Open up a world of Turkish inspiration with a Cornucopia digital subscription

Buy or gift a stand-alone digital subscription and get unlimited access to dozens of back issues for just £18.99 / $18.99 a year.

Please register at www.exacteditions.com/digital/cornucopia with your subscriber account number or contact subscriptions@cornucopia.net

Buy a digital subscription Go to the Digital Edition

History in the Making

Essays on Ottoman Historians and Historiography

Essays on Ottoman Historians and Historiography
by Rhoads Murphey
Eren Books, Istanbul


Rereading this collection, I am reminded of how casually we modern historians of the Ottoman world exploit the “chronicles” that supply the story line of events. We tend to mine them for information to flesh out a narrative, or to provide background to an incident imperfectly glimpsed in other sources. Rhoads Murphey has examined the historical writings of the Ottoman middle period with a beadier eye than most, and he persuasively suggests how to reach a more nuanced understanding of these important texts.

The dangers of relying solely on any one chronicle become evident when we consider that contemporary historians may give rather different versions of an event. Five accounts of the events that led to the deposition of Ibrahim I in 1648 illustrate the point. The senior cleric Karaçelebizade played a part in Ibrahim’s removal and was concerned to exonerate himself and other clerics: he pins blame for the parlous state of affairs that presaged the sultan’s removal on viziers and court favourites. Solakzade, a personal attendant of the sultan, blames viziers and clerics for turning a blind eye to corruption. Mehmed Halife, a member of the sultan’s household staff, fingers the clerics, holding them responsible for the guidance of the state. The famous intellectual Kâtib Çelebi holds culpable all those who approved corrupt policies contravening religious law or accepted custom. Written slightly later, but based on a contemporary source, the message of the historian Naima was that only the impeccable example of those at the top could ensure that the ship of state sailed smoothly.

Today’s readers need also be aware of the self-serving cant that historians of former times indulged in to ingratiate themselves with their often royal patrons. Mustafa Safi’s work extols the young sultan Ahmed I, ascribing to him the attributes of the ideal ruler. Ahmed was no doubt delighted. But Murphey points out that Mustafa Safi was writing within a tradition of laudatory prose with its roots in medieval historiography, and his flattery is to be understood in this context.

The communications between Murad IV and his officials illustrate the conflicting interests at the heart of government. Besides the matters of policy and administration in which Murad took a personal interest was the protocol of gift exchange. When his grand vizier offered him a “broken-down hack” instead of a chestnut mare that had taken his fancy, the royal ire was up. One grand vizier failed to observe diplomatic niceties while greeting the Crimean khan, the historian Mustafa Ali writes, exposing him “to the indignity of a public banquet in which superior and lesser ranks mixed indiscriminately”. The khan took umbrage and refused to provide the military co-operation the Ottomans sought.

Many narrative sources are not just unanalysed, but also unpublished. Murphey warns us that a more complete judgment on many aspects of Ottoman history must await the publication of this body of evidence. A new generation is now hard at work to rectify this situation, and we can only hope they persist.

Other Highlights from Cornucopia 44
  • On the Road to Ruins

    John Henry Haynes was the father of American archaeological photography. Many of his images are the only record of a vanished Anatolian heritage. On the centenary of his death, Robert Ousterhout pays tribute.

  • Plum Perfect

    Only Kastamonu in the hinterland of the Black Sea, boasts the naked plum (üryani erik). In Daday, a valley just outside the town, a handful of villages have been encouraged to keep cultivating this plump, purplish-blue variety. When it is ripe and oozing with fragrance and sweetness, the delicate skin peels off easily to expose the amber-coloured flesh.
    More cookery features


  • Adventures in Istanbul

    There was never a dull moment growing up in the British Consulate in Sixties Istanbul. Griselda Warr selects photographs from her mother Gillian’s album and tells tales of shooting stars, benign espionage and a call girl wronged


  • Queen of the Wild Frontier

    She may be unconvinced by Noah’s Ark, but Min Hogg finds plenty to feast on as she journeys across the vast borderlands where Turkey approaches Armenia and Iran. From Kars to Van, from Silk Road to honeycombs and colossal breakfasts, she brings a wry, painterly eye to her lively account


  • Silent Witness

    These empty homes on Istanbul’s Asian shore were once full of life, hopes and dreams. Maureen Freely studies the haunting photographs of Metehan Özcan

  • Sea of Blooms

    The magic of southwest Turkey can still catch you unawares, especially if you sail. Botanist Ro FitzGerald boards a fine ketch and plots a course for that stunningly beautiful corner where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean.



  • The Bottle-Top Mansion

    An architectural extravaganza built in America’s Gilded Age for the man who invented the bottle top, the Everett House in Washington DC has a long and colourful connection with Turkey. Thomas Roueché charts its history. Photographs by Jürgen Frank.

Buy the Book
Buy the issue
Issue 44, 2010 Classics with a Twist
£8.00 / $10.50 / 359.58 TL
Cornucopia Digital Subscription

The Digital Edition

Cornucopia works in partnership with the digital publishing platform Exact Editions to offer individual and institutional subscribers unlimited access to a searchable archive of fascinating back issues and every newly published issue. The digital edition of Cornucopia is available cross-platform on web, iOS and Android and offers a comprehensive search function, allowing the title’s cultural content to be delved into at the touch of a button.

Digital Subscription: £18.99 / $18.99 (1 year)

Subscribe now