Empire of Difference: The Ottomans in Comparative Perspective by Karen Barkey

This book is a comparative study of imperial organization and longevity that assesses Ottoman successes and failures against those of other empires with similar characteristics. Karen Barkey examines the Ottoman Empire’s social organization and mechanisms of rule at key moments of its history: emergence, imperial institutionalization, remodeling, and transition to nationstate. She reveals how the empire managed these moments to adapt and avert crises and examines what changes made it transform dramatically. The flexible techniques by which the Ottomans maintained their legitimacy, the cooperation of their diverse elites both at the center and in the provinces, as well as their control over economic and human resources were responsible for the longevity of this particular “negotiated empire.” Barkey’s analysis illuminates topics such as imperial governance, institutional continuity and change, imperial diversity and multiculturalism, multifarious forms of internal dissent, and the varying networks of state– society negotiations.

Karen Barkey is professor of sociology and history at Columbia University. She is the author of Bandits and Bureaucrats: The Ottoman Route to State Centralization, winner of the Social Science History Award in 1995, and coeditor with Mark von Hagen of After Empire: Multiethnic Societies and Nation-Building: The Soviet Union, and the Russian, Habsburg, and Ottoman Empires. She has been awarded fellowships from the United States Institute of Peace, Social Science Research Council–MacArthur, and the National Humanities Center.

Editorial Reviews

"If you want to understand how Empires are established, how they flourish and how they vanish, and if you're only reading one book, make it Barkey's Empire of Difference. Here, on impressive display are: an amazing command of six centuries of Ottoman history, a rare ability to illuminate the analysis with comparisons from neighboring empires, and, most important, a never-failing grasp of the theoretical questions that matter. The intellectual ambition of this enterprise is audacious; it is an ambition that is fully realized. It vindicates the promise of historical sociology at the highest level."
- James C. Scott, Yale University

"This book about the past has stunning relevance to the present - and to the future. Karen Barkey has not only contributed to our understanding of empire - she has derived from history lessons that are highly pertinent to the modern, post-imperial world. She combines the skills of an imaginative and disciplined scholar with an intimate personal knowledge of the Ottoman legacy as well as a natural talent for lucid explication and narrative verve. She explains how the longevity of the Ottomans' 'Abode of Peace' was a result of their ability to adapt to changing internal and external circumstances - and how the intercommunal peace itself resulted from Sultans' and viziers' efforts to make a virtue out of diversity. Her concept of a 'negotiated enterprise'-in effect, a social arrangement on a massive scale that relied as much on soft power as hard power-has direct application to the challenges and opportunities for both national and transnational governance today. Altogether an achievement of brilliance, accessibility, and contemporary utility."
- Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution and author of The Great Experiment

"The Ottoman Empire was one of the most successful and long-lasting examples of legitimate rule over a population characterized by extensive religious, linguistic, and cultural diversity. Karen Barkey convincingly argues that this achievement was due to the Ottomans' ability to maintain openness and tolerance. She draws from a rich literature to argue her compelling case. In retelling the story of the Empire's accomplishments and eventual demise, she greatly succeeds in introducing Ottoman history into the literatures in comparative history and historical sociology. The Ottoman case will now take its deserved place in the growing debate on empires. This book will be mandatory reading for any intelligent discussion on empire."
- Caglar Keyder, Binghamton University, State University of New York and Bogazici University

Contents

Preface page ix
Transliterations xv

Part I - An Imperial Model

1. Introduction 3
Empire: An Analytic Framework 9
The Longevity of Empires: Critical Concepts and Issues 15

2. Emergence: Brokerage across Networks 28
A Frontier Society: Contradictions, Constraints, and Opportunities 36
Osman: The Construction of a Network (1290–1326) 45
The Internal Boundaries of the New State 58
Conclusion 64
Appendix to Chapter2 65

3. Becoming an Empire: Imperial Institutions and Control 67
From Conquest to Imperial Domains 72
Establishing a Strong Center: Patrimonial Army and Peoples 74
Establishing Provincial Rule and Managing Frontiers 83
Establishing Control: A Segmented Society and a Flexible Economy 93
Legitimating a Normative Order 98
Conclusion: The Role of Islam 104

4. Maintaining Empire: An Expression of Tolerance 109
Ottoman Tolerance: Marking the Boundaries 119
The Devshirme 123
Conversion 125
The Surgun 128
A Capacious Administration of Difference 130
Institutional Genesis 132
Alternatives to Religious Community 143
The Absence of Intercommunal Violence 146
Conclusion 150

5. The Social Organization of Dissent 154
Persecuting the Past: Heterodoxy under Fire 164
Seyh Bedreddin 169
The Kızılbas (Redheads) 175
Celalis 178
Islamic Ultra Orthodoxy and Jewish Messianism: Dissent in the Seventeenth Century 181
Conclusion 190

Part II - The Transformation of the Eighteenth Century

6. An Eventful Eighteenth Century: Empowering the Political 197
A Short Historical Account of the Eighteenth Century 201
State Power and Social Forces: Three Episodes of Learning the Politics of Opposition 205
The Edirne Event: 1703 206
The Patrona Halil Revolt: 1730 213
The Sened-i Ittifak: 1808 218
Conclusion 225

7. A Networking Society: Commercialization, Tax Farming, and Social Relations 226
Tax Farming and Commercialization 228
The Extension of Ottoman Tax Farming 229
The Brave New World of Trade 236
Reworking Elite Networks: Institutions, Actors, and Activities 242
Notables, State Positions, and Tax Farms 244
Notables and Trade 252
The Transitional Modernity of Notables 256
Conclusion 262

8. On the Road out of Empire: Ottomans Struggle from Empire to Nation-State 264
Toward State Centralization 266
Decentralization, Decline, or Restoration under Federalism: The Role of Tax Farming 270
Minorities at Risk: Toleration Unraveled and the Construction of “Bounded Identities” 277
Religion and Legitimacy 289

Bibliography 297
Index 323

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