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111-522: Originally, the Imperial Council was probably an informal advisory body of senior statesmen, but also functioned as a court of law. In the 14th century and until the mid-15th century, it seems to have been headed by the Sultan in person, "suggesting that relations between sultan and viziers were still informal, with the sultan’s advisors in the role of allies as much as subordinates" according to

222-639: A civil proceeding in a French court under the Gayssot Law . The prosecution failed because the court determined that the law did not apply to events before World War II. In a 1995 civil proceeding brought by three Armenian genocide survivors, a French court censured Lewis' remarks under Article 1382 of the Civil Code and fined him one franc, and ordering the publication of the judgment at Lewis' cost in Le Monde . The court ruled that while Lewis has

333-643: A daughter and a son. Their marriage was dissolved in 1974. Lewis became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982. In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies , SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in

444-607: A grille-covered window ( kasr-ı adil ) overlooking the Council chamber and connected directly with the Sultan's private quarters in the harem , added either in the early reign of Süleyman the Magnificent or, according to another tradition, already by Mehmed II. It is clear, however, that each Sultan favoured a different style of government, and their roles changed even within the same reign: thus Ahmed I ( r.  1603–1617 )

555-554: A kind of moral authority or spiritual power (as opposed to political power), and it is used in this sense several times in the Qur'an . In the early Muslim world , ultimate power and authority was theoretically held by the caliph, who was considered the leader of the caliphate. The increasing political fragmentation of the Muslim world after the 8th century, however, challenged this consensus. Local governors with administrative authority held

666-467: A kind of prince. The best of sultans was elected as khan by people at Kurultai . In a number of post-caliphal states under Mongol or Turkic rule, there was a feudal type of military hierarchy. These administrations were often decimal (mainly in larger empires), using originally princely titles such as khan , malik , amir as mere rank denominations. In the Persian empire , the rank of sultan

777-563: A large part of the Council's actual business. The Grand Vizier's pre-eminence was formalized in 1654, when a dedicated building ( bab-i ali , the " Sublime Porte ", or pasha kapısı ) was constructed to serve the Grand Vizier both as a residence and as an office. The bureaucracy serving the Imperial Council was gradually transferred to this new location, and by the 18th century, the Imperial Council itself had, according to Bernard Lewis, "dwindled into insignificance". The reformist sultans of

888-410: A monolithic entity without the nuance of its plurality, internal dynamics, and historical complexities, and accused him of "demagogy and downright ignorance". In Covering Islam , Said argued that "Lewis simply cannot deal with the diversity of Muslim, much less human life, because it is closed to him as something foreign, radically different, and other," and he criticised Lewis's "inability to grant that

999-617: A parallel with the holocaust in Germany, you would have to assume the Jews of Germany had been engaged in an armed rebellion against the German state, collaborating with the allies against Germany. That in the deportation order the cities of Hamburg and Berlin were exempted, persons in the employment of state were exempted, and the deportation only applied to the Jews of Germany proper, so that when they got to Poland they were welcomed and sheltered by

1110-460: A person would spend a lifetime studying people he loathes? It is quite a bizarre proposition. But there you have it: the late Bernard Lewis did precisely that." Similarly, Richard Bulliet described Lewis as "...a person who does not like the people he is purporting to have expertise about...he doesn't respect them, he considers them to be good and worthy only to the degree they follow a Western path". According to As'ad AbuKhalil , "Lewis has poisoned

1221-534: A political level, Lewis's detractors say he revived the image of the cultural inferiority of Islam and of emphasizing the dangers of jihad . His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration . His active support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny. Lewis was notable for his public debates with Edward Said , who said Lewis

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1332-719: A prime example of Orientalism in his 1978 book Orientalism and in his later book Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (1981). Said asserted that the field of Orientalism was political intellectualism bent on self-affirmation rather than objective study, a form of racism, and a tool of imperialist domination. He further questioned the scientific neutrality of some leading Middle East scholars, including Lewis, on

1443-430: A sultan, as well as his office, are referred to as a sultanate ( سلطنة salṭanah ) . The term is distinct from king ( ملك malik ), though both refer to a sovereign ruler. The use of "sultan" is restricted to Muslim countries, where the title carries religious significance, contrasting the more secular king , which is used in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Brunei , Malaysia and Oman are

1554-632: A threat to the Turks as a rebellious force who together with the Russians threatened the Ottoman Empire, and the insistence that only a policy of deportations was executed, barely conceal the fact that the organized deportations constituted systematic mass murder". Charny compares the "logical structures" employed by Lewis in his denial of the genocide to those employed by Ernst Nolte in his Holocaust negationism . Lewis has also falsely implied that

