Abstract
The historiography of Muslim-Christian relations has suffered from many distortions. Clashes between Cross and Crescent have dominated the narrative, whereas intra-civilizational conflicts, that is, wars within Christianity and Islam, as well as military cooperation and acculturation between the various Muslim and Christian polities, have usually been de-emphasized. The history of Islamic warfare shows that wars within Islam and wars against non-Muslim enemies other than Christians were as important as wars against the Cross. After all, the Mongol invasion in the 1250s had far greater impact on the history of the Islamic heartlands than the Crusades. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, holy war – whether crusade or jihad – was not the only way in which relations between Europe and the Ottomans were defined either.
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Notes
- 1.
G. Ágoston, “Information, Ideology, and Limits of Imperial Policy: Ottoman Grand Strategy in the Context of Ottoman-Habsburg Rivalry,” in V. H. Aksan and D. Goffman, eds., The Early Modern Ottomans: Remapping the Empire. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 75–103.
- 2.
G. Ágoston, “Merces Prohibitae: The Anglo-Ottoman Trade in War Materials and the Dependence Theory” in Oriente Moderno [K. Fleet, ed., The Ottomans and the Sea], XX (LXXXI) n.s.1 (2001): 177–192.
- 3.
G. Ágoston, Guns for the Sultan: Military Power and the Weapons Industry in the Ottoman Empire. Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 15–60; G. Ágoston, “Behind the Turkish War Machine: Gunpowder Technology and War Industry in the Ottoman Empire, 1450–1700.” in B. Steele and T. Dorland, eds., The Heirs of Archimedes: Science and the Art of War through the Age of Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005, pp. 101–133; S. Aydüz, XV. ve XVI. Yüzyılda Tophane-i Amire ve Top Döküm Teknolojisi. Ankara: TTK, 2006, pp. 12–36.
- 4.
E. İhsanoğlu, R. Şeşen, C. İzgi, C. Akpınar, İ.Fazlıoğlu, Osmanlı Astronomi Literatürü Tarihi = History of Astronomy Literature during the Ottoman Period. 2 vols., Osmanlı Bilim Tarihi Literatürü Serisi, no.1, İstanbul: IRCICA, 1997; E. İhsanoğlu, R. Şeşen, and C. İzgi, Osmanlı Matematik Literatürü Tarihi = History of Mathematical Literature during the Ottoman Period. 2 vols., Osmanlı Bilim Tarihi Literatürü Serisi, no.2, İstanbul: IRCICA, 1999; E. İhsanoğlu, R. Şeşen, M.S. Bekar, G. Gündüz, A.H. Furat, Osmanlı Coğrafya Literatürü Tarihi = History of Geographical Literature during the Ottoman Period. 2 vols., Osmanlı Bilim Tarihi Literatürü Serisi, no.3, İstanbul: IRCICA, 2000; E. İhsanoğlu, R. Şeşen, M. S. Bekar, G. Gündüz, Osmanlı Askerlik Literatürü Tarihi = History of Military Art and Science Literature during the Ottoman Period. 2 vols., Osmanlı Bilim Tarihi Literatürü Serisi, no.5, İstanbul: IRCICA, 2004.
- 5.
This copy was found in the library of the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul in 1890. See J. Balogh, Mátyás király és a mvészet [King Matthias and the Arts]. Budapest, 1985, pp. 197, 325. On the Bibliotheca Corviniana see also, M. Tanner, The Raven King: Matthias Corvinus and the Fate of his Lost Library. New Haven [Conn.]; London: Yale University Press, 2008.
- 6.
V. J. Parry, “Barud. IV: The Ottoman Empire,” Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition, vol. 1, p. 1064.
- 7.
D. James, “The ‘Manual de Artilleria’ of al-Ra’is Ibrahim b. Ahmad al-Andalusi with Particular Reference to its Illustrations and their Sources,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, XLI, 2 (1978), pp. 237–257; E. İhsanoğlu, Büyük Cihaddan Frenk Fodulluğuna. Istanbul, 1996, pp. 118–123. Some of the book’s illustrations are reproduced in E. İhsanoğlu et al., Osmanli Askerlik Literatürü Tarihi. vol. 1, İstanbul: IRCICA, 2004.
- 8.
Ágoston, Guns for the Sultan, pp. 35–38.
- 9.
