1. COURSE DESCRIPTION. A study of Islamic civilization in Ottoman times, including:
-The Civilization of Islam2. TEXTBOOK: Stanford J. Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, volume I: Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280-1808 (New York and London, 1976 and subsequent editions). Available at ASUCLA store and on reserve in the Powell Library. Students interested in the Ottoman social system, particularly as it applied to the Jewish community, may also wish to read Stanford J. Shaw, The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic (New York University Press, 1993), also on reserve. No page assignments will be given for either book, but students are expected to read them in parallel with the subjects covered in the lectures.
-Turkish origins, conversion to Islam, and entry into the Middle East
-creation of the Ottoman state in Anatolia and its expansion in Europe and Asia
-the traditional Ottoman social and administrative system
-the religiously based Muslim and non Muslim communities
-Ottoman decline in the 17th and 18th centuries
-traditionalistic Ottoman reform
3. COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Students are expected to attend all lectures since there will be no ASUCLA lecture notes available. Students should take both the midterm and final examinations, which will be based both on the readings and the lectures, with the midterm counting ¼ and the final ¾ of the final grade. Both examinations will consist of short essays and identification questions.
LECTURES:
1. Introduction
2. The Bases of Middle Eastern Civilization
3. Islam before the Turks
4. The Turks in History
5. Ottoman origins
6. The First Ottoman Empire, 1324-1402
7. Restoration of the Ottoman Empire, 1402-1512
8. The Peak of Ottoman Power and Traditional Ottoman
Government and Society, 1512-1566
9. Ottoman Disintegration and Decline and Traditionalistic
Ottoman Reform, 1566-1792
10. The Ottoman Empire in the Age of the French
Revolution and the French Expedition to Egypt.