BOOK REVIEWS

Biography of an Empire Governing Ottomans in an Age of Revolution

By Christine M. Philliou Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011, XXX + 286 pages, ISBN 9780520266353. Reviewed by Azize Fatma Çakır

Christine M. Philliou’s meticu- cipalities (Moldovia and Wallachia) lous study, rooted in a harmony of by the second decade of the 18th multiple theoretical and method- century. Although they lost most of ological perspectives, elaborates on their influence after the outbreak the experience of Ottoman gover- of the Greek-hetairist movement in nance between the 1770s and the 1821, some neo-Phanariots man- 1850s. Since the Ottoman Empire aged to attach themselves to offices governed a multi-confessional, mul- and semi-official missions in the tilingual and multinational terri- expanding political sphere of the tory, Philliou emphasizes the necessity of syn- Ottoman Empire in the first half of the 19th thesizing sources scattered across the archives century. Philliou frames her narrative around of successor states and the Great Powers in the biography and writings of a Phanariot in- order to grasp the Ottoman Empire’s com- dividual, Stephanos Vogorides (1770s-1859). plexities. Her hybrid vantage point, based on Vogorides/Istefanaki Bey was born into a Bul- egodocuments and archival sources written in garian-speaking family as Stoiko Stoikov and Ottoman Turkish, Greek, French and English, entered into the Phanariot system through his reveals the diffusion of Ottoman governance father’s attachment to the voyvoda of Molda- into many official and unofficial spheres of in- via. In the process of Hellenization, he shifted fluence. Thus, Philliou’s revisionist approach his name to the Greek language and received challenges the binary of state and society by a Greek education in the Princely Academy of exploring “how institutions, networks, and Bucharest. In the 1790s, Vogorides made his individual personalities that functioned with- way to Istanbul where he served the Porte in in the state were influx and being shaped by various ways, ranging from diplomatic mis- forces and ideas outside the formal state appa- sions to the coordination of relations with the ratus” (p.18). Philliou supports this argument voyvoda of Moldovia. Glimpses into Vogorides’ through the elaborate account of Phanariots, life throughout the six chapters of the book who operated within and between the Otto- sheds light on the political, cultural, and social man institutions despite their lack of official transformations occuring in Ottoman politics. askeri, or tax-exempt status. Chapter one, “The Houses of Phanar,” elabo- Phanariots, the Greek Orthodox dominated rates how Phanariots established extensive Christian elite of the Ottoman Empire, estab- power relations through their ability to trans- lished ascendancy over the interlinked offices form commercial, cultural, social, and lin- of the grand dragoman, the dragoman of the guistic capitals into political power. After the fleet, and two voyvodas of the Danubian Prin- Carlowitz Treaty, the ongoing territorial con-

230 Insight Turkey flicts with the bordering Russian and Austrian Chapter two, “Volatile Synthesis,” focuses on Empires necessitated the appointment of indi- the crisis in the Ottoman Empire between viduals who had a good understanding of the the 1780s and 1821 through the intertwined trade of diplomatic information, like polyglot biographies of Nicholas Mavroyeni (voyvoda Phanariot physicians, and translators in the of Wallachia in the 1780s), Osman Pasvanoğlu service of the grand vizier to the governance (janissary-cum-notable of the Vidin district), of the Danubian Principalities. Philliou associ- and Halet Efendi (one of the prominent Ot- ates the distinctive transregional character of toman bureaucrats in the 1810s), all of whom the Phanariot system with multiple adminis- played a decisive role in maintaining “the vol- trative functions attached to the offices of drag- atile synthesis” between the Porte, Phanariots, omans and voyvodas, such as grain provision magnates of Balkans, and Janissary patron- in Istanbul and the collection of diplomatic in- age networks until the outbreak of the Greek formation. To gain a picture of how Phanariots Revolt. Philliou’s examination of this period connected themselves to the Ottoman impe- through the lens of the Phanariots addresses rial house, Janissaries, merchant guilds, the many neglected issues, like the association Orthodox Church, trading diaspora, and local between Mavroyeni’s army of Christians, the magnates of the Balkans while fulfilling their Nizam-ı Cedid reforms and the significance of administrative obligations, Philliou examines Hanedan-ı Erba’a (Dynasty of Four) Edict of the investiture ceremony of voyvodas. 1819 in the Ottoman political culture.

