This study of the life and milieu of a statesman, utilizing a wide array of hitherto unused chronicle and documentary material, offers new insights into many aspects of Ottoman eighteenth-century society. Subjects touched upon include career development and patronage in the central bureaucracy, increasing knowledge and interest in European diplomacy, and the impact of war on traditional attitudes. Of particular interest is the section on the 1768-74 Russo-Turkish War, a traumatic awakening for the Ottomans, who yielded significant territory, but were also faced with the necessity of reconstructing a polity and ideology which no longer produced results on the battlefield. Ahmed Resmi was the first of a new generation of statesmen who saw real virtue in the rationalization of war and the need for peace within prescribed borders.

This study of Ahmed Resmi, servant and critic of the state, offers new insights into Ottoman eighteenth-century society, emphasizing the impact of the 1768-74 Russo-Turkish war on an outmoded world-view, and the call for the reconstruction of the Ottoman polity.

The Time of Joseph Haydn: From Sultan Mahmud I to Sultan Mahmud II (r.1730-1839), the second volume of Ottoman Empire and European Theatre, explores the relationship between Western playwrights, composers and visual artists of the eighteenth-century and Turkish-Ottoman culture, as well as the interest of Ottoman artists in European culture. Twenty-seven contributions by renowned experts shed light on the mutual influences that affected society and art for both Europeans and Ottomans. Successor to the first volume of the series, The Age of Mozart and Sultan Selim III (1756-1808), this book examines the compositions of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and his contemporaries along with events in the Ottoman political era during the time span from Sultan Mahmud I (b.1696, r.1730-1754) to Sultan Mahmud II (b.1785, r.1808-1839). Taking Haydn's Türkenopern ('Turkish operas') Lo speziale (1768) and L'incontro improvviso (1775) as the departure point, the articles collected in this publication reflect the growth of research in the area of cultural transfers between the Ottoman Empire and non-Ottoman Europe, as expressed in theatre, music and the visual arts. Contributions by: Emre Aracı, Annemarie Bönsch, Reinhard Buchberger, Bertrand Michael Buchmann, Necla Çıkıgil, Caryl Clark, Matthew Head, Caroline Herfert, Bent Holm, Michael Hüttler, Hans-Peter Kellner, Adam Mestyan, Isabelle Moindrot, Walter Puchner, Günsel Renda, Geoffrey Roper, Orlin Sabev, Çetın Sarıkartal, Käthe Springer-Dissmann, Suna Suner, Frances Trollope, Hans Ernst Weidinger, Daniel Winkler, Larry Wolff, Mehmet Alaaddin Yalçınkaya, Netice Yıldız, Clemens Zoidl.

The book series "Ottomania" researches cultural transfers between the Ottoman Empire and Europe, with the performing arts as its focus. The fifth volume of the sub-series Ottoman Empire and European Theatre focuses on The Turkish Subject in Ballet and Dance from the seventeenth century to the time of Christoph W. Gluck (1714-1787). The Turkish theme was a popular topic on European ballet stages throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and most influential choreographers had 'Turkish' ballets in their repertoire. Taking as its departure point Ch. W. Gluck and Gasparo Angiolini (1741-1803), succesful composer and choreographer of ballets at the French theatre in Vienna, this publication discusses the topic from a historical perspective, presents new findings, and introduces the latest scholarly achievements of the research field. Contributions by Emre Aracı, Bruce Alan Brown, David Chataignier, Sibylle Dahms, Vera Grund, Bert Gstettner, Bent Holm, Michael Hüttler, Evren Kutlay, Dóra Kiss, Laura Naudeix, Strother Purdy, Katalin Rumpler, Käthe Springer-Dissmann, Dirk Van Waelderen, Hans Ernst Weidinger

The articles compiled in Ottoman War & Peace. Studies in Honor of Virginia H. Aksan, honor the prolific career of a foremost scholar of the Ottoman Empire, and engage in redefining the boundaries of Ottoman historiography. Blending micro and macro approaches, the volume covers topics from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries related to the Ottoman military and warfare, biography and intellectual history, and inter-imperial and cross-cultural relations. Through these themes, this volume seeks to bring out and examine the institutional and socio-political complexity of the Ottoman Empire and its peoples. Contributors are Eleazar Birnbaum, Maurits van den Boogert, Palmira Brummett, Frank Castiglione, Linda Darling, Caroline Finkel, Molly Greene, Jane Hathaway, Colin Heywood, Douglas Howard, Christine Isom-Verhaaren, Dina Rizk Khoury, Ethan L. Menchinger, Victor Ostapchuk, Leslie Peirce, James A. Reilly, Will Smiley, Mark Stein, Kahraman Şakul, Veysel Şimşek, Feryal Tansuğ, Baki Tezcan, Fatih Yeşil, Aysel Yıldız.

