Dreams and Lives in Ottoman Istanbul: A Seventeenth-Century Biographer's Perspective PDF
Preview Dreams and Lives in Ottoman Istanbul: A Seventeenth-Century Biographer's Perspective
Dreams and Lives in Ottoman Istanbul Dreams and Lives in Ottoman Istanbul explores biography writing and dream narratives in seventeenth-century Istanbul. It focuses on the prominent biographer 'Ata'I (d. 1637) and with his help shows how learned circles narrated dreams to assess their position in the Ottoman enterprise. This book demonstrates that dreams provided biographers not only with a means to form learned communi- ties in a politically fragile landscape but also with a medium to debate the correct career paths and social networks in late sixteenth and early seventeenth-century Istanbul. By adopting a comparative approach, this book engages with current scholarly dialogues about life-writing, dreams, and practices of remembrance in Habsburg Spain, Safavid Iran, Mughal India and Ming China. Recent studies have shown the shared rhythms between these contemporaneous dynasties and the Ottomans, and there is now a strong interest in comparative approaches to examining cul- tural life. This first English-language monograph on Ottoman dreamscapes addresses this interest and introduces a world where dreams changed lives, the dead appeared in broad daylight, and biographers invited their readers to the gar- dens of remembrance. Ash Niyazioglu is Assistant Professor of History at Koc;U niversity, Istanbul. After receiving her PhD from Harvard University in 2003, she taught at the University of Oxford and was a fellow at Wissenschaftskolleg Institute of Advanced Study at Berlin. She works on early modem Ottoman history with a special interest in the lives of poets, scholars, and Sufis oflstanbul. Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies General editors: Leslie Brubaker, A.A.M. Bryer, Rhoads Murphey and John Haldon Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies is devoted to the history, culture and archaeology of the Byzantine and Ottoman worlds of the East Mediterranean region from the fifth to the twentieth century. It provides a forum for the publication of research completed by scholars from the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Birmingham, and those with similar research interests. For a full list of titles in this series, please visit https://www.routledge.com/series/BBOS Sylvester Syropoulos on Politics and Culture in the Fifteenth-Century Mediterranean Themes and problems in the memoirs, Section IV Edited by Fotini Kondyli, Eirini Panou, VeraA ndriopoulou , and Mary B. Cunningham The Emperor Theophilos and the East, 829-842 Court and frontier in Byzantium during the last phase of iconoclasm Juan Signes Codofier Rebuilding Anatolia after the Mongol Conquest Islamic architecture in the lands of rum, 1240-1330 Patricia Blessing Imperial Lineages and Legacies in the Eastern Mediterranean Recording the imprint of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman rule Edited by Rhoads Murphey Dreams and Lives in Ottoman Istanbul A seventeenth-centuryb iographer's perspective Ash Niyazioglu Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modem Greek Studies University of Birmingham Dreams and Lives in Ottoman Istanbul A seventeenth-century biographer's perspective Ash Niyazioglu I~~~ o~;~~n~~;up LONDON AND NEWY ORK First published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY I 0017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Ash Niyazioglu The right of Ash Niyazioglut o be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any informations torage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademarkn otice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registeredt rademarks, and are used only for identificationa nd explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationD ata Names: Niyazioreglu, Asli, author. Title: Dreams and lives in Ottoman Istanbul : a seventeenth century biographer's perspective/ Asli Niyazioglu. Description:M ilton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2017. I Includes bibliographicalr eferences and index. Identifiers: LCCN 20160185921I SBN 9781472472298( hardback: alk. paper) J ISBN 9781315578071 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Istanbul (Turkey)-- Biography-H istory and criticism. I Biographers-Turkey- Istanbul- History- l 7th century. J Biography as a literary form. J Dreams in literature. J AotAa'Ai, AotAaA IIAahi bn YaohyAaa, ctive 17th century. Classification:L CC CT21 .N59 2017 J DDC 920.0094961/8-d c23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016018592 ISBN: 978-1-4724-7229-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-57807-l (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by diacriTech, Chennai Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies Volume 19 Printed in the United Kingdom by Henry Ling Limited Emine, Yahya ve Mehmet'e Contents Acknowledgements IX Note on Transliteration and Manuscripts xi Introduction 1 The biographer between this world and the hereafter 19 Patrons and adversaries 22 Sufi sheikhs and the very special dead 30 Father and son 35 2 Collection of lives as a well-ordered garden 47 Ottoman biographers and Sufi lives: an overview 49 A well-ordered garden: empire, decorum and exclusivity 53 Gardener at work: 'Atii '"i and his sources 65 3 From this world to the realm of dreams 74 Dreams, careers and biographers 76 Nightmares on the Sufi path 79 The hereafter in the mirror of dreams 83 4 The dead and visits from the hereafter 91 The living and the dead in early seventeenth -century Istanbul 92 Apparitions and embraces 94 Dreams and tokens of remembrance 101 Epilogue 110 Appendix: Sample biographical notice 113 Bibliography 117 Index 145
The list of books you might like
