Bridge across the Bosporus
博斯普鲁斯大桥

MORE than 80 years after being supplanted[1] by the Turkish republic, the Ottoman empire will not die. Bloodshed in the Balkans; Arab and Kurdish nationalism across the Middle East; Turcophobia[2] in Armenia; （1）all are echoes of a dynasty that survived for 600 years and whose dominions extended from the Danube through the Levant to Algiers. Few historians have dared compress the story of this extraordinary enterprise into a single volume. “Osman's Dream” shows why.

Osman led one of several Turcoman tribes, of Central Asian descent, that were competing for control of Anatolia at the beginning of the 14th century. (The dream in question was interpreted to mean that Osman would found an imperial house; （2）“Ottoman” is the European corruption of his name). By the mid-16th century, Osman's descendants had killed off the Byzantine Empire and turned its capital, Constantinople (renamed Istanbul), into the world's greatest mosque city. They also had control of the Muslim holy places, Mecca and Medina, in Arabia.

The empire's expansion was driven in part by Islamic notions of a just war against the infidel[3], but the Ottomans were also notable for their relative tolerance. Jews fleeing the Spanish inquisition[4] were welcomed to Istanbul. Christian converts became key figures in the bureaucracy, armed forces and the harem[5]. Even at the empire's peak, however, the tide of history was turning in Europe's favour Challenged by the Europeans' intellectual and military prowess[6], hampered by the fiscal ineptitude of its leaders, and powerless to suppress the petty nationalisms that infected its Balkan possessions, （3）the empire began to unravel—at times abruptly, at others imperceptibly.

With her doctorate in the fiendishly[7] complex discipline of Ottoman studies, （4）Ms Finkel is ideally placed to make sense of this. But “Osman's Dream” leaves one with the impression that the author's scholarship—she includes a 30-page bibliography—could have been put to better use. Her apparent desire to record every event of significance sometimes results in a dispiriting succession of military campaigns and diplomatic intrigues; （5）one would have preferred a pruning[8] of the thicket[9] of events and more discussion of what it all means.

(6)The author offers glimpses of a more satisfying book. She includes a suggestive aside on the blending of French and Persian inspirations in the Ottoman palace-building of the early 18th century—as good an emblem for the empire's strained multiculturalism as you could wish for. There are tantalising[10] allusions to both the fascination and the repulsion which animated the later Ottomans' ambivalence[11] towards Europe. And one wishes that (7)Ms Finkel had developed her intriguing defence of the empire in the 19th century, “multi-confessional, geographically incoherent and economically backward”, in the face of demands, on the part of impertinent[12] Europeans, that it reform internally.

The limitations of Ms Finkel's approach are most apparent in her perfunctory[13] treatment of the empire's final, tumultuous[14] years. She deals no more than cursorily with the Armenian massacres during the first world war, preferring to observe that scholarship has suffered from the highly-charged contemporary dispute over whether the killings constitute genocide. This point would have made a worthwhile footnote[15].(8) As a substitute for an account of what happened, it is a cop-out[16].

NOTES

[1]supplant：vt.取代，排挤

如：The word processor has largely supplanted electric typewriters. Word处理程序已很大程度上取代了电动打字机。

It is my view that the new historical disciplines complement rather than supplant traditional history.我认为这些新的历史学科对传统历史学起到了补充而非排挤作用。

近义词辨析

replace， supplant， supersede

这些动词在用来指把某人或某物辞退或搬走并用他人或他物代替他、她或它时具可比性。

l Replace是指成为或提供代替他人或他物的物或人的相等物或替换物，尤其是对已经丢失、耗尽、用竭或被辞退：

“A conspiracy was carefully engineered to replace the Directory by three Consuls” (H.G. Wells).

“细心策划密谋以三个执政官取代督政府” (H.G,威尔斯）。

“I succeed him [Benjamin Franklin, as envoy to France] ; no one could replace him” (Thomas Jefferson).