1665-539: Is a question of definition and nowadays the word "genocide" is used very loosely even in cases where no bloodshed is involved at all and I can understand the annoyance of those who feel refused. But in this particular case, the point that was being made was that the massacre of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was the same as what happened to Jews in Nazi Germany and that is a downright falsehood. What happened to

1776-481: Is a very strong medicine which has to be administered to the patient in small, gradually increasing doses. Otherwise, you risk killing the patient. In the main, the Muslims have to do it themselves." Ian Buruma , writing for The New Yorker in an article subtitled "The two Minds of Bernard Lewis", finds Lewis's stance on the war difficult to reconcile with Lewis's past statements cautioning democracy enforcement in

1887-542: Is known as Raja Isteri with the title of Pengiran Anak suffixed, should the queen consort also be a royal princess. These are generally secondary titles, either lofty 'poetry' or with a message, e.g.: By the beginning of the 16th century, the title sultan was carried by both men and women of the Ottoman dynasty and was replacing other titles by which prominent members of the imperial family had been known (notably khatun for women and bey for men). This usage underlines

1998-515: Is not only untrue, it is impossible. The alleged choice—conversion or death—is also, with rare and atypical exceptions, untrue. Muslim tolerance of unbelievers and misbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom until the rise of secularism in the 17th century. Muslim fighters are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged unless they attack first; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warnings of

2109-403: Is recorded as refusing an audience with his Grand Vizier, demanding written reports instead, while Murad III ( r.  1574–1595 ) at first once more presided over Council meetings in person, but increasingly withdrew from active participation as his reign proceeded. By the mid-17th century, on the other hand, the former elaborate protocol at Council sessions had once more been relaxed, and it

2220-701: Is reported by the Ottoman renegade Bobovi that the Sultan (possibly Murad IV , r.  1623–1640 ) once more presided over Council meetings in person. In addition, the courtiers and servants of the Inner Palace, or the members of the Imperial Harem such as the Valide Sultan (Sultana mother) or the Haseki Sultan (Sultana consort), who had direct and intimate access to the Sultan's person, often influenced government decisions bypassing

2331-626: Is that of the Western scholar. His beloved civilization is sick. And what would be more heartwarming to an old Orientalist than to see the greatest Western democracy cure the benighted Muslim? It is either that or something less charitable: if a final showdown between the great religions is indeed the inevitable result of a millennial clash, then we had better make sure that we win. Hamid Dabashi , writing on 28 May 2018, in an article subtitled "On Bernard Lewis and 'his extraordinary capacity for getting everything wrong'", asked: "Just imagine: What sort of

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2442-572: The Arab World . In an interview with Al-Ahram weekly, Said suggested that Lewis's knowledge of the Middle East was so biased that it could not be taken seriously and claimed "Bernard Lewis hasn't set foot in the Middle East, in the Arab world, for at least 40 years. He knows something about Turkey, I'm told, but he knows nothing about the Arab world." Said considered that Lewis treats Islam as

2553-590: The Armenian genocide as "the terrible holocaust of 1915, when a million and a half Armenians perished". In later editions, this text is altered to "the terrible slaughter of 1915, when, according to estimates, more than a million Armenians perished, as well as an unknown number of Turks ". In this passage, Lewis argues that the deaths were the result of a struggle for the same land between two competing nationalist movements. The change in Lewis's textual description of

2664-632: The Foreign Office . After the war, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern history . In 2007, Lewis was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East". Others have said Lewis's approach is essentialist and generalizing to the Muslim world, as well as his tendency to restate hypotheses that were challenged by more recent research. On

2775-634: The Ottoman Empire is rejected by other historians. He said that the mass killings resulted from a mutual struggle between two nationalistic movements, a view that has been criticized as "ahistorical." Bernard Lewis was born on 31 May 1916 to middle-class British Jewish parents, Harry Lewis and the former Jane Levy, in Stoke Newington , London. He became interested in languages and history while preparing for his bar mitzvah . In 1947 he married Ruth Hélène Oppenhejm, with whom he had

2886-731: The Second World War , Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940–41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office . After the war, he returned to SOAS, where he would remain for the next 25 years. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1963, Lewis was granted fellowship of

2997-529: The Sultanate of Women , as the position of main consort eroded over the course of the 17th century, with the main consort losing the title of "sultan", which was replaced by "kadin", a title related to the earlier "khatun". Henceforth, the mother of the reigning sultan was the only person of non imperial blood to carry the title "sultan". In Kazakh Khanate a Sultan was a lord from the ruling dynasty (a direct descendants of Genghis Khan ) elected by clans, i.e.

