Shalev, Zur. "Apocalyptic Travelers: The Seventeenth-Century Search for the Seven Churches of Asia." (original) (raw)
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The 18 th century Jerusalemite society, and rather precisely the Christian population, is a fundamental historical factor that is worth the scholars' attention. As Ottoman studies focus on certain historical elements more than others, details of the day-today practices, social and economic transactions, and the general conditions of the Christian population continue to be unperformed. In addition, the influence of the Christian holy sites remains obscure. A situation that puts the researchers before a tacit feature of the Ottoman social history, that, if examined within the sphere of the archival sources and chronicles, would help to widen our perspective of the transformation process of the Christian communities and their holy sites, all within a period that once was believed to be a period of decline and decay. Hereafter, examining the primary sources, it is significant to survey for detailed information about these communities, then search for the possibility of viewing them in a revisionist consciousness of the early 18 th century, while focusing on a critical period that encompassed its first years of the century, prior the eruption of the revolt of the Naqibu Al-ashrāf. And further investigating the potential role of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as a significant religious site that might have attained influence in the social and economic transformation of the Christian communities. Along which, questioning the applicability of the classical paradigms of "autonomy", segregation, and "Millet System" in the case of the 18 th century Jerusalem. Proposals and arguments that this study attempts to tackle and dwell on, hoping to serve a new perspective in the social study stance of the socioeconomic history of Ottoman Jerusalem.
2017
Istanbul has been one of the most magnificent cities in Europe for centuries. Being the Ottoman capital, it was visited and admired by a great variety of people from both Eastern and Western world, belonging to different religious and social groups of diverse occupations. By the end of the 16th and in the 17th centuries the Ottoman capital became, an important missionary centre of the Catholic Church, hosting many friars who were preaching the Christian truths to the peoples of the Orient. Thus, among many other descriptions of the wonderful city of Istanbul, interesting are also those of the agents of the Roman Church. The purpose of this paper is to present the image of Istanbul through the eyes of the Catholic missionaries coming from Christian Europe during the Post-Tridentine Period (end of 16th – 17th centuries). This study is not aiming at a comprehensive presentation of all Roman Church’s emissaries sent to the Ottoman lands but rather to analyze some of the available report...
Ottoman Visions of the West (15th-17th Centuries), MA Thesis, McGill University
This study is a preliminary attempt to chart out the manifold ways Ottomans envisioned and imagined the Euro-Christian world during early modern times. Through the study of a selection of various sources ranging from pseudo-historiographic warrior epics to lyric poetry, the main objective will be to expose the multivocality and ambivalence of Ottoman texts dealing – exclusively or partially - with the Western cosmos. By a careful analysis of the narratological structure of specific Ottoman works, the degree to which Euro-Christians had permeated the minds (and souls) of Ottoman-Muslims will be evaluated. The examination of recurrent stock images, stereotypes, and depictions of Euro-Christians will hint at the ways Ottomans constructed and articulated a discourse of alterity based on the juxtaposition of a (pure and ideal) Self against a (reprehensible and threatening) Other. Simultaneously, instances where these seemingly unflinching and fixed boundaries were questioned, challenged, or overlooked will be located and contextualized. All in all, the aim will be to open a vista to the complex and colorful representational world of early modern Ottomans.
by Ionut-Alexandru Tudorie, Daniel Benga, 2024
This volume addresses the way in which images of Eastern Christianity are constructed in the diaries and travel descriptions of Western voyagers to the Ottoman Empire, during the second half of the sixteenth century. The articles included in the present volume aim to cover a vast geographical area, including the city of Constantinople/Istanbul along with the Eastern regions under the Ottoman control, as well as Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia. The studies present travelers coming from diverse backgrounds (Germany, Belgium, France, and Italy), different confessions (Catholics or Protestants), and various intellectual qualifications (scholars, theologians, Renaissance humanists). Taking into consideration the travelogues under scrutiny in this volume, one can draw a more sophisticated perspective of the other, not solely restricted to refutation and depreciation, but bringing forth acceptance and respect towards the other's religious practices and spiritual values.