Mariya Kiprovska
Central European University, Medieval Studies, Graduate Student
- Ottoman History, Ottoman Studies, Early modern Ottoman History, Ottoman Turkish historical writing, History of Ottoman Art and Architecture, Ottoman Balkans, and 38 moreEconomic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Historiography, Balkan Studies, Religious Conversion and Converts in the Early Modern Mediterranean context, Frontier Studies, Ottoman Military History, Mediterranean Studies, Intelligence and Espionage, Ottoman Empire, Byzantine History, Ottoman Habsburg Rivalry, Balkan History, Early Modern History, Cultural Intermediaries In The Early Modern Mediterranean, Mount Athos Studies, Medieval History, Byzantine Studies, Late Byzantine history, Interconfessional Relations in the Ottoman Empire, Early Modern Era, Missionaries in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman-Venetian relations, Ottoman-Habsburg relations, Early modern Mediterranaean, Social History, Historiography, The Waqfs of the Köprülü Family, Waqf Studies: Concept, Waqf Studies, Cash waqf, Waqf Role in Urban Development, Ottoman art and architecture, Sufism, Urban History, Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal History, Medieval Cities and Urbanism, Medieval urban history, and Medieval Studiesedit
The paper examines the akıncıs’ actions and hence the motivation for their raids as essential constituents within the process of Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the late Middle Ages. Focusing on the raiders and their plundering... more
The paper examines the akıncıs’ actions and hence the motivation for their raids as essential constituents within the process of Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the late Middle Ages. Focusing on the raiders and their plundering activities, it asserts that the akıncıs played a crucial key role in the early Ottoman slave economy, as slave hunting was arguably the main economic driving force behind the Ottoman conquest. It hence argues that an analysis of the akıncıs allows for new insights into the nature of the early Ottoman Empire, but also advances the idea that their actions fall within a particular phase of the conquest period. To that end, the authors re-periodize the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans into the akıncı phase, which spanned eight to thirteen decades, depending on the region, and was characterized by continuous slave hunting and destruction of economic infrastructure, and the phase of administrative integration into the Ottoman Empire, which latter process was pursued by other actors, namely imperial elites from the center, and is usually characterized by at least partial repopulation of demographically weakened areas.
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Throughout the period of the Ottoman territorial expansion in the Balkans, military commanders from the families of several frontier lords figured prominently during conquests and emerged as distinct frontier elites and sociopolitical... more
Throughout the period of the Ottoman territorial expansion in the Balkans, military commanders from the families of several frontier lords figured prominently during conquests and emerged as distinct frontier elites and sociopolitical entities in their own right. As hereditary leaders of the vanguard Ottoman forces the frontier lords were in an extremely advantageous position to staff their courts and armies with slaves acquired through conquests in non-Muslim territories. These captives were raised, trained, and acculturated as part of the military-administrative households of the frontier lords, and in turn contributed to conquest, becoming the spearhead of further military expeditions. This essay examines the composition of the extended military household of Mihaloğlu Mehmed Beg, a district governor of Niğbolu, as presented in an Ottoman register from the second decade of the 16th century and argues that his personal retainers became a reservoir for the military and the administration of the marcher district under his governance. It further maintains that the frontier lords’ households, which represent a distinct group of power holders outside the sultanic dynasty, emerged as true loci of power that managed manpower along the bordering regions and should be studied in regards not only to their regional authority, but to their place in the Ottoman political establishment as well. By establishing stable patron-client relations with the members of their extended households, the frontier lords found themselves at the apex of a large web of networks entwined within social, military, administrative, political, and cultural life along the borders of the Ottoman state and should be regarded as an indispensable part of the Ottoman socio-political order in the region as a whole.
