Study Questions for Barnette Miller, "The Curriculum"
Barnette Miller was a professor of history at Mt. Holyoke College early
in this century, and spent a lot of time in Istanbul, then Constantinople.
She was among the first scholars given access to Topkapi Palace, for some
decades in a state of decay and not inhabited by government officials.
Her book, from which this chapter is taken, examined the palace school
in Topkapi established first by Mehmet II soon after the conquest. She
also wrote a fascinating study of the palace itself, in toto, focusing
on the personal and political activities which went on inside--Beyond the
Sublime Port.
Given the assumption that the curriculum of the palace school was designed
to produce graduates who were trained to work in various government offices,
what do you think this curriculum really concentrated on? What would successful
graduates know? and how would these influence their behavior as government
officials?
If you know something of training for government service in the contemporary
west [contemporary to Mehmed II] how does this curriculum "stack up?"
How does it differ from modern curricula which might have the same
ends?
You do not need to concern yourself with the titles and other specific
terms used by Miller.