Prisons in the Late Ottoman Empire: Microcosms of Modernity

Challenges western images of Ottoman prisons as sites of Oriental brutality. Contrary to the stereotypical images of torture, narcotics and brutal sexual behaviour traditionally associated with Ottoman (or ‘Turkish’) prisons, Kent Schull argues that they were a site of immense reform and contestation during the late 19th and early 20th century. He shows that they acted as ‘laboratories of modernity’ for the Ottoman ruling establishment during the Second Constitutional Period (1908-1918), playing a critical role in attempts to transform the empire comprehensively. It was within the walls of these prisons that many of the pressing questions of Ottoman modernity were worked out, such as administrative reform and centralization, the rationalization of Islamic criminal law and punishment, issues of gender and childhood, rehabilitating prisoners, bureaucratic professionalisation, Ottoman national identity, and social engineering.Key Features: *Views the prison as a microcosm of imperial transformation during this critical period in Middle East history *Heavily critiques Michel Foucault’s approach to punishment, state power, and society by applying it to a non-Western context *Challenges assumptions about the impact the Second Constitutional Period had on the development of the current Middle East nation-state system and society.

Reviews of Prisons in the Late Ottoman Empire: Microcosms of Modernity

In this theoretically and empirically rich account Kent Schull shows how prisons, prisoners, and prison reform fit in the transformation of the Ottoman state in the 19th century. By shedding light on a much neglected aspect of Ottoman state practice, this book significantly improves our understanding of one of the most crucial periods in Ottoman history.' — Re?at Kasaba, Stanley D. Golub Chair, Professor of International Studies, University of Washington.