The Ottoman Empire and the Emergence of its ‘Irish Question’

Trinity College Dublin joins Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education for another Online Middle Eastern Studies Webinar. Delivered by lecturers from the Al Maktoum Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, Trinity College Dublin, the webinar series is a window into the astonishing variety and interest of themes and questions in research on the Middle East. The webinar will give a flavour of postgraduate-level study of the Middle East, ancient and modern. It serves as a way of learning more about the newly launched masters degree in The Middle East in a Global Context’ at Trinity College Dublin.

About the webinar

The Ottoman Empire and Ireland seem an unlikely pair in every respect. In the secondary literature, the paths of the two countries never converge. Except for Sultan Abdülmecid’s famous aid during the Famine, there has been virtually no discussion of the relationship between the two countries. By using the accounts of Ottoman authors and through a careful reading of archival materials from different eras, this talk will present the Ottoman perceptions of Ireland from the early modern era to the twentieth century.
These documents and testimonies suggest that there was considerable interest in Ireland among Ottoman intellectuals and statesmen. They saw the country as some sort of anomaly which could be possibly useful in their dealings with Britain. For that reason, they diligently followed the developments taking place in Ireland. The case study developed in this talk will demonstrate first the importance of Ottoman archival materials for the purposes of comparative history; second the vibrant interest of the Ottoman Empire in the outside world in general and in Ireland in particular.

About the speaker

Dr Murat R. Şiviloğlu is an assistant professor at Trinity College Dublin, Dublin. His main research interests focus on the social and intellectual history of the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century.