Jeanine Dağyeli (Central Asian Studies, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Vienna and Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences), Noémie Etienne (Faculty Center for Transdisciplinary Historical and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna), and Negar Hakim (Technical University, Vienna, Institute of History of Architecture and Building Archaeology), and Yavuz Köse (Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Vienna) will launch a lecture series for the upcoming winter semester 2024. The series will be devoted to the Cultural Heritage in the Middle East and Central Asia: Conservation and Destruction.
Heritage is a process: a place in the present and future given to the material and environmental cultures of the past. This lecture series focuses on heritage in the Middle East and Central Asia, emphasizing the processes of patrimonialization, whether perceived as positive (intellectual history, knowledge production, collection, exhibition, conservation) or negative (destruction). How are objects, built ensembles and spaces shown? What devices and discourses surround them? Whose heritage is collected, exhibited or, on the contrary, cancelled in museums and public spaces? Indeed, the destruction of works of art and monuments is also a powerful political gesture, which takes place in different contexts: protests, revolutions, destruction, and wars. It also creates new realities and sometimes new artworks. What can we do with those voids and absences? How can we talk about collection history, museum conservation, but also voluntary destruction in contexts of extreme violence? Our aim is to reflect on all the frameworks that produce, display, or destroy heritage in the Middle East and Central Asia over the long term.
You can look forward to lectures by: Markus Ritter (University of Vienna), Tara Andrews (University of Vienna), Rian Thum (University of Manchester), Kristina Pfeifer (Technical University Vienna), Mazen Iwaisi (Queen’s University Belfast), Tobias Mörike (Weltmuseum Wien), Jeremy F. Walton (University of Rijeka), Mohammad Talebian (University of Teheran), Gönül Bozoğlu (University of St. Andrews), Nadia Radwan (HEAD Genève), Ayşe Dilsiz Hartmuth (University of Vienna), Yuka Kadoi (University of Vienna), Mahshid Sehizadeh / Mohammad S. Izadi (Bu-Ali Sina University Hamedan).
The full program of the lecture series and the information about the speakers and their topics are available on:
https://orientalistik.univie.ac.at/fachrichtungen/turkologie/veranstaltungen/ringvorlesung-turkologie/
Zoom-Link for the entire lecture series (for calendar):
https://univienna.zoom.us/j/67173435103?pwd=WJnYkkCaTk5VRq82FQobzhfbo6TnxN.1
Meeting ID: 671 7343 5103
Passcode: 737072
In cooperation with
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Deniz Armağan Akto started to work as a researcher in the FWF-funded DANFront project developed by Onur İnal. He is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of History of Bilkent University in Ankara. He received his M.A. from the Middle East Technical University with a thesis titled “Ottoman Fortresses and Garrisons in the Hungarian and the Eastern Frontiers (1578-1664).” His research focuses on the military and socio-economic history of the early modern Ottoman Empire.
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We are pleased to announce that the City of Vienna has approved funding for our ongoing project to digitise the Armeno-Turkish holdings of the Mekhitarist Congregation in Vienna. In addition to the Armeno-Turkish newspapers and journals, a substantial number of manuscripts and books will be digitised in the coming months. The digitised texts will be accessible on the Mehitarist Congregation Library website. Furthermore, a selection of newspapers and books will be transcribed in Latin script and made available via the platform Transkribus.
The project's objective is to meticulously catalogue and digitise the distinctive corpus of Armeno-Turkish texts, specifically referring to Turkish media written in Armenian script, from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the library of the Vienna Mechitarist Congregation for the first time and ensure their enduring accessibility to a broader audience.
The digitised Armeno-Turkish texts (mainly prints and newspapers) will be transcribed from Armenian script into Latin script using the AI-supported platform Transkribus. This will facilitate greater accessibility and comprehension of this cultural heritage.
The project thus has several objectives. 1) It is dedicated in an innovative way to an Armeno-Turkish corpus that, despite its historical significance, has long been unrecognised; 2) The integration of these texts and findings into academic research and teaching will promote a more comprehensive and multi-layered understanding of Ottoman history and Ottoman cultural heritage in Vienna; 3) The long-term goal of the project is to promote a paradigm shift in Turkish studies and to move away from narrow nationalist approaches. This shift is crucial for a more comprehensive and inclusive account of the complex history of the Ottoman Empire.
