Dept. of History - Ph.D. / Sc.D.

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"The letter kills, but the spirit gives life" : the rise of learning in the Franciscan order, 1210-1310
(Bilkent University, 2001) Şenocak, Neslihan; Latimer, Paul
The historiography of medieval Franciscan education has been dominated by two general approaches that appear unjustifiable. The first has been to assume that the Franciscan educational organization was a later copy of the Dominican organization, and therefore to use Dominican evidence to fill in the gaps in the Franciscan picture. The second indefensible approach has been largely to ignore the fact that Franciscan educational organization went through an evolution. The foremost aim of this thesis is to present the story of the rise and institutionalization of learning in the Franciscan Order of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, without taking refuge in the much fuller evidence that exists for the Dominican system, but with an emphasis on the chronological development both of the Franciscan educational system itself and of attitudes to it within the Order. Included in this study are discussions of some controversial topics such as the intention of the founder with regard to education, the position of the Spirituals, and the problems that possession of books and libraries caused. In order to compensate for the absence of Dominican evidence, a wide range of sources has been employed in the research. The resulting picture of the Franciscan involvement in education appears to be quite different from that of the Dominicans in its organization, scope, speed of growth and in the effects on the internal harmony of the Order.
Open Access
The history of John Galt : past and present in the wake of the Enlightenment
(Bilkent University, 2003) Çaykent, Özlem; Leighton, Cadoc D.
The placing of the history of Enlightenment ideas and their implications in a wider social context has been an important characteristic of Enlightenment studies for some time. This thesis offers John Galt, the early nineteenth-century Scottish historical novelist, as an example of this wider reception of the Enlightenment. It investigates his novels and gives an account of Galt’s attitudes to the ideas of his times, on the historical, socio-political and other matters. It returns the novels to their immediate Scottish intellectual and cultural contexts, speaking of Galt’s Greenock, contemporary Scottish literary circles and London politics, all of which played important parts in Galt’s formation. His works are interesting in showing a belief in the expediency of reason, learning and the possibility of human progress within an organic society and history, placing an emphasis on Divine Providential as the ground of a universal system. Galt supported progress, in so far as it brought advance of a merely practical nature; but he reached back to the moral values of the past as the true guides to living.The thesis delineates Galt’s ideas as composite, melding together traditional and new liberal/conservative notions. Thus a progressive understanding of history became, in the hands of Galt, a major element of his conservative stance in relation to radical reform and change. Using some contemporary theories such as historical inevitability and stadialism, he constructed a Scottish identity which highlighted the Calvinist traditions of the Lowlands. In brief, with Galt the dichotomy between Enlightenment and Counter- Enlightenment was disappearing.
Open Access
The rise and fall of an Ayân family in eighteenth century Anatolia : the Caniklizâdes (1737-1808)
(Bilkent University, 2003) Şahin, Canay; Özel, Oktay
This thesis examines the rise and fall of the Caniklizâdes within the context of the redistribution of political and economic resources between the center and the periphery in the second half of the eighteenth century Ottoman Empire. The introductory chapter looks at the long-term determinants behind the rise of local dynasties in the Empire. Chapter Two outlines the historical process of the Caniklizâdes’ incorporation into the ruling class of the empire from a small notable background with an attention to their conflicts with the central government and the Çapanoğlus. Chapter Three analyses the revenue sources, the tax-farms (mukata’as), controlled by the Caniklizâdes in northeastern Anatolia by emphasising the network of relationship between the central government and the family mediated by the kapı kethüdas and sarrafs. The next chapter examines the family’s leading household members (kethüdas), and lesser local notables within the context of the redistribution of administrative and tax-collection rights. The last chapter analyses the ways of the Caniklizâdes’ enrichment and their investments as well as their religious endowments.
Open Access
Paradigm regained : the Hutchinsonian reconstruction of Trinitarian Protestant Christianity (1724-1806)
(Bilkent University, 2003) Gürses, Derya; Leighton, C. D. A.
