OTTOMAN IMAGINATION: A CULTURAL HISTORY
HIST 460/CSHS 560
SPRING 2014
Aslı Niyazioğlu
aniyazioglu@ku.edu.tr
Office hours: TueThur 14.00-15.00, or by appointment
SOS 263
This course introduces recent approaches to the cultural history of the early modern world to
discuss social dynamics of producing and consuming `imaginary realms` in the Ottoman
empire from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Topics include readers, writers and
production of knowledge; poetry, history and political uses of remembrance; dreams, fortunetelling and establishment of social networks. We will also work closely with Ottoman sources
in translation and Ottoman architecture through two class trips to historical sites.
Course Requirements
Preparation for each class and participation actively in the discussions are vital
responsibilities of each class member. For each week’s readings, you are required to bring 3
questions and a selected quotation to be discussed. These questions, assignments and your
participation count for 10% of the final course grade.
At least once throughout the semester you will also make a 15-20 minute presentation of the
week’s readings and lead the discussion in class. The aim of this presentation is not to provide
a summary of your readings but to present a critical reflection focusing what you found
interesting and why. The presentation counts 15% of the final course grade.
You will have a midterm in class on March 27th which will count for 35% of your final
course grade.
You will submit a response paper on May13th (2 pages double spaced for undergraduate
students, 4 pages double spaced for graduate students) about one recommended talk you will
attend during the semester. This response paper counts for 15% of your final course grade.
Your final paper (due May 15th) is a book review about a recent publication or a historical
novel about early modern Ottoman cultural history. The papers are expected to be about 8
pages double spaced for undergraduates and about 20 pages double spaced for graduate
students. On April 17th, you will submit one page proposal. due last day of class. You have
to submit both a hard and an electronic copy through “Turn-it-in” (Class name Hist 460 CSHS
560; class id: 7406022; password: password. This final paper counts for 35% of your final
grade.
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Recommended Readings and Surveys
Suraiya N. Faroqhi and Kate Fleet, The Cambridge History of Turkey, vol 2, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge: 2013. [Please check the excellent articles on “the culture of the
arts” by Hagen, Kafecioğlu and Kuru in this very recent publication!]
Suraiya N. Faroqhi, The Cambridge History of Turkey, vol 3, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge: 2009.
Cemal Kafadar, “The Ottomans and Europe,” in Handbook of European History, 1400-1600,
eds. T.A. Brady, et at., (Leiden: 1994-5), 607-625.
Gönül Alpay Tekin, Encyclopedia of Islam. 2nd edition. S.v. “Othmanlı: Literature. III.
Literature.”
Gülru Necipoğlu, Age of Sinan, Architectural Culture in the Age of Sinan, (Hong Kong:
2005).
Suraiya Faroqhi, Subjects of the Sultan, Culture and Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire,
(London and New York: 2000).
The syllabus is subject to change.
Readings in the course pack are electronically available at: http://libunix.ku.edu.tr search
Reserves by Course under HIST 460. You could also purchase a reader in hardcopy from the
photocopy center.
Part I:
Intellectual Life and Urban Culture
Week 1 (Feb 4-6)
Introduction
Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller,
(Baltimore: 1992), 1-17, 30-33 & 41-47.
Cemal Kafadar, Kim Var İmiş Biz Burada Yoğ İken, Dört Osmanlı: Yeniçeri, Tüccar, Derviş
ve Hatun, (İstanbul: 2009), 13-29.
Derin Terzioğlu, “Tarihi İnsanlı Yazmak: Bir Tarih Anlatı Türü Olarak Biyografi ve Osmanlı
Tarih Yazıcılığı” Cogito 29 (2001): 284-296.
Week 2 &3
(Feb 11-20)
Istanbul: a City of Poets, Scholars and Sufis
Sooyong Kim, “Minding the Shop: Zati and the Making of Ottoman Poetry in the First Half
of the Sixteenth Century” Unpublished diss., Chicago University, 2005, 56-102.
Walter G. Andrews and Mehmet Kalpaklı, The Age of Beloveds, Love and Beloved in EarlyModern Ottoman and European Culture and Society, (Durham and London: 2005), 106-112.
Cornell H. Flesicher, Bureaucrat and Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire, The Historian
Mustafa Ali (1541-1600), Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1986, 13-40.
