93614 - STORIA DEL MEDITERRANEO BIZANTINO E OTTOMANO

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide basic knowledge on the settlement, demography, economy, society, and phenomena of religious interaction and multiculturalism characteristic of the Aegean space between the 13th and 19th centuries. In particular, the course delves into the dynamics that the processes of ethnic and religious coexistence had in the Greek, Latin, Turkish, and Armenian communities living in the Byzantine and Ottoman empires from the Fourth Crusade until the era of the tanzimat (modernisation reforms of the Ottoman Empire). At the end of the course the student is able to know the peculiar model of social organisation provided by the Byzantine and Ottoman world in comparison to the experiences of contemporary Western societies, as well as understand the relevance of the Byzantine and Ottoman legacy to the cultural heritage of Balkan and Mediterranean Europe.

Course contents

The course is divided into two parts: 1) general part; 2) monographic part.

 

General Part (16 hours). It aims to provide the student with the basic knowledge related to the development of the Ottoman Empire, from its foundation (late 13th century) to the abolition of the sultanate (1922). Special attention will be given to the following topics: 1) the age of expansion (15th-16th centuries); 2) the Ottomans and the Mediterranean; 3) political thought and state organization; 4) the military; 5) ethnicity and multiculturalism; 6) the Tanzimat era and Ottoman nationalism; 7) the end of the sultanate.

 

Monographic Part (14 hours). It will be dedicated to the reign of Mehmed II (1451-1481), the conqueror of Constantinople, widely regarded as the 'founder' of the empire. His figure will be studied through the reading of the section dedicated to him in the anonymous Brief Chronicle [of the Turkish Sultans] (῎Εκθεσις χρονικὴ συντομωτέρα συντεθεῖσαΧρονικὸν), a work written by a highly informed Greek-speaking individual during the 16th century. The text will be analysed during class based on the edition, translation and commentary  by Marios Philippides (1990).

 

Readings/Bibliography

General part:

Çiğdem Oğuz (ed.), Storia dell’Impero ottomano e della Repubblica turca, Brescia, Editrice Morcelliana 2023, pp. 4-234.

 

Monographic part:

― Emperors, Patriarchs and Sultans of Constantinople, 1373-1513: An Anonymous Greek Chronicle of the Sixteenth Century, Introduction, Translation, and Commentary by Marios Philippides, Brookline, Mass., Hellenic College Press, 1990. 

― Franz Babinger, Maometto il Conquistatore e il suo tempo, trad. it. Torino, Einaudi, 1967.

 

For non-attending students is required as additional reading:

― Giorgio Del Zanna, La fine dell’impero ottomano, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2012.

 

 

Teaching methods

The course will be conducted in Italian.

The first part of the course is conceived as a series of traditional lectures in which the teacher will present, with the help of ppt images, the salient developments of the Ottoman Empire from the 13th to the 20th century. The second part, on the other hand, is organised in seminar mode; in this part, an attempt will be made to stimulate students to intervene in the discussion of the subject, especially with regard to the use of historical vocabulary, its concepts, and the types of sources for historical analysis.

 

P.S. Foreign students wishing to follow the course are required to have a knowledge of Italian of at least level B 2.

Assessment methods

The passing of the exam requires an oral test. It consists of an assessment of the notions relating to the general part of the course and a discussion of the content relating to the monographic part.

 

The final grade for passing the exam is determined by the following scores: 12/30 for the introductory part; 18/30 for the monographic part.

Teaching tools

- Translations of sources

- distribution of photocopies

- power-point presentations.

Office hours

See the website of Salvatore Cosentino