Content: Not only a spiritual but also a worldly institution, the Orthodox Church has a rich history of interactions with several states, and continued interaction with the Ottoman administration for more than half a millennium through political, administrative, economic, legal, social, and intellectual ties. This course offers an examination of the interaction between the Orthodox Church and the Ottoman administration. It analyzes the complicated process of how the interaction between the Orthodox Church and the Ottoman administration transformed these institutions by following a thematic structure dealing with topics such as institutionalization, centralization, commercialization, migration, Catholic missions, and the Enlightenment.

Scope: To introduce students to the major changes in the history of the Orthodox Church in connection with the Ottoman administration through a discussion of modern scholarship and primary sources produced in and around the Ottoman administration.

Bibliography:

H. Çolak, The Orthodox Church in the Early Modern Middle East: Relations between the Ottoman central administration and the Patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria, Ankara 2015

H. Çolak – E. Bayraktar-Tellan, The Orthodox Church as an Ottoman Institution: A Study of Early Modern Patriarchal Berats, Istanbul 2019

C.A. Panchenko, Arab Orthodox Christians under the Ottomans: 1516-1831, New York 2016