Empire and Nation in the City: Rusçuk from Ottoman Rule to Bulgarian Statehood

In the age of nationalism, the Ottoman Empire charted a different course, one promoting Ottomanism as a unifying identity through ambitious modernizing reforms. With the establishment of the Danube Province in 1864, Rusçuk (present-day Bulgaria) became its capital and a test case in a contested provincial landscape. What followed were a series of swift political transitions from a "modernized" Ottoman administration to a Russian provisional government and finally to a Bulgarian nation-state.

In Empire and Nation in the City, Mehmet Çelik argues that Bulgarian nationalism was not a uniform ideology but a flexible one engaging multiple loyalties—Bulgarian and Ottoman among them. He shows how political integration, economic growth, and surveillance constrained nationalist activity while compelling many non-Muslims to invest in the empire’s longevity. Yet pragmatism and social class proved as powerful as nationalism and religion, leaving many individuals indifferent to the later concerns. Rather than assess Ottoman rule and Bulgarian nationhood as separate periods, Çelik reveals the continuity of Ottoman reforms within a burgeoning Bulgarian nation.