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1 Nipissing University

2 HIST 3805 -- History of Islamic Civilization

1 2011-12

Assignment for the First Essay:

Relations between Islamic and Christian Civilizations in the Early Modern Period

Many people interested in world history, specialists a generalists alike, see the period leading up to 1800 CE as one where Christian Europe surpassed the Muslim world in a variety of ways. In the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, Muslim empires were perhaps the richest and most powerful states in the Eastern Hemisphere (leaving China out of it). Particularly impressive was the Ottoman Empire, which dominated a huge area from Vienna to Baghdad, and threatened at various times to swallow the rest of Europe. By 1800, France could conquer Egypt and Britain could conquer Muslim-ruled India while they were engaged in a major war with each other. European Christian states had major global empires which overshadowed the Muslim empires of the Middle East and South Asia. European advantages in peaceful and military technologies were great and would only get greater in the 19th century.

This assignment will ask you to investigate this period of change, which still shapes popular, official and academic understandings of the world today. You are encouraged to base your work on Daniel Goffmann’s book, the Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe, which focuses on one area where Christian Europe and the Ottoman Empire were in direct contact for centuries. Narrowing your research focus in this way will make it easier to discuss the bigger problem.

You do not necessarily have to write a big analysis of the changing balance of power between Christian Europe and the Ottoman Empire, or the Islamic world as a whole. It may in fact be more practical to look at some smaller issues. For instance:

Does it make sense to call West and Central Europe "Christian Europe" when there were plenty of Christians in the Ottoman Empire, and always has been? To what degree was the competition between the Ottomans and such countries as Spain, Venice, and Austria rivalry between Christians and Muslims?

Turning first question around, in what way was the Ottoman Empire an Islamic empire? In what ways was its Muslim nature limited?

Christian rulers had a different attitude toward non-Christian subjects and visitors than the Ottomans did. Why? What were the practical effects of these differing attitudes? Were these attitudes advantageous or disadvantageous to the rulers who held them?

Looking at the Ottoman Empire, what institutions and policies are usually seen as promoting its growth between the 14th and 16th centuries? The same institutions and policies are often seen as failing empire at a later date. Is this a useful analysis? If so, why did old ways of doing things fall out of use or become corrupt?

What geopolitical and economic advantages to the Ottoman Empire have at its height? Why did the same advantages become lost or less valuable?

Did a new sense of national identity enable European states to become more powerful than older styles of Empire elsewhere in the world? Did the very flexibility of Ottoman politics work against it in the 18th and 19th centuries?

Due: December 8

Required: Properly-formatted footnotes and bibliography

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