Ottoman Conceptual History: Challenges and Prospects

In this article, we discuss the pitfalls and benefits of conceptual history as an approach to Ottoman studies. While Ottoman studies is blossoming and using a wider set of tools to study the Ottoman past, Ottoman intellectual history is still resigned to a life-and-works approach. Th is absence of s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Contributions to the history of concepts 2019-06, Vol.14 (1), p.93-114
Main Authors: TOPAL, ALP EREN, WIGEN, EINAR
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Book publishing
Historiography
International economic relations
Semantics
Traditions
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In this article, we discuss the pitfalls and benefits of conceptual history as an approach to Ottoman studies. While Ottoman studies is blossoming and using a wider set of tools to study the Ottoman past, Ottoman intellectual history is still resigned to a life-and-works approach. Th is absence of synthesizing attempts has left intellectual history in the margins. In addition to the lack of new, theoretically sophisticated accounts of how Ottoman intellectual and political changes were intertwined, the old Orientalist works still hold canonical status in the field. Drawing on recent developments in social and political history, conceptual history may be a good way of doing self-reflective longue durée intellectual history. Ottoman conceptual history may also off er nonspecialists more sophisticated bases for comparison with non-Ottoman cases.
ISSN:1807-9326
1874-656X
DOI:10.3167/choc.2019.140105