NMC 355H1 The Ottoman Empire in the Age of Reform, 1808-1918

Course Reader

Instructor: Professor Jens Hanssen

e-mail:

jens.hanssen@utoronto.ca Time and Place: Fr. 11-1pm, SS1084 978-3143 Office: NMC room 317, Bancroft Hall

Phone: (416) Hours: Fr. 1-2pm

NMC 3551 The Ottoman Empire in the Age of Reform, 1808-1918

Instructor: Professor Jens Hanssen jens.hanssen@utoronto.ca Time and Place: Fr. 11-1pm, SS1084 978-3143 Office: NMC room 317, Bancroft Hall

e-mail: Phone: (416) Hours: Fr. 1-2pm

Course Description The last phase of the Ottoman empire has long been viewed by Orientalists and Middle East nationalists as a period of inevitable decline. More recently, cultural historians of the Middle East have framed the long 19th. century as a period of grand reforms - or Tanzimat. This course seeks to critically examine the notions of reform of the state and reform of the individual between Sultan Mahmud IIs accession and the defeat of the Ottoman empire in World War I. Focusing largely on Istanbul and the Ottoman capitals political relations with the Arab provinces, we will relate economic, social and intellectual transformations to state laws and policies, Mediterranean capitalism and the rise of sectarianism and nationalism in the Middle East. Recommended preparation: NMC276Y1/NMC278H1/NMC278Y1/NMC353H1/NMC377H1/377Y1/NMC3 78H1/NMC378H1 Expectations of Students Students are expected to - have a sense of general historical processes - have the ability to identify chronologies of events as well as historical causes and effects generally - be able to read critically and evaluate at least 75 pages of assigned texts per week - express themselves clearly and correctly in writing - base their active participation on a thorough interpretation of the main arguments in the weekly readings - be able to evaluate primary sources historically - to work independently and in groups before they take this course. Those students who do not have any 3

recommended preparation are strongly advised to do extra reading as indicated in the weekly readings under Further Reading below. Lecture/Seminar Format This course is conceived in both a lecture and seminar format. The first part of our weekly two-hour meetings consists of a lecture on the weekly topic. The lecture will focus on the broad historical trends and relate a given weekly topic to previous and subsequent topics. The second part is meant to discuss a key historical text (primary source) in relation to the topic of the lecture. All students are expected to interpret these short texts in preparation for in-class discussion of the weekly topic. The point is to reflect on larger historical trends through the prism of particular events, declarations, newspaper commentaries, etc. in late Ottoman history. Learning Objectives By the end of the course, students will be able to - identify historical ruptures and continuities in the 19th century Middle East - identify major concepts, events and processes in late Ottoman & Arab History - identify major historical actors and their times - relate primary sources (in translation) to general historical trends in late Ottoman & Arab History - identify the dynamic relationship between imperial centre and Ottoman provincial peripheries - interpret the conditions of modernitys emergence in the Ottoman empire - differentiate between the making of history and the writing of history and recognize the links between these levels - conduct biographical research on late Ottoman parliamentarians and present this research on Blackboard and in an in-class simulation of the Ottoman parliament by way of impersonation and role-play (in week 13) - compose coherent lines of arguments in answering exam questions, show a command of the big pictures of late Ottoman history, and relate specific examples to general trends and vice versa. COURSE REQUIREMENTS 1) Primary Source Book Review 20% 2) Role play in Ottoman Parliament Simulation: 20% 3) 1 Final Exam: 4) Participation :

