Image of the Modern Ottoman Sultan

Over the course of the dynamic nineteenth century, the image of the Ottoman sultan maintained a complex relationship with ideas surrounding the modernisation of the Empire. This book investigates that relationship by situating the tasvir-i humayun (imperial portrait) within the wider program of top-down modernisation movements initiated at the end of the eighteenth century under Sultan Selim III (r. 1789-1807) and culminating in the Tanzimat (Reorganization) era (1839-76). The study breaks new ground by considering the use of new image-making technologies and aesthetic trends - including oil-on-canvas paintings, lithographic prints, and photographs - primarily at the imperial court in Istanbul, but also at the provincial courts of the Ottoman Balkans.