#004 – KONRAD PETROVSZKY: Bringing the Social into the Intellectual – Orthodox Historiography in the Ottoman Balkans

The Southeast Passage

The first page of ” Vivlion istorikon periechon en synopsei diaforous kai eksochous istorias…” by the cronichler Dorotheos, 1631. (link to the digitalized source)

Especially when it comes to intellectual history, the Ottoman period in Southeastern Europe has been subject to much dispute and biased interpretations. Whereas some have considered it a period of cultural stagnation and decline, others have upheld it to be an age of revived blossoming of Orthodox culture within a widely permissive imperial framework. Beyond these well-entrenched views and the sensitivities associated with them, a wide array of questions remains yet to be answered. Exploring the field of Orthodox historiography in the 16th and 17th centuries in his recently published book, Konrad Petrovszky suggests a new approach to this issue by arguing that a critical appraisal of early modern history writing has to take into account not only the multilingual framework but also the social and communicative conditions of knowledge production.

Konrad Petrovszky is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Eastern European History at the University of Vienna. His research areas include the history of culture and religion in Ottoman South Eastern Europe, historiography and media history. He currently ventures into a new project exploring the legal, administrative and cultural history of corruption at the end of the 18th century.

To cite this episode: “Petrovszky, Konrad; Guidi, Andreas (2015): Bringing the Social into the Intellectual – Orthodox Historiography in the Ottoman Balkans, The South East Passage #004, 23.02.2015, http://thesoutheastpassage.com/orthodox-historiography-ottoman-balkans/

Further reading:

Kitromilides, Paschalis M.: Enlightenment and Revolution: The Making of Modern Greece, Cambridge; Harvard 2013

Mishkova, Diana: “On the Space-Time Constitution of Southeastern Europe”, in: Sabine Rutar (ed.) Southeast Europe – Comparison, Entanglement, Transfer. Contributions to European Social History of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Berlin: LIT, 2013, 47–66

Esch, Arnold: „Überlieferungs-Chance und Überlieferungs-Zufall als methodisches Problem des Historikers“, in: Historische Zeitschrift 240/3 (1985), 529–570.

Kármán, Gábor; Kunčević, Lovro (eds.): The European Tributary States of the Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Leiden: Brill, 2013

Runciman, Steven:The Great Church in Captivity A Study of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the Eve of the Turkish Conquest to the Greek War of Independence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968

Helmedach, Andreas; Koller, Markus; Petrovszky, Konrad; Rohdewald, Stefan (Hrsg.): Das osmanische Europa als Gegenstand der Forschung, in: Helmedach et. al. (ed.), Das osmanische Europa : Methoden und Perspektiven der Frühneuzeitforschung zu Südosteuropa, Leipzig: Eudora (2014), 9-23 (Introduction)

Duţu, Alexandru: Humanisme, baroque, lumières: l’exemple roumain, Bukarest: Editura Ştiiţifică şi Enciclopedică 1984

Pippidi, Andrei: „Early Modern Libraries and Readers in South-Eastern Europe“, in: Revue des Études Sud-est Européennes 19/4 (1981), 705–721.

Vranoussis, Leandros: L’hellénisme postbyzantin et l’Europe. Manuscrits, livres, imprimeries et maisons d’édition, Athen 1982 (XVI. Internationaler Byzantinistenkongress Wien).

Ong, Walter: Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word, 2^nd edition, New York: Routledge, 2002

Hupchick, Dennis P.: The Bulgarians in the 17th Century: Slavic Orthodox Society and Culture under Ottoman Rule, Jefferson, NC 1993.

Petrovszky, Konrad: Die Entdeckung der historischen Tiefe als Strategie der Krisenverarbeitung: die moldauische Chronistik des 17. Jahrhunderts, in: Rudolf Schlögl, Philip R. Hoffmann-Rehnitz, Eva Wiebel (Hg.), Krise in der Frühen Neuzeit, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (forthcoming 2015)

Petrovszky, Konrad: Time, Memory, and the Creation of Local Tradition in the First Half of the 17th Century: The Case of Pajsije I of Peć, in: Radu Paun (Hg.), Histoire, mémoire et dévotion. Regards croisés sur la construction des identités à l’Est, Paris: Édition CNRS (forthcoming 2015)

Zelepos, Ioannis: Orthodoxe Eiferer im osmanischen Südosteuropa. Die Kollyvadenbewegung (1750-1820) und ihr Beitrag zu den Auseinandersetzungen um Tradition, Aufklärung und Identität,Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2012

Odorico, Paolo: (ed.), Conseils et mémoires de Synadinos, prêtre de Serrès en Macédonie (XVIIe siècle), Paris: Editions de lÁssociation “Pierre Belon” 1996

Adanır, Fikret/Faroqhi, Suraiya (ed.): The Ottomans and the Balkans: A Discussion of Historiography, Leiden/Boston: Brill 2002 (The Ottoman Empire and its heritage 25).

Panou, Nikos, „Greek-Romanian Symbiotic Patterns in the Early Modern Period: History, Mentalities, Institutions“, in: The Historical Review = La Revue Historique 3 (2006), 71–110; 4 (2007), 59–104.

Savvidis, Alexios: „Some Notes on the Terms ‚agarenoí‘‚ ‚ismaelítai‘ and ‚Sarakenoí‘ in Byzantine Sources“, in: Byzantion 67/1 (1997), 89–96.Hering, Gunnar: „Die Osmanenzeit im Selbstverständnis der Völker Südosteuropas“, in: Gunnar Hering, , edited by Maria A. Stassinopoulou, Frankfurt a. M./Berlin: Lang,1995, 327–362

Hering, Gunnar: „Die Osmanenzeit im Selbstverständnis der Völker Südosteuropas“, in: Gunnar Hering, Nostos. Gesammelte Schriften zur südosteuropäischen Geschichte, edited by Maria A. Stassinopoulou, Frankfurt a. M./Berlin: Lang,1995, 327–362