Concepts of Boundaries and the Construction of Sociocultural Difference in (Trans)Ottoman Contexts: Circulation of Knowledge, Conceptual Changes and Transfers, 16th to 19th Centuries.

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Our research aims to map out Ottoman concepts of sociocultural boundaries. We understand semantics and practices at work in the construction of sociocultural difference as inventories of knowledge which reflect specific epistemological entanglements. These entanglements are rendered visible once the movement of ideas about sociocultural boundaries is traced is time, space and between different social and cultural contexts. Thereby, a specific framework of interactions is accessed which extends beyond the territorial borders of the Ottoman Empire. Sketching out this framework of interactions is a principal goal of the project. Descriptions of sociocultural difference and processes of drawing and transgressing boundaries in the Ottoman context point to a complex semantic field, which is documented and analyzed in the course of this project, relying on methodological support from the field of conceptual history. We regard Ottoman notions of boundaries as complex semantic configurations with specific genealogies and trajectories. Therefore, the project traces changes over time in concepts and meanings, it takes note of strategies of translation, and of adaptions and appropriations at play and it documents differences between various genres and contexts in Ottoman usage. On the basis of this empirical data, hypotheses about processes and mechanisms of changes in Ottoman semantics pertaining to sociocultural boundaries are explored. Two key assumptions are at the basis of these deliberations: First, Ottoman semantics pertaining to sociocultural boundaries are subject to changes which might be related to broader transformations within Ottoman society. An analysis of these semantics can therefore provide pointers to larger processes of innovation and change within the Ottoman Empire. Second, Ottoman semantics pertaining to sociocultural boundaries do not existed detached from wider developments, but are products of continuous exchanges and transfers which need to be traced within a trans-Ottoman framework of interactions.A further objective of the project is to discuss the concept of boundaries and the Ottoman semantics pertaining to it within the framework of conceptual history.