The Order and Disorder of Communication : Pamphlets and Polemics in the Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Empire / Nir Shafir.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shafir, Nir, author.

Series:

Stanford Ottoman world series.

Stanford Ottoman World Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Books and reading--Turkey--History--17th century.

Books and reading.

Literature and society--Turkey--History--17th century.

Literature and society.

Manuscripts--Turkey--History--17th century.

Manuscripts.

Pamphlets--Turkey--History--17th century.

Pamphlets.

Written communication--Turkey--History--17th century.

Written communication.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (438 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2024]

Summary:

"The seventeenth-century Ottoman Empire was rife with polemical debate, around worshipping at saints' graves, medical procedures, smoking tobacco, and other everyday practices. Fueling these debates was a new form of writing, the pamphlet - a cheap, short, and mobile text that provided readers with simplified legal arguments. These pamphlets were more than simply a novel way to disseminate texts, they made a consequential shift in the way Ottoman subjects communicated. This book offers the first comprehensive look at a new communication order that flourished in seventeenth-century manuscript culture. Through the example of the pamphlet, Nir Shafir investigates the political and cultural institutions used to navigate, regulate, and encourage the circulation of information in a society in which all books were copied by hand. He sketches an ecology of books, examining how books were produced, the movement of texts regulated, education administered, reading conducted, and publics cultivated. Pamphlets invited both the well and poorly educated to participate in public debates, thus expanding the Ottoman body politic. They also spurred an epidemic of fake authors and popular forms of reading. Thus, pamphlets became both the forum and the fuel for the polarization of Ottoman society. Based on years of research in Islamic manuscript libraries worldwide, this book illuminates a vibrant and evolving premodern manuscript culture"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Production

Circulation

Education

Reading, elite

Polemics

Pamphlets

Polarization

Reading, popular

Publics

Pamphleteer.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781503639577

1503639576

OCLC:

1455138707