The sick man metaphor frames the Ottoman Empire as Europe’s dying internal other
Evidence
This remarkable phrase attributed to the Czar Nicholas I quickly became a commonplace in referring to the Ottoman Empire throughout Europe. A corrupt version of the phrase speaks of “the dying man of Europe.” It is still widely used in scholarly discourse. Norman Itzkowitz, for example, recently used it matter-of-factly (Itzkwowitz, “The Problem of Perception,” 32; and see illustration on 31). I have been unable to find a critical discussion of the history of this phrase, which haunts this entire chapter.
— Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 1182
Categorization
QUESTION: Anidjar notes the absence of any critical discussion of the ‘sick man of Europe’ phrase history — a genuine scholarly gap worth chasing, especially given how casually it persists.