Ottoman History Podcast
Interviews with historians about the history of the Ottoman Empire and beyond.
Episodes
The Political Ecology of Late Ottoman Kurdistan
with Zozan Pehlivan
hosted by Chris Gratien and Ayah Aboelela
| What do environmental features like plants, animals, landscapes, and climate have to do with the political transformation of the Ottoman Empire? Everything, according to our guest in this episode, Zozan Pehlivan, author of The Political Ecology of Violence: Peasants and Pastoralists in the Last Ottoman Century. As Prof.
Cümle Fener Burada
Namık Erkal, Firuzan Melike Sümertaş ve Haris Theodorelis-Rigas
Sunucu: Can Gümüş
| 1719’da Bükreş’te yaşayan bir âlim, İstanbul’daki bir dostuna yazdığı mektupta, “Cümle Fener burada; artık İstanbul’u hatırlamıyorum” diyordu. Koç Üniversitesi Anadolu Medeniyetleri Araştırma Merkezi’nde (ANAMED) açılan Cümle Fener Burada: Hane, Mahalle, Saray ve Şehir sergisine adını veren bu ifade, Fen
Embodied Archives of the Armenian Genocide
with Elyse Semerdjian
hosted by Matthew Ghazarian
| How can feminist approaches to the body and embodiment change the ways we approach the history of violence? In this episode we discuss these topics with Elyse Semerdjian, author of Remnants: Embodied Archives of the Armenian Genocide (Stanford University Press 2023). Rather than ask about the official intent, geopolitics, or inter
Hebrew Orientalism in Late Ottoman and British Palestine
with Mostafa Hussein
hosted by Chris Gratien
| Zionism, as a cultural and political movement of Hebrew revival, sought to forge a connection between the modern Jewish people and a deep past located in the geography of late Ottoman and British Palestine. As our guest in this episode, Mostafa Hussein, explores in a new book, this revival in turn birthed an intellectual project of inti
Breadwinner Soldiers in the Ottoman Empire
with Kate Dannies
hosted by Sam Dolbee and Can Gümüş
| For the last century of its history, the Ottoman army fought war after war for the survival of the empire. In this episode, Kate Dannies explores another fight for survival: that of millions of Ottoman families, as sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers were drafted into the new imperial army. As Prof. Dannies argues in her new
The Jeweled Gun of Sultan Mahmud I
with Ashley Dimmig
hosted by Abbey Stockstill and Musa Kazım Azimli
| The jewel-encrusted musket of Mahmud I is one of the most popular pieces at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. In this episode, curator Ashley Dimmig joins us to discuss her experience curating Islamic art and the manifold mysteries of the ornate 18th-century gun once owned by an Ottoman Sultan. These mysteries
WWI and the End of the Ottoman Empire
with Mustafa Aksakal
hosted by Chris Gratien and Sıla Önder
| The First World War brought an end to six centuries of Ottoman imperial rule and in many ways, made the Middle East region as it is known today. In this episode recorded live at the University of Virginia Institute for the Arts and Humanities, we are joined by Mustafa Aksakal, author of two books about the Ottoman Empire&
Astrologers and Authority in the Ottoman Empire
with A. Tunç Şen
hosted by Maryam Patton
| What did it mean to know the future in the early modern Ottoman Empire? And who had the authority to interpret the heavens? In this episode, A. Tunç Şen discusses his new book Forgotten Experts: Astrologers, Science, and Authority in the Ottoman Empire, 1450–1600. Şen takes us into the world of Ottoman court munajjims—astral experts whos
The Ottoman World of Sports
with Murat Yıldız
hosted by Sam Dolbee
| In the late Ottoman capital, imperial politics became a field of collaboration and competition between Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities, especially in the years following the 1908 constitutional revolution. And as our guest Murat Yıldız argues in a new book, the world of sports also emerged as an arena of political contestation, as
All's Fair in Love and War
Lafky entered the United States as a teenager on false pretenses, when her cousin presented her to immigration authorities as his legal wife. A decade later, when her real marriage devolved into a messy divorce, her husband used her prior illicit entry against her, reporting Lafky to immigration authorities and triggering a legal battle that lasted for years. Lafky's deportation file reveal
