Speaker
Description
This paper provides an in-depth examination of the narrative surrounding “Ottoman materialism” in late Ottoman historiography, focusing particularly on the common assumptions clustered around the Ṭıbbiyye (Medical School) students. While mainstream accounts often conceptualise the so-called “Ottoman modernisation” by contending that institutions such as the Ḥarbiyye (Military Academy), the Mülkiyye (Civil Service School), and the Ṭıbbiyye merely imported “Western thought” and its outputs, this study uncovers far more complex networks of relations and subjectivities. Drawing on European and North American travel accounts (e.g., Charles MacFarlane), along with Ottoman medical curricula, scholarly production, teşrīḥ (dissection) practices, and detailed student profiles, the paper assesses how securely grounded the claims of materialist inclinations at the Ṭıbbiyye truly are. In addition, it considers whether this alleged “Ottoman materialism” developed into a broader intellectual current—intersecting with philosophical, intellectual, and economic domains—rather than simply constituting a transient trend. By moving beyond the notion of the Ṭıbbiyye as a monolithic, transformative institution, the study highlights the diverse subjectivities and strands of thought that shaped it. Admittedly, one can follow standard historiographical perspectives on “modernity” or nation-formation by tracing the medicalisation of life, populations, and bodies. However, the very bodies of these medical students, steeped in centuries of cultural and historical experience, lead us to question overly neat “modernity” theses. Indeed, on closer inspection, nineteenth-century Ottoman debates concentrated predominantly on concepts such as the nefs (self or psyche), consciousness, and the life of the soul—categories that anticipated, or even fused with, emerging notions of psychology.emphasized text
Short Biography
Utku Can Akın earned his BA from Bilkent University, where he initially studied economics before majoring in international relations and minoring in history. He went on to complete an MA in History at Boğaziçi University, writing a thesis titled “A Critical Perspective on Scientific and Technological Input in Late Ottoman Cotton Cultivation, 1840–1876,” in which he explored how contemporary agronomic methods and techniques—rooted in emerging scientific and technological insights—reshaped late Ottoman cotton production. Akın is currently pursuing a PhD in Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations (focusing on Ottoman History) at the University of Toronto, examining how local and international intellectual currents intersected within “gentlemen’s clubs” in Istanbul between roughly 1839 and 1876. His work engages with the social, cultural, economic, and intellectual facets of the late Ottoman Empire, drawing on insights from science and technology studies and the history of medicine. Looking ahead, he aims to broaden his research to explore how scientific, literary, and engineering endeavours influenced changing social imaginaries in various contexts.
| Keywords | Materialism, Ottoman historiography, history of medicine, medical students |
|---|---|
| utku.akin@mail.utoronto.ca | |
| Affiliation | University of Toronto |
| Position | PhD Candidate |
