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Faculty of Arts and HumanitiesInstitute of Languages and Cultures of the Islamicate World

Turkish language and culture

 

This regional focus is oriented toward the present and deals with topics relating to culture, history, the science of religion, and the social sciences relevant to the area of the Republic of Turkey and its border regions as well as its diaspora.  In order to comprehend the Turkey of today, it is necessary to draw on history, in particular the final years of the Ottoman Empire (from 1908 on).

Teaching and research explicitly include non-Muslim and non-Turkish-speaking communities or cultural productions of the region described.

The following are of particular interest for the focus "Turkish language and culture":

  • the relationship of state, society, and religion in Turkey and the diaspora in the recent past and the present
  • the religious landscape
  • Turkish-language modern literature
  • as well as women and gender in cultural and societal discourses.

Students can take classes to learn Ottoman Turkish. Obtaining basic knowledge of Ottoman Turkish is desirable to be able to delve deeper into the thematic area described, but it is not always a prerequisite for particular classes.