Imperial transformations: the Ottoman Empire, 1575-1789

The history of the Ottoman Empire in the 1600s and 1700s used to be written as one of decline and stagnation. Scholarship in recent decades has reassessed this central period of Ottoman history, emphasising its political and cultural vitality in addition to its many wars and upheavals. This course will explore the history of Ottoman state and society in the 17th and 18th centuries, exploring tensions between sultans and their soldiers, changing relationships between rulers and ruled, a shift in foreign relations, and new forms of cultural and artistic expression.