RELIGIOUS DIMENSIONS OF PRE-MODERN OTTOMAN TEMPORALITY VIEWED THROUGH OTTOMAN ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPTS

Abstract

The Ottoman Empire is considered pre-modern prior to the 19th century reforms, which aimed at reshaping, modernizing and optimizing the society and state. The reformists shared the pre-existing Western view that the Ottoman society is lazy and inefficient. In the pre-modern Ottoman Empire, time was measured using seasonal hours, which later became the gurubi system (the Alaturka Hour System). Islamic prayer times played a central role in dividing the day into convenient segments, shaping the people’s daily routines and temporality, which led to a characteristic lack of punctuality. The Ottomans encouraged and valued acts of worship, charity, and working for one’s hereafter over work for profit, which created a clear contrast with the Western understanding of work and efficient use of time for profit. The ulema and Sufi luminaries who held important state positions in the pre-modern empire produced morality books and religious manuscripts that affected the morality and temporality of the people. Islamic Ottoman manuscripts serve as an authentic window into the pre-modern Muslim Ottoman mentality which perceived life and time with a central focus on religion. This paper discusses the religious influences on Ottoman temporality and provides examples from pre-modern Ottoman Islamic manuscripts located at the National Library of Latvia.