Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- CONTENTS -- ILLUSTRATIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION -- 1 INTRODUCTION -- PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES -- SCANNING THE HORIZON: OTTOMAN AND EUROPEAN HISTORY -- THE BYZANTINE-OTTOMAN TRANSITION -- SCANNING THE HORIZON: OTTOMAN AND ASIAN HISTORY -- OTTOMAN HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES -- OTTOMAN STATE, OTTOMAN SOCIETY -- NATIONALIST HISTORIOGRAPHY -- THE ORIENTALIST TRAP -- MODES OF PRODUCTION AND WORLD SYSTEMS THEORY -- DESIGNING RESEARCH IN OTTOMAN HISTORY: SOME PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS -- TIME, SPACE AND TOPICS -- THE SCOPE OF THIS BOOK: SEARCHING FOR PRIMARY SOURCES -- THE SCOPE OF THIS BOOK: PROBLEMS OF GENRE -- TOWARD A NEW STYLE IN OTTOMANIST HISTORY-WRITING -- SUGGESTED READING -- 2 ENTERING THE FIELD -- PRELIMINARIES: LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL SKILLS -- HOW TO START? -- TRANSLITERATION -- IN MEDIAS RES: WHAT PRIMARY SOURCES CAN TELL US -- OTTOMAN SOURCES IN TRANSLATION -- DESIGNING A PAPER -- 'DOCUMENT-ORIENTED' VERSUS 'PROBLEM-ORIENTED' STUDIES -- SELECTING A PROBLÉMATIQUE -- ...AND NOW YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN: SELECTING A TOPIC -- APPROACHING YOUR COLLEAGUES -- SUGGESTED READING -- 3 LOCATING OTTOMAN SOURCES -- MANUSCRIPTS AND BOOK COLLECTING -- THE OTTOMAN SECTION OF THE PRIME MINISTER'S ARCHIVE IN ISTANBUL (BASBAKANLIK ARSIVI-OSMANLI ARSIVI) -- THE TOPKAPI PALACE ARCHIVES -- THE TAPU VE KADASTRO AND VAKIFLAR ARCHIVES -- THE KADI REGISTERS -- PRIVATE ARCHIVES -- MAJOR ARCHIVAL HOLDINGS RELEVANT TO OTTOMAN HISTORY OUTSIDE THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY: THE EMPIRE'S 'SUCCESSOR STATES' -- MAJOR ARCHIVES OUTSIDE OF THE FORMER OTTOMAN TERRITORIES: THE CASE OF FRANCE -- OTHER IMPORTANT EUROPEAN ARCHIVES -- INTRODUCING PALAEOGRAPHY AND DIPLOMATICS -- OTTOMAN DOCUMENTS OUTSIDE OF TURKEY: A BRIEF OVERVIEW OVER SOME SMALLER COLLECTIONS -- The empire's 'successor states'.

