Through the prism of Richard Lachmann’s ‘elite conflict theory of historical contingency,’ this book brings a new perspective and a fresh interpretation to the study of the attitudes of the Ottoman central ulema toward the pre-Tanzimat Westernizing reforms. Contrary to the prevailing view of intra-elite vertical dichotomy conflict as the primary basis for ulema reacitions, this research proposes inter-elite horizontal conflict as the root cause for the failure of the reform initiatives. Moreover ...