Course for 2010-2011, University of Erfurt

Im Reich des „Roten Sultans“: Die spätosmanische Ära des Abdülhamid II. (1876-1909)

In the Empire of the "Red Sultan": The Late Ottoman Period under Abdülhamid II. (1876-1909)

Lehrstuhl für Geschichte Westasiens, Do/Thu 10:00-12:00, D07

Das Seminar befasst sich mit der Ära des Sultan Abdülhamids II., der einerseits von Opponenten als Despot gebrandmarkt und für den Tod von vielen Andersdenkenden und Minderheiten verantwortlich gemacht wird und andererseits als fähiger Herrscher gesehen wird, der es schaffte das Osmanische Reich trotz imperialistischer Eingriffe noch zusammenzuhalten und die Modernisierung vorantrieb.

The course deals with the controversial figure of Sultan Abdülhamid II, on the one hand stigmatised by opponents as a despot who was responsible for the deaths of dissidents and minorities, and on the other hand is regarded as a capable ruler who prevented the collapse of the Ottoman Empire despite imperialist intervention and promoted modernization.

Forthcoming Talk

“'Appropri­ate objects of christian benevolenc­e?' Protestant­ Missionari­es, the Nusayris and the Ottomans”

Where: World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies, Barcelona/Spain
Panel: Late Ottoman/Post-Ottoman Heterodox Communities (299)
Panel Dates: 19th July 2010 - 24th April 2010
Time of Panel: 22nd July 2010, 9am - 11am
Link: http://wocmes.iemed.org/en/preorg-lateottoman

This paper elaborates on the intricate connections between Protestant Missionaries, the Nusayris and the Ottoman state in the 19th century.
Knowledge of the Nusayris and similar groups began with Western travellers and orientalists, including American Protestant missionaries, from the early 19th century. These people studied heterodox groups for learned purposes but also to find ways how to exploit them against the Ottomans politically and to bring them into the fold of Christianity. The fear of infiltration of the Muslim subjects, whether mainstream or deviant, by foreigners, pressed the Ottoman government to endorse a more orthodox form of the official Hanefi-Sunni school. We will look into the Ottoman attitude toward the Nusayris and examine topics such as assimilation, resistance, integration and conversion. How did Protestant missionaries integrate the Nusayris into their millenarian belief in a new social order? And how did the Nusayris respond to the civilizing efforts of the Christian Missionaries and the Ottoman state?

Course for Summer 2010, University of Erfurt

Lehrstuhl für Geschichte Westasiens
>Do 12:00-14:00, LG 4/D05


Das Spätosmanische Reich: Reformen und Reformer


Im Osmanischen Reich des späten 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts war die Schlüsselfrage, die die politische Führung konfrotierte, wie der Staat gerettet werden konnte. Die Lösung hing von der Sichtweise der Reformer ab, allerdings wurden der Despotismus des Sultans, der Übergriff der Großen Mächte, der Verlust der islamischen Basis, das Scheitern der Modernisierung u.ä. als die Hauptursachen identifiziert.


The Late Ottoman Empire: Reforms and Reformers


In the Ottoman Empire of the late 19th and early 20th centuries the key question that confronted the political élite was, how the state could be saved. What the Ottoman state needed rescuing from depended on one's point of view, but the chief culprits were identified as the despotism of Sultanic rule, Great Power encroachment, abandonment of the Empire's Islamic basis, a failure to modernize, etc.