“我接替他［本杰明•富兰克林，作为派往法国的特使］；没有人能够取代他”（托马斯•杰弗逊）。

l Supplant通常指用阴谋诡计或卑鄙的手段来取代他人的位置：

“The rivaling poor Jones, and supplanting him in her affections, added another spur to his pursuit” (Henry Fielding). “对抗的可怜的琼斯，以及用她的影响取代他的位置的举动进一步刺激了他的追求”（亨利•费尔汀）。

l Supersede 是指用另一个被认为更优秀、更有价值、更有用或者更年轻的人或物代替某人或某物：

“In our island the Latin appears never to have superseded the old Gaelic speech” (Macaulay). “在我们的岛上古老的盖尔语似乎永远被拉丁语所取代”（麦考利）。

“Each of us carries his own life-form—an indeterminable form which cannot be superseded by any other” (Carl Jung).我们每个人都有自己的生活方式-一种无法查明、不能被其它任何一种方式取代的方式”（卡尔•荣格）

[2]turcophobia：n.憎恶土耳其风俗习惯的人, 憎恶土耳其的人

-phobia：后缀；表示“对某一特定事物的强烈的、不正常的或不合逻辑的恐惧”：

如：xenophobia 仇外，惧外;

Americanophobia 对美国(或美洲)文化的憎恶,美国(或美洲)文化仇视心理

Anglophobia反英, 恐英病

technophobia技术恐惧(指对技术对社会及环境造成不良影响的恐惧)

thanatophobia [心]死亡恐怖(症),死亡恐惧(症)

[3]infidel：adj. & n. 不信教的（人）；异端的（人）

[4]Spanish inquisition：西班牙宗教法庭，1480-1834年的天主教法庭，以残酷迫害异端著称。1543年将数以万计再洗礼教派教徒在火刑柱上烧死。西班牙国王伊莎贝拉一世创建。

[5]harem：n.（伊斯兰教国家中的）闺房，后宫；女眷们

[6]prowess：n. 卓越的技能；杰出的才能；本领

如：He is a football player of great prowess. 他是一名技能卓绝的足球选手。

The young student from the theatrical school showed great prowess at acting in the play.这个戏剧学校的学生在这出戏中显示出了非凡的演技。

[7]fiendishly：adv.恶魔似地, 极坏地；

fiendish：adj.极凶的，极大的；极为讨厌或糟糕的

如：a fiendish blizzard 极大的暴风雪 a fiendish problem 极大的难题

[8]prune：vt.（常与down, off, away连用）修剪（树、花木）；（常与of连用）删改；删除

如：prune the slang from a speech删去演说中的俚语

[9]thicket：n.密集生长的灌木或矮树；错综复杂，盘根错节

如： the thicket of unreality which stands between us and the facts of life 在我们和生活的现实之间存在着无法穿越的虚幻

[10]tantalise：（美语tantalize）vt.挑逗，逗弄

如：The very thought that a human being would deliberately starve herself for any reason provoked, intrigued, and tantalized the public.（“Psychobiology and Treatment of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa” by Katherine A Halmi）有人认为，不管出于何故，一个人会故意忍饥挨饿。这种想法让公众既生气，又好奇，还有点着急。（凯瑟琳•A•哈尔米《神经性食欲缺乏和易饿病的精神生物学研究和治疗方法》）

[11]ambivalence：n.矛盾心理，双重人格；摇摆，举棋不定（towards）

ambivalent adj.（对人、事物）有矛盾心理的

如：There is an ambivalent feeling towards rural workers.人们对于民工的心情是复杂的。

[12]impertinent：adj.无关的，不切题的；无礼的，鲁莽的

如：He deemed all such inquiries on the part of a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence of a restless spirit.他认为一个奴隶如此多嘴多舌，是不合礼仪的，很显然这个奴隶还很不安分。（“Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass）

近义词辨析

irrelevant， extraneous， immaterial， impertinent

（责任编辑：）