Recently, there has been a considerable attempt by historians of eighteenth-century intellectual history to present the religious and conservative side of the Enlightenment thought. Hutchinsonianism, as an eighteenth-century orthodox movement, provides an example of the argument that the Enlightenment was a battlefield of fideistic and rationalistic forces. This dissertation aims to explain how and why a movement such as Hutchinsonianism came into being, changed and eventually died. Hutchinsonians crusaded their way into the eighteenthcentury intellectual arena with their relentless war against heterodoxy. The Hutchinsonian system had many branches and all of them had their foundations in the idea of the Christian Trinity: for example, a trinitarian cosmology designed as an alternative to Newtonian cosmology and natural religion, a certain Hebrew linguistic method to highlight the trinitarian promise in the Old Testament. The attempt made by the Hutchinsonians can be seen as one to redefine orthodox Protestant identity, by making use of a re-assessment of Enlightenment epistemology, an almost cabbalistic method of dealing with the Old Testament text, and the reinstatement of the authority of the Book in a proper Protestant fashion. A survey of Hutchinsonianism over the eighteenth century provides answers to questions about the demise of the movement as well as its genesis. An examination of the different generation of followers exhibits the reasons for change in the movement over time. Hutchinsonians later in the century were more and more willing to dispense with or play down parts of the system for various reasons. It will be argued here that, firstly, they lost the battles they were engaged in some fronts like Hebrew studies; secondly, some of their reactionary attitudes became redundant, such as anti-Newtonianism, and thirdly, there developed a reluctance to embrace Hutchinson and his whole system, in order to be able to concentrate more on being relevant to the general cause of orthodoxy. The question of the movement’s demise is presented in association with the increasing conservatism of the late eighteenth century, in response to the revolutionary ideas fed by abroad: France and America. It will be argued that the willingness to try to ameliorate the public profile of Hutchinson’s system led itself to the movement’s submergence within a wider orthodoxy.
Open Access
Islam in Albanian lands during the first two centuries of the Ottoman rule
(Bilkent University, 2003) Egro, Dritan; İnalcık, Halil
This dissertation provides a detailed picture of the religious situation in Albanian lands before the Ottoman conquest and analyzes the conditions upon the establishment of Ottoman rule and the initial stages of Islaınllslamization in that area. A complex approach is necessary to find the roots and to understand the phenomenon of the massive conversion of Albanians to Islam throughout the Ottoman period. The lack of a "national" church, the weak organisation of the Christian churches after the Ottoman conquest, and the establishment of Ottoman rule with a great measure of finality, were the most important factors which caused the gradual process of massive conversion to Islam.
Open Access
The US foreign aid policy and the institutionalization of dependency in the periphery in the post-WW2 era : Turkey and India compared : (1947-73)
(Bilkent University, 2003) Şen, Leyla; Özel, Oktay
Open Access
The first Dutch ambassador in Istanbul: Cornelis Haga and the Dutch capitulations of 1612
(Bilkent University, 2003) Ari, Bülent; İnalcık, Halil
This dissertation evaluates the granting of capitulations to the Dutch Republic by the Ottoman Sultan in 1612, and early years of first Dutch ambassador Cornelis Haga. The United Provinces, formed by seven provinces of the Low Countries in 1579, signed Twelve Years Truce with Spain in 1609. The truce was the beginning of Dutch primacy in world economy, which would last until mid 17th century. The Dutch Republic sent sent Haga to achieve grant of capitulations by the Sultan Ahmed I. Despite intensive opposition of Venetian, French and English ambassadors at the Porte, Haga fulfilled his mission and remained in Istanbul as resident ambassador. From Haga's arrival onwards, Vizier Halil Paşa Provided all kinds of assistance to him in establishing diplomatic relations with the Porte. In a few years Dutch consulates were opened in major port cities throughout the Mediterranean. Haga remained in Istanbul for 27 years, where he came for a temporary mission. Halil Paşa's protection was always crucial both for Haga and for the Dutch merchants. This study analyses the story of Haga as an ambassador relying on his register book including all diplomatic correspondences of his embassy. In other words, the dissertation is a case study for granting of capitulations by the Ottoman Sultan and the diplomatic maneuvers resorted to by other ambassadors at the Porte.
