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Ottoman Empire Archive
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Comparing Harems: Abbasid and Ottoman Harem Organization
Posted on April 26, 2013 | No CommentsThe following research delves into the organizational structures of the luxurious harems of Medieval Abbasid and Ottoman Empires; comparing the two different empires' harems within the political, economic, and social spheres that the royal women lived in. -
Barbarians to the Balkans
Posted on March 17, 2013 | No CommentsIn the High Middle Ages, in a now clearly articulated opposition between the West and the East, Europe and the Balkans began to emerge and be fixed as distinct and hostile entities. In Crusading chronicles, the Balkan lands lay on the way from Europe to the Holy Land. In the late twelfth and in the thirteenth centuries, the conventional separation line between the civilized and barbarian world, identical with the river Danube, began to break down and the barbarians came to be located in the Balkans. -
The Effect of Killing the Christian Prisoners at the Battle of Nicopolis
Posted on January 7, 2013 | No CommentsThe Ottoman Turks acted against the customary laws of war, which bound both Christians and Muslims even when fighting one another: no prisoner of war was ever to be executed, especially if he was a noble! -
What was the British Perception of the Turk between the Fall of Constantinople and the Siege of Vienna?
Posted on October 17, 2012 | No CommentsIn assessing the British perception of the Turk during the halcyon centuries of the Ottoman Empire, it is hard not to drown in a cacophony of opinions. However, it would be simply too convenient to claim that the sources were too contradictory and fluid; the patterns too faint and far between, to construct a decent argument. -
In the Lion’s Den: Orthodox Christians under Ottoman Rule, 1400-1550
Posted on September 9, 2012 | No CommentsA glance at the Orthodox Christian church under the Ottoman Empire from the early fifteenth to mid sixteenth century gives a revealing glimpse at some of the changing relationships of conquered Christians to the state. -
A Spectacle of Great Beauty: The Changing Faces of Hagia Sophia
Posted on August 28, 2012 | No CommentsFor Constantine, Justinian, Sultan Mehmed II, and Atatürk, Hagia Sophia served as a model for the changing political and religious ideals of a nation. To use the useful phrase coined by Linda Young, Hagia Sophia is a building that is “in between heritage.” -
The Question of Trabzon’s Efrenciyan Population: 1486-1583
Posted on July 29, 2012 | No CommentsThe following article examines the 'fate' of the Efrenciyan or foreign residents of the city of Trabzon following the Ottoman conquest of the city in 1461. -
Economy of Ragusa, 1300 – 1800: The Tiger of Mediaeval Mediterranean
Posted on July 24, 2012 | No CommentsAn economist is indeed tempted to think of Ragusa as the “Adriatic Tiger “ of yesteryear, an early example of a small open economy with strong fundamentals, and to hypothesize further that, in analogy to the current consensus about what it takes to minimize the impact of external crises, these strengths also allowed Ragusa to mitigate the effects of the many external shocks and financial crises in Medieval Europe. -
Borderlands, Cross-Cultural Exchange and Revenge in the Medieval and Early Modern Balkans: Roots of Present Regional Conflicts or Merely a Historical Case-Study?