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Zeynep Yürekli, “A Building between the Public and Private Realms of the Ottoman Elite:
The Sufi Convent of Sokollu Mehmed Pasha in Istanbul,” Muqarnas 20 ( 2003), 159-186.
Week 4&5 (Feb 25-March 6) Readers and their Books
Nelly Hanna, In Praise of Books: A Cultural History of Cairo’s Middle Class, Sixteenth to
Eighteenth Century (New York: Syracuse University Press, 2003), 50-78.
Tülün Değirmenci, “Bir Kitabı Kaç Kişi Okur? Osmanlı’da Okurlar ve Okuma Biçimleri
Üzerine Bazı Gözlemler” Tarih ve Toplum Yeni Yaklaşımlar 2011 13, 7-43.
Please Note:
We will have the fifth week’s lectures at the Süleymaniye Manuscript Library.
Date and time to be announced.
Part II
Writing and the Politics of Remembrance
Week 6 (March 11-13)
Life-Writing: a Biographer and his Friends
Hatice Aynur, “Autobiographical elements in Aşık Çelebi’s dictionary of poets” in Many
Ways of Speaking about the Self: Middle Eastern Ego-Documents in Arabic, Persian, and
Turkish: 14th - 20th Century, Ralph Elger and Yavuz Köse (eds.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz
Verlag, 2010: 17-26.
Week 7 (March 18-20)
History-Writing: a Barber and his Chronicle
Dana Sajdi, “A Room of His Own: The History of the Barber of Damascus (fl/ 1762)”, the
MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies, 3 (2003): 19-35.
Week 8 (March 25-27)
Illustrated Manuscripts: a Eunuch and his Patronage
Emine Fetvacı, Picturing History at the Ottoman Court, (Indiana University Press,
Bloomington and Indianapolis: 2013); 2-23, 239-267, 299-300.
Midterm March 27th during Class
Part III
Between This World and the Hereafter
Week 9 (April 1-3)
Sufism and Spiritual Pursuits
Terzioğlu Derin, “Man in the Image of God in the Image of Times: Sufi Self-Narratives and
the Diary of Niyazi-i Mısri (1618-94),” Studia Islamica 94 (2002): 139-165.
Alberto Fabip Ambroisio, “İsmail Rusuhi Ankaravi: an Early Mevlevi İntervention into the
emerging Kadizadeli-Sufi conflict” Sufism and Society, Arrangements of the mystical in the
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Muslim World, 1200-1800 John J. Curry and Erik Ohlander, eds. (Routledge, New York:
2012): 183-199.
Please note:
This week’s class will take place at Galata Mevlevihanesi at Tünel.
Date and time to be announced.
Spring Break, 7-11 April
Week 10 (April 15-17)
Dreams and the Mirror of the Hidden
Cemal Kafadar, “Mütereddit Bir Mutasavvıf: Üsküplü Asiye Hatun’un Rüya Defteri, 16411643” in Kim Var İmiş Biz Burada Yoğ İken, (İstanbul: 2009), 123-191. [Translations of the
selected letters to be distributed before class]
Final paper proposals due in class on April 17th
Week 11&12 (April 22 -29) Fortune-Telling and the Book of Omens
Massumeh Farhad and Serpil Bağcı, “The Art of Bibliomancy” and “Falnama in the Sixteenth
and Seventeenth Centuries” in their edited Falnama: the Book of Omens, Massumeh Farhad
and Serpil Bağcı (eds.), (Washinton D.C., Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution,
2009), 20-39.
Official Holiday No Class on May 1st
Week 13 (May 6-8) Apparitions and the Place of the Dead
Ethem Eldem, “Urban Voices from Beyond: Identity, Status, and Social Strategies in Ottoman
Muslim Funerary Epitaphs of Istanbul (1700-1850),” in The Early Modern Ottomans,
Remapping the Empire, Virginia H. Aksan and Daniel Goffman (eds.), (Cambridge and New
York: 2007), 233-56.
Çiğdem Kafescioğlu “A Shrine at the City’s Edge” in Constantinopolis/Istanbul Cultural
Encounter, Imperial Vision, and the Construction of the Ottoman Capital, (University Park:
2009), 45-52.
Aslı Niyazioğlu, “The Dead and the Ottoman Afterlife” from her Dreams, the Dead and
Ottoman Sufi Lives: A Study of a Biography Project from the Seventeenth Century, in progress
[Draft book chapter to be distributed before class].
