The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c19.s12.21

c19.s12.21

44. Rather than the well-known Turner thesis of the American frontier, I am indebted to P. Witteks view of the frontier marches and their warriors (*The Rise of the Ottoman Empire* [London, 1938], 16–32). Wittek sees the origins of the Ottoman Empire in the warrior bands of *ghāzīs*, ("warriors of the faith") with their distinctive culture and institutions, operating in the marches—shared by them with the Byzantine *akritai*—between the Islamic and Byzantine worlds. In many ways the Mughal Empire seems reminiscent of this situation. One might even say that the Mughals never quite overcame their frontier situation. They remained based in it in a way that the Ottoman Empire did not. See also O. Lattimore, "The Frontier in History" *Relazioni: X Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche*, 1 (1955): 103–38.