The Catastrophic Success of the Armenian Tanzimat

05/04/22 • -1 min

with Richard Antaramian hosted by Matthew Ghazarian | How did the Ottomans secure widespread buy-in for modernization projects across the empire's many geographies and communities? This episode explores that question through the experiences of Armenians in the Ottoman East. Our guest, Richard Antaramian, shares some of his research, which argues that Ottoman shared governance worked through networks of power that linked center to periphery and sustained relationships among notables of different confessions, classes, and locations. The Ottoman tax-farming system of the 18th century forged ties among central authorities, provincial notables, and Armenian financiers. As the Ottoman government embarked upon the modernizing reform projects of the late 1700s and 1800s, those forms of shared governence frayed. In the Ottoman East, the Armenian Patriarchate's attempts to enact new notions of reform saw major successes, with the establishment limited representative governance, a constitution, and new educational institutions. Yet, those successes came at the cost of weakening the ties between provincial Armenians and important power brokers like provincial notables and Kurdish tribal leaders. Ultimately, the Armenian Patriarchate's successes at reform translated into trouble for its newly-isolated flock in the empire's eastern borderlands. « Click for More »

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A New History of The Eastern Question

with Ozan Ozavci hosted by Zeinab Azarbadegan | How was European military intervention in the Ottoman Empire justified throughout the nineteenth century? What did Ottoman statesmen and subjects think of these would-be attemepts to provide them with more security? From the late eighteenth century, as a new international system was emerging, European powers considered the Ottoman Empire a weaker foil to their own expanding empires. In this episode, Ozan Ozavci explores how this perception of Ottoman weakness, known as the Eastern Question, affected the Ottoman Empire's place in and engagement with the new international system and law. Exploring the different phases of the Eastern Question, from the French invasion of Egypt in 1798 to the Civil War in Greater Syria durings the 1860s, Ozavci highlights agency of individual actors in the Ottoman capital and the provinces. « Click for More »

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A Decade with Ottoman History Podcast

Episode 528
hosted by the Ottoman & Turkish Studies Association and featuring over a dozen of our contributors past and present
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Even though Ottoman History Podcast has been producing weekly episodes for over a decade, the times when our recording team and contributors have been able to gather to reflect on and celebrate our work have been rare. In April 2022, the Ottoman & Turkish Studies Association hosted a Zoom event for the OHP contributors and listeners to talk about what we have been doing since the podcast launched in 2011 and discuss the role it has played in the broader development of our fields of study. Join us to learn more about the history of our program and put faces to the voices you have been listening to over these years. As always, thank you to our hundreds of contributors and thousands of listeners for making this decade of experience worthwhile. And check out our special list of suggestions for further listening below compiled based on the recommendations of those who were in attendance!
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