TURKISH LITERATURE 2

The analysis of Ottoman texts is essential in the framework of a Turcological curriculum, since the Ottoman language and writing have been in use for centuries up to less than a century ago. Approaching administrative texts written in Ottoman represents, for students of Turcology, a preliminary step towards the understanding of Modern Turkey and Middle East.

The target of this course is to let the students deal with 16th-century's Ottoman documents as historiographical sources. The students will learn how to approach a document on a critical base, by formulating questions concerned with the Ottoman economic history of the Balkans and of the Mediterranean.

Any student may attend the course.

From the end of the 16th till the end of the 17th century a peculiar economic conjuncture took place in the Mediterranean economy. The result happened to be a structural turnover in the commercial and political balance of powers. The "crisis of the 17th century" has been particularly meaningful and fraught with consequences in the history of Europe. As for the Ancient Italian States, these last being at the core of the aforementioned turnover, their ruling classes reacted to the crisis by advancing a varied range of proposals and new trading policies. A "new" era had started and "new" policies were required. The Republic of Venice, in particular, established a systematic cooperation with the Balcanic provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The Balcanic trade routes that connected the Adriatic ports to their wide hinterland were about to undergo an internationalization process.

Bibliography in English may be provided at the beginning of the course.

Students will be asked to read and translate Ottoman documents already dealt with in class. Moreover, questions will be asked concerning the historical context.

Lecturing and, eventually, seminars.

Italian

oral