3108-495: The kadi'askers tended to come from a very limited circle of legal families), the viziers were, after 1453, mostly drawn from Christian converts. These were partly voluntary (including, until the early 16th century, members of Byzantine and other Balkan aristocratic families) but over time the products of the devshirme system, which inducted humble-born youths into the Palace School , came to predominate. An appointment to

3219-419: The verbal noun سلطة sulṭah , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who claimed almost full sovereignty (i.e., not having dependence on any higher ruler) without claiming the overall caliphate , or to refer to a powerful governor of a province within the caliphate. The adjectival form of the word is "sultanic", and the state and territories ruled by

3330-721: The "ideology of jihad " and warned that bin Laden would be a danger to the West. The essay was published after the Clinton administration and the US intelligence community had begun its hunt for bin Laden in Sudan and then in Afghanistan . Some of his views have been likened to the Eurabia thesis, such as warning that Europe would turn Muslim by the end of the century, becoming "part of

3441-640: The 16th century when the Ottoman Empire conquered the Mamluk Empire and became the indisputable leading Sunni Muslim power across most of the Middle East , North Africa , and Eastern Europe . The 16th-century Ottoman scholar and jurist, Ebüssuûd Mehmet Efendi , recognized the Ottoman sultan ( Suleiman the Magnificent at the time) as the caliph and universal leader of all Muslims. This conflation of sultan and caliph became more clearly emphasized in

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3552-550: The 19th century during the Ottoman Empire's territorial decline, when Ottoman authorities sought to cast the sultan as the leader of the entire Muslim community in the face of European ( Christian ) colonial expansion . As part of this narrative, it was claimed that when Sultan Selim I captured Cairo in 1517, the last descendant of the Abbasids in Cairo formally passed on the position of caliph to him. This combination thus elevated

3663-571: The Arab West, the Maghreb", and his 2007 pamphlet Europe and Islam said demographic changes could be realized "in the foreseeable future." Lewis writes of jihad as a distinct religious obligation, but suggests that it is a pity that people engaging in terrorist activities are not more aware of their own religion: The fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword

3774-542: The Armenian genocide and his signing of the petition against the Congressional resolution was controversial among some Armenian historians as well as journalists, who suggested that Lewis was engaging in historical negationism to serve his own political and personal interests. Lewis called the label "genocide" the "Armenian version of this history" in a November 1993 interview with Le Monde , for which he faced

3885-513: The Armenian genocide were criticized by a number of historians and sociologists, among them Alain Finkielkraut , Yves Ternon , Richard G. Hovannisian , Robert Melson , and Pierre Vidal-Naquet . Lewis did not deny that large numbers of murders took place, but he denied that they were a purposeful Young Turk government policy and therefore they should not be categorized as a genocide . In 2002, he argued for his denial stance: This

3996-504: The Armenians had military and police forces at their disposal, whom they could have called upon, when, in reality, they had no such forces at all. In the mid-1960s, Lewis emerged as a commentator on the issues of the modern Middle East and his analysis of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the rise of militant Islam brought him publicity and aroused significant controversy. American historian Joel Beinin has called him "perhaps

4107-458: The Armenians was the result of a massive Armenian armed rebellion against the Turks, which began even before war broke out, and continued on a larger scale. Great numbers of Armenians, including members of the armed forces, deserted, crossed the frontier and joined the Russian forces invading Turkey. Armenian rebels actually seized the city of Van and held it for a while intending to hand it over to

4218-600: The British Academy. In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study , also located in Princeton , New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked

4329-668: The Council Chamber ( Arz Odası ) in the Topkapi Palace, where they were received by the chief usher ( çavuş başı ) and the intendant of the doorkeepers ( kapıcılar kethudası ). By the 16th century, however, the full Council met regularly on four days of the week, on Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, and sessions lasted from seven to eight hours, beginning at dawn and ending at mid-day in summer and mid-afternoon in winter. The members ate three times during each council session, breakfasting after their arrival, then after

