ΟΙ ΟΘΩΜΑΝΙΚΕΣ ΠΡΟΣΛΗΨΕΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΣΕΡΒΙΚΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗΣ ΕΠΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΗΣ: ΜΙΑ ΑΠΟΠΕΙΡΑ ΤΥΠΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate how the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II, the central state elite and the intelligentsia experienced the Serbian and the Greek Revolution. It also examines the Ottoman attempts to quell the rebellions and to reincorporate their Orthodox subjects back to the imperial order. A comparative approach regarding the two revolutionary movements is quite revealing as it demonstrates a set of differences between the two cases. First and foremost, the Serbian rebellion broke out as a spontaneous reaction to the oppressive policies of local Ottoman authorities. On the other hand, the outburst of the Greek Revolution was the result of the adoption of a new collective identity that was triggered by a secularization process under the influence of the modernist ideas of the French Revolution and the Enlightenment. At the same time, however, apart from the differences there are also some striking similarities, or at least, common features that instigated the revolutionary movements, such as the same Ottoman political framework, the impact of the penetration of the modernist ideas and the political claims for autonomy or independence.

Against this background, the above-mentioned framework, provides us the opportunity to attempt a typological approach of the two cases through the examination of the contemporary Ottoman sources and the terminology applied by the Sublime Porte in her effort to contextualize the “sedition” of her subjects. Based on a vast array of primary Ottoman sources during the revolutionary movements we seek to interpret the Ottoman reactions without retrospective and anachronistic explanations.