An Ottoman Historian in an Age of Reform

300 Pages·2014·1.9 MB·English

An Ottoman Historian in an Age of Reform:
Ahmed Vâsıf Efendi (ca. 1730–1806)
by
Ethan Lewis Menchinger

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
(Near Eastern Studies)
in the University of Michigan
2014

Doctoral Committee:

Associate Professor Gottfried J. Hagen, Chair
Professor Virginia H. Aksan, McMaster University
Professor Michael D. Bonner
Professor Rudi P. Lindner
© Ethan Lewis Menchinger

2014
This dissertation is dedicated to my family,
who never once questioned the wisdom of a career in history.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study has been made possible through the largesse and generous aid of a number of
institutions. I am grateful firstly to the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Rackham
School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan, for funding the bulk of my overseas
research; a 2013/14 Rackham Pre-doctoral Fellowship freed me from the necessity of teaching
and gave me the unwonted luxury of an entire year of uninterrupted writing. I also owe a deep
debt to staff at the Robarts and Thomas Fisher Rare Book Libraries in Toronto, the Hatcher
Graduate Library in Ann Arbor, the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, the Newberry
Library in Chicago, the American Research Institute in Turkey, and to those at the Başbakanlık
Osmanlı Arşivleri, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Beyazıt Devlet Kütüphanesi, and Millet
Kütüphanesi in Istanbul for cheerfully meeting my requests for often recondite materials.
I have been fortunate as a junior scholar to have the support of excellent teachers,
foremost among whom are my committee members. Gottfried Hagen and Virginia Aksan have
been fonts of wisdom and patience throughout my time in Near Eastern Studies and fostered this
project, consciously and unconsciously, through their guidance, mentoring, and inspiration. My
professional formation owes largely to their influence and to the rare opportunities they have
afforded me; Virginia also allowed me access to her personal library and to manuscripts
otherwise inaccessible. I am grateful as well to Rudi Lindner for sharing his profound historical
sensibility and insight into Ottoman history, for his faith in me, and for his timely and sage
advice, offered in his usual self-deprecating way. Michael Bonner agreed to sit on this committee,
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I think, with little idea of what the project might entail. He has consistently asked the difficult
questions that had to be asked.
No lesser thanks must go to Professors Kemal Beydilli, Mustafa Bilge, and Seyfi Kenan
at the İslâm Araştırmaları Merkezi (İSAM) in Istanbul, who welcomed a foreign graduate student
and shared their hospitality, advice, and authoritative knowledge of Vâsıf and the sources. Kemal
Bey, like Professor Aksan, kindly provided key files that have made this study possible. I am
further indebted to my colleagues in Turkey, especially Günhan Börekçi and Kahraman Şakul at
İstanbul Şehir Üniversitesi and Aysel Yıldız, who, in addition to help and suggestions, made my
research experience companionable and pleasurable.
There are a great number of teachers, colleagues, and friends to whom I am grateful and
without whom, whether they know it or not, I could never have completed this work. I especially
wish to thank: Remzi Bilgin, Deborah Black, Wendy Burr, Margaret Casazza, Kate Creasey,
Semi Ertan, Özgen Felek, Noah Gardiner, Rob Haug, Gina Konstantopoulos, Evyn Kropf, Joo-
Yup Lee, Nancy Linthicum, Derek Mancini-Lander, Victor Ostapchuk, Haluk Otman, Metin
Bayraktaroğlu, Maxim Romanov, Veysel Şimşek, Ali Sipahi, and Will Smiley. Especial thanks
to my colleague and friend Frank Castiglione for making graduate study much easier to bear; and
to my in-laws Máмa, Бáтько, and Larissa for welcoming me into their family.
This dissertation is dedicated to my family: to Dad, Mom, Stefan, Olivia, and my
extended family, who have always supported me no matter how strange my choice of vocation
might have seemed. Lastly, my wife Natalia’s encouragement has sustained me for years and
seen this project from its inchoate beginnings many years ago to its end. I thank God for her love
every day.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication ii

