Modernization in the late Ottoman era : "periphery" in the heartlands / Fatma Melek Arıkan.

Revision of author's thesis (doctoral)--Sabancı Üniversitesi, 2018, titled A history of a Western Anatolian region : Yenişehir and İznik during the late Ottoman Empire, 1855-1909.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Yenişehir and Iznik around the middle of the 19th century -- Dilemmas of power between the center and provincial societies : the 1863 inspection tour in Yenişehir and Iznik -- The settlement of immigrants and land disputes in Yenişehir and Iznik : legitimacy vs. the law -- Ideology and economy : Hamidian hegemony and scramble for rural resources -- Empire as enterprise in the province : the reign of Edhem Paşa in Yenişehir.

"This volume is a local history, focusing on experiences of people and communities as they navigated and enacted institutions and transformations associated with modernization in the late Ottoman era. Focusing on the local political arena of a relatively small, predominantly rural and ordinary setting, the book examines two neighbouring Western Anatolian towns, Yenişehir and İznik. Utilising rigorous historiographical inquiry and in-depth usage of archival materials, this study sketches a dynamic picture of late Ottoman imperial political belonging with the agendas and priorities of the countryside, where the majority of Ottomans principally lived. The monograph contributes to interrogating modernization from different local perspectives by excavating the provincial hinterland of the imperial capital. It uses a narrative technique of analyzing certain local events for addressing larger structures and transformations pertaining to the long 19th century in general and Ottoman history in particular. As a "micro"-study, it argues for the significance of individuals' and social groups' agencies, strategies, and conceptions of their world in the unfolding of Ottoman modernization. Offering a vivid picture of local communities and their engagements with modern political, social and judicial structures in the late Ottoman era, this book will appeal to scholars and advanced graduate students, interested in comparative imperial history, Ottoman history and Middle Eastern studies"-- Provided by publisher.