Between Care and Violence: The Dogs of Istanbul
with Mine Yıldırım
hosted by Önder Eren Akgül
| What does canine life reveal about the human worlds of modern Istanbul? In this special collaboration with Keyman Podcast at Northwestern University, we sit down with Mine Yıldırım, curator of the exhibition "Between Care and Violence: The Dogs of Istanbul," to discuss the intersecting histories of cruelty and compassion towa
Film Diplomacy in Turkey-US Relations
with Ayşehan Jülide Etem
hosted by Chris Gratien and Sıla Önder
| During the Cold War period, Turkish cinema flourished, as American films entered local theaters, television sets, and the studios of Yeşilçam. Yet as Jülide Etem argues in her new book, Film Diplomacy, the cinematic story of Turkey-US relations begins not with entertaining Hollywood movies that circled the globe but r
The Ottoman Genizah
with Jane Hathaway
hosted by Maryam Patton
| What can a single, discarded scrap of paper reveal about life in Ottoman-era Cairo? In this episode, Jane Hathaway discusses her open-access book Ottoman-Era Documents from the Cairo Genizah. A genizah is a storeroom or repository where Jewish communities preserved worn-out texts and papers, especially those containing the name of God.
Soykırımın Bürokrasisi
Ümit Kurt
Sunucu: Can Gümüş
| Bu bölümde Ümit Kurt’un Aras Yayıncılık’tan çıkan kitabı Kanun ve Nizam Dairesinde: Soykırım Teknokratı Mustafa Reşat Mimaroğlu’nun İzinde Osmanlı’dan Cumhuriyet’e Devlet Mekanizması temelinde 1915’in idari ve bürokratik boyutuna odaklanıyoruz. Mustafa Reşat Mimaroğlu örneğinde olduğu gibi “kanun ve nizam dairesinde” hareket eden bürokratlara odaklandığımız
Architecture and Environment in the Medieval Maghreb
with Abbey Stockstill
hosted by Chris Gratien
| What is Islamic architecture? In this follow-up to our ten-part seires on The Making of the Islamic World, we explore that question with Prof. Abbey Stockstill, author of Marrakesh and the Mountains: Landscape, Urban Planning, and Identity in the Medieval Maghrib. Our conversation centers on the imperial city of Marrakesh, which was sh
Osmanlı ve Türkiye Sanayileşme Tarihi
Görkem Akgöz
Sunucu: Can Gümüş
| Bu bölümde Dr. Görkem Akgöz’ün 2025 Hagley Prize in Business History ödülünü alan “In the Shadow of War and Empire Industrialisation, Nation-Building, and Working-Class Politics in Turkey” başlıklı kitabı üzerine konuşuyoruz. Akgöz’ün “Türk Manchester”ı olarak bilinen Bakırköy Bez Fabrikası’nı Osmanlı döneminde kuruluşundan itibaren odağa alan araştırma
The Turkishness Contract
with Barış Ünlü
hosted by Chris Gratien and Kubra Sagir
| What does it mean to be Turkish? In this episode, we examine that question with sociologist Barış Ünlü. In The Turkishness Contract, Ünlü studies the historical process by which Turkishness developed through a contractual relationship between the state and its citizens. In our conversation, we explore the late Ottoman roots o
A Confederate General in the Ottoman Capital
with Elizabeth Varon
hosted by Chris Gratien
| After the US Civil War, some leaders of the defeated Confederacy followed unusual trajectories, perhaps none more so than James Longstreet, who joined the Republican party to become a proponent of Southern Reconstruction and for a brief period, the Minister Resident to the Ottoman Empire. In this episode, we talk to Elizabeth Varon, aut
Palestine and India at the Dawn of Decolonization
with Esmat Elhalaby
hosted by Susanna Ferguson
| How did Palestine become central to anti-imperial movements and thought in the global south? In this episode, Esmat Elhalaby asks how Arabs and South Asians contended with the “parting gifts of empire” in the long twentieth century, often by turning to Palestine. He talks about how Arab writers in conversation with India reinvented
Refugees, Humanitarianism, and the Politics of Kinship
with Sophia Balakian
hosted by Brittany White and Chris Gratien
