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CHunt_Ph.D. Dissertation.pdf (8.66 MB)

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Changing Identities at the Fringes of the Late Ottoman Empire: The Muslims of Dobruca, 1839-1914

Hunt, Catalina
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9905-6818
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429644189

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History.
This dissertation examines the Muslim community of Dobruca, an Ottoman territory granted to Romania in 1878, and its transformation from a majority under Ottoman rule into a minority under Romanian administration. It focuses in particular on the collective identity of this community and how it changed from the start of the Ottoman reform era (Tanzimat) in 1839 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. This dissertation constitutes, in fact, the study of the transition from Ottoman subjecthood to Romanian citizenship as experienced by the Muslim community of Dobruca. It constitutes an assessment of long-term patterns of collective identity formation and development in both imperial and post-imperial settings. The main argument of the dissertation is that during this period three crucial factors altered the sense of collective belonging of Dobrucan Muslims: a) state policies; b) the reaction of the Muslims to these policies; and c) the influence of transnational networks from the wider Turkic world on the Muslim community as a whole. Taken together, all these factors contributed fully to the community’s intellectual development and overall modernization, especially since they brought about new patterns of identification and belonging among Muslims. Teachers, religious leaders, journalists, and political activists among the region’s Muslims proved to be essential in this process due to their power of example and capacity of mobilizing fellow coreligionists. During the Ottoman period, Muslims asserted their imperial identity at the expense of religious, ethnic, and local sub-identities whenever community projects were at stake. In contrast, during the Romanian period they emphasized their national identity, even if for a similar purpose. Displays of loyalty were part of a well-thought-out strategy to attract the benevolence of state officials, and in the process, Muslims became active agents in the making of state policies of the empire and of the nation-state, respectively. Such a balancing act allowed them to assert a collective identity formulated in modern and western rather than conservative and religious terms. The focus of this research is unique in the field of Ottoman studies concerning the long nineteenth century. The project exploys official documents, private letters, diaries, and newspaper articles written in Ottoman Turkish, modern Turkish, French, English, and Romanian, as well as a relevant secondary literature. It rewrites the local history of the region’s Muslim population, rejects the exclusive importance of state policies in the process of identity formation, and firmly places the history of western Ottoman borderlands within the broader context of imperial and post-imperial evolution in Europe and the Middle East. The dissertation enhances understanding of the meaning and politics of identity in the late Ottoman Empire and its heir state of modern Romania. It also contributes to a growing trend of including minority populations in discussions of reconstruction and shaping of new national identities after imperial collapse.
Carter Findley (Advisor)
Jane Hathaway (Committee Co-Chair)
Theodora Dragostinova (Committee Member)
Scott Levi (Committee Member)
Richard Pogge (Committee Member)
341 p.
History
Dobruca, Muslims, ottoman Empire, Romania, identity, subjecthood, nationality, citizenship

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hunt, C. (2015). Changing Identities at the Fringes of the Late Ottoman Empire: The Muslims of Dobruca, 1839-1914 [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429644189

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hunt, Catalina. Changing Identities at the Fringes of the Late Ottoman Empire: The Muslims of Dobruca, 1839-1914 . 2015. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429644189.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hunt, Catalina. "Changing Identities at the Fringes of the Late Ottoman Empire: The Muslims of Dobruca, 1839-1914 ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429644189

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1429644189
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.