Mustafa Ali and the Politics of Cultural Despair

1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhoads Murphey

In recent decades, most historians have begun to shy away from the once predominant idea of post-16th-century decrepitude in the Ottoman Empire1 and come to recognize the remarkable resilience and recuperative ability of the Ottoman imperial structure even into its final century.2 Against the gathering momentum of this trend of reinterpretation, it is, ironically, chiefly the Ottomanist specialists themselves who have shown the greatest resistance. The “experts,” as a consequence of their quite proper immersion in indigenous sources, are better exposed to and, hence, more likely to become ecmeshed in the culturally determined value system of the subject of their study. This article is an attempt to identify some of the sources that contributed to the formulation of the decline topos and related topoi.

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdurrahman Atçıl

AbstractThis article investigates the opinions of three senior Ottoman jurists, Sarıgörez (d. 1522), Kemalpaşazade (d. 1534), and Ebussuud (d. 1574), on the subject of the Safavids and their supporters. Historians have treated these opinions as part of the vast polemical literature uniformly intended to justify an impending Ottoman attack against their Safavid rivals. Questioning the notion that all authors shared an undifferentiated attitude, this article underlines that, unlike most polemical literature, the opinions of these three jurists focused on the religiolegal aspects of the Safavid issue and varied and evolved in line with changing historical realities, the jurists’ divergent assessments of the Safavid threat, and their preference for different jurisprudential doctrines. Based on an analysis of the opinions, I argue that these jurists assumed a high degree of autonomy as producers and interpreters of the law and thus did not necessarily feel obliged to legitimate or excuse every imperial action.


2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Şevket Pamuk

The Price Revolution of the 16th century has been the subject of one of the most enduring debates in European historiography and, more recently, in the historiography of the world economy. That European prices, expressed in grams of silver, increased by more than 100 percent—and in some countries, by more than 200 percent—from the beginning of the 16th century to the middle of the 17th century has been well established and broadly accepted. In countries that experienced currency debasements, overall inflation was proportionately higher, reaching, in some cases, 600 percent or more for the entire period.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-144
Author(s):  
Makhfirat Kurbonalieva ◽  

The anthology “Tazkirat-ush-shuara” of Mutribi Samarkandi is one of the most important literary sources of the 16th century, which was written in Moweraunnahr. In general, this work contains information about poets who were either contemporaries of Samarkandi or related to poetry. The value of this anthology as a literary source, although it has not been been entirely studied by researchers,is in that it represents information about the lives, personalities and works of the poets, which is relevant to the study of poetry and the overall literary situation of that period, and which is the subject of separate and in-depth studies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
P. Yu. Naumov ◽  
F. V. Povshednaya

Introduction. Based on modern social trends, the demand becomes not only for professionally trained people, but also for the level of their general culture, value system and, ultimately, intelligence. At the same time, there is no place for intellectuals and educating intellectuals in program documents on educational activities, although this task is very logical for the pedagogical practice of a developed society. This work presents the experience of the author's analysis of the psychological nature of the intelligence of an officer. Consistently considering the essence and structure of such a complex phenomenon, the structure and the real functioning of the values that allow characterizing the subject as an intellectual are ascertained.Materials and methods. As the main research methodology, the authors use sociological (I.S. Kon), culturological adapted to solve the problems of this work (M.S. Kagan), historiographic (A.V. Popov), systemic (I.V. Blauberg, V.A. Lektersky, V.N. Sadovsky, S.L. Rubinstein, M.S. Kagan, N.V. Kuzmina) and functional approaches (P.K. Anokhin, M.S. Kagan, N. Wiener). The main research methods were: hypothetical-deductive method; analysis, synthesis, comparison, analogy and abstraction; systemic method and modeling.Results. The result of the study is that the authors identified and justified the structural psychological qualities of intelligence as the subjective characteristics of an officer and examined the basic mechanisms of formation of intellectual values.Discussion and Conclusions. The required criteria for being intelligent as a  subject characteristics of an officer is the level of education (self education)of an officer, his manners, the scope of his values , existential assessment –correlating every fact he faces with general life-span problems of objective reality, having respect for values of others and being ready for talk to employees and  superiors as well as the representatives of other social groups, other cultures, nationalities, confessions and professions which requires dialog in search of optimal forms and options of interaction. The cornerstone principle for intelligence of the officer are, therefore, his education and upbringing, ideological conviction in his own values and readiness for self-sacrifice for their sake.


