Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Transliterations
- PART I AN IMPERIAL MODEL
- PART II THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
- 6 An Eventful Eighteenth Century: Empowering the Political
- 7 A Networking Society: Commercialization, Tax Farming, and Social Relations
- 8 On the Road out of Empire: Ottomans Struggle from Empire to Nation-State
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
6 - An Eventful Eighteenth Century: Empowering the Political
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Transliterations
- PART I AN IMPERIAL MODEL
- PART II THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
- 6 An Eventful Eighteenth Century: Empowering the Political
- 7 A Networking Society: Commercialization, Tax Farming, and Social Relations
- 8 On the Road out of Empire: Ottomans Struggle from Empire to Nation-State
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
The government which has been depicted as so despotic, so arbitrary, seems never to have been such since the reigns of Mahomaet II, Soliman I or Selim II, who made all bend to their will.…You see in 1703 that the padishah Mustafa II is legally deposed by the militia and by the citizens of Constantinople. Nor is one of his children chosen to succeed him, but his brother Achmed III. This emperor is in turn condemned in 1730 by the janissaries and the people.…So much for these monarchs who are so absolute! One imagines that a man may legally be the arbitrary master of a larger part of the world, because he may with impunity commit a few crimes in his household, or even the murder of a few slaves, but he cannot persecute his nation, and is often the oppressed rather than the oppressor.
If Ottoman historical eras were to compete for lack of scholarly interest and attention, there is no doubt that the eighteenth century would win. Wedged between classical greatness and renewed centralized vigor, the eighteenth century has been both neglected and misunderstood. From the perspective of classical glory, how could the empire sink so low? From the lens of nineteenth-century centralized reform, where did they get the strength to start again? Undoubtedly, the larger historiographical issue of the eighteenth century in the West as well has been the transitional nature of this century between premodern and modern political formations.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Empire of DifferenceThe Ottomans in Comparative Perspective, pp. 197 - 225Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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