Finally, the project aims to present the Mechitarist Congregation, which has been based in Vienna since 1811, as a place where the history of the Armenians, the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires converge in many ways, thus contributing to the cultural heritage of Vienna.
Further information are available on: https://mekhitar.univie.ac.at
This project is being carried out in collaboration with
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Keynote: Sebouh Aslanian, Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History, UCLA
The Ottoman Empire was characterised by a multiethnic, multireligious and multilingual society. The members of this group produced texts that make use of a plethora of languages and scripts, thereby contributing to a rich and complex cultural heritage. Armeno-Turkish literature, that is to say, Turkish texts written and printed in Armenian script (Dačkerēn, Hayadaṛ T’rkʻerēn), occupies a distinctive position within the broader cultural heritage of the Ottoman Empire.
The Department of Turkish Studies at the University of Vienna, in collaboration with the Mekhitarist Congregation in Vienna, has initiated a programme to facilitate comprehensive research into a substantial corpus of Armeno-Turkish manuscripts, printed books and newspapers produced between the eighteenth and early twentieth centuries, which are housed in the library of the Mekhitarist Congregation in Vienna. This will facilitate access to key sources for the study of Armenian history within the Ottoman Empire and the diaspora, as well as their contribution to and position within the Ottoman cultural environment.
The Mekhitarists were instrumental in fostering the Armenian Renaissance in Vienna, and the city is also home to the first work on the subject (Kraelitz-Greifenhorst 1912) and the most groundbreaking study on Armeno-Turkish literature (Tietze 1991). The project, which is currently ongoing, builds on these existing works and will continue the study of Armeno-Turkish texts in a truly revolutionary way. Further information can be found at https://mekhitar.univie.ac.at.
We would like to extend an invitation to established and young scholars alike to present and discuss their research on Armeno-Turkish in Vienna at this inaugural international conference. In addition to papers focused on Armeno-Turkish texts, we also welcome submissions that explore the multilingual and multicultural Ottoman world, with a particular focus on “allographic communities”.
Institutions that hold Armeno-Turkish collections and are engaged in the preservation of Armenian cultural heritage are also welcome. We encourage contributions from all disciplines within the humanities and social sciences, including both quantitative and qualitative approaches, and encourage interdisciplinary and comparative work in a collaborative format. Those participating in the conference are required to present research that has not been previously published and to submit their papers to the organisers one month prior to the event. The conference organisers will select papers for publication in a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal or an edited volume.
Abstract submission
Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words accompanied by a brief academic curriculum vitae. Abstracts should include a research question and details of the data/empirical material, methodology and expected/preliminary findings. These should be submitted by 1 December 2024. The selection process will conclude on 1 February 2025. Selected papers for publication in a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal or an edited volume must be submitted by 14 November 2025. The symposium will be conducted in English.
Please submit your abstract and curriculum vitae via email to yavuz.koese@univie.ac.at.
Funding
Selected participants are eligible for funding to cover flight tickets (plus local public transportation) and accommodation. A reimbursement of up to €300 will be made for the cost of flight tickets. In the case of co-authored papers, funding will be available for one of the presenters.
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Call for Papers
The Andreas Tietze Seed Money Grant 2025
Since 2019, the Andreas Tietze Memorial Fellowship in Turkish Studies has offered doctorate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early career scholars a unique opportunity to conduct outstanding research projects at the Department of Near Eastern Studies of the University of Vienna, while contributing to the legacy of Andreas Tietze.
In the 2025 cohort, the Andreas Tietze Seed Money Grant will be awarded to advanced doctoral candidates and postdoctoral/early-stage researchers in Turkish studies for the preparation of third-party fund applications. The Seed Money Grant aims to support applicants in the application process and integrate them into the Turkish Studies academic community.
The deadline for applications is 31 October 2024.
