The Shadow of Chinggis Khan on Istanbul: The Ottoman Empire in the Early Modern Asian Context, 1300 – 1600

The Shadow of Chinggis Khan on Istanbul: The Ottoman Empire in the Early Modern Asian Context, 1300-1600

Lecture by Ali Yaycioğlu

Given at the University of California, Berkeley, on April 25, 2013

In this lecture, Professor Ali Yaycioğlu examines the making of the Ottoman State and socio-economic formation between the late 14th to the 17th centuries. He situates the Ottoman experience in a larger Asian context after the global Mongol reshuffling.

The talk, while understanding the Ottoman experience in comparison with the construction of the other early-modern Eurasian land empires (the Timurids, Shaybanids, Safavids, Mughals, Moscovits, Mings), focuses on three major problems: (I) the transformation of the notion of political space, from Dar-al-Islam to Chinggisid, and from Chinggisid to the territorial imperial space, (ii) the changes of lineages as reference for legitimacy from Muhammadan to Chinggisid (and Turkic) (iii) Post-Mongol elite structures and transformation from collective enterprises to dynastic states.

Under the light of these questions, Yaycioğlu posits that Mongolian reshuffling and Post-Mongolian restoration mark the beginning of Early-Modernity in the Asian context.

Click here to view Professor Yaycioğlu’s webpage at Stanford University.