Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: December 24, 2020 at 12:02:13 PM EST > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]: Michalewicz on Antov, 'The Ottoman " Wild > West" : The Balkan Frontier in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Nikolay Antov. The Ottoman "Wild West": The Balkan > Frontier in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Cambridge > Cambridge University Press, 2017. 342 pp. $105.00 (cloth), ISBN > 978-1-107-18263-9. > > Reviewed by Nathan Michalewicz (George Mason University) > Published on H-War (December, 2020) > Commissioned by Margaret Sankey > > In the fifteenth century, Deliorman, Gerlovo, and the adjacent > regions of the northeastern Balkans were sparsely populated. Those > who did inhabit the region were part of the native Christian > population or seminomadic non-sharia-minded Turcoman Muslims who were > central to the region's conquest by the Ottomans. Over the next > century, the population grew dramatically from an influx of heterodox > non-sharia-minded dervishes and Turcoman seminomads. In other words, > Deliorman and Gerlovo were populated in the fifteenth and sixteenth > centuries with the same sort of centrifugal _gazi_ forces that Cemal > Kafadar described in _Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the > Ottoman State_ (1995), where he claimed persuasively that the Ottoman > state's great success was subordinating them to the will of its > centralizing administration in fourteenth-century Anatolia. > Unfortunately, the available sources did not permit Kafadar to > describe this process, and to be fair that was not the purpose of his > book. Nikolay Antov provides an answer to this problem by analyzing > the process in the context of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century > Balkans. Antov's _The Ottoman "Wild West"_ successfully demonstrates > how these heterodox seminomadic groups, which epitomized the struggle > against the Ottoman state's centralizing project, were incorporated > into the "Ottoman political and administrative-territorial framework" > (p. 282). > > Based primarily on Ottoman tax registers and the _velayetname_ > (hagiographies of sorts) of the region's fifteenth- and > sixteenth-century's heroes, Antov's argument is made through seven > chapters that weave the reader through transformations in the social > environment, which similarly transformed cultural and religious > _mentailité_ of the region. The central argument Antov puts forward > is that the Ottoman state took an accommodationist approach to > influence the social structure of the region through indirect > policies (such as tax easements and pious endowments) to encourage > urbanization in certain areas and subsequently produce a cultural > _mentalité_ that embraced the Ottoman state, agricultural > activities, and conformist religious practices and beliefs. > > The Abdals of Rum (which formed the predominant social group of the > region) originated as non-sedentary, nonconformist, non-sharia-minded > Turcoman Muslims in Anatolia who supported the Ottoman _gaza_ effort > in Anatolia and the Balkans in the fourteenth and fifteenth > centuries. Despite their nonconformity and even antagonism toward the > Ottoman state's centralizing imperative in the fifteenth century, > described in chapter 2, we learn by chapter 6 that the Abdals' > cultural approach toward the Ottoman state transitioned to one of > respect, cooperation, and deference. Moreover, their religious views > and practices had lost their most heterodox and antinomian > characteristics. In the intervening chapters, Antov explains how the > state implemented (primarily) indirect policies to gradually > integrate the region into the state's authority through the > Islamization of the space. The regions of Deliorman and Gerlovo were > left largely depopulated by a series of attacks by the Cumans in the > twelfth century and then again from the revolt of Bedreddin and the > crusade of Varna in the fifteenth century that had dramatic > demographic consequences. The region became a hotbed for migrants > between 1480 and 1570, and the population grew by around twentyfold. > These migrants came in two types: voluntary heterodox migrants, > primarily Abdals, from the southern Balkans, and forced population > transfers of heterodox migrants from Anatolia the Ottoman state > feared might support the growing Shi'a Safavid state. The Ottomans > supported the repopulation of the region primarily through giving tax > privileges that slowly dissolved. Antov theorizes that the region > would have appeared as a safe haven for the heterodox dervishes, > inland and far enough from the state's reach to appear safe, which > likely also made it appear as an ideal place for the state to place > these unwieldy groups. > > Chapter 5 