In the past two decades, the study of Ottoman relations with Europe has expanded in a number of exciting directions. Scholars such as Daniel Goffman, Virginia Aksan, and Suraiya Faroqhi have laid the foundations for the current generation of scholars to examine Ottoman-European diplomacy from methodologically rigorous comparative and interdisciplinary approaches. This one-day roundtable will gather early career scholars and doctoral students to take stock and explore methodological and contextual common ground in the study of Ottoman-European diplomacy. The speakers have collectively examined diplomatic encounters between the Ottomans and a number of European states from a variety of angles. The roundtable seeks to address questions of commercial, social, and intelligence networks and interests, and their role in diplomatic practice, as well as the material and ideological logistics of diplomatic encounters. It will also explore the sources available to historians of Ottoman-European diplomacy, and their methodological issues. The fundamental purpose of this roundtable is to provide a small space for vigorous discussion of the context and historiography of Ottoman-European diplomacy.

Session 1
’His Bailo’s Kapudan : Uluç Hasan Pasha and the Venetian Bailo’
Emrah Safa Gürkan, İstanbul 29 Mayıs University

’The embassy of Müteferrika Süleyman Ağa to Louis XIV, 1669’
Phil McCluskey, University of Sheffield

Session 2
’What’s in a name ? Some preliminary remarks on the semantic changes in the denomination of Ottoman diplomatic treaties’
Güneş Işıksel, Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne

’Accounts of lives abroad : Financing Ottoman diplomats in Prussia, 1761-1806’
Irena Fliter, Tel Aviv University

’The idea of the gift in Ottoman-British relations in the seventeenth and eighteenth century’
Michael Talbot, University of St Andrews

Session 3
’Diplomats and philosophers : Heinrich von Diez and Ali Aziz Efendi, 1797’
Lela Gibson, University of California - Los Angeles

’The French Revolutionary attack on diplomatic practice and Franco-Ottoman negotiations in Istanbul’
Pascal Firges, Heidelberg University

Session 4
’Moving forward in the historiography of Ottoman-European diplomacy’
Open discussion

Conference website : http://ottomaneuropeandiplomacy.blogspot.co.uk/

For information about attendance please see the website or contact the organisers : Dr Michael Talbot (mht3 chez st-andrews.ac.uk) or Dr Phil McCluskey (p.mccluskey chez sheffield.ac.uk)