Questions How does one represent other cultures? What is another culture? Is the notion of a distinct culture (or race, or religion, or civilization) a useful one, or does it always get involved either in self-congratulation (when one discusses one’s own) or hostility and aggression (when one discusses the ‘other’)? How do ideas acquire authority, “normality,” and even the status of ‘natural’ truth? What is the role of the intellectual?

Territory and Population By the twentieth century, the Ottoman Empire in Europe had receded to a small coastal plain between Edirne and Istanbul. Foreign wars and separatist movements The total population may have equaled some 25-32 millions in 1800. In 1914, more certainly, Ottoman subjects totaled some 26 millions. Thus, while population totals in 1800 and 1914 were about the same, the densities had approximately doubled.

State and Society Ottoman state in the 19th century was a modern state. the capacity of the state actually to penetrate civil society and to implement political decisions throughout the realm, or to have more authority in everyday affairs of its subjects

Knowing the Population Throughout the late 1830s and 1840s, the Ottoman state set out to conduct population, property and income surveys. These surveys would constitute the basis for the governmental efforts to establish a new conscript army and tax system on the basis of individual responsibility to the state. Individual responsibilty?

Expanding Bureaucracy The Ottoman central state vastly expanded its size and functions. As the bureaucracy expanded in size, it embraced spheres of activity previously considered outside purview of the state. The state functionaries once performed a limited range of tasks, mainly war making and tax collecting, leaving much of the rest for the state’s subjects and their religious leaders to address. In the nineteenth century, the official class took on many of these functions.

Negotiation Ottoman reforms were not merely products of a top-down decision from the central Ottoman state. Instead, it should be emphasized that, Ottoman state managed to extend itself more deeply into lives of its subjects only through compromises with local groups and elites. Example: Provincial Administrative Councils. The seats allocated to the representatives of the population were mostly occupied by local notables.

Ottomanism-1 In earlier centuries, the Ottoman social and political order had been based on differences among ethnicities, religions and occupations. This order had been based on the presumption of Muslim superiority and a contractual relationship in which the subordinate non-Muslims paid special taxes and in exchange obtained state guarantees of religious protection.

Ottomanism-2 In the nineteenth century, Ottoman elites aimed to strip away the differences among Ottoman subjects and make all male subjects the same, in every respect, in its eyes and in one another’s as well. 1829 clothing law: sought to eliminate visual differences among males by requiring the adoption of an identical headgear Imperial decrees promising the equality of its Muslim and non-Muslim subjects. In return for equal responsibilities (such as universal male conscription), the state promised equal rights (equal access to state schools and state employment) for the male subjects of the empire (the ideology of Ottomanism).

WHY???