Open Access
Money and its use in the Ottoman Empire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
(Bilkent University, 2003) Akkaya, Tolga
Open Access
Family and estate : the Slupica family and Kuna 1390's - 1640's : a case study on the Ruthenian nobility in Eastern Podolia
(Bilkent University, 2005) Nykiel, Beata K.; Kermeli, Eugenia
The subject of this thesis is the Ruthenian family of the Shipica representing the upper gentry group of lords and their Kuna estate in Eastern Podolia (Bratslavshchyna). So far both the area itself, as well as, the Ruthenian nobility did not attract much scholarly attention, mainly due to the opinion that source material was scarce. The main goal of this thesis is to discuss, based on new sources, the history of the Bratslav area from the late medieval period until the mid-17*’’ century focusing primarily on the Ruthenian lord group. Due to the source material, mainly of judicial character, the thesis is divided into two parts. The first one discusses the nature of the sources used, secondary literature and legal issues. A brief introduction to the area and its social and political history is given focusing on the Shipicas and their engagement in political, military and public activities, as they took part in many of the important events in the Bratslav territory. Special attention is also paid to the Tartar and Cossack factor in the developments of both the area and the Shipica family. The second part focuses primarily on the family and its estate. It examines the way the Shipicas acquired their first endowments, how they enlarged their estates, and their struggles to maintain their inheritance. Finally the efforts of the direct successors to keep the estate’s integrity and their loss of a large part of inherited lands, is examined. This part also endeavours to reconstruct the range of economic activities of the Slupica estate. An Abbreviation list, bibliography, glossary and appendixes of the family genealogical tree and documents, maps of the area, accompany the text.
Open Access
British philosophical history and the empires of antiquity
(Bilkent University, 2006) Ataç, C. Akça; Leighton, C. D. A.
Although eighteenth-century British empire may seem a topic much exhausted by historians, there is still room for fresh primary sources and new approaches. Ancient Greek and Roman histories published in eighteenth-century Britain are in fact valid primary sources to contribute to the studies of empire. This dissertation strives to place these sources among the vast literature on the eighteenth-century British empire. In comparison with other types of history, ancient history was believed to play a more significant role in the design of guiding the political nation. Historians were attracted to ancient history particularly on account of the belief that the ancients had already experienced all the hardship that troubled the moderns in their political life. In this sense, the eighteenth century witnessed the publication of an inordinate number of texts on ancient history. Throughout the first half of the century, in particular, the analogy between Rome and Britain so predominated that the historians of antiquity thought of little else than demonstrating a common interest in producing the most authentic, well-written and informative Roman history ever, with the hope of providing the political nation with all the instruction required. Only from the 1740s onwards was the attention of the historians with ancient history diverted to ancient Greece to a certain degree. Therefore, it was an eighteenth-century truism that ancient history had the capacity to offer valuable insights into all contemporary political debates among which the question of empire had a prominent place. The British looked into a multitude of sources with the hope of finding guidance in the unknown path to imperial greatness. Eighteenth-century ancient history writing offered insights into imperial matters such as expansion, colonial governance, the role of commerce as a substitute for military action, the desirable degree of interaction with natives and the fight against decline. Under the influence of Plutarch and venerable literary genre, the “mirror for princes,” ancient Roman histories elucidated those subjects. As for ancient Greek histories, whose publications mostly coincided with the rise of discussions about civilisation, they sought to deliver their remarks on empire through comparisons of the states and civilisations that ancient Greece sheltered.
