The Young Ottomans

Turkish Critics of the Eastern Question in the Late Nineteenth Century

Nazan Çiçek

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781848853331
• eBook ISBN: 9780857718785
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

The Eastern Question, as it was termed by the European Powers in the nineteenth century, was a debate primarily concerned with the issue of 'what to do with the Turk?'. The Ottoman Empire had become known as the 'sick man of Europe' following its gradual decline since the eighteenth century, and its demise would be highly problematic for the crowned heads of Europe. This unique book focuses on the intellectual and political dynamics of the first Ottoman political opposition in the modern sense, the so-called 'Young Ottomans'. In the process it narrates an alternative version of the Eastern Question as experienced and told by its Eastern observers and critics. Nazan A icek shows how an important section of the newly-rising semi-autonomous Ottoman Muslim Turkish intelligentsia in the second half of the nineteenth century, effectively answered the alternative question of 'what to do with the West?'.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Teaching Unruly Greeks a Lesson and Saving the Sultan's Honour: The Cretan Insurrection of 1866-69
• 3. The Question of Equality and Foreign Intervention in the 'Domestic' Affairs of the Ottoman Empire
• 4. The Financial Crisis of the Ottoman Empire
• 5. Concluding Remarks
• Notes
• References
• Index