Author(s):  
I. A. Averianov ◽  

Сoming to power of the Safavids Sufi dynasty in Iran (in the person of Shah Ismail I) in 1501 caused noticeable transformations in the political, social, cultural and religious life of the Near and Middle East. This dynasty used the semi-nomadic tribes of the Oguz Turks (‘Kyzylbash’) as its main support, which it managed to unite under the auspices of military Sufi order of Safaviyya. However, the culture of the Safavid state was dominated by a high style associated with the classical era of the Persian cultural area (‘Greater Iran’) of the 10th–15th centuries. The Iranian-Turkic synthesis that emerged in previous centuries received a new form with the adoption by the Safavids of Twelver Shiism as an official religious worldview. This put the neighboring Ottoman state in a difficult position, as it had to borrow cultural codes from ‘heretics’. Nevertheless, the Ottomans could not refuse cultural interaction with the Safavids, since they did not have any other cultural landmark in that era. This phenomenon led to a number of collisions in the biographies of certain cultural figures who had to choose between commonwealth with an ‘ideological enemy’ or rivalry, for the sake of which they often had to hide their personal convictions and lead a ‘double life’. The fates of many people, from the crown princes to ordinary nomads, were broken or acquired a tragic turn during the Ottoman-Safavid conflict of ‘spiritual paths’. However, many other poets, painters, Sufis sometimes managed to transform this external opposition into the symbolism of religious and cultural synthesis. In scholarly literature, many works explore certain aspects of the culture of the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid state separately, but there are almost no works considering the synthesis of cultures of these two largest Muslim states. Meanwhile, the author argues, that understanding the interaction and synthesis of the Ottoman and Safavid cultures in the 16th century is a key moment for the cultural history of the Islamic world. The article aims to outline the main points of this cultural synthesis, to trace their dependence on the ideology of the two states and to identify the personality traits of a ‘cultured person’ that contributed to the harmonization of the culture of two ideologically irreconcilable, but culturally complementary empires. A comparative study of this kind is supported by Ottoman sources. In the future, the author will continue this research, including the sources reflecting the perception of the Ottoman cultural heritage by the Safavids.


2008 ◽  
pp. 223-240
Author(s):  
Halina Wiśniewska ◽  

The subject of the article is the political-moral treatise by Józef Wereszczyński entitled “Reguła to jest nauka abo postępek dobrego życia króla każdego chrześcijańskiego” from 1587 as the imitation of ”Żywot człowieka poćciwego” by Mikołaj Rej. In the 16th century, imitation (following a model) was valued art of writing. That is why J. Wereszczyński repeats M. Rej’s “Żywot” on 40 out of the 86 pages of “Reguły”. Both works are juxtaposed and compared by the author in philological terms to show how J. Wereszczyński, writing his treatise, imitated M. Rej’s work. Such issues as, inter alia, those referring to the titles and contents of the chapters, text composition, the names of the characters – exempla from the “Bible” and ancient history, have been analyzed therein. What is more, the article also presents the chapter on justice from “Reguły” and “Żywot” to show J. Wereszczyński’s imitation in a better way.


Author(s):  
Y. Öztürk

A cooperation between the Crimean Khanate and the Zaporozhian Cossacks in the first half of the 17th century rose to its peak between 1620 and 1630. There were important reasons for this alliance between the Crimean Khanate and Zaporozhian Cossacks. The joint aspect in terms of the Zapohorozhian Cossacks and the Crimean Khanate was, that both of the sides, as the border forces, were under control of strong powers. The Crimean Khanate formed the main base of the Ottoman State’s northern policy, and the Ottomans had been carrying out their policy against Poland and Moscow through the agency of the Crimean Khanate since the time of Mehmet the Conqueror. There were relations of the same kind between the Zaporozhian Cossacks and the Polish Kingdom. The developments arising between the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire resembled those ones between Poland and the Cossacks. The subject of our presentation is to throw light on the above said cooperation and to deal with its background. The character of relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate, as well as those between the Polish Kingdom and the Zapohorozhian Cossacks have been analysed for the said aim, and subsequently the historical grounds and specific features of the Cossacks–Crimean cooperation have been dealt with. Finally, the preparation period of the Revolution under the head of Bohdan Khemilnitsky was accentuated.


