Acknowledgments
In Ottoman moral philosophy, generosity (sehâvet) is one of the main virtues related to politics, and in our field one can do very little without the generosity of one’s friends and colleagues, even though academic and socio-economic conditions do not favor this seemingly anti-productive virtue. Versions of some chapters were meticulously read by Antonis Anastasopoulos, Antonis Hadjikyriacou, and Ethan L. Menchinger; their remarks contributed much and prevented me from making numerous errors. My discussions with Boğaç Ergene, Gottfried Hagen, Güneş Işıksel, Katharina Ivanyi, Derin Terzioğlu, Baki Tezcan, Gülçin Tunalı, and Bilal Yurtoğlu were especially useful in illuminating various aspects of the subject. Several Ottoman manuscripts and a large portion of the modern bibliography were made accessible to me thanks to the generosity and help of Feride Akın, Cumhur Bekar, Günhan Börekçi, Melis Cankara, Lejla Demiri, Emrah Safa Gürkan, İrfan Kokdaş, Tijana Krstić, Dimitris Loupis, Vasileios Syros, and Özgün Deniz Yoldaşlar. I also have to thank Edith Gülçin Ambros, Tobias Heinzelmann, Elias Kolovos, Phokion Kotzageorgis, Christos Kyriakopoulos, Sophia Laiou, Andreas Lyberatos, Foivos Oikonomou, Nicolas Vatin, Yiannis Viskadouros, and Fr. Jason Welle O. F. M., for their magnanimous assistance whenever I asked for it. My thanks also go to Maurits van den Boogert, whose willingness and care were decisive for the present publication, as well as to Professor M. Şükrü Hanioğlu, whose opinion was key in this book being accepted for publication in the “Handbook of Oriental Studies” series, and who made important comments. The anonymous reader’s remarks were of great help in rethinking the content of this book and restructuring its chapters in a, hopefully, more meaningful way. My poor English and some errors and points of confusion were amended by Alex Mallett, who meticulously edited the text and managed to make this book readable. I cannot ignore my debt to my teachers and mentors: apart from introducing me to Ottoman history and palaeography, John C. Alexander (Alexandropoulos) also taught me to formulate all my questions in terms of social history while, as well as making me as meticulous in care for details as she is, Elizabeth A. Zachariadou was the person primarily responsible for creating the ideal research environment in which the composition of this book took place.
Indeed, a major part of the research that led to this monograph was funded by the project “OTTPOL: A History of Early Modern Ottoman Political Thought, 15th to Early 19th Centuries”, carried out at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies of the Foundation of Research and Technology—Hellas (Rethymno, Greece), within the action “Aristeia II” of the Greek General Secretariat for Research and Technology, funded by Greece and the European Social Fund of the European Union under the Operational Program Education and Lifelong Learning (2007–13 Greek National Strategic Reference Framework).1 For this project, I was lucky to have an excellent team of collaborators: E. Ekin Tuşalp Atiyas, post-doctoral researcher (who also authored chapter VI of this book); Marina Demetriadou, doctoral candidate; Michalis Georgellis, MA student; and Lemonia Argyriou, technical assistant. Words are not enough to describe how much I owe to their constant help and assistance; Ekin Tuşalp Atiyas, moreover, carefully read the first draft of this book and suggested numerous and valuable remarks and additions. I must also thank the-then director of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Christos Hadziiossif, who constantly encouraged me to continue with this project ever since I first thought of it, as well as to the administrative staff of the Institute (Georgia Papadaki, Valia Patramani) and especially its tireless accountants (Babis Flouris, Antonis Xidianos) for their support under the difficult circumstances prevailing in 2014–15. I wish to stress that the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, my home institution, provided the most creative and friendly environment possible, continuing a tradition of research in the humanities that often disappears under the pressure of financial and international constraints; I do hope it will continue to resist and provide the same steady conditions for serious research in the future.
My postgraduate students during the academic years 2013–14 (Kostis Kanakis, Ioanna Katsara, Yiannis Polychronopoulos, and Stavros Sfakiotakis) and 2014–15 (Petros Kastrinakis, Efthymis Machairas, Vuk Masić, Roger Meier, Rozalia Toulatou, Karmen Vourvachaki, and Dimitris Yagtzoglou) contributed much, even if it was without their knowledge.
Last but not least, I have to thank my parents for their continuous support and, of course, my family, Despoina Moschogianni and Anna, for whom the final months of the composition of this book must have meant a quasi-absence from almost every aspect of family life. Despoina, moreover, had been insisting for years that I write this book, although I never really understood why; many times I would have abandoned this project but for her insistence. Well—here it is now.
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Ekin Tuşalp Atiyas would like to thank Marinos Sariyannis, Marina Demetriadou, İzak Atiyas, and İlya Derin Atiyas for making Rethymno a paradise for work and fun. She would also like to thank Marinos Sariyannis and Derin Terzioğlu for their suggestions when writing chapter 6.
See also the project website: http://ottpol.ims.forth.gr/.