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Research Interests: Spatial Analysis, Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire, Early modern Ottoman History, Ottoman Balkans, and 8 moreHistory of Ottoman Art and Architecture, Architectural Heritage, Databases, Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, Waqf Studies, Medieval Bulgaria, Historical Databases, and Ottoman Bulgaria
Резюме. Днешният гр. Ихтиман дължи своето създаване и последвало развитие през османския период на членовете на фамилията Михалоглу, която трайно се установява в Ихтиман, като го превръща в своя резиденция и център на голямата си... more
Резюме. Днешният гр. Ихтиман дължи своето създаване и последвало развитие през османския период на членовете на фамилията Михалоглу, която трайно се установява в Ихтиман, като го превръща в своя резиденция и център на голямата си благотворителна фондация, основана за поддържането на религиозните, благотворителните и образователните институции, издигнати в града. Историята на Ихтиман остава тясно свързана с фамилията Михалоглу до самия край на османската власт в българските земи. Настоящата статия очертава развитието на вакъфа на Михалоглу Махмуд бей в Ихтиманско от неговото създаване до първото десетилетие на ХХ в. в опит да се изтъкне неговото значение както за периода на османска власт, така и за времето непосредствено след Освобождението на България, когато т.нар. "вакъфски въпрос" заема ключово място не само в международните отношения на младата държава с Османската империя, но се откроява като съществен проблем и във вътрешнополитически план. Документацията, отложена в периода след Руско-турската война от 1877-1878 г., позволява осветляването на някои неизследвани досега въпроси, свързани с последните години от съществуването на ихтиманския вакъф, в частност, както и проследяването на съдбата на членовете на османския елит в лицето на ихтиманските мютевелии в новите политически и икономически условия на националната българска държава.
Ключови думи: Ихтиман; вакъф; Османска империя; Княжество България; Източна Румелия; Михалоглу
Ключови думи: Ихтиман; вакъф; Османска империя; Княжество България; Източна Румелия; Михалоглу
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Mount Athos was incorporated in the Ottoman domains since the early Ottoman conquests in the Balkans in 1383 and after a short reunification with the Byzantine territories (1403–1423) it remained under constant Ottoman rule until 1912.... more
Mount Athos was incorporated in the Ottoman domains since the early Ottoman conquests in the Balkans in 1383 and after a short reunification with the Byzantine territories (1403–1423) it remained under constant Ottoman rule until 1912. Naturally, being part of the Ottoman social and political order for more than five centuries, the Athonite monasteries are in possession of rich archival collections from that period. The abundant monastic Ottoman documentation is of paramount importance for the elucidation of the history of the Christian monasticism in general and the individual Athonite monasteries in particular. It showcases the ways in which the Athonite monastic community and its convents coped with the new socio-political order and succeeded to withstand the challenges of the altered conditions.
The Holy Monastery of Zograf, part of the monastic community on Mount Athos, is naturally linked to the processes that influenced the entire peninsula throughout the Ottoman period. The monastery keeps a substantial Ottoman archival collection (with approximately 800 documents stretching from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century), which illuminate different aspects of its history under Ottoman rule. It bespeaks of the fact that the Monastery of Zograf, along with the other Athonite monasteries, adapted rather successfully to the new conditions, skillfully and efficiently using the mechanisms of the Ottoman legal practice and economic system in its efforts to legitimize and secure its very existence and economic backing. The vast variety of Ottoman documents kept at Zograf also testify to the active role of its brotherhood in negotiating with the Ottoman authorities in all levels of the bureaucratic structures. The current study briefly presents the specificities of the collection of Ottoman documents kept in the monastic archive and pays special attention to the fifteenth-century material, offering a glimpse of the range of problems it addresses. Illustrative for the whole collection of Ottoman documents in the Monastery of Zograf, the presented documents elucidate matters dealing with the general status of Mount Athos within the Ottoman Empire, the privileges granted to the monastery by the Ottoman sultans, integration of the monastic properties into the Ottoman land regime, taxation of the monastic landed estates, extension of the monastic possessions by way of buying or donating and bequeathing on the part of the congregation, and last but not least – securing proprietorship over disputed lands.
Key words: Mount Athos, Zographou Monastery, monasticism, Ottoman Empire, Ottoman archival documents, privileges, taxation, landholdings, donation, land disputes
The Holy Monastery of Zograf, part of the monastic community on Mount Athos, is naturally linked to the processes that influenced the entire peninsula throughout the Ottoman period. The monastery keeps a substantial Ottoman archival collection (with approximately 800 documents stretching from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century), which illuminate different aspects of its history under Ottoman rule. It bespeaks of the fact that the Monastery of Zograf, along with the other Athonite monasteries, adapted rather successfully to the new conditions, skillfully and efficiently using the mechanisms of the Ottoman legal practice and economic system in its efforts to legitimize and secure its very existence and economic backing. The vast variety of Ottoman documents kept at Zograf also testify to the active role of its brotherhood in negotiating with the Ottoman authorities in all levels of the bureaucratic structures. The current study briefly presents the specificities of the collection of Ottoman documents kept in the monastic archive and pays special attention to the fifteenth-century material, offering a glimpse of the range of problems it addresses. Illustrative for the whole collection of Ottoman documents in the Monastery of Zograf, the presented documents elucidate matters dealing with the general status of Mount Athos within the Ottoman Empire, the privileges granted to the monastery by the Ottoman sultans, integration of the monastic properties into the Ottoman land regime, taxation of the monastic landed estates, extension of the monastic possessions by way of buying or donating and bequeathing on the part of the congregation, and last but not least – securing proprietorship over disputed lands.