4440-533: The Council's membership was extended to include additional officials: In addition, a number of officials attended Council meetings but did not have seats in the chamber and did not take part in the discussions, such as the head of the scribes ( reis ül-küttab ), the çavuş başı , the kapıcılar kethudası , various financial secretaries and palace officials, interpreters ( tercüman , whence " dragoman ") and police chiefs, each in turn with his own retinue of clerks and assistants. An ever-expanding scribal service, under

4551-694: The East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture , given to the American Enterprise Institute , was published as Europe and Islam . Lewis's influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as

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4662-645: The Egyptians knowledge of and pride in their forgotten, ancient past?" Furthermore, Lewis accused Said of politicizing the scientific study of the Middle East (and Arabic studies in particular); neglecting to critique the scholarly findings of the Orientalists; and giving "free rein" to his biases. In 2002, Lewis wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal regarding the buildup to the Iraq War entitled "Time for Toppling", where he stated his opinion that "a regime change may well be dangerous, but sometimes

4773-489: The French and English pursued the study of Islam in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet not in an organized way, but long before they had any control or hope of control in the Middle East; and that much of Orientalist study did nothing to advance the cause of imperialism. In his 1993 book Islam and the West , Lewis wrote "What imperial purpose was served by deciphering the ancient Egyptian language, for example, and then restoring to

4884-481: The Grand Vizier—according to some 16th-century accounts, however, this was done by the entire Council—would go to report on proceedings to the Sultan in the Inner Palace. These interviews between the Grand Vizier and the Sultan were probably the main conduit of communication between the ruler and his government. At the same time, the Sultan could, if he wished, secretly listen in on the Council in session behind

4995-408: The Imperial Council and the Grand Vizier altogether. Over time, as the importance of the Grand Vizier within the Ottoman system rose at the expense of the palace, it became common to hold an afternoon meeting ( ikindi divani ) to wrap up leftover issues, after the afternoon prayer ( ikindi ), at the Grand Vizier's residence. Eventually, the ikindi divani came to meet five times a week and took over

5106-476: The Islamic peoples are entitled to their own cultural, political, and historical practices, free from Lewis's calculated attempt to show that because they are not Western... they can't be good." Rejecting the view that Western scholarship was biased against the Middle East, Lewis responded that Orientalism developed as a facet of European humanism , independently of the past European imperial expansion. He noted

5217-416: The Magnificent ( r.  1520–1566 ), who ceased to attend Council meetings altogether. Nevertheless Mehmed II's successor, Bayezid II ( r.  1481–1512 ) is still recorded as openly chairing sessions of the Council in person, although by this time, these occasions were involved in elaborate ceremonial, in stark contrast to the informality of such audiences before Mehmed II. After Edirne became

5328-472: The Middle East academic field more than any other Orientalist and his influence has been both academic and political. But there is a new generation of Middle East experts in the West who now see clearly the political agenda of Bernard Lewis. It was fully exposed in the Bush years." In 2006, Lewis wrote that Iran had been working on a nuclear weapon for fifteen years. In August 2006, in an article about whether

5439-570: The Middle East, and other writings, formed the intellectual basis of the push towards war in Iraq. Hirsch reported that Lewis had told him in an interview that he viewed the 11 September attacks as "the opening salvo of the final battle" between Western and Islamic civilisations: Lewis believed that a forceful response was necessary. In the run up to the Iraq War, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney several times: Hirsch quoted an unnamed official who

5550-826: The Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian Civil War (1992–1998), and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988). In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and

5661-439: The Ottoman Empire. There is no evidence of a decision to massacre. On the contrary, there is considerable evidence of attempt to prevent it, which were not very successful. Yes there were tremendous massacres, the numbers are very uncertain but a million nay may well be likely. [and] The massacres were carried out by irregulars, by local villagers responding to what had been done to them and in number of other ways. But to make this,

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5772-466: The Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics. Lewis argued that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to

5883-640: The Ottoman capital in the late 14th century, the Council met at the palace there or anywhere the Sultan currently resided. Following the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Council met initially at the Eski Saray (Old Palace), moving to the Topkapi Palace after its construction in the 1470s. There the Council had a dedicated building ( divanhane ) in the Second Courtyard. The present building

5994-425: The Ottoman conception of sovereign power as family prerogative. Western tradition knows the Ottoman ruler as "sultan", but Ottomans themselves used "padişah" (emperor) or "hünkar" to refer to their ruler. The emperor's formal title consisted of "sultan" together with "khan" (for example, Sultan Suleiman Khan). In formal address, the sultan's children were also entitled "sultan", with imperial princes (Şehzade) carrying

