Category Archives: Turkey
Prussian Reactions to the French Revolution
From: Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947, by Christopher Clark (Penguin, 2007), p. 285 (Kindle Loc. 5546-5584): Tensions between the two German rivals had risen steadily during the 1780s. In 1785, Frederick II had taken charge of … Continue reading
Lessons from Romanizing Turkish Orthography
From: “Script Charisma in Hebrew and Turkish: A Comparative Framework for Explaining Success and Failure of Romanization” by İlker Aytürk in Journal of World History 21(2010):97-130 (on Project MUSE): Since the downfall of the Soviet regime in 1991, successive Turkish … Continue reading
Downsides of Kemalism
From: Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World, by Vali Nasr (Free Press, 2009), Kindle Loc. 1902-23: Looking back over the decades since Ataturk and Reza Shah ruled … Continue reading
Filed under democracy, economics, Iran, Middle East, military, nationalism, religion, Turkey
Bulgarian Macedo-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Terrorism
From Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950, by Mark Mazower (Vintage, 2006), pp. 247-252: Once an autonomous Bulgarian state emerged in 1878, Macedonia became a battle-ground for insurgent bands. Secret guerrilla units, supported from Sofia, were formed … Continue reading
Salonica, 1800s: Religion vs. Nation
From Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950, by Mark Mazower (Vintage, 2006), pp. 242-243: TO THE OTTOMAN AUTHORITIES what had always mattered were religious rather than national or linguistic differences: Balkan Christians were either under the authority … Continue reading
Secularizing Religious Education in Salonica
From Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950, by Mark Mazower (Vintage, 2006), pp. 220-221: The struggle for communal authority was fought out over many areas—care for the poor and sick, the upkeep of cemeteries, the administration of … Continue reading
Filed under Balkans, education, France, Greece, language, Mediterranean, nationalism, Turkey
The Near Eastern Crisis of 1875-78
From Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950, by Mark Mazower (Vintage, 2006), pp. 167-169: Beginning with a peasant uprising in Bosnia-Hercegovina, the troubles spread in 1876 to Bulgaria and the Danubian provinces and ended with an invasion … Continue reading
Belated Ottoman Religious Reform
From Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950, by Mark Mazower (Vintage, 2006), pp. 152-153: In 1851 Christian testimony was admitted in a local criminal court for the first time, but it was not for another decade that … Continue reading
Disasters for Ottoman “Soft Power” in 1579
From the luridly titled “Global Politics in the 1580s: One Canal, Twenty Thousand Cannibals, and an Ottoman Plot to Rule the World” by Giancarlo Casale in Journal of World History 18(2007):277-281 (on Project MUSE): During the lengthy grand vizierate of … Continue reading
Filed under Africa, Islam, Mediterranean, Middle East, Portugal, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Spain, Turkey
Anti-Greek Backlash in Salonica, 1821
From Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950, by Mark Mazower (Vintage, 2006), pp. 126-129: The Greeks in the city rang their church bells, rode through the streets on horseback, wore fine clothes and did not step down … Continue reading
Filed under Balkans, Greece, Mediterranean, nationalism, religion, Turkey