2021 ◽  
pp. 36-43
Author(s):  
Н.Е. Касьяненко

Статья посвящена истории развития словарного дела на Руси и появлению первых словарей. Затрагиваются первые, несловарные формы описания лексики в письменных памятниках XI–XVII вв. (глоссы), из которых черпался материал для собственно словарей. Анализируются основные лексикографические жанры этого времени и сложение на их основе азбуковников. В статье уделено внимание таким конкретным лексикографическим произведениям, как ономастикону «Рѣчь жидовскаго «зыка» (XVIII в.), словарям-символикам «Толк о неразумнех словесех» (XV в.) и «Се же приточне речеся», произвольнику, объясняющему славянские слова, «Тлъкование нεоудобь познаваεмомъ въ писаныхъ рѣчемь» (XIV в.), разговорнику «Рѣчь тонкословія греческаго» (ХV в.). Характеризуется словарь Максима Грека «Толкованіе именамъ по алфавиту» (XVI в.). Предметом более подробного освещения стал «Лексис…» Л. Зизания – первый печатный словарь на Руси. На примерах дается анализ его реестровой и переводной частей. Рассматривается известнейший труд П. Берынды «Лексикон славеноросский и имен толкование», а также рукописный «Лексикон латинский…» Е. Славинецкого, являющий собой образец переводного словаря XVII в. The article is dedicated to the history of the development of vocabulary in Russia and the emergence of the first dictionaries. The first, non-verbar forms of description of vocabulary in written monuments of the 11th and 17th centuries (glosses), from which material for the dictionaries themselves were drawn, are affected. The main lexicographical genres of this time are analyzed and the addition of alphabets on their basis. The article focuses on specific lexicographical works such as the «Zhidovskago» (18th century) the dictionaries-symbols of «The Talk of Unreasonable Words» (the 15th century). and «The Same Speech», an arbitrary explanation of slavic words, «The tlution of the cognition in the written», (the 14th century), the phrasebook «Ry subtle Greek» (the 15th century). Maxim Greck's dictionary «Tolkien names in alphabetical order» (16th century) is characterized. The subject of more detailed coverage was «Lexis...» L. Sizania is the first printed dictionary in Russia. Examples give analysis of its registry and translation parts. The famous work of P. Berynda «Lexicon of Slavic and Names of Interpretation» and the handwritten «Lexicon Latin...» are considered. E. Slavinecki, which is a model of the 17th century translated dictionary.


Author(s):  
A. C. S. Peacock

In the mid-16th century, the Ottoman empire expanded to encompass parts of the modern Sudan, Eritrea, and the Ethiopian borderlands, forming the Ottoman province of Habeş. The Ottomans also provided aid to their ally Ahmad Grañ in his jihad against Ethiopia and fought with the Funj sultanate of Sinnar for control of the Nile valley, where Ottoman territories briefly extended south as far as the Third Cataract. After 1579, Ottoman control was limited to the Red Sea coast, in particular the ports of Massawa and Suakin, which remained loosely under Ottoman rule until the 19th century, when they were transferred to Egypt, nominally an Ottoman vassal but effectively independent. Politically, Ottoman influence was felt much more broadly in northeast Africa in places as distant as Mogadishu, at least nominally recognized Ottoman suzerainty.


Antiquity ◽  
1948 ◽  
Vol 22 (85) ◽  
pp. 4-7
Author(s):  
Elaine Sanceau

It was from the Portuguese that Europe first learned something about India. Their 16th century literature abounds in information on the subject. Duarte Barboza, Tomé Pires, Castanheda, João de Barros, Gaspar Correa even, though he says that he will only write about the exploits of his countrymen, have each one given to the world many interesting facts regarding the ethnology, the customs and beliefs, and some account of the history of that baffling sub-continent which Portugal, of European nations, was the first to observe at close quarters.


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