How does a city become a capital? Why one particular city, in a certain period, and at a specific pace? Specifically: How did the Ottoman city of Edirne (Byzantine Adrianople) become the capital of the Ottoman enterprise during the first half of the fifteenth century? What was an Ottoman capital in this era? This lecture explores the process that made Edirne into an Ottoman capital, comparing that process to the earlier development of Bursa as the Ottoman capital. The combined experiences of these two cities in the first 150 years of Ottoman history laid the groundwork for the reconfiguring of Byzantine Constantinople into Ottoman Konstantiniyye (Istanbul) after its conquest in 1453. Although many and varied sources documented what transpired in Istanbul, we trace Edirne’s development through a much slimmer agglomeration of evidence. The physical evidence of an Ottoman presence, together with occasional references in Ottoman chronicles and documents, and foreign accounts, reveal how Sultans Mehmed I (1413-21) and Murad II (1421-51) took deliberate steps to consolidate Edirne’s shifting status. The same evidence points to the evolving self-perception of the Ottomans in their world. With this framework in place, however, the greater challenge remaining in this study is to discover the human activities that animated these processes.

Dr. Amy Singer is Hassenfeld Chair in Islamic Studies and Professor in the Department of History at Brandeis University. Professor emerita in the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University.

This event is made possible by the Hajja Razia Sharif Sheikh endowment in Islamic Studies