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Papers by Ela Bozok
Legatio: The Journal for Renaissance and Early Modern Diplomatic Studies, 2022
EUROPEAN ISLANDS BETWEEN ISOLATED AND INTERCONNECTED LIFE WORLDS Interdisciplinary Long-Term Perspectives, 2021
This paper reflects on the role of islands in the Mediterranean as transit posts in the news netw... more This paper reflects on the role of islands in the Mediterranean as transit posts in the news networks of the early 16th cent. AD. Based on research carried out within the framework of the ‘TUBITAK 1001 Scientific and Technologic Research Support Fund’ project numbered 113K655 (Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean Intelligence Net- work during the First Half of the 16th Century), this study traces the routes of letters and reports from eastern Mediterranean port cities to Venice from where news would be distributed to various cities in Europe. Our research investigates the hubs where various pieces of oral and written news within a wide range of sources, from official letters to eyewitness accounts, from familial correspondence to rumours, came together to be delivered collectively. As news travelled through the sea routes, this study focuses especially on the islands of Corfu, Crete, Rhodes, and Cyprus as main information hubs. In a period when regular postal systems were not fully developed, the role of the islands as transit points for news flow sheds light on the importance of islands in the dynamics of communication in the early 16th cent. AD.
Conference Calls by Ela Bozok
"Europe is now in a state of change and in a crisis such as has not been known since Charlemagne"... more "Europe is now in a state of change and in a crisis such as has not been known since Charlemagne". This is not a quote from an EU politician negotiating a treaty, but from Leibniz's comments on the Nordic War of 1712. Reinhard Koselleck points out in his essay on crisis that it is through Leibniz that the concept has entered the area of philosophy of history, hence opening the category, until then mostly used in medicine and jurisprudence, to different interpretations and definitions. Crisis is, therefore, both a metaphor and a discipline-bound category with a specific meaning. The medical concept of crisis is that of a tipping point at which the patient would either recover or worsen. This conception of crisis, then, contains both a temporal aspect and a call for discerning, decisive judgement. Is it the case that a sense of crisis calls out for historians to act as doctors, diagnosing the ills of our world? How does this sense of crisis change the way we think about the times we live in, the past that shaped them, and the future to come? What understanding of "normal times" is it that the crisis interrupts? Today, surrounded by a widespread use of this term in a variety of contexts, when we hear much about the pandemic about economic, public and health crises, we propose a step back in order to take a look at the possible meanings of the term at its temporalities. How does its contemporary use help or hinder our understanding of historical events? How is our conception of time and history shaped by and in exceptional times? Does history have a special role to play when the old order seems to have reached a point of crisis? How does history serve as a tool or a metaphor to investigate pre-crisis pasts and post-crisis futures? With those questions serving as an inspiration, we are looking for contributions in area of intellectual history (broadly understood), dealing with crisis and temporalities.
Call for papers for the first Graduate Conference in Intellectual History at the European Univers... more Call for papers for the first Graduate Conference in Intellectual History at the European University Institute in Florence, 23-24 January 2020. The theme of the conference is 'Transcultural Conversations' and our keynote speaker is Dr Rachel Hammersley (Newcastle). Deadline for submission of abstracts is 25 November 2019. See the call for more details.
Projects by Ela Bozok
![Research paper thumbnail of Proje Raporu: On Altıncı Yüzyılın İlk Yarısında Akdeniz Haber Trafiğinde Osmanlı İmparatorluğu [Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean Intelligence Network during the First Half of the 16th Century]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/61178997/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](This project concentrates on the Mediterranean-wide circulation of information regarding the Otto... more This project concentrates on the Mediterranean-wide circulation of information regarding the Ottoman Empire at a time when the latter consolidated its power over the Mare Nostrum. It focuses on the processes by which such information were transmitted throughout Europe and tries to analyze how they shape European perception of the Ottomans/Turks. The project aims to determine the dynamics behind the spread of information, focusing on the information per se and engaging in a comparative analysis of information stemming from different sources. Determining the dynamics behind the spread of information provides new insights for Information Studies and the History of Knowledge. A close look on the information that circulated in the Mediterranean regarding the Ottoman Empire not only helps us understand what constituted valuable information for European powers regarding the Ottoman Empire just as when it became a key player in European politics. It also shows us the role of this information flow in the making of Ottoman/Turkish image in Europe. Highlighting the important role disinformation and misinformation (rumours) played in the realm of politics and diplomacy, such a comparative study enables us to verify the information in circulation by a cross-reading of primary sources produced in different places and under different circumstances. It also determines false and produced rumours that gained currency overtime to such an extent that they are considered today as historical facts. The main source base of the project are I Diarii, the diaries of the Venetian statesman Marino Sanuto covering the period between 1496 and 1533. Sanuto’s work was read in a comparative manner not only with Ottoman, but also with European sources penned in French, Italian and German sources. An individual entry for each information piece was created on the Internet including a comprehensive summary in Turkish as well as the transcription of the original text. These entries were tagged with different categories, such as the date of information, source of information, the destination of information, the recipient of information, names and places that were mentioned. While the project team used the extracted data for their own research purposes as outlined above, the digitization, summarized translation and the categorization of these primary sources renders them usable for Turkish scholars who could not benefit from these valuable sources due to linguistic barriers. With a user-friendly search apparatus installed in the website created as a part of this project, information extracted from these sources will be open to all scholars who are expected to use this rich warehouse of hitherto unexplored information for different fields of Ottoman history, ranging from art history to military history, from diplomatic history to history of technology.
