The Cambridge History of Turkey, Volume 3: The Later Ottoman Empire. 1603-1839

Cambridge History of Turkey #3

by Suraiya Faroqhi (Editor)

Volume 3 of The Cambridge History of Turkey traces the history of the later Ottoman Empire from the death of Mehmed III in 1603 to the proclamation of the tanzimat, the administrative reconstruction of the Ottoman state, in 1839. This was a period of relative stability when trade between the empire and Europe flourished and, wartime apart, merchants and pilgrims travelled in relative security. However, despite the emphasis on the sultan's role as defender of the faithful and of social order, tensions did exist between the ruling elite in Istanbul and their provincial subjects. This theme is central to the volume. Other sections focus on religious and political groups, women, trade, rural life and, importantly, music, art and architecture. The history emphasises the political, cultural and artistic accomplishments of the Ottomans in the post-classical period, thus challenging traditional notions that this was a period of stagnation.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

640 pages, Hardcover

First published December 11, 2006

About the author

Suraiya Faroqhi was born in Berlin to a German mother and Indian father in 1941. She studied at Hamburg University and she came to Istanbul through a university exchange program when she was 21. At Istanbul University, she became a student of Ömer Lütfi Barkan. She completed her master's degree in Hamburg and between 1968-1970 she studied English Language Teaching at Indiana University-Bloomington. After her post-doctorate, she worked as English Lecturer at METU. She retired from METU in 1987 and from München Ludwig Maximillan Universität in 2005.

A turning point in her life came in 1962-63, when she took the opportunity to go to Istanbul University on a fellowship as an exchange student. Subsequently she became a student of Ömer Lüfti Barkan, one of the founding fathers of Ottoman history and an editor of Annales. When she first read Fernand Braudel at Barkan’s insistence, she “had the feeling that’s the sort of thing I wanted to do.” She wrote her doctoral thesis at Hamburg on a set of documents that a late 16th-century vizier submitted to his sultan discussing Ottoman politics at the time.[1]

She is regarded as one of the most important economic and social historians of the Ottoman Empire working today. Professor Faroqhi has written substantially on Ottoman urban history, arts and crafts, and on the hitherto underrepresented world of the ordinary people in the empire. She is well known for her distinctive approach to Ottoman everyday life and public culture. She has published numerous books and articles in the field of pre- modern Ottoman history.