Undergraduate Course: The Ottoman World: the Society, Culture and Legacy of Islam's Last Empire (IMES10101)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will examine some of the main topics relating to the history, society and culture of the Ottoman Empire, Islam's last and longest-lasting empire. It will cover some of the key concepts and theories relevant to the study of Ottoman history, and provide an introduction to Ottoman sources. Both secondary and a selection of primary sources (in translation) will be read and discussed. |
| Course description |
The course will offer a close examination of a selection of key topics and theories relating to the study of the Ottoman Empire, and will enable students to analyse both secondary and primary sources on those subjects.
The topics considered may include but are not limited to the following: structures of power, legitimacy and ideology in Ottoman state formation and expansion, Ottoman society and urban institutions, religious character and dynamics of the Ottoman Empire, including Sunni/Shi'a dichotomy and Sufi orders in the Ottoman context, women in the Ottoman Empire, importance of travel literature for the study of Ottoman history and society, Western European encounters with and perceptions of the Ottoman Empire and the origins of Orientalism.
The course will consist of 2 hour seminars per week. Each week two or three compulsory readings will be assigned, to be read in advance and discussed in class. The students will be expected to give regular formative presentations throughout the course, as well as one summative presentation in the second half of the semester.
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: 22 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
174 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Time-limited assignment (40%)
2500 Word Essay (50%)
Presentation (10%)
|
| Feedback |
Marks and written feedback on time-limited assignment and essay, within 15 working days of submission date; mark, written feedback and immediate oral feedback on the summative presentation; immediate oral feedback on formative presentations. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- identify the key themes and theories relevant to the study of the Ottoman Empire
- assess and utilise primary sources in constructing an argument on Ottoman history
- critically evaluate both the primary sources and the secondary literature on the topics covered by the course
- apply the acquired understanding of the subject and the analytical skills to conduct independent research related to the topics and themes of this course
- demonstrate academic presentation and writing skills.
|
Reading List
Indicative bibliography:
Essential:
Andri¿, I. (1990, written in 1924). The Development of Spiritual Life in Bosnia under the Influence of Turkish Rule. Translated by Z.B. Juri¿i¿ and John F. Loud. Durham: Duke University Press, 16-22.
Antov, N. (2017). The Ottoman 'Wild West': The Balkan Frontier in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Section 1.3: The Formation of Muslim Communities in the Ottoman Balkans in Historiography and Memory, 30-40; Section 2.3: The Velayetnames of Seyyid Ali Sultan (K¿z¿l Deli) and Othman Baba, 61-93).
Arnold, T. (1896). The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith. Westminster: A. Constable & Co., 166-172.
A¿¿eri¿-Todd, I. (2024). ¿Heretics, Atheists or Simply Undesirable? Ottoman Officials¿ Treatment of Melami-Bayrami Sufis and the Anatolian K¿z¿lba¿ in the Late Sixteenth Century¿. Islam and Christian¿Muslim Relations, 35(1), 19¿35.
A¿¿eri¿-Todd, I. (2022). ¿A Subaltern Hero: the 1573 Execution of Sheikh Hamza Bali as part of the ¿Sunnitisation¿ of the Ottoman Empire¿. In A. Newman, ed., Iranian/ Persianate Subalterns in the Safavid Period: Their Role and Depiction: Recovering 'Lost Voices'. London: Gerlach Press, 193-210.
As¿c¿eric¿-Todd, I. (2018). 'Religious Diversity and Tolerance in Ottoman Guilds'. In D. Thomas, & J. Chesworth, eds., Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History Online, Vol. 12. Brill online.
As¿c¿eric¿-Todd, I. (2018). 'The Ottoman Empire: An Introduction to its History and Heritage'. In I. As¿c¿eric¿-Todd, S. Knees, J. Starkey and Starkey, Paul, eds. Travellers in Ottoman Lands: The Botanical Legacy, 5-22. Oxford: Archaeopress.
As¿c¿eric¿-Todd, I. (2015). Dervishes and Islam in Bosnia: Sufi Dimensions to the Formation of Bosnian Muslim Society. Leiden and Boston: Brill (Introduction, 1-28, Chapter 1: Dervishes and the Ottoman Conquest of Bosnia, 31-56).
