Ottoman History Podcast

A year ago we launched "The Making of the Islamic World." Since then, its 10 episodes have clocked about 125K plays. They are used in classes throughout the world. Yet the audio-only format made processing unfamiliar names & terms more difficult... ottomanhistorypodcast.com/p/the-making-o…

In 'The Turkishness Contract,' Barış Ünlü studies the historical process by which Turkishness developed between the state and its citizens. We explore its late Ottoman roots and the often unspoken behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs that govern Turkishness. ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/03/turkis…

We spoke to Elizabeth Varon about James Longstreet, the rebel-turned-diplomat who resided in Istanbul during Sultan Abdul Hamid II's reign. We also discussed what Longstreet's experiences reveal about America in the world in the shadow of the Civil War 👇ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/03/longst…

The word "refugee" might conjure images of families devastated by war. But what happens when asylum seekers do not conform to that image? In this episode, Sophia Balakian is back to share an anthropologist's perspective on the history of migration. ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/01/balaki…

How did Palestine become central to anti-imperial movements & thought in the global south? In this episode, Esmat Elhalaby asks how Arabs and South Asians contended with the “parting gifts of empire” in the long 20th century, often by turning to Palestine. ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/02/elhala…

From the OHP vault: historian & curator Gwendolyn Collaço discusses her discovery of a collection of postcards from Egypt belonging to British burlesque artist Miss Kitty Lord and presenting a visual time capsule of Belle Époque Cairo. ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/01/kitty-…

Dr. Emine Şahin’le birlikte 1908–17 arasında Bağdat’ta Osmanlı idaresinin dönüşümünü inceliyoruz. Merkezileşme politikalarının nasıl uygulandığını, hangi aktörler aracılığıyla yürütüldüğünü ve yerel toplum tarafından nasıl karşılandığını tartışıyoruz. ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2025/12/sahin.…

In the latest ep, we discuss Nir Shafir's prize-winning book. He examines how pamphlets helped fuel a new arena, largely independent from the institutional centers, where people debated everyday questions of the time about what it meant to be Muslim. 👇ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2025/12/shafir…

In this 7-part series about the 2023 novel "The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi," OHP's Shireen Hamza and scholars share a roundtable with author Shannon Chakbraborty. Each scholar then answers "What do you wish readers of this novel knew about history?" shorturl.at/lqZ3Z

Bu bölümde, @nurcinileri, Emine Öztaner ve Meltem Kocaman ile elektriğin Osmanlı’dan Cumhuriyet’e uzanan süreçte gündelik yaşamı ve toplumsal ilişkileri nasıl dönüştürdüğünü tartışıyoruz ⚡️⚡️ ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2025/11/cereya…

We explore the origins of comparitivism through the lens of America's evolving relationship with Turkey and Iran over the course of the 20th c, and how gender and race shaped the asymmetrical relations between the US and other countries in the region: ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2025/10/gurel.…

Season 15 debuts with @richardcalis and how Martin Crusius’ (d. 1607) fascination with 'Ottoman Greece' shed light on debates about cultural and religious difference and how Greek identity became entangled with orientalist perceptions of the Ottoman world ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2025/10/calis.…

Emre Can Dağlıoğlu’nun Arapların 1915’i derlemesini ele alan bu bölüm, 1915’i Osmanlı ve sonrası Arap dünyasında düşünmenin yollarını tartışıyor; soykırımı sabit bir kırılma değil, yerel dinamiklerle genişleyen bir süreç olarak okuyan çalışmaları inceliyor shorturl.at/ZIRUR

In the 1890s, Ottoman Crete descended into communal violence between its Christian & Muslim inhabitants. Uğur Z. Peçe explains how this conflict, which he deems a civil war, came about, what it meant for everyday lives, and how it shaped the Empire's end. shorturl.at/nch8G

INCYMI, from last season: Ümit Kurt explores how economic forces, legal mechanisms, & local elites fueled the dispossession & deportation of Aintab’s Armenians during the Armenian Genocide, and examines the enduring legacies of this “economics of genocide.”ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2024/02/kurt.h…

How did women shape modern Arab political thought? Longtime OHP contributor Susanna Ferguson explores this in her new book, Labors of Love, showing how 19th & 20th c. women writers addressed morality, labor & democracy through tarbiyah (child-rearing). ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2024/09/sferg.…

In the 19th-century Arab East, intellectual revival and stricter communal boundaries coexisted. Peter Hill shows how these trends converged in the life of Mikha'il Mishaqa (d. 1888), a doctor, merchant, and writer who navigated multiple faiths. Tune in: ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2024/09/peter-…

Passports are at once momentous and mundane objects. In this episode, İlkay Yılmaz discusses their history in the late Ottoman Empire and the state's effort to manage information about identity and control people's movement. ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2024/09/yilmaz…

Season 14 kicks off with @VHTroyansky and his new book. Listen in to learn how North Caucasian refugees fleeing Russian expansion became a large segment of the Ottoman migrant (muhacir) population and, in turn, changed the nature of the Ottoman state: ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2024/08/hamed-…

In 1866, a series of unexpected events led to the Ottoman imam Abd al-Rahman al-Baghdadi ending up in Rio de Janeiro. In this episode, Ali Kulez explains how he got there, and what happened when al-Baghdadi became close with Afro-Brazilian Muslims 👇rb.gy/d6vnol

Set between elite households and a Sufi lodge, Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu's 1922 novel Nur Baba was a provocative take on morality, gender & love in late Ottoman Istanbul. We speak to Brett Wilson, the first to tranlsate the controversial classic to English ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2024/01/nur-ba…