Did the Turks attain Enlightenment through defeat in warfare?
Part of : Balkan studies : biannual publication of the Institute for Balkan Studies ; Vol.40, No.1, 1999, pages 129-171
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129-171
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In this study of the relationship between the European Enlightenment andthe Ottoman Empire, I believed initially that one would find a clear progressionof European ideas and influence of the eighteenth century not somuch in the spheres of religion, philosophy and literature but possibly in thefield of advanced European technology with regard to military reform. What Ihave discovered, largely by making detailed analyses of technical experts suchas Baron de Tott, reports of European ambassadors and observations of otherEuropean military officers, is that indeed there were very serious attempts bythe progressive-minded sultans and their vezirs to bring about a reform of theOttoman armed forces. In the first instance, however, there was such acultural gap between the ordinary Ottoman recruit, often devoid of militarydiscipline and any knowledge of modern machinery, that European militaryinstructors required a long time period to turn these recruits into enlightenedmodern soldiers. If the vezirs and the society permitted a serious period oftraining, the young Ottoman troops became quite proficient in such areas asmaintaining and firing the then modem artillery. A second major observation,however, is to note what a crippling stranglehold the ranking members of theUlema maintained over not only the ordinary recruit, but also the highestrankingmembers of the entourages of the sultans. Thus, almost throughout theperiod of detailed study, from roughly 1730 to 1839, the Ulema and thereactionary former elite troops, the Janissaries, were able to interrupt or tothwart any consistent reform. Only with the serious influence of dedicatedGerman officers in the nineteenth century, after the Janissaries and the Ulema had been discredited in the 1830s, did the Ottomans begin to create a modern army.
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European Enlightenment-Ottoman Empire
