Project description
Rethinking empire from the ground up
How was the Ottoman Empire governed in its formative centuries? The ERC-funded OTTOMANCORE project is challenging the top-down view of imperial rule. It will study how governance functioned on the ground between the 14th and 16th centuries. The project will examine Ottoman and Central European sources, archaeological evidence, and tools such as automated text recognition and geospatial analysis. It will explore land regimes, settlement patterns, population dynamics, and revenue flows. By identifying local actors and practices, OTTOMANCORE reconstructs a grassroots view of power and administration. Its blend of history and digital methods promises to reshape our understanding of how pre-modern empires ruled.
Objective
The OTTOMANCORE project seeks to redefine the understanding of how the Ottoman Empire was governed during its much-debated formative period (14th16th centuries). It challenges the prevalent statist narrative in historiography that envisages Ottoman rulership as a top-down, preordained construct and proposes a novel regional perspective to examine governance practices from a spatially aware and actor-centered viewpoint. Leveraging a robust analytical foundation that assimilates information from a diverse array of Ottoman and Central European narrative and documentary sources, as well as archaeological data, the project explores the local mechanisms and socio-economic grounding of Ottoman governance. OTTOMANCORE proposes to deconstruct the essential constituents of governance and deanonymize numerous provincial stakeholders to unearth the grassroots of Ottoman rulership. The project is structured into three interlocking modules. The first is dedicated to developing innovative Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) models and automated data extraction from Ottoman sources. The second module delves into a complex geospatial analysis of diverse data, probing the local governance practices, landholding patterns, and socio-economic dynamics by examining several interrelated components: i) land regime; ii) settlement network; iii) population geography; iv) connectivity and communication; v) revenue distribution. The final module aims to synthesize these findings into a coherent spatial narrative, rearticulating the history of Ottoman governance from a regional standpoint. OTTOMANCOREs approach, blending history with cutting-edge technology, pushes the boundaries of Ottoman historiography and sets a new standard for empirical research. By challenging existing narratives and introducing novel methodologies, it holds the potential to foster a more nuanced appreciation of Ottoman governance and reshape our understanding of the ruling practices of pre-modern empires.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology governance
- humanities history and archaeology history
- humanities arts modern and contemporary art cinematography
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1010 Wien
Austria
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.