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Ali Yaycioglu

Stanford University, History, Faculty Member

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Ali Yaycioglu is a historian of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. His research centers on economic, political and legal institutions and practices as well as social and cultural life in southeastern Europe and the Middle East during the Ottoman Empire. He also has a research agenda on how people imagined, represented and recorded property, territory, and nature in early periods and how we can use digital tools to understand, visualize and conceptualize these imaginations, representations and recordings.
Phone: 650 723 36 09
Address: Stanford University
Department of History
450 Serra Mall, Bldg. 200
Stanford CA 94305-2024

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Books by Ali Yaycioglu

Partners of the Empire: The Crisis of the Ottoman Order in the Age of Revolutions

Partners of Empire offers a radical rethinking of the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth and early ... more Partners of Empire offers a radical rethinking of the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Over this unstable period, the Ottoman Empire faced political crises, institutional shakeups, and popular insurrections. It responded through various reform options and settlements. New institutional configurations emerged; constitutional texts were codified—and annulled. The empire became a political theater where different actors struggled, collaborated, and competed on conflicting agendas and opposing interests.

This book takes a holistic look at the era, interested not simply in central reforms or in regional developments, but in their interactions. Drawing on original archival sources, Ali Yaycioglu uncovers the patterns of political action—the making and unmaking of coalitions, forms of building and losing power, and expressions of public opinion. Countering common assumptions, he shows that the Ottoman transformation in the Age of Revolutions was not a linear transition from the old order to the new, from decentralized state to centralized, from Eastern to Western institutions, or from pre-modern to modern. Rather, it was a condensed period of transformation that counted many crossing paths, as well as dead-ends, all of which offered a rich repertoire of governing possibilities to be followed, reinterpreted, or ultimately forgotten.

Ottoman Topologies: Production of Space in an Early-modern Empire

Ottoman Topologies (expected to be published in 2017) is an edited volume by Cemal Kafadar and Al... more Ottoman Topologies (expected to be published in 2017) is an edited volume by Cemal Kafadar and Ali Yaycioglu, which presents recent studies of the ways in which people in the Ottoman world produced space. By production of space, we mean a unitary experience of living, conceiving, transforming, perceiving and imagining it. Our intervention is a response to two divergent orientations in spatial studies in history. First, we would like to challenge geographical, environmental, and social analyses that do not rigorously integrate considerations of how people conceived, perceived, and imagined the social and physical world they inhabited. Second, we will reappraise post-structural cultural studies, which focus on how people conceived, perceived, and imagined the physical and social world without examining how they lived in and transformed it. While the former perspective conceives of space as an outside world, operating independently of mental, discursive, and/or imaginative actions, the latter sees it as an inner world and mental construction, consisting only of language, discourse, and vision.

Ottoman Topologies, rather, offers an integrated engagement with space, by examining the interrelatedness of its physical, social, and mental dimensions. Following Lefebvre, we will analyze how groups in the Ottoman lands produced their spaces by living in them, conceiving of them in ways that prompted them to change their environment, and by perceiving and imagining their spaces through references, meanings, and symbols. This integrative perspective treats the production of space as consisting of three inseparable components: living in, conceiving of, and perceiving space. When we study the experiences of people in Ottoman spacetimes, we understand them not as passive observers, acting outside of or counter to their physical world. Rather, these people were actors who changed, imagined, and expressed space. In sum, we see modes of living in, conceiving of, claiming, transforming, and imagining space in a holistic manner.

Ottoman Topologies
Production of Space in an Early Modern Empire

Cemal Kafadar & Ali Yaycioglu

Tentative Table of Content

INTRODUCTION

1. Spatiality in an Early Modern Empire (Henri Lefebvre Meeting Evliya Çelebi)
Cemal Kafadar & Ali Yaycioglu

PART ONE:
EXPERIENCING SPACE:
Imaginations, Movements, and Encountering

2. The Politics of Space in Ottoman Historiography: Sacralization, Contestation, and Mulberries in the Middle.
Cemal Kafadar

