Comparison of Ottoman and Burgundian and Venetian state ideologies

Start - End 
2016 - 2016 (ongoing)
Department(s) 
Department of History

Tabgroup

Abstract

The research project aims to shed a new light on the relations between Europe and the Muslim world by exploring the historical relations between the city-state of Venice & Burgundy and the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries. The comparison of the Ottoman, Venetian and Burgundian state ideologies is a case in point to explore the patterns of their interaction in the Mediterranean, a meeting point of Europe, Asia and Africa. The Ottoman Empire stretched over Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Black Sea. I will approach this case-study through the perspectives of World-Systems Analysis, which already has demonstrated that the relations did not only consist of conflict, but also of mutual influences and exchange. However, most of the studies on exchange between early modern Europe and the Islamic world have been primarily focused on economic and political history. An in-debt analysis and comparison of their political cultures or ‘state ideologies’ is still an underdeveloped topic within that field. This project will create a new approach by exploring and systematically comparing the Ottoman, Burgundian and Venetian state ideologies as reflected in their chroniclers and narrative sources. This proposal will demonstrate that there was not only an economic exchange, but also an ideological exchange and mutual influences in state ideologies. In this respect, this research has an innovative approach to Ottoman, Burgundian and Venetian state ideologies, which will be explored as parts of the broader ‘world systems’.

People

Supervisor(s)

External(s)

Maria Pia Pedani

Ca'Foscari University Venice