Bio


Ali Yaycioglu is a historian of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. His research centers on economic, political and legal institutions and practices as well as social and cultural life in southeastern Europe and the Middle East during the Ottoman Empire. He also has a research agenda on how people imagined, represented and recorded property, territory, and nature in early periods. Furthermore, Yaycioglu explores how we can use digital tools to understand, visualize and conceptualize these imaginations, representations and recordings. Yaycioglu’s first book, Partners of the Empire: Crisis of the Ottoman Order in the Age of Revolutions (Stanford University Press, 2016) offers a rethinking of the Ottoman Empire within the global context of the revolutionary age in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Currently Dr. Yaycioglu is working on a book project entitled The Ultimate Debt: State, Wealth and Death in the Ottoman Empire, in which he analyzes transformations in property, finance and statehood in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Ali Yaycioglu is the supervisor of a digital history project, Mapping Ottoman Epirus housed in Stanford’s Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis.

Academic Appointments


  • Associate Professor, History

Administrative Appointments


  • Assistant Professor, Dept. of History, Stanford University (2011 - Present)
  • Assistant Professor, Dept. of History, Fairfield University (2010 - 2011)
  • Mary Seeger O'Boyle Fellowship, Princeton University (2008 - 2009)
  • Aga Khan Postdoctoral Fellowship, Islamic Art and Architecture, Harvard University (2008 - 2008)
  • Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Harvard University (2006 - 2007)
  • Merit Fellowship, Harvard University (2004 - 2005)
  • KRUPP Foundation Fellowship, Center for European Studies (2003 - 2004)
  • Fellowship, ARIT (American Research Institute in Turkey) (2003 - 2004)
  • Graduate Fellowship, Harvard University (1998 - 2002)
  • Islamic Studies Fellowship, McGill University (1996 - 1998)
  • Graduate Fellowship, Bilkent University (1994 - 1997)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations


  • Research affiliate, Ottoman Sources for the History of Letkada, Greece, centered in Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Foundation for Research and Technology (2010)
  • Research affiliate, Black Sea Trade Project Team, centered at California State University, Northridge (1998)
  • Research affiliate, Historians of the Ottoman Empire project, Harvard University (2004 - 2005)
  • Member, Search committee for Medieval History Position, History Department, Stanford (2012 - 2013)
  • Chair, Ad hoc committee for Stanford in Istanbul Program at Koc University (2012 - 2013)
  • Organizer, The Byzantine and Ottoman Worlds Workshop Series at Stanford, Stanford University (2011 - 2012)
  • Chair, Departmental committee to review global history courses in the core curriculum, Fairfield University (2010 - 2011)
  • Curator, The Ottoman World in the European Eyes Exhibition, Harvard University (2006 - 2006)
  • UN Observer, General elections in Azerbaijan (2005 - 2005)
  • Member, American Historical Association
  • Member, Middle East Studies Association of North America

Program Affiliations


  • Iranian Studies

Professional Education


  • B.S., Middle East Technical University, International Relations (1994)
  • M.A., Bilkent University, History (1997)
  • Graduate, McGill University, Study in Islamic Studies (1998)
  • Ph.D., Harvard University, History and Middle Eastern Studies (2008)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton University, Program in Hellenic Studies (2009)

2024-25 Courses


Stanford Advisees


All Publications


  • Review of "The Margins of Empire: Kurdish Militias in the Ottoman Tribal Zone" by J. Klein Social History Yaycioglu, A. 2013; 38 (2): 245 - 247
  • Rahova 1784: Participation, Information and Power in the 18th Century Ottoman Balkans Ozer Ergenc Armagani Yaycioglu, A. edited by Ekin, U. Ankara. 2013
  • Review of "The Ottoman Empire: A Short History" by S. Faroqhi Journal of Near Eastern Studies Yaycioglu, A. 2013; 72 (1): 148 - 149
  • Provincial Elites and the Empire in the Late Ottoman World: Conflict or Partnership? Ottoman World Yaycioglu, A. edited by Woodhead, C. London: Routledge Press. 2012
  • Review of "Foreign Investment in the Ottoman Empire: International Trade and Relations 1854-1914" by N. Geyikdagi Journal of Economic History Yaycioglu, A. 2012; 72 (4): 1121-1122
  • Deed of Agreement (1808): An Attempt of Integration and Partnership Nizam-ı Kadimden Nizam-ı Cedide: III.Selim ve Domemi Yaycioglu, A. edited by Kenan, S. ISAM. 2010
  • Ayan Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire Yaycioglu, A. edited by Agoston, G. 2008
  • Rumeli'nde Geraylar ve Cengiz Mehmed Geray Sultan'in Hikayesi TurkTarih Kongresi, Ankara Yaycioglu, A., Kirimli, H. 2006; 2: 11-15
  • Review of "Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950" by M. Mazower METU Journal of the Faculty of Architecture Yaycioglu, A. 2005; 22 (1): 103-106
  • Ottoman-Turkish Manuscripts in the Islamic and other Libraries of McGill Univeristy Fontanus Yaycioglu, A., Gacek, A. 1998; 10: 41 - 64