Prof. Dr. Maurus Reinkowski (Basel University, Department for Social Sciences, Middle Eastern Studies Seminar)

Peripheries in the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire in the 16-17th century. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/BlueMarble_monthlies.html

My intention is to pursue an earlier, unfinished project in the coming years – “Peripheries in the Ottoman Empire”. Basically, a distinction has to be made between “outer” and “inner” peripheries. An example of inner peripheries may be the areas of present-day southeastern Anatolia and northern Iraq, left by the Ottoman imperial center largely to the control of Kurdish tribal leaders. Examples of outer peripheries include the tribute-paying Danubian principalities (Wallachia and Moldavia), Transylvania or Ragusa (Dubrovnik) in the European parts of the empire, or the Ottoman control over the Arabian Peninsula, which evaporated the further inland one went. One goal will be to determine whether and why distinctly different typologies of peripheries developed in the European and Asian dominions.