Nipissing University
HIST 3805 -- History of Islamic Civilization
2011-12
Assignment for the First Essay:
Relations between Islamic and Christian Civilizations in the Early Modern Period
Many people interested in world history, specialists a generalists alike, see the period leading up
to 1800 CE as one where Christian Europe surpassed the Muslim world in a variety of ways. In
the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, Muslim empires were perhaps the richest and
most powerful states in the Eastern Hemisphere (leaving China out of it). Particularly
impressive was the Ottoman Empire, which dominated a huge area from Vienna to Baghdad, and
threatened at various times to swallow the rest of Europe. By 1800, France could conquer Egypt
and Britain could conquer Muslim-ruled India while they were engaged in a major war with
each other. European Christian states had major global empires which overshadowed the Muslim
empires of the Middle East and South Asia. European advantages in peaceful and military
technologies were great and would only get greater in the 19th century.
This assignment will ask you to investigate this period of change, which still shapes popular,
official and academic understandings of the world today. You are encouraged to base your work
on Daniel Goffmann’s book, the Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe, which focuses on
one area where Christian Europe and the Ottoman Empire were in direct contact for centuries.
Narrowing your research focus in this way will make it easier to discuss the bigger problem.
You do not necessarily have to write a big analysis of the changing balance of power between
Christian Europe and the Ottoman Empire, or the Islamic world as a whole. It may in fact be
more practical to look at some smaller issues. For instance:
1. Does it make sense to call West and Central Europe "Christian Europe" when there were
plenty of Christians in the Ottoman Empire, and always has been? To what degree was
the competition between the Ottomans and such countries as Spain, Venice, and Austria
rivalry between Christians and Muslims?
2. Turning first question around, in what way was the Ottoman Empire an Islamic empire?
In what ways was its Muslim nature limited?
3. Christian rulers had a different attitude toward non-Christian subjects and visitors than
the Ottomans did. Why? What were the practical effects of these differing attitudes? Were
these attitudes advantageous or disadvantageous to the rulers who held them?
4. Looking at the Ottoman Empire, what institutions and policies are usually seen as
promoting its growth between the 14th and 16th centuries? The same institutions and
policies are often seen as failing empire at a later date. Is this a useful analysis? If so, why
did old ways of doing things fall out of use or become corrupt?
5. What geopolitical and economic advantages to the Ottoman Empire have at its height?
Why did the same advantages become lost or less valuable?
6. Did a new sense of national identity enable European states to become more powerful
than older styles of Empire elsewhere in the world? Did the very flexibility of Ottoman
politics work against it in the 18th and 19th centuries?
Due: December 8
Required: Properly-formatted footnotes and bibliography