Course Discussion Website
To help you brush up on topic-specific terminology, here are flashcards made from previous classes.
Note that there are several sets of flashcards within the Medieval Islam and Mongols to Ottomans folders.
These can be downloaded so you can word-search more quickly through them.
This article from the Met describes the relationship between Venice and the Ottomans. Here’s an excerpt:
The Ottomans sold wheat, spices, raw silk, cotton, and ash (for glass making) to the Venetians, while Venice provided the Ottomans with finished goods such as soap, paper, and textiles. The same ships that transported these everyday goods and raw materials also carried luxury objects such as carpets, inlaid metalwork, illustrated manuscripts, and glass.
Another article from the Met discusses Ottoman textiles in particular like the one above.
Have a listen to this 4 minute NPR podcast of the research and technology put into recreating “The Sound Of The Hagia Sophia, More Than 500 Years Ago” and hear the amazing final product!
You can learn more about Bissera Pentcheva, the lead researcher, here.
This article expands on what Dr. al-Tikriti described of the rebranding trend of Rumi. The author, Rozina Ali, explains:
“He is typically referred to as a mystic, a saint, a Sufi, an enlightened man. Curiously, however, although he was a lifelong scholar of the Koran and Islam, he is less frequently described as a Muslim.”
Ali discusses Rumi’s popularity in pop culture, from Cold Play to Westernized translations of his poetry, and how we can trace this to prim, proper, and ethnocentric Victoriana.
She also provides names of authors who produce more legtimate (scholarly) translations.
This is one video (of many) done by a doctoral student of Middle East studies. He explains asabiyya further, Ibn Khaldun’s visit with Timur, and why Ibn Khaldun is considered the father of sociology and other studies, like economics.
My explanation of his elephant clock was rough (and wrong in one part), so here’s a better one with animation.
Here is an article with the best pictures of museum reproductions of a few of his works including the party boat.
If medieval automation interests you, I suggest E.R. Truitt’s Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. She cites her many sources well. While it is an academic read, it does not “read” like one.
This is available as an ebook through the library.
While the History channel on television is so “ugh,” their website still occasionally produces pretty good content. This quick, easy, and fun read is about a 14th century Moroccan who leaves home, after (literally) dreaming about distant lands, and pin-balls himself between Spain and China for roughly twenty years. His adventures are both harrowing and hilarious. Have a read. See for yourself.
Apparently the Ottomans loved their feathered friends. They built palaces for them on their own palaces (and mosques, and schools, and bridges, and . . . ). They’re all over Turkey, particularly in Istanbul.
Here’s a popular website article about them.
And here’s an article about them with ten sources and more pictures.
If I were to research material culture, I’d definitely spend some time at the Turkish Cultural Foundation’s website. While their library’s searchable online catalog shows you what is available in their library in Istanbul, it will at least provide names and titles you may be able to find elsewhere.
Because sometimes a super simple explanation makes the difference.
Two tabs are helpful: Religion in the Middle East and Ethnic Groups in the Middle East.
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