Nur Sündüs Sucu, StEx

Narrations, representations, transfers: Transculturality during the reign of Sultan Mehmed II

This doctoral project is concerned with the transcultural relations between Ottomans and  ‘Europeans’, and their perceptions of each other during the second reign of Sultan Mehmed II (1451-1481). After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the ‘Turkish threat’ (Türkengefahr) played an increasingly prominent role in political discourses and debates. Subsequently, European historiography usually assumed a strict dichotomy between Ottomans and ‘Europeans’. From this perspective, the West was united by a common religion, a certain geographical cohesion, and similar cultural features, while the Ottoman Empire was – despite its heterogeneous population – united by Islam as its main religion. The aim of the doctoral project is to revise this long-standing opposition, investigating how ‘Europeans’ and Ottomans perceived each other during the Sultan’s reign, in which areas transculturality can be detected, and to what extent these aspects are reflected on a narrative level. The reign of Sultan Mehmed II was selected because of his well-known interest in Western culture, proving that there was no simple (generally implicit) perception of the ‘enemy’.

The study works with different types of source from the Ottoman and European areas, which can be divided into three categories: firstly documents of a formal nature, such as contracts and rulings; secondly texts of a personal nature, such as reports, which give more individual insights; and thirdly paintings, medals and maps. The highest priority will be given to sources from Venice, Rome, the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and Byzantium, as well as those from the Ottoman Empire (especially from the Anatolian region, the modern-day Turkey). Various methods and theories will be used to analyse these sources: material culture studies, Vorstellungsgeschichte (the history of concepts), transculturality and postcolonialism.