Chapter 18 Repertories of Empire: How Did the Ottomans Last So Long in a Changing World?
In: Dimensions of Transformation in the Ottoman Empire from the Late Medieval Age to Modernity
Author:
Karl K. Barbir
Karl K. Barbir
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Abstract
This chapter starts by posing the question of if the Ottomans were in such dire straits in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, how did they manage to last so long, surviving into the twentieth century? The argument here is that the Ottomans employed various repertories that successfully allowed them to manage transitions in institutions and power balances among elite groups as well as the diversity of their populations. In almost continual transformation rather than decline, the Ottomans managed to prolong their empire well into the nineteenth century, when, arguably, the real decline began.