Overview

To what extent did a perceived morality crisis play a role in the dramatic events of the last years of the Ottoman Empire? Beginning in the late nineteenth century when some of the Ottoman elites began to question the moral climate as evidence for the losses facing the empire, this book shows that during the course of World War I many social, economic, and political problems were translated into a discourse of moral decline, ultimately making morality a contested space between rival ideologies, identities, and intellectual currents. Examining the primary journals and printed sources that represented the various constituencies of the period, it fills important gaps in the scholarship of the Ottoman experience of World War I and the origins of Islamism and secularism in Turkey, and is essential reading for social and intellectual historians of the late Ottoman Empire.

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9781838607098

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Reviews

Moral Crisis in the Ottoman Empire provides a useful framework and contribution in this field of study, and will certainly prompt discussions and further research. * Middle East Monitor * Moral Crisis in the Ottoman Empire is based on rich archival research and contributes to a growing literature on the histories of gender and sexuality during the First World War. By placing 1914–18 developments into the longue durée of Ottoman history, Oguz can identify shifts and continuities in the histories of policing, state-civilian relations, gender hierarchies, religious authority, and moral panics. * Journal of Islamic Studies * 'Based on a broad array of original sources, this timely study gives us a full and multi-layered picture of the debates on, and realities of, the issue of public morality in the Ottoman Empire during World War l, an issue that was crucial to its legitimacy as an Islamic empire.' -- Erik Jan Zürcher, Leiden University, Netherlands 'A brilliant book of social and cultural history on an under researched topic. Focusing on discussions on moral decline and Muslim identity and exploring policies on gender and family, Oguz provides us with an original and long-awaited analysis of the Ottoman home front during WWI and the sociocultural transformation it entailed.' -- Daniela L. Caglioti, University of Naples Federico II, Italy 'By using a sound empirical data from the Ottoman World War I years, this book, I believe, is a great contribution to understand how and why times of competing visions of morality and increasing discourse on moral crisis reflect the state of a society in crisis, decay, turmoil and transformation.' -- M. Asim Karaömerlioglu, Bogaziçi University, Turkey

'Based on a broad array of original sources, this timely study gives us a full and multi-layered picture of the debates on, and realities of, the issue of public morality in the Ottoman Empire during World War l, an issue that was crucial to its legitimacy as an Islamic empire.' -- Erik Jan Zurcher, Leiden University, Netherlands 'A brilliant book of social and cultural history on an under researched topic. Focusing on discussions on moral decline and Muslim identity and exploring policies on gender and family, Oguz provides us with an original and long-awaited analysis of the Ottoman home front during WWI and the sociocultural transformation it entailed.' -- Daniela L. Caglioti, University of Naples Federico II, Italy 'By using a sound empirical data from the Ottoman World War I years, this book, I believe, is a great contribution to understand how and why times of competing visions of morality and increasing discourse on moral crisis reflect the state of a society in crisis, decay, turmoil and transformation.' -- M. Asim Karaoemerlioglu, Bogazici University, Turkey

Author Information

Çigdem Oguz is a research fellow at the University of Bologna, Department of History and Cultures, Italy. Previously, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Naples Federico II, Department of Humanities, Italy. Her research interests include late Ottoman social and intellectual history and state-society relations, religious communities in the Ottoman Empire, citizenship studies, war studies, and women and gender in the Middle Eastern context.

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