Charles Issawi as an Economic Historian of Middle East and His The Economic History of Turkey
Charles Issawi is no doubt one of the most distinguished scholars in field of the Economic History of the Middle East. In fact, he has established the field as a discipline in itself. He interprets the history of the Middle East in cycles, which is an obvious influence of Ibn Khaldun. His fields of interest range from modern Egypt to political and cultural studies, even if the Economic History of the Middle East remains as his main profession. This article, after presenting a brief view of the place of Issawi in the Economic History of the Middle East, will review his book The Economic History of Turkey, 1800-1914. The contribution of the book to the field is at least twofold: On one hand, it is a good collection of valuable documents with different languages on Ottoman History from Public Record Office, French Foreign Office, and Austrian Archives etc. On the other hand, it gives us the clues of how Issawi evaluates the economic history of Turkey within the history of Middle East.
FATİH ERMİŞ