| The word "refugee" might conjure images of families devastated by war fleeing their homeland. But what happens when those who seek asylum abroad do not conform to that image? As Sophia Balakian argues in her new book Unsettled Families: Refugees, Humanitarianism, and the Politics of Kinship, the question is
A British Burlesque Artist in Belle Époque Cairo
featuring Gwendolyn Collaço
with Andras Riedlmayer and Paul Drummond
| While killing time at the Booksellers' Row in Westminster, historian and curator Gwendolyn Collaço stumbled on a collection of postcards from early 20th-century Egypt, some featuring the British burlesque artist Miss Kitty Lord. When she realized that the postcards were a set belonging to a single perso
Osmanlı’nın Bağdat’taki Son Yılları
Emine Şahin
Sunucu: Can Gümüş
| Bağdat, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu için coğrafi uzaklığına rağmen merkezî idarenin vazgeçilmez vilayetlerinden biriydi. Tanzimat’tan itibaren bu önem, yalnızca askerî güvenlik veya sınır politikalarıyla sınırlı kalmadı; idarî modernleşme, ekonomik düzenlemeler ve toplumsal kontrol mekanizmalarının uygulandığı başlıca laboratuvarlardan biri haline geldi. II. Meş
Pamphlets and Polemics in the 17th-Century Ottoman Empire
with Nir Shafir
hosted by Maryam Patton
| The seventeenth century has often been characterized as a period of disorder and religious polemics in the Ottoman Empire. In this podcast, Nir Shafir takes us inside his award-winning new book, which argues that the polemics of the early modern Ottoman world were fueled in part by changes in communication, namely the rise of short pamphl
A Sea of Sorcery: Roundtable with Shannon Chakraborty
produced by Shireen Hamza
and featuring Fahad Bishara, KD Thompson, Liana Saif, Mahmood Kooria, Rebecca Hankins, and Samantha Pellegrino
| What could historians have to say about a fantasy novel? The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, published in 2023, follows an aging mother and captain on magical adventures across the twelfth-century Indian Ocean world with her crew. It has been rea
Osmanlı'dan Cumhuriyet’e İstanbul’da Elektrikli Yaşam
Nurçin İleri, Emine Öztaner ve Meltem Kocaman
Sunucu: Can Gümüş
| Bu bölümde, Nurçin İleri, Emine Öztaner ve Meltem Kocaman ile elektriğin Osmanlı’dan Cumhuriyet’e uzanan süreçte gündelik yaşamı ve toplumsal ilişkileri nasıl dönüştürdüğünü tartışıyoruz. İstanbul’un ilk aydınlatma girişimlerinden sanayi tesislerine, tramvay hatlarından ev içi teknolojilere uzanan örneklerle, teknolojik ye
Türkiye, Iran, and the Politics of Comparison
with Perin Gürel
hosted by Chris Gratien
| Comparisons are everywhere in American discussions of Middle East politics. As our guest, Perin Gürel, argues in a new book, this cultural impulse has political roots in the Cold War period. In this episode, we explore the origins of comparitivism through the lens of America's evolving relationship with Turkey and Iran over the course o
Martin Crusius and the Discovery of Ottoman Greece
with Richard Calis
hosted by Maryam Patton
| In the late sixteenth century, a German Lutheran scholar named Martin Crusius compiled a remarkable ethnographic and scholarly account of Greek life under Ottoman rule in his seminal Turcograecia. Though he never left his home in Tübingen, Crusius spent decades corresponding with a far-flung network of intermediaries, including the Gre
The End of Ottoman Crete
with Uğur Z. Peçe
hosted by Sam Dolbee
| In the 1890s, Ottoman Crete descended into communal violence between its Christian and Muslim inhabitants, abetted by foreign powers and Ottoman officials alike. In this episode, Uğur Z. Peçe explains how this conflict--which he calls a civil war--came about, what it meant in people's intimately connected everyday lives, and how it shap
Gender, Capitalism, and Democracy in Modern Arab Thought
with Susanna Ferguson
hosted by Chris Gratien
| What does the history of modern Arab political thought look like from the perspective of women authors? In this podcast, we sit down with longtime Ottoman History Podcast contributor Susanna Ferguson to explore this question, which animates her new book Labors of Love: Gender, Capitalism, and Democracy in Modern Arab Thought. Previous
Religion, Science, and an Arab Renaissance Man
with Peter Hill
hosted by Matthew Ghazarian
