Venetians in Constantinople: Nation, Identity, and Coexistence in the Early Modern Mediterranean

by Eric R Dursteler

Overview

Historian Eric R Dursteler reconsiders identity in the early modern world to illuminate Veneto-Ottoman cultural interaction and coexistence, challenging the model of hostile relations and suggesting instead a more complex understanding of the intersection of cultures. Although dissonance and strife were certainly part of this relationship, he argues, coexistence and cooperation were more common.

Moving beyond the "clash of civilizations" model that surveys the relationship between Islam and Christianity from a geopolitical perch, Dursteler analyzes the lived reality by focusing on a localized microcosm: the Venetian merchant and diplomatic community in Muslim Constantinople.

While factors such as religion, culture, and political status could be integral elements in constructions of self and community, Dursteler finds early modern identity to be more than the sum total of its constitutent parts and reveals how the fluidity and malleability of identity in this time and place made coexistence among disparate cultures possible.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801891052
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	10/27/2008
Series:	The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science , #124
Edition description:	Johns Hopkins PB ed.
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Eric R Dursteler is an associate professor of history at Brigham Young University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Venetian Nation in Constantinople
2. The Merchants of Venice
3. The Unoffcial Nation: Banditi, Schiavi, Greci
4. Jews, Renegades, and Early Modern Identity
5. Merchants, Patricians, Citizens, and Early Modern Identity
6. An Urban Middle Ground: Venetians and Ottomans in Constantinople
Notes
Glossary
Works Cited
Index

Editorial Reviews

The introduction to this book is dazzling . . . The Venetian community in Constantinople provides an excellent site for exploration of issues of nation and identity . . . [Dursteler's] overall intention—to demonstrate cultural diversity in a place and era that has been commonly assumed to lack it—remains firmly at the fore, and he admirably fulfills his task.
—James S. Grubb, American Historical Review

This is a boundary-busting book . . . Dursteler is to be commended for this insightful and gracefully-written work that delivers a powerful message in brief compass, and will help change the way we consider European-Ottoman relations in the early modern era, and perhaps West and non-West relations in our own.
—Margaret L. King, Renaissance Quarterly

A subtle and successful book.
—Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance

A significant contribution to new understandings of national, ethnic, and religious relations in the past, with clear explanations of common assumptions and frameworks for fluid identities and border-crossings.
—Uzi Baram, Renaissance Studies

A rich body of interesting and colorful information . . . An important contribution to our understanding of the complex Mediterranean world of the early modern period.
—David Jacoby, Sixteenth Century Journal

This book is a very important study, which gives invaluable insights into the cosmopolitan culture and the human condition in early modern Ottoman Constantinople, a growing metropolis in the Mediterranean during a time of enormous change. And most important, Dursteler's findings invite one to think that perhaps the Ottoman Empire in the early modern era owed its existence and magnificence more to this cosmopolitan Mediterranean world than to the sheer conquering power of its Turkish-speaking Muslim ruling house.
—Ebru Turan , H-Turk, H-Net Reviews

From the Publisher

The introduction to this book is dazzling . . . The Venetian community in Constantinople provides an excellent site for exploration of issues of nation and identity . . . [Dursteler's] overall intention—to demonstrate cultural diversity in a place and era that has been commonly assumed to lack it—remains firmly at the fore, and he admirably fulfills his task.

American Historical Review - James S. Grubb

A rich body of interesting and colorful information . . . An important contribution to our understanding of the complex Mediterranean world of the early modern period.

Sixteenth Century Journal - David Jacoby

A significant contribution to new understandings of national, ethnic, and religious relations in the past, with clear explanations of common assumptions and frameworks for fluid identities and border-crossings.

Renaissance Studies - Uzi Baram

A subtle and successful book.

Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance

This book is a very important study, which gives invaluable insights into the cosmopolitan culture and the human condition in early modern Ottoman Constantinople, a growing metropolis in the Mediterranean during a time of enormous change. And most important, Dursteler's findings invite one to think that perhaps the Ottoman Empire in the early modern era owed its existence and magnificence more to this cosmopolitan Mediterranean world than to the sheer conquering power of its Turkish-speaking Muslim ruling house.

H-Turk, H-Net Reviews - Ebru Turan

This is a boundary-busting book... Dursteler is to be commended for this insightful and gracefully-written work that delivers a powerful message in brief compass, and will help change the way we consider European-Ottoman relations in the early modern era, and perhaps West and non-West relations in our own.

Renaissance Quarterly - Margaret L. King

A rich body of interesting and colorful information... An important contribution to our understanding of the complex Mediterranean world of the early modern period.

— David Jacoby

Sixteenth-Century Journal

A significant contribution to new understandings of national, ethnic, and religious relations in the past, with clear explanations of common assumptions and frameworks for fluid identities and border-crossings.

— Uzi Baram

Renaissance Studies

This is a boundary-busting book... Dursteler is to be commended for this insightful and gracefully-written work that delivers a powerful message in brief compass, and will help change the way we consider European-Ottoman relations in the early modern era, and perhaps West and non-West relations in our own.

— Margaret L. King

Renaissance Quarterly

The introduction to this book is dazzling... The Venetian community in Constantinople provides an excellent site for exploration of issues of nation and identity... [Dursteler's] overall intention—to demonstrate cultural diversity in a place and era that has been commonly assumed to lack it—remains firmly at the fore, and he admirably fulfills his task.

— James S. Grubb

American Historical Review