The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It

Suraiya Faroqhi9781850437154, 1850437157

In Islamic law the world was made up of the House of Islam and the House of War with the Ottoman Sultan – the perceived successor to the Caliphs – supreme ruler of the Islamic world. However, Suraiya Faroqhi demonstrates that there was no iron curtain between the Ottoman and other worlds but rather a long-established network of diplomatic, financial, cultural and religious connections. These extended to the empires of Asia and the modern states of Europe. Faroqhi’s book is based on a huge study of original and early modern sources, including diplomatic records, travel and geographical writing, as well as personal accounts.

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Table of contents :
EEn……Page 1
The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It……Page 2
Dedication……Page 4
Copyright Info……Page 6
TOC……Page 7
List of illustrations……Page 11
A note on transliteration and dates……Page 12
Acknowledgements……Page 13
1 ~ Introduction……Page 17
~ Islamic law and sultanic pragmatism……Page 18
~ Determining the parameters of Ottoman ‘foreign policy’: some general considerations……Page 20
~ A few ground rules of Ottoman ‘foreign politics’……Page 22
~ Validity and limits of the ‘warfare state’ model……Page 24
~ Accommodation, both open and unacknowledged, and the problem of structural similarities in the early modern world29……Page 26
~ An impossible balance between ‘east’ and ‘west’?……Page 27
~ Who, in which period, formed part of the Ottoman elite?……Page 29
~ The Ottoman Empire as a world economy……Page 30
~ The abiding centrality of Istanbul……Page 32
~ Confronting our limits: problems of documentation……Page 34
~ ‘Placing’ our topic in geographical terms……Page 36
~ ‘Placing’ our topic in time……Page 37
~ Confronting different perspectives, or how to justify comparisons……Page 39
~ A common world……Page 41
2 ~ On sovereignty and subjects: expanding and safeguarding the Empire……Page 43
~ ‘Foreign interference’ and its limits……Page 44
~ A sequence of ‘mental images’……Page 46
~ The 1560s/967–77……Page 48
~ The Empire in 1639/1048–9……Page 65
~ Before 1718/1130–1……Page 71
~ 1774/1187–8……Page 83
~ In conclusion: the Ottoman rulers within a set of alliances……Page 89
~ The royal road to empire-building: from ‘dependent principality’ to ‘centrally governed province’……Page 91
~ ‘Dependent principalities’ with long life-spans……Page 93
~ Ottoman methods of conquest and local realities……Page 94
~ Old and new local powers in ‘centrally governed provinces’……Page 96
~ Semi-autonomous provinces controlled by military corps and ‘political households’……Page 98
~ The case of the Hijaz……Page 100
~ The case of Dubrovnik: linking Ottoman sultans to the Catholic Mediterranean……Page 105
~ ‘Cruel times in Moldavia’ 72……Page 107
~ In conclusion……Page 111
~ Ottoman military preparedness and booty-making: assessing their significance and limits……Page 114
~ Ottoman political advantages in early modern wars……Page 118
~ Financing wars and procuring supplies: the changing weight of tax assignments and cash disbursals……Page 120
~ How to make war without footing the bill – at least in the short run……Page 124
~ Logistics: cases of gunpowder……Page 126
~ Societies of frontiersmen……Page 128
~ Legitimacy through victory, de-legitimization through wars on the sultan’s territories……Page 130
~ In conclusion: Ottoman society organized to keep up with the military reformation……Page 132
~ Prisoners in the shadows……Page 135
~ Captured: how ordinary people paid the price of inter-empire conflict and attempts at state formation……Page 137
~ From captive to slave……Page 140
~ The miseries of transportation……Page 142
~ On galleys and in arsenals……Page 143
~ Charity and the tribulations of prisoners……Page 145
~ The ‘extra-curricular’ labours of galley – and other – slaves……Page 147
~ Domestic service……Page 148
~ The role of local mediation in ransoming a Christian prisoner……Page 150
~ In conclusion……Page 151
6 ~ Trade and foreigners……Page 153
~ Merchants from remote countries: the Asian world……Page 154
~ Merchants from a (not so) remote Christian country: the Venetians……Page 156
~ Polish traders and gentlemanly visitors……Page 158
~ Merchants from the lands of a (doubtful) ally: France……Page 160
~ Subjects of His/Her Majesty, the king/queen of England……Page 164
~ Links to the capital of the seventeenth-century world economy: the Dutch case……Page 166
~ How Ottoman merchants coped with foreigners and foreign trade……Page 167
~ Revisiting an old debate: ‘established’ and ‘new’ commercial actors……Page 170
~ The Ottoman ruling group and its attitudes to foreign trade……Page 171
7 ~ Relating to pilgrims and offering mediation……Page 177
~ The problems of Iranian pilgrims in Iraq and the Hijaz……Page 178
~ Jewish visitors to Jerusalem……Page 180
~ Christian visitors writing about Palestine and the Sinai peninsula……Page 181
~ Ottoman people and places in western accounts of Jerusalem……Page 183
~ The Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem in Muslim eyes……Page 185
~ Catholic missionaries in Ottoman lands……Page 187
~ Mediations, ambiguities and shifts of identity……Page 190
~ An eighteenth-century Istanbul xenophobe……Page 192
~ Was friendship between an Ottoman Muslim and a foreigner an impossible proposition?……Page 193
8 ~ Sources of information on the outside world……Page 195
~ The knowledge of the ambassadors: some general considerations……Page 197
~ Fleeting encounters: a sea captain and diplomat in sixteenth-century India……Page 199
~ The knowledge of the envoys: representing Ottoman dignity in Iran……Page 201
~ Lying abroad for the good of one’s sovereign: obscuring Ottoman intentions in early eighteenth-century Iran……Page 202
~ Reporting on European embassies……Page 203
~ Old opponents, new allies……Page 207
~ In the empire of the tsars……Page 208
~ Difficult beginnings: a new type of information-gathering……Page 209
~ Framing the world according to Ottoman geographers……Page 210
~ Taking notice of the Americas……Page 213
~ Kâtib Çelebi and his circle……Page 215
~ Non-Muslim Ottoman subjects and their travel writing……Page 216
~ Tracking down the knowledge of the educated Muslim townsman……Page 219
~ Evliya Çelebi’s stories about Europe……Page 220
~ In conclusion……Page 224
~ A common world……Page 227
~ The integration of foreigners……Page 228
~ Imperial cohesion, ‘corruption’ and the liberties of foreigners……Page 229
~ Coping with the European world economy……Page 230
~ Ottoman rule: between the centre and the margins……Page 231
~ Providing information: what ‘respectable people’ might or might not write about……Page 232
~ Embassy reports: much maligned but a sign of changing mentalities……Page 233
~ Reference works……Page 236
~ Primary sources……Page 237
~ Monographs and articles……Page 244
1 ~ Introduction……Page 279
2 ~ On sovereignty and subjects……Page 281
3 ~ At the margins of empire: clients and dependants……Page 285
4 ~ The strengths and weaknesses of Ottoman warfare……Page 288
5 ~ Of prisoners, slaves and the charity of strangers……Page 290
6 ~ Trade and foreigners……Page 291
7 ~ Relating to pilgrims and offering mediation……Page 294
8 ~ Sources of information on the outside world……Page 296
9 ~ Conclusion……Page 298
Index……Page 299