2 • The Ottoman Age of Scholarly Debates
Cultures of Patronage, Pride, and Merit in Fifteenth-Century Scholarship
Sultan Meḥmed II’s second reign (855/1451‑886/1481) signaled the beginning of a new phase in Ottoman scholarship. With an imperial program that developed a highly structured bureaucratic system, Meḥmed II’s new establishment set rigid rules that regulated the scholarly path by establishing prestigious institutions based on merit, codifying a hierarchical order, and creating opportunities for a lifetime career in academia that crossed paths with politics. The Ottoman formation of a new learned class in the fifteenth-century also coincided with (albeit not entirely shaped by) a turning point with the conquest of Constantinople/Ḳosṭanṭiniyye in 857/1453, namely the creation of a new capital distinctly imperial and universalist Muslim in character.