Over the last few decades, methodological insightsof of a comparative and inter-disciplinary nature have triggered major challenges to the textbook notion of a glorious Ottoman ''classical age'' followed by perpetual ''decline'' until the onset of Westernizing reforms in the 19th century. To be counterposed to the static nature of this traditional paradigm is a dynamic, historical treatment of socio-economic transformations and continuities over 1300-1800. Issues to be covered include : land tenure; the organization of urban production, trade, and credit relations; the challenge posed by the rise of the modern world system; family and gender relations; ethnic and religious diversity; intellectual life; popular culture and forms of plebeian protest; the mechanisms of social and political control; and relations between state and society.
