Study Guide for Fleischer, "Between the Lines: Realities of Scribal Life in the Sixteenth Century"

• Cornell Fleischer is a Professor of Ottoman History at the University of Chicago, and this year, President of the Turkish Studies Association. He is best known for his study of a late sixteenth-century Ottoman intellectual, Mustafa Ali.
• 1. Be sure that you know what he means by "scribal life."
• 2. Compare the skills expected of Ottoman bureaucrats in the era of Suleyman with those produced by the palace school of Mehmed II.
• 3. What were the most important roles of Ottoman "scribes" during the period discussed in this essay.