Turkologie Newsletter 2025/3

© Jeanine Dağyeli
 

Ringvorlesung Turkologie Winter term 2025/26
- Beyond the Codex: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Manuscript Cultures

This lecture series explores recent advances in the study of manuscript cultures across the Ottoman Empire, the Arabic-speaking world, and Central Asia. It examines manuscripts as dynamic media for transmitting knowledge, shaping identities, and preserving cultural memory. Emphasising new methodologies and interdisciplinary perspectives, the series considers manuscripts as material, intellectual, and social artefacts, focusing on their production, circulation, and afterlives. Through contributions by established and emerging scholars, the series offers a forum for rethinking manuscript cultures as interconnected and evolving phenomena. It engages critically with the historiography of manuscript studies and promotes scholarly collaboration across linguistic, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Sessions address a broad range of traditions—Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Armenian, Syriac, Hebrew, Chagatai, and others—within a comparative and multilingual framework. Topics include codicology, palaeography, manuscript production, reading practices, historical libraries, and the transition to print. Special attention is given to digital humanities, cataloguing challenges, and preservation politics. By drawing on case studies from Istanbul, Cairo, Tashkent, and beyond, the series highlights the entangled histories of manuscript cultures and examines how multilingualism, scribal practices, and digital access reshape our understanding of textual heritage. 

Look forward to lectures by: Ulfat Abdurasulov (ÖAW, IfI), Elif Sezer Aydınlı (Sabancı University), Daniel Beben (Nazarbayev University), Philip Bockholt (University of Münster), Jeanine Dağyeli (University of Vienna/ÖAW, IfI), Katharina Ivanyi (University of Vienna), Polina Ivanova (IfI, ÖAW), Tijana Krstić (Central European University), Bruno De Nicola (IfI, ÖAW), Aysima Mirsultan (Staatsbibliothek Berlin), Gisela Procházka-Eisl (University of Vienna), Nazlı Vatansever (University of Münster), Elvira Wakelnig (University of Vienna), Rıza Yıldırım (University of Vienna).

Zoom-link for the entire lecture series:
https://univienna.zoom.us/j/65295995613?pwd=e3fAP5HzOp9hTGXCnA93YmEu85Kbai.1

Further information: 
https://orientalistik.univie.ac.at/fachrichtungen/turkologie/veranstaltungen/ringvorlesung-turkologie


Supported by and in cooperation with: 
                              

Screenshot Transkribus
 

Organizers
Alíz Horváth (Central European University), Grigor Boykov (University of Vienna), Yavuz Köse (University of Vienna), Patrick McAllister (ÖAW, Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia) 

Further information: https://clariah.at/en/events/ocr-htr-workshop

Supported by

     

© Illustration: “The Bosnian Crisis”, Le Petit Journal, October 18, 1918
 

15 October 2025
JESHO Lecture on Asian History
18:00 Welcome and Introduction
Paolo Sartori, Austrian Academy of Sciences

18:10 Keynote
Cemal Kafadar, Harvard University
The Nagging Question of Ottoman Decline

16 October 2025
A Roundtable Discussion on the Annual JESHO Lecture
10:00
Dana Sajdi, Boston College, NY
Abdurrahman Atcıl, Sabancı University, Istanbul,
M’hamed Oualdi, EUI, Florence,
Evrim Binbaş, University of Bonn, Responses to Cemal Kafadar

Programme: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/fileadmin/Institute/IFI/PDF/Veranstaltungen/2025/Programmfolder-JESHO-Ottoman-Decline-V26-08-2025.pdf
  

 

We are pleased to announce the inaugural meeting of ViHOPE – Vienna Hub for Interdisciplinary Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Studies, which will take place on 17 October 2025 at the University of Vienna.

