SAVOIR VIVRE COSMOPOLITE AHMED MIDHAT’S AVRUPA ADAB-I

126 Pages·2009·2.22 MB·English

SAVOIR VIVRE COSMOPOLITE:
AHMED MIDHAT’S AVRUPA ADAB-I MUAŞERETİ YAHUT ALAFRANGA
AS A SOURCE FOR MODERNIZATION OF
THE CODES OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY OTTOMAN EMPIRE

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
OF
MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

BY

CAN EYÜP ÇEKİÇ

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR
THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS
IN
THE PROGRAM OF HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

SEPTEMBER 2009
Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences

Prof. Dr. Sencer AYATA
Director

I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the
degree of Master of Arts.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Güven Arif SARGIN
Head of Department

This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is
fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of
Arts.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Ahmet ERSOY Instructor, Dr. Namık Günay ERKAL
Co-Supervisor Supervisor

Examining Committee Members

Asst. Prof. Dr. Elvan ALTAN ERGUT (METU,AH)
Asst. Prof. Dr. Sevil ENGİNSOY EKİNCİ (METU, AH)
Asst. Prof. Dr. Ahmet ERSOY(Boğaziçi University, HIST)
Asst. Prof. Dr. Lale ÖZGENEL (METU, AH)
Instructor, Dr. Namık Günay ERKAL (METU, AH)
I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and
presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also
declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and
referenced all material and results that are not original to this work.

Name: Can Eyüp Çekiç

Signature:
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ABSTRACT

SAVOIR VIVRE COSMOPOLITE:
AHMED MIDHAT’S AVRUPA ADAB-I MUAŞERETİ YAHUT ALAFRANGA
AS A SOURCE FOR MODERNIZATION OF
THE CODES OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY OTTOMAN EMPIRE

ÇEKĠÇ, Can Eyüp
M.A., Department of History of Architecture
Supervisor: Inst. Dr. Namık Erkal
Co. Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Ersoy
September 2009, 116 pages

This study aims to reevaluate Ahmed Midhat’s treatises on Ottoman society by
revealing his exceptional objectives, which recently have been used in
contemporary interdisciplinary studies concerning the 19th century Ottoman social
transformation. In view of that, the thesis is formed as a re-reading of Ahmed
Midhat’s etiquette book, titled Avrupa Adab-ı Muaşereti yahud Alafranga,
according to some recent debates like that of occidentalism, geographic mapping
of culture and civilization, the question of cosmopolitanism and elitism, everyday
life practices. The most important aim of this thesis study is to expose the ability
and the tool-kit of an Ottoman intellectual, who claims himself belong to the
Ottoman Nation, making use of the knowledge of the west for domestic politics
and arguments in order to propose and create a genuine, self-governing and
permanent Ottoman culture. Besides the knowledge of the west, Ahmed Midhat’s
Alafranga represents a very significant literary form that demonstrates the modern
change in the intellectual production in Europe. In that perspective, exposing his
motivations behind writing an etiquette manual, a literary form which is related to
the modern idea of creating a mechanism of self-control for the individuals, and at
large for the society itself, is significant the ways in which these motivations
represent the ideas of a Tanzimat intellectual on the modernization of the Ottoman
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society, considering his sympathy for the Hamidian worldview and modernization
projects.

Keywords: Ahmed Midhat Efendi, Avrupa Adab-ı MuaĢereti yahud Alafranga,
Occidentalism, European Etiquette, Cosmopolitanism.

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ÖZ
SAVOIR VIVRE COSMOPOLITE:
GEÇ ONDOKUZUNCU YÜZYIL OSMANLI ĠMPARATORLUĞUNDA
ĠCTĠMAĠ DAVRANIġ KAĠDELERĠNĠN MODERNLEġMESĠ SÜRECĠNE
BĠR KAYNAK OLARAK
AHMED MIDHAT’IN AVRUPA ADAB-I MUAŞERETİ YAHUT ALAFRANGA’SI

ÇEKĠÇ, Can Eyüp
Yüksek Lisans, Mimarlık Tarihi Bölümü
Tez Yöneticisi: Dr. Namık Erkal
Ortak Tez Yöneticisi: Yrd. Doçent Dr. Ahmet Ersoy
Eylül 2009, 116 pages

