6 Introduction
of politics, if they use one at all.21 The definition of politics is even now an
object of discussion, but one cannot deny that it has a strong connection with
notions of power, control, and the state; it is in this sense (rather than a con-
nection with the public sphere, which would create further problems for a pre-
modern society)22 that we consider all Ottoman texts and ideas pertaining to
governance (which is a more accurate and less anachronistic term) to be politi-
cal, whether they are specific or philosophical. This may be described (in the
anthropological jargon) as an “emic” approach, i.e. a viewpoint from the per-
spective of the subject rather than of the observer (such as the one proposed
by Clifford Geertz or Marshall Sahlins in anthropology).23 After all, an “etic”
approach to Islamicate political thought, i.e. one based on what European tra-
dition considers to be political thought, would enlarge the scope of the study
in disproportional dimensions, since almost all Islamic law would have to
enter the equation. On the other hand, it must be noted that an “emic” para-
digm often (as in the Indian case, in the words of Sheldon Pollock) “reproduces
on [sic] order of domination and does so by excluding the oral, the subaltern,
and (very largely) the vernacular”.
Less ambitious “etic” approaches have focused on an internal categorization
of political literature: terms such as “mirrors for princes” (a quite vague category
whose only definition—whenever used in Islamic context—is the similarity
with late-medieval European specula regis or Fürstenspiegel) and “advice lit-
erature” have been proposed, and (in the Ottoman case) even more elaborate
distinctions have been suggested (as, for instance, the term ıslahatname or
“book of reforms”, a term that does not appear in Ottoman texts).25 A classifi-
cation based on the “emic” viewpoint is that proposed by Ann K. S. Lambton.
She distinguishes three broad categories or “formulations”: jurists’ works origi-
nating in fikh ( fiqh) and based on religion; the “formulation of philosophers”,
based on righteousness and knowledge; and finally the “administration manu-
als” or “the literary formulation”, based on justice and influenced by Sassanid
21 Even now the issue of Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi, 1/2 (2003), which we men-
tioned above, was labeled “Turkish political history” (Türk Siyaset Tarihi) and contained
articles on subjects as varied as Ottoman political thought, political history, diplomatic
history, and even historical chronicles and modern-day general histories.
22 Cf. Mottahedeh – Stilt 2003 and Klein 2006, as well as the detailed and intriguing discus-
sion of “civil society” in an Ottoman context by Anastasopoulos 2012. On the definition of
politics cf. Palonen 2006.
23 Cf. e.g. Geertz 1983.
24 Pollock 2008, 541.
25 See e.g. Levend 1962; Uğur 2001, 4–7; Yılmaz 2003a. On the various classifications used for
Arabic and Persian political literature, see the recent survey by Marlow 2009.