For details and application process:
https://orientalistik.univie.ac.at/forschung/fellowships/andreas-tietze-memorial-fellowship/
Supported by
 
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Alika Zangieva (Princeton University) spent two months in the Turkish Studies Department at the University of Vienna from June to August. In a short interview, she tells about her experience in Vienna:
Interview with Former Andreas Tietze Fellows Enise Şeyda Kapusuz
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The Summer 2024 issue of Keshif - E-Journal for Ottoman-Turkish Micro Editions is out! This new issue of Keshif features short texts written by Şeyma Benli, Alev Berberoğlu, Hülya Çelik, Hüseyin Onur Ercan, Sümeyye Hoşgör Büke, Bilge İlhan Toker, M. Ali Kara, Gürer Karagedikli, Gisela Procházka‐Eisl, Nilab Saeed, Saliha Toy, Michael Ursinus, and Nedim Zahirović.
The content is freely available on:
https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/keshif/issue/view/689
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Diyâr, second special issue of 2024:
Multilingualism, Translation, Transfer: Persian in the Ottoman Empire
The special issue “Multilingualism, Translation, Transfer: Persian in the Ottoman Empire,” edited by Philip Bockholt and Hülya Çelik is out. This new special issue of Diyâr includes contributions by A.C.S. Peacock, Veronika Poier, Philip Bockholt, Sacha Alsancakli, Zakir Hussein Gul, Kameliya Atanasova, Hülya Çelik, and Renaud Soler.
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Silsile-nāme, ÖNB, Signatur: Cod. A. F. 17
Report: Summer School of Comparative Habsburg-Ottoman Paleography
Between 1 and 12 July 2024, the Turkish Studies Department at the University of Vienna hosted the summer school of “Comparative Habsburg-Ottoman Paleography” in cooperation with the Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies (ihb) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). The two-week-long intensive program allowed the thirteen participants (from Austria, Germany, Georgia, Japan, Serbia, Turkey, and the USA) to comparatively read and analyse early modern (1500-1800) Habsburg and Ottoman primary sources concerning various topics under the supervision of lecturers Ercan Akyol (University of Vienna), Hülya Çelik (University of Bochum), Zsuzsanna Cziráki (ÖAW), Barbara Denicòlo (Paris Lodron University of Salzburg), Doris Gruber (ihb, ÖAW), Elisabeth Lobenwein (Alpen-Adria-University of Klagenfurt), Janina Karolewski (University of Hamburg), Benjamin Weineck (University of Heidelberg), and Yasir Yılmaz (ihb, ÖAW).
 
 
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Transforming Empire: The Ottomans from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean – Essays in Honor of Linda Darling, edited by professor emeritus Linda Darling’s three former students, Serpil Atamaz (California State University, Sacramento), Onur İnal (University of Vienna), and Alexander Schweig (University of Arizona) includes contributions by Ali Atabey, Serpil Atamaz, Lee Beaudoen, Emine Evered, Kyle Evered, Richard Eaton, Ziad Fahmy, Gülsüm Gürbüz-Küçüksarı, Onur İnal, Christine Isom-Verhaaren, Myrsini Manney-Kalogera, Claudia Römer, Gül Şen, Baki Tezcan, Fariba Zarinebaf.
Transforming Empire places the Ottoman Empire within the global context and provides insight into the multifaceted transimperial and transnational connections that characterized it in different periods. It focuses on the connections, interactions, exchanges, networks and flows in and around the Ottoman Empire. Contributions in the book reflect the evolving and dynamic nature of the Ottoman Empire from different angles.
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Call for Papers / Proposals:
Turkologentag 2025
Mainz, 18-20 September 2025
The Fifth European Convention on Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies (Turkologentag 2025) will be held at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz from 18–20 September 2025. The conference is organized in cooperation with the Society for Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies (GTOT e.V.).
The organizers of the Turkologentag 2025 are now inviting proposals for papers and panels in the domains of language, literature, history, culture, society, politics, and philology of the Turks and the Turkic peoples. The conference languages are English, German, and Turkish.
Paper and panel proposals can be submitted between 15 August and 15 December 2024. Panels should comprise 3 or 4 papers. All abstracts will be subject to a review process. The results will be announced by 31 March 2025.
Detailed information, including guidance on the submission of abstracts and panel proposals, can be found on: https://turkologentag.uni-mainz.de/call-for-papers/
We are looking forward to meeting you in Mainz.