Open Access
Koca Nişancı" of Kanuni : Celalzade Mustafa Çelebi, Bureaucracy and "Kanun" in the reign of Süleyman the magnificent (1520-1566)
(Bilkent University, 2006) Yılmaz, Mehmet Şakir; İnalcık, Halil
This dissertation analyzes the development of Ottoman administration and its consequences in political reasoning under the reign of Sultan Süleyman in the light of career and works of nişancı Celālzāde Mustafa Çelebi. It shows that Ottoman bureaucracy did not only provide the tools for an effective administration of the state, but it also played an important role in the production of genuine Ottoman political understanding. It investigates expansion of Ottoman bureaucracy at the beginning of Süleyman’s reign and its effects on the development of a new political discourse with its emphasis on justice and kanun. It shows bureaucrats’ (kalemiyye) perception of Ottoman rule and its articulation in the works composed by members of bureaucracy on history and politics. Celālzāde Mustafa was a model bureaucrat, prose stylist and historian for late 16th century Ottoman literati, who served in the Ottoman chancery as a divan scribe (1517-1525), as reisülküttab (1525-1534) and nişancı (1534-1556, 1566-7). He contributed to the formation of a genuine Ottoman political reasoning with his works on history and ethics, as well as with his service in the chancery which undertook the codification of Ottoman laws, kanun. He was an influential bureaucrat and his views were representative for the members of Ottoman bureaucracy. A study of his life and works will reveal the struggle between different branches of Ottoman administration and the role of bureaucrats in the formation of genuine political literature which emphasized on kanun for the legitimacy of Ottoman rule.
Open Access
Depicting the enemy : Russians and Ottomans in the press during the First World War
(Bilkent University, 2007) Zardykhan, Zharmukhamed; Özel, Oktay
The intricate course of events that led both the Russian and Ottoman Empires towards the Great War had been the culmination of long-lasting domestic and international developments, which were reflected in their policies towards the other side. However, despite the ardent hatred and evident enmity that prevailed over the Russo-Ottoman relations for centuries, both of these empires were faced with similar problems of political, socioeconomic and national character that distinguished them from the rest of Europe and Asia. Whether out of hopelessness, inevitability, greater expectations or simply as a precious opportunity to rehabilitate their former reputation, seriously damaged after iv the humiliating Russo-Japanese and Balkan wars, the levying of war against their historical enemies deeply affected each countries' entire population. The effect was particularly strong because of the advanced and elaborate total war propaganda techniques employed primarily by the press, while the religious, nationalistic and historical aspects of the confrontation made the propaganda warfare a diverse and complicated battlefield. The main objective of this work is the presentation, comparison and analysis of a great variety of controversial pieces of information related to the Russo-Ottoman confrontation prior to and during the First World War. This information reveals personal prejudice, ethnic, religious and political affiliation of the authors, as well as deliberate attempts to spread misinformation and propaganda.
Open Access
Court chivalry and politics : nominations and elections to the order of the Garter : 1461-83
(Bilkent University, 2007) Gümüş, T. Tolga; Thornton, David
This thesis discusses the probable causes behind the nominations and elections of the knights to the Order of the Garter during the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV and Richard III. The Study argues that various considerations played role in the nominations of particular knights by different companions. The main concern of the Kings and the knights of the Order was the politics of the time in nominating a knight to the Order. Parental closeness and previous military success of the knightcandidates were also important in their decisions. This thesis also suggests that while Anstis’s edition of Liber Niger is constantly used by the historians as the main primary source for the Order, another important register, the so-called French Register must be also taken into account when constructing Order’s history. Chapter 1 is a general introduction to the history of the order, Chapter 2 discusses the main problems of the primary sources of the Order, Chapter 3 discusses the causes of the nominations and elections of the knights in Henry VI’s time, Chapter IV discusses the causes of the nominations and elections of the knights during Edward IV and Richard III’s time. Chapter V is conclusion.
Open Access
Friendship, crisis and estrangement : US-Italian relations, 1871-1920
(Bilkent University, 2007) Gürsel, Bahar; Roberts, Timothy M.