Posted on June 20, 2012 | No CommentsActs of revenge could be carried out across generations, forcing the relatives of a slain individual to escape humiliation and shame by embarking on a never-ending journey of vengeance and retaliation. -
Transylvania in Hungarian History: An Introduction
Posted on June 3, 2012 | No CommentsFrom their Balkan homeland the Vlachs began their migrations north in the thirteenth century, migrations that were accelerated no doubt by the beginning of Ottoman Turkish expansion into the Balkans. -
Braşov (Kronstadt) in the Defence against the Turks (1438–1479)
Posted on June 3, 2012 | No CommentsConfrontation with Ottoman expansion began for Braşov at the end of the 14th century with the treaty with Mircea the Elder in the year 1395 which was part of King Sigismund of Luxembourg’s anti-Ottoman policy and was signed in Braşov. -
The Great Siege of Malta
Posted on May 18, 2012 | No CommentsTony Rothman recalls one of the turning points of early modern history, when a heroic defence prevented the rampant Ottoman forces from gaining a strategic foothold in the central Mediterranean. -
A Sultan of Paradox: Mehmed the Conqueror as a Patron of the Arts
Posted on April 19, 2012 | No CommentsWas there not a paradox in a Muslim prince patronising an Italian medallist? -
Loaves and fishes: a stable isotope reconstruction of diet in medieval Greece
Posted on April 4, 2012 | No CommentsThe historical sources on medieval Greek diet provide extensive information on the identity of foods consumed, but are less informative regarding the proportions in which they were consumed. -
The Harsh Life on the 15th Century Croatia-Ottoman Empire Military Border: Analyzing and Identifying the Reasons for the Massacre in Cepin
Posted on April 4, 2012 | No CommentsTurkish intrusions into what is today the continental part of Croatia began in 1391 and continued throughout the 15th, and the beginning of the 16th century when a large part of continental Croatia was incorporated into the Turkish Empire. -
Conversion and Convergence in the Venetian-Ottoman Borderlands
Posted on March 19, 2012 | No CommentsIn this essay I seek to explain this surprisingly peaceful outcome to a potentially explosive situation, and more broadly to contribute to a new kind of history of early modern diplomacy that takes as its starting point practices of mediation in all their complexity. -
The Ottoman Conquest of Thrace: Aspects of Historical Geography
Posted on March 9, 2012 | No CommentsThe fourteenth century was of paramount importance for both the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Emirate. In Byzantine history it marks the end of a great medieval empire, especially relating to its administrative and economic decadence. For Ottoman history, it punctuates the transition of a frontier beglik into a world-dominant empire. -
Tamerlane’s Place of Abode and Activities after Ankara War in Kütahya
Posted on March 4, 2012 | No CommentsTamerlane who won the Ankara war against the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I in July 28, 1402 did not immediately left Anatolia and stayed there for approximately one year. He continued his pillage attacks and conquests in various cities of Anatoia during this period. -
Süleyman the Magnificent and the Representation of Power in the Context of Ottoman-Hapsburg-Papal Rivalry
Posted on February 27, 2012 | No CommentsThis article explores issues of cross-cultural communication raised by the Ottoman court's intense patronage of European artistic talent during the early part of Suleyman the Magnificent's reign (1520-1566). -
The Fall of Constantinople: Bishop Leonard and the Greek Accounts
Posted on October 23, 2011 | No CommentsThe Fall of Constantinople: Bishop Leonard and the Greek Accounts By Marios Philippides Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies v.22 (1981) Introduction: The work attributed to George Sphrantzes (1401-1477) has comes... -
Image of the other as a tool of political legitimation: image of Venice in Renaissance Ragusa
Posted on September 11, 2011 | No CommentsImage of the other as a tool of political legitimation: image of Venice in Renaissance Ragusa Kuncevic, Lovro (Central European University; Institute for Historical Sciences of Croatian Academy of Arts and... -
The impact of the 1492: Mass Exodus, Jews and the Ottoman Social Structure
Posted on August 4, 2011 | No CommentsThe impact of the 1492: Mass Exodus, Jews and the Ottoman Social Structure By Saffet Emre Tonguc Masterès Thesis, Boğaziçi University, 2002 Abstract: This study aims to question the widely... -
The war against Islam and the Muslims at home: the Mudejar predicament in the Kingdom of Valencia during the reign of Fernando «El Católico»
Posted on August 3, 2011 | No CommentsThe war against Islam and the Muslims at home: the Mudejar predicament in the Kingdom of Valencia during the reign of Fernando «El Católico» Meyerson, Mark D. Sharq Al-Andalus, No.3... -
The Turks with the Grand Catalan Company, 1305-1312
Posted on July 31, 2011 | No CommentsThe campaigns of a band of Spanish mercenary soldiers, under the terrifying Roger de Flor, in the Byzantine lands of the early fourteenth century are fully documented by medieval and contemporary historians. -
The Black Death in early Ottoman territories: 1347-1550
Posted on July 29, 2011 | No CommentsThe Black Death in early Ottoman territories: 1347-1550 By Gisele Marien Master’s Thesis, Bilkent University, 2009 Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to analyze the possible impact of the...