Please Note:
This week’s class will take place at Eyüp, the city of the dead.
Date and time to be announced.
Week 14 (May 13-15)
Review and Concluding Remarks
Response Paper due May 13th.
Final paper due May 15th.
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Koç University Statement on Academic Honesty with Emphasis on Plagiarism
Koç University expects all its students to perform course-related activities in accordance with the rules set forth in the
Student Code of Conduct (http://vpaa.ku.edu.tr/academic/student-code-of-conduct). Actions considered as academic
dishonesty at Koç University include but are not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, and impersonating. This
statement’s goal is to draw attention to cheating and plagiarism related actions deemed unacceptable within the context of
Student Code of Conduct:
All individual assignments must be completed by the student himself/herself, and all team assignments must be completed by
the members of the team, without the aid of other individuals. If a team member does not contribute to the written documents
or participate in the activities of the team, his/her name should not appear on the work submitted for evaluation.
Plagiarism is defined as ‘borrowing or using someone else’s written statements or ideas without giving written
acknowledgement to the author’. Students are encouraged to conduct research beyond the course material, but they must not
use any documents prepared by current or previous students, or notes prepared by instructors at Koç University or other
universities without properly citing the source. Furthermore, students are expected to adhere to the Classroom Code of
Conduct (http://vpaa.ku.edu.tr/academic/classroom-code-of-conduct) and to refrain from all forms of unacceptable behavior
during lectures. Failure to adhere to expected behavior may result in disciplinary action.
There are two kinds of plagiarism: Intentional and accidental. Intentional plagiarism (Example: Using a classmate’s
homework as one’s own because the student does not want to spend time working on that homework) is considered
intellectual theft, and there is no need to emphasize the wrongfulness of this act. Accidental plagiarism, on the other hand,
may be considered as a ‘more acceptable’ form of plagiarism by some students, which is certainly not how it is perceived by
the University administration and faculty. The student is responsible from properly citing a source if he/she is making use of
another person’s work. For an example on accidental plagiarism, please refer to the document titled “An Example on
Accidental Plagiarism”.
If you are unsure whether the action you will take would be a violation of Koç University’s Student Code of Conduct, please
consult with your instructor before taking that action.
An Example on Accidental Plagiarism
This example is taken from a document prepared by the City University of New York. The following text is taken from
Elaine Tyler May’s ‘Myths and Realities of the American Family’: “Because women's wages often continue to reflect the
fiction that men earn the family wage, single mothers rarely earn enough to support themselves and their children adequately.
And because work is still organized around the assumption that mothers stay home with children, even though few mothers
can afford to do so, child-care facilities in the United States remain woefully inadequate.”
Below, there is an excerpt from a student’s homework, who made use of May’s original text: “As Elaine Tyler May points
out, “women's wages often continue to reflect the fiction that men earn the family wage” (588). Thus many single mothers
cannot support themselves and their children adequately. Furthermore, since work is based on the assumption that mothers
stay home with children, facilities for day care in this country are still “woefully inadequate.” (May 589)”.
You may think that there is no plagiarism here since the student is citing the original author. However, this is an instance of
accidental plagiarism. Although the student cites May and uses quotation marks occasionally, the rest of the sentences, more
specifically the following section: “Thus many single mothers cannot support themselves and their children adequately.
Furthermore, since work is based on the assumption that mothers stay home with children, facilities for day care in this
country are still “woefully inadequate.” (May 589)” almost exactly duplicates May’s original language. So, in order to avoid
plagiarism, the student either had to use quotation marks for the rest of the sentences as well, or he/she had to paraphrase
May’s ideas by using not only his/her own words, but his/her own original ideas as well. You should keep in mind that
accidental plagiarism often occurs when the student does not really understand the original text but still tries to make use of
it. Understanding the original text and understanding why you agree or disagree with the ideas proposed in that text is crucial
both for avoiding plagiarism and for your intellectual development.
Reference(s): Avoiding and Detecting Plagiarism: A Guide for Graduate Students and Faculty.
The Graduate Center. City University of New York, 2012. Web. <http://www.gc.cuny.edu/CUNY_GC/media/CUNYGraduate-Center/PDF/Publications/AvoidingPlagiarism.pdf>
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