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Papers by Ömer Fatih Parlak

Das Schiff als Thema der Moderne, 2020

This paper explores the function and transformation of deep-sea vessels in historic board games p... more This paper explores the function and transformation of deep-sea vessels in historic board games produced in 18th to 20th centuries in Europe. Thanks to the invention of the printing technology, printed board games became increasingly thematic. One of the most popular board game themes in modern Europe was world-travel via seafaring vessels. Intersecting entertainment and cartographic knowledge, board games were unique platforms that enabled symbolic adventures on the sea. These games had specially designed game mechanics to accommodate the theme, and they were exclusively played with dice, so that they could reflect not only the dangers in the sea but also important component of seafaring: the chance and being lucky. Board games also reflected the changing technology of sea vessels. Steamships that crossed the Atlantic were depicted with their paddlewheels and sails heading to the West in Edward Wallis's 1823 game European Travellers, in which one can find steamboats operating in the Black Sea along with older vessels cruising in the Mediterranean. This followed by many other games that demonstrated the reciprocity between seafaring technology and board games. By comparing historic board games chronologically, this research will provide new perspectives toward the transformation of seafaring in ludic circles of the modern era.

Middle East; Topics & Arguments, 2017

“The Turk” is a multifaceted concept that emerged in the late Middle Ages in Europe, after the 14... more “The Turk” is a multifaceted concept that emerged in the late Middle Ages in Europe, after the 1453 Ottoman victory at Constantinople, and has gained new faces over the course of time until today. It connoted (among many connotations) fear, terror, threat and war for an early modern European. Being primarily a Muslim, the Turk was an antichrist, infidel, and the ultimate enemy. With such attributed qualities, the concept influenced European art and literature by providing a subject with negative visual and textual representations. Although Edward Said’s Orientalism singled this out while engaging in the representation of a gross geography, current scholarly corpus about representations of the Turk sufficiently investigates the subject, yet, without offering any different reading and conclusion. This paper aims at introducing a new perspective to the image of the Turk by shedding light on its representations in early modern European board games and playing cards. It is argued that, belonging to a familiar but relatively obscure world of games, board games and playing cards have the potential to reinforce an antithesis to the negative image of the Turk.

Conference Presentations by Ömer Fatih Parlak

This research aims at demonstrating the positive role of board games in contributing to the compl... more This research aims at demonstrating the positive role of board games in contributing to the complex cross-cultural social environments in Late Medieval Iberia and Anatolia. This research utilizes the Theory of Social Normative Behaviour while explaining the role of board games as social lubricant among otherwise divergent groups. According to the Theory of Social Normative Behaviour (TSNB), game playing is considered outside the normative social behaviour and facilitates interaction between divergent groups. The theory proved to be useful in explaining the role of board games in cross-cultural interaction in the Bronze Age Levant (Crist et.al, 2016). In the Late Medieval historical context of Anatolia and Iberia, many chance-based and skill-based games are known to be widely played among not only the upper and lower classes but also culturally divergent groups. Various books on board games from Abbasid era, such as Al-Adli al-Rumi’s 10th century Kitab ash-shatranj (Book of Chess), Ar-Razi's Latif fi 'sh-shatranj (Entertainment with Chess), As-Suli's Kitab ash-shatranj (Book of Chess), and Alphonso X’s 13th century Libro de los Juegos (Book of Games) provide evidence for vertical and horizontal social interactions occurring around the board. In this regard, this research defends the idea that board games as social lubricants helped create a rather peaceful atmosphere shared by players coming from divergent cultural backgrounds in Late Medieval Anatolia and Iberia.
Keywords: Board Games, Social Lubricant, Theory of Social Normative Behaviour, Late Medieval Anatolia and Iberia.

Cultural differences between Europe and the Ottoman Empire could be seen in many aspects of life,... more Cultural differences between Europe and the Ottoman Empire could be seen in many aspects of life, including the medical approaches to diseases. Such differences in the medical approach revealed itself firstly in the perception of diseases, and then in the treatment of them. Syphilis was associated with certain sins in Europe. Moreover, physicians who wrote medical books condemned people who were afflicted with syphilis, which reflects the reasons beneath many terrible trials and massacres upon the syphilitics in the European societies. On the other hand, such accusations were not attributed to syphilis patients and social reflex against syphilis was not terrifying in the Ottoman Empire. Rather, Ottoman physicians, like Hayatizade, approached them with tolerance without condemnations or false judgments. This paper compares two different works on syphilis, Girolamo Fracastoro’s Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus (1530) and Hayatizade Mustafa Fevzi Efendi’s Risale-i Maraz-ı Frengi (1670s). In this way, I will argue that stylistic differences as well as the ways of dealing and describing the disease might point to cultural differences in these two societies. Also, Hayatizade’s accounts on syphilis and a syphilitic soldier will be introduced.

