University of Heidelberg

A7 Ottoman Empire

Dynamic Asymmetries in Transcultural Flows at the Intersection of Asia and Europe: The Case of the Early Modern Ottoman Empire

Coordination: Michael Ursinus, Thomas Maissen

Abstract

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. Our project seeks to overcome the bloc paradigm through the emphasis on multiperspectivity in four case studies analyzing crucial moments of the early modern and modern Ottoman Empire. The intersectional area between Asia, Africa, and Europe is marked by long-standing intensive exchanges among individuals and groups of different ethnic, religious, and social origins, where concepts of order, of identity and of boundary were reshaped through various encounters. The project seeks to contribute to the scholarship on cultural flows between the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe. Our project is supervised by Prof. Thomas Maissen (History) and Prof. Michael Ursinus (Ottoman Studies).