Frontiers of the Ottoman World

 This is the first major comparative study of the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, one of the crucial forces that shaped the modern world. The essays combine archaeological and historical approaches to further understanding of how this major empire approached the challenge of controlling frontiers as diverse and far-flung as Central and Eastern Europe, Anatolia, Iraq, Arabia, and the Sudan. Ranging across the 15th to early 20th centuries, essays cover frontier fortifications, administration, society, and economy and shed light on the Ottomans' interaction with their neighbours, both Muslim and Christian, through warfare, trade and diplomacy. As well as summing up the current state of knowledge they also point the way to fresh avenues of research. The Frontiers of the Ottoman World will be essential reading for historians and archaeologists of the Middle East and early modern Central and Eastern Europe. Giving a particular prominence to the nascent discipline of Ottoman archaeology, the volume will also be of particular interest to students of Islamic archaeology.

Review: This is a very welcome volume ... Taken together, the articles in the collection cover a remarkable geographical and chronological range ... the editor and contributors have produced a fine volume, presenting both concrete results and invaluable guidelines for future research. * Colin Imber, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies *

This is a mixed volume, with a variety of approaches ... It is clear, however, that archaeological research has much to offer and will make a significant contribution to Ottoman historical study. * Christine Woodhead, English Historical Review *

represents a major and welcome contribution to the study of Ottoman frontiers. The thematic, methodological, geographic and chronological diversity of the essays contained in it may be of great use to any reader interested in the subject, not only with regard to the new evidence presented, but also, and even more importantly so, for the new questions that this essay collection may generate in the process of the further study of the Ottoman frontier. * Nikolay Antov, Comparativ *

[a] beautifully produced book * Peter Clark, Asian Affairs *

rich illustrations, as well as the use of full footnotes rather than endnotes, make this a very user-friendly book. Produced to the highest standard, it belongs in the library of any individual or institution interested in the Ottoman Empire as a whole or its former provinces. * Dimitris J. Kastritsis, Journal of Arabian Studies * 

 

  Introduction: the Ottoman Empire and its frontiers; PART ONE: FRONTIER FORTIFICATIONS; The Fortress: defining and mapping the Ottoman frontier in the 16th-17th centuries; Where environmental and frontier studies meet: rivers, forests, marshes, and fortifications along the Ottoman-Hapsburg frontier in Hungary; The Ottoman conquest of Arabia and the Syrian hajj route; 'Aqaba Castle in the Ottoman period, 1517-1917; Evliya Celebi, the Mani and the fortress of Kelefa; The Ottoman northern Black Sea frontier at Akkerman Fortress: the present view from a historical and archaeological project; Palanka forts and construction activity in the late Ottoman Balkans; Understanding archaeology and architecture through archival records: the restoration project of the Ottoman fortress of Seddulbahir on the Gallipoli Peninsula of Turkey; PART TWO: THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE FRONTIER; Administration and fortification in the Van region under Ottoman rule in the 16th century; Ottoman frontier policies in northeast Africa, 1517-1914; Continuities in Ottoman centre-periphery relations, 1787-1915; Ottoman attempts to control the Adriatic frontier in the Napoleonic Wars; Challenges of a frontier region: the case of Ottoman Iraq in the 19th century; The frontier as a measure of modern power: local limits to empire in Yemen, 1872- 1914; PART THREE: FRONTIER SOCIETY: RULERS, RULED AND REVOLT; Razing Gevele and fortifying Konya: the beginning of the Ottoman conquest of the Karamanid principality in south-central Anatolia, 1468; Between the hinterland and the frontier: Ottoman Vidin, 15th to 18th centuries; The garrison and its hinterland in the Ottoman east, 1578-1605; Ottoman archaeology on the Middle Nile Valley in the Sudan; Garrisons and the local population in Ottoman Hungary: the testimony of the archaeological finds; The Krajina Project: exploring the Ottoman-Hapsburg borderland; War without frontiers: the archaeology of the Arab Revolt, 1916-18; PART FOUR: THE ECONOMY OF THE FRONTIER; Military service and material gain on the Ottoman-Hapsburg frontier; Ottoman Suakin 1541 - 1865 AD - lost and found; A frontier without archaeology? The Ottoman maritime frontier in the western Mediterranean, 1660-1760; The archaeology and history of slavery in South Sudan in the 19th century; Conclusion