Turkey Book Talk #244 – Richard Calis, assistant professor in cultural history at Utrecht University, on “The Discovery of Ottoman Greece: Knowledge, Encounter, and Belief in the Mediterranean World of Martin Crusius” (Harvard University Press).
The book examines the life and impact of Martin Crusius. Born in Bavaria in 1526, Crusius became celebrated as Europe’s preeminent expert on the Greek world past and present, as well as the Orthodox Greeks in the Ottoman Empire. In his seminal work Turcograecia, he wrote the period’s richest record of Greek life under Ottoman rule, which served for centuries as a key source of knowledge on the Ottoman Empire itself.
The conversation addresses how Crusius’s work affected European views of the Ottoman Empire and the deep chasm between the Christian and Muslim worlds that his perspective reflected.
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Read a transcript of the interview on Substack
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İlkay Yılmaz on the origins of the Ottoman Turkish security state
February 27, 2024
Turkey Book Talk #213 – İlkay Yılmaz, research associate in the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institute at the Free University of Berlin, on “Ottoman Passports: Security and Geographic Mobility, 1876-1908” (Syracuse University Press).
The book examines how paranoia about nationalist, anarchist and revolutionary movements spread during the era of Abdulhamid II, prompting the introduction of various new methods to control and restrict subjects of the Ottoman state.
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Jonathan Parry on British encounters with the Ottomans
October 11, 2022
Turkey Book Talk #178 – Jonathan Parry, Professor of Modern British History at the University of Cambridge, on “Promised Lands: The British and the Ottoman Middle East” (Princeton University Press).
The book charts the development of British imperial interests in the Middle East from the Napoleonic Wars to the Crimean War in the 1850s, examining Britain’s engagement with the Ottoman authorities and with local communities of Arabs, Kurds, Christians and Jews across the region.
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Turkey Book Talk episode 161 – Daniel-Joseph MacArthur-Seal, assistant director of the British Institute at Ankara, on “Britain’s Levantine Empire, 1914-1923” (Oxford University Press).
The book examines British military occupation in Istanbul, Salonica and Alexandria through the letters, diaries and memoirs of servicemen during and after the First World War.
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As mentioned in the episode – if you’re interested in the subject you may also want to check out episode 142 – Malte Fuhrmann on cosmopolitan life in port cities of the late Ottoman era
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
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Turkey Book Talk episode 158 – Çiğdem Oğuz, research fellow at the University of Bologna’s Department of History and Cultures, on “Moral Crisis in the Ottoman Empire: Society, Politics and Gender during WWI” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury).
The book examines debates about morality in the late Ottoman era, when mounting European cultural influence triggered anxiety about the loss of traditional religious values among many.
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Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
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Turkey Book Talk episode 157 – Murat R. Siviloğlu, assistant professor in Turkish Cultural History at Trinity College Dublin, on “The Emergence of Public Opinion: State and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire” (Cambridge University Press).
The idea of “public opinion” is generally associated with the emergence of a middle class, independent of the state, in Western Europe in the 19th century. The Ottoman Empire is generally seen as outside this process, but Siviloğlu argues that Ottoman society developed a realm of “public opinion” that had a crucial effect on political developments in the late 19th century.
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Marc David Baer on the Ottomans as khans, caesars and caliphs
November 9, 2021
Turkey Book Talk episode #154 – Marc David Baer, professor of international history at the London School of Economics and Political Science, on “The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs” (Basic Books).
The book makes the case that the Ottoman Empire is an inseparable part of European history – not as antithesis of the Christian West but as an intimate and active participant in the continent’s shifting cultural and political tides.
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Turkey Book Talk episode #151 – Giancarlo Casale, chair of early modern Mediterranean history at the European University Institute and associate professor of history at the University of Minnesota, on “Prisoner of the Infidels: The Memoir of an Ottoman Muslim in 17th Century Europe” (University of California Press).
Casale edited and translated the book, the first English-language edition of Osman of Timişoara‘s fascinating memoir describing his years as prisoner and slave in the Habsburg Empire from 1688 to 1699.
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Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Turkey Book Talk episode #149 – E. Natalie Rothman, associate professor of history at the University of Toronto, on “The Dragoman Renaissance: Diplomatic Interpreters and the Routes of Orientalism” (Cornell University Press).
The book shows how Istanbul-based diplomatic translator-interpreters played a crucial role in developing outside understanding of the Ottoman Empire, as well as in the Ottoman elites’ various diplomatic manoeuvres.
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The e-book edition is available for free open access download from Cornell Open.
Also check out the Dragoman Renaissance Research Platform website, set up as a companion offering additional resources related to the project.
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Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get extras including exclusive access to a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire archive of episodes, and an archive of 231 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Turkey Book Talk episode #142 – Malte Fuhrmann, research fellow at the Liebniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, on “Port Cities of the East Mediterranean: Urban Culture in the Late Ottoman Empire” (Cambridge University Press).
The book paints a panorama of cultural and social life in the diverse port cities of Salonica, Istanbul and Izmir in the late Ottoman era, when European cultural traits and economic developments had a profound impact on the daily experiences of locals across confessional boundaries.
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Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get extras including exclusive access to a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire archive of episodes, and an archive of 231 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Turkey Book Talk episode #141 – Sir Noel Malcolm, senior research fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford, on “Useful Enemies: Islam and the Ottoman Empire in Western Political Thought 1450-1750” (Oxford University Press).
The book examines how early modern Western European writers shaped perceptions of the Ottoman Empire and Islam through fear, distrust and hostility, but also curiosity and admiration.
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Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get extras including exclusive access to a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire archive of episodes, and an archive of 231 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Turkey Book Talk #129 – Elizabeth Rodini on “Gentile Bellini’s Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II: Lives and Afterlives of an Iconic Image” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury).
The book explores how and why the Venetian painter came to the Ottoman court in 1479, as well as his portrait’s many intriguing afterlives in subsequent centuries.
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Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk and get loads of extras: A 35% discount on any of over 100 books in IB Tauris/Bloomsbury’s excellent Turkey/Ottoman history category, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire archive of episodes, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
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