Key words: Mount Athos, Zographou Monastery, monasticism, Ottoman Empire, Ottoman archival documents, privileges, taxation, landholdings, donation, land disputes
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The end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and the subsequent decisions taken at the Berlin Congress of 1878 set the beginning of the state-building process of modern Bulgaria. The newly established nation-state quite naturally and... more
The end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and the subsequent decisions taken at the Berlin Congress of 1878 set the beginning of the state-building process of modern Bulgaria. The newly established nation-state quite naturally and purposefully sought an immediate emancipation from its political past and radical breaking with the inherited Ottoman institutions. This particular goal found direct reverberation in the consequent " de-Ottomanization " of Bulgaria during the process of homogenization of the Bulgarian nation. The Ottoman pious foundations (vakf) and their vast possessions, whose incomes provided for the maintenance and the functioning of the religious and other buildings, regarded by some as a direct implementation of the Ottoman imperial past, fall at the center of the state-building policies of the new Bul-garian state. The article examines one such particular charitable foundation, namely the vast vakf of the Mihaloğlu family in the region of Pleven, during the years after the establishment of the independent Bulgarian state and argues that it could be considered as an emblematic case elucidating aspects of the state-building ideology in the Bulgarian national politics in general and the uneasy process of decisive rupture with the imperial heritage that the new nation-state had to walk through in particular.
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Monastic repositories, particularly the Athonite ones, have fascinated scholars for centuries. Their efforts generated and continue to bring remarkable results: catalogues, editions of sources, and studies elucidating specific issues,... more
Monastic repositories, particularly the Athonite ones, have fascinated scholars for centuries. Their efforts generated and continue to bring remarkable results: catalogues, editions of sources, and studies elucidating specific issues, historical periods, and regions. However, linguistic limitations, disciplinary boundaries, methodological constraints, and thematic affinities do not favour an integral approach and endanger a growing compartmentalization of research. Focusing on the collections of Zograf Monastery, we reflect on the methods and strategies for moving beyond chronological and linguistic borders and approaching the monastic landscapes from a holistic perspective. Rather than focusing on the landed assets of the monastery but giving preference instead to examining the human and economic geography of the monastic landscape across space and over time, we choose to view Zograf Monastery’s repositories as a laboratory for thinking about wider synchronic and diachronic possibilities for more integral research and publication strategies.
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A one-day international workshop exploring the opportunities and challenges of using digital tools for the study of land, law, and pious endowments in the eastern Mediterranean organized by Christopher Markiewicz and the Centre for... more
A one-day international workshop exploring the opportunities and challenges of using digital tools for the study of land, law, and pious endowments in the eastern Mediterranean organized by Christopher Markiewicz and the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, Birmingham
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The talks of renowned invited experts in this online lecture series will seek the origins of civic participation in political thought and explore its forms of expression in written and visual media from Late Antiquity to the seventeenth... more
The talks of renowned invited experts in this online lecture series will seek the origins of civic participation in political thought and explore its forms of expression in written and visual media from Late Antiquity to the seventeenth century. The lecture series is co-organized by the Democracy in History Workgroup of the CEU Democracy Institute, the Department of Medieval Studies at CEU, the Department of History of Art at Birkbeck, University of London, and the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Erfurt and is convened by Zoe Opacic (Birkbeck), Susanne Rau (Erfurt), and Katalin Szende (CEU DI).
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The workshop aims at investigating the evolution of the entangled power networks in the Balkans in both trans-regional and intra-imperial Ottoman perspectives on the eve of, during, and after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. It seeks... more
The workshop aims at investigating the evolution of the entangled power networks in the Balkans in both trans-regional and intra-imperial Ottoman perspectives on the eve of, during, and after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. It seeks to address, discuss, and hopefully overcome deficiencies of scholarship to date that arise from strict disciplinary limitations, dominant historiographical trends, or tradition in national schools of history in the Balkans. The still dominant polarizing approach, which narrates how the “Ottomans” have conquered and subsequently controlled and administered the region, often depicts the main actors in the process in dichotomous opposition of “invaders” and “invaded ones”, thus discarding almost completely the perplex political and religious complexity of Late Medieval and Early Modern Balkans.
