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Forgotten Experts offers a history of Ottoman court astrologers and traces their shifting authority and prestige over the long sixteenth century. These individuals served the Ottoman court with their expertise in mathematical, astronomical, and astrological sciences, distinguishing themselves from other occult practitioners and esoteric specialists. While both prophecy and prognostication are attempts to map the terrain of the future, the astrologers' work did not claim spiritual weight as a prophecy but relied instead on methods of prediction developed from data and patterns elaborated through technical and scientific writings.
Drawing on extensive manuscript and archival records written in Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and Arabic, A. Tunç Şen writes a history of science, state formation, and bureaucracy within the overarching tale of Ottoman imperial formation and protocols. He invites readers to follow Ottoman court astrologers' fluctuating careers as practitioners of a contentious science and shows how this class of learned individuals constructed its scientific authority despite numerous cultural, societal, and epistemic challenges. In understanding the expertise of court astrologers, we gain insight into the intricate social relations established and maintained between the men of knowledge and the men of rule, between expertise and statecraft, in the early modern Ottoman imperial context.
"Written in a clear, accessible style, with meticulous archival research, Forgotten Experts is a major contribution to the burgeoning field of Ottoman science studies. A. Tunç Şen neither devalues nor valorizes the subjects of his study, but gives us a sober and enlightening view of court astrologers." —F. Jamil Ragep, McGill University
"As a third-generation scholar of Ottoman science, A. Tunç Şen draws from extensive scientific literature and research since the 1980s to provide a nuanced analysis of Munajjims, or astral experts. In this pioneering study, Şen explores the complex relationship between the Ottoman Empire's scientific functionaries and courtly decision-makers, showcasing the significant role these experts played in shaping historical decisions. A groundbreaking work." —Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, Honorary President, Turkish Society for History of Science
"Forgotten Experts reminds us that the pre-modern world was lively and not static, the debates around astrology suggest contention, experiment and that anything could come under question. The book is a much needed delve into a forgotten history that is key to understanding and unlocking the past." —Usman Butt, Middle East Monitor
"A. Tunç Şen's Forgotten Experts: Astrologers, Science and Authority in the Ottoman Empire, 1450–1600 draws on rich archival evidence to account for the declining status of Ottoman court munajjims (roughly translated as astronomers/astrologers) over the long sixteenth century. In so doing, it addresses several important gaps in existing scholarship, including a paucity of history of Ottoman science.... It's not often that a book points towards such exciting new lines of investigation, even as it participates in debates as formidable as the ones surrounding Ottoman political history." —Alexa Herlands, H-Sci-Med-Tech
"Forgotten Expertspresents an erudite and exemplary intellectual history of Ottoman-period astrologers in their social and political contexts." —Kenan Tekin, American Historical Review
"Tunç Şen paints a detailed picture of the institutionalization and subsequently undulating cultural and political position of the astrological unit between 1450 and 1600, while simultaneously advancing an argument about the nature of scientific expertise." —Michelle Pfeffer, The British Journal for the History of Science
"[A] lucid and compelling narrative that balances close reading of complex sources with broader historiographical reflection. Şen consistently resists settling on a catch-all term or a simplistic binary explanatory framework. Instead, he convincingly calls for a nuanced understanding of a plural epistemic landscape in which astrology operated side by side with other traditions. In doing so, he fills a major gap in Ottoman and global histories of science and sets a new standard for the study of astrology as a social practice." —Kristof D'hulster, Diyâr
Note on Transliteration
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Empire of Experts, Experts of Empire
1. Munajjims' Expertise
2. Persianate Foundations
3. Heavenly Patronage
4. Fortunes Turned
5. Occult Rivalries
Conclusion: Istanbul Observatory and the Aftermath
Notes
Bibliography
Index