Over the past years, Vienna has become one of the most vibrant centres for Ottoman and post-Ottoman studies in Europe. Building on the strengths of the University of Vienna, the Central European University (CEU), and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), ViHOPE seeks to consolidate this unique intellectual environment. The hub will foster interdisciplinary collaboration and aims to strengthen Vienna’s role as a leading site for innovative research, graduate training, and public engagement.

The inaugural meeting will introduce ViHOPE’s mission and medium-term goals, including the development of flagship research themes and plans to apply for Research Platform status at the University of Vienna. It will also serve as an opportunity for networking among colleagues across institutions and disciplines. In the near future, a dedicated homepage for ViHOPE will be launched to provide further information and updates.

 

Fourth Colloquium on Ottoman Literature (COL)
 

The fourth “Colloquium on Ottoman Literature” (COL) will take place on November 20, 2025.

 

Speakers will include:
Elif Sezer (Sabancı University, Istanbul)
Şerife Yalçınkaya (Ege University, Izmir)
Ercan Akyol (University of Vienna)
Edith Ambros (University of Vienna)

Organizers: Gisela Procházka-Eisl, Ercan Akyol

Short Report: Unfolding an Unacknowledged Written Cultural Heritage: 
Armeno-Turkish Manuscripts, Prints and Newspapers

6-8 August 2025
University of Vienna

 

The international conference “Unfolding an Unacknowledged Written Cultural Heritage: Armeno-Turkish Manuscripts, Prints and Newspapers” took place at the University of Vienna from 6–8 August 2025. This landmark event brought together leading international scholars across nine thematic panels to examine diverse aspects of Armeno-Turkish textual traditions, including archival sources and language, historiography, multilingualism and translation, sociolinguistics, musical traditions, printing cultures, literary genres, theatre and morality, and post-Ottoman writing cultures. Highlights of the programme included a distinguished keynote lecture by Sebouh Aslanian (UCLA) on “Armeno-Turkish as a Heterographic Literary Field: Complicating Ottoman Convivencia”, a special session on the preservation of Armenian cultural heritage, and a book discussion on Managing Religious Diversity in the Ottoman Empire: Experiences of Istanbul Armenians in the Nineteenth Century with Masayuki Ueno (Osaka Metropolitan University). Another highlight of the conference was the visit to the Mekhitarist Monastery in Vienna, which offered participants unique insights into the history and ongoing significance of this scholarly and cultural institution. With its rich programme and lively intellectual exchange, the conference provided new insights into current research trends and underscored the importance of the Armeno-Turkish literary heritage.

The conference was organised within the framework of the ongoing project Entangled Scripts, Languages, and Literatures: The Armeno-Turkish Manuscripts and Prints in the Mekhitarist Congregation in Vienna, part of the FWF Cluster of Excellence EurAsian Transformations (https://mekhitar.univie.ac.at/). Following systematic cataloguing between 2023 and 2024, 51 Armeno-Turkish newspapers and periodicals held by the Mekhitarist Congregation were identified; when Armenian periodicals containing Armeno-Turkish texts are included, the total number rises to more than 70 different titles. Between 2024 and 2025, approximately 165,000 pages were digitised with the assistance of the Congregation’s Fathers and students from the University of Vienna proficient in Armenian and Turkish. The digitisation of Armenian newspapers and periodicals from 1794 to 1925, including Armeno-Turkish material, was made possible by the generous support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. By 2025, some 700 printed books (comprising more than 175,000 pages) and around 60 manuscripts (roughly 8,000 pages) had also been digitised. This work, supported by Wien Kultur, provides an indispensable foundation for future research.

All digitised newspapers and periodicals are accessible via the dedicated platform https://mechitaristlibrary.org. A separate website has been developed for the digitised books and manuscripts, where parts of the collection can already be consulted and read: https://arar.sci.am/dlibra/collectiondescription/12. In the coming months, the project team will also begin transcribing the Armeno-Turkish holdings using the platform Transkribus. The results of this work will likewise be made available in open access. These open-access resources ensure that the unique Armeno-Turkish written heritage preserved by the Mekhitarist Congregation can be studied worldwide and integrated into broader debates on Ottoman and post-Ottoman literary cultures.