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Our department welcomes Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Gudrun Krämer
as a Visiting Professor in the Winter Semester
Gudrun Krämer is former Chair of the Institute of Islamic Studies and Director of the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, both at Freie Universität Berlin. She is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) and Executive Editor of the Encyclopaedia of Islam Three. After studying history, political science, English literature and Islamic Studies at the Universities of Heidelberg, Bonn and Sussex, she received her PhD in Islamic Studies from Hamburg University in 1982. From 1982-94 she was a senior Research Fellow at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Ebenhausen near Munich. In 1994, after obtaining her Habilitation, she was appointed Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Bonn, and in 1996 she moved to Freie Universität Berlin. Gudrun Krämer has been a visiting scholar in Beijing, Beirut, Bologna, Cairo, Delhi, Erfurt, Jakarta, Paris and Salzburg.
She has published widely on Middle Eastern history, Islamic movements and Islamic political thought. Her monographs include Geschichte des Islam (Munich 2024); Der Architekt des Islamismus: Hasan al-Banna und die Muslimbrüder (Munich 2022); Der Vordere Orient und Nordafrika ab 1500 (Frankfurt a.M. 2016); Geschichte Palästinas: Von der osmanischen Eroberung bis zur Gründung des Staates Israel(Munich, 6th ed., 2015; Engl., A History of Palestine, Princeton 2008, 2011); Gottes Staat als Republik (Baden-Baden 1999); The Jews in Modern Egypt 1914-1952 (Seattle 1989); edited volumes: Speaking for Islam. Religious Authorities in Muslim Societies, with Sabine Schmidtke (Leiden 2006); Anti-Semitism in the Arab World (Die Welt des Islams, Special issue, 46, 2006, 3). Audiovisual materials include the DVD series Islam. Religion, Geschichte und Kultur (Hamburg, ZEIT Akademie).
Prof. Krämer will teach the courses
141030 VO Politische Geschichte, Geistes- und Kulturgeschichte des arabisch-islamischen Orients: Vorderer Orient und Nordafrika seit 1800: ein historischer Überblick
141120 SE Islamwissenschaftliches Seminar (mit BA-Arbeit): Zwei Völker in einem Land: Koexistenz und Konflikt in Palästine
141196 SE Texte aus der arabisch-islamischen Tradition: Die Erziehung des aktiven Muslims: Hasan al-Banna und die ägyptische Muslimbruderschaft
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© http://www.klaus-kreiser.de
Obituary Klaus Kreiser
It is with deep regret that we announce the death of the outstanding Turkologist Prof. Dr Klaus Kreiser, who passed away on Saturday, 7 September 2024, at the age of 79. In Klaus Kreiser, we have lost one of the most important researchers in our discipline, who made a significant contribution to deepening the understanding of Ottoman and modern Turkish history and culture in his decades of academic work.
Klaus Kreiser studied in Cologne and Munich, where he received his doctorate in 1972. His dissertation was published under the title Edirne im 17. Jahrhundert nach Evliyā Çelebī. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der osmanischen Stadt in 1975. Between 1976 and 1980 he was a research assistant at the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul. He habilitated at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 1983 and one year later accepted the newly established Chair of Turkish Language, History and Culture at the University of Bamberg, where he researched and taught until his retirement in 2005. Klaus Kreiser has held various international research residencies, visiting professorships and fellowships, including at Harvard University, the University of Chicago, EHESS Paris and IPC-Sabancı University Istanbul.
His outstanding research contributions include studies on Ottoman institutions, Ottoman travel literature and the social history of the Ottomans. Particularly noteworthy are his works on Evliya Çelebi (most recently Das Reisebuch. Die Welt zwischen Wien und Mekka, 2023), the monograph Atatürk. Eine Biographie (2008), which has been translated into numerous languages, but also overview works and introductions to the history of Turkey such as Der osmanische Staat 1300-1923 (2008) or Kleine Geschichte der Türkei (with Christoph K. Neumann, 2020), which have been published several times and are considered standard works on the history of the Ottoman Empire and Turkey.
In addition to his academic publications, Kreiser was also known for his journalistic work. He regularly published well-founded, sometimes highly amusing, articles on Turkish and Ottoman history in newspapers such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), making knowledge about Turkey accessible to a wider public.
In Klaus Kreiser, Turkish Studies has lost a formative figure, a committed researcher and teacher as well as a valued colleague. His death leaves a gap that will be difficult to fill. However, his work will endure for future generations and continue to guide us.
