A Simple Approach to Overcoming Euro-Specific Feudalism

Ibrahim Mulushewa Eshete
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Ibrahim Mulushewa Eshete: İbn Haldun üniversitesi

Journal of Ibn Haldun Studies [İbn Haldun Çalışmaları Dergisi], 2023, vol. 8, issue 2, 115-125

Abstract: In debates over the nature of the Ottoman social formation, most 20th century Turkish historians have tended to argue that it was "not feudal." I argue that this is mostly because of the extent to which they have unconsciously imported and internalized Eurocentrism. In particular, it is because they have been using a Euro-specific notion or definition of feudalism as their yardstick. Also involved is a methodological, indeed philosophical failure to differentiate between genus and species, between the specific and the general. What is common to most agrarian states and societies in pre-modernity is the existence of a fief-system. But once a royal power-center resorts to fief-distribution, different power configurations can result. It is this revisionist approach to taxonomy that is proposed in this article, derived from my recently completed PhD thesis on civilizations' common structures

Keywords: Feudalism; Power-configuration; Oriental Despotism; Asiatic Mode of Production; Ottoman (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ihu:ihujur:v:8:y:2023:i:2:p:115-125

DOI: 10.36657/ihcd.2023.110

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