6105-454: The Ottomanist Colin Imber . Meetings were often public or semi-public affairs in which the Sultan would appear surrounded by his senior advisors and hear grievances of his subjects, dispense justice and make appointments to public office. In the case of an interregnum between the death of a Sultan and the arrival of his successor from the provinces, the Council was held by the senior councillors on their own. Later Ottoman tradition held that it

6216-554: The People . Abraham Udovitch described him as "certainly the most eminent and respected historian of the Arab world, of the Islamic world, of the Middle East and beyond". Columbia University historian Richard Bulliet said that Bernard Lewis "looked down on modern Arabs." and suggested that he considers them "worthy only to a degree they follow a Western path." Edward Said called him a Zionist apologist and an orientalist who "demeaned" Arabs. The first two editions of Lewis's The Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961 and 1968) describe

6327-489: The Polish Jews. This seems to me a rather absurd parallel. Lewis has been labelled a "genocide denier" by Stephen Zunes , Israel Charny , David B. MacDonald and the Armenian National Committee of America . Israeli historian Yair Auron suggested that "Lewis' stature provided a lofty cover for the Turkish national agenda of obfuscating academic research on the Armenian Genocide". Israel Charny wrote that Lewis's "seemingly scholarly concern ... of Armenians constituting

6438-449: The Porte") corps, including the Janissaries , as well as for the formal reception of foreign ambassadors, and the ayak divani or "foot council", as everyone remained standing, an emergency session chaired by the Sultan or the army commander when on campaign. Although many decisions were taken outside the formal context of the Imperial Council, it was the main executive body of the Empire, conducting all kinds of tasks of government such as

6549-441: The Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East". In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture , the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities . His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from

6660-466: The Sunni Muslim world. As protectors of the line of the Abbasid caliphs, the Mamluks recognized themselves as sultans and the Muslim scholar Khalil al-Zahiri argued that only they could hold that title. Nonetheless, in practice, many Muslim rulers of this period were now using the title as well. Mongol rulers (who had since converted to Islam) and other Turkish rulers were among those who did so. The position of sultan and caliph began to blend together in

6771-456: The West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks , the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage . Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam ; and Islam: The Religion and

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6882-452: The advent of Islam in the 7th century. In his essay The Roots of Muslim Rage (1990), he argued that the struggle between the West and Islam was gathering strength. According to one source, this essay (and Lewis's 1990 Jefferson Lecture on which the article was based) first introduced the term " Islamic fundamentalism " to North America. This essay has been credited with coining the phrase " clash of civilizations ", which received prominence in

6993-430: The beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990. In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society , Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for

7104-426: The byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades . In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism , Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in

7215-449: The capital of the Abbasid caliphs . The early Seljuk leader Tughril Bey was the first leader to adopt the epithet "sultan" on his coinage . While the Seljuks acknowledged the caliphs in Baghdad formally as the universal leader of the Muslim community , their own political power clearly overshadowed the latter. This led to various Muslim scholars – notably Al-Juwayni and Al-Ghazali – attempting to develop theoretical justifications for

7326-443: The conduct of foreign relations, including the reception of foreign ambassadors, the preparation of campaigns, the construction of fortifications and public buildings, the reception of reports from the provincial governors and the appointments to state office, as well as continuing to function as a court of law, particularly for members of the military class. The inner workings of the Council are obscure, since no minutes were kept during

7437-408: The crisis that followed the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, which eliminated the remnants of Abbasid political power. Henceforth, the surviving descendants of the Abbasid caliphs lived in Cairo under the protection of the Mamluks and were still nominally recognized by the latter. However, from this time on they effectively had no authority and were not universally recognized across

7548-409: The dangers of inaction are greater than those of action". In 2007, Jacob Weisberg described Lewis as "perhaps the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq ". Michael Hirsh attributed to Lewis the view that regime change in Iraq would provide a jolt that would "modernize the Middle East" and suggested that Lewis's allegedly 'orientalist' theories about "what went wrong" in

7659-436: The early evolution of the term is complicated and difficult to establish. The first major figure to clearly grant himself this title was the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud (r. 998–1030 CE) who controlled an empire over present-day Afghanistan and the surrounding region. Soon after, the Great Seljuks adopted this title after defeating the Ghaznavid Empire and taking control of an even larger territory which included Baghdad ,

7770-432: The eponymous book by Samuel Huntington . However, another source indicates that Lewis first used the phrase "clash of civilizations" at a 1957 meeting in Washington where it was recorded in the transcript. In 1998, Lewis read in a London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi a declaration of war on the United States by Osama bin Laden . In his essay "A License to Kill", Lewis indicated he considered bin Laden's language as

