A Reformist Philosophy of History: The Case of Ahmed Vâsıf Efendi

Abstract

This article examines the historical and philosophical outlook of the chronicler and statesman Ahmed Vâsıf Efendi (d. 1806) on the changes of his own time, the late 18th century, through a study of some of his written work. I argue that Vâsıf ’s views are complex, reasoned, and address moral and historical problems raised by the empire’s unsettled state; the historian not only made Ottoman military collapse and reform his key concerns but outlined a more general framework for understanding the universe, causation, and historical change. As a court official, meanwhile, Vâsıf sheds light on how his patrons – sultans and statesmen both – came to digest their new circumstances.