on urban settlement patterns in the Balkans describes the > process of the Ottomans' Islamization of space that integrated these > centrifugal forces into the Ottoman system. This chapter makes the > most interesting and substantive contribution to the historiography. > Antov argues that it was the more-or-less indirect relationship > between urban patterns and the Ottoman state that tamed the > northeastern Balkans into an agrarian and conformist region firmly > placed within the politico-administrative framework. Moreover, he > shows that attempts to define the "Muslim," "Ottoman," or even > "Balkan" city are folly because he can trace four distinct urban city > types that developed in the small region of the northeastern Balkans: > Hezargrad, a city founded by a pious endowment from an Ottoman > bureaucrat that led to dramatic population and Ottoman administrative > growth; Shumnu, a pre-Ottoman city that was rebuilt by the Ottomans; > Chernovi, a pre-Ottoman city that lost its significance because its > location held little commercial or political importance under the new > circumstances; and Eski Cuma, a city spontaneously founded by Muslim > migrants that grew to a modest size. This chapter is the crux of > Antov's general argument, because it was the Ottoman state's direct > and indirect impact on the urban environment that tied its > inhabitants' interests to those of the state. Hezargrad became the > center of Ottoman (and Orthodox Sunni Islamic) authority in the > region as the pious foundation funded a mosque, madrasa, and other > Islamic institutions. Its population doubled in twenty years, thus > becoming a seat of a sort of cultural imperialism, or "seat ... of > Ottomanness" (p. 171). State interests drove urban growth indirectly > as well. As Antov points out, cities not located in regions that > served Ottoman strategic interests, like Chernovi, declined while > those that were located in those regions grew, even without Ottoman > intervention. As the population of the region grew, and urbanized, it > was conditioned into the Ottoman environment as the urban centers > became locations of Ottoman authority. > > In the final chapter, Antov discusses the impact of his argument on > the recent attempt by Ottoman historians like Tijana Krstic to apply > the concept of confessionalization to the Ottoman case. Antov argues > that the Ottoman accommodationist approach in the Balkan frontiers > indicates that this model is not applicable, and I think the author > makes a persuasive case. But at the same time, in doing so, he seems > to question Krstic's underlying argument behind the use of the > confessionalization model--that western Eurasian centralizing states > experienced a common set of politico-religious problems as well as > common responses to them, which has inspired much recent > historiographical work--instead of arguing for the distinctiveness of > the Ottoman case from Christian Europe. But European historians have > leveled the same criticisms of confessionalization as Antov does. > While Antov implies that the nature of Ottoman and Western > Christendom styles of "confession building" were distinctive, I was > struck by the similarities between the Balkan experience Antov > describes and the experience Ethan Shagan describes in Reformation > England, 1,500 miles away, in _Popular Politics and the English > Reformation_ (2003) (pp. 279-80). Nevertheless, while this might seem > a rather innocuous debate within Ottomanist historiography, it is one > perhaps European historians should consider. The root of the question > Ottomanists are posing is important: to what degree was western > Eurasia divided by different historical experiences and to what > degree was it fundamentally connected? Indeed on this issue, European > historiography has (with notable exceptions) simply assumed the > former. > > In the end, Antov has produced an important book on the centralizing > process of the Ottoman Empire that will interest historians and > graduate students of the Balkans and the Ottoman state. In line with > recent historical work that has recast the Ottoman state as an > accommodating and flexible empire, Antov demonstrates how these > characteristics helped tame the Balkan "Wild West." It would be good > reading for anyone interested in state development in early modern > Eurasia. > > Citation: Nathan Michalewicz. Review of Antov, Nikolay, _The Ottoman > "Wild West": The Balkan Frontier in the Fifteenth and > Sixteenth Centuries_. H-War, H-Net Reviews. December, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=53649 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#4780): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/4780 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/79205967/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
