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Empire and Nation in the City: Rusçuk from Ottoman Rule to Bulgarian Statehood

Empire and Nation in the City: Rusçuk from Ottoman Rule to Bulgarian Statehood

Hardcover

Series: Modern Intellectual and Political History of the Middle East

General Political ScienceTurkey & Ottoman Empire History

ISBN10: 0815612044
ISBN13: 9780815612049
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: May 26 2026
Pages: 352
Weight: 1.33
Height: 1.03 Width: 6.32 Depth: 9.25
Language: English

In the age of nationalism, the Ottoman Empire charted a different course, one promoting Ottomanism as a unifying identity through ambitious modernizing reforms. With the establishment of the Danube Province in 1864, Rusçuk (present-day Bulgaria) became its capital and a test case in a contested provincial landscape. What followed were a series of swift political transitions from a modernized Ottoman administration to a Russian provisional government and finally to a Bulgarian nation-state.

In Empire and Nation in the City, Mehmet Çelik argues that Bulgarian nationalism was not a uniform ideology but a flexible one engaging multiple loyalties--Bulgarian and Ottoman among them. He shows how political integration, economic growth, and surveillance constrained nationalist activity while compelling many non-Muslims to invest in the empire's longevity. Yet pragmatism and social class proved as powerful as nationalism and religion, leaving many individuals indifferent to the later concerns. Rather than assess Ottoman rule and Bulgarian nationhood as separate periods, Çelik reveals the continuity of Ottoman reforms within a burgeoning Bulgarian nation.

Also from

Çelik, Mehmet

Also in

Turkey & Ottoman Empire History