Can Eyüp Çekiç

Savoir Vivre Cosmopolite: Ottomanism and Cosmopolitanism in Ahmed Midhat's Alafranga Can Eyüp Çekiç

This study is formed as a re-reading of Ahmed Midhat?s etiquette book, Alafranga, according to some recent debates like that of occidentalism, the question of cosmopolitanism and elitism, everyday life practices. The most important aim of this study is to expose the ability and the tool-kit of an Ottoman intellectual, who claims himself belong to the Ottoman Nation, making use of the knowledge of the west for domestic politics and arguments in order to propose a genuine, self-governing and permanent Ottoman culture. Besides the knowledge of the west, Ahmed Midhat?s Alafranga represents a very significant literary form that demonstrates the modern change in the intellectual production in Europe. In that perspective, exposing his motivations behind writing an etiquette manual, a literary form which is related to the modern idea of creating a mechanism of self-control for the individuals, and at large for the society itself, is significant the ways in which these motivations represent the ideas of a Tanzimat intellectual on the modernization of the Ottoman society, considering his sympathy for the Hamidian worldview and modernization projects.