An Eventful Eighteenth Century: Empowering the Political

Karen Barkey

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511790645.010

6 - An Eventful Eighteenth Century: Empowering the Political

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012

Karen Barkey

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Karen Barkey: Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York

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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.

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Type: Chapter
Information: Empire of Difference
The Ottomans in Comparative Perspective
, pp. 197 - 225

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511790645.010 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2008

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