M. Kaçar and A. Bir, “Ottoman Engineer Mehmed Said Efendi and his Works on Geodesical Instrument,” in E. İhsanoğlu, K. Chatzis and E. Nicolaidis, eds., Multicultural Science in the Ottoman Empire. Turnhout: Brepols, 2003, pp. 71–97.
- 10.
E. İhsanoğlu et al., Osmanlī Askerlik Literatürü Tarihi. vol. 1, p. 34.
- 11.
On the manuscript see E. İhsanoğlu et al., Osmanlī Askerlik Literatürü Tarihi. vol. 2, pp. 760–765.
- 12.
G. Schott, Cursus Mathematicus, Sive Absoluta Omnium Mathematicarum Disciplinarum Encyclopaedia: In Libros XXVIII. digesta. – Accesserunt in fine Theoreses Mechanicae Novae : Additis Indicibus locupletissimis. – Bambergae; [Frankfurt, Main]: Schönwetterus, 1677, p. 486.
- 13.
Other titles and editions: Les Travaux de Mars ou l'Art de la Guerre Divisé en Trois Parties. Paris, 1684–1685; Amsterdam, 1684; Paris, 1691 etc.
- 14.
A. A. Adivar (Osmanlī Türklerinde İlim. Istanbul, 1982, p. 184) doubts that the translator was İbrahim Müteferrika. Most recently it is posited by E. İhsanoğlu and his colleagues (see Osmanli Askerlik Literatürü Tarihi, vol. 1, p. LXII, and vol. 2, pp. 760–765). O. Sabev, whose book (İbrahim Müteferrika ya da İlk Osmanli Matbaa Serüveni (1726–1746). Istanbul: Yeditepe, 2006) is based on new sources and a thorough utilization of all available secondary sources does not mention that İbrahim Müteferrika translated Montecuccoli’s work. İbrahim Müteferrika’s probate inventory is published ibid., pp. 350–364.
- 15.
K. Beydilli, Türk Bilim ve Matbaacilik Tarihinde Mühendishâne, Mühendishâne Matbaasi ve Kütüphânesi, 1776–1826. İstanbul: Eren Yayincilik ve Kitapçilik, 1995. On the authorship of the Fenn-i Harb see pp. 182–192.
- 16.
On the above see G. Ágoston, Guns for the Sultan, pp. 39–48.
- 17.
İ.H. Uzunçarşılı, “Osmanlı Sarayında Ehli Hıref (Sanatkarlar) Defteri,” Belgelerle Türk Tarih Dergisi, XI, 15 (1981–1986): 50.
- 18.
B. Yaman, Osmanlı Saray Sanatkarları: 18. Yüzyılda Ehl-i Hiref. İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2008, pp. 20, 32.
- 19.
For a Turkish-language summary of the relevant foreign-language literature and knowledge regarding the Efrencis’ role in the transmission of firearm technology see S. Aydüz, “XIV–XV. Asīrlarda Avrupa Ateşli Silahlar Teknolojisinin Osmanlılara Aktarılmasında Rol Oynayan Avrupalı Teknisyenler: Taife-i Efrenciyan,” Belleten, LXII, 235 (1998): 779–830.
- 20.
Ágoston, Guns for the Sultan, p. 48.
- 21.
V. H. Aksan, “Breaking the Spell of the Baron de Tott: Reframing the Question of Military Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1760–1830,” International History Review, XXIV, 2 (2002): 253–277.
- 22.
H. İnalcık, “The Socio-Political Effects of the Diffusion of Fire-arms in the Middle East” in V. J. Parry and M. E. Yapp, eds., War, Technology and Society in the Middle East. London, 1975, pp. 195–217; S. Özbaran, “The Ottomans’ Role in the Diffusion of Fire-arms and Military Technology in Asia and Africa in the Sixteenth Century,” in his The Ottoman Response to European Expansion. Istanbul: Isis, 1994, pp. 61–66.
- 23.
Iqtar Alam Khan, Gunpowder and Firearms: Warfare in Medieval India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 74.
- 24.
Ágoston, Guns for the Sultan, p. 83.
- 25.
Aydüz, Tophane-i Amire, p. 389.
- 26.
Ágoston, Guns for the Sultan, pp. 158–163, 190–200.
- 27.
See K. Şakul’s article in the present volume.
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Ágoston, G. (2011). The Ottoman Empire and the Technological Dialogue Between Europe and Asia: The Case of Military Technology and Know-How in the Gunpowder Age. In: Günergun, F., Raina, D. (eds) Science between Europe and Asia. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 275. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9968-6_3
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