As¿c¿eric¿-Todd, I. (2007). 'The Noble Traders: The Islamic Tradition of "Spiritual Chivalry" (futuwwa) in Bosnian Trade-guilds (16th -19th centuries)'. The Muslim World. 97(2): 159-173.
Beckingham, C.F. (1993). ¿The Rihla: Fact or Fiction?¿ In I.R. Netton, ed., Golden Roads: Migration, Pilgrimage, and Travel in Mediaeval and Modern Islam. London: Curzon Press, 86-94.
Bon, O. (d. 1623). (1996). The Sultan's Seraglio: An Intimate Portrait of Life at the Ottoman Court, introduction by Godfrey Goodwin. London: Saqi (Chapter IV: Of the Persons which live in the Seraglio; and chiefly of the Women, and Virgins, 45-58).
Evliyâ Çelebi. (d. c. 1685). (2011). An Ottoman Traveller: Selections from the Book of Travels of Evliya Çelebi, translation and commentary by Robert Dankoff and Sooyong Kim. London: Eland.
Faroqhi, S. (2014). Travel and artisans in the Ottoman Empire: Employment and Mobility in the Early Modern Era. London: I.B. Tauris, Chapter 4: Evliya Çelebi's tales of Cairo's guildsmen, 64-74.
Imber, C. (2002). The Ottoman Empire, c. 1300-1650: The structure of power, London: McMillan.
¿nalc¿k, H. (2000). The Ottoman Empire: The classical age, 1300-1600. London: Phoenix Press, (chapters 1-5, 5-40, chapter 20, 186-202).
Irwin, R. (2006). For the Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and their Enemies. London: Penguin (Introduction, 1-8).
Kafadar, C. (1995). Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State. Los Angeles: University of California press, 47-59 and 62-90.
Knysh, A. (2000). Islamic Mysticism: A Short History. Leiden; Boston: Brill, A Turkish Face of Sufism: The Khalwatiyya and Other Turkic Orders, 264-280.
Kunt, M. (1995). 'State and Sultan up to the Age of Süleyman: Frontier Principality to World Empire.' In M. Kunt, and C. Woodhead, eds. Süleyman the Magnificent and his Age: the Ottoman Empire in the Early Modern World. London; New York: Longman, 3-29.
Lifchez, R. (1992). Chapter 5: The Lodges of Istanbul, from R. Lifchez, ed., The Dervish Lodge: Architecture, Art, and Sufism in Ottoman Turkey. Berkeley; Oxford: University of California Press, 73-129.
Lowry, H. W. (2008). The shaping of the Ottoman Balkans, 1350-1550: The Conquest, Settlement & Infrastructural Development of Northern Greece. Istanbul, Turkey: Bahc¿es¿ehir University Publications, Chapter 1: The Role of Imarets and Zaviyes in the Settlement of the Greek Lands, 1370-1670, 65-106.
Montagu, Mary Wortley (d. 1762). (2013). The Turkish Embassy Letters, edited by Teresa Heffernan and Daniel O¿Quinn. Toronto: Broadview Press: Letters 27-30, 100-116; Letter 33, 127-30;
Norton, C. (2017). ¿The Ottoman Empire¿ section from Claire Norton and Reza Pourjavady, ¿The Ottoman and Safavid Empires in the 17th century¿. In D. Thomas & J. Chesworth, eds., Christian-Muslim Relations 1500 ¿ 1900: A Bibliographical History Online, Vol. 10. Brill online.
Rycaut, P. (1668). The present state of the Ottoman Empire: Containing the maxims of the Turkish politie, the most material points of the Mahometan religion, their sects and heresies, their convents and religious votaries, their military discipline... : Illustrated with divers pieces of sculpture, representing the variety of habits amongst the Turks, in three books. London: Printed for John Starkey and Henry Brome... (Book 1, Chapter IX, 35-40; Book 2, Chapter XXI, 151-56).
Said, E. W. (2003). Orientalism. London: Penguin (Introduction + Sections I and II from Chapter 1: The Scope of Orientalism, 1-73).
Sharkey, H. J. (2017). A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (Chapter 3: The Ottoman Experience, 64-114).