| Across the 19th century Arab East, or Mashriq, there were two simultaneous but seemingly contradictory trends afoot. On the one hand, new ways of understanding religion, science, and community, often associated with the intellectual 'revival' of the Arab Nahda, ushered in new forms of thought and more fluid subjectivities. On t
Ottoman Passports
with İlkay Yılmaz
hosted by Sam Dolbee
| Passports are objects at once momentous and mundane. How did they come about in the late Ottoman Empire? In this episode, İlkay Yılmaz discusses the history of this technology, and how the state effort to manage information about identity and control people's movement emerged alongside international police efforts to control anarchist and
North Caucasian Refugees and the Late Ottoman State
with Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky
hosted by Chris Gratien & Can Gümüş
| During the late 19th and early 20th century, tens of millions of migrants crossed the seas, settling in the Americas and beyond in a mass migration event that reshaped politics and economies throughout the world. In this episode, we focus on one of the most ignored groups within the history of those momentous e
An Ottoman Imam in Brazil
with Ali Kulez
hosted by Sam Dolbee
| In 1866, a series of unexpected events led to an Ottoman imam by the name of Abd al-Rahman al-Baghdadi ending up in Rio de Janeiro. In this episode, Ali Kulez explains how he got there, and what happened when al-Baghdadi became close with enslaved and free Afro-Brazilian Muslims, and attempted to teach them his vision of Islamic orthodoxy. In a
Media of the Masses in Modern Egypt
with Andrew Simon, Alia Mossallam, and Ziad Fahmy
hosted by Chris Gratien
| The Egyptian revolution of 2011 is one of the most spectacular examples of how social media has played a pivotal role in political movements of the 21st century. However, in this final installment of our four-part series on "The Sound of Revolution in Modern Egypt," we argue that the true beginn
Nazareth, the Nakba, and the Remaking of Palestinian Politics
with Leena Dallasheh
hosted by Chris Gratien
| As an Arab city inside the 1948 borders of Israel, Nazareth defies many of the general narratives of both Israeli and Palestinian histories. But as our guest Leena Dallasheh explains, that does not mean that Nazareth is necessarily an exception. In fact, its paradoxical survival is key to understanding the history of modern Palestinian
The Economics of the Armenian Genocide in Aintab
with Ümit Kurt
hosted by Sam Dolbee
| What were the economic forces that drove the violence of the Armenian genocide? In this episode, historian Ümit Kurt speaks about his research on the role of property in the history of the dispossession and deportation of Aintab’s Armenian community. Despite archival silences, he reveals the central role of legal mechanisms and local propertied
Nasser, Nubia, and the Stories of a People
with Alia Mossallam
hosted by Chris Gratien
| In 1952, a coup d'état led by Gamal Abdel Nasser ushered in a revolutionary period of Egyptian history in which sound played an integral role in shaping collective political consciousness. The culture of the 50s and 60s was dominated by songs by artists like Umm Kulthum and Abdel Halim Hafez that still resonate within national consc
A Sufi Novel of Late Ottoman Istanbul
with Brett Wilson
hosted by Brittany White
| Set between elite households and a Sufi lodge, Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu's 1922 novel Nur Baba was a provocative take on competing notions of religion, morality, gender, and romance in the dynamic world of late Ottoman Istanbul. In this episode, we speak to Brett Wilson, author of the first-ever English translation of Karaosmanoğlu&#
Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Arab World
with Maha Nassar
hosted by Susanna Ferguson
| 1948 marks the year that Israel gained independence, and for Palestinians, an experience of mass exile known as the Nakba. The displacement of Palestinians and subsequent conflicts between Israel and its Arab neighbors had immense consequences. But how did the Palestinian Arabs who remained and make up roughly 20% of Israel's popula
The Politics of Street Sounds in Interwar Egypt
with Ziad Fahmy
