The Gennadius Library will hold a workshop entitled “Orthodoxy and the Ottoman World Around It: Cultural and Intellectual Connections, 1657-1861” on Tuesday April 23, 2024 in Cotsen Hall from 10 am to 8pm.

Inspired by the post-doctoral work of Dr. Yusuf Ziya Karabicak, Macricostas Fellow 2023-2024 at the Gennadius Library, the workshop brings together ten scholars who will delve into the intellectual, cultural, artistic, and political connections between Muslim and Orthodox actors around the Orthodox Church, which are undoubtedly strongly linked to the economic and political context of the institution.

It will bring together scholars who focus on neglected aspects of the relationship between actors around the Orthodox Church and the Ottoman government. Our focus is on the cultural and intellectual connections, material ties, everyday relations, and shared frameworks for understanding the politics that created influences which went both ways. We aim to flesh out an Ottoman world that revolved around the Orthodox Church, and to give life to the economic and political aspects of the relationship that we now understand much better.

Program

10.00 – 10.15: Greetings & Introduction

10.15 – 12.00: Panel I: Intellectual Connections

           Moderator: Nicolas Nicolaides

Hasan Çolak (TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Romanian Academy) - Rethinking Christian-Muslim Hierarchies in the 18th Century: The Orthodox Church and Ottoman Muslim Scholars

Elif Bayraktar Tellan (Istanbul Medeniyet University) - Reconsidering Konstantinos Kaisarios Dapontes as an Ottoman Intellectual

Yorgos Tzedopoulos (Academy of Athens) - To Die or Not to Die? Conflicting Manifestations of Religious Zeal and of Contesting Ottoman Rule in an Oracular Text of the late 18th and the early 19th Century

12.00 – 12.30: Coffee break

12.30 – 14.15: Panel II: Artistic Connections

            Moderator: Merih Erol

Mara Verykokou (Benaki Museum) - The Narrative of Phanariot Identity at the Benaki Museum of Greek Culture: Jewelry, Silverware, Textiles, Paintings and Icons at the Benaki Museum, 17th–18th Centuries

Nikolaos Vryzidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) - Ottoman Textile Culture and the Church: Aspects of Production and Consumption in the 18th Century

Anna Ballian (Benaki Museum, curator emerita) - Religious Silver of the Orthodox Church: The Case of Kermira and Sinasos (Germir and Mustafapaşa)

14.15 – 15.45: Lunch break

15.45 – 17.30: Panel III: Political Connections

Moderator: Kutay Onayli

Nikolas Pissis (Ionian University) - Greek Orthodox Prelates and their Loyalties: The Russian Temptation (17th -18th Centuries)

Yusuf Ziya Karabıçak (American School of Classical Studies at Athens) - The Language of Alliance: Orthodox Clergymen and their Reports to the Sublime Porte in the Age of Revolutions

Leonidas Moiras (Democritus University of Thrace) - The Changing Fortune of the Greek-Orthodox Patriarchate after the Establishment of the Greek Kingdom: Between Devotion and Suspicion

17.30 – 18.00: Coffee Break

18.00: Keynote Address: Paraskevas Konortas (University of Athens) - The Evolution of Historical Research Concerning the Relationship between the Porte and the Greek-Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople: Myths and Realities

19.30:  Reception