Overview

Dreams and Lives in Ottoman Istanbul explores biography writing and dream narratives in seventeenth-century Istanbul. It focuses on the prominent biographer ‘Aṭā’ī (d. 1637) and with his help shows how learned circles narrated dreams to assess their position in the Ottoman enterprise. This book demonstrates that dreams provided biographers not only with a means to form learned communities in a politically fragile landscape but also with a medium to debate the correct career paths and social networks in late sixteenth and early seventeenth-century Istanbul. By adopting a comparative approach, this book engages with current scholarly dialogues about life-writing, dreams, and practices of remembrance in Habsburg Spain, Safavid Iran, Mughal India and Ming China. Recent studies have shown the shared rhythms between these contemporaneous dynasties and the Ottomans, and there is now a strong interest in comparative approaches to examining cultural life. This first English-language monograph on Ottoman dreamscapes addresses this interest and introduces a world where dreams changed lives, the dead appeared in broad daylight, and biographers invited their readers to the gardens of remembrance.

Full Product Details

Author:   Asli Niyazioglu
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Volume:   19
Weight:   0.453kg
ISBN:  

9780367881450

ISBN 10:   0367881454
Pages:   148
Publication Date:   12 December 2019
Audience:   College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Note on Transliteration and Manuscripts Introduction Chapter One: The Biographer Between This World and the Hereafter Patrons and Adversaries Sufi Sheikhs and the Very Special Dead Father and Son Chapter Two: Collection of Lives as a Well-Ordered Garden Ottoman Biographers and Sufi Lives: An Overview A Well-Ordered Garden: Empire, Decorum and Exclusivity Gardener at Work: ‘Aṭā’ī and His Sources Chapter Three: From This World to the Realm of Dreams Dreams, Careers and Biographers Nightmares on the Sufi Path Hereafter in the Mirror of Dreams Chapter Four: The Dead and Visits from the Hereafter The Living and the Dead in Seventeenth-Century Istanbul Apparitions and Embraces Dreams and Tokens of Remembrance Epilogue Appendix: Sample Biographical Notice Bibliography Index

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Author Information

Aslı Niyazioğlu is Assistant Professor of History at Koç University, Istanbul. After receiving her PhD from Harvard University in 2003, she taught at the University of Oxford and was a fellow at Wissenschaftskolleg Institute of Advanced Study at Berlin. She works on early modern Ottoman history with a special interest in the lives of poets, scholars, and Sufis of Istanbul.

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