2024/11/01 by Ceyda Karamursel · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #American Constitutional Law and Politics #Colonialism, slavery, and trade #Islamic Studies and History
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0020743825000017
openalex publication_date 2024/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Abstract Historians have long argued that abolitionism, as a distinct political project, never fully took root in the Ottoman Empire. While anti-slavery measures emerged from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, they are often seen as state-imposed responses to diplomatic pressure. From a state-focused perspective, abolition indeed appears to be the result of actions by the Ottoman state and international community, inevitably so, given its entanglement with the emergence and development of the Congress system in the aftermath of the Congress of Vienna. Yet a focus on individuals, organizations, and institutions also suggests a subversive, practical abolitionism concerned with everyday injustices rather than lofty ideals. This paper examines such efforts, reframing abolitionism as a political issue rather than a moral one detached from broader transformations. By situating abolitionist thought within the late Ottoman Empire’s increasingly radical politics, it challenges the conventional state-centered narrative, highlighting the diverse actors who shaped anti-slavery discourse and action.