A lecture by Murat Cankara
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Murat Cankara’s talk will provide a critical overview of the history and place of Armeno-Turkish literature in both Ottoman history and historiography. Cankara will show how and why Armeno-Turkish, especially throughout the nineteenth century, was not merely an Aremenian or Turkish phenomenon but rather a cultural reflection of a larger Ottoman history. By presenting examples of Turkish statesmen, authors, and journalists who were either aware of or could read Armeno-Turkish, Cankara will explore how Armeno-Turkish might have served as a written lingua franca among the members of different ethnic, religious, and linguistic groups in the Ottoman Empire. His talk will thus contribute to the debate over the Ottoman millet system from the perspective of cross-cultural exchanges and encounters among the different peoples of the Ottoman empire.
This event was cosponsored by the UCLA Department of History and the G.E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies