When institutions or practices adapted from the West were launched they often met with opposition from major segments of Ottoman society. The con cept of an equal and secular citizenship of all Ottoman subjects did not sit well with conservative Muslims. Secular schools also could arouse protest. Not in frequently a conflict of cultures emerged, bolstered by the common Muslim bias against innovation as something inherently bad, even blasphemous. Sometimes the reform process eventuated in a dualismtwo sets of institu tions side by side, one derived from the example of the West, one more tradi tional: two sets of schools, two kinds of law. But paralleling the conflict of cultures there was also a confluence of civilizations, as some concepts and institutions borrowed from the West took root and grew over the years: the representative principle, constitution, journalism. There was, in effect, a con tinuity of change under the impact of the West, not always at an even pace but never arrest

When western ideas or institutions were adapted to Ottoman use, their ad vocates were almost always members of the official elite. Westernization came from the top down, from individuals usually concerned with the funcDavison_2862.pdf 15 8/10/2013 10:04:33 AM Davison_2862.pdf 16 Introduction

West ernizing changes did not, as might have been the case in western European countries in analagous situations of change, well up from a vigorous yeo manry or an increasingly prosperous bourgeoisie but rather trickled down from an administrative, diplomatic, and military elite. Furthermore the changes, as well as coming from the top down, frequently came from the out side in and backward. Externals sometimes preceded essentialsMahmud IPs soldiers and civil officials, for instance, were put into western-style uni forms and costumes before they were trained in new methods or had acquired a new mentality. The backward nature of some reforms is exemplified by the desire to introduce the end product before the infrastructure was complete the establishment of a university, for example, before the nascent school sys tem was sufficient to undergird it. But by whatever methods and in whatever order they were introduced, we

The study of Ottoman history has made progress since World War II, world over and especially in the United States, where before the war it was almost nonexistent. These essays reflect, in their widening of sources, an aspect of that progress. The essay that was published earliestin 1948, although actu ally written in first draft in 1938was able to draw on no materials in Turk ish, although it used a few Turkish materials available in French. The later essays have used many more materials in Turkish, both published and archi val, for since 1948 sources in Turkish have become much more widely avail able. One reason is that some libraries in the United States and in Canada have built up important collections in that language. Another is that since the war a new generation of historians has grown up in Turkey who are doing research, writing histories, and publishing documents, which then are available else where. The third reason is that Turkish libraries and Ottoman archives have been mad