History. See the future. It’s in the past.

Join us for a fascinating exploration of the artistic and cultural traditions of the Ottoman Renaissance. The course primarily focuses on the development of Ottoman mosque and monumental tomb architecture, and also includes other decorative arts including Iznik ceramics, calligraphy, and the arts of the book. We will also engage in several contemporary discussions of architecture and its intersection with both state ideology and cultural identity.

This one-day course covers the entire period from the early 15th century in 1413 to the end of the 16th century (1575), thereby presenting a uniquely comprehensive narrative of the Ottoman Renaissance. The course is directly comparable to its contemporary European equivalent, despite the fact that its primary cultural reference points are the Timurid and Islamicate, rather than the Greco-Roman past.

Aims

This course aims to provide you with a unique understanding and insight into Ottoman Renaissance, and its analogous evolution to the European Renaissance.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• recognise the revisionist and global perspectives of the term ‘Renaissance’
• analyse and discuss the major artistic works of the early modern Ottoman Empire using primary and secondary sources
• discuss cultural, artistic and political systems of the early modern Ottoman Empire and cross-cultural interactions with both the Islamic East and Latin West
• critically analyse the art