The pervasive Orientalist view of the Ottoman Empire as a backwards civilization has been challenged by more recent historical scholarship that evaluates the role and importance of women in Ottoman society. This episode shows that Ottoman women were far more than just a footnote in the functioning of the empire.

This episode presents a fantastic rebuttal to a Eurocentric view of 16th century geopolitical affairs, and astutely notes the forceful impact of the reality of Ottoman territory at the crux of global trade.

The students will lead us by exploring the Ottoman conception of “other,” more specifically, of their Portuguese rivals.

Intrigued by the diversity of Ottoman society, several Boston College students explore these complex inter-religious realities through tracing the representations of mosques and churches in the maps of Piri Reis

This episode dives into the relationship between the Venetians and Ottomans as the two leading powers in the Mediterranean. Presented as “frenemies,” the two ambitious powers sparred on many occasions, yet the Ottoman Empire and the city-state of Venice had a surprisingly functional working relationship

In this episode, the podcasters will show us how the representations of Venice and Cairo differed significantly from that of Marseille with respect to the geopolitical situation of the time.

In this episode, Professor Dana Sajdi of Boston College offers an overview of Piri Reis' life and work through conversations with Professors Giancarlo Casale of University of Minnesota and the European University Institute; Pınar Emiralioğlu of Sam Houston State University, and Yossef Rapoport of Queen Mary University of London.

Gage Higgins introduces the series Navigating the Book of Navigation produced by Boston College undergraduate students for the History Core course, Podcasting the Ottomans.