In Cooperation with the Institute for Social Anthropology of the ÖAW (Austrian Academy of Sciences)

European knowledge of the so-called  “Orient” is insufficient and limited by one-sidedness: insufficient, because the general image of the “East” (including the former Ottoman Empire and Asia in general) is broadly determined by a limited set of Western colonial powers; one-sided, because historical interrelations have been ignored and reduced to images of the Other, in turn shaped by imperialist interests.

This project explores knowledge of the “East” in a novel way. By changing perspective from the impoverished historical view of the “Orient”, which was limited by imperialist approaches, to one of global interactions and interrelations, it substantially broadens the scope of research to include military conflicts and sieges as well as the peaceful exchange of people, ideas and goods. This change of perspective brings to light a largely hidden relational history, the reconstruction of which is the central aim of our project.