3. Ottoman Sufi Paths and the Spatial Turn
Ahmet Karamustafa

4. Always in Plain View but Hardly There: Where IS Fifteenth-Century Edirne?
Amy Singer

5. Speak Softly and Carry a Big Turban: On Stage in the Ottoman Salon
Helen Pfeifer

PART TWO:
CLAIMING SPACE:
Geography, Territory and Power

6. Individual and Empire in the Early Modern Ottoman World: Vatan and Diyar-ı Aher within the Triangular Context of Memalik-i Mahruse, Diyar-ı Acem and Frengistan
Özer Ergenç

7. Place, Community and Authority: Formation of Early-Modern Ottoman Territoriality?
Ali Yaycioglu

8. Defterscape: The Recording Ottoman Imperial Space
Victor Ostapchuk

9. Insularity and Empire: The production of space in Ottoman Cyprus
Antonis Hadjikyriacou

PART THREE:
BUILDING SPACE:
Nature, Landscape, and Architecture

10. Building Spaces for the Dead: The Muradiye Complex in Bursa and Early Ottoman Funerary Practices
Patricia Blessing

11. Land Reclamation and Urban Agriculture in Early Modern Ottoman Istanbul and Mamluk Cairo
Aleksandar Shopov

12. What is an Artistic Center? Reassessing Cultural Centrality Types in the Ottoman Realm, 14th to 20th Centuries
Maximilan Hartmuth

PART FOUR
REPRESETING SPACE:
Visual and Textual Cartographies

13. Poetic Cartographies, Urban Anxieties: Lâmi‘î Chelebi's ‘Bursa Shehrengizi’
Selim S. Kuru

14. Imagined Spaces, Nostalgic Topologies, & Territorial Anxieties: The Curious Case of the KMMS-type World Map in the Tomar-ı Hümayun
Karen Pinto

15. The Shared Space of Language: Armeno-Turkish in 17th-century Kaffa
Rachel Goshgarian

16. Constructing the Imperial Space: Cartography and Politics in the Eighteenth Century Ottoman Empire
M. Pınar Emiralioğlu

Papers by Ali Yaycioglu

Yaycioglu - On the Ottoman Arguments during the Congress of Karlowitz (1699)

Territorial Imaginaries: Beyond the Sovereign Map, edited by Kären Wigen (The University of Chicago Press), 2025

This chapter examines Ottoman diplomatic practices during the 1699 Karlowitz Congress, with a foc... more This chapter examines Ottoman diplomatic practices during the 1699 Karlowitz Congress, with a focus on the role of maps in border-making. The Congress, which concluded the long wars between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League—a Christian coalition led by the Habsburgs—resulted in the Ottoman withdrawal from Central Europe. While the Habsburg and Venetian delegations sought to expedite the negotiations by demarcating borders using pre-prepared maps and graphics, the Ottomans insisted on determining borders on the ground through negotiations with local communities and addressing the specific conditions of each region. The Ottoman delegation presented a methodological argument, asserting that while the European delegation favored deduction, moving from generalities to specificities, the Ottomans prioritized induction, beginning with specificities and moving toward generalities. Ultimately, the Ottoman position prevailed. The chapter argues that the Ottoman rejection of maps, though possibly a tactical maneuver due to their lack of detailed maps, was underpinned by a philosophical stance that prioritized real conditions over abstract representations.

Ali Yaycioglu - Imparatorluk ve Cumhuriyet Devamlilik ve Kopusun Otesi

İmparatorluk ve Cumhuriyet: Devamlılık ve Kopuşun Ötesine Yönelik ve Deneme, 2023

Ottoman Montology: Hazardous Resourcefulness and Uneasy Symbiosis in a Mountain Empire

Crafting History: Essays on the Ottoman World and Beyond in Honor of Cemal Kafadar, edited by Ali Yaycioglu, Ilham Khuri-Makdisi and Rachel Goshgarian (Brookline, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2023), 2023

Heirs of Chinghis Khan in the Age of Revolutions: An Unruly Crimean Prince in the Ottoman Empire and Beyond