Acknowledgements iii

List of Abbreviations viii

Glossary ix

Note on Transliteration xi

Introduction 1

Ahmed Vâsıf: His World and Corpus 2

Chapter One: History as Magistra Vitae: 12
Ahmed Vâsıf's Life and Work

a. A Portrait of an Eighteenth Century Historian 12

b. Vâsıf and the Practice of History 34

c. History Defined 39

d. History and Knowledge 42

e. History and Morality 48

f. Criticism and Self-Praise 53

g. Conclusions: Vâsıf and the Post of Court Historian 60

Chapter Two: Ahmed Vâsıf on Agency and Causality: 63
a “Reformist” Philosophy of History

a. Ottoman Exceptionalism and the Problem of Causality 64

b. The 1784 Risâle 71

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c. Vâsıf on the Natural and Supernatural 80

d. The 1787-1792 War: the Morality of Victory and Defeat 85

e. The 1798 Tesliyetnâme: a Theodicy 91

f. Refuting the Rabble: Polemic and Reform 96

g. Final Chronicles 101

h. Conclusions 110

Chapter Three: Sheathing the Sword of Enmity: 112
Vâsıf on Peace and Peacemaking

a. Ottoman Views of War and Peace 113

b. Defenses of Peace:

1.b. Karlowitz 117

2.b. The Early Eighteenth Century 122

3.b. Küçük Kaynarca 124

c. Vâsıf on Peace:

1.c. The Crimean Crisis and the “Lesser of Two Evils” 129

2.c. The Maçin Boycott, 1791 141

2.c. Küçük Kaynarca: “War is Unpredictable” 148

d. Conclusions 157

Chapter Four: the Moral Order of the Universe 159

a. Human Nature and Social Order in Ottoman Thought 160

b. Ahmed Vâsıf and World Order 170

c. Practical Philosophy as Governance 178

d. Governance of the Self: Virtue and Vice 183

e. Governance of the Polity: Ottoman Political Thought 194
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f. Vâsıf on the Ideal Ruler, Politics, and Proper Rule 200

g. Conclusions 212

Chapter Five: Eighteenth Century Ottoman Reform 214

a. “World Order” and the Problem of Reform 215

b. Reform as Restoration: the 1770s and 1780s 223

c. Nizâm-ı Cedîd: Reform under Selim III 233

1.c. The Meaning of Nizâm-ı Cedîd 235

2.c. Reform and its Discontents 239

d. Ahmed Vâsıf on the “New Order” 248

Epilogue: Vâsıf and Ottoman Intellectual History 263

Bibliography 269

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AE Ali Emiri
A.RSK.d Bâb-ı Asâfî, Rüûs Kalemi Defterleri
BOA Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri, Istanbul
C.DH Cevdet Dahiliyye
D.BŞM.d Bâb-ı Defterî, Başmuhâsebe Kalemi Defterleri
DİA Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi
EI² Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition
GOW Babinger, Die Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen und ihre Werke
HAT Hatt-ı Hümâyûn
İA İslâm Ansiklopedisi
İÜ İstanbul Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi, Istanbul
MEHÂSİN 1 Mehâsinü’l-Âsâr ve Hakâîkü’l-Ahbâr, İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzesi
Kütüphanesi nr. 355
MEHÂSİN 2 Mehâsin, İÜ nr. 5978
MEHÂSİN 3 Mehâsin, İÜ nr. 5979
MEHÂSİN 4 Mehâsin, İÜ nr. 6013
MEHÂSİN 5 Mehâsin, İstanbul, 1804. 2 vols
MEHÂSİN 6 Mehâsin, TOP nr. 1406
MEHÂSİN (EGYPT) Mehâsin, İÜ nr. 6012
MAC Muhassenât-ı ‘Asker-i Cedîd, Abdullah Uçman, ed., Sekbanbaşı
Risalesi, Hulâsat el-Kelâm fi Red el-Avam. İstanbul, 1975.
SO Sürreya, Sicill-i Osmânî
TOP Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, Istanbul
ÖN Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna
UT University of Toronto Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
Y.EE Yıldız Esas Evrakı

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GLOSSARY

amedcî – Receiver-general of the Grand Vezir’s provincial correspondence.

anadolu muhâsebecisi – Accounting officer for the province of Anatolia.

baş muhâsebeci – Chief accounting officer.

beylikçi – Chancery official responsible for promulgation of all edicts and
regulations except those of a financial nature; a subordinate of the
reis efendi.

büyük rûznamçe/tezkireci – Secretary and paymaster of the imperial council.

defterdâr – The empire’s chief treasury official.

fetvâ emîni – Head of the office dealing with religious opinions or fatwas.

hacegân – Bureau chiefs of the Ottoman administration; the highest level of
the chancery.

kethüdâ bey – The Grand Vezir’s deputy, who acted as his secretary and managed
his correspondence.

kapıcıbaşı – Head of the palace doorkeepers

kapudan-ı deryâ – The Grand Admiral of the Ottoman navy.

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