Meeker - A Nation of Empire

Ottoman era power circuits were maintained in Trapzon

Brings to light provincial governments of turkey
Maintains same relationships, the same pipes of power remain while shifting the actors slightly
- Aghas replaced by large families
Style of emulation of central gov remains
- “Citizens had represented an agha and hodja”
Interpersonal connections w/in the modern age has slightly disrupted
Role of women
- Passive throughout the book, draws a parallel to the silent viziers of the ottoman empire
Selimoglu vs Muradoglu
Tea cooperative story, where Hussein sits at a large desk at the tea co-op emulating the president
Mehmet Bey’s fall from grace due to not being engaged within the two family system
Familial ties remain, where nicknames stuck <— on an anthropological level
Reorinetation of social structures
Life and death in the empire
Stories about the french traveling, and the mouth and organs of the central empire sets up the logical nature of recursive emulation
Blindness of outsiders to this recursive system, where the French/British consul was the only one would took into account this system
Name law, unveiling encouragement
Uneven application of methods: history transitions into anthropology

Hodjas are brought up, so much of the book is focused on Islam as a passive force, but islam actually remains one of the more consistent aspects of the region
Exisiting power circuits remain, but islam glues this together, rooted in some kind of islamic notion
- Supported via the “conservatism” notion of Of (women need to be veiled)
- Supported via the notion that Oflus are religious extremists
- Oflus felt lost without an Imam

What is the legitmate affect of Islam today within this region?
Ottoman is a highly loaded term, typically drawing upon the hiers of the great islamic empires
Shifting of turkish identity from Islam and the Ottoman house/state to an individual identity
- Battle of Of
- Giant mosque being built as of 1980
General conversion of Greeks into Islamic beliefs