The first Ottoman description of Sofia, produced on the eve of the conquest in the 1380s, presented a rich city abundant in running water which, besides its value for a thriving local economy, produced a healthy and vigorous population. Later on, as a provincial capital, Sofia boasted of some of the most representative works of Ottoman architecture in the Balkans. The sixteenth century, the heyday in the construction of Ottoman Sofia, began with the construction of Yahya Paşa’s water supply system which survived into the post-Ottoman period and was inherited by the Bulgarian municipal authorities. In spite of this record of intense building activity, the image dominating both scholarly and popular literature on Sofia’s Ottoman past is that of an ‘Oriental village’ defined by its muddy crooked streets and frozen in its medieval timelessness. In treatments of Ottoman Sofia Bulgarian authors have gone so far as to produce a discourse that completely deprives the city of its urban status and the Ottomans of the ability to conceive of any ideas of urban space and a functioning public works system. This paper problematizes both the local, Bulgarian interpretation of the nature of the Ottoman city, and the Western perspective toward the Ottoman Balkans as an irrelevant addition to the study of Islamic and Ottoman urbanism. I approach the subject by using Ottoman sources demonstrating the perspectives of local actors and central authorities. The sources originate from kadı court records, vakıf administration, as well as various local and imperial administrative and political bodies. Most importantly, there is evidence of a communal spirit and a sense of collective identity in cases when early modern Sofia’s residents discussed issues concerning water supply with both local and state authorities and demanded the proper functioning of a public good. No less relevant are nineteenth-century sources demonstrating the efforts taken towards the maintenance of the water supply system. Complementing the Ottoman sources with archaeological evidence and documentation produced after 1878, the paper brings forward the existence of a rich urban culture and an identity molded by Ottoman urban practices some of which were even transferred into the post-Ottoman period. Thus, besides posing a challenge to local stereotypes and (mis)interpretations of Ottoman realities, the paper aims at emphasizing the importance of the Balkans for the study of Ottoman and Islamic urbanism.

The prolific Ottoman author and encyclopaedist Ahmet Mithat Efendi was an important par-ticipant in late-nineteenth-century debates about how to modernize the Ottoman Empire. He repeatedly stressed the necessity of a synthesis incorporating the material and technical pro-gress of the West and the customs and moral values of the East. On the other hand, he strong-ly objected to following the West in the moral sphere on the grounds that it was in a state of moral degeneration and collapse. The present study will argue however that the Eastern-Western synthesis proposed by Ahmet Mithat actually did not only comprise the technology of the West and the morality of the East, but also incorporated certain moral values and atti-tudes of the West that arguably lay at the basis of its material progress. On the basis of a close reading of Ahmet Mithat’s novels and non-fictional works, the paper will first show that he acknowledged the existence of a “conservative” West with high moral standards alongside the “dissolute” West that he condemned so often, and found certain virtues of this West, which he found embodied in its achievements in the material and technical sphere, worthy of adoption. The paper will then proceed to reveal that Ahmet Mithat was also not against the adoption of certain Western manners like politeness or respect for privacy. Moreover he considered certain cultural products of the West like novels and plays as a useful means of improving the morals of his people. Finally, the paper will analyze a number of positively depicted characters in Ahmet Mithat’s novels who adopted certain moral traits and habits of the West that he found laudable. The findings will suggest that the author’s attitude to borrowing from the West was much more flexible and nuanced than the apparently rigid dichotomy “Western technology-Eastern morals” would suggest. Notwithstanding his sweeping condemnations of the West for its immorality, Ahmet Mithat Efendi was often careful enough to distinguish a “moral” West to be imitated from an “immoral” West to be shunned. He also showed himself in favor of the adoption of certain moral attitudes that underlay the technical and material progress of the West. This rendered his dichotomy “Western technology-Eastern morals” rather ambiguous, for when praising Western technology and material progress he was in fact also praising some of the perceived virtues of the West like industriousness and the spirit of research without openly admitting it.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between modern European knowledge and the classical Islamic science tradition in the late Ottoman world, by way of analyzing an engineering textbook which was read in the Ottoman Military-Engineering School (Mühendishâne-i Berrî-i Hümayûn.) The experience of Military Technical Schools and Engineering Schools in the late Ottoman Empire created a small group of engineers who were familiar with European sciences and languages. Moreover some of these engineers had a traditional madrasa education which included classical Islamic sciences such as Mantıq (Logic), Sarf (Arabic Morphology), Nahv (Arabic Syntax), Fiqh (jurisprudence), Kalaam (theology) etc. And they were faced with the need of translating engineering books in the libraries of military schools, the majority of which was in French. Bash Hoca Ishaq Effendi (d. 1836) was the one of these engineers who wanted his accumulation of the classical Islamic knowledge to be integrated with modern European sciences. Towards this aim he authored his most voluminous and well known, encyclopedic work called Majmua al-Ulum al-Riyadiyah (Tr. Mecmûa-i Ulûm-i Riyāziye, literally Journal of the Science of Mathematics). What was the preferred methodology pursued in the sections of Majmua of Bash Hoca Ishaq Effendi when he was translating and writing his books? How did he arrange the sections of his textbook and why? How authentic are his sections on mechanics? If they are not original, where were they translated from? Can one claim that early movements resembling modernization played a systematic role in Ottoman scientific studies through examining this textbook? Did Bash Hoca Ishaq Effendi make an original contribution to contemporary scientific knowledge? Furthermore, how does one evaluate such issues as “original contribution” and “authenticity”? By comparing the sections on mechanics in modern European physics books and those of the Mecmûa, this paper will try to answer the above questions as a way of grappling with larger issues such as transmission of technical knowledge in the late Ottoman Empire, varieties of Ottoman response to inflow of European scientific knowledge and the evolution of the traditional Ottoman madrasa education.

Historians of modern Iran have unanimously agreed on the crucial role of Mehdi Bazargan in the events proceeding to the Revolution of 1979. Bazargan is best known as the prime minister of the Iranian post-revolutionary provisional government. He is also well-known as one of the main founders of several social and professional societies and associations as well as sociopolitical movements -- most notably, the Freedom Movement of Iran. Yet while Bazargan is popularly called “Engineer Bazargan,” the role of his engineering background and professional career in the formation of his religio-political thought has remained unexplored. Most significantly, in 1928 Bazargan was awarded a governmental scholarship to continue his education at École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris. Indeed, he was among the first group of students that Reza Shah sent to Europe to bring back not only technical knowledge, but also a sense of modern European-style nationalism. This paper investigates the role that Bazargan’s engineering background and French education played in the formation of his religious and political thought. Would he have returned from France with the same vision had he studied sociology or law instead of engineering? Through an examination of Bazargan’s writings (including Purification in Islam, Pragmatism in Islam, Love and Faith: The Thermodynamics of Human Being, The Coefficient of Conversion between Material and Spiritual Matters, and Nature, Evolution and Monotheism), his trial defense, his letters and memoirs, his French engineering curriculum at Nantes and Paris, I argue that Bazargan -- after spending seven years in France studying engineering -- returned home not only with a doctorate in thermodynamics, but also with a pragmatic vision that proved influential in shaping his political career as well as of his interpretation of Islam. Scholars of modern Iran, especially those who have studied the 1979 Revolution, have treated influential Western-educated individuals as belonging to a single bloc and have overlooked the influence of academic training and professional factors in shaping the religious and political thought of such individuals, who were both key players in the Revolution and highly trained in science or engineering. This research project belongs to a larger literature that investigates the relationship between academic and/or professional training and identity formation, and further asks what can be learned from the presence of a large number of scientists and engineers in the Iranian political arena.