3 November 2023, Montreal

Panel at MESA Annual Meeting 2023

Abstract:

The historical role of the Ottoman Empire as a sea power is still an understudied subject, despite a vast array of narrative and archival sources and especially in relation to its mobility dynamics within the cross-border macro-region of the “Transottoman space”, comprising the Black Sea, the Adriatic, the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea with their adjacent land and sea powers. Drawing on a variety of sources in different languages, this panel aims to explore various dimensions of Ottoman maritime history, covering the early period of Ottoman rule from the 15th to the 18th century, with a special focus on patterns of mobility in the Transottoman micro-region. The Ottoman Naval Arsenal (Tersāne-i Amīre) on the Golden Horn in Istanbul was the center of ship building and naval administration. Having been established in the fifteenth century, the Ottoman navy became a major protagonist in the ongoing conflict in the Mediterranean during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In spite of its effective organization and its military successes, the Ottoman navy was, with regard to technology, a highly conservative force, consisting mostly of rowing vessels, in particular the various types of galleys. This panel brings together original papers on Ottoman maritime activities, technologies, tactics, and organizations from a Transottoman perspective. A group of papers will discuss encounters with other sea powers, such as the Republic of Venice and the Knights Hospitaller, or other regional competitors such as the Mamluk Sultanate. Other papers will explore the internal politics, organizations, and technologies of early modern Mediterranean navies. Socio-economic aspects of the maintenance of a powerful naval force, such as supplying raw material for shipbuilding or the recruitment of laborers for the naval arsenal, will also be analyzed. The six papers of this panel will be based on a wide range of primary sources, from historiographical texts, like chronicles, diaries, biographies, to archival documents, such as state registers of the important affairs, prison registers of the naval arsenal, and senate minutes.

With contributions by Suraiya Faroqhi, Albrecht Fuess, Gul Sen and Andreas Helmedach.

More information here.