The Power of Connections Interpersonal Networks and Agency in the Ottoman Empire and Ottoman Europe 


Tübingen, Germany, 27–28 September 2017 


Annual Conference of the Working Group “Ottoman Europe” 

 

Venue 

University of Tübingen, Theologicum (Faculty of Theology), Liebermeister Straße 12, 72076 Tübingen, Germany 

Seminar Room 12 (2nd floor, Room 223) 

 

Hosts 

Institute for Modern History, University of Tübingen 

Center for Islamic Theology, University of Tübingen Department of Oriental and Islamic Studies, University of Tübingen 

Historical Institute, Gießen University 

organized by
Prof. Dr. Lejla Demiri (Tübingen), Dr. Tobias P. Graf (Tübingen), and Ayşegül Argıt, MA (Heidelberg) 

 

Programme 

Wednesday, 27 September 2017 

 

14:30–15:00  Registration and tea/coffee 

 

15:00–15:15  Welcome and introduction 

 

15:15–16:15 Panel 1: Scholarly Networks 

Chair: Lejla Demiri (Tübingen) 

M. Sait Özervarlı (Istanbul), Study Circles, Scholar Invitations, and Text Competitions: Building Scholarly Networks in the Early Ottoman Period 

Asim Zubčević (Sarajevo), Books and Their Owners in Ottoman Sarajevo, 1762–1828 

 

16:15–16:30 Tea/coffee break 

 

16:30–17:30 Panel 2: Networks in Pursuance of Religion and Ethics 

Chair: Erdal Toprakyaran (Tübingen)
Ines Aščerić-Todd (Edinburgh), Sufis, Artisans and Traders: Ottoman 

Guilds as Economic, Social and Spiritual Networks 

Fatih Ermiş (Tübingen), The Construction of Ottoman Ethics: From the Nicomachean Ethics to Akhlaq-i Alai 

 

17:30–17:45 Tea/coffee break 

 

17:45–18:45 Panel 3: Political Mobilization 

Chair: Denise Klein (Mainz)
Ayşegül Argıt (Heidelberg), Press, Politics, and Mobilization in Istanbul, 

1908–1914 

Johann Büssow (Tübingen), Social and Political Networks in Late Ottoman Gaza 

 

Dinner 20:00 

 

Thursday, 28 September 2017 

9:30–11:00  Panel 4: Between War and Peace 

Chair: Katja Patzel-Mattern (Heidelberg, to be confirmed)
Tobias Graf (Tübingen), Reconstructing Intelligence Networks: The 

Example of Austrian-Habsburg Intelligence in Istanbul, c. 1575–1583 Nikolas Pissis (Berlin), The Greek Spies of Muscovy in the Ottoman Empire, 

1640–1660 

Andreas Helmedach (Berlin/Bochum), Between Venice and the Ottoman Empire: Networks of Violence in Dalmatia 

11:00–11:15 Tea/coffee break 

 

11:15–12:45 Panel 5: Commerce and Trade 

Chair: Ayşegül Argıt (Heidelberg)
Evelyn Korsch (Venice/Erfurt), Global Networks and Multi-Layered 

Agency of an Armenian Merchant Banker Family 

Gülay Tulasoğlu (Ankara), The Katipzade Family between Trade and Politics 

Anna Vlachopoulou (Munich), Networking as a Business Strategy in the “Long 19th Century” 

 

12:45–14:30 Lunch 

 

14:30–15:30  Panel 6: Connecting the Localities and the Imperial Centre 

Chair: Stefan Rohdewald (Gießen)
Uroš Dakić (Belgrade), Sokollu Mehmed Pasha’s Kinship Network in the 

Serbian Orthodox Church 

Henning Sievert (Berne/Heidelberg), Brokerage in the Well-Connected Domains 

15:30–15:45  Tea/coffee break 

 

 

15:45–16:45 Panel 7: The Ottoman’s Empire’s Tributaries 

Chair: Philip Hahn (Tübingen)
Daniel Ursprung (Zurich), Christians Acting as Ottomans: Wallachia's 

Seventeenth-Century Elites as Agents of Ottomanization 

Konrad Petrovszky (Vienna), When Networks Fail: The Case of the Phanariot Iordaki Stavraki 

 

16:45–17:00 Tea/coffee break 

 

17:00–17:45 Concluding discussion 

Chair and commentary: Renate Dürr (Tübingen) 

 

18:00–19:00 Organizational meeting of the Working Group “Ottoman Europe” 

 

Contact: Dr. Tobias Graf tobias-peter.graf@uni-tuebingen.de

Conference Report:  Aysegül Argit, in: H-Mediterranean, December 11, 2017