The Ottoman Empire maintained a complex and powerful bureaucratic system which enforced the Sultan's authority across the Empire's Middle-Eastern territories. This bureaucracy continued to gain in power and prestige, even as the empire itself began to crumble at the end of the nineteenth century. Through extensive new research in the Ottoman archives, Dogan Gurpinar assesses the intellectual, cultural and ideological foundations of the diplomatic service under Sultan Abdulhamid II. In doing so, Ottoman Imperial Diplomacy presents a new model for understanding the formation of the modern Turkish nation, arguing that these Hamidian reforms- undertaken with the support of the 'Young Ottomans' led by Namik Kemal- constituted the beginnings of modern Turkish nationalism. This book will be essential reading for historians of the Ottoman Empire and for those seeking to understand the history of Modern Turkey.

Throughout the 'long 19th century', the Ottoman and Russian empires shared a goal of destroying one another. Yet, they also shared a similar vision for imperial state renewal, with the goal of avoiding revolution, decline and isolation within Europe. Adrian Brisku explores how this path of renewal and reform manifested itself: forging new laws and institutions, opening up the economy to the outside world, and entering the European political community of imperial states. Political Reform in the Ottoman and Russian Empires tackles the dilemma faced by both empires, namely how to bring about meaningful change without undermining the legal, political and economic status quo. The book offers a unique comparison of Ottoman and Russian politics of reform and their connection to the wider European politico-economic space.

In The Seven Years’ War: Global Views, Mark H. Danley, Patrick J. Speelman, and sixteen other contributors reach beyond traditional approaches to illuminate the conflict as world war. An introduction addresses the challenges of discretely defining the war. Chapters examine theaters such as the Carnatic, Bengal, the Philippines, Portugal, Senegal, and the Caribbean. Other chapters treat understudied topics such as the Anglo-Cherokee campaigns, Sweden’s participation, Ottoman neutrality, the Vatican, European perceptions of Cossacks and Kalmyks, the Enlightenment and the war, the choosing of sides in Europe and North America, social and political aspects of French and British military life, operational reconnaissance, and the war’s complex ending in western Germany. A conclusion situates the war as a marker of modernity. Contributors are in order of appearance: Juergen Luh, Armstrong Starkey, Matthew C. Ward, G.J. Bryant, Johannes Burkhardt, Gunnar Aselius, Virginia H. Aksan, Julia Osman, Ewa Anklam, Mrian Fuessel, James Searing, Richard Harding, John Oliphant, Mark H. Danley, Patrick J. Speelman, Nicholas Tracy, and Matt Schumann.

This book combines new material from the Ottoman archives with narrative sources from the region to provide a better understanding of Ottoman administrative practices in eighteenth century Bosnia.

In November 1774, a pamphlet to the People of America was published in Philadelphia and London. It forcefully articulated American rights and liberties and argued that the Americans needed to declare their independence from Britain. The author of this pamphlet was Charles Lee, a former British army officer turned revolutionary, who was one of the earliest advocates for American independence. Lee fought on and off the battlefield for expanded democracy, freedom of conscience, individual liberties, human rights, and for the formal education of women. Renegade Revolutionary: The Life of General Charles Lee ais a vivid new portrait of one of the most complex and controversial of the American revolutionaries. LeeOCOs erratic behavior and comportment, his capture and more than one year imprisonment by the British, and his court martial after the battle of Monmouth in 1778 have dominated his place in the historiography of the American Revolution. This book retells the story of a man who had been dismissed by contemporaries and by history. Few American revolutionaries shared his radical political outlook, his cross-cultural experiences, his cosmopolitanism, and his confidence that the American Revolution could be won primarily by the militia (or irregulars) rather than a centralized regular army. By studying LeeOCOs life, his political and military ideas, and his style of leadership, we gain new insights into the way the American revolutionaries fought and won their independence from Britain."