40%

20% 1. Primary Source Book Review (Deadline, Book Review: Week 11 for class) This book review requires the student to read a historical account, i.e. a book written during a given moment of the late Ottoman empire and relate it analytically to its times and themes. This could be a diary, a memoir, an autobiography, travel literature, etc. Use the appropriate readings in the syllabus to guide your analysis. For your convenience, I have listed a selection of books in the appropriate weekly readings sections. I will also post and discuss guidelines on how to read for- and write a good historical book review. 2. Ottoman Parliament Simulation (Week 13) (see separate sheet) 3. Final Exam in the formal Examination Period The Exam will contain sets of questions chosen from a list precirculated by week nine or ten. They relate to topics specific to the weekly lectures, the text book and the course reader. In other words, read the texts diligently throughout the term and come prepared with questions and insights. Taking notes while reading for- and attending the lectures will make revision easier at the end. 4. Participation Students are expected to come prepared to classes. They are expected to have done all the required weekly readings and bring their copies of the required textbook and the course reader to be able to fully participate in discussions and text analysis. Attendance is compulsory for all students. For exceptions see below (Doctors Notes) Assessment I assess student participation and will - encourage and evaluate individual contributions to in-class discussions - evaluate the students ability to communicate in a critical but respectful manner - evaluate factual and chronological accuracy - evaluate the students ability to think and express themselves conceptually - evaluate the students ability to link events to wider processes (to contextualize) and to explain historical processes in given events (to historicize) - evaluate the students ability to relate historiographical themes to 5

each other and construct coherent lines of arguments - evaluate the students ability to conduct biographical research on late Ottoman notables in the secondary literature Reading And Text Preparation You are expected to have prepared the weekly readings before the respective sessions. This means critical reading (marking the important dates, events and facts but ALSO the authors points of view, lines of argument, narrative structure). The weekly questions will guide your reading/give you an angle on the material. Typically the class will start with a lecture of c. 30 minutes followed by a close reading of a primary source such as a government decree or law. We will then briefly determine the historical context and then delve into an analysis of the historical meaning of these sources. Finally class discussion links the specific case(s) presented to the weekly reading and wider themes of the course. REQUIRED READINGS There are three required textbooks (available @ the Toronto Womens Bookstore on Harbord, just west of Spadina) and a small course reader

Bruce Masters, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World: The Roots of Sectarianism (Cambridge: CUP, 2004). kr Haniolu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire (Princeton: PUP, 2008).

Hasan Kayali, Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1918 (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997). The course reader is available at Print City (aka. Krishna Copy) on the ground floor of 180 Bloor W. (Tel: 416.920.3040) SUGGESTIONS FOR EFFECTIVE STUDY & PERFORMANCE IN NMC355 1.) Form study groups with other people from the class to discuss the readings and assignments. Other people may see things which you do not. 3.) Dates are important but they are not the most important thing about history history is about understanding cause and effect, processes of change or the reasons for continuity. Concentrate on the themes, the main issues and where relevant the arguments made by different authors. Think comparatively and laterally about how events or processes described in one class compared with other places and time periods in another. Do not get lost in remembering minute details in the first instance. Try to see the big picture and the rest will fall into place. 4.) You will do very well if it is clear from your assignment/exam that

you have addressed the specific questions and understood the issues and arguments raised in the readings and the lectures/tutorials. You will do brilliantly if you can successfully put forward your own interpretations and make sensible, clear arguments which you can defend. Feel free to disagree with an authors approach or with an argument which I have made in class if you have the evidence to support your claim. BLACKBOARD Our course website contains pdfiles of all readings, further instructions and guidelines as well as information on the Ottoman Parliament Simulation and names of deputies in the Course Documents section. Furthermore, under Library Resources you will find links to Cambridge Histories, the Index Islamicus, encyclopedias, dictionaries and other resources. I will use the Discussion Board to post questions for weekly discussion. These should be up a few days before class. Towards the end of the semester, as part of the Simulation, you will post introduce your adopted persona for the simulation by presenting you biographical research on your Ottoman parliamentarian. Academic Code of Conduct Copy-pasting and inadequate referencing of sources will be punished in accordance with the universitys Rules and Regulations:
1. It shall be an offence for a student knowingly: a) to forge or in any other way alter or falsify any document or evidence required for admission to the University, or to utter, circulate or make use of any such forged, altered or falsified document, whether the record be in print or electronic form; b) to use or possess an unauthorized aid or aids or obtain unauthorized assistance in any academic examination or term test or in connection with any other form of academic work; c) to personate another person, or to have another person personate, at any academic examination or term test or in connection with any other form of academic work; d) to represent as ones own any idea or expression of an idea or work of another in any academic examination or term test or in connection with any other form of academic work, i.e. to commit plagiarism; e) to submit, without the knowledge and approval of the instructor to whom it is submitted, any academic work for which credit has previously been obtained or is being sought in another course or program of study in the University or elsewhere; f) to submit for credit any academic work containing a purported statement of fact or reference to a source which has been concocted.