hosted by Chris Gratien
| During the interwar period, the recording industry reshaped Egyptian culture and politics through music. But as we discuss in part two of our four-part series on "The Sound of Revolution in Modern Egypt," everyday sounds of the city are no less part of Egypt's political history. As our guest Ziad Fahmy explains, writing sonic
Ottoman Istanbul After Dark
with Avner Wishnitzer
hosted by Sam Dolbee
| What did the nighttime mean in the early modern Ottoman Empire? In this episode, Avner Wishnitzer discusses his recent book As Night Falls: Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Cities After Dark (also available in Turkish translation by Can Gümüş as Gece Çökerken). He explains how the night was a time for sleep, rest, devotion, sex, crime, drinkin
The Egyptian Labor Corps and the Echoes of WWI
with Kyle Anderson & Alia Mossallam
hosted by Chris Gratien
| In the aftermath of the First World War, the Egyptian streets rose up against British rule during a period of global anti-imperialism, and the voices of the 1919 revolution have echoed throughout Egyptian history ever since. In this first installment of our four-part series on "The Sound of Revolution in Modern
Nationality on Trial in the 19th Century Mediterranean
with Jessica Marglin
hosted by Brittany White
| In 1873, Nissim Shamama died suddenly at his palazzo in Livorno. He was quietly one of the richest men in the Mediterranean. A Tunisian Jew born in the Ottoman Empire, Shamama had taken his place among the mercantile elite of a newly-unified Italy. He was a man who belonged to many places. But to whom would his vast inheritance belong
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine
with Rashid Khalidi
hosted by Zeinab Azarbadegan
| In this episode, Rashid Khalidi discusses his latest book The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, where he defines Zionism not only as a nationalist project in conflict with the Palestinian one, but also a settler colonial project supported by the British and later the Am
Privileges and Nobility in Ottoman Kurdistan
with Nilay Özok-Gündoğan
hosted by Sam Dolbee
| As the Ottoman state expanded in the sixteenth century, it extended a number of privileges to elite families in Kurdistan. In this episode, Nilay Özok-Gündoğan discusses her new book The Kurdish Nobility in the Ottoman Empire, which explains how these hereditary privileges—unique in the empire—developed and changed in the region of Pa
Environment and Empire in the Ottoman Jazira
Samuel Dolbee
hosted by Chris Gratien and Reem Bailony
| What can we learn about the late Ottoman Empire from the histories of its would-be margins? In this episode, we explore that question in multiple senses through a conversation with longtime Ottoman History Podcast contributor Sam Dolbee about his book "Locusts of Power: Borders, Empire, and Environment in the Modern Middle E
The Ottoman Empire and Eastern World Orders
with Ayşe Zarakol
hosted by Zeinab Azarbadegan
| What did the international system look like before the rise of the West? What was the place of the Ottomans within it? How did the Ottomans claimed sovereignty and recognition from other states in the sixteenth century world order? In this episode Ayşe Zarakol discusses the rise and fall of Eastern world orders from the Mongol times
Tax Administration in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
Linda Darling
hosted by Sam Dolbee
| In this episode, Linda Darling discusses the history of tax administration in the early modern Ottoman Empire, and how attention to it can open up a broad range of questions about technology, governance, and military power and, in the process, dispell simplistic stereotypes such as the "Sick Man of Europe." In addition, she speaks more bro
Arab-Ottoman Imperialists at the End of Empire
with Mostafa Minawi
hosted by Zeinab Azarbadegan
| What did it mean to be Arab during the last decades of the Ottoman Empire? What did it mean to be Arab and invested in continuation of the Ottoman Empire? In this episode Mostafa Minawi answers these questions by focusing on the lives of two Arab-Ottoman Imperialists from the same family in Damascus, the al-'Azm or Azamzade fam
What is Islamic Art?
