Courses for 2006-2007, The Hebrew University

The Ottoman Empire in the 19th century: Minorities and Religious Movements

Sundays: 4-5.30 pm, Faculty of Humanities, classroom 2201


The Ottoman Empire, comprising most of the modern Middle East, managed to rule effectively ethnic and religious minorities for about 500 years based on the millet system, i.e. confessional communities of the Muslims, Jews and Christians. In the 19th century "millet" began to refer to legally protected ethnic and religious minority groups excluding the ruling Sunni. The course deals with developments in the Ottoman Tanzimat (reform) period in the light of the transition from a religion-based to a secular state.

Covered subjects:
*Non-Muslims (dhimmis) under Islam and in the Ottoman Empire
*The Jews in the Ottoman Empire
*The Christians in the Ottoman Empire (Greeks, Armenians etc)
*Missionaries in the Ottoman Empire
*The Iranians (Shi’is) in the Ottoman Empire
*“Heretic” and messianic movements in the Ottoman Empire
*The Babis and Baha’is

Bibliography:

Abu-Manneh, Butrus: ‘The Islamic Roots of the Gülhane Rescript,’ Die Welt des Islams 34 (1994), pp. 173-203.

Adanır, Fikret: ‘Imperial Response to Nationalism: The Ottoman Case’, in Henry Cavanna (ed.), Governance, Globalization and the European Union: Which Europe for Tomorrow? (Dublin 2002), pp. 47‑66.

Alkan, Necati: 'Ottoman Reform Movements and the Bahā'ī Faith, 1860s – 1920s', in Moshe Sharon (ed.), Studies in Modern Religions, Religious Movements and the Bābī-Bahā'ī Faiths (Leiden: Brill 2004), pp. 253-74.

Idem, ‘“The Eternal Enemy of Islām”: Abdullah Cevdet and the Baha’i Religion’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, no. 68/1 (February 2005), pp. 1-20.

Amanat, Abbas: Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement (Cornell University Press: Ithaca, London 1989).

Berkes, Niyazi: The Development of Secularism in Turkey, Routledge: N.Y. 1998.

Braude, Benjamin/Lewis, Bernard: Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The Functioning of a Plural Society, Homes & Meier Publishers, 1982.

Chambers, Richard L.: 'The Ottoman Ulema and the Tanzimat', in Nikkie R. Keddie: Scholars, Saints, and Sufis (University of California Press, 1972).

Cole, Juan R.I.: 'Iranian Millenarianism and Democratic Thought in the 19th Century', in International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES), 24 (1992), pp. 1-26.

Idem, Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha'i Faith in the Nineteenth- Century Middle East (Columbia University Press 1998).

Davison, Roderic H.: Reform in the Ottoman Empire (Princeton University Press 1963).

Devereux, Robert: The First Ottoman Constitutional Period: A Study of the Midhat Constitution and Parliament; Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press 1963.

Deringil, Selim: The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire, 1876-1909 (I. B. Tauris: London/New York 1999).

Idem, “The Struggle against Shiism in Hamidian Iraq: A Study in Ottoman Counter-Propaganda”, Welt des Islams, New Ser., Bd. 30, Nr. 1/4 (1990), pp. 45-62.

Idem, “’There is No Compulsion in Religion’.Conversion and Apostasy in the Late Ottoman Empire, 1839-1856, in: Comparative Studies in Society and History, July 2000, vol. 40, pp. 547-575.

Göçek, Fatma Müge: Rise of the Bourgeoisie, Demise of the Empire: Ottoman Westernization and Social Change (Oxford University Press 1996).

Hanioğlu, Şükrü: The Young Turks in Opposition (New York/Oxford 1995).

Heyd, Uriel: “The Ottoman 'Ulema and Westernization in the Time of Selim III and Mahmud II,” in idem. Studies in Islamic History and Civilization, Jerusalem 1961; pp. 63-96.

Hourani, Albert Habib: The Ottoman background of the modern Middle East, London, Harlow Longmans, 1970.

Lewis, Bernard: The Emergence of Modern Turkey, NYC, Oxford University Press, 2001.

Maoz, Moshe: Ottoman reform in Syria and Palestine, 1840-1861 : the impact of the Tanzimat on politics and society, Oxford ; London : Clarendon P., 1968.

Mardin, Şerif: The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought: A Study in the Modernization of Turkish Political Ideas, Syracuse UP: N.Y. 2000.

Momen, Moojan: ‘The Bahā’ī Influence on the Reform Movements of the Islamic World in the 1860’s and 1870’s’, in: Bahā’ī Studies Bulletin (ed. Stephen Lambden), vol. 2.2. (Newcastle-upon-Thyne, 1983), pp. 47-65, at http://www.northill.demon.co.uk/relstud/ RefMov.htm

Palmer, Alan: The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire, New York, Barnes and Noble Books, 1992.

Shaw, Stanford J., History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2 vols, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Sonyel, Salâhi R.: Minorities and The Destruction of The Ottoman Empire, Ankara 1993

Yeor, Bat: The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians under Islam, London : Associated University Presses, 1985.

Zarcone, Thierry/Zarinebaf-Shahr, Fariba: Les Iraniens d’Istanbul/The Iranians of Istanbul, Paris -Téhéran-Istanbul, 1993.