In the 1870s, the united Kingdom of Italy brought together nearly the whole Italian peninsula under a single flag, and the United States left behind a civil war and strengthened the country and its institutions. This dissertation is an account of the relations between the United States and Italy from 1871 to 1920. This era witnessed numerous important incidents like the mass Italian immigration to America beginning in the 1880s, military service and the problem of naturalization, the lynchings of Italian immigrants particularly in the southern United States, anarchism in both countries, Italian colonialist activities in North Africa, the beginning of American overseas expansion, and World War I. By analyzing both countries’ laws, political circumstances, internal affairs and ideological developments, the dissertation aspires to explore the aspects that shaped Italian and American foreign relations. While emphasizing these features, it seeks to clarify the fact that the main issue which both countries focused on was national greatness.
Open Access
Turkomans between two empires : the origins of the Qızılbash identity in Anatolia (1447-1514)
(Bilkent University, 2008) Yıldırım, Rıza; Özel, Oktay
This thesis aims to evaluate the emergence of the Qizilbash Movement and the Qizilbash Identity during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century within the struggle between the Ottoman and the Safavid power. The process of the making of the Qizilbash Identity, which was, in essence, the concurrent process of the Turkoman milieu’s gradual divergence from the Ottoman axis and convergence to the Safavid affiliation, is reflected in available sources as if it were predominantly a religious issue. The present study argues, however, that the religious aspect of the developments was simply the ‘surface’ or ‘outcome’ of a rather inclusive process including anthropological, cultural, sociological, and political dimensions. It is argued that the Qizilbash Identity was a product of the intercession of two separate but interrelated lines of developments: on the one hand being the alienation of the ‘nomadic-tribal Turkoman world’ from the ‘Ottoman imperial regime’, while on the other hand being the synchronized rapprochement between the ‘Turkoman milieu’ of Anatolia and the Safavid Order. One of the prominent promises of the present thesis is that the most decisive factors governing the course of both lines of the developments stemmed from the structural inconsistencies, or ‘unconscious structures’ of societies as Lévi-Strauss states, between two ‘ways of life’: one is sedentary life, which accomplished its socio-political organization as bureaucratic state, and the other is nomadic or semi-nomadic life organized around tribal axis.
Open Access
Zâviye-Khankâhs and religious orders in the province of Karaman : the Seljukid, Karamaoğlu and the Ottoman periods, 1200-1512
(Bilkent University, 2008) Bayram, Fatih; İnalcık, Halil
This dissertation analyzes the dervish lodges and Sufi orders in the Province of Karaman of the Ottoman Empire. The main source for this dissertation is the Register of the Pious Foundations of the Province of Karaman dated 888/1483. This register details accounts of the pious foundations of dervish lodges from the time of Seljukids and of the Karamanoğlus. There are other types of pious foundations such as mosques and madrasas also mentioned in the register. Yet, the main focus of this study will be the dervish lodges and Sufi orders. The register of 888/1483 will be analyzed in light of other sources such as chronicles, Sufi hagiographies, and literary works written during the Seljukid, Karamanoğlu, and classical Ottoman periods. The study demonstrates that the dervish lodges remained at the center of life during the period in question and that nearly every segment of society from the ruling class to the masses visited and shared their experiences in dervish lodges. In this dissertation, Sufi orders, particularly the Mevleviyye and the Halvetiyye, will also be analyzed in relation to their attitudes towards political authority.
Open Access
Body, disease and late Ottoman literature : debates on Ottoman muslim family in the Tanzimat period (1839-1908)
(Bilkent University, 2008) Demirci, Tuba; Özel, Oktay
This study analyzes the development and transformation of Ottoman population policies and medical regulations together with their social impact in the Tanzimat Period. It also aims to document the transformation of Ottoman modern state apparatus in the scope of population policies, which characterized the era for their political, economic, moral, sanitary and military significance. Population and public health policies, diverse regulatory discourses related to these policy orientations, and finally literary works belonged to the Tanzimat period are evaluated to historicize the re-construction of power, and the emergence of Ottoman modern (Muslim) family and individual.
