IISS is pleased to announce the public lecture "Sacred Relics, Insignia, and Kingship: the Ottoman Case in Comparative Perspective" by Professor Gottfried Hagen (Department of Middle East Studies, University of Michigan)

Sultan Murād III rode into the Battle of Mezőkeresztes in 1596 behind the the Holy Banner of the Prophet Muḥammad, and had the Prophet’s Mantle carried alongside. Did the possession of these and other vestiges make the Ottoman sultan a sacred king, placing him “in a mimetic relationship to the Divine” (A. Al-Azmeh)? In this lecture, we will look at the ways relic and vestiges have been used and displayed in liturgical and political contexts, as icons and insignia, in Islamic and Christian monarchies, to come to a better understanding of the sacred dimension of Ottoman kingship".