with Wendy M. K. Shaw
hosted by Zeinab Azarbadegan
| What is an image in Islam? Is its permissibility the main preoccupation of Islamic discourses? In this episode, Wendy M.K. Shaw revisits the foundations of art history and considers their colonial and Eurocentric roots. She discusses the stories of art and artists that circulated in the Islamic world, not all of which were accomp
Water from Stone
with Jesse Howell & Marijana Mišević
hosted by Sam Dolbee
| In this special episode of the Ottoman History Podcast, Sam Dolbee and Jesse Howell travel by bike along the Ćiro Trail from Dubrovnik in Croatia to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they meet fellow Ottoman historian Marijana Mišević. Along the way, they consider the legacy and traces of early modern Ottoman c
The Catastrophic Success of the Armenian Tanzimat
with Richard Antaramian
hosted by Matthew Ghazarian
| How did the Ottomans secure widespread buy-in for modernization projects across the empire's many geographies and communities? This episode explores that question through the experiences of Armenians in the Ottoman East. Our guest, Richard Antaramian, shares some of his research, which argues that Ottoman shared governance
A New History of The Eastern Question
with Ozan Ozavci
hosted by Zeinab Azarbadegan
| How was European military intervention in the Ottoman Empire justified throughout the nineteenth century? What did Ottoman statesmen and subjects think of these would-be attemepts to provide them with more security? From the late eighteenth century, as a new international system was emerging, European powers considered the Ottoman Emp
Moriscos and the Early Modern Mediterranean
Mayte Green-Mercado
hosted by Brittany White
| In 1609, King Phillip III of Spain signed an edict to expel a community known as the Moriscos from the Iberian Peninsula. The Moriscos were Muslims forcibly converted to Christianity during the 16th century, after Christian kingdoms displaced the last remaining Muslim rulers in Iberia. The persecution and erasure of the Moriscos following
Scholarly Salons in 16th-Century Damascus
with Helen Pfeifer
hosted by Maryam Patton
| In 1517, the Ottomans captured Cairo and with it, the Arabophone lands of the Mamluk Sultanate. Suddenly, scores of learned scholars who had been preparing and vying for positions of esteem in either the academy or the bureaucracy found themselves under new authority. How did these scholars navigate the new political and linguistic environ
An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier
with Chris Gratien
hosted by Susanna Ferguson
| How did ordinary Ottoman subjects experience the momentous changes that made our modern world? This episode explores that question through the history of the Çukurova region of southern Turkey. As our guest Chris Gratien has argued in a new book entitled The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier, Çukurov
The Spiritual Vernacular of the Early Ottoman Frontier
with Carlos Grenier
hosted by Maryam Patton
| How did one learn to be a good Muslim in the early 15th century? In newly conquered Ottoman lands where Christians and converts lived side by side, how would one go about learning the proper rites and beliefs to hold? This conversation with Carlos Grenier explores the lives and ideas of two brothers, Mehmed Yazıcıoğlu and Ahmed Bican, Su
Dear Palestine
with Shay Hazkani
hosted by Sam Dolbee
| The 1948 War resulted in the creation of the state of Israel and the Nakba of 750,000 Palestinian refugees. In Dear Palestine, Shay Hazkani sheds new light on these events through a unique source base: hundreds of personal letters secretly copied by an Israeli censorship apparatus. We talk in this episode both about his struggle to access th
Osman of Timisoara: Prisoner of the Infidels
with Giancarlo Casale
hosted by Brittany White
| Osman of Timișoara was a Muslim subject of the Ottoman Empire born during the late 17th century in modern-day Romania. As a young man serving in the Ottoman military, he was captured by the Habsburg army. He would spend more than a decade as a captive in Austria. Many people of his time had similar stories. What made Osman special was th
The Circassian Diaspora
with Şölen Şanlı Vasquez
hosted by Brittany White
