Manja Quakatz, M. A.

History Department

Curriculum Vitae:

PhD project:

Integration through Conversion - Ottoman converts in the Reich in the era of the “Great Turkish War” (1683-1739)

Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire at Vienna in 1683, the “Holy League” led military campaigns into the Ottoman-dominated regions of Central and South-eastern Europe. This period of warfare to recapture the former Habsburg territories and to repel the enemy even further lasted until the peace of Karlowitz in 1699. During these years, the Habsburg rulers and their allies (Saxony and Bavaria) made many prisoners among the Ottomans most of whom adhered to the Muslim faith. They were either baptized by force or subsequently converted to Christianity, often forced by their masters.

My doctoral thesis will focus on this process of conversion which is interpreted as means of integration. Ottomans had grown up in a Muslim context and were suddenly exposed to a new and unfamiliar Christian society composed of people who shared a different language and culture. My study aims at exploring baptism as a rite of passage within the theoretical framework of ritual studies, but it will also analyse conversion and entrance into the new society as a sequence of stages which formed the process of integration. Unlike previous studies, I will pay special attention to the opportunities of action which were available to the converts.

Concerning the neophytes’ latitude of actions, I will also consider the prospects of upward social mobility which a conversion offered. What were the professional options available to an Ottoman convert in a Christian society in the late 17th and early 18th centuries? I will argue that these options depended to a great degree on the social status of the convert and his occupations after conversion. Furthermore, I will address the central role of the converts’ godfathers in the process of integration. The re-construction of their motives, status and ways to establish social networks are of vital importance to understand the options available and taken by their protégés.

In my research, I mainly concentrate on urban environments of conversion and inclusion. Catholic and Protestant cities alike will be taken into account to provide a comparative study on the conversion and the successful or unsuccessful social integration of the converts. For this project, I will concentrate on Vienna, Munich, Dresden, and Augsburg.

Research interests:

• Historical conversation research
• Migration research
• Christian-Muslim relationships and contacts in the early modern period
• Recent cultural history of the premodern period (ritual studies)

Function within the Cluster/Membership in projects and groups:

• Member of the study group Charting the Boundaries of the Religious Field
• Member of the study group Between Fact and Fiction

Publications:

• Conference proceedings: Religiöse Devianz. Praktiken und Diskurse im konfessionellen Zeitalter. 08.03.2012-10.03.2012, Dresden, in: H-Soz-u-Kult, 12.04.2012.
• „Gebürtig aus der Türckey“:  Zu Konversion und Zwangstaufe osmanischer Muslime im Alten Reich um 1700. In: Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp (ed.): Europa und die Türkei im achtzehnten Jahrhundert / Europe and Turkey in the Eighteenth Century. Göttingen: Bonn University Press / V&R unipress, 2011.
• „Conversio Turci“ Konvertierte und zwangsgetaufte Osmanen. Religiöse und kulturelle Grenzgänger im Alten Reich (1683-1710). In: Koller, Markus/Spannenberger, Norbert (eds.), "Imperiale Koexistenz" im östlichen Europa - Kontakte, Verflechtungen und Konflikte im osmanisch-habsburgischen Grenzraum (forthcoming).
• Book review: Reinkowski, Maurus/Kramer, Heinz: Die Türkei und Europa. Eine wechselhafte Beziehungsgeschichte. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 2008, in:
  Südosteuropa Mitteilungen, 02/2010, S. 99f.

Courses:

• Winter term 2010/11: Seminar Konversionen in der Frühen Neuzeit (together with Lorenz Baibl)

Contact:

Supervisor

Supervisor

Mentor

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