Colin Imber is a lecturer in

Turkish studies Turkology (or Turcology or Turkic studies) is a complex of humanities sciences studying languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of people speaking Turkic languages and Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative conte ...

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

, UK. He completed his

Oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studi ...

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, where he defended his doctorate on „The Ottoman Fleet in the Age of Sultan Suleiman I (1520-1566)”. His research interest is focused on the

history of the Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire was founded c. 1299 by Osman I as a small beylik in northwestern Asia Minor just south of the Byzantine capital Constantinople. The Ottomans first crossed into Europe in 1352, establishing a permanent settlement at Çimpe Cast ...

until the 17th century and on

Islamic law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

, in particular on the system of

Ottoman law The Ottoman Empire was governed by different sets of laws during its existence. The '' Qanun'', sultanic law, co-existed with religious law (mainly the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence). Legal administration in the Ottoman Empire was part ...

, until the 17th century. He is considered as "perhaps the leading, and...certainly the most productive, of the painfully few Ottoman historians currently working in British universities."https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/431 He is noted for his opposition to

Paul Wittek Paul Wittek (11 January 1894, Baden bei Wien — 13 June 1978, Eastcote, Middlesex) was an Austrian Orientalist and historian. His 1938 thesis on the rise of the Ottoman Empire, known as the '' Ghazi thesis'', argues that the Ottoman's ''raison d ...

's "

Ghaza thesis The Ghaza or Ghazi thesis (from ota, غزا, ''ġazā'', "holy war," or simply "raid") is a historical paradigm first formulated by Paul Wittek which has been used to interpret the nature of the Ottoman Empire during the earliest period of its ...

Publications

* ''The Ottoman Empire 1300–1481'', Isis Press, Istanbul 1990 * ''Studies in Ottoman History and Law'', Isis Press, Istanbul 1996 * ''The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650: The Structure of Power'', Palgrave Macmillan 2002; 2nd Revised Edition, Palgrave Macmillan 2009; 3rd Edition, Red Globe Press 2019 * ''Ebu's-su'ud: The Islamic Legal Tradition'', Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 1997.

References

External links

Biographical summary
at Encyclopedia.com Living people British orientalists Scholars of Ottoman history Turkologists Alumni of the University of Cambridge Academics of the University of Manchester 20th-century British historians 21st-century British historians Year of birth missing (living people) {{UK-academic-bio-stub