Ruler Visibility and Popular Belonging in the Ottoman Empire, 1808-1908

This book argues that the periodic ceremonial intrusion into the everyday lives of people across the Ottoman Empire, which the annual royal birthday and accession-day celebrations constituted, had multiple, far-reaching and largely unexplored consequences. On the one hand, it brought ordinary subjects into symbolic contact with the monarch and forged lasting vertical ties of loyalty to him, irrespective of language, location, creed or class. On the other hand, the rounds of royal celebration played a key role in the creation of new types of horizontal ties and ethnic group consciousness that crystallized into national movements and, after the empire's demise, national monarchies.

Review: The book provides fresh avenues to appreciate the evolution of social solidarity within the diverse Ottoman world. [...]Those interested in the formation of ethnonational consciousness in the Ottoman successor states (Bulgaria in particular), will profit from this original study. -- Lucien Frary * Ab Imperio *
This original study provides much food for thought on the 'unintended consequences' of a variety of ethno-nationalisms, including the ubiquitous personality cult within and outside the Ottoman/post-Ottoman orbit. Thus, this book will interest readers who are concerned about the growing prevalence of ethno-nationalism in the post-Cold War world and who hope to devise countervailing solutions before it is too late. * Suraiya Faroqhi, Ibn Haldun University *
[...] the book constitutes an important contribution to the study of Ottoman and Balkan modernity. Stephanov has convincingly illustrated that the evolution of ruler visibility policies and royal ceremonies was a barometer of sociopolitical and sociocultural change in the late Ottoman Empire. -- Andreas Lyberatos * Turkish Historical Review *
Stephanov makes a very convincing case for the importance of monarchical institutions in bridging late imperial and early national contexts through the application of a highly original approach to the study of the Ottoman dynasty. -- Arlen Wiesenthal, University of Chicago * Kadim *