A re-readIng of The Tanzimat edict (1839)
EDHEM ELDEM
Butrus Abu-Manneh’s publication in 1994 of an article on the “Islamic roots” of the Tanzimat decree (1839) has greatly influenced our understanding of this document by suggesting that the traditional view of a European impact channeled by Mustafa Reşid Pasha should be discarded in favor of an explanation, based on local dynamics, particularly the influence of the Naqshbandī-Mujaddidī order over the main political actors of the time. Twenty-five years later, this article attempts to reevaluate this claim, based on a close rereading of the decree and on a systematic analysis of the available sources on this major event and its immediate history. It reveals that no concrete evidence exists in support of Abu-Manneh’s assertion, and, quite the contrary, it confirms that Reşid Pasha played a central role in an endeavor, which aimed to foster European support, and to end Mahmud II’s autocracy. It also follows other available clues to propose a critical and open-ended assessment of one of the most crucial but still understudied moments of Ottoman history.
Keywords: Tanzimat, Mustafa Reşid Pasha, Ottoman modernization, Ottoman Westernization, Sultan Mahmud II, Butrus Abu-Manneh
*
From nizâm to tanzimat, from reaya to tebaa: The political language and discourse of the Ottoman official gazette at the beginnings of the 1830s
ÖZGÜR TÜRESAY
Takvîm-i Vekayi, is one of Mahmud II’s most important political inventions, which contains a good amount of texts on the origins of Tanzimat political thought, language and discourse. It is also a primary source that has almost never been used in history studies on the Ottoman political thought for different reasons. This article focuses on some of the fundamental word concepts of the reformist discourse expressed in the official gazette (nizâm, cedîd and their derivatives, kadîm, tebaa and vatan) and its temporality emphasizing novelty, analyzing also its political discourse oscillating between the metaphors of pastoral power and political paternalism.
Keywords: Tanzimat, Mahmud II, Ottoman official gazette, subjects, conceptual history, political discourse, temporality
*
Reconsiderations of the politics in Tanzimat era: Hoca Sadık Efendi from Sarıyer and Tanzîr-i Telemak
ALİ EREN TOPAL
This paper aims to introduce and discuss a unique manuscript from 1870, Tanzîr-i Telemak, authored by Sarıyerli Hoca Sadık Efendi (d. 1873) who was a dissident ulema exiled for his political activities. The manuscript which is utterly unique in both form and content was written as a homage to popular Telemaque (Fenelon) translations of the era. The author advocates revolt against kings as an indispensable component of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, proposing a radical reinterpretation of Abrahamic religions around the concepts of equality (müsâvât) and freedom (hürriyet). First, I briefly narrate the events leading to the author’s exile and the fate of the manuscript in historiography and then I summarize the core arguments and themes of the work. Finally, I will discuss what this forgotten manuscript tells us about Tanzimat politics in particular and the trajectory of modern Islam in general.
Keywords: Hoca Sadık Efendi, Tanzîr-i Telemak, modernist İslam, Tanzimat, Yeni Osmanlılar, müsâvât, hürriyet
Abstracts
*
Reform in the Ottoman Empire: Reform of the Ottoman Empire?
MARC AYMES
What were the Ottoman reforms about? Answers to this question remain contingent on the conceptualizations of “reform” in historiography at large and in the works of Ottoman historians in particular. In this regard, works on the Ottoman “reform era” have been marked by a shared seal of ambivalence: While assuming that a fair number of reform policies did take place in the empire, they also implied that these attempts failed to bring about a systemic transformation of the empire altogether. Taking stock of the achievements and tensions of Ottoman history-writing on the topic, this essay aims at providing an outline of a theory of reform, then makes the case for a decompartmentalization and provincialization of the history of the reform era.
Keywords: Centralization; coevalness; millet system; modernization theory; provincialization; Tanzimat
*
“Nos camarades socialistes ottomans”: The French newspaper L’Humanité and the Ottoman Empire in a revolutionary period (1904-1914)
VINCENT BENEDETTO
The article deals with the point of view of French socialists of the newspaper L’Humanité over the rising socialist movement in the Ottoman empire between 1904 and 1914. Jean Jaurès, Jean Longuet, and other journalists are interested in the Ottoman Empire due to the rising worker and socialist movements, the Young Turk revolution, and international issues such as the economic influence of Germany in the region. This interest allows socialists to show the vitality of the doctrine beyond Western Europe. Despite some misunderstandings, articles mention important names, newspapers, strikes, associations, and parties from Salonika to Constantinople and Smyrna. Studying the French socialist newspaper is a way to understand links between ottoman socialists but also with European socialists and organizations such as the Second International.
Keywords: French socialism, Ottoman socialism, L’Humanité, transnational socialism, journalists, Jean Jaurès, strikes
*
More than sport: Basketball and everyday life in socialist Zagreb
GORAN KRNIĆ - MARKO ZUBAK
To this day, Yugoslav basketball lacks scholarly attention despite being more specific to the region than to by now fully academically legitimized football. Continuing the authors’ ongoing research of social and cultural history of Yugoslav basketball, this paper focuses on its parallel life, as the game spilled beyond the sporting competitions. The text traces its history from bellow, focusing on basketball as part of the fabric of socialist everyday life, an element of Yugoslav popular culture, and a core of a distinct youth lifestyle. Several key moments are recognized in this evolution which helped turn basketball from an exotic sport for both interwar and new socialist bourgeoisie to a state project of a sort, which peaked during the 1980s when basketball grew into a recognizable youth subculture. Modernization that came to be associated with basketball turned the game into a hip phenomenon, a reason for both individual and collective pride, at times even a distinction between the old and the new, urban and rural. Simultaneously, basketball penetrated realm of consumption. New culture of playing hoops, known around the world as streetball, deepened the ongoing Americanization, influencing Yugoslav socialist youth – in a way reminiscent of how decades earlier rock music transformed youth’s habits and tastes. This complex dynamic is followed both on a state level, and analyzed more closely on a micro-locality of Zagreb.
Keywords: Basketball, socialist sport, everyday life, late socialism, Yugoslavia, popular culture
