Spiritus Roberti: Shaping New Minds and Robert College in Late Ottoman Society (1863-1923) - Softcover

Sabev, Orlin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 6057462181 ISBN 13: 9786057462183

Publisher: Forum Tauri, 2025

Synopsis

This book approaches the Ottoman period of Robert College, founded by American missionaries in Constantinople in 1863, by focusing on hitherto insufficiently

explored aspects of its sesquicentennial history, related to its nature and educational ideals, as well as to its student body. Being based on the college's archives, dispersed in

Turkey and the United States, the government archives of Ottoman and early Republican period, as well as other vernacular archives, the book delineates the specific place and role

of the college in the field of Ottoman education by promoting Protestant ideals through liberal education. The so-called "secular Protestantism" affected the whole concept of

education practiced at the college and it affected more or less the students' mindset. The college put emphasis on the formation of strong characters in its students so as to make

them able to take responsibility for their own life and development. It was achieved, not only nor even mainly through the course of studies in a wide variety of fields, but also

through the all-round atmosphere in the college and especially the personal relationship between the students and their instructors. On the basis of statistics drawn from various

relevant sources, the book traces out the dynamics in student enrollment and outlines those periods in the college's history in which certain nationalities were prevalent, not

only in terms of physical presence but also in terms of influence in the student body. The book provides also prosopographical research of the Bulgarian and Turkish students,

based on data collected from the catalogues of students, preserved in the college's archives.

About this title

About the Author

Orlin Sabev (Orhan Salih by birth), born in Shumen (Bulgaria) in 1970, is Associate Professor atthe Institute of Balkan Studies with Centre for Thracology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences(Sofi a). He obtained a Ph. D. in history at the same institute in 2000. He has published three books, two of them in Bulgarian, dealing with history of Ott oman education in the Bulgarian landsbetween fi fteenth and eighteenth century (2001) and with the introduction of the fi rst Ott omanTurkish printing press in Constantinople (2004). The latt er came out also in Turkish translationin 2006 under the title "İbrahim Müteferrika ya da İlk Osmanlı Matbaa Serüveni (1726-1746). YenidenDeğerlendirme". Since then the Turkish translation has three editions. He has more than hundredarticles dealing with various topics in the fi eld of education, book history, print culture, andsexuality in Ott oman society.

Edition details

• Publisher: Forum Tauri
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 6057462181
• ISBN 13: 9786057462183
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 434
• Editor: Kucukyalcin Erdal