Research Area A Ottoman Empire (A7)
Dynamic Asymmetries in Transcultural Flows at the Intersection of Asia and Europe: The Case of the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
Project Leaders: Michael Ursinus, Thomas Maissen
Project Members:Abir al-Laham, Pascal Firges, Tobias Graf, Christian Roth, Gülay Tulasoğlu
Until very recently historians have tended to overemphasize a bloc distinction between a Christian and European West on the one hand and an Asian and 'Islamic' Ottoman Empire on the other. Taking the notion of a shared Euro-Ottoman world as its starting point, our project and the four individual case studies of which it consisted have investigated the historical entanglements between the Ottoman Empire and its Western neighbours in the spheres of diplomacy and public policy (Pascal Firges and Gülay Tulasoğlu), the legal sphere (Christian Roth), and migration and religious conversion (Tobias Graf). Below the surface of a rhetoric of alterity, Ottomans and Christian-Europeans were often willing to learn from one another and interact in ways which proved mutually beneficial. In addition to four doctoral dissertations, some of our results and the related findings of esteemed colleagues in the field appear in a volume of collected essays which was scheduled for publication in 2013.