Dr. Felix Konrad

Following its defeat at the second siege of Vienna, the Ottoman Empire entered a period of internal crisis. Sultan Meḥmed IV was deposed in a mutiny; rebellious troops wreaked havoc in Istanbul, leading to an uprising of the townspeople, while marauding mercenaries caused unrest in the provinces. Ottoman chroniclers of these years agree that there was unprecedented disarray; but they differ in their representations of events and those involved in them. This article compares four chronicles and explains the divergences and similarities between them by using as a framework advice literature (naṣīḥatnāme) in which Ottoman perceptions of order and disorder were shaped. It shows that the chroniclers’ representations of low-status insurgents are largely uniform. On the other hand, even when they used the same standards to evaluate their behavior, they produced divergent representations of the viziers who played a role in the crisis.

Dossier “Worlds of (Dis)order: Ottoman Representations of the Social and Political Spheres (17th–18th Centuries)”, ed. Felix Konrad

A recurring topic of Ottoman advice literature is the categorisation of society into distinct groups. This representation of social order is contrasted with perceived ‘illegitimate’ social mobility and behaviour. Arising from processes of identification, which associate social groups with specific functions, characteristics, and patterns of behaviour, social categorisations are part and parcel of a discourse meant to preserve and stabilise social order. As such, they were embedded in a culture of knowledge shaped by binary oppositions such as rulers and subjects, order and disorder. This contribution examines three pieces of early-eighteenth-century advice literature by Defterdar Sarı Mehmed, Nahifi Süleyman, and Ibrahim Müteferrika. Firstly, I will analyse how the authors produced social categories, either positively, by specifying ‘appropriate’ practices, or negatively, by condemning certain behaviour. Secondly, I will discuss their use of Islamic normativity when defining legitimate behaviour. Hereby, the main focus lies on the image of high-ranking officials as the intended audience of the texts. I will show that social classifications and definitions of legitimate behaviour not only helped the authors to interpret socio-political change, but also contributed to a discursive construction of order.

Ägypten übt seit Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts eine große Anziehungskraft auf Reisende aus europäischen Ländern aus. Dieser Beitrag bietet einen Überblick über die touristische Erschließung des Landes, die mit der Eröffnung des Suezkanals 1869 ihren ersten Höhepunkt fand. Er thematisiert die Suezkanaleröffnung als ein touristisches Ereignis, das die Wahrnehmung des Landes beeinflusste, und argumentiert, dass die Eröffnungsfeiern trotz der ‚Modernität‘ des Suezkanals zur Festigung bestehender Vorstellungen von Ägypten als Hort einer alten Hochkultur und eines als malerisch wahrgenommenen ‚mittelalterlichen Orients‘ beitrugen.

Special thematic section “Competing Notions of Order in the Later Ottoman Empire (18th–20th Centuries)”, ed. Felix Konrad, Tobias Heinzelmann, Henning Sievert

In 1730, the so-called ‘Patrona Halil rebellion’ resulted in the abdication of Sultan Ahmed III (r. 1703–1730) and in the execution of his long-serving Grand Vizier Nevshehirli Damad Ibrahim Pasha (r. 1718–1730). This article addresses the question of how contemporary Ottoman chroniclers came to terms with this unusual situation of political and social tension and, in particular, how they coped with lower-strata individuals and groups involved in the rebellion. It is argued that the chroniclers had considerable problems in explaining that lower-strata people whom they perceived as “the riff-raff and mob” possessed an agency of their own, even if they might be a useful instrument in intra-elite quarrels. Despite nuances of judgement, the chroniclers represent the lower strata in a highly negative fashion by rendering their political activities as unruly violations of norms. The chroniclers employed discoursive strategies based on the elite concepts of morality, purity, honour and order, which they used both, for delegitimising the social and political behaviour of the urban lower strata, and for criticising Ibrahim Pasha and his government. When the new regime of Mahmud I (r. 1730–1754) resorted to violence in order suppress the rebels, this was unanimously welcomed by the chroniclers as the re-establishment of order. Thus, their representations of the rebellion clearly reaffirm elite notions of social and political order.

Little is known about the worldview and self-image of low-ranking Egyptian civil servants and graduates of state schools of the mid-19th century. Based on an unusual self-referential text which the young irrigation engineer Muhammad Kani al-Baqli had printed in 1865, this article seeks to discover the social and cultural orientation of a simple efendi of the mid-19th century and how he interpreted his world. It will show how al-Baqli acted as an individual in a world defined by constraints and dependencies and how he tried to realise his ambitions for social recognition and advancement. Despite his subaltern position, al-Baqli participated in the dominant hegemonic discourse about reform, progress and civilisation, and he aimed to adapt it to his own ambitious purposes. He also attempted to define what ought to be provided for him as an individual and as a member of an emerging social group, the afandiyya , by a progressive and just government.

Dies ist die erste detaillierte und umfassende Untersuchung des Hofes der Khediven von Ägypten im 19. Jahrhundert. Abgestützt auf eine breite Basis arabischer, osmanischer und europäischer Quellen zeichnet sie aus sozial- und kulturgeschichtlicher Perspektive den Prozess nach, in dem sich der Khedivenhof als herrschaftliches, soziales und kulturelles Zentrum des osmanischen Vizekönigreiches Ägypten durchsetzte. Der Autor konzipiert den Hof als Ereignis mit kommunikativem Charakter, das aus dem Zusammenspiel der drei konstituierenden Elemente Herrscherhaushalt, Hofgesellschaft und Hofhaltung des Herrschers entsteht. Der Herrscherhaushalt wird als eine Institution gefasst und in Hinblick auf seine Funktionsweise und den strukturellen Wandel, dem er unterlag, untersucht. Die ägyptische Hofgesellschaft wird als ein hierarchisches, aber dynamisches System untersucht, wobei Muster sozialer Reproduktion, Patronagebeziehungen und die Vergabe von Privilegien im Zentrum stehen. Die Analyse macht so nicht nur den Wandel in der sozialen Zusammensetzung der Hofgesellschaft deutlich, sondern auch die Rolle und die Stellung einzelner ihrer Mitglieder. Schließlich werden unterschiedliche Ereignisse der Hofhaltung wie Feierlichkeiten und Empfänge, Zeremonien und Vergnügungen ausführlich dargestellt und interpretiert, um den Hof als Mittel der Repräsentation und Kommunikation von Herrscher und höfischer Elite fassbar zu machen.