Источниковедение и историография Ближнего Востока
7
Fatih Demirel (Artvin Coruh University, Artvin, Turkey)
History Education at high schools in the Ottoman Empire
The modernization of educational institutions starting with military schools as
Mühendishane-i Bahrî-i Hümayun and Mühendishane-i Berrî-i Hümayun continued
with the establishment of modern educational institutions in addition to these military
schools in Mahmud II. period. This movement, which had been started with Sultan
Mahmud II, continued with the formation of new educational institutions both in
the Tanzimat Period and after the Tanzimat Period.
It was decided to create a hierarchical structure consisting of three stages as
primary, secondary and higher education in 1846. Although this structure had
not been implemented until the end of the Tanzimat Period,
Maârif-i Umûmiye
Nizâmnâmesi
(which was an education law) issued in 1869, became a milestone for
hierarchy among the new-style educational institutions during the Tanzimat Period.
High schools were established after 1869 in Ottoman Empire. In this paper it will
be attempted to discuss history lessons and history education in the Ottoman high
schools.
Gad Gilbar (University of Haifa, Israel)
Shahrzad, Ibn Khaldun and the
tujjār
:
On the Image of the Muslim Big Merchants
The image of Muslim big merchants (
tujjār
) in the eyes of their contemporaries
in Islamic countries during the late Middle Ages and thereafter has scarcely been
explored by historians. In this paper I focus on certain aspects which relate to that
image as portrayed in two texts composed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centu-
ries — “The Tale of ‘Alī, the Cairene Merchant” from
Alf Layla wa-Layla
, and
sections from Ibn Khaldun’s
Muqaddima
. These narratives discuss the qualities,
characteristics and mode of behavior of the Muslim big merchants. While they
were written in the same period (late Middle Ages) and in adjacent regions of the
Islamic world (Egypt and Tunisia), they portray very different, and in fact opposing,
images of the
tujjār
.
There is no way to evaluate the extent of the influence of these texts on the
perceptions of readers or listeners in Middle Eastern communities regarding the
Muslim big merchants during the long period that passed from the time the texts
were written till the beginning of the last century. We know, however, that certain
individuals and small groups were exposed to these texts. On the one hand, the
Muqaddima
was known in the upper echelons of the Ottoman bureaucracy in the
last three centuries of the Ottoman Empire, and Ibn Khaldun’s ideas were quoted by
Ottoman historians and diplomats, while on the other, Iran’s ruler, Nāsir al-Dīn Shah
