Ottoman History Podcast

When considering the nineteenth-century history of the United States, it is rare to mention the influence of the Ottoman Empire and its subjects on the emerging centralized state. However, there were indeed many connections between the two empires, one of them being the short-lived U.S. Camel Corps and its lead camel driver Hac0131 Ali, known in the folk traditions of the Southwest as "Hi Jolly". While the story of Hi Jolly may seem to be an entertaining side note to the history of nineteenth-century westward expansion, it is also emblematic of the way in which empires were borrowing technologies and techniques from each other to further penetrate their various frontiers and control newly acquired territories.

Much of the scholarship on missionary movements in the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century regards missionaries as agents of imperialism and a destabilizing force that contributed to the polarization of the Empire's different religious communities. In this episode of the Ottoman History Podcast, Scott Rank discusses the activities of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) and explains how Protestant missionaries were also part of an intercommunal dialogue that contributed to larger discussions about secularism, education and the emerging notion of progress in the Ottoman Empire.

Only recently have scholars begun to examine the role of diet in history. Yogurt (also yoghurt/Turkish yoğurt), which has been present in pastoralist societies throughout Central Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe for centuries, is perhaps one of the most prominent examples a food technology that has a significant impact human health and lifestyle. In this episode of the Ottoman History Podcast, Chris Gratien explores the role of yogurt in Ottoman history and considers the global spread of yogurt as an Ottoman legacy to the present.

29. Ottoman Sources in Israel/Palestine Though Israel/Palestine encompasses a small geographical area of the former Ottoman Empire, it is home to a variety of valuable sources that can be used by Ottoman historians, including court records and Zionist archival records. In this episode of the Ottoman History Podcast, Zachary J. Foster discusses the various sources available to researchers working on and in Israel/Palestine and how they may be used.

28. Democracy, Dictatorship, Imperialism and the Cold War. During the 1950s, the United States supported the Menderes administration in Turkey as part of its Cold War policy, a measure which was seen as part and parcel to promoting democracy in the Middle East. In this episode of the Ottoman History Podcast, Nick Danforth examines how diplomats and statesmen justified and developed this seemingly contradictory policy, their perceptions of Turkey and its political future, and how it relates to debates about the present.

25. Zionist Settlement in the Ottoman Empire The British Mandate period in Palestine was clearly a formative stage of Zionist settlement leading up to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, but this process had roots in the Ottoman era. In this podcast, Zach Foster examines the origins of Zionist settlement in the Ottoman Empire and the political and economic transformations that facilitated this process during the late-nineteenth century.

Reporting sources of information and the reliability of those sources is not only a concern of historians; it is an essential aspect of human communication. In this podcast, we discuss evidentiality in human language, using the Turkish reported past tense (-mi015F) as a case study of the incorporation of evidentiality into the syntax of the language.

While biographies that view great men as the driving force in history can be problematic, the lives of marginal or ordinary individuals, when understood within their historical context, can be quite illustrative. In this podcast, Matt MacLean explores post-Ottoman transition through the life and writings of Jafar Pasha al-Askari, an Ottoman military officer who also served under the British Mandate.

The Ottoman era in Palestine lasted over four centuries and during that long span, Ottoman rule took many forms. Thus, it is possible to remember the Ottomans in any number of ways. In this installment of the Ottoman History Podcast, Zachary J. Foster explains how the contested memory of the Ottoman era in Palestine took shape under the British Mandate and has continued to change along with present concerns.

Mountains are a defining feature of the Mediterranean landscape from the Sierra Nevadas of Spain in the West to the Lebanon Mountains in the East and everywhere in between. In this installment of the Ottoman History Podcast, Dr. John McNeill discusses the role of mountains in the history of the Mediterranean world and Ottoman Empire and gives reflections on his 1992 work Mountains of the Mediterranean World in light of new insights and scholarship.

While maps create the illusion that borders are static, fixed, inviolable boundaries surrounding sovereign space, borders are in fact much more fluid than they appear on modern maps and are constantly being reconfigured. In this installment of the Ottoman History Podcast, Nicholas Danforth explores the ways in which the drawing of borders of the Modern Middle East in the post-Ottoman colonial order was variously arbitrary, haphazard and even destructive.

14. Polish Emigres to the Ottoman Empire The nineteenth century was a time period of considerably flux for minority populations that were caught in the middle of the conflicts between rival states. While Christian populations were frequently transferred from the Ottoman Empire to Christian areas and vice versa, this was not always the case. In this podcast, Michael Polczynski tells the story of one such exceptional group, emigrants from Poland who took up residence in the Ottoman Empire.

12. Spies for the Sultan. While spies largely work behind the scenes, espionage and the information created and transmitted by agents and informants has historically played a major role in the tactical decision making of states. In this podcast, Emrah Safa Gürkan explains the role of spies in the Early Modern Mediterranean and Ottoman Empire and calls into question the false assumption that spies can be understood as agents with any particular regional or communal allegiance. Rather, as he explains, spies and their information were in fact resources to be fought over and/or bought and sold, and like translators, converts, and merchants, bridged the gap between the Mediterranean's various polities.

With Turkey taking on a new prominent role in Middle East politics, critics of this new political stance in the West have announced the emergence "Neo-Ottomanism," but is this critique legitimate? According to our guest Nick Danforth, PhD student of history at Georgetown University and author of the article "Shut Up about Neo-Ottomanism Already," this characterization is deeply flawed on many levels and even hypocritical.

Oil and imperialism have played a major role in shaping the modern Middle East. Anand Toprani sits down to discuss the origins of the Turkish Petroleum Company and international speculation on Iraq's oil reserves, beginning with the Ottomans at the and leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.