This paper examines the effects of Printing Revolution on board games that were invented in early... more This paper examines the effects of Printing Revolution on board games that were invented in early modern period. Printing provided not only a new medium for games but also stimulated the invention of new game mechanics. Board games that existed before the invention of printing engaged players in varying degrees of strategy and tactics; however, those that had been invented after the Revolution relied solely on the chance factor to determine the winner. This attests that the new medium had hardly any effect on the invention of sophisticated games; on the contrary, it promoted the spread of effortless play. I argue that widespread revolutionary effects of printing during the early modern period cannot be observed in printed board games; on the contrary, games descended into the lowest level of sophistication. I will illustrate this devolution in the light of historic board games predating the Printing Revolution and after.

This research aims at investigating the idea of Europe as reflected in historic board games and p... more This research aims at investigating the idea of Europe as reflected in historic board games and playing cards from the early modern period. It argues that the sense of Europe in games was developed after the geographical discoveries and the rise of the Ottomans. While on one hand
the expanding-world knowledge created a sense of European ‘Self’ as opposed to the inhabitants of newly discovered places, short-term but consistent holy leagues against the Ottomans, on the other hand, resulted in a centralized idea of Europe. This perspective reveals itself mostly in geographical board games and playing cards in which the center of the world is Europe and those in the peripheries are regarded as Europe’s Other. In a rare example, a game created by the Bolognese artist Giuseppe Maria Mitelli (1634–1718) combined three major sects of Christianity (Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox) to take a position against the Ottoman Empire. Thus, early modern games can pronounce the idea of a united Europe regardless of religious stratification. This idea will be explained by selected historic games that were published mainly in Italian, German and French speaking states between the 16th and 18th century.

Mainstream scholarship has employed a multidisciplinary approach to the image of the Turk in Euro... more Mainstream scholarship has employed a multidisciplinary approach to the image of the Turk in Europe which often yielded similar results revolving around negative connotations attributed to the Turkish image. However, recent approaches have proven the existence of a multifaceted image that puts the Turk into a different historical and cultural context. My research aims at analyzing the image of the Turk as it appears in early modern board games and playing cards. It argues that games provide us with a nuanced projection of historical facts seen from a ludic perspective. In the case of the image of the Turk, it is aimed to contribute to its heterogenous image by showing little-known examples that reconceptualize our view of history. Furthermore, potentials of using historical games as a new approach to historiographic discussions will be examined in the light of 17th and 18th century geography games including, among other countries, Finland.

The image of the Turk has been investigated by scholars in various disciplines, especially in art... more The image of the Turk has been investigated by scholars in various disciplines, especially in art and literature. However, there is hardly any research covering the Turk in European games. This research, which is a part of a wider project, aims at reflecting how the Turk was represented in playing cards and board games that themed post-1683 Ottoman retreat from Central Europe. Selected games materials from the Habsburgs and the city of Bologna will be compared in order to show their relevances in their approach to the Turk and its changing image. The function of the Turk in these games will also be investigated for highlighting their difference in point of view. This research will contribute to a rather nuanced and multifaceted image of the Turk as it was reflected in games.

This research aims at presenting a new perspective to the negative image of the Turk in European ... more This research aims at presenting a new perspective to the negative image of the Turk in European history through investigating selected board games and playing cards that were produced, circulated and enjoyed as a leisure time activity during the early modern period. Mainstream European historical thought approached the Turk as the ultimate enemy, the antichrist, barbaric and the 'Other'. This perception noticeably influenced cultural productions of early modern period such as art, literature, and among all, publishing during the time when the Ottoman threat grew towards Eastern and Central Europe. Games that were produced in this period also treated the Turk in the same parallelism. However, some of the chess sets and decks of playing cards from Southern Germany challenged this thought by presenting an appreciation rather than vilification. As a result, some games presented glimpses of a counterargument to the negative perception of the Turkish image which was created, produced and, thanks to the development in printing technology, reproduced throughout the early modern period. Whether this counterargument was valid and acceptable only in the gaming time-space correlation or it had reflections from the real-time in which the games were played will also be approached in this paper.

Lectures by Ömer Fatih Parlak

This is a public lecture about the 19th century British board games and their role in implementin... more This is a public lecture about the 19th century British board games and their role in implementing Imperialism and the great Empire idea in its young minds via board games. The talk was organized by the Department of History at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul.

In November 2019, Ömer Fatih Parlak gave a lecture at the NIT on the decline of the appearance of... more In November 2019, Ömer Fatih Parlak gave a lecture at the NIT on the decline of the appearance of Turks and Turkey in historic board games produced in Europe beginning with the 19th century. This coming lecture complements the November lecture by looking at earlier periods of the deployment of the image of the Turk.

This lecture is a counterargument to a widely accepted “terrible Turk” image that is found ubiquitously in mainstream scholarship. Underestimating the propagandist nature of these images, the Turk in European mindset is thought to represent many sorts of terrible things. This lecture, however, aims to demonstrate that the Turk was actually a multifaceted image that did not always mean the enemy, terrible or barbaric. On the contrary, in light of early modern board games and playing cards (1500-1750) we will see that the Turk was sometimes a friend, a companion in war, or an important figure to win a game. In the symbolic world of games, there might even be ahistorical confrontations in which Turks fight against Native Americans. With such a wide range of representations of the Turk, the world of historic games provides sufficient inventory for a reappraisal of scholarly theses that claim the historic image of the Turk has been “uniform, constant, and consistent.” It is hoped with this lecture that this one-sided perspective is balanced via historical examples that come in different forms of entertaining games.

