Ottoman Europe

The research group "The Ottoman Europe"

is a Germany-based, open circle of scholars from different fields of historical research about East- and Southeast European history, Ottoman studies and philology of all relevant languages.

Our common interest lies in multidisciplinary Early-Modern studies on Southeast Europe, roughly the zone of Ottoman dominance or influence. As such, a special aim is to bring scholarly research on Western Europe and on the Ottoman Empire closer together. We consider the Ottoman Empire with its European provinces as an integral part of Late Medieval and Early Modern European History – an integral part that still has to be discovered by mainstream-research on European history.

We look to the Ottoman empire from different angles and are thus interested not only in an Istanbul-centered perspective, but also in studies concerning regional aspects in its European provinces and border-regions – from the Crimean Khanate to Dalmatia, from Hungary to Crete, including connections with neighbouring regions.

The research group continues a research-network sponsered by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) from 2009-2011. Part of our work of this first cycle of debates is documented in the volume edited by Andreas Helmedach, Markus Koller, Konrad Petrovszky, Stefan Rohdewald: Das Osmanische Europa. Methoden und Perspektiven der Frühneuzeitforschung zu Südosteuropa. Leipzig 2014.