OSMANLI TARİHİ’NE KUŞBAKIŞI Hayatını Osmanlı tarihi üzerine araştırmalara adamış, kitaplar ve makaleler yazmış, Türkiye’de ve dünyada konferanslar vermiş Halil İnalcık’ın ders notları; pek çok yönden güncelliğini korumakta ve tarih severlere yeni bakış açıları kazandırmakta, yeni ufuklar açmaktadır. İnalcık, 1942 yılında Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi’nde başladığı öğreticiliğine, başta Chicago ile Bilkent olmak üzere Harvard ve Princeton gibi saygın üniversitelerde de devam etmiştir. Lisans, Yüksek Lisans ve Doktora düzeylerindeki bu derslerde, sonradan meslektaşı olacak ve Osmanlı çalışmalarını bugünkü konumuna eriştirecek öğrenciler yetiştirmiştir. Elinizdeki çalışma üç bölümden oluşuyor. İlk bölümde Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’ndan Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’ne uzanan kuşbakışı bir tarih okuması sunuluyor, imparatorluk tarihinin ana hatları en pratik biçimde aktarılıyor. İkinci bölümde yer alan II. Murad (1421-1451), II. Mehmed (1451-1481) ve II. Bayezid (1481-1512) dönemlerindeki askeri ve siyasi gelişmeler, klasik dönemdeki vergilendirme, askerlik işleri, bütçe harcamaları gibi derinlikli meseleler, İnalcık’ın son derece sade üslubuyla kolay biçimde anlaşılıyor. Son bölümde ise Timur’a, kurduğu imparatorluğa ve devrin medeniyetine dair hem hızla okunabilen hem de oldukça doyurucu bir karşılaştırma yer alıyor. Kısa Osmanlı Tarihi: Osmanlı Tarihi’ne Kuşbakışı; hakimiyeti asırlar süren bir imparatorluğu siyasi, askerî ve iktisadî açıdan çok daha anlaşılır hâle getiren bir başucu eseri.
He was born in Istanbul to a Crimean Tatar family, which left Crimea for Constantinople in 1905. His birthday is unknown but İnalcık chose 26 May 1916 for his birthday. He attended Balıkesir Teacher Training School, and then Ankara University, Faculty of Language, History and Geography, Department of History where he graduated from in 1940. He completed his PhD in 1943 in the same department. His PhD thesis was on the Bulgarian question in the late Ottoman Empire.
He entered the same school as an assistant, then he became assistant professor in 1946 and after his return from lecturing in the University of London for a while, he became a professor in the same department in 1952. He lectured in various universities in the United States as a guest professor. In 1972, he was invited by the University of Chicago. Between 1972 and 1993 he taught Ottoman history at the University of Chicago. In 1994, he returned to Turkey and founded history department at Bilkent University where he is still teaching.
In 1993, he donated his valuable collection of books, journals and off-prints on the history of Ottoman Empire to the library of Bilkent University.
He has been member president of many international foundations. He is a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Department of Historical Sciences. He is also a member of the Institute of Turkish Studies.
It had cast down a long, unending ladder right beside me. I placed my foot on it gently. No one heard me.
Then I rose very high, above the clouds. Then I held onto the moon. I pulled the ladder up behind me, so no one could come after.
“You’ve endured well,” luna told me. “It’s time to leave now.” It held me tightly in its arms. It had missed its son.
“Where have you been all this time?” it asked. And at that moment, I understood that it had been waiting for me all along. Patiently and silently.
While I was fighting creatures on earth, it had been fighting so I could fight creatures in the sky. I should have understood from the expression on the full moon, from how directly it stared into my eyes, on those nights when a gentle gloom covered everything.
And now we were embracing. I could not believe we were finally side by side. Perhaps I did not want to believe, so the taste would not fade too quickly.
Right then it pulled me into space. It was done, we were leaving. We were transcending reality together.
Here, they could no longer reach us. Here, they could no longer separate us. Because here, there was no one but us.
I kissed it on the cheek and a taste of stone and chalk filled my mouth. It, however, kissed me on my heart, and the taste it took in was me.
I entrusted my hand to it, and with joy I gave my heart to being drawn into its fairy-tale dimension, into the depths of space.
Kitabın III. bölümünün önsöz kısmında Halil İnalcık'ın kaleme aldığı, kişisel tarihinden kısa birkaç anekdotu okumak, en az kitabın kendisi kadar keyifli bir deneyimdi benim için.
Halil hocanın yılların bilgi birikimiyle yaptığı analiz ve açıklamalar zihin açıcı. Osmanlı, hatta türk tarihine ait detaylı okumalar yapmadan önce genel resmi daha iyi analiz etmek açısından çok güzel bir kitap. Mesela uç beylerin ve 'gaza' kavramının önemi gibi meseleler benim kafamda daha iyi oturdu bu kitabı okuduktan sonra.