Historiography in the Ottoman State initiated relatively late, regarding its foundation. Therefore, not only there wasn't any Ottoman chronicle concerning the era of foundation, but also the information provided by the Arab and Byzantine sources was limited for the same period. Ever-developing historiography gained a semi-official qualification with Shehname Writing, which was initiated under the reign of the Sultan II. Mehmed and which became permanent under the reign of the Sultan Suleiman. As of the 18th century, the official state historiography was created under the secretariats in the Imperial Council. One of the historiographers of this time was Sadullah Enverî Efendi.
Serving as the historiographer for 20 years with intervals between 1768 and 1792, Sadullah Enverî Efendi wrote the events of his period in his masterpiece (Enverî Tarihi), which was composed of seven fascicles and three volumes. The first volume of the Enverî Tarihi narrated the war between the Ottoman State and Russian Czardom in 1768-1774. The second volume of the work narrated domestic and foreign issues of the Ottoman State between the accession of I.Abdulhamid to the throne and 1783. The third and the last volume involved the wars of Ottoman-Russian and Austria in 1787-1792.
It is vital for the Ottoman history to reveal the source values of the chronicles. In this study, the second scripted volume of the Enverî Tarihi was handled, whose first and third volumes had also been subject to research. Thus, both publication of Enverî Tarihi was completed and a masterpiece, which narrated the events between 1774 and 1783, was presented to the use of academics. |