| Over the course its final decades, millions of Muslim immigrants, many of them refugees of war and Russian conquest, settled in the Ottoman Empire. Between a quarter and a third of people in Turkey today have ancestors who arrived with those migrations. Yet their history often stops short of capturing the personal experiences of suc
The Origins of Ottoman History
with Rudi Lindner
hosted by Joshua White & Maryam Patton
| Among the most murky periods of the Ottoman dynasty's six-century history is the period of its very emergence in medieval Anatolia. In this episode, we talk to Rudi Lindner about his attempts to understand this early period of Ottoman history and the development of hypotheses and methods concerning the investigation of Ott
Layers of History in Downtown Beirut
with Rayya Haddad
| The modern history of Beirut has been defined by periods of intense construction, destruction, and reconstruction. In this episode, we explore the layers of history in Beirut's cityscape through a walking tour with Rayya Haddad. We chart Beirut's transformation from its rise as a late Ottoman capital through the expansion of the port during the French Ma
Galata and the Early Modern Mediterranean World
with Fariba Zarinebaf
hosted by Sam Dolbee and Nir Shafir
| In this episode, Fariba Zarinebaf discusses the history of Galata and the early modern Mediterranean more broadly. Beginning with the incorporation of Galata's Genoese community of Istanbul under Ottoman rule in 1453, Zarinebaf explains how the treaties known as the capitulations (ahdname in Turkish) provided a d
The Environmental Origins of Ottoman Iraq
with Faisal Husain
hosted by Chris Gratien
| The Ottoman conquests of the 16th century represented a watershed moment in many senses. Our guest Faisal Husain explains the most literal of these senses: the unification of the Tigris and Euphrates basins under a single political authority and its ramifications for the history of Iraq. In our conversation, we explore how Ottoman rule in
Ottoman Mecca and the Indian Ocean Hajj
with Michael Christopher Low
hosted by Sam Dolbee
| In the Hijaz, the Ottoman Empire managed not only Mecca and Medina--the two holiest cities in Islam--but also port cities of the Red Sea with connections to the Indian Ocean and beyond. In this episode, Michael Christopher Low explains how the empire ruled this region as the hajj transformed thanks to steam travel in the late ninete
Paraskevi Kyrias, Albania, and the US at the Paris Peace Conference
with Nevila Pahumi
hosted by Susanna Ferguson
| In 1919, Paraskevi Kyrias went to Paris to advocate for Albanian independence. As a woman in the overwhelmingly masculine space of international diplomacy, she faced sexism and unwanted romantic overtures. Nevertheless, she called on her connections within a global Protestant community, her life in diaspora in the United States, and he
Zeinab's Odyssey: Gender, Mobility, and the Mahjar
Episode 478
with Randa Tawil
hosted by Chris Gratien
How do social categories like gender and race impact migrant trajectories as they move through different imperial, national, and liminal spaces? In this episode, we explore this question through the incredible journey of Zeinab Ameen, one of many Syrian migrants featured in the work of our guest Randa Tawil. Zeinab Ameen was born in
The Life and Times of Sultan Selim I
Episode 472
with Alan Mikhail
hosted by Sam Dolbee
Sultan Selim I is well known for the conquests he pursued that brought places like Cairo, Damascus, and Mecca into the Ottoman Empire. But in this episode, we're exploring the life and times of Selim I in an entirely new light by placing the Islamic world at the center of the momentous events of the turn of the 16th century. We talk
David Ohannessian: Art, Exile, and the Legacies of Genocide
Episode 471
with Sato Moughalian
hosted by Sam Dolbee
David Ohannessian is one of the foremost pioneers of the ceramic styles associated today with the city of Jerusalem, but the remarkable story of how he ended up there has never been properly told. Born in 1884 outside of Eskişehir (modern-day Turkey), David Ohannessian became a master in the iconic Kütahya style of Ottoman ceramics. H
Mementos from Habsburg Life in Ottoman Istanbul
Episode 465
with Robyn Dora Radway
hosted by Emily Neumeier
What was it like to be a foreigner living in Ottoman Istanbul? In this episode, our guest Robyn Dora Radway answers this question by providing an in-depth look at an unusual type of document: alba amicorum, or friendship albums, which were essentially the social media of the sixteenth century. Produced in the Habsburg embassy (