The functioning power networks of the medieval Balkan elites confronted a similar system of hierarchical networks of dependencies, initiated and led by the Ottoman dynasty. Following its own strategic agenda the established power networks in the Balkans either bitterly opposed and resisted the advance of the Ottoman polity or intermingled with the power networks presided by the Ottoman rulers. Ironically, not so rarely the conquerors of a given Balkan region, who in the mind frame of dominant historiographic tradition can be portrayed as the “Ottoman invaders”, appear to have originated from the local nobility thus being foreign to the conquered lands no more than those who resisted the “invasion”. In light of this, it seems little surprising that Balkan elites and their dependent power networks intermixed quite successfully with those networks that originated in Late Medieval Bithynia and carried the Ottoman banner into the Balkans. The complex mixture of mighty families of Anatolian or Balkan elites on Ottoman service, who had at their disposal substantial revenues and significant military contingents shaped entirely the history of the early Ottoman Balkans. Until the mid-sixteenth century, when the Ottoman central power gradually managed to replace the power networks of these elite families, they not only held big landed estates as private property, administered large parts of the Balkans, initiated close interaction with neighboring Christian rulers, shaped the Ottoman relationships with foreign powers by channeling the communication, but were also decisively involved in the enthronement of virtually every Ottoman ruler until Suleyman I (1521-1566), which reflected the political bids for power voiced by the noble families in the Ottoman Balkans and their clientelistic networks, manifested by patronage over religiously non-conformist groups’ literary, and architectural traditions.
Evolving around these considerations the workshop seeks to move away from the state- and religion-centered approach to the early Ottoman Balkans and invites for a more thorough examination of the complex web of political and personal relationships that extend beyond the local Balkan or imperial Ottoman boundaries tangled in a complex interplay of different relations between states, empires, elites and individuals with varying interests and agendas. In light of that, it suggests a thematic focus on the following intertwined themes:
Dynamics of power relations in a trans-imperial and regional context
- motives for joining a power network
- alliance building and collaboration within and outside the Ottoman domains
- alienation and factional politics within and outside the Ottoman domains
- political coalitions of Balkan elite families in Christian and Muslim context
- dynastic factionalism and the formation of networks
- power networks in times of dynastic struggles and political instability
- servants, agents and elite slaves as part of the power networks
Notables and their elite households
- royal and non-royal courts within and outside the palace
- extended households, kinship ties and clients
- military-administrative households and their clientelistic networks
- military contingents and manpower
- social groups manning the retinues
- exchange and mobility of soldiery
- trans-imperial and regional household relations
Regional lordships, large domains, and land tenure
- power bases and regional lordships: motives for reuse of seats of power and/or for establishing new ones
- spatial patterns of regional Balkan lordships
- hereditary rule over territories before and after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans
- military fiefs, hereditary and tenancy rights
- pious foundations and landed estates
Patronage of the Balkan Christian and Muslim elites
- architectural patronage legitimizing local power and political authority
- literary patronage
- patronage over religious groups
- patronage over spiritual leaders
- patronage over shrines and other places of worship
The functioning power networks of the medieval Balkan elites confronted a similar system of hierarchical networks of dependencies, initiated and led by the Ottoman dynasty. Following its own strategic agenda the established power networks in the Balkans either bitterly opposed and resisted the advance of the Ottoman polity or intermingled with the power networks presided by the Ottoman rulers. Ironically, not so rarely the conquerors of a given Balkan region, who in the mind frame of dominant historiographic tradition can be portrayed as the “Ottoman invaders”, appear to have originated from the local nobility thus being foreign to the conquered lands no more than those who resisted the “invasion”. In light of this, it seems little surprising that Balkan elites and their dependent power networks intermixed quite successfully with those networks that originated in Late Medieval Bithynia and carried the Ottoman banner into the Balkans. The complex mixture of mighty families of Anatolian or Balkan elites on Ottoman service, who had at their disposal substantial revenues and significant military contingents shaped entirely the history of the early Ottoman Balkans. Until the mid-sixteenth century, when the Ottoman central power gradually managed to replace the power networks of these elite families, they not only held big landed estates as private property, administered large parts of the Balkans, initiated close interaction with neighboring Christian rulers, shaped the Ottoman relationships with foreign powers by channeling the communication, but were also decisively involved in the enthronement of virtually every Ottoman ruler until Suleyman I (1521-1566), which reflected the political bids for power voiced by the noble families in the Ottoman Balkans and their clientelistic networks, manifested by patronage over religiously non-conformist groups’ literary, and architectural traditions.