Der Islam, Jan 20, 2017

Focusing on Cengiz Mehmed Geray, an idiosyncratic member of the ruling house of the Crimean Khana... more Focusing on Cengiz Mehmed Geray, an idiosyncratic member of the ruling house of the Crimean Khanate, this article examines how a Crimean Prince became an active participant in the stormy politics of the Ottoman Empire and later of Europe, as a result of his distinguished Chinghisid pedigree, in the age of revolutions. The first section of this article discusses the place of the Geray and Chinghisid lineage within Ottoman imperial politics. The second section focuses on the period following the Gerays' departure from Crimea. It illustrates how members of the family, although scattered throughout the Balkans, operated in the provincial and imperial politics of the Ottoman Empire in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The following section introduces Cengiz Geray and his turbulent life between the Ottoman and Russian Empires, and discusses how he became an actor in a revolutionary age. The last section is a short discussion on Chinghisid charisma in the early modern Europe, Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

Ali Yaycioglu, "Révolutions de Constantipole: France and the Ottoman Empire in the Age of Revolutions"

"Révolutions de Constantipole: France and the Ottoman Empire in the Age of Revolutions", 2016

There are no states that have not been subject to great revolutions. -Antoine Futerière, 1690 In ... more There are no states that have not been subject to great revolutions. -Antoine Futerière, 1690 In his book Révolutions de Constantinople (1819), Antoine Juchereau de Saint-Denis (1778-1842), a French émigré and military engineer employed by the Ottoman state as an expert in forti cation and artillery, narrated the stormy events that he observed in the Ottoman capital in 1807 and 1808. During three révolutions, as Juchereau de ned them, two sultans were deposed and executed, several statesmen were beheaded, poisoned, or lynched, and thousands of ordinary Ottoman men and women became victims of violence and terror. Perhaps more important, Juchereau maintained, these revolutions resulted from a battle between the reform program of the New Order-a military and administrative reorganization agenda under the Ottoman sultan Selim III (r. 1789-1807)-and the general public, led by the guards of the old

Blessing&Yaycıoğlu - "Reflecting on Reaction to Hagia Sophia's Reopening as a Mosque"

Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, Volume 8, Number 1, Summer 2021, pp. 197-200 , 2021

Ali Yaycıoğlu, "Global Transformation of the Muslim World: Connections, Crises and Reform," in Wiley-Blackwell History of Islam and Islamic Civilization, edited by Armando Salvatore with Roberto Tottoli and Babak Rahimi (Oxford: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2018), 435-458.

Wiley-Blakcwell History of Islam and Islamic Civilization, edited by A, Salvatore with Roberto Tottoli and Babak Rahimi (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2018), 435-458., 2018

Islamic World in the 18th Century

Osmanlı Erken Moderni

Tarihyazimi (Journal of Historiography) 3(2) (2021), 286-89.

Ali Yaycıoğlu "Karlofça Ânı: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu 18. yüzyıla nasıl başladı?," Tarih ve Toplum 18 (2021), 8-56.

Tarih ve Toplum, 2021

Ottoman Early Modern

Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies , 2020

The “early modern” seems to be the key notion facilitating the Ottoman “global turn.” It helps sc... more The “early modern” seems to be the key notion facilitating the Ottoman “global turn.” It helps scholars of the Ottoman world to “synchronize” Ottoman realities with structural changes in other parts of the world, particularly Europe, from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, during which we see increasing (and asymmetrical) interactions at a global scale. However, both the “global” and “early modern” turns come with certain limits and costs, which we should take into consideration and problematize.

Perdenin Arkasındakiler: Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda Sarraflar ve Finans Ağları Üzerine bir Deneme

Journal of Turkish Studies, 2019

The story of men of money and finance, the sarrafs, started with evaluating different coinage and... more The story of men of money and finance, the sarrafs, started with evaluating different coinage and metals and converting them, as well as providing credits and goods for the imperial elites. The story continued with supplying precious metals for the Imperial Mint, minting, and putting coinage into circulation. Their role expanded with goldsmithing and alchemy. Especially when the Ottoman administrative and financial order transformed into internal borrowing in the 18th century, the sarrafs became key actors of the Ottoman financial order through their financial relations and partnerships, guarantees and credits they extended, the portfolios of the wealthy they managed. With their guild organization, they acquired a capacity to act collectively, and became effective in the Ottoman order of debt.