N.Z. Yelçe/E.S. Gürkan/F. Emecen/M. Kunt/E. Bozok/M.H. Cevrioğlu. On Altıncı Yüzyılın İlk Yarısında Akdeniz Haber Trafiğinde Osmanlı İmparatorluğu [Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean Intelligence Network during the First Half of the 16th Century] (TUBITAK 1001 Project Report, 113K655, Istanbul, 2017). https://trdizin.gov.tr/publication/show/pdf/project/TVRjME9EQXc=
Talks by Ela Bozok
Conversazioni is the EURONEWS Project's latest seminar series bringing together scholars from dif... more Conversazioni is the EURONEWS Project's latest seminar series bringing together scholars from different disciplines and perspectives in order to foster an interdisciplinary dialogue on the role of the media in past and present society. The aim is to promote a discussion encompassing current theoretical trends as well as the methodological challenges which underlie this research field. It will host one talk per month by researchers involved in projects relevant to EURONEWS' research agenda. Conversazioni aims to promote sociability and intellectual exchange among researchers, especially those at early career stages whose work has been most impacted by current public health related concerns. The Conversazioni series offers a safe and dynamic space for testing ideas, receiving feedback and developing further research perspectives. The series will be held in mixed form (virtual and in situ) and the discussions will be featured on the EURONEWS website either in written reports or recordings.(https://www.euronewsproject.org/workshops/conversazioni/)
The EURONEWS Project is funded by the Irish Research Council.
Conferences, workshops, and seminars by Ela Bozok
Conference Presentations by Ela Bozok
In late 1520, the sudden death of the much-feared Ottoman sultan Selim I seems to have caused a b... more In late 1520, the sudden death of the much-feared Ottoman sultan Selim I seems to have caused a brief period of relief in Europe. Although Selim I had focused his undivided attention to the neighboring powers in the East, his western counterparts were nevertheless relieved as “a fierce lion had left behind a mild lamb as successor” – if we were to quote the contemporary observer Paolo Giovo. This view would rapidly change during the following months when the new Ottoman sultan Süleyman I decided to march in Hungary in the spring of 1521.
This paper examines reports, letters, and other kinds of correspondence involving news sent about the new sultan and the Ottoman Empire from various European cities and Mediterranean ports to Venice during the year 1521. Based on research carried out within the framework of the “TUBITAK 1001 Scientific and Technologic Research Support Fund” project numbered 113K655 (Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean Intelligence Network during the First Half of the Sixteenth Century), this study investigates the process/es of news production and dissemination. Our research focuses on the agents responsible for the process and the hubs where various pieces of oral and written news within a wide range of sources from official letters to eyewitness accounts, from familial correspondence to rumors came together to be delivered collectively to and from Venice. A second level inquiry of the research focuses on the use of gathered information for Venetian interests and as a tool of power in early modern European diplomacy. As such, our study addresses, among others, especially two of the vital questions suggested for exploration in the scope of the Knowledge Systems and Ottoman-European Encounters: Spatial and Social Dynamics Conference: What was the social relevance of different kinds of knowledge and which were the places of knowledge-production? Which kind of knowledge was privileged or legitimized by whom and in which contexts?
A close reading of this crucial one-year period from Marino Sanuto’s voluminous diaries (I Diarii) and reflections thereof in Letters and Papers in British Archives aims to shed light not only to the perception of Ottomans but also to reflect the dynamics underlying early modern information networks. Through a micro-history approach, we aim to illuminate the day-to-day working of information flow.
Books by Ela Bozok
by Laura Dierksmeier, Frerich Schön, Anna Kouremenos, Annika Condit, Helen Dawson, Erica Angliker, David Hill, Kyle Jazwa, Zeynep Yelce, Ela Bozok, Sergios Menelaou, Alexander J Smith, Francesca Bonzano, Dunja Brozović Rončević, Katrin Dautel, and Beate M W Ratter
University of Tübingen Press, 2021
The three maps at the beginning of this book have been produced by Cartographer Richard Szydlak, ... more The three maps at the beginning of this book have been produced by Cartographer Richard Szydlak, who gracefully accepted the challenge to map very many islands, some very small, others imaginary. We are very grateful for the high quality of his work.