For more information on the programme (including all abstracts and the programme booklet): https://mekhitar.univie.ac.at/activities/conference/

 

Short report: Turkologentag 2025
Mainz, 18-20 September 2025

The Fifth European Convention on Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies (Turkologentag 2025) was held at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz from 18–20 September 2025. With around 350 presenters across three days, it gathered an international community of scholars to discuss the rich and diverse fields of Turkic, Ottoman, and Turkish Studies.

The programme featured numerous parallel panels and roundtables on themes ranging from Ottoman history, manuscript cultures, and multilingualism to migration, gender, and contemporary Turkish politics. Sessions addressed urban spaces in the late Ottoman Empire, Uyghur language and culture, literary modernity, digital humanities, and Islamic reform.

Special events added further highlights: the keynote lecture by Ingeborg Baldauf (HU Berlin), which addressed the question “Is Literary Studies Misplaced in Turkology?”; a literary reading by novelist Ayfer Tunç; and the GTOT-Panel “KI in der Lehre und Forschung”, organized by Yavuz Köse (University of Vienna), which stimulated discussion on the role of artificial intelligence in the field, with the participation of Volker Adam (FID, Halle), Jeanine Dağyeli, Barbara Henning (University of Hamburg), Christoph Herzog (University of Bamberg), Gerhard Lauer (University of Mainz), and Christoph Schroeder (University of Potsdam). The conference also included a film screening and discussion of Toz Bezi – Kadın Emeği, Mücadele ve Dayanışma, exploring women’s labour and solidarity in Turkey.

A particular highlight was the award ceremony for the GTOT Prizes 2025 for Outstanding Theses and Dissertations. The dissertation prize was awarded to Meriç Tanık (EHESS, Paris) for the work Y a-t-il une science ottomane? Circulation des savoirs et fabrique des disciplines agronomique, forestière et vétérinaire (1840–1940). The MA prizes went to Fatih Doğan (Sabancı University) for Lawmaking in an Ottoman Frontier Province at the Turn of the Sixteenth Century: the Mufti of Akkirman, His Fatwas and Authority and to Katharina Krause (University of Oxford) for A Matter of Morals. Writing about Yemen in the Late Ottoman Empire (1908–1912). In addition, the GTOT Grants for Young Scholars were awarded to Sophia Abplanalp (University of Vienna) for her project Osmanisches materielles Erbe in österreichischen Adelssammlungen and to Melek Zorlu (University of Leipzig) and Tuğçe Özdemir (University of Leipzig) for their panel proposal Conservatism and Family, Politics and Education in Turkey.

With its combination of scholarly debate, cultural events, and recognition of emerging scholars, Turkologentag 2025 reaffirmed its role as the largest European platform for Turkic, Ottoman, and Turkish Studies.

Further information: https://turkologentag.uni-mainz.de/
 

Discover GrocerIST: An Updated Version of a Platform Tracing Food Consumption in Istanbul, 18th–19th Centuries

 

We are pleased to introduce GrocerIST, an updated version of a digital research platform that opens a window into the food habits of eighteenth‐ and nineteenth‐century Istanbul, using inheritance inventories of grocers (bakkals) as a lens to understand consumption across social, economic, and spatial dimensions. (grocerist.acdh.oeaw.ac.at)

What’s new and what you’ll find on the site:

• Documents: Detailed records of inheritance inventories, many of which are transcribed for easier access and analysis.*

• Grocers: Individual profiles of grocers from the archival material.

• Groceries & Grocery Categories: A richly annotated catalogue of goods mentioned in the inventories, organised by type.

• Utensils: Lists of tools and kitchen objects that appear alongside the groceries.

• Locations: Geographical mapping of grocers as recorded in the sources.