Perdenin Arkasındakiler: Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda Sarraflar ve Finans Ağları Üzerine bir Deneme

JOURNAL OF TURKISH STUDIES - TÜRKLÜK BİLGİSİ ARAŞTIRMALARI, 2019

The story of men of money and finance, the sarrafs, started with evaluating different coinage an... more The story of men of money and finance, the sarrafs, started with evaluating different coinage and metals and converting them, as well as providing credits and goods for the imperial elites. The story continued with supplying precious metals for the Imperial Mint, minting, and putting coinage into circulation. Their role expanded with goldsmithing and alchemy. Especially when the Ottoman administrative and financial order transformed into internal borrowing in the 18th century, the sarrafs became key actors of the Ottoman financial order through their financial relations and partnerships, guarantees and credits they extended, the portfolios of the wealthy they managed. With their guild organization, they acquired a capacity to act collectively, and became effective in the Ottoman order of debt.

Guarding Traditions and Laws—Disciplining Bodies and Souls: Tradition, Science, and Religion in the Age of Ottoman Reform

Modern Asian Studies , 2018

This article examines the religious and intellectual dynamics behind the Ottoman military reform ... more This article examines the religious and intellectual dynamics behind the Ottoman military reform movement, known as the New Order, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Conventionally, the New Order has been examined within the framework of the Westernization of Ottoman military and administrative institutions. The Janissary-led popular opposition to the New Order, on the other hand, has been understood as a conservative resistance, fashioned by Muslim anti-Westernization. This article challenges this assumption, based on a binary between Westernization reforms versus Islamic conservatism. It argues that the Janissary-led popular opposition, which was consolidated long before the New Order, developed as a form of resistance by antinomian elements blocking the top-down disciplinary policies of the central state throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The New Order programme, which was unleashed in 1792, was also opposed by the Janissary-led coalition, on the basis that it would wipe out vested privileges and traditions. Supporting the New Order, we see a coalition and different intellectual trends, including: (i) the Euro-Ottoman military enlightenment, led by military engineers

Global Transformations in the Muslim World: Connections, Crises and Reforms

The History of Islam (in new series on History of Religion), edited by ,Armando Salvatore.., Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, , 2017

Heirs of Chinghis Khan in the Age of Revolutions: An Unruly Crimean Prince in the Ottoman Empire and Beyond

Der Islam, 2017

Focusing on Cengiz Mehmed Geray, an idiosyncratic member of the ruling house of the Crimean Khana... more Focusing on Cengiz Mehmed Geray, an idiosyncratic member of the ruling house of the Crimean Khanate, this article examines how a Crimean Prince became an active participant in the stormy politics of the Ottoman Empire and later of Europe, as a result of his distinguished Chinghisid pedigree, in the age of revolutions. The first section of this article discusses the place of the Geray and Chinghisid lineage within Ottoman imperial politics. The second section focuses on the period following the Gerays' departure from Crimea. It illustrates how members of the family, although scattered throughout the Balkans, operated in the provincial and imperial politics of the Ottoman Empire in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The following section introduces Cengiz Geray and his turbulent life between the Ottoman and Russian Empires, and discusses how he became an actor in a revolutionary age. The last section is a short discussion on Chinghisid charisma in the early modern Europe, Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

Janissaires, ingénieurs et prédicateurs: Comment l’ingénierie militaire et l’activisme islamique chnagèrent l’ordre ottoman?

Revue d’histoire du XIXe siècle, 2016

Rahova 1784: 18. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Balkanlarında Katılım, Bilgi ve Güç

Prof. Dr. Özer Ergenç’e Armağan, edited by Ümit Ekin (Istanbul: Bilge Kültür Sanat, 2013), 2013

“Rahova 1784: 18. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Balkanlarında Katılım, Bilgi ve Güç,” [Rahova 1784: Participatio... more

Ali Yaycioglu - Provincial Power-Holders and the Empire in the late Ottoman Empire