It is hard to write the histories of empires’ declines, and even harder to write the history of a three centuries-long unrelenting decline. The Ottomans seem to have made it an Iliadic tale to decline for such a prolonged span of time that one finds oneself remarking on the question itself in favour of another that seems to assume more significance: It is no longer why the Ottoman Empire has eventually disintegrated. It is why it has survived for so long in the first place. Much ink has been spilled over the Ottoman collapse, its preludes and aftermaths. Much of it has been, and I think it is accurate to say, inculcated by a predominantly western-centric eye. Historically, one supposes that all has already been written and folded up on the