Conference Programmes (Organised) by Ela Bozok
Legatio: The Journal for Renaissance and Early Modern Diplomatic Studies, 2022
EUROPEAN ISLANDS BETWEEN ISOLATED AND INTERCONNECTED LIFE WORLDS Interdisciplinary Long-Term Perspectives, 2021
This paper reflects on the role of islands in the Mediterranean as transit posts in the news netw... more This paper reflects on the role of islands in the Mediterranean as transit posts in the news networks of the early 16th cent. AD. Based on research carried out within the framework of the ‘TUBITAK 1001 Scientific and Technologic Research Support Fund’ project numbered 113K655 (Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean Intelligence Net- work during the First Half of the 16th Century), this study traces the routes of letters and reports from eastern Mediterranean port cities to Venice from where news would be distributed to various cities in Europe. Our research investigates the hubs where various pieces of oral and written news within a wide range of sources, from official letters to eyewitness accounts, from familial correspondence to rumours, came together to be delivered collectively. As news travelled through the sea routes, this study focuses especially on the islands of Corfu, Crete, Rhodes, and Cyprus as main information hubs. In a period when regular postal systems were not fully developed, the role of the islands as transit points for news flow sheds light on the importance of islands in the dynamics of communication in the early 16th cent. AD.
"Europe is now in a state of change and in a crisis such as has not been known since Charlemagne"... more "Europe is now in a state of change and in a crisis such as has not been known since Charlemagne". This is not a quote from an EU politician negotiating a treaty, but from Leibniz's comments on the Nordic War of 1712. Reinhard Koselleck points out in his essay on crisis that it is through Leibniz that the concept has entered the area of philosophy of history, hence opening the category, until then mostly used in medicine and jurisprudence, to different interpretations and definitions. Crisis is, therefore, both a metaphor and a discipline-bound category with a specific meaning. The medical concept of crisis is that of a tipping point at which the patient would either recover or worsen. This conception of crisis, then, contains both a temporal aspect and a call for discerning, decisive judgement. Is it the case that a sense of crisis calls out for historians to act as doctors, diagnosing the ills of our world? How does this sense of crisis change the way we think about the times we live in, the past that shaped them, and the future to come? What understanding of "normal times" is it that the crisis interrupts? Today, surrounded by a widespread use of this term in a variety of contexts, when we hear much about the pandemic about economic, public and health crises, we propose a step back in order to take a look at the possible meanings of the term at its temporalities. How does its contemporary use help or hinder our understanding of historical events? How is our conception of time and history shaped by and in exceptional times? Does history have a special role to play when the old order seems to have reached a point of crisis? How does history serve as a tool or a metaphor to investigate pre-crisis pasts and post-crisis futures? With those questions serving as an inspiration, we are looking for contributions in area of intellectual history (broadly understood), dealing with crisis and temporalities.
Call for papers for the first Graduate Conference in Intellectual History at the European Univers... more Call for papers for the first Graduate Conference in Intellectual History at the European University Institute in Florence, 23-24 January 2020. The theme of the conference is 'Transcultural Conversations' and our keynote speaker is Dr Rachel Hammersley (Newcastle). Deadline for submission of abstracts is 25 November 2019. See the call for more details.
This project concentrates on the Mediterranean-wide circulation of information regarding the Otto... more This project concentrates on the Mediterranean-wide circulation of information regarding the Ottoman Empire at a time when the latter consolidated its power over the Mare Nostrum. It focuses on the processes by which such information were transmitted throughout Europe and tries to analyze how they shape European perception of the Ottomans/Turks. The project aims to determine the dynamics behind the spread of information, focusing on the information per se and engaging in a comparative analysis of information stemming from different sources. Determining the dynamics behind the spread of information provides new insights for Information Studies and the History of Knowledge. A close look on the information that circulated in the Mediterranean regarding the Ottoman Empire not only helps us understand what constituted valuable information for European powers regarding the Ottoman Empire just as when it became a key player in European politics. It also shows us the role of this information flow in the making of Ottoman/Turkish image in Europe. Highlighting the important role disinformation and misinformation (rumours) played in the realm of politics and diplomacy, such a comparative study enables us to verify the information in circulation by a cross-reading of primary sources produced in different places and under different circumstances. It also determines false and produced rumours that gained currency overtime to such an extent that they are considered today as historical facts. The main source base of the project are I Diarii, the diaries of the Venetian statesman Marino Sanuto covering the period between 1496 and 1533. Sanuto’s work was read in a comparative manner not only with Ottoman, but also with European sources penned in French, Italian and German sources. An individual entry for each information piece was created on the Internet including a comprehensive summary in Turkish as well as the transcription of the original text. These entries were tagged with different categories, such as the date of information, source of information, the destination of information, the recipient of information, names and places that were mentioned. While the project team used the extracted data for their own research purposes as outlined above, the digitization, summarized translation and the categorization of these primary sources renders them usable for Turkish scholars who could not benefit from these valuable sources due to linguistic barriers. With a user-friendly search apparatus installed in the website created as a part of this project, information extracted from these sources will be open to all scholars who are expected to use this rich warehouse of hitherto unexplored information for different fields of Ottoman history, ranging from art history to military history, from diplomatic history to history of technology.
