The Modernization of Public Education in the Ottoman Empire, 1839-1908

The aim of the Ottoman educational reforms was to raise a class of educated bureaucrats as a means of administrative centralization, and a design to inculcate authoritarian and religious values among the population for the legitimization of state authority. This study, which deals with the modernization of Ottoman public education during the period of reform, is based on sources such as Ottoman archives, published documents, textbooks, and memoirs. It discusses the main factors that led to Ottoman educational reforms. The topics in this volume include the expansion of provincial education, financial policies, curricular issues, the educational ideology of the Tanzimat (1839-1876) and the Hamidian periods (1878-1908), ethnic groups in the Balkans, Anatolia and Arabia, and the process of socialization. The book particularly addresses those readers interested in the educational, social and administrative history of the late Ottoman period.