Osmańscy specjaliści polskiego pochodzenia, Karol Bonkowski i Alfred Bieliński, w okresie transformacji Imperium Osmańskiego i ich rola jako „utajonych pośredników” idei modernizacyjnych
Ottoman specialists of Polish origin, Karol Bonkowski and Alfred Bieliński, during the transformation of the Ottoman Empire and their role as “latent brokers” of modernising ideas

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the participation of representatives of the second-generation Polish émigrés in the Ottoman political and social transformations at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (Karol Bonkowski [1841–1905] and Alfred Bieliński [1862–1934]). Drawing on archival research, this paper analyses a syncretic education model, which equipped these individuals with competencies that allowed them to actively participate in Ottoman reforms based on the European models. These high-level professionals – educated abroad and dedicated to the Ottoman-Turkish mission of reforming a multi-ethnic state – became practically and ideologically involved in constructing a new Ottoman identity in the spirit of a national narrative. Their activities took various forms of transcultural mediation and brokerage. They often constituted a ‘side-effect’ of these individuals’ main professional activities, making them “latent brokers”. By performing their tasks in an environment based on the interaction of different worldviews – where the balance between the various ethnic groups was that of ‘antagonistic coexistence’ – the examined historical actors also negotiated their raison d’être throughout this process.

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