N.Z. Yelçe/E.S. Gürkan/F. Emecen/M. Kunt/E. Bozok/M.H. Cevrioğlu. On Altıncı Yüzyılın İlk Yarısında Akdeniz Haber Trafiğinde Osmanlı İmparatorluğu [Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean Intelligence Network during the First Half of the 16th Century] (TUBITAK 1001 Project Report, 113K655, Istanbul, 2017). https://trdizin.gov.tr/publication/show/pdf/project/TVRjME9EQXc=
Conversazioni is the EURONEWS Project's latest seminar series bringing together scholars from dif... more Conversazioni is the EURONEWS Project's latest seminar series bringing together scholars from different disciplines and perspectives in order to foster an interdisciplinary dialogue on the role of the media in past and present society. The aim is to promote a discussion encompassing current theoretical trends as well as the methodological challenges which underlie this research field. It will host one talk per month by researchers involved in projects relevant to EURONEWS' research agenda. Conversazioni aims to promote sociability and intellectual exchange among researchers, especially those at early career stages whose work has been most impacted by current public health related concerns. The Conversazioni series offers a safe and dynamic space for testing ideas, receiving feedback and developing further research perspectives. The series will be held in mixed form (virtual and in situ) and the discussions will be featured on the EURONEWS website either in written reports or recordings.(https://www.euronewsproject.org/workshops/conversazioni/)
The EURONEWS Project is funded by the Irish Research Council.
In late 1520, the sudden death of the much-feared Ottoman sultan Selim I seems to have caused a b... more In late 1520, the sudden death of the much-feared Ottoman sultan Selim I seems to have caused a brief period of relief in Europe. Although Selim I had focused his undivided attention to the neighboring powers in the East, his western counterparts were nevertheless relieved as “a fierce lion had left behind a mild lamb as successor” – if we were to quote the contemporary observer Paolo Giovo. This view would rapidly change during the following months when the new Ottoman sultan Süleyman I decided to march in Hungary in the spring of 1521.
This paper examines reports, letters, and other kinds of correspondence involving news sent about the new sultan and the Ottoman Empire from various European cities and Mediterranean ports to Venice during the year 1521. Based on research carried out within the framework of the “TUBITAK 1001 Scientific and Technologic Research Support Fund” project numbered 113K655 (Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean Intelligence Network during the First Half of the Sixteenth Century), this study investigates the process/es of news production and dissemination. Our research focuses on the agents responsible for the process and the hubs where various pieces of oral and written news within a wide range of sources from official letters to eyewitness accounts, from familial correspondence to rumors came together to be delivered collectively to and from Venice. A second level inquiry of the research focuses on the use of gathered information for Venetian interests and as a tool of power in early modern European diplomacy. As such, our study addresses, among others, especially two of the vital questions suggested for exploration in the scope of the Knowledge Systems and Ottoman-European Encounters: Spatial and Social Dynamics Conference: What was the social relevance of different kinds of knowledge and which were the places of knowledge-production? Which kind of knowledge was privileged or legitimized by whom and in which contexts?
A close reading of this crucial one-year period from Marino Sanuto’s voluminous diaries (I Diarii) and reflections thereof in Letters and Papers in British Archives aims to shed light not only to the perception of Ottomans but also to reflect the dynamics underlying early modern information networks. Through a micro-history approach, we aim to illuminate the day-to-day working of information flow.
by Laura Dierksmeier, Frerich Schön, Anna Kouremenos, Annika Condit, Helen Dawson, Erica Angliker, David Hill, Kyle Jazwa, Zeynep Yelce, Ela Bozok, Sergios Menelaou, Alexander J Smith, Francesca Bonzano, Dunja Brozović Rončević, Katrin Dautel, and Beate M W Ratter
University of Tübingen Press, 2021
The three maps at the beginning of this book have been produced by Cartographer Richard Szydlak, ... more The three maps at the beginning of this book have been produced by Cartographer Richard Szydlak, who gracefully accepted the challenge to map very many islands, some very small, others imaginary. We are very grateful for the high quality of his work.