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PAVIĆ, Milorad
The Misconception of the Ottoman Empire History and Its Institutions in Southeastern Europe
as a Result of Wrong Teaching of the Old Education System
The aim of this paper is to point to a distorted perception of the old educational system, caused by mishandling
and partial approach to the study of the Ottoman history. The paper is based on contemporary literature, and is spatially
limited to its European part, precisely the space of Southeastern Europe.
There are many questions that caused controversy about the nature of the Ottoman administrations. One of them
refers to the forced Islamisation. How true is the statement that the Ottomans exercised constant pressure on the Christian
raya to convert to Islam or even implemented forced Islamisation? How was the interest of the Ottomans to forcibly bring
to Islam Christian raya if it paid a much larger share of taxes than the Muslim population? Another issue that causes much
controversy among scholars concerns the system of timars, one of the two basic pillars on which rested the Ottoman Empire.
Also, older historiography did not sufficiently emphasize coexistence of the system of timars and çiftliks and ways of
crossing timars to the latter. Also, respecting of strict hierarchical relationships within system of timar many times was in
contrast with the prescribed laws and regulated system.
These issues and many other questions are the subject of research of many Ottoman scholars and open much
controversy. The answers to these and many other questions will open up for more critical attitude towards the nature of
the Ottoman Empire and see the problem in the right light.
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