1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Path-breaking Revision of Ottoman History, March 28, 2011
This review is from: The Second Ottoman Empire: Political and Social Transformation in the Early Modern World (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization) (Hardcover)
As a student of comparative imperial decline, a notable book landed on my desk recently, a remarkable study of "The Second Ottoman Empire" by a young scholar, Baki Tezcan. It is a major revisionist analysis of the long established linear narrative of progressive Ottoman decline pre-dating by several centuries the ultimate post-WWI collapse of the empire. Instead, Professor Tezcan makes a convincing case, both conceptually and empirically,that, conversely, from 1580-1826 the empire enjoyed a renaissance of sorts he aptly calls the "Second Empire." To wit, he argues persuasively that several of the examples given in support of the linear decline theory were actually relatively constructive developments in the mid-life of the six-century Ottoman Empire.
Tracing the transition from the Ottoman patrimonial period to the Second Empire as an early modern polity at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, the author lays out two master trends, i.e. the development of proto-democratization, and the emergence of limits on central authority. Proto-democratization was manifested in the gradual expansion of the political nation, those able to participate in the politics of the empire, while the initial checks on power meant limiting royal absolutism on the key issue of political succession. The agents of change in these two processes were, respectively, the steadily increasing access of commoners into the elite Janissary Corps, the infantry forces of empire which enjoyed status in the Sultan's court, and the rising stature of the jurists, the authoritative interpreters of Islamic law.
However, these modernizing trends did not go unchallenged throughout the 17th and 18th centuries of the Second Empire. On the contrary, they occurred within an ongoing ideational struggle between the Absolutist school of imperial power and its challenger, the Constitutionalists with their arguments for broader political participation and some curbs on monarchial authority. The latter developments were taking place in the supporting context of increasing monetization (versus in-kind transactions) of the Ottoman economy in the direction of marketization, and the progressive unification of legal space throughout the territories of the vast empire.
As the author superbly demonstrates, the Constitutionalists held the balance during the two centuries of the Second Empire as the Janissaries became a channel for upward social mobility, and the jurists' influence at court grew, signaling the regularization of imperial succession and the resolution of political conflict, not as heretofore by force of arms and political assassination, but within the arena of law. But Professor Tezcan is also not remiss in pointing out the costs as well as the benefits of the positive trends within the Second Empire.
As the Janissaries opened their ranks to broader membership, the corps evolved from a mainly military arm of empire into a socio-economic institution comprising the myriad private commercial interests of its members. Likewise, as the authority of the jurists grew, so too did the influence of religious orthodoxy in their legal interpretations. Hence, the costs to empire -- military weakness and territorial loss, as well as religious conservatism stunting the growth of scientific knowledge. Both of these adverse trends, the author's notes, contributed to the ultimate decline of the Ottoman Empire, weakening its ability to compete effectively with the more modern empires of the 18th and 19th centuries.
A final word on the splendid organization of this excellent study. The book opens with a narrative overview of the author's thesis, evidence, and arguments, followed by a chapter introducing his empirically well-grounded conceptual vocabulary and framework within which the analytic narrative will proceed. Then come four chapters analysing in a fascinating account the unfolding of the revisionist Second Empire thesis within court life at mid-empire, ending with a masterful concluding chapter, the entire work skillfully threaded together by a common body of ideas which the author articulates in highly readable prose and reiterates in each succeeding phase of the story. Last, Professor Tezcan's book should score well in the classroom -- as a work of high scholarship, it is eminently accessible pedagogically, both to instructor and student.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