7881-499: The extension of the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Modern Turkey holds a special place in Lewis's view of the region due to the country's efforts to become a part of the West. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Turkish Studies , an honor which is given "on the basis of generally recognized scholarly distinction and ... long and devoted service to the field of Turkish Studies." Lewis views Christendom and Islam as civilizations that have been in perpetual collision since

7992-471: The history of Islam . Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris , where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplôme des Études Sémitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History. During

8103-584: The invaders. There was guerilla warfare all over Anatolia. And it is what we nowadays call the National Movement of Armenians Against Turkey. The Turks certainly resorted to very ferocious methods in repelling it. There is clear evidence of a decision by the Turkish Government, to deport the Armenian population from the sensitive areas. Which meant naturally the whole of Anatolia. Not including the Arab provinces which were then still part of

8214-541: The largest Shi'a Muslim state of this era, mainly used the Persian title shah , a tradition which continued under subsequent dynasties. The term sultan , by contrast, was mainly given to provincial governors within their realm. A feminine form of sultan , used by Westerners, is sultana or sultanah and this title has been used legally for some (not all) Muslim women monarchs and sultan's mothers and chief consorts. However, Turkish and Ottoman Turkish also uses sultan for imperial lady, as Turkish grammar uses

8325-739: The last Shah of Iran , the Turkish military dictatorship led by Kenan Evren , and the Egyptian government of Anwar Sadat : he acted as a go-between between the Sadat administration and Israel in 1971 when he relayed a message to the Israeli government regarding the possibility of a peace agreement at the request of Sadat's spokesman Tahasin Bashir. Lewis advocated closer Western ties with Israel and Turkey, which he saw as especially important in light of

8436-455: The late 18th/early 19th century replaced the Imperial Council by a new institution, as well as forming special councils to apply their reforms. This system gradually evolved into a Western-style cabinet government, the Council of Ministers . The principal members of the Council had become fixed by the time of Mehmed II at least. They comprised: The members of the Imperial Council represented

8547-463: The liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies. Although his early Marxist views had a bearing on his first book The Origins of Ismailism , Lewis subsequently discarded Marxism. His later works are a reaction against the left-wing current of Third-worldism which came to be a significant current in Middle Eastern studies . During his career Lewis developed ties with governments around

8658-425: The lines of classical theologians like Al-Ghazali , rather than "the terrorist fanatic that he is". AbuKhalil has also criticized the place of Islam in Lewis's worldview more generally, arguing that the most prominent feature of his work was its "theologocentrism" (borrowing a term from Maxime Rodinson )—that Lewis interprets all aspects of behavior among Muslims solely through the lens of Islamic theology , subsuming

8769-457: The main discussion had been concluded and finally after hearing petitions. In earlier times, the Sultan often dined with the viziers after the Council, but Mehmed II ended this practice. In addition, there were extraordinary sessions of the Council: the ulufe divani or galebe divani , convened each quarter to distribute the quarterly salary ( ulue ) to the members of the kapıkulu ("slaves of

8880-495: The month of Rajab of the year 1427, the day Muslims commemorate the night flight of Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back. Lewis wrote that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world". According to Lewis, mutual assured destruction is not an effective deterrent in the case of Iran, because of what Lewis describes as the Iranian leadership's "apocalyptic worldview" and

8991-541: The most articulate and learned Zionist advocate in the North American Middle East academic community". Lewis's policy advice had particular weight thanks to this scholarly authority. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked "in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media". A harsh critic of the Soviet Union , Lewis continued

9102-405: The most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire , while continuing to research Arab history through

9213-473: The one hand, all decisions were made in his name and on his authority, and Ottoman law codes foresaw that the Sultan could make his wishes known to the Council through the Kapi Agha . In Ottoman legal theory, however, as codified in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Grand Vizier was the Sultan's "absolute deputy" and the sole intermediary between the sovereign and the administration. Therefore after each meeting,

9324-515: The only sovereign states which retain the title "sultan" for their monarchs. In recent years, the title has been gradually replaced by "king" by contemporary hereditary rulers who wish to emphasize their secular authority under the rule of law. A notable example is Morocco , whose monarch changed his title from sultan to king in 1957. The word derives from the Arabic and Semitic root salaṭa "to be hard, strong". The noun sulṭān initially designated

