DOI: 10.1002/johs.12337 RESEARCHARTICLE Myth of the Eternal State: Armenian Outlaws, American Outsiders, and the Ottoman Search for Order Emrah Sahin Abstract Focusing on violent Ottoman contexts, this study explores state behavior, charts criminal taxon- omy, and contributes to the state‐outlaw paradigm an analytical conduit through which to explain state responses to the outlaws on discursive and institutional levels. At the center of this study are several cases that demonstrate the engagement of local outlaws with evangelical outsiders named George Knapp, George White, and Ellen Stone. It is my contention that, while mitigating specific activities involving these outlaws and outsiders, the state under study invents new traditions, empowers security networks, claims unaccountability, and executes double standards in pursuit of social order within its borders. INTRODUCTION: OUTLAWS AND OUTSIDERS VIEWED FROM STATE CENTER Foreign entities interpose at times between the authorities and citizens of a state. Contingent on adverse condi- tions, their presence becomes associated with outlaw activity during ethno‐religious conflicts. This study offers a historical sociology of laws and crimes by focusing on Ottoman central authorities, Armenian local communities, and American evangelical missionaries. It is posited on three main premises. First, it is important to investigate “structural changes” in peculiar criminal taxonomies and analyze the reactively coexistent official and criminal behavior (Barkey, 1994, p. 231). Second, it is imperative to systematically analyze “multiple, simultaneous, and often contradictory knowledge claims” made by the parties involved (Katzenstein & Okawara, 2001‐02, p. 154). Third, an archive‐driven attempt to infer some holistic pattern is overdue for the purposes of expanding the scope of existing inquiries and stimulating future discussions about government mentalities working at the cusp of outlaw activities. The state‐outlaw dialectics have received robust attention since the 1980s. In producing a rich literature, the field's leading studies help to navigate under what conditions “social banditry” emerges; to what extent “state‐ bandit relations” represent “deal making”; and in which intricate ways the outlaws from old rebels to new jihadists rationalize their struggles against “the bulwarks of their opponents” (Hobsbawm, 1981, pp. 17–29; Barkey, 1994, Professor Emrah Sahin is Senior Lecturer at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville US. https://orcid.org/0000‐0003‐ 0079‐5758. Special thanks to the editor, anonymous reviewers, Sema Sahin, and Eileen Calub. This article has been prepared for a special issue, ‘Bandits, Brigands, and Militants: The Historical Sociology of Outlaws’, edited by Dr Baris Cayli Messina. J Hist Sociol. 2021;1–13. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/johs © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. - 1