Ottomania: The Romantics and the Myth of the Islamic Orient (Library of Ottoman Studies)

273 Pages·2010·2.65 MB·English

by  Roderick Cavaliero

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Roderick Cavaliero is a writer and historian. He is the author of Admiral
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Satan:TheLifeandCampaignsoftheBaillideSuffren,IndependenceofBraziland
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Strangers in the Land:The Rise and Decline of the British Indian Empire (all
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I.B.Tauris),aswellasLastoftheCrusaders:TheKnightsofStJohnandMaltain
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the Eighteenth Century and Italia Romantica: English Romantics and Italian
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Freedom(bothTaurisParkePaperbacks).
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MA A 4
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he omantics and the yth
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of the slamic rient
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(cid:7) (cid:1)
oderick avaliero
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Publishedin2010byI.B.Tauris&CoLtd
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DistributedintheUnitedStatesandCanadaExclusivelybyPalgraveMacmillan,
175FifthAvenue,NewYorkNY10010
Copyright©2010RoderickCavaliero
TherightofRoderickCavalierotobeidentifiedastheauthorofthisworkhasbeenassertedbyhimin
accordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Thisbook,oranypartthereof,maynotbereproduced,storedinorintroducedinto
aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,
recordingorotherwise,withoutthepriorwrittenpermissionofthepublisher.
LibraryofOttomanStudies:24
ISBN:9781848851061
AfullCIPrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
AfullCIPrecordisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:available
DesignedandTypesetby4wordLtd,Bristol,UK
PrintedandboundinGreatBritainbyCPIAntonyRowe,Chippenham
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ToMariaSchoinaforputtingtheideaforthisbookintomyheadandto
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GlenCavalieroforreadingtheresult.
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(cid:1)
ontents
Preface ix
1 TheEmpireofOsman 1
TheTurkishMyth
2 TheSultaninhisSeraglio 19
TheMythoftheDespot
3 TheHarem 31
TheMythofSex
4 ExoticandErotic 49
TheMythoftheArabianNights
5 PeriandPrisoner 65
TheMythoftheBagno
6 VirginsSoftasRoses 81
TheMythofLordByron
7 GhastlyasaTyrant’sDream 97
TheMythofResurgentGreece
8 LookUponMyWorks,YeMighty,andDespair 113
TheMythofEgypt
9 FortyCenturiesLookDownonYou 127
TheMythofBonaparte
10 BarberingandShaving 135
TheMythofPersia
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OTTOMANIA
11 LallaRookhandtheLyreoftheOrientalMinstrel 149
TheMythoftheRomanticDream
12 ScottandtheQuestforChivalry 159
TheMythoftheCrusades
13 TancredandEva 173
TheMythofReligiousUnity
14 Isabella,HesterandJane 181
TheMythoftheAmiableTurk
15 PlayingonDulcimers 199
TheMythofNostalgia
NotestoChapters 209
Writers,ArtistsandComposersMentionedintheText 225
Bibliography 235
Index 241
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reface
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Myth,apurelyfictitiousnarrativeusuallyinvolving
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supernaturalpersons,actionsorevents,andembodying
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somepopularideaconcerningnaturalorhistorical
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phenomena.Oftenusedvaguelytoincludeany
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narrativehavingfictitiouselements.
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(OxfordEnglishDictionary)
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OMANTICISM HAD ITS roots in fantasy and was nurtured on myth. In 19
revolt against the staid society of Europe, marked by religious 20
conformity and royal rights,both in their turn living out the myth of their 21
origins,iteagerlywelcomedthesolventsoftranscontinentalexploration,of 22
colonisation and of scientific discovery, all of which were to manufacture 23
myths of their own. In the appetite for encyclopaedic knowledge that 24
characterisedtheeighteenthcentury,themythsandfantasiesthatsurrounded 25
theIslamicOrientcameunderscrutiny.Theyinturnderivedfromamixture 26
ofpastadmirationandfear.TheRomanticslearnedtorejectthefear,butthey 27
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preserved and perpetuated the myths.The people they thought they were
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studying were originallyTurkic,butTurkey was only a geographical entity,
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and the term did not enter general usage until the twentieth century when
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Turkey became a nation and not a conglomerate.Before that,Turks and the
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races that lived beside them belonged to the empire of Osman, and were
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knownasOttomans.DistinctionsamongtheOttomansweremainlysignified
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byreligion,theMuslimandthenon-Muslimcommunities,theonesuperior,
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theotherinferior,buttoleratedanduseful.
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The first myth the Romantics were to dismantle converted the
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Ottoman empire from a successful and viable imperial power to‘the sick
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man of Europe’. It supposed that its ruler was a tyrant, a Caliph/Sultan
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endowed with a will that commanded unquestioning obedience by the
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