Course objectives: Overview of main topics and issues from the history of the Ottoman Balkans, with their contextualization in the frame of regional, European and world history. The chronological frame covers topics from the foundation of the Ottoman state and its spread to the Balkans and dissolution of the medieval Balkan states until the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Wars and the World War One. In addition to the summary of the chronology of political events, the focus will be placed upon issues such as confessional and ethnic relations, functioning of a plural multicultural society, position of non-Muslims in a Muslim state and the question of tolerance, emergence of nationalism and its effects on society, as well as a question of the Ottoman heritage in the post-Ottoman Balkans.

Enrolment requirements and/or entry competences required for the course: None

Learning outcomes at the level of the programme to which the course contributes:

(1) Explain, analyse, and compare the main historical events, processes, and structures in Southeast Europe

(2) Analyse and compare different historical narratives and national historiographies in Southeast Europe

Expected learning outcomes at the level of the course:

(1) Explain main features of the history of the Ottoman Balkans.

(2) Understand issues of multiculturalism and multi-confessionalism in the Ottoman Empire in the context of Southeastearn Europe.

(3) Understand relations between Islam as a state religion and other religions in the Ottoman Balkans.

(4) Analyze and compare position of minority communities in the Ottoman Balkans.

Course content (syllabus):   

(1) Introduction. Question of the emergence of the Ottoman Empire

(2) Ottoman Conquests as a Holy War: Ideology of ghaza

(3) Pax ottomana – Pacification of the Conquered Territory and Christians in the Ottoman Service

(4) Migrations I: Turkic Migrations from Anatolia to the Balkans and Turkification of Local Population

(5) Migrations II: Vlach Migrations inside the Balkan Peninsula and Slavization of the Roman Vlachs

(6) Religious Change: Islamization

(7) Religious Continuity: Ottoman Recognition of the Churches

(8) Status of Non-Muslims: Between Toleration and Discrimination

(9) Ottoman Law and Social Division

(10) Jews in the Ottoman Balkans

(11) Extraterritoriality of Foreigners and Their Colonies in the Balkans

(12) Vassal States and the Ottoman Empire: Dubrovnik, Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia

(13) 19th Century Reforms, Modernization, and Transformation of the Empire. Too Little and Too Late?

(14) Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, and the End of the Empire: Cases of Thessaloniki and Istanbul

(15) Conclusion. Ottoman Legacy in Southeast Europe

Format of instruction: Lectures, seminars and workshops, independent assignments

Student responsibilities:  Regular class attendance, written seminar paper, essay, independent study of given literature, participation in discussions, written exam.

Monitoring student work: Class attendance, essay, seminar paper, written exam

1. Halil İnalcık, The Ottoman Empire, Classical Age (1300-1600) (London, 1973)        
2. L. S. Stavrianos, The Balkans since 1453 (London: Hurst & Company, 2000)           
3. Benjamin Braude & Bernard Lewis, eds., Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire. The Functioning of a Plural Society, Vols. 1-2 (New York – London, 1982) (selected chapters)
4. Peter F. Sugar, Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804 (Seattle-London: University of Washington Press, 1977)

1. Eleni Gara, “Conceptualizing interreligious relations in the Ottoman Empire: The early modern centuries,” Acta Poloniae Historica 116 (2017), 57-91
2. Vjeran Kursar, “Non-Muslim Communal Divisions and Identities in the Early Modern Ottoman Balkans and the Millet System Theory,” in: Power and Influence in South-Eastern Europe, 16-19th century, ed. by Maria Baramova et al. (Berlin: LIT Verlag 2013), 97-108
3. Machiel Kiel, “The Incorporation of the Balkans into the Ottoman Empire, 1353-1453,” in: The Cambridge History of Turkey. Volume 1: Byzantium to Turkey, ed. by Kate Fleet (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 138-191
4. Kiel, Machiel. Art and Society of Bulgaria in the Turkish Period (Assen/Maastricht: Van Gorcum , 1985)
5. Tijana Krstić, Contested Conversions to Islam. Narratives of Religious Change in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011)
6. Anton Minkov, Conversion to Islam in the Balkans: Kisve Bahası Petitions and Ottoman Social Life, 1670–1730 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2004)
7. Cemal Kafadar, Between two worlds. The Construction of the Ottoman State (Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995)
8. Suraiya Faroqhi, ed., The Cambridge history of Turkey. Volume 3. The later Ottoman Empire, 1603-1839 (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006)
9. Reşat Kasaba, ed., The Cambridge History of Turkey. Volume 4. Turkey in the modern world (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008)
10. Rossitsa Gradeva, War and Peace in Rumeli, 15th to beginning of 19th century (Istanbul: The Isis Press, 2008) (2nd ed. 2011: Publisher: Gorgias Press, Piscataway, NJ, USA & The Isis Press, Istanbul, Turkey)
11. Rossitsa Gradeva, Rumeli under the Ottomans, 15th-18th centuries: Institutions and Communities (Istanbul: The Isis Press, 2004) (2nd ed. 2010: Publisher: Gorgias Press, Piscataway, NJ, USA & The Isis Press, Istanbul, Turkey)
12. Halil İnalcık, “The Yörüks: Their Origins, Expansion and Economic Role,” in Halil İnalcık, The Middle East and the Balkans under the Ottoman Empire: Essays on Economy and Society (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), 97-136
13. Vjeran Kursar, “Being an Ottoman Vlach. On Vlach Identity(ies), Role and Status in Western Parts of the Ottoman Balkans (15th-18th Centuries),” OTAM. Ankara Üniversitesi Osmanlı Tarihi Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi Dergisi / Journal of the Center for Ottoman Studies – Ankara University, 34 (2013), 115-161