For full document, see: http://www.artsandscience.utoronto.ca/ofr/calendar/rules.htm#conduct For more information, see The Problem of Plagiarism (http://www.ecf.utoronto.ca/~writing/handbook-plagiarism.html) and How not to Plagiarize (http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/plagsep.html).

Deadlines
The written assignment (Primary Source Book Review) is to be handed in personally before class on March 20. It is expected to be handed in on time. E-mailed faxed or drop-boxed assignments are not accepted. Late submissions will have to be handed in personally the following week in class. They incur a deduction of 10%. For exceptions, see Doctors Notes below. Reasonable accommodation will be shown to students who are prevented from meeting the requirements for reasons beyond their control (e.g. illness, accident, disability). These exceptions need to be documented:

Doctors Notes
Students will need to provide a medical note if they are unable to meet deadlines or attend classes/tutorials. The doctor needs to fill out the UofT student medical certificate and the student submits it to the instructor or TA within a week (e-mailed pdf permitted)

Accessibility Services
The University re-affirms that all individuals are expected to satisfy the essential requirements of their program of studies or employment, while recognizing that students and employees with disabilities may require reasonable accommodations to enable them to do so.

ESSENTIAL RECOMMENDED READINGS (useful for the Exam Preparation): Conceptual Approaches to Middle East and Ottoman Studies Said, Edward [1979], Orientalism (London, 1994). Faroqhi, Suraiya, Approaching Ottoman History; An Introduction to the Sources (Cambridge: CUP, 1999). General Socio-economic history of the late Ottoman empire: Roger Owen, The Middle East in the World-Economy, 1800-1914 (London: Methuen, 1981). Reat Kasaba, The Ottoman Empire and the World Economy, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988. Donald Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922, (Cambridge, 2000). Intellectual & Ideological Developments: Albert Hourani [1962], Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age (Cambridge, CUP, 1984). erif Mardin [1962], The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought, a Study in the Modernization of Turkish Political Ideas (Syracuse, 2000). Selim Deringil, The Well-Protected Domains; Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire, 1876-1909 (London: I. B. Tauris, 1998). Kemal Karpat, The Politicization of Islam (Oxford: OUP, 2000). Elisabeth Ozdalga, Late Ottoman Society: The Intellectual Legacy (London: Curzon Press, 2005). General Political & Institutional Developments Bernard Lewis [1961], The Emergence of Modern Turkey (Oxford, 2002). Berkes, Niyazi [1964], The Development of Secularism in Turkey (London: Hurst, 1998). Devereux, Robert, The First Ottoman Constitutional Period; a Study of the Midhat Constitution and Parliament (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1963). Stanford Shaw, The History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1979). Centre-Periphery Relations in the Ottoman Empire Rogan, Eugene, L., Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire (Cambridge: CUP, 1999). Anscombe, Frederick, The Ottoman Gulf; The Creation of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar (New York: Columbia, 1997). Cultural History Gcek, Fatma, The Rise of the Bourgeoisie, Demise of Empire 9

Ottoman Westernisation and Social Change (Oxford: OUP, 1996). Shaw, Wendy, Possessors and Possessed; Museums, Archaeology, and the Vizualization of History in the Late Ottoman Empire (Berkeley and Los Angeles: California, 2003). Sectarianism Ussama Makdisi, The Culture of Sectarianism; Community, History and Violence in Nineteenth Century Ottoman Lebanon (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California Press, 2000). Nationalisms Antonius, G., The Arab Awakening (Beirut: Hamilton, 1939). Gkalp. Ziya, Turkish Nationalism and Western Civilization; Selected Essays (London: Allen and Unwin, 1950). Dawn, E., From Ottomanism to Arabism (Chicago: Urbana Press, 1973). Kushner, David, The Rise of Turkish Nationalism, 1876-1908 (London: Frank Cass, 1971). Cleveland, W., The Making of an Arab Nationalist. Ottomanism and Arabism in the Life and Thought of Sati al-Husri (Princeton, University Press, 1971). Zeine, Zeine, Arab-Turkish Relations and the Emergence of Arab Nationalism (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1981). Philip Khoury, Urban Notables and Arab Nationalism, the Politics of Damascus, 1860-1920 (Cambridge: CUP, 1983). Khalidi, R., L. Anderson, et. alt. (eds.), The Origins of Arab Nationalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991). Akam, Taner From Empire to Republic : Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide (London: Zed Press, 2004).

