Hybride lecture by Philip Bockholt | University of Münster 

Abstract

In the early eighteenth century, the Ottoman Empire saw a marked surge in translation, especially in historiography, under the patronage of Grand Vizier Dāmād İbrāhīm Paşa. This lecture examines the aims, processes, and cultural implications of translating major historical works from Arabic and Persian into Ottoman Turkish, including Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAynī’s (d. 855/1451) ʿIqd al-Jumān (“The Pearl Necklace”) and Ghiyās̱ al-Dīn Muḥammad Khvāndamīr’s (d. 942/1535–36) Ḥabīb al-Siyar (“Beloved of Careers”). Although the prefaces present these translations as efforts to broaden access to historical knowledge, the involvement of numerous actors and substantial resources suggests wider cultural and political stakes. Drawing on surviving manuscripts, the lecture investigates who translated what and how the texts were adapted for their intended readers. It argues that these undertakings were notisolated, but part of a broader cultural movement characterized by bibliophilic activities and the founding of libraries. They were also shaped by contemporary geopolitics – above all, Ottoman expansion in the Safavid Caucasus and northwestern Iran – which heightened interest in Safavid history and encouraged the translation of Persian works.

POSTER (PDF)

Attendance in person at:

Campus of the University of Vienna
Department of Near Eastern Studies' Auditorium

Or online:

ZOOM

This is the fifth lecture in the webinar series for the academic year 2025-26, this year organised by the NoMansLand research project (FWF Y 1232) dedicated to the study of Islamic manuscripts in pre-modern Iran and Central Asia in collaboration with the Institut für Orientalistik (Universität Wien) as part of the Lecture series "Beyond the Codex: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Manuscript Cultures."

Visit our YouTube channel to watch recordings of past lectures:

https://www.youtube.com/@IFI_Media

For a list of upcoming lectures in the webinar series, please see Webinar series "Pre-modern Islamic manuscripts"