This research explores the reflection of the Turk and Turkey in historic board games produced in ... more This research explores the reflection of the Turk and Turkey in historic board games produced in nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Europe. It states that the image of the Turk lost its thematic value in board games from the beginning of the nineteenth century and entered a century-long period characterized by a representational decline. During the hype of imperialism, newly colonized territories and peoples took the attention of board game designers, while the Turk and Turkey were no longer a popular entity in games. In the twentieth century, however, this decline turned almost to a total absence of Turkish representation in board games. This inquiry proposes to seek this declining trend in the mutual relationship between game space and political space. In the light of historic board games from Dutch, Flemish, French and British collections, the study revisits Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga’s theories on play and games in culture. Statistical data supporting the proposal here will also be shared with the participants.

Dissertations and Theses by Ömer Fatih Parlak

Towards the end of the 15 th century, syphilis emerged in Europe's west as a new disease that had... more Towards the end of the 15 th century, syphilis emerged in Europe's west as a new disease that had not had any medical record until then. The disease quickly spread to the rest of the world; by 1505 it was already ravaging people's lives in China and Japan. Even in the remotest places, like Iceland, syphilis epidemics dating back to 1525 were well-documented. However, the earliest known syphilis threat in the Ottoman Empire was carried by the Russian soldiers during the wars with the Russian Empire in the 19 th century. Considering its territorial extent after the 15 th century and military, commercial and diplomatic activities with Europe, it is not possible to claim that the Ottoman land was left untouched by syphilis. This fallacy has been interpreted by historians that the prevailing Islamic lifestyle of its subjects and religion-based administration prevented venereal diseases like syphilis to spread in the Empire. This interpretation is stimulated by the two state-driven ideologies in Turkey that the historian's impulses are occupied; namely, Turkish History Thesis and Turkish-Islamic Synthesis. Through readings of medical manuscripts written on syphilis, judicial court records, as well as often censored pamphlets on sexuality in the Ottoman Empire, this thesis proves that syphilis was evident in the Ottoman Empire long before the 19 th century and the sufferers were the believers of Islam. It is also aimed at analyzing the ideologies that govern Turkish historians' impulses while treating Turkish history, due to the very fact that such ideologies play an important role in the perception of Turkish people's common past.

Doctoral Thesis. Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10803/667968, 2019

A considerable amount of investigation has been done on the image of the Turk in European art, li... more A considerable amount of investigation has been done on the image of the Turk in European art, literature and other cultural productions. The existing accounts often result with repetitive conclusions that are revolving around a negative image attributed to the Turk. It is observed that this common problem derives from the lack of perspectival look at the subject matter. More recently, research has emerged that offers different perspectives with new findings that contradict previous literature. In the light of this new literature, the Turk has been re-conceptualized as a multifaceted image. However, the lack of investigation proposing new perspectives still remains as a major issue in the field.

This research critically examines the image of the Turk that appears in early modern board games and playing cards produced in Europe, a hitherto untouched domain in this regard. Data for this study was collected from the online and otherwise archives of various museums in Europe, catalogs, private collections and other relevant literature. The collected data was enlisted in the Games Index, which includes printed and manufactured board games, packs of playing cards, and game counters. The Index currently contains 107 unique items from six European countries as their place of origin. Then, a qualitative case study approach was used to investigate the various ways the Turk was represented in a number of games which were selected according to the quality of the depiction and the function of the Turk in the game. The findings make an important contribution to the idea that perceives the Turk as a multifaceted image. The most obvious conclusion to obtain from this thesis is that the image of the Turk has never been a static one; on the contrary, it has evolved and gained different meanings throughout its history in Europe.

Podcasts/Videos by Ömer Fatih Parlak

Das Schiff als Thema der Moderne, 2020

Middle East; Topics & Arguments, 2017

Doctoral Thesis. Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10803/667968, 2019

Ottoman History Podcast, 2020

Erken modern dönemde Avrupa’nın oyun dünyası nasıldı? Avrupa’nın çeşitli ülkelerinde üretilen bu ... more Erken modern dönemde Avrupa’nın oyun dünyası nasıldı? Avrupa’nın çeşitli ülkelerinde üretilen bu oyunlarda Türkler nasıl temsil ediliyordu? Bu bölümde, Dr. Fatih Parlak ile bu sorular etrafında sohbet ediyoruz. Parlak’ın doktora tezi batılı kaynaklarda yer alan Türk imgesini durağan kabul eden ana akım yaklaşımları yeniden değerlendiriyor ve bu imgenin çok katmanlı ve çok yönlü olarak değerlendirilmesi gerektiğine vurgu yapıyor. Aynı zamanda, oyunları incelemenin açtığı yeni araştırma imkânlarını da tartışıyor. https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2020/04/turk-imgesi.html