Abstract

In the turbulent year 1789, the “Grand Turk” at the Topkapı Palace could still see himself as the ruler of a vast empire straddling three continents, stretching from Bosnia to the Caucasus and from Eritrea to the Persian Gulf. By the time the Young Turks had executed their revolution and reinstated a constitutional regime, however, the empire had shrunk considerably. Yet despite its receding borders, the Ottoman state still remained as a transcontinental polyethnic polity thanks to several major transformations that took place between 1789 and 1908.