9435-463: The opening of hostilities or their resumption after a truce; and to honor agreements. At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowadays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays. The emergence of the by now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in

9546-519: The opinion of his colleague Fouad Ajami . Hirsch also drew parallels between the Bush administration 's plans for post-invasion Iraq and Lewis's views, in particular his admiration for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk 's secularist and Westernising reforms in the new Republic of Turkey which emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire . Writing in 2008, Lewis did not advocate imposing freedom and democracy on Islamic nations. "There are things you can't impose. Freedom, for example. Or democracy. Democracy

9657-495: The pinnacles of their respective specialized careers: the viziers the military-political; the kadi'askers the legal; the defterdars the financial service; and the nişancı the palace scribal service. This was all the more the case after the 16th century, when these careers became—as a general rule—mutually exclusive. While the latter groups were from the outset recruited mostly from the Muslim Turkish population (although

9768-460: The political authority of the Seljuk sultans within the framework of the formal supreme authority of the recognized caliphs. In general, the theories maintained that all legitimate authority derived from the caliph, but that it was delegated to sovereign rulers whom the caliph recognized. Al-Ghazali, for example, argued that while the caliph was the guarantor of Islamic law ( shari'a ), coercive power

9879-453: The post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily

9990-465: The ranks of the Imperial Council was an avenue to great power, influence and enormous wealth, which was matched by equally ostentatious expenditure for, as Colin Imber writes, "the sign of a man's status in Ottoman society was the size of his household and the size of his retinue when he appeared in public", meaning that the members of the Council often kept hundreds, if not thousands, of slaves. Over time,

10101-637: The right to his views, their expression harmed a third party and that "it is only by hiding elements which go against his thesis that the defendant was able to state there was no 'serious proof' of the Armenian Genocide". Three other court cases against Bernard Lewis failed in the Paris tribunal, including one filed by the Armenian National Committee of France and two filed by Jacques Trémollet de Villers . Lewis's views on

10212-585: The same words for both women and men (such as Hurrem Sultan and Sultan Suleiman Han ( Suleiman the Magnificent )). The female leaders in Muslim history are correctly known as "sultanas". However, the wife of the sultan in the Sultanate of Sulu is styled as the "panguian" while the sultan's chief wife in many sultanates of Indonesia and Malaysia are known as "permaisuri", "Tunku Ampuan", "Raja Perempuan", or "Tengku Ampuan". The queen consort in Brunei especially

10323-408: The service seems to have consisted solely of Muslims. The main branches of this secretarial service were: Sultan Sultan ( / ˈ s ʌ l t ən / ; Arabic : سلطان sulṭān , pronounced [sʊlˈtˤɑːn, solˈtˤɑːn] ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from

10434-411: The sessions, but the wording of Council decrees indicates that most decisions were prompted by petitions addressing a specific problem. Later foreign observers reporting on Ottoman affairs also stressed that the council was "purely consultative, the final responsibility resting with the Grand Vizier" ( Bernard Lewis ). It is impossible to determine what role the Sultan played in the Council's workings. On

10545-520: The study of Muslim peoples, their languages, the geographical areas where Muslims predominate, Islamic governments, the governments of Arab countries and Sharia under the label of "Islam". Lewis was known for his literary debates with Edward Said , the Palestinian American literary theorist whose aim was to analyze and criticize Orientalist scholarship. Said, who was a professor at Columbia University , characterized Lewis's work as

10656-579: The sultan's religious or spiritual authority, in addition to his formal political authority. During this later period, the title of sultan was still used outside the Ottoman Empire as well, as with the examples of the Somali aristocrats , Malay nobles and the sultans of Morocco (such as the Alaouite dynasty founded in the 17th century). It was, however, not used as a sovereign title by Shi'a Muslim rulers. The Safavid dynasty of Iran , who controlled

10767-572: The supervision of the reis ül-küttab , assisted the members of the Council, preparing the material for its sessions, keeping records of its decisions and creating the necessary documents. As their duties included drafting the state correspondence with other powers, initially they were probably drawn from various milieus, since until the early 16th century the Sultans corresponded with foreign rulers in their own language. After c.  1520 documents were only drawn up in Turkish, Arabic or Persian, and

10878-483: The terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition. As'ad AbuKhalil , has criticized this view and stated: "Methodologically, [Lewis] insists that terrorism by individual Muslims should be considered Islamic terrorism, while terrorism by individual Jews or Christians is never considered Jewish or Christian terrorism." He also criticised Lewis's understanding of Osama bin Laden , seeing Lewis's interpretation of bin Laden "as some kind of influential Muslim theologian" along