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I INTRODUCTION 1. Week (January 9, 2009): Reading Material and Assignments; Beyond Rise and Decline; Periodizations and Approachs to late Ottoman History; Cem Emrence, Three Waves of Late Ottoman Historiography, 1950-2007, MESA Bulletin 41:2 (2007), 137-151.

2. Week (January 16): Centre-Periphery Relations in Late Ottoman Politics Ariel Salzman, Citizens in Search for a State; the Limits of Political Participation in the Late Ottoman Empire, in Extending Citizenship, Reconfiguring States, edited by M. Hanagan and C. Tilly (Lanham, 1999) 37-66. Ussama Makdisi, Ottoman Orientalism, AHR 107;3 (2002), 768796. Sources of Discussion: The Ottoman Deed of Agreement between the sultan and provincial Notables, 1808, in The Modern Middle East: a Sourcebook for History. II OTTOMAN SOCIETIES AND THE STATE AND THE WEST 3. Week (January 23): Minorities and Majorities in the Ottoman Arab World Masters, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World; The Roots of Sectarianism (Cambridge, 2001), Chs. 1-2, pp. 16-67. Albert Hourani, Ottoman Reform and the Politics of Notables, in The Beginnings of Modernisation in the Middle East, edited by W. Polk and R. Chambers (Chicago: UCP, 1968), 41-68. Book Review Suggestions Mikhail Mishaqa, Murder, Mayhem, Pillage: The History of the Lebanon in the 18th and 19th Centuries, tr. by T. Wheeler (Albany: SUNY, 1988). Khayyat, Y., A Voice from Lebanon, with the Life and the Travels of Assad Y. Khayyat, London, 1847. Abkarius, Iskandar, The Lebanon in Turmoil Syria and the Powers in 1860, edited and translated by J. F. Scheltema (New Haven: Yale, 1920). 4. Week (January 30):

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The Ottoman State before the Tanzimat Haniolu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, chs. 1-2, pp. 6 pp. 98-129.

54. Masters, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World, ch. 4,

Source for Discussion: Imams in the Reformed Army: uniform regulations, c. 1827, in The Modern Middle East; a Sourcebook. 2006). 5. Week (February 6): The Tanzimat: Reconfiguring the State Haniolu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, chs. 3&4, pp. 55108.

Abu-Manneh, B., The Islamic Roots of the Glhane Rescript, in Die Welt des Islam, 34 (1994), 173-203.

Sources for discussion: Hatti-Glhane (1839) & Hatti-Hmayun (1956), tr. in Akram F. Khater, Sources in the History of the Modern Middle East (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004). Book Review Suggestions Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi [1867], The Surest Path: the Political Treatise of a Nineteenth-century Muslim Statesman, translated from Arabic and introduced by L. Carl Brown, Cambridge MA, 1967. Ahmad Ibn Abi Diyaf [1860s], Consult them in the Matter: a Nineteenth-century Islamic Argument for Constitutional Government (LaFayetteville 2004). THE POLITICS OF NOTABLES, SECTARIANISM & NATIONALISM 6. Week (February 13): The Effects of the Tanzimat Albert Hourani, Ottoman Reform and the Politics of Notables. Masters, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World, chs. 5&6, pp. 130-188. Engin Akarli, Fathers and Daughters: a Young Druze Womans Experience (1894-1897), in Identity and Identity Formation in the Ottoman World: a Volume in Honour of Norma Itzkowitz, ed. by B. Tezcan & Karl K. Barbir (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2007), pp. 167-183. READING WEEK NO CLASS

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Deadline, primary source book review 7. Week (February 27): The Emergence of Nationalism in the Ottoman Provinces Albert Hourani, Ottoman Reform and the Politics of Notables. Masters, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World, conclusion, pp. 189-199. Hakan zolu, Nationalism and Kurdish Notables in the Late Ottoman-Early Republican Era, International Journal of Middle East Studies 33 (2001) pp. 383-409. Ussama Makdisi, After 1860: Debating Religion, Reform, and Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 34(2002), pp. 601-617. Book Review Suggestions Antonius, George, The Arab Awakening (Beirut: Hamilton, 1939). Azoury, Nguib, La Reveil arabe (Paris, 1905). 8. Week (March 6): Ottoman Constitutionalism and the Rule of Sultan Abdlhamid II
Haniolu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, ch. 5, pp. 109149.