• Interactive Dashboard: A visual analytics section with charts and graphs for exploring patterns and trends.

• Glossary: A newly added section that explains key terms and concepts, providing essential context for both specialists and non-specialists.

GrocerIST is supported by the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities & Cultural Heritage (ACDH-CH) and funded through the Austrian Science Fund FWF.

Visit GrocerIST to explore, compare, and better understand the material culture of everyday life in Ottoman Istanbul.

*Some transcriptions still contain words with uncertain readings. The project team warmly welcomes suggestions and corrections. Please contact:

• suemeyye.hosgoer.bueke@univie.ac.at
• deniz.oezeren@univie.ac.at
• yavuz.koese@univie.ac.at

Further information: https://grocerist.acdh.oeaw.ac.at

© https://grants.at/en/
 

New Ernst Mach Grant Worldwide Recipients will join our department

 

We are delighted to welcome two more recipients of the Ernst Mach Grant Worldwide Scholarship. Özgür Andaç (University of Szeged) and Nada Trifković (Istanbul University) have both been awarded the Ernst Mach Grant Worldwide. They will work on their projects at our institute for at least six months, starting this fall. They will be supervised by Gisela Procházka-Eisl.

Özgür Andaç (University of Szeged)
“The Loss of ‘Memory’: Shaping Urban Identity in Late Ottoman and Early Republican Turkey”

Nada Trifković (Istanbul University)
"The Ottoman Sancak of Zvornik in the 17th Century".

Ayşegül Ersin (University of Szeged) and Bilal Akar (University of Milan) have both been awarded the Ernst Mach Grant Worldwide. They will work on their projects at our institute for at least six months, starting this fall. They will be supervised by Yavuz Köse.

Ayşegül Ersin (University of Szeged) 
Navigating Multiple Identities and Affiliations of Adolf Farkas in the Late Ottoman Era

This project examines migration, identity, and cultural exchange between the Ottoman Empire and Hungary in the 19th century, focusing on Adolf Farkas (later Osman Pasha) and his daughter, poet Nigâr Hanım. Tracing Farkas from a Moravian-born Christian soldier in the Hungarian army to an Ottoman Muslim, it explores themes of 'nativisation' and its evolving meanings. Archival research in Vienna, where I previously found a document on Farkas's origins, is key to completing my doctoral dissertation.
 

Bilal Akar (University of Milan)
Leila Bederkhan: Decolonising a Stateless and Exoticised Dancer’s Archives and Repertoires

Leila Bederkhan (1903–1986), born to an exiled Kurdish aristocrat father and an Austrian Jewish dentist, embodied the complexities of Kurdish statelessness and Jewish displacement. She blended Kurdish heritage with modernist dance while concealing her Jewish identity amidst antisemitism. This research examines her erasure from modern dance history, the colonial and male gaze shaping her persona as a Kurdish Princess, and explores decolonial approaches to archival research and historiography.

Keshif Volume 3 No 3 (2025) is out now!

 

Discover Keshif Vol. 3, No. 3 (Summer 2025): this issue presents a fascinating spectrum of micro-editions and studies — from Evangelinos Misailidis’s earliest petition for a Turkish newspaper in Greek script, to a talismanic medical recipe, an imperial horoscope, and a Turco-Mongolian twelve-year-cycle melḥame. Readers will also find Muhammed Alexander Russell Webb’s Ottoman connections, a vampire-staking judicial order, a Hungarian settlement tezkere, a letter by Osman Hamdi Bey, Şeyhülislam titles, and magical recipes from Şeyḫ Ġālib Dede. Enjoy contributions by Helga Anetshofer, Michael Ursinus, and many others.

You can access the full issue via this link:

https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/keshif/issue/view/726

 

On October 9, 2025, at 18:30, the panel Freedom and Urbanity: Istanbul through Photographs with Ahmet Ersoy (Boğaziçi University), Ziya Umut Türem (University of Vienna), and Manca Juvan (Photographer) will take place at Fabrikraum, Johnstrasse 25-27, 1150 Vienna.