Open Access
"Made in Massachusetts" : converting hides and skins into leather and Turkish immigrants into industrial laborers (1860s-1920s)
(Bilkent University, 2010) Acehan, Işıl; Kohn, Edward P.
Early twentieth-century America witnessed a large influx of immigrants largely from eastern and southern Europe as well as the Near East. The major “pull” factor stimulating the growth of migration was the rise of several American industries and a growing demand for laborers. In addition to the demand for immigrant labor, rising concern over political and economic conditions in the homeland resulted in a process of chain migration of Ottoman ethnic and religious groups from particular regions. By analyzing both “pull” and “push” factors triggering an out-migration from the Harput vilayet, as well as the migration trajectories of the Turkish immigrants, this dissertation argues that existing ethnic and social networks determined the settlement and employment patterns and inevitably affected the acculturation processes of Turkish immigrants in the United States. Specifically, this study contends that while the Turkish immigrants on the North Shore of Boston assimilated into American life, iv they also participated in the process of Turkish nation-building, maintained old home networks and transnational engagements.
Open Access
The patriarch and the sultan : the struggle for authority and the quest for order in the eighteenth-century Ottoman Empire
(Bilkent University, 2011) Bayraktar Tellan, Elif; Ergenç, Özer
In the eighteenth century, the Rum Orthodox Patriarchate of Istanbul underwent a series of changes that were the result of eighteenth-century economic and social developments in Ottoman society. This study investigates the changing fortunes of the Patriarchate in the eighteenth century through a contextualization of these events in their Ottoman background. Despite the conclusions of previous historiography, the patriarch appears as more than a mere mültezim or a milletbaşı / ethnarch, functioning instead more as a religious leader of the Ottoman Orthodox community who acted according to the Ottoman principles of nizam [order] and the safety of the mal-ı miri. These two principles were an important part of the discourse of negotiations between the Patriarchate and the Porte in the eighteenth century, and were used efficiently by both sides. Many internal and external actors were involved in the events, including archons, Catholics, Protestants, the esnaf, and merchants both Muslim and non-Muslim. A case study of the mid-eighteenth-century Patriarch Kyrillos V Karakallos demonstrates how one patriarch effectively struggled to consolidate his authority vis-à-vis his opponents. Following the patriarchal term of Karakallos, the system of gerondismos was established, as a result of which the Patriarchate had come, by 1763, to be represented before the Porte as a collective identity. Overall, far from being a static entity, the Patriarchate appears to have been an active subject in the urban setting of the imperial city, engaged in a relationship with the financial and social networks of Ottoman society.
Open Access
Interpreting warfare and knighthood in late medieval France : writers and their sources in the reign of king Charles VI (1380-1422)
(Bilkent University, 2012) Çeçen, Zeynep Kocabıyıkoğlu; Latimer, Paul
This thesis makes an analysis of different views on warfare and knighthood focusing on the late Middle Ages, though looking back to what came before, with an argument that a ‘new view’ was held by certain authors during the reign of Charles VI in France. This coincided with a certain phase of the Hundred Years’ War where the French were very conscious of their military failures. Medieval views on warfare and knighthood are examined under two basic categories: the view promoted through the romances to a lay audience, and the view developed by ecclesiastical authors, i.e. theologians, academics and canon-lawyers meant for a highly educated audience. While thesis shows that the ‘romance view’ perseveres into the early fifteenth century, it suggests a growing vogue for a ‘new view’ that is also adressed to a lay audience, but is closer to the ‘ecclesiastical view’ in many of its approaches. The new view is nevertheless different from the latter in certain respects, including the way it uses Ancient Roman sources on warfare, though these are also used to an extent in the ‘ecclesiastical view.’ It will illustrate this new view in the works of three authors residing in France at the time: Honoré Bouvet, Philippe de Mézières and Christine de Pizan. While evaluating these authors’ ideas on warfare and knighthood from the point of view of the contemporary military situation, the thesis will also briefly address their relevance to humanism.