Once hailed as 'the eternal state', the Ottoman Empire was in decline by the end of the nineteenth century, finally collapsing under the pressures of World War I. Yet its legacies are still apparent, and few have had more impact than those of its schools and educational policies. "Empire and Education under the Ottomans" analyses the Empire's educational politics from the mid-nineteenth century, amidst the Tanzimat reform period, until "The Young Turk Revolution in 1908". Through a focus on the regional impact of decrees from Istanbul, Emine O. Evered unravels the complexities of the era, demonstrating how educational changes devised to strengthen the Empire actually hastened its demise. This book is the first history of education in the Ottoman Middle East to evaluate policies in the context of local responses and resistance, and includes the first published English translation of the watershed 1869 Ottoman Education Law. A stimulating and impressively-researched study, it represents an important new addition to the historiography of the Ottoman Empire and will be essential for those researching its lasting legacy.

Once hailed as 'the eternal state', the Ottoman Empire was in decline by the end of the nineteenth century, finally collapsing under the pressures of World War I. Yet its legacies are still apparent, and few have had more impact than those of its schools and educational policies. "Empire and Education under the Ottomans" analyses the Empire's educational politics from the mid-nineteenth century, amidst the Tanzimat reform period, until "The Young Turk Revolution in 1908". Through a focus on the regional impact of decrees from Istanbul, Emine O. Evered unravels the complexities of the era, demonstrating how educational changes devised to strengthen the Empire actually hastened its demise. This book is the first history of education in the Ottoman Middle East to evaluate policies in the context of local responses and resistance, and includes the first published English translation of the watershed 1869 Ottoman Education Law. A stimulating and impressively-researched study, it represents an important new addition to the historiography of the Ottoman Empire and will be essential for those researching its lasting legacy.

List of Figures -- List of Tables Timeline -- Acknowledgements -- 1. No Ottoman Child Left Behind: On Governmentality and Education -- 2. Fact-finding Missions, Public Relations, and Schools in the Governance of Ottoman Albania -- 3. An Ottoman Geopolitics of Statistics, Reform, and Education -- 4. Images of a Traveling Ulama, Missionary Rivals, and State Power -- 5. Aleppo's "Unfit" Teacher: Gender Politics and Resistance to Rival Empires -- 6. Educational Politics in the Iraqi Provinces of Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul -- 7. Confronting Italian Educational and Imperial Ambitions in Tripoli -- 8. Summary and -- Conclusions -- Glossary -- Appendix 1: Proposed changes to the 1310/1892 education budget -- Appendix 2: Books and pamphlets to be used in the state's rü?diye schools for girls, 1313/1895 -- Appendix -- 3: Books and pamphlets to be used in the State's Rüşdiye schools for boys, 1313/1895 -- Bibliography -- Index.

This first comprehensive study on Ottoman educational reform is based on archival material and providing new information on curricular policies applied in the provinces and toward different ethnic groups.

The aim of the Ottoman educational reforms was to raise a class of educated bureaucrats as a means of administrative centralization, and a design to inculcate authoritarian and religious values among the population for the legitimization of state authority. This study, which deals with the modernization of Ottoman public education during the period of reform, is based on sources such as Ottoman archives, published documents, textbooks, and memoirs. It discusses the main factors that led to Ottoman educational reforms. The topics in this volume include the expansion of provincial education, financial policies, curricular issues, the educational ideology of the Tanzimat (1839-1876) and the Hamidian periods (1878-1908), ethnic groups in the Balkans, Anatolia and Arabia, and the process of socialization. The book particularly addresses those readers interested in the educational, social and administrative history of the late Ottoman period.

'Imperial Classroom deserves our attention on several counts, the most important being its innovatory approach, systematic presentation and the large variety of sources consulted to good effect... well-documented and very readable... this scholarly book should be read not only by those studying late Ottoman education, but by all those interested in the period of Abdülhamid II.' -Middle Eastern StudiesThis book presents a many-sided view of education in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century under the Ottoman Empire. Drawing on a wide array of primary material, ranging from archival reports to textbooks and classroom maps, Benjamin C. Fortna provides a detailed scholarly analysis of the Ottoman educational endeavour, revealing its fascinating mix of Western and indigenous influences.

Once hailed as 'the eternal state', the Ottoman Empire was in decline by the end of the nineteenth century, finally collapsing under the pressures of World War I. Yet its legacies are still apparent, and few have had more impact than those of its schools and educational policies. "Empire and Education under the Ottomans" analyses the Empire's educational politics from the mid-nineteenth century, amidst the Tanzimat reform period, until "The Young Turk Revolution in 1908". Through a focus on the regional impact of decrees from Istanbul, Emine O. Evered unravels the complexities of the era, demonstrating how educational changes devised to strengthen the Empire actually hastened its demise. This book is the first history of education in the Ottoman Middle East to evaluate policies in the context of local responses and resistance, and includes the first published English translation of the watershed 1869 Ottoman Education Law. A stimulating and impressively-researched study, it represents an important new addition to the historiography of the Ottoman Empire and will be essential for those researching its lasting legacy.