Networks of Violence on the Habsburg-Russian-Ottoman Frontier at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century

This paper will focus on endemic violence in the Ottoman Balkans from the 1790’s to 1810’s by reconstructing the path of a rebel leader named Kara Feyzi.  This forgotten historical actor marshaled vast networks that devastated communities throughout the Balkans and Istanbul.  Muslims and Christians joined Kara Feyzi’s rebellions, and he also became a power broker for high-ranking ministers from throughout the Empire who used his networks in their own power struggles and intrigue.   

By focusing on the targets of these violent groups, this presentation will outline the “grammar” of these networks violence: why did these such a diverse range of people join Kara Feyzi?  What informed their decisions to “terrorize,” plunder, and even torch specific targets ranging from the dead bodies of imperial armies to entire Christian and Muslim communities?  Based upon extensive research of “official” and narrative sources, this paper will discuss how conflicting understandings of rights (individual and communal), justice, and rebellion redefined the “moral boundaries” within Ottoman society and fundamentally changed the relationships between the Ottomans and their subjects in the late 18^th century.  Furthermore, this paper will demonstrate how the Ottomans’ imperial, Christian rivals carefully followed and manipulated this forgotten man’s practices as pretexts to intervene on behalf of Christian “victims” of his violence and thus undermine Ottoman legitimacy with their diverse subjects within the Empire.  While Europeanists and Middle Eastern historians point to Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Ottoman Egypt as the “colonial encounter” that changed the world, it was only when the Ottomans were battling men like Kara Feyzi that Napoleon could launch his epic invasion.  In this sense, the Kara Feyzi story – although it has escaped the focus of specialists writing on this era – relocates the so-called “colonial encounter” to a different time and space.