Philliou details the social composition and in- Chapter three to five – “Demolitions,” “Phanar- ternal dynamics of the Phanariot house in light iot Remodeling and Struggle for Continuity,” of Dionysios Photeinos’ History of the Former and “Diplomacy and the Restoration of a New Dacia, or the Current Translvania, Wallachia, Order” – are dedicated to three changes in the and Moldavia. Due to the dominance of the post-1821 Ottoman governance: 1) day-to- Greek language in trade networks, the gover- day violence in Istanbul in the 1820s, resulting nance of the Danubian Principalities and the in the demise of the Phanariot and Janissary Orthodox Patriarchate, Hellenization – name- networks; 2) structural changes in gover- ly, learning Greek letters and adjusting one’s nance, especially in diplomacy and military; name into the Greek language – became a ve- and 3) expansion of the political landscape in hicle for accessingthe Phanariot households relation with the Mehmed Ali Paşa crisis. In while the Princely Academy in Bucharest pro- these chapters, Philliou elaborates how some vided sons of Balkan Christians with Greek Phanariots, like Vogorides, his son-in-low culture and language. One of her conclusions Constantine Musurus, and Nicholas Aris- is that Phanariots relied on the strategy of di- tarchi – archrival of Vogorides – restored their versification, not specialization, in expanding positions through their ties to the emergent their power basis as with the access of three court factions, representatives of the Great brothers into the service of Patriarchate, Ot- Powers, and the Patriarchate. toman military or scribal service, and Greek merchants, respectively. Like this strategy, Chapter six, “In the Eye of the Storm,” de- Phanariots shared many networking methods scribes how the debate over custodianship with their Muslim counterparts, despite lack- of the Christian Holy Places in the Ottoman ing formally sanctioned access to the military Palestine created political, diplomatic, and force and slaveholding rights. discursive challenges for the Ottomans in the

2014 Summer 231 BOOK REVIEWS

early 1850s. Philliou puts Vogorides’ apologia and mistranslates it as “now our number one of 1852 at the center of this chapter to grasp infidel millet in terms of loyalty” (p.19). She diverse responses and predicaments of Otto- did not recognize the Arabic hadith with- mans at the disjuncture of international, im- in the Ottoman text, and tried to read it in perial, and confessional politics. Turkish. Nevertheless, these errors, which only indicate her lack of proficiency in the Philliou’s well-written book deserves pecial Arabic and Ottoman languages, do not harm praise for its success in combining linguistic the pleasure of reading this valuable study. and archival skills with theory of governance Lastly, one may question whether the life of and biographic genre. Nevertheless, in such Vogorides reflects the biography of the Otto- an extensive research, some translation and man Empire as the title of the book suggests. writing errors are inevitable. Philliou, for in- Considering the existence of various factions stance, translates arz-ı mahzar as “national within the Phanariots themselves, the life of petition” (p.165) and reads mugâlatât as mül- Vogorides would remain inadequate even gatlar (p.193). In a worse example, Philliou as a representation of the Phanariot system. misreads “ancak al-küfrü milletün vahidetün Despite these issues, Philliou’s study provides mâ-sadakınca Rum tâifesi…” as “ancak al-kü- the reader with an impressive model of analy- fr milla-I vahide[-i] ma sadıkınca rum ta’ifesi” sis for the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman Origins of Modern Iraq Political Reform, Modernization and Development in the Nineteenth-Century Middle East

By Ebubekir Ceylan London: I. B. Tauris, 2011, xvi + 297 pages, ISBN 9781848854253. Reviewed by M. Talha Çiçek

Studies on the Ottoman modern- has six chapters analyzing the dif- ization of Arab provinces have re- ferent aspects of the Ottoman mod- ceived an increasing amount of at- ernization of Baghdad. The book tention by historians. Concordantly, starts with the fall of the Mamluks scholars are using Ottoman sources in Baghdad in 1831 and beginning to a growing extent. In this sense, of the Ottoman centralization of Ebubekir Ceylan’s book, which is the city. However, the chapters are recycled from his PhD disserta- organized according to topic rather tion, is an important contribution than chronology. to the existing literature. He uses new materi- In the first chapter, “Geography, People and als from the Ottoman and the British archives History of Ottoman Iraq and Baghdad,” the as well as Arabic and English periodicals. The author deals with the geographical distance book analyses provincial capitals, and key between Baghdad and the Ottoman center concepts such as Tanzimat reforms, central- and how this prevented the Ottomans from es- ization, modernization and Ottomanism. It tablishing proper control over the city. He also

232 Insight Turkey