Evolving around these considerations the workshop seeks to move away from the state- and religion-centered approach to the early Ottoman Balkans and invites for a more thorough examination of the complex web of political and personal relationships that extend beyond the local Balkan or imperial Ottoman boundaries tangled in a complex interplay of different relations between states, empires, elites and individuals with varying interests and agendas. In light of that, it suggests a thematic focus on the following intertwined themes:
Dynamics of power relations in a trans-imperial and regional context
- motives for joining a power network
- alliance building and collaboration within and outside the Ottoman domains
- alienation and factional politics within and outside the Ottoman domains
- political coalitions of Balkan elite families in Christian and Muslim context
- dynastic factionalism and the formation of networks
- power networks in times of dynastic struggles and political instability
- servants, agents and elite slaves as part of the power networks
Notables and their elite households
- royal and non-royal courts within and outside the palace
- extended households, kinship ties and clients
- military-administrative households and their clientelistic networks
- military contingents and manpower
- social groups manning the retinues
- exchange and mobility of soldiery
- trans-imperial and regional household relations
Regional lordships, large domains, and land tenure
- power bases and regional lordships: motives for reuse of seats of power and/or for establishing new ones
- spatial patterns of regional Balkan lordships
- hereditary rule over territories before and after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans
- military fiefs, hereditary and tenancy rights
- pious foundations and landed estates
Patronage of the Balkan Christian and Muslim elites
- architectural patronage legitimizing local power and political authority
- literary patronage
- patronage over religious groups
- patronage over spiritual leaders
- patronage over shrines and other places of worship
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Research Interests: Ottoman History, Ottoman Studies, Ottoman Empire, Early modern Ottoman History, Ottoman Balkans, and 8 moreLate Ottoman Period, History of Ottoman Art and Architecture, Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, Bulgarian history, Waqf Studies, Waqf Role in Urban Development, Osmanlı Vakıf Sistemi, and Ottoman Bulgaria
International Workshop
23 February 2019
Sofia University, Central Library, room Mediatheca
23 February 2019
Sofia University, Central Library, room Mediatheca
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Papers are expected to be on aspects of the economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire with a special focus on the Ottoman Balkans. The Executive Committee of IAOSEH and the Organizing Committee invite the submission of... more
Papers are expected to be on aspects of the economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire with a special focus on the Ottoman Balkans. The Executive Committee of IAOSEH and the Organizing Committee invite the submission of pre-organized panels and workshops as well as individual papers. All abstracts should have a focused statement of thesis and indicate clearly the sources employed (if applicable). Individual papers of maximum 20-minutes length will be organized into panels by the Organizing Committee. Abstracts for individual papers should not exceed 500 words. Pre-organized panels should consist of three papers (20 min. each), plus an analysis of them by a discussant (or a designated chair) of ten minutes maximum length. The papers should center on a single theme or question, and the panel proposal should include an abstract (500 words maximum) for the entire panel explaining its theme and rationale and how the individual papers contribute to that theme, in addition to an individual abstract (500 words maximum) for each paper. Also welcome are thematic workshops/roundtables organized by Chair(s) around specific problems or debates in the field. We encourage panels and workshops on any aspects of the Ottoman Balkans and the Mediterranean world. Workshops/roundtables should consist of short (10-minute) presentations by the Panelists/invited participants (four to six speakers), leaving a longer time for discussion of the problem or question. The proposal for a workshop should specify the problem or debate being addressed and its significance, as well as a summary of each panelist's contribution to the discussion.
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It is our pleasure to announce that the 14th International Congress of Ottoman Social and Economic History (ICOSEH) will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 24-28 July, 2017. Arrangements for this meeting are being handled by the Faculty of... more
It is our pleasure to announce that the 14th International Congress of Ottoman Social and Economic History (ICOSEH) will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 24-28 July, 2017. Arrangements for this meeting are being handled by the Faculty of History at the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski” under the auspices of International Association of Ottoman Social and Economic History (IAOSEH), chaired by Professor Halil İnalcık.