Introduction

Very often, the editors responsible for collections of articles will state that they have joined originally disparate contributions into coherent publications that resemble single-author books. Put differently, these editors claim to have established strong connections between the pieces entrusted to them by individual authors. Often these editors will go so far as to rename the articles at issue, now calling them ‘chapters’. By contrast, the present collection is consciously eclectic, and the editor does not aim at presenting the eight articles appearing here as parts of a unified whole. Rather, I hope that readers will be able to visualise, at least in part, the diversity of approaches to pre-1850s Ottoman social history as practiced today. Moreover, this collection should make visible some trends that may be relevant for the future, the historians at issue—with the exception of the present author—being either young scholars or else in mid-career.