Bosnia (Zirojevic, 1989) -- Serbia (Zirojevic, 1989) -- Macedonia (Zirojevic, 1989) -- Albania (Veinstein, 1987) -- Greece (Dimitriadis, 1989) -- Cyprus (Turkish section) (Altan, McHenry and Jennings, 1977) -- Lebanon (Van Leeuwen, 1994, pp. 3-4) -- Palestine and Israel (Singer, 1994, Doumani, 1995). -- Algiers (Temimi, 1979) -- Tunisia -- Outside the Ottoman borders -- Italy -- Croatia (Zirojevic, 1989) -- SUGGESTED READINGS -- 4 RURAL LIFE AS REFLECTED IN ARCHIVAL SOURCES: SELECTED EXAMPLES -- TAX REGISTERS -- NEW LIGHT ON THE PEASANTRY: ARCHIVAL RECORDS OF THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES -- HISTORY WRITING FROM TAHRIRS: THE PIONEERS -- DEALING WITH TAHRIRS: A SOURCE FOR PRE-OTTOMAN HISTORY -- OUTSIDE THE TAHRIR: THE ÇIFTLIK DEBATE -- THE IMPACT OF PEASANT STUDIES -- SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND RURAL HISTORY -- SUGGESTED READINGS -- 5 EUROPEAN SOURCES ON OTTOMAN HISTORY: THE TRAVELLERS -- MOTIVATIONS FOR THE WRITING OF TRAVEL ACCOUNTS: THE DIPLOMATS -- PILGRIMS -- RETURNED CAPTIVES -- MERCHANTS -- MISSIONARIES -- TRAVEL WRITING AND SCHOLARSHIP: THE EXAMPLE OF PETRUS GYLLIUS -- RELATING TO ONE'S PREDECESSORS: THE PROBLEM OF 'ORIGINALITY' IN TRAVEL ACCOUNTS -- THE OTTOMAN TOWN VIEWED BY EUROPEAN TRAVELLERS: AN EXERCISE IN COMPARISON -- EVLIYA ÇELEBI AND JEAN BAPTISTE TAVERNIER -- EUROPEAN ARCHIVAL SOURCES: DEALING WITH NINETEENTH-CENTURY CITIES -- COPING WITH BIASES -- SUGGESTED READINGS -- 6 ON THE RULES OF WRITING (AND READING) OTTOMAN HISTORICAL WORKS -- DELINEATING THE TOPIC -- FROM FRONTIER PRINCIPALITY TO EMPIRE: THE FIFTEENTH-CENTURY CHRONICLERS -- HISTORY WRITING IN THE 'CLASSICAL' AGE: MUSTAFA ÂLI AND HIS WORLD -- FACTIONAL STRUGGLE AND MILITARY PREPAREDNESS: SOME SAMPLES OF 'ADVICE' LITERATURE -- HISTORY WRITING IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES -- NINETEENTH-CENTURY INNOVATIONS -- THE OTTOMAN CHRONICLE: A BRIEF SUMMARY.

CHRONICLES IN THE PROVINCES -- THE UNIQUENESS OF EVLIYA ÇELEBI -- BIOGRAPHICAL COMPENDIA -- WRITING FOR A RESTRICTED CIRCLE: THE FIRST-PERSON NARRATIVE -- NEWSPAPERS AND THE PERIODICAL PRESS -- WRITING HISTORY AS A FORM OF WRITING -- SUGGESTED READING -- 7 PERCEPTIONS OF EMPIRE: VIEWING THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE THROUGH GENERAL HISTORIES -- DELIMITING THE CORPUS OF TEXTS -- FROM THE END OF WORLD WAR II TO 1970 -- THE 1970s AND 1980s -- OTTOMAN-TURKISH SETTLEMENT AND CONQUEST AS HISTORIOGRAPHICAL PROBLEMS -- SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY: THE FIRST ATTEMPTS AT SYNTHESIS -- PRESENTING OTTOMAN HISTORY AS A TOTALITY: THE 1980s -- OTTOMAN HISTORY AS VIEWED FROM THE OUTSIDE: A FEW EXAMPLES -- FROM 1989 TO THE PRESENT DAY: GENERAL HISTORIES -- EARLY OTTOMAN HISTORY IN THE 1990s -- A CONTINUING EFFORT AT SYNTHESIS: THE 'OTTOMAN LEGACY' AS A RESEARCH PROBLEM -- SUGGESTED READINGS -- 8 CONCLUSION -- FURTHER DESIDERATA -- THE RICHNESS AND LIMITS OF OUR SOURCES -- POLITICS AND VALUE JUDGMENTS -- HISTORIOGRAPHY AND NOSTALGIA -- EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS -- THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY AS A POTENTIAL 'GROWTH AREA' -- DEMYSTIFYING CENTRALISM -- ON THE VIRTUES OF COMPARISON -- SUGGESTED READING -- REFERENCES -- WORKS OF REFERENCE -- WORKS CITED -- INDEX.