From Civil Service to Professionalization: the Evolution of Historiography in the Ottoman State

Abstract

Historiography in the Ottoman Empire has had a state-centered structure since the classical period. The chroniclers, who came from the administrative bureaucracy, examined various periods of history by establishing causal links between events. From the 16th century onwards, the first texts that began to emerge consisted of the presentation of important events in the recent and distant past of Devlet-i Aliye in chronological order with descriptive narratives. This tradition, which began with Yahşi Fakih, took on a relatively more professional form only after the position of vakanüvis became equivalent to that of a civil servant. In the 19th century, the influence of the developments in the field of historiography in the world and the fact that nation-building processes became associated with historiography prepared the conditions that opened the door to scientific historiography in the Ottoman Empire. In this article, the transformation of “statist” historiography into a discipline studied in higher education institutions will be evaluated from various perspectives.