The centrality of the periphery

This study addresses Selim I's controversial ascent to the Ottoman throne in 1512. Its aim consists in providing a coherent revisionist narrative of Selim's quest by utilizing Ottoman and European archival sources, understudied, unknown, or neglected anonymous chronicles, and a significant corpus of Ottoman historical narratives commonly referred to as Selimnames. Through a concerted analysis of the alternative, competing, complementing, and at times simply contradictory reports provided by all of these sources, this dissertation specifically argues that the outcome of the succession struggle between Bayezid II's three sons was to a large extent decided by the degree of support S[dotbelow]¸ehzade Selim enjoyed in the "periphery" (the Balkans) as much as the backing of political/military factions at the imperial "center" (Istanbul). Based on newly discovered and otherwise unstudied documents from the Topkapi Palace Archives in Istanbul, this study also demonstrates definitively that the primary military and political power base of the successful party in this conflict was comprised not of janissaries posted in the imperial capital but rather of members of Ottoman noble families of frontier lords (such as T[dotbelow]urahanogli, Gömliogli, K[dotbelow]arliogli, Ihtimanogli, and Malk[dotbelow]oçogli) as well as high-ranking officers whose power bases were located in the Balkans.