Descripción del proyecto
Un estudio más detallado sobre la infantería de élite del sultán
Los jenízaros, creados por el sultán otomano Murad I en torno al 1380, eran una unidad de élite permanente de la infantería. Durante siglos ejercieron de arqueros, ballesteros y mosqueteros. Jurídicamente, eran esclavos del Sultán. El proyecto JANET, financiado con fondos europeos, estudiará el papel económico y sociopolítico de los jenízaros en el siglo XVIII y principios del siglo XIX. Los hallazgos arrojarán luz sobre el papel de los musulmanes en la economía comercial otomana y de todo el Mediterráneo y sobre los procesos que llevaron a la creación de las diásporas. Los cuerpos jenízaros se convirtieron en uno de los principales canales de participación para diversos estratos sociales musulmanes de la periferia otomana en el desarrollo de la vida comercial y el mercado de créditos del Imperio, así como en una puerta de entrada para participar en la política imperial y local.
Objetivo
JaNet investigates the economic and sociopolitical role of the Janissaries in the 18th and early 19th centuries through their examination as a complex of interconnected networks in the ‘extended Mediterranean’ (including major Black Sea and Danubian ports). By studying the Janissary corps, the project brings forward a radically new historical analysis concerning, on the one hand, the role of Muslims in the Ottoman and wider Mediterranean commercial economy – a role largely ignored by the bibliography – and, on the other, the processes that led to the creation of diasporas and the dissemination of people and ideas among various Muslim communities in the area.
According to our thesis, in the period under examination, the Janissary corps became one of the main channels for the participation of various Muslim social strata of the Ottoman periphery in the Empire’s developing credit market and commercial life, as well as a gateway for their involvement in local and imperial politics. Moreover, it became a platform for the exchange of people, goods, and ideas between different localities covering a vast geographical area. When examined from a Mediterranean perspective, this view allows us to look beyond the information provided by Europe-centered sources and to drastically redefine the sociopolitical and financial role of Muslims in the area, an approach which historical analysis sorely lacks.
The project uses a comparative approach to examine a large number of port-cities in North Africa, Egypt, the Aegean, the Adriatic, the Danube, and the Black Sea. The research team – composed of the PI, three senior researchers, five post-doctoral fellows, and two PhD candidates – will study a variety of unpublished sources in Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Russian, French, and English. The team will produce a main monograph, a collective volume, several articles, two PhD dissertations, four workshops, one international conference, and a website.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitución de acogida
70013 Irakleio
Grecia