Ottoman history is the history of the Ottoman Empire. It may seem ridiculous to state so self-evident a proposition; but is is put forth here to indicate the complexities in the study of Ottoman history. For the Ottoman Empire still, at the end of the eighteenth century, included the territories of what are now nineteen independent countries. The lands of twelve future independent countries were yet within the Ottoman borders in 1914 at the start of the war which sounded the death-knell of the sprawling conglomerate. Of course some of these areas were only nominally or very loosely under the control of the Istanbul government. Yet they were still within the empire, and created problems for it, if nothing else.

The study of Middle Eastern politics at the college level in the United States is fraught with difficulties for both instructor and student alike. For the student, the subject is almost always entirely unfamiliar and too full of details to be grasped let alone mastered in one term or semester. Instability and political turmoil in the area add to the complicated picture. The instructor’s task is mainly to help the student overcome these difficulties. He has to provide adequate organization of the disparate material and relate it to the frame of mind the student already has about politics.

Nearly every current review of research conditions in the Third World (including our first item in this series, MESA Bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 2) now begins with a long exposition of the need to respect local culture and attitudes toward research itself, not only in the name of effectiveness but as part of a social equation between studied and studier. We are far beyond the old era of Third World research—at least as it was stereotypically conceived—of paternalistic scientists studying “quaint” folkways without regard to the subjects’ needs, feelings, or wishes. We may well wonder how accurate this stereotype was, if only on the basis of effectiveness, but in any case the pendulum has swung toward discretion as the better part of valor.