Islands as transit posts in the news networks of early sixteenth century

This paper reflects on the role of islands on the Mediterranean as transit posts in the news networks of the early sixteenth century. Based on research carried out within the framework of the ‘TUBITAK 1001 Scientific and Technologic Research Support Fund’ project numbered 113K655 (Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean Intelligence Network during the First Half of the 16th Century), this study traces the routes of letters and reports from Eastern Mediterranean port cities to Venice from where news would be distributed to various cities in Europe. Our research investigates the hubs where various pieces of oral and written news within a wide range of sources from official letters to eyewitness accounts, from familial correspondence to rumours came together to be delivered collectively. As news travelled through the sea routes, this study focuses especially on the islands of Corfu, Crete, Rhodes, and Cyprus as main information hubs. In a period when regular postal systems were not fully developed, the role of the islands as transit points for news flow sheds light on the importance of islands in the dynamics of communication in the early sixteenth century

Müzmin bir Venedik elçisi: Pietro Zen

Venedik asilzadesi ve devlet adamı Pietro Zen, Osmanlı İstanbulunu en yakından takip etme imkanı bulmuş gözlemcilerden biridir kuşkusuz. Fevkalade elçi ve balyos vekili olarak Mart 1523’teki ilk İstanbul ziyaretinin ardından Zen 1533 yılına kadar İstanbul’a gidip gelmiş, her gelişinde uzun sürelerle payitahtta kalmıştır. Pietro Zen İbrahim Paşa’nın düğünü, şehzadelerin sünnet şenlikleri, Macaristan sefer çıkışları gibi pek çok törensel olaya tanık olmasının yanısıra, şehrin günlük yaşantısına ve payitahtın iktidar ilişkilerine de yakından şahitlik etmiştir. Bu çalışmada, Zen’in gözünden dünyaya yansıyan Osmanlı payitahtı incelenmektedir

Ideal kingship in the late medieval world: The Ottoman case

The aim of this study is to examine the characteristics of the ideal ruler as seen through the eyes of the members of late medieval societies. Throughout the study, main features attributed to the ideal ruler in various cultures have been pursued. Comparing the concepts and attributes apparent in these cultures, it has become possible to talk about a single ideal of kingship as far as the "Christian" and "Muslim" realms of the late medieval era is concerned. The early Ottoman enterprise has been taken as a case reflecting this ideal in practice. Attributes of the ideal king as reflected in the works of the medieval theorists in both "Islamic" and "Medieval European" lands have been examined. The characteristics apparent in these works have been traced in early Ottoman chronicles. Their expression and evaluation of the events reflect certain approaches to these characteristics and individual rulers. Combining theoratical work with practice and focusing on the similarities between the ideals of "Islamic" and "Christian" ideals rather than the differences, a sketch of the ideal ruler in the late medieval era has been drawn as a result of this study

Venedikli gözüyle Osmanlı-Macar çatışması

1520 yılında Sultan Süleyman’ın tahta çıkışıyla Osmanlı-Macar-Habsburg ilişkilerinin yeni bir safhaya girişi ve ardından gelen çatışma süreci tarihçiler tarafından çeşitli yönleriyle etraflıca incelenmiş; sebep-sonuç ilişkileri kurulmuş; siyasi ve askeri tarih bağlamında bu süreç tarihçinin bakış açısına göre şanlı bir fetihten trajik bir esaret dönemine uzanan geniş bir yelpaze içinde değerlendirilmiş bulunmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, büyük söylemlerin kısmen dışına çıkarak konuyu farklı bir açıdan ele alarak süreç yaşanırken nasıl algılandığını anlamaya çalışmaktır. Bunun için, 1519-1523 yılları arasında Budin’de Venedik elçisi olarak bulunan Lorenzo Orio’nun mektupları mercek altına alınmaktadır. 5 Haziran 1519’da Budin’e vararak göreve başlayan Orio, 22 Aralık 1523’te Venedik’te Pregadi önünde raporunu verene dek Osmanlı-Macar-Habsburg ilişkilerine ve çatışmalarına yakından şahit olmuştur. Bu çalkantılı dönemde Venedik’in tarafsız görüntüsünü koruması için de büyük çaba gösteren Orio’nun sunduğu bilgiler zamanında Venedik’in elinde bir güce dönüşmenin yanı sıra, aradan 500 yıl geçtikten sonra bizlere de dönemin deneyimini ve algısını sunmaktadır. Diğer bir deyişle, söz konusu dönemde yaşayan insanların gündelik yaşantılarının parçası olan söylentilere, dedikodulara, korkulara ve umutlara bir pencere açmaktadır

The making of Sultan Süleyman: a study of process/es of image-making and reputation management

This dissertation is a study of the processes involved in the making of Sultan Süleyman's image and reputation within the two decades preceding and following his accession, delineating the various phases and aspects involved in the making of the multi-layered image of the Sultan. Handling these processes within the framework of Sultan Süleyman's deeds and choices, the main argument of this study is that the reputation of Sultan Süleyman in the 1520s was the result of the convergence of his actions and his projected image. In the course of this study, main events of the first ten years of Sultan Süleyman's reign are conceptualized in order to understand the elements employed first in making a Sultan out of a Prince, then in maintaining and enhancing the sultanic image and authority. As such, this dissertation examines the rhetorical, ceremonial, and symbolic devices which came together to build up a public image for the Sultan. Contextualized within a larger framework in terms of both time and space, not only the meaning and role of each device but the way they are combined to create an image becomes clearer. This dissertation argues that Süleyman started his sultanic career with the inherited elements of dynastic and divine legitimation. He took over an already established model, and put deliberate effort in the actualization of this model through pursuing an active and visible mode of sovereignty in the 1520s

Surviving the 'Dark Night' with the 'Rising of the Sun': when the Monarch dies

Aiming at a better understanding of the various collective mechanisms involved in accepting the loss of a sovereign figure associated with the order of the universe, this paper investigates the expressions of collective grief upon the death of the monarch in the sixteenth-century Ottoman context. Contemporary narrative sources reveal a strong sense of simultaneous grief and joy, fostered by the loss of one sovereign and the arrival of another one. Ottoman chronicles convey a sense of heavy grief and mourning through uncontrolled behaviour consisting of laments, wailing and violent acts such as tearing one’s clothes, beating one’s chest, throwing soil. Similar modes of mourning are observed in various times, places, and cultures. Exaggerated reactions to a leader’s and/or hero’s death also point at a disruption in the order of things felt by those left behind feeling diminished, lost and devoid of direction. Yet this sense of grief, caused by loss and the implication of partial destruction of the social equilibrium, had to be removed to give way to the sense of a new beginning, or restoring of order. As such, the new monarch is hailed as the rising sun that shall lighten the way and bring things back to order. Acted through collective rites such as the funeral and accession rituals, this transition finds expression in the simultaneous employment of antithetical concepts such as fire/water, grief/joy, and night/day in narrative accounts. Often identified with the death and rebirth of nature, the transitory phase in between each reign is marked with a sense of loss and regaining of not only a sovereign figure, but also of the order of the world and thus the well-being of the society as a collective identity and the subject as an individual