Princeton Studies on the Near East

The Sublime Porte, 1789-1922

Carter Vaughn Findley

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781400820092
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

From the author's preface: Sublime Porte--there must be few terms more redolent, even today, of the fascination that the Islamic Middle East has long exercised over Western imaginations. Yet there must also be few Western minds that now know what this term refers to, or why it has any claim to attention. One present-day Middle East expert admits to having long interpreted the expression as a reference to Istambul's splendid natural harbor. This individual is probably not unique and could perhaps claim to be relatively well informed. When the Sublime Porte still existed, Westerners who spent time in Istanbul knew the term as a designation for the Ottoman government, but few knew why the name was used, or what aspect of the Ottoman government it properly designated. What was the real Sublime Porte? Was it an organization? A building? No more, literally, than a door or gateway? What about it was important enough to cause the name to be remembered?In one sense, the purpose of this book is to answer these questions. Of course, it will also do much more and will, in the process, move quickly onto a plane quite different from the exoticism just invoked. For to study the bureaucratic complex properly known as the Sublime Porte, and to analyze its evolution and that of the body of men who staffed it, is to explore a problem of tremendous significance for the development of the administrative institutions of the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic lands in general, and in some senses the entire non-Westerrn world.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Figures
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Notes on Usage
• List of Special Abbreviations
• Chapter One: Introduction: The Sublime Porte and the Scribal Service as Elements of State and Society
• Chapter Two: The Evolution of the Ruling Class and the Emergence of the Scribal Service
• Chapter Three: The Impact of Imperial Decline on the Emergent Scribal Service: The Sublime Porte and its Officials on the Eve of Reform
• Chapter Four: Reassertion of the Sultanate and Foundation of the Civil Bureaucracy
• Chapter Five: The Civil-Bureaucratic Hegemony of the Tanzimat
• Chapter Six: Restoring Political Balance: The First Constitutional Period and Return to Sultanic Dominance
• Chapter Seven: Once More Toward Redefinition of the Political Balance
• Chapter Eight: One and One-Third Centuries of Civil-Bureaucratic Reform
• Appendix: Budgetary “Allocations” For Agencies of the Sublime Porte in Selected Years
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index