Cemal Kafadar Between Past and Present, Part 1
Episode 464
with Cemal Kafadar
hosted by Maryam Patton, Chris Gratien, and Sam Dolbee
In part one of our interview with Cemal Kafadar, we discuss his intellectual influences in the broadest sense, ranging from the Balkan accents of the Istanbul neighborhood in which he grew up to his early interest in theater and film. Kafadar talks about key events that shaped his worldview, including t
Singing the Prophet's Praise
Episode 462
with Oludamini Ogunnaike
hosted by Shireen Hamza
Reading and writing poems in praise of the prophet Mohammad is no simple matter in West Africa. Their composition was a vehicle for intellectual debate, just as their recitation was a means of spiritual transformation for the listener. In this episode, we speak to Dr. Oludamini Ogunnaike, the author of a recent book about prais
Science in Early Modern Istanbul
Episode 456
with Harun Küçük
hosted by Sam Dolbee and Zoe Griffith
What did science look like in early modern Istanbul? In this episode, Harun Küçük discusses his new book, Science without Leisure: Practical Naturalism in Istanbul, 1660-1732 (University of Pittsburgh Press), which tackles this question in a bold fashion. Tracing the impact of late seventeenth and early eighteenth tran
Plague in the Ottoman World
Episode 455
featuring Nükhet Varlık, Yaron Ayalon, Orhan Pamuk, Lori Jones, Valentina Pugliano, and Edna Bonhomme
narrated by Chris Gratien and Maryam Patton
with contributions by Nir Shafir, Sam Dolbee, Tunç Şen, and Andreas Guidi
The plague is caused by a bacteria called Yersinia pestis, which lives in fleas that in turn live on rodents. Coronavirus is not the plague. Nonetheless, we
Indian Ocean Exchange in Early Modern Yemen
Episode 453
with Nancy Um
hosted by Zoe Griffith
The Red Sea port of Mocha enjoyed ties with London, Amsterdam, Surat, and Jakarta in the eighteenth century. But not all of the ivory, porcelain, and coffee that passed through Mocha was sold for a profit. In this episode, Nancy Um brings the eye of an art historian to the history of exchange and diplomacy in the early modern Indian O
Freedom and Desire in Late Ottoman Erotica
Episode 448
with Burcu Karahan
hosted by Suzie Ferguson
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"One Thousand Kisses," "Plate of Cream," "Story of a Lily:" these are some of the provocative titles that graced the covers of Ottoman erotic novels in the early decades of the twentieth century. While erotic fiction and poetry had a long his
The Mediterranean in the Age of Global Piracy
Episode 446
featuring Emrah Safa Gürkan, Joshua White, and Daniel Hershenzon
narrated by Chris Gratien
with contributions by Nir Shafir, Taylor Moore, Susanna Ferguson, and Zoe Griffith
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Piracy is often depicted as a facet of the wild, lawless expanses of the high seas. But in this episode, we explore the order that governed
The Mystical Turn in Ottoman Political Thought
Episode 444
with Hüseyin Yılmaz
hosted by Nir Shafir and Alp Eren Topal
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In medieval Anatolia, political authority could be found in surprising places. In this podcast, we speak to Hüseyin Yılmaz about the political role of Sufi leaders in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. We explore how these shaykhs could become power
Afghanistan's Constitution and the Ottoman Empire
Episode 443
with Faiz Ahmed
hosted by Shireen Hamza and Huma Gupta
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In this episode, Professor Faiz Ahmed recounts the fascinating history of Afghanistan’s first modern constitution, contextualizing it within a broader legal and political history. The constitution was developed by Afghan, Ottoman and Indian and other scholars,
Language, Power, and Law in the Ottoman Empire
Episode 441
with Heather Ferguson
hosted by Zoe Griffith
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In this episode, historian Heather Ferguson takes us behind the scenes of early modern Ottoman state-making with a discussion of her recent book The Proper Order of Things. We discuss how the architecture of Topkapı palace, the emergence of new bureaucratic practices, and
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