The Rise of Non-Muslim Historiography in the Eighteenth Century

TL;DRAbstract

After the emergence and consolidation of Ottoman historiography in the 16th century, the writing of general O toman ory seemed, for a long time, to be the exclusive domain of Muslim chroniclers or Western scholars who tried to catch up with them. The historiographical output of the non-Muslim subjects of the empire in their respective languages was to remain remarkably small until the 18th century. Unlike their illustrious late Byzantine predecessors,1 non-Muslim his toriographers were now mainly concerned with local or ecclesiastical af fairs. This development may be explained by the brain drain after the conquest of Constantinople and the ensuing decline in the standards of learning and education among the non-Muslim population, but it seems to be much more due to the lack of patronage, an essential condition and in centive for the activity of a historian. The situation changed in the late 17th and early 18th century with the emergence of new flourishing cul tural centres in the peri

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