Wittek, P. (1938). The Rise of the Ottoman Empire. London: The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and sold by its agents Luzac and co. Ltd, 33-51.
Recommended:
A¿¿eri¿-Todd, I., Aid Smaji¿, Janet Starkey and Paul Starkey, eds. (2024). Travellers in Ottoman Lands II: The Balkans, Anatolia and beyond. Oxford: Archaeopress.
A¿¿eri¿-Todd, I. (2024). Sufism in the 21st Century: A Living Tradition. Royal Society for Asian Affairs. Electronic Article.
A¿¿eri¿-Todd, I. (2022). Islamic Mysticism ¿ Sufism: The Establishment of Dervish Orders and Sufi Traditions in Bosnia. Electronic Article.
Barkey, K. (2008). Empire of difference: The Ottomans in comparative perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Blunt, H. (1638). A Voyage into the Levant. London.
Bon, O. (d. 1623), Withers, Robert & Greaves, John. (1650). A Description of the Grand Signor's Seraglio, or Turkish Emperours Court. London: Printed for Jo. Martin, and Jo. Ridley, at the Castle in Fleet-street by Ram Alley.
Cohen, Amnon, Eyal Ginio, Elie Podeh, and Rachel Milstein. (2014). The Ottoman Middle East: Studies in Honor of Amnon Cohen. Ottoman Empire and Its Heritage; v. 55. Leiden; Boston: Brill.
Dankoff, R. (2004). An Ottoman Mentality: The World of Evliya Çelebi. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Euben, R. (2006). Journeys to the Other Shore: Muslim and Western Travelers in Search of Knowledge. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Evliyâ Çelebi. (d. c. 1685). (1991). The Intimate Life of an Ottoman Statesmen, Melek Ahmed Pasha (1588-1662) as Portrayed in Evliya Çelebi's Book of Travels, translated by Robert Dankoff, with a historical introduction by Rhoads Murphey. Albany, State University of the New York Press.
Karateke, Hakan, and Maurus Reinkowski. (2005). Legitimizing the order: The Ottoman rhetoric of state power. Leiden: Brill.
Katib Çelebi (d. 1658). (1957). The Balance of Truth, translated with an introduction and notes by G.L. Lewis. London: Allen and Unwin.
Krstic¿, T. (2011). Contested Conversions to Islam: Narratives of Religious Change in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
Kunt, Metin and Christine Woodhead, eds. (1995). Süleyman the Magnificent and his Age: the Ottoman Empire in the Early Modern World. London; New York: Longman.
Lapidus, I. (2012). Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 425-462.
Mihailovi¿, Konstantin (d. 1501). (1975). Memoirs of a Janissary, transl. by B. Stolz, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Montagu, Mary Wortley, Anita Desai, and Malcolm Jack. (1994). The Turkish Embassy Letters. London: Virago Press.
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley (d. 1762). (1971). Letters from the Levant during the Embassy to Constantinople, 1716-18. New York: Arno Press.
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley (d. 1762). (1965). The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: Volume I: 1708-1720, edited by Robert Halsband. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Netton, I.R., ed. (1993). Golden Roads: Migration, Pilgrimage, and Travel in Mediaeval and Modern Islam. London: Curzon Press.
Nisan, Mordechai. (2002). Minorities in the Middle East: A History of Struggle and Self-expression. Second ed. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co.
Peirce, L.P. (2018). Empress of the East: How a European Slave Girl became Queen of the Ottoman Empire. London: Icon Books.
Peirce, L.P. (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rycaut, P. (d.1700). (1971). The Present State of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Arno Press.
Sharkey, H. J. (2017). A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Woodhead, C. ed. (2012). The Ottoman World. Routledge Worlds. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- Academic writing and referencing
- Critical analysis and synthesis of information and formulating evidence-based response to issues
connected with the field under study
- Communication skills
- Oral presentation competency
- Time management
|
| Keywords | Ottoman history,Ottoman Empire,Islam,Middle East,Turkey,Balkans,Byzantine history |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Ines Asceric-Todd
Tel: (0131 6)50 6814
Email: Ines.Asceric-Todd@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Hope Hamilton
Tel: (0131 6)50 4167
Email: hope.hamilton@ed.ac.uk |
|
|
University Homepage