Seeing the Ottoman World

Service Description

Seeing the Ottoman World Through an English Lens: 1600 Onwards Short course description: English travel and trade with the Ottoman Empire has yielded many cultural connections we keep to this day; with a robust trade in everything from fabrics to arabica coffee to ideas on religion, the English-Ottoman exchange fundamentally changed how Englishmen (and the world at large) viewed the Ottoman world. This course will survey how we can see this exchange. We will look at written travelers’ accounts, visual artwork, and the materials that crossed from the near east to Europe. This thematic course is designed to give learners, regardless of proficiency in Ottoman or English history, a look at how cultural exchange is studied and seen by historians today. Lesson 1: Introduction: How Historians Look at the Ottoman and English Worlds Module 1: Lessons 2-4: Theme: Written Accounts Lesson 2: Travelers’ Accounts Lesson 3: Sermons and Chaplains: The Role of Faith Lesson 4: Lady Mary and the Experience of English Women in the Ottoman World Module 2: Lesson 5: Theme: Paintings and Visual Art Lesson 5: Paintings and Visual Art Module 3: Lessons 6-9: Theme: Material Culture Lesson 6: Coffee Culture Across Continents Lesson 7: Fabrics and Textile Patterns Lesson 8: Embroidery and Making Oneself at Home Lesson 9: Clothing: Borrowed and Invented Conclusion Lesson 10: How We Move Forward: Concluding Remarks Ahmed Tabbakh, M.A. is a graduate of Columbia University. He has studied and written about Ottoman-English relations for five years. Tabbakh has presented on and contributed substantively to research on cultural history, negotiated proximities between peoples, and connected histories. He is particularly interested in the associations that material goods carry and how we process those associations.