Hasan Kayali, Arabs and Young Turks; Ottomanism, Arabism and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1918 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1997), ch. 1.

Source for Discussion: The Ottoman Constitution, 1876, in R. Devereux, The First Ottoman Constitution. Book Review Suggestions Midhat A. H., The Life of Midhat Pasha (London: J. Murray, 1903). Aye Osmanolu, Babam Sultan Abdlhamid/Avec mon pre le sultan Abdulhamid : de son palais sa prison (Paris, 1991). 10. Week (March 13): The Young Turk Revolution 1908-09 Haniolu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, ch. 6, pp. 150-202. Hasan Kayali, Arabs and Young Turks; ch. 2, pp. 52-80. Book Review Suggestions Maurice Baring, Letters from the Near East 1909 and 1912 (London:

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Smith Elder, 1913). 11. Week (March 20): (Deadline, Book Review) Women and the Revolutionary Public Sphere (Deadline, Book Review) Judith Tucker, Women and State in 19th Century Egypt: Insurrectionary Women, Middle East Report 138 (JanuaryFebruary 1986), pp. 8-13. Deniz Kandiyoti, End of Empire: Islam, Nationalism and Women in Turkey, in Women, Islam and the State, ed. by D. Kandiyoti (London: MacMillan, 1991), pp. 22-44. Palmyra Brummett, Dressed for Revolution: Mother, Nation, Citizen, and Subversive in the Ottoman Satirical Press, 19081911, in Deconstructing Images of the Turkish Woman, ed. by Z. Arat (New York: St. Martins Press, 1998, pp. 37-57. Source for Discussion: Should a Woman demand all the rights of a man? al-Hilal 1894, in The Modern Middle East: a Sourcebook. Book Review Suggestions: Melek Hanim, Thirty Years in the Harem or, the Autobiography of Melek-Hanum Wife of H.H. Kibrizli-Mehmet-Pasha (London: Chapman and Hall, 1872). (Electronic resource, available through Robarts) Halid Edib Advar [1926], House of Wisteria: Memoirs of Halid Edib, with an introduction by Sibel Erol (Charlottesville: Leopolis Press, 2003). 12. Week (March 27): The Ottoman Peripheries in the Last Ottoman Decade choose at least two out of the following readings: Kayali, Arabs and Young Turks, ch. 5, pp. 144-173. Mark Levene, Creating a Modern Zone of Genocide: The Impact of Nation- and State-Formation on Eastern Anatolia, 1878-1923, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 12:3 (1998), 393-421. Thomas Khn, Ordering the Past of Ottoman Yemen, Turcica 34 (2002), pp. 189-220. Michelle U. Campos, Between Beloved Ottomania and the Land of Israel: The Struggle over Ottomanism and Zionism among Palestines Sephardi Jews, 1908-13, International Journal of Middle East Studies 37 (2005), pp. 461-483. Deringil, Selim, They Live in a State of Nomadism and Savagery: The Late Ottoman Empire and the Post-colonial Debate, CSSH 45:2 (2003), pp. 311-342.

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Book Review Suggestions Cemal Pasha, Memories of a Turkish statesman, 1913-1919 (New York: Arno Press, 1973). Jafar Pasha Al-Askari, A Soldier's Story: from Ottoman Rule to Independent Iraq : the Memoirs of Jafar Pasha Al-Askari (London: Arabian Publishers, 2003). Franz Werfel [1918], Forty Days of Musa Da (New York: Carol & Graf, 2000). 13. Week (April 3): Ottoman Parliament Simulation Kayali, Arabs and Young Turks, ch. 3, 4, 6, pp. 81-142, 174-211. Kayali, Hasan, elections and the Electoral Process in the Ottoman Empire, 1876-1919, IJMES 27 (1995), pp. 265-282.

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