Bu tez, yakın zamanda ondokuzuncu yüzyılda Osmanlı’daki toplumsal değiĢim
üzerine yapılan güncel disiplinlerarası çalıĢmalarda da yapıldığı üzere, Ahmed
Midhat’ın müstesna amaçlarını yeniden keĢfederek, Osmanlı toplumu üzerine
ortaya sürdüğü tezleri yeniden değerlendirmeyi amaçlıyor. Bu doğrultuda,
çalıĢma, Ahmed Midhat’ın Avrupa Adab-ı Muaşereti yahud Alafranga adlı
kitabının, müstagriblik, kültür ve medeniyetin coğrafi haritalandırılması,
kozmopolitlik ve seçkincilik, ve günlük yaĢam pratikleri gibi gündemde olan
tartıĢmalar ıĢığında yeniden okunması olarak düĢünüldü. Tez çalıĢmasının en
önemli amacı, kendisini Osmanlı Milleti’ne ait olarak tanımlayan bir
entelektüelin, garbın bilgisini özgün, kalıcı ve kendi kendini yöneten bir Osmanlı
kültürünü önermek ve kurgulamak için yerel tartıĢmalar ve politikalar için
kullanırkenki baĢarısını ve yöntemini ortaya koymak. Garbın bilgisinden öte,
Ahmed Midhat’ın Alafranga’sı Avrupa’da entelektüel üretimin geçirdiği modern
dönüĢümü kanıtlayan çok mühim bir edebi biçimi temsil ediyor. Bu bağlamda
yazarın bireyin, ve bütünde toplumun, kendi kendisini kontrol edeceği bir
mekanizma üretmekle ilgili modern fikirle bağlantılı bir edebi biçim olan adab-ı
muaĢerete ait bir çalıĢmayı yaparkenki saiklerini ortaya koymak, bu saikler bir
Tanzimat entelektüelinin Osmanlı toplumunun modernleĢmesi ile ilgili fikirlerini
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ortaya koyacağından, yazarın Abdülhamid yönetiminin dünya görüĢüne ve
modernleĢme projelerine olan meyli düĢünüldüğünde, mühimdir.

Anahtar Sözcükler: Ahmed Midhat Efendi, Avrupa Adab-ı MuaĢereti yahud
Alafranga, Müstagriblik, Avrupa Adab-ı MuaĢereti, Kozmopolitlik.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Instructor,
Dr. Namık Erkal, for his control and persistence in this process. I also would like
to thank Asst. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Ersoy, not only for his great role in this study as a
supervisor, but also for his role in developing my mental picture ever since I was
an undergraduate in Boğaziçi University. I wish to express my thanks to Asst.
Prof Dr. Lale Özgenel, Asst. Prof. Dr. Elvan Altan Ergut and Asst. Prof. Dr. Sevil
Enginsoy Ekinci, the members in my dissertation committee, for their invaluable
comments and suggestions. I am also grateful to Prof Dr. Suna Güven, Asst. Prof.
Dr. Paolo Girardelli, Dr. Hans Theunissen, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Güven Arif Sargın
and Prof. Dr. Eric Jan Zürcher, for their direct or indirect roles in formulating this
thesis study.
I would like to thank Ümit Fırat Açıkgöz, Barış Asan, Melih Egemen,
Barış Celep, Zeynep Ceylanlı, Oya Dinler, Özgür Emre Işık, for their help and
encouragement. Without the support of Hatice Çekiç, Halit Çekiç, and my parents
Evin and Mustafa this thesis study would not come into existence. I also would
like to thank Nilgün Çekiç, and my sister Selin Çekiç.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PLAGIARISM…………………………………………………………………iii

ABSTRACT…………………………………….………………...…………...iv

ÖZ ……………………………………………………………………………..vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………….......…viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………...…....ix

CHAPTERS

1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………….…….….…1

2. ENCOUNTERS BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS AND CIVILIZATIONS…..11

2.1. Occidentalist Mapping of Civilization and Culture……………………….14

2.2. Rise of Alafranga to be the Fashion-Doubtless in Istanbul……………….23

2.3. In Search of the Rules for Representing the ‘Self’ to the ‘Other’…...……31

3. SOCIAL ETIQUETTE AS AN APPARATUS OF SOCIAL CONTROL ..40
3.1. 19th Century Etiquette Literature and the Control of the Public Space…...43

3.2. Duels & Carnivals: An occidentalist inquiry on the European
success story……………………………………………...……………….52
3.3. The Quest for a National Idiom for Modern Etiquette…………………....59
4. REORGANIZATION OF THE OTTOMAN HOUSE AND FAMILY

LIFE……………….......……………………………………...……………70

4.1. Connotations of Home and Family in Late Tanzimat Literature………….73

4.2. The Mechanism and the Spatial Organization of the European House…...83
5. CONCLUSION……………………….……..………………………….….98

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REFERENCES………………………………………….………………..…..101

APPENDICES……………………………………………..…………………111
1. Title Page of Ahmed Midhat Efendi’s Avrupa Adab-ı Muaşereti
yahud Alafranga……...…………………………….…………………..…..111
2. Table of Contents of Ahmed Midhat Efendi’s Avrupa Adab-ı
Muaşereti yahud Alafranga……………………………………………......112
3. A Sample Page from Bertall’s La Comédie de Notre Temps…………..…113
4. A Contemporary Representation of the Vestibule (After Havard)……......114
5. A Contemporary Representation of the Antechamber (After Havard)……115
6. A Contemporary Representation of the Boudoir (After Havard)…………116

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