10989-559: The title before their given name, and imperial princesses carrying it after. For example: Şehzade Sultan Mehmed and Mihrimah Sultan , son and daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent. Like imperial princesses, the living mother and main consort of the reigning sultan also carried the title after their given names, for example: Hafsa Sultan , Suleiman's mother and first valide sultan , and Hürrem Sultan , Suleiman's chief consort and first haseki sultan . The evolving usage of this title reflected power shifts among imperial women, especially between

11100-474: The title of amīr ( أمير , traditionally "commander" or " emir ", later also "prince") and were appointed by the caliph, but in the 9th century some of these became de facto independent rulers who founded their own dynasties, such as the Aghlabids and Tulunids . Towards the late 10th century, the term "sultan" begins to be used to denote an individual ruler with practically sovereign authority, although

11211-465: The world at large. Buruma ultimately rejects suggestions by his peers that Lewis promotes war with Iraq to safeguard Israel, but instead concludes "perhaps he loves it [the Arab world] too much": It is a common phenomenon among Western students of the Orient to fall in love with a civilization. Such love often ends in bitter impatience when reality fails to conform to the ideal. The rage, in this instance,

11322-533: The world can rely on the concept of mutual assured destruction as a deterrent in its dealings with Iran, Lewis wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the significance of 22 August 2006 in the Islamic calendar . The Iranian president had indicated he would respond by that date to U.S. demands regarding Iran's development of nuclear power. Lewis wrote that the date corresponded to the 27th day of

11433-463: The world: during her time as Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir assigned Lewis's articles as reading to her cabinet members, and during the presidency of George W. Bush, he advised administration members including Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. He was also close to King Hussein of Jordan and his brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal . He also had ties to the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ,

11544-470: Was Mehmed II ( r.  1444–1446, 1451–1481 ) who abandoned the practice of presiding over the council in person, instead relegating this responsibility to the Grand Vizier , ipso facto defining the latter as a distinct office from the other viziers. Mehmed II's law-code states that the Sultan would observe Council sessions behind a screen, a practice which lasted until the reign of Süleyman

11655-415: Was a Zionist apologist and an Orientalist who "demeaned" Arabs, misrepresented Islam, and promoted Western imperialism , to which Lewis responded by saying Orientalism was a facet of humanism and that Said was politicizing the subject. Lewis was also known for denying the Armenian Genocide . His argument that there was no evidence of a deliberate genocide carried out against the Armenian people by

11766-538: Was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator . Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University . Lewis's expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West . Lewis served as a soldier in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps during the Second World War before being seconded to

11877-410: Was built in the early reign of Süleyman the Magnificent by Grand Vizier Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha , and renovated in 1792 and 1819. The council chamber proper was known as kubbealtı ("under the dome"). During campaigns, the Council met at the Grand Vizier's tent, which was always pitched near the Sultan's own. The law-code of Mehmed II stipulates that the Council had to meet daily, of which four times in

11988-417: Was present at a number of these meetings, who summarised Lewis's view of Iraq as "Get on with it. Don't dither". Brent Scowcroft quoted Lewis as stating that he believed "that one of the things you've got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power". As'ad AbuKhalil has claimed that Lewis assured Cheney that American troops would be welcomed by Iraqis and Arabs, relying on

12099-537: Was required to enforce the law in practice and the leader who exercised that power directly was the sultan. The position of sultan continued to grow in importance during the period of the crusades , when leaders who held the title of "sultan" (such as Salah ad-Din and the Ayyubid dynasty ) led the confrontation against the crusader states in the Levant . Views about the office of the sultan further developed during

12210-579: Was roughly equivalent to that of a modern-day captain in the West; socially in the fifth-rank class, styled ' Ali Jah . Apparently derived from the Arabic malik , this was the alternative native style of the sultans of the Kilwa Sultanate in Tanganyika (presently the continental part of Tanzania). Mfalume is the (Ki) Swahili title of various native Muslim rulers, generally rendered in Arabic and in western languages as Sultan: This

12321-704: Was the native ruler's title in the Tanzanian state of Uhehe. In Indonesia (formerly in the Dutch East Indies ): In Malaysia : In Brunei : In China : In the Philippines : In Thailand : Sultans of sovereign states Sultans in federal monarchies Sultan with power within republics Bernard Lewis Bernard Lewis , FBA (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British-American historian specialized in Oriental studies . He

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