Geographies and Histories of the Ottoman Supernatural Tradition Exploring Magic, the Marvelous, and the Strange in Ottoman Mentalities

Project Information

GHOST

Grant agreement ID: 771766

DOI

10.3030/771766

Project closed

EC signature date 12 February 2018

Start date 1 March 2018

End date 31 August 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 289 737,75

EU contribution

€ 1 289 737,75

Coordinated by

IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - GHOST (Geographies and Histories of the Ottoman Supernatural TraditionExploring Magic, the Marvelous, and the Strange in Ottoman Mentalities)

Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2024-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The aim of the GHOST project was to explore how different Ottoman social and cultural groups related to the ‘supernatural/preternatural’ element, in order to ultimately investigate the way social and cultural change shaped Ottoman worldviews over time. Using a wide array of sources, from scientific treatises to literary works and from chronicles to compendia of magic, as well as archival material, the GHOST team examined the reasoning of divination and magic in the Ottoman tradition, the use of tropes related to magic and the marvelous in early Ottoman epics, images of and polemics around sainthood and miracle-working, and the marvels and wonders of the world. Furthermore, the project investigated thoroughly various aspects of Islamicate occult sciences in the Ottoman period, vernacular practices and the history of emotions, the position of occult and theological sciences in the classification of knowledge, the role of science in the process of disenchantment, as well as theological disputes pertaining to the human agency. The overall objective of the project was to demarcate the place of the supernatural in the Ottoman worldview(s), the technology connected to it, and the complex and intersecting political, social and ideological factors influencing it. In part informed by debates on ‘Islamic enlightenment’ or ‘scientific revolution’, the project coordinated a wide array of approaches towards different aspects of this worldview, testing a ‘partial disenchantment’ model that would be applicable to certain, but not all, social groups in the Ottoman Empire. Thus, it contributed to integrate Ottoman intellectual history into the broader early modern cultural history and brought forth important insights concerning the notions of (early) modernity and global enlightenment, as well as and the intertwining of cultural and social dynamics. It produced an unprecedented understanding of the various Ottoman world images connecting the natural and the supernatural world, seeking to link them with different social actors and to produce an argument for the partially parallel ways Ottoman and Western European society evolved throughout the early modernity.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

A survey of the primary and secondary literature has been completed and the results have been uploaded in the website of the project (https://ghost.ims.forth.gr/bibliography/ and https://ghost.ims.forth.gr/sourcesdb/source/). Archival research for unpublished manuscripts, either in situ or in sources available online, has resulted to the location of sources that have been used in the various publications of the projects and in the bio-bibliographical dictionary (https://ghost.ims.forth.gr/sourcesdb/source/).
Research on the project’s topic has been carried out with great success, and it has been presented in numerous international conferences and meetings (see https://ghost.ims.forth.gr/news/).
The project launched an online, open access journal of the project (Aca’ib: Occasional Papers on the Ottoman Perceptions of the Supernatural, https://ghost.ims.forth.gr/acaib/); four issues were published, containing research papers from the members of the project team but also from other established scholars.
Three highly successful international workshops were organized: a) a conference on “Nature and the supernatural in Ottoman culture” was convened at the Columbia Global Centers | Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey, on 14-15 December 2019 (see https://ghost.ims.forth.gr/international-workshop-nature-and-the-supernatural-in-ottoman-culture-columbia-global-centers-istanbul-istanbul-turkey-14-15-december-2019/); b) the 11th International Symposium “Halcyon Days in Crete”, on 14-17 January 2022 (on Zoom) was devoted to the project, with the title “Enchantments and disenchantments: early modern Ottoman visions of the world” (see https://ghost.ims.forth.gr/11th-international-symposium-halcyon-days-in-crete-xi-enchantments-and-disenchantments-early-modern-ottoman-visions-of-the-world/); the proceedings are to be published by Crete University Press; c) an international conference on “Knowing and controlling nature in Ottoman culture: scientific and occultist approaches in a global perspective” took place in Rethymno in 16-18 November 2023 (https://ghost.ims.forth.gr/international-conference-november-16-18-2023/); selected papers were published in the 4th issue of Aca’ib, the online journal of the project.
In order to further popularize the results of the projects, the PI gave several interviews in various media and the theatrical group Splish-Splash, in collaboration with the Institute for Mediterranean Studies/FORTH, presented the black comedy “Ayşem”, written under the scientific guidance of Υannis Spyropoulos and Marinos Sariyannis in order to popularize and communicate parts of the actions and output of the research programs GHOST and JaNET, in Rethymno and Athens (June 2022).
Two monographs were prepared by the members of the team. The PI signed a contract and submitted a manuscript named "Ottomans and the Supernatural: Nature and the Limits of Knowledge in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire" (ca. 167000 words) to Oxford University Press, which will be published in open access within 2025; and Z. Aydoğan’s monograph "Forging Paths of Continuity: Borderline Miracles in the Early Menākıbnāme Literature, 13th-15th Centuries" was published online (https://dspace.ims.forth.gr/handle/123456789/53).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Apart from a small number of recent PhD dissertations on specific branches of the occult sciences, Ottomanist scholarship had so far almost completely neglected perceptions and uses of the supernatural. The approach of the GHOST project not only sought to fill this gap; it also brought forth a novel working hypothesis, namely that the study of ideas and techniques must involve connecting them with broader social and cultural developments. The GHOST project distinguished itself from both a traditional “history of science” approach (where occultist belief is regarded as an impediment that gradually declines to make way for sound scientific knowledge) and a “history of occultism” approach (where occult knowledge is viewed as either an integral part of science, or as an independent subject for functional and genealogical study), seeking instead to study occultist and miracle-oriented beliefs and practices within the framework of Ottoman cultural and social dynamics. Some of the findings concerned the social background of various Ottoman Sufi orders, partially responsible for a shift in the explanation for various phenomena; a transformation of magic beliefs from an emphasis on ritual to a predominant belief on natural magic and the everlasting presence of ‘letter magic’; as well as signs of a partial ‘disenchantment’ after the mid-seventeenth century, when a more rationalistic worldview, stressing human agency rather than fate or supernatural forces, took hold, a process accompanied by legalist (‘fundamentalist’) movements who sought to remove from everyday life the miraculous and wondrous elements .
Overall, when the project began in early 2018, academic exploration of perceptions of the supernatural and of occult sciences in Ottoman culture was largely uncharted territory. However, in the ensuing years, studies of occultism in other regions of the Islamicate world were gaining momentum. Six years later, this field is now much less obscure and surely the GHOST project has played a significant role in this development.

The seventy Greek scholars struck dead by the curse of Hermes. 16th century, The Walters Art Muse