The Role of Translation in Shaping the Early Modern Middle East (1350–1750)

Translation processes played a crucial role in shaping the Ottoman Empire in the early modern period, particularly amid confessional and political tensions in the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. The geographical and socio-cultural contextualisation of these developments within the broader historical context greatly enriches our understanding of the intellectual history of the region. By integrating Middle Eastern studies, translation studies, and material philology, I aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of translation, particularly in its ideological and confessional dimensions within Sunni and Shiite Islam.

My paper examines the impact of translation on literary norms and ideological positioning across various genres, including mirrors for princes and historiography. Through the analysis of manuscripts as material artefacts, I explore not only their content but also their readership and contextual usage. Special attention is given to features such as prefaces, colophons, ownership notes, and layout structures to illuminate the connections between texts, translators, readerships, and literary practices. This approach offers insights into the networks and hubs of Islamic knowledge production in the early modern period.

Prof. Dr. Philip Bockholt

Philip Bockholt is Junior Professor for the History of the Turco-Persian world at the Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Münster, Germany (since October 2022). From 2022 to 2028, he will head the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group, “Inner-Islamic knowledge transfer in Arabic-Persian-Ottoman translation processes in the Eastern Mediterranean (1400– 1750).

Lecture organized by the group Tarikh: studies in Arab History at USP, and by the Center for Arab Studies at USP (CEAr/FFLCH-USP).

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