Courses

This seminar is an invitation to go beyond the traditional, simplistic and misleading distinction established since the 19th century between “Europe” and “Islam”. It keeps a good distance from the major national and radical narratives, and it invites us to reinterpret the history of East Central Europe, and more broadly the history of Europe, through the light of the social life of Muslims in the early modern period. From Sofia to Munich and from Sarajevo to Vilnius, free or enslaved, Muslims constituted a culturally-, linguistically-, gender-, economically-, socially- and ethnically-dynamic and diverse population. They lived beyond the borders of the multiple states in which they were born, settled, worked, and operated. They were nothing but integrally part of early modern European society. We will specifically focus on early modern Est Central Europe: a lively contact zone between the dâr al-islâm and the dâr al-harb, but also what Braham Stoker referred to as “the whirlpool of European races”. Thus, in this seminar, we will address several historiographical and methodological issues such as: how could we explain that the history of Muslims has been under-researched in European history? From what materials can we explore the social life of Muslims, especially in early modern East Central Europe? With what methods? How can this history contribute to the history of race, migration, and empire and to get a better understanding of the social fabric of a more and more diverse society through history?