Temporal and Spatial Shifts: Tarih-I Umumi in 19th-Century Ottoman History Writing

This research treats the semantic evolution of the concept of tarih-i umumi, or universal history, within nineteenth-century Ottoman intellectual circles. The study examines the new temporal and spatial perspectives that contributed to the formation of modern universal historical narratives and the new geographic positioning pertaining to these narratives.

Defined by the Ottoman author and historian Ahmed Midhat (d. 1912) as "the biography of the progress of human civilization," the concept referred to a narrative in which "taking part" became a struggle for political existence.

Focusing particularly on Midhat’s writings, this paper traces the concept of tarih-i umumi through a wide range of sources, including history literature, encyclopedic and lexical works, archival documents, and newspaper articles. It analyzes how new universal historical temporalities led to new spatial dichotomies, such as civilized/uncivilized, progressed/backward, and center/periphery. In particular, the paper explores how Ottoman scholars, like Midhat, using the concept of tarih-i umumi, positioned the Ottoman Empire geographically between Asia and Europe, politically between colonizer and colonized, and normatively between civilized and uncivilized.

This research aims to illuminate the intricate interplay of temporal and spatial shifts within nineteenth-century Ottoman history-writing, offering a nuanced understanding of the semantic transformation of tarih-i umumi and its profound implications on Ottoman intellectual thought and societal constructs.