The Ottoman Empire through a Greek Lens

press release: The Center for Turkish Studies and the Madison Association of Turkish Students present a talk by Molly Greene, Professor of History and Hellenic Studies @ Princeton University

on The Ottoman Empire through a Greek Lens

30 November 2016@ PYLE CENTER (702 Langdon St.) @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Molly Greene studies the history of the Mediterranean Basin, the Ottoman Empire, and the Greek world. Her interests include the social and economic history of the Ottoman Empire, the experience of Greeks under Ottoman rule, Mediterranean piracy, and the institution of the market.

The talk will consider two questions: First, how should we understand the historical experience of non-Muslims, and particularly those people we call Greeks, in the Ottoman Empire?  Older models – the catastrophe theory and the institution of the millet – have been challenged by new research in recent years, creating a new opportunity to think again about what community meant, or did not mean, in the Ottoman Empire.  Second, it will ask how the Empire looks when viewed from the perspective of the sultan’s Christian subjects, rather than the more usual perspectives of the Ottoman elite (the state) and the Muslims of the Empire.  What can we learn new about the Empire when it is viewed through a Greek lens?