Empire and Nation in the City

Mehmet Çelik is a senior academic advisor and lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on Ottoman, Balkan, and Turkish history.

• Introduction 1. Reforming Criminal JusticePolice, Courts, and Prisons, 1839–1864 2. Provincial Administration Reforms of 1864 and Pragmatic Governance 3. Economic Modernization in the Tanzimat4. Bulgarian Nationalism and "Russian Liberation" 5. The Russian Provisional Government, February 8, 1878–April 28, 18796. Rusçuk Under Bulgarian Rule, 1879–1885 Conclusion Bibliography Index

"Masterfully takes us on a journey from the late Ottoman Balkans to the Balkans of the nation-states. Focusing on Rusçuk—one of the most vibrant and cosmopolitan cities of the Danubian Balkans—Çelik shows how Ottoman imperial reform, a short-lived period of Russian rule, and the Bulgarian nation-state unfolded on the ground. Joining a growing body of new scholarship, Çelik foregrounds the transition between Ottoman and national regimes in all its complexity—its continuities and ruptures." —Ali Yaycioglu, author of Partners of the Empire "Çelik’s stimulating book draws on multilingual archival research to explore this urban center on the Danube as the vanguard of Ottoman reform." —Ugur Zekeriya Peçe, author of Island and Empire: How Civil War in Crete Mobilized the Ottoman World "An important work for its innovative perspective, cross-disciplinary approach, and for introducing fresh archival material in several languages." —Leyla Amzi-Erdogdular, author of The Afterlife of Ottoman Europe: Muslims in Habsburg Bosnia Herzegovina