Conversion to Islam in the Balkans: Kisve Bahas Petitions and Ottoman Social Life, 1670-1730

The time may be ripe for modifying some of the old approaches to the study of the Middle East. It is not my intention, at the time, to discuss at any length new approaches to the study of modernization of the Middle East. It will suffice to note the growing divergence of opinion among Westerners and native scholars with regard to the origin and trend of developments in the Middle East.
The native writer’s views on a given event often conflict with those expressed by outsiders. True, the native, immersed in his own culture and compelled to satisfy the demands of a domestic audience, may not have the freedom and the objectivity of an outside observer. But the question still remains whether the outsider’s views on the social, political, and cultural problems of the Middle East are entirely free of his own values and political commitment. Moreover, one may ask whether an outsider can always do a proper justice to an event or trend which his own society did not experience in its historical evolution. A new understanding of Middle Eastern society and its modernization could be achieved by analyzing in the greatest possible detail the internal structural transformation of this society, the emergence of various social groups, their interrelations, and their impact on culture and government. Thus, a factual, empirical approach to the study of the Middle East, free of value judgments or cultural assumptions, should yield satisfactory results.