The event is organised within the ERC research project Theatre and Gentrification in the European City (THEAGENT). This panel is part of the exhibition “Istanbul: Spaces of Freedom”, comprising selections from Manca Juvan's oeuvre. For more:

For more: fotowien.at/ausstellung/istanbul-spaces-of-freedom-foto-wien-2025/

More information on the panel: Event page

NEWS
 

Ercan Akyol gave a podcast talk at Apaçık Radyo
"Evliya Çelebi'nin Otomatları" Eksik Mecaz (by Zeynep Uysal & Murat Gülsoy), 08.09.2025, https://apacikradyo.com.tr/podcast/eksik-mecaz/evliya-celebinin-otomatlari

Ercan Akyol will attend the Tarihçiler Derneği, Kurgusal Tarih Çalıştayı I, 03.10.2025, Koffmann Kütüphanesi, Çanakkale to present his paper "Seyahatname'de Otomatlar: Hakikat, İnanç, Merak ve Hayal".

Ercan Akyol will attend the Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu, I. Uluslararası Yazma Eser Sempozyumu, 10.12.2025, İstanbul to present his paper "İstanbullu Şair, Memlük Hami: Bilinmeyen Bir Şehrengizin Serencamı".

Şeyma Bıçakçı will attend the First International Manuscript Symposium (TÜYEK), 10-12 December 2025, Istanbul to present her paper "Medical Texts in Mecmūʿa".

Onur İnal has been elected to the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) board and will act as secretary for the 2025–2027 term.

Jeanine Dağyeli has been elected to the board of the Society for Turkic, Ottoman, and Turkish Studies (GTOT) for the 2025–2028 term.

Yavuz Köse has been elected President of the Society for Turkic, Ottoman, and Turkish Studies (GTOT) for the term 2025–2028.

Yavuz Köse will attend the OCR/HTR Workshop for Under-resources and Under-represented Languages in Digital Humanities, 3-4 October 2025, at the CEU to present his paper "HTR for Armeno-Turkish Texts".

Yavuz Köse will attend the Translating Ottomans – Translingual Practices Meet Digital Humanities (OTRANSLAB) workshop, 4-5 December 2025, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

This in-depth exploration of Ottoman Izmir is the first book to study a Mediterranean port city through an environmental historical lens. Onur İnal documents the development of this major Eastern Mediterranean port-city from small coastal town, to transport hub, to a gateway linking the river valleys of Western Anatolia to worldwide markets. Key to this evolution, he argues, was the relationship between a city and countryside which not only shared a common past, but fundamentally reshaped each other during the years of the late Ottoman Empire. Introducing a cast of both human and non-human historical actors, including camels, horses and micro-organisms, İnal demonstrates the transformative impact of their interaction on the city and its hinterlands. By proposing the 'gateway city' model, this rich analysis provides an alternative way to understand the creation of an integrated economic and ecological space in Western Anatolia.

PUBLICATIONS

Akyol, Ercan. "The Concept of Stylistic Prose (Inşā): Its Modern Reception and Historical Context”, Middle Eastern Literatures, July, 1–17 ( 2025). https://doi.org/10.1080/1475262X.2025.2506092.

Ambros, Edith Gülcin. "Ottoman Catechism (‘İlm-i Ḥāl) Goes Popular: Love, the Girl, and the Jew.” In Challenging Conventions: Love, Lovers, and Beloveds in Early Modern Ottoman Poetry, edited by Christiane Czygan and Hatice Aynur, 175-198. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2025.

İnal, Onur. Gateway to the Mediterranean. An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Izmir. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Sampanis, Konstantinos & Kaplan, Dilara. "Greek and Turkish linguistic nationalism in language and history coursebooks: A comparative study. Pedagogical Linguistics. 6(2) (2025): 211–230.