely and relevant book. A topic that was very difficult to treat objectively due to the prejudice and heavy emotions surrounding the expansion of the Ottoman Empire and its disasterous end, has been bravely and squarely faced. It promises to be a very rich area of investigation and research in the future too.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Imperial Legacy, July 26, 2001

By 

Daniel Pipes, Middle East Forum, Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imperial Legacy (Paperback)

"In the Valhalla of past empires, the Ottomans should rank high. In actual fact few major political systems have been so consistently ignored or misrepresented." Imperial Legacy represents an attempt to right this wrong by assessing the Ottoman legacy many decades after its passing in those lands where the padishah once ruled; the editor dubs it "a collection of briefs for the court of history."

The results can hardly be gainsaid. In chapters on one arena after another-state boundaries, administration, diplomacy, the Arabic and Turkish languages, economics, military matters, Islam, and education-the authors show the wide, sometimes pervasive, impact of Ottoman institutions and practices. This hardly comes as a surprise, given that the empire lasted over six hundred years, but the point does emphatically need making, and a luminary cast (Halil Inalcık, Charles Issawi, Geoffrey Lewis, Bernard Lewis, André Raymond, Dankwart Rustow) effectively does so.

Brown, professor emeritus at Princeton University, has emerged in the last decade as the Middle East's historian with the widest vision. His International Politics and the Middle East: Old Rules, Dangerous Game (Princeton University Press, 1984) is a path-breaking effort to find patterns in diplomacy over the past two centuries; and a multi-authored volume (co-edited with Cyril E. Black), Modernization in the Middle East: The Ottoman Empire and Its Afro-Asian Successors (Darwin Press, 1993) ambitiously seeks to interpret the whole of modern Middle Eastern history.

Middle East Quarterly, June 1996