This paper focuses on the late Ottoman intellectual world and explores the making of the historical discipline in the Ottoman Empire. The paper argues that this transformation was the consequence of a number of interrelated factors, such as the turbulent developments in late Ottoman politics, Ottoman(ist) efforts to forge a “national” historical master narrative after the 1908 Constitutional Revolution, and Ottoman historians’ engagement with European historical thought and writing. The paper primarily deals with the relationship between the politics and history in the late Ottoman context and surveys the changing political perceptions, and increasing public uses, of history in the Ottoman Empire from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Then, it focuses on the historiographical campaign that was fueled by the ideals of the 1908 Revolution and examines how the Ottomans established historical associations, history journals, archival organizations, and a history department at the university, all of which constitute the essential building blocks of modern historiography. Next, the paper concentrates on the changes in the Ottomans’ understanding of historiography in the 1910s and analyzes the ways in which they sought to turn the historian’s craft into a scientific mode of inquiry. Lastly, it concludes with a brief epilogue on peculiarities of the Ottoman case of professionalization of history and their impact on the evolution of historical scholarship in post-Ottoman Turkey.