A REVIEW OF WEBERIAN STUDIES ON THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

This study examines the secondary literature on Max Weber’s (1864-1920) writings on
Islam and the Ottoman Empire. It demarcates approaches prevalent in the secondary
literature. Three basic themes are apparent:
- Section a) concentrates on authors who applied Weber’s concepts of patrimonialism and
bureaucracy to non-Ottoman countries, such as Maslovski (on the Soviet bureaucracy)
and Eisenberg (on China).
- Section b) focuses on authors who studied the Ottoman Empire utilizing non-Weberianabove
all Durkheimian and Marxian theories and methods. The studies by Immanuel
Wallerstein (world systems theory) and his Turkish colleagues on the Ottoman Empire,
as well as the neo-Marxian writings of Perry Anderson and Barrington Moore, will be
evaluated. Studies on the Ottoman Empire and its socio-political transformation indebted
to Durkheim (S. N. Eisendtadt, Ziya Gökalp, and Niyazi Berkes) will be discussed.
- Section c) concentrates on authors who studied the Ottoman Empire using Weber’s
terminology and concepts, such as Haim Gerber, Halil Inalcik, and Şerif Mardin.