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59879-01 - Seminar: The Ottoman Balkans: History, Historiography, and Memory (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2020 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Özhan Kapici (oezhan.kapici@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | This seminar is designed for students to discuss and to develop arguments on the history of the Balkan Peninsula under Ottoman rule. It includes discussions on the historiography and historical imaginations of the Balkans, including perspectives ranging from historicism to deconstructionism. Following the historiographical paradigms and an introduction to sources of the Ottoman Balkan history, seminar participants will discuss the following key issues: historical geography, colonization, social structure, settlement, ruling practices, ideologies, and socio-religious. The main problematics and topics are as follows: - Approaches to Balkan history in national, multi-national, and trans-national historiographies. The question of a “shared past” in national and imperial memories of Balkan history. - A history of toponymy: historical geography from the slippery frontier to changing borders; the parameters and perimeters of the Ottoman Balkans (inner Balkans and outer Balkans) - The shaping of a frontier society: the socio-military history of the Ottoman colonization (warriors, dervishes, peasants, merchants, and bureaucrats); the ruling and the ruled: the formation of the reaya and the invention of millet; the dynamics of centralization and decentralization; the Age of Ayâns. - Religion and mysticism: The establishments of socio-religious life; narratives of converts: private histories of the Balkan communities. - Settlement: the city and village as «les lieux de mémoires» in the Ottoman Balkans; the interrelations of communities. - The discovery of “Wild Europe”: the Ottoman Balkans through the eyes of Europeans; a crossroads of struggle: the penetration of the Great Powers; the revolutionary Balkans: transfers of ideologies and transformation of societies, the concept of nation and nationalism in the context of the Balkans. - Literature versus historiography: Rereading and reconstructing of Ottoman Balkan identities and memories through the Balkan literature. |
| Learning objectives | By the end of the seminar students will - be able to assess the historiography of the Ottoman Balkans - use a broad perspective to describe the Ottoman Balkans’ historical and social geography and the political and economic dynamics of the region’s history - have gained a comprehensive view of the social and political structure of the Ottoman Balkans - identify the Balkan identities from the early modern period and explain the Ottoman legacy in Balkan history |
| Bibliography | * Specific readings will be announced for each week and made available on ADAM Barbara Jelavich. A History of Balkans, vol. I, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Cambridge University Press, 1983. Bernard Lory, “The Ottoman Legacy in the Balkans”, Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Vol. III, Shared Past Disputed Legacies, (ed.Roumen Daskalov-Alexander Vzenkov), Leiden: Brill, 2015, pp. 355-405. Bruce MacGowen, Economic Life in Ottoman Europe: Taxation, Trade and the Struggle for Land, 1600-1800, Cambridge University Press, 2010. Maria Todorova. Imagining the Balkans, (Updated Edition), Oxford University Press 2009. Peter F. Sugar. Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804, University of Washington Press, 1983. Traian Stoianovich, Factors in the Decline of Ottoman Society in the Balkans, Slavic Review, Vol.21, No.4 (1962), pp.623-632. Wayne S. Vucinich, The Nature of Balkan Society under Ottoman Rule, Slavic Review, vol.21, No.4 (1962), pp.597-616. The Via Egnatia under Ottoman Rule (1380-1699), (ed.Elizabeth A. Zachariadou), Rethymnon: Crete University Press, 1996. Further Readings *Further readings will be useful for essays and not available on ADAM Alexander Vezenkov, Formulating and Reformulating Ottomanism, Entangled Histories of the Balkans, vol. I, National Ideologies and Language Policies, ed. Roumen Daskalov- Tchavdar Marinov, Leiden: Brill, 2013, pp.241-272. Alexandre Popović-Asma Rashid. The Muslim Culture in the Balkans (16th-18th Centuries), Islamic Studies, 36 (1997), pp.177-190. Bozidar Jezernik, Wild Europe: The Balkans in the Gaze of Western Travellers, Saqi Books, 2003. Charles Jelavich-Barbara Jelavich. The Establishment of the Balkan National States, 1804-1920, University of Washington Press, 1977. Hannes Grandits-Nathalie Clayer-Robert Pichler. Introduction: Social (dis-)intergration and the national turn in the late- and post-Ottoman Balkan: Towards an analytical framework, Conflicting Loyalties in the Balkans: The Great Powers, The Ottoman Empire and Nation-Building, (ed. Hannes Grandits-Nathalie Clayer-Robert Pichler), I.B.Tauris 2011, pp.1-12. Diana Mishkova-Roumen Daskalov, “Forms without Substance”: Debates on the Transfer of Western Models to the Balkans, Entangled Histories of the Balkans, vol. II, Transfers of Political Ideologies and Institutions, (ed.Roumen Daskalov-Alexander Vzenkov), Leiden: Brill, 2014, pp.1-98. Heath W. Lowry, The Shaping of the Ottoman Balkans, 1350-1550, Bahçeşehir University Press, 2008. Ivo Andrić. Bosnian Chronicle (A Novel), Arcade Publishing, 2015. Jelena Milojković-Djurić. Balkan Cultural Legacies: Historical, Literary, and Fine Arts Perceptions, Boulder: East European Monographs, Columbia University Press 2011. Leften S. Stavrianos, The Balkans since 1453, NYU Press, 2000. Mark Mazower. Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950, Knopf, 2005. Meśa Selimović. The Fortress (A Novel), Northwestern University Press, 1999. Michael R. Palairet. The Balkan Economies c.1800-1914: Evolution without Development, Cambridge University Press, 1998. Nikolai Todorov, The Balkan City: 1400-1900, University of Washington Press 1983. Peter F. Sugar, East European Nationalism, Politics and Religion, Routledge 1999. Peter F. Sugar. Nationality and Society in Habsburg and Ottoman Europe, Variorum, 1997. Robert A. Kann-Zdeněk V.David, Peoples of the Eastern Habsburg Lands, 1526-1918, University of Washington Press, 1984. Suraiya Faroqhi, Coping with the Central State, Coping with Local Power: Ottoman Regions and Notables from the Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century, The Ottomans and the Balkans: A Discussion of Historiography, (ed.Fikret Adanır-Suraiya Faroqhi), pp.351-382. Tijana Kristić, Contested Conversions to Islam: Narratives of Religious Change in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire, Stanford University Press, 2011. |
| Comments | Only students in Near and Middle Eastern Studies will be permitted to write a seminar paper for this seminar. |
| Admission requirements | Familiar with reading texts in English. |
| Course application | Anmelden: Belegen; Abmelden: erforderlich. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|
No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Electives Bachelor History: Recommendations (Bachelor's degree subject: History) Electives: Recommendations (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Areas: Osteuropa (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective) Modul: Forschung und Praxis (Master's degree subject: East European History) Modul: Fortgeschrittene Nahoststudien (Bachelor's degree subject: Near & Middle Eastern Studies) Modul: Themen der Near & Middle Eastern Studies (Master's degree subject: Near & Middle Eastern Studies) Wahlbereich Master Geschichte: Empfehlungen (Master's degree subject: History) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | - Regular and active participation. - Regular reading of the texts (related chapters of references). - Completion of a paper or writing an essay and presentation. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Nahost-Studien |