Seminar in Ottoman and Turkish Studies presents:
Gottfried Hagen, University of Michigan
“Ottoman Concepts of Time and History”
Wednesday, 16 October 2013, 4-6 pm, NMC Department Conference Room (BF200B)
Abstract: Ottoman historiography confronts scholars with many puzzling questions: Why does Ottoman historical literature emerge so suddenly, as it seems, but so late in the history of the “Ottoman enterprise,” that is, after the conquest of Constantinople? What is its Sitz im Leben, on what literary and intellectual traditions can it build? What is Islamic about Ottoman historiography? Why do certain genres rise, and vanish at specific junctures of this history? While many recent studies have focused on historiography as a function of an imperial project, in this presentation a broader view is offered, taking into account other genres that provide representations of the past, such as hagiography. Looking at philosophical and theological underpinnings, I will show how historical consciousness arises out of the dynamics of the imperial project, when the collective “space of experience” is no longer coterminous with the “horizon of expectations,” to put it in Reinhart Koselleck’s words. The simultaneity of this phenomenon and the interplay of different historiographical genres with the rise of early modern historiography in Europe invites comparisons of Ottoman “mnemohistory” with other cultural contexts of the time.
