March 24-25, 2007

Saturday, March 24

Conference Location:

Thompson Conference Center

The University of Texas at Austin

2405 Robert Dedman Drive

Austin TX 78712

9:00 - 9:30 a.m.

Conference Welcome

Kamran Scot Aghaie, Director, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas, Austin

9:30 - 11.30 a.m.

Ottoman Legacy

Living Together in the Ottoman Empire

Mustafa Armagan, Writers and Journalists Foundation

Turkish Jews

Nisya Ishman Allovi, the Jewish Museum of Turkey

The Analysis of the Millet System in Light of Contact Theory

Yetkin Yildirim, the Institute of Interfaith Dialog and Maria Curtis, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin

The Ottoman Spirit and the Multicultural Debate

Bernadette Andrea, Department of English, Classics, and Philosophy, University of Texas, San Antonio

11.30 - 1.00 Break

1.00 - 2.45

Cultural Interactions: Ottoman Borderlands

Living Together: Cultural Diversity in the Ottoman Empire

Rhoads Murphey, Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham

Christian-Muslim Interaction on the Ottoman Frontier: Ghaza and Accommodation in Early Ottoman History

Linda Darling, Department of History, University of Arizona

Remarks on Ottoman Peace and Presence in the Balkans

Mehmet Ipsirli, Department of History, University of Fatih

2.45 - 3.15   Break

3.15 - 5.00

Demise of Ottoman Diversity: From Pax-Ottomanica to Nationalism

From Ottoman Cultural and Religious Diversity to Turkish National Identity and Uniformity

Kemal Karpat, Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Facing the Threat of Separatism in a Multi-Cultural Empire in the Age of Nationalism, - an Ottoman Solution-

Azmi Ozcan, Department of History, Sakarya University

Pax Ottomana

Mehmet Akif Aydin, School of Law, Marmara University

Sunday, March 25

9:30 - 11:30 a.m.

Ottoman Empire and its non-Muslim Subjects: The Millet System

Diversity, Legal Pluralism and Peaceful Co-existence in the Ottoman Centuries

Ihsan Yilmaz, Law Department, SOAS, University of London

Is Millet System a Reality or a Myth? An Alternative Approach to the Administration of the non-Muslim Subjects in the Ottoman Empire

Macit Kenanoglu, Department of Public Administration, Fatih University

The Ottoman Administration and Non-Muslims

Safsafi Ahmed Al-Katury, Department of History, Ain Shams University

The Roots of Religious Tolerance in the Ottoman Empire

Abdel Rahman Ahmad Salem, Department of History, Cairo University

11:30- 01:00 Break

1:00 - 2.45

Cultural Life: Literature, Architecture, Science

Ottoman Palimpsests: The Past Reviewed in Architecture and Literature

Tom Gage, Department of English, Humboldt State University

Ottoman Tolerance Reflected in Classic Turkish Poetry

Iskender Pala, Department of Turkish Literature, Kultur University

What contribution did Turks do to the science and technology of the Modern
Western Civilisation?

Salim Ayduz, FSTC, Manchester University

2:45 - 3:15 Closing Remarks