2024/12/19 by Edhem Eldem · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Ottoman Empire History and Society #Historical Turkish Studies #Ottoman and Turkish Studies
paper · doi:10.1093/oso/9780198863298.003.0016
openalex publication_date 2024/12/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract Some of the most visible aspects of Ottoman modernization during the long nineteenth century are linked to a top-down Westernization process in which the sultan and his immediate entourage played a central role. From Selim III at the turn of the nineteenth century to the collapse of the empire after World War I, imperial symbolism and pageantry were constantly invented, displayed, and revisited to convey a message of modernity in tune with the norms and forms set by contemporary European states. Driven by a strong desire to emulate the West, this visual and symbolic overhaul of the imperial image was initially almost exclusively directed at foreign audiences and was often fraught with inconsistency due to cultural and ideological differences. As such, it suffered from a considerable degree of superficiality and from an overall predominance of form over content, a feature that seems to have plagued Ottoman, and later Turkish, modernization cum Westernization.