Stephanov, Darin N. Ruler Visibility and Popular Belonging in the Ottoman Empire, 1808-1908. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018. 256 Sayfa. ISBN 9781474441414

Abstract

Darin N. Stephanov’s first monograph examines how the late Ottoman dynasty’s image-management policies influenced their non-elite subjects, particularly Bulgarian-speaking Christians. Stephanov argues that Ottoman regimes manipulated “ruler visibility” to encourage subjects to identify with and invest in the future of the empire and that these practices paradoxically paved the way for Ottoman Bulgars to conceive of themselves in ethnonational terms. The book thus makes a convincing case for the importance of monarchies in bridging late imperial and early national contexts.