With deep sorrow and sincere sympathy for his family and loved ones.
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Ercan Akyol will deliver the paper “Mektubology: Drafts, Fair Copies, and Material Aspects in early Modern Ottoman Letters” in the seminar “The Manuscript Heritage in the Islamic World: History, texts, and techniques” at Aix Marseille Université in Marseille on 11 October 2024.
Ercan Akyol will deliver the paper “Süleyman I’s (Muhibbi) Drafts of Poetry” in the seminar “New Perspectives on working with manuscript-transmitted texts” at the University of Vienna on 23 October 2024.
Ercan Akyol will attend the symposium “From Istanbul to Budin, From Budin to Istanbul: Cultural Interaction and Communication” at Istanbul University’s Tarih Araştırma Merkezi on 4-5 November 2024 to present his paper “Evliya Çelebi in Hungary.”
Ercan Akyol has become an associate member of the project QHOD (Digital Scholarly Edition of Habsburg-Ottoman Diplomatic Sources 1500–1918), hosted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Johanna Chovanec has been granted the Teaching Award of the University of Vienna with her course “Neurodiversität in der Literatur: das Autismus-Spektrum erzählen.”
Julia Fröhlich will be a Junior Research Fellow at the International Research Center for Cultural Studies (ifk) in Linz, starting 1 October 2024.
Julia Fröhlich will attend the 28th Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) Conference at Princeton, New Jersey on 17-20 October to present the paper “‘Attempting to Put Oneself in Their Place’: Tracing the Socio-spatial Dimensions of the Trans-Aegean Jewish Exodus from Greece to Turkey (1943-1944).”
Julia Fröhlich will attend the meeting “Überleben” at the International Research Center for Cultural Studies (ifk) in Linz on 23-25 October 2024 to present the paper “Überleben gegen alle Wahrscheinlichkeit. Flucht vor dem Holocaust in Griechenland (1943-1944).”
Julia Fröhlich will join the CENTRAL Network “Translating the Nation” Workshop I at the University of Vienna on 25-26 October 2024 to present the paper “Pitfalls, limitations and chances: Translating historical documents from multiple languages.”
Julia Fröhlich will give a lecture titled “Odyssey across the Aegean. The Jewish Exodus from Greece (1943–1944)” at the International Research Center for Cultural Studies (ifk) in Linz on 11 November 2024.
Julia Fröhlich will attend the workshop “Older People and the Holocaust” at the Wiener Holocaust Library in London on 5-6 December 2024 to present her paper “Making Silent Voices Heard: Elderly Jews, Age-specific Agency and Survival during the Holocaust in Greece.”
Onur İnal has become an affiliate member of The New Institute. Centre for Environmental Humanities (NICHE) at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
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Edith Gülçin Ambros, “On Harput (Elazığ) and on manis (folk poems) shared by Ottoman Turks, Armenians, Karamanlı Greeks, and Cypriot Turks”, in Literary and Cultural Crossroads in the Late Ottoman Empire, ed. Evangelia Balta (Istanbul: Boyut, 2024), 99-122.
Edith Gülçin Ambros, Hülya Çelik, and Ani Sargsyan, “Intertwined Literatures: Karamanlı, Armeno-Turkish, and regular Ottoman versions of the Köroğlu Folk-tale”, in Literary and Cultural Crossroads in the Late Ottoman Empire, ed. Evangelia Balta (Istanbul: Boyut, 2024), 1-54.
Ercan Akyol, “Ottoman dīvān literature in the Turkish literary‐historical canon” in Patrimonialization on the Ruins of Empire - Islamic Heritage and the Modern State in Post-Ottoman Europe, ed. Maximilian Hartmuth and Ayse Dilsiz Hartmuth (Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2024), 245-270.
Gisela Procházka-Eisl. “David Ungnad Wants His Money Back,” Keshif: E-Journal for Ottoman-Turkish Micro Editions 2/2(Summer 2024): 67-77.
Onur İnal, “Constructing Otherness in an Ottoman Borderland: Levantine Architecture in Izmir,” in Transforming Empire: The Ottomans from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, ed. Serpil Atamaz, Onur İnal, Alexander Schweig (Leiden: Brill, 2024), 140-158.
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