Page 104 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

ottoman empire 1405

Additionally, a fairly thick network of telegraph lines con- Europe. As Enlightenment notions of equality developed
nected most towns and cities by the later 1800s. during the eighteenth century and later, however, these
Ottoman methods seemed less attractive.While, during
Ethnic and Religious some years of the final Ottoman era, there were atroci-
Group Relations ties, these should be understood in the context of the
The issue of the state’s treatment of its non-Muslim sub- generally admirable record of intercommunal relations
jects and the entire question of relations among the var- over the six-hundred-year life span of the empire. Proof
ious ethnic and religious communities remains a hotly of Ottoman toleration can be found in ethnic and reli-
debated subject today, among both politicians and schol- gious maps of the former Ottoman lands. If the Ottoman
ars. Many residents of Ottoman successor states, espe- state had pursued policies of stamping out difference,
cially those in the Balkans, look back on the “Ottoman how can we explain the rich diversity of ethnicities and
yoke” which they finally shook off.They remember the in- religions that prevails in nearly all of these present-day
justices and forget the toleration of Ottoman rule.Their countries?
frequent detestation of the Ottoman era is a sentiment
Donald Quataert
often deriving from nation-building mythologies put in
place after the end of Ottoman rule rather than the actual See also Mehme II; Osman I
experiences with that administration. As mentioned ear-
lier, until the later nineteenth century, the majority of
Ottoman subjects were Christians of one kind or another Further Reading
although the state’s official religion was Islam. Here, in- Brown, L. C. (Ed.). (1996). Imperial legacy: The Ottoman imprint on
the Balkans and the Middle East. New York: Columbia University
deed, is a key to Ottoman longevity—the Ottoman state Press.
nearly always functioned as a multinational, multireli- Doumani, B. (1995). Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and peasants in
Jabal Nablus, 1700–1900. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
gous entity that did not seek to impose religion or define
California Press.
itself in terms of the ethnicity of its subjects. The dura- Goffman, D. (2002). The Ottoman empire and early modern Europe.
bility of the empire can be attributed to its toleration of Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Imber, C. (2002). The Ottoman empire, 1300–1650: The structure of
difference among its subjects. And, as long as subjects power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
paid their taxes and rendered obedience, the state pro- Inalcik, H., & Quataert, D. (1994). An economic and social history of the
Ottoman empire, 1300–1914. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univer-
tected the expression of these differences. For much of
sity Press.
the Ottoman era, it is quite likely that minorities within Kafadar, C. (1995). Between two worlds:The construction of the Ottoman
the Ottoman realms received better treatment than they state. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Lowry, H. (2003). The nature of the early Ottoman state. Albany: State
did in Europe or China.While the Christian and Jewish University of New York Press.
minorities were second to Muslims, they did have guar- Quataert, D. (2000). The Ottoman empire, 1700–1922. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press.
anteed protection under Ottoman law, legal assurances
Todorova, M. (1997). Imagining the Balkans. Oxford, UK: Oxford Uni-
that religious minorities in Europe did not possess in versity Press.