The Ottoman Empire in the Tanzimat Era

The Ottoman Empire in the Tanzimat Era generates a new history of the Ottoman Empire's Tanzimat reforms in the provinces of Edirne and Ankara. It studies variation across the two provinces and the crucial role of local intermediaries such as notables, tribal leaders, and merchants. The book provides insights into how states and societies transform each other in the most difficult of times using qualitative and quantitative social network analysis and deep research in the Ottoman and British archives to understand the Tanzimat as a process of negotiation and transformation between the state and local actors. The author argues that the same reform policies produced different results in Edirne and Ankara. The book explains how factors such as socioeconomic conditions and historical developments played a role in shaping local networks. The Ottoman Empire in the Tanzimat Era invites readers to rethink taken-for-granted concepts such as centralization, decentralization, state control, and imperial decay. It will be of interest to scholars and students interested in Middle Eastern and Balkan studies, and historical and political sociology.

Yonca Köksal is an associate professor in the Department of History at Koç University. She has a PhD in sociology from Columbia University. Her research interests include state-society relations in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire, Tanzimat reforms in Ottoman Bulgaria, nationalism and minority politics in Bulgaria and Turkey.

1. Introduction   2. Diverging Paths: Edirne and Ankara on the Eve of the Tanzimat  3. Local Intermediaries and State Control in a Neglected Ottoman Province: Ankara during the Tanzimat Era  4. Centralization, Market integration and Coalition Building: Edirne in the Tanzimat Era  5. Explaining Variance in Reform Outcome: Social Network Analysis  6. Conclusion and Perspectives for Future Research  Appendicies  Bibliography