Centre and periphery? Islamic architecture in Ottoman Macedonia, 1383-1520

This project proposes a critical study of Islamic architecture and decoration in early Ottoman Macedonia. Preliminary work by the principal investigator challenges a common approach that marginalizes Ottoman monuments in the Balkans as mere provincial echoes of processes in the capitals Edirne and Istanbul. It promises that a far more dynamic picture of the interaction between `centre` and `periphery` can be drawn instead. A critical reassessment of selected monuments in Macedonia, most of them understudied, will bring out and analyze qualities that distinguish them from other early Ottoman `provincial` architecture. More significance will be attached to their place in the broader narrative of Ottoman architectural history. Weight will also be given to the fact often glossed over by historians of Islamic art that monuments on European soil have a significant share in it. The project makes use of existing architectural documentation in combination with textual and material sources. It will draw new conclusions on the original appearance of monuments that have been substantially altered in later periods. These interventions have prevented the appreciation of significant original features and their implications in the context of the historical development of Ottoman architecture. Another major methodological constraint is posed by the fact that research has thus far largely proceeded within the borders of modern nation states rather than within the historical borders of the Ottoman state. The multitude of languages in the Balkan region, too, has limited broad access to research literature including fundamental works. Thus the significance of specific monuments and sites within the framework of a trans-regional Ottoman political superstructure has often been missed. Methodological doubt may also apply to the conception of Ottoman monuments in the Balkans as the product of a vaguely defined `culture` rather than as relating to concrete agendas and needs of patrons and users that explain the choice of specific types, forms, and motives. This project will study, analyse, and interpret the architecture and decoration of two dozen monuments and the milieu within which they were conceived. Thus the inexpedient gap between two research traditions focused on either form or function will be bridged. The findings of the study will be published as an English language monograph that will facilitate the integration of a considerable body of remarkable yet little-known monuments into the scholarly discourse on Ottoman architecture. Prior to publication, they will be discussed at an international workshop provisionally scheduled for 2015. Ongoing work will be communicated to the scholarly community and the interested public at large through a multilingual project website. Thus the project will contribute to the international profile of the University of Vienna`s Department of Art History and the recently established chair for the history of Islamic art.

The project set out with the aim to reassess the place of Macedonia - a core region of the Ottoman sultanate in Europe - in the established art historical narrative of Ottoman architecture. The focus was on the period between the late fourteenth and early sixteenth century - a period of significant changes with regard to the development of Ottoman architecture with regard to building types and institutions. As the predominant art historical narrative on this heritage focuses on architecture in the modern nation state of Turkey, the project inquired to which extent material in areas outside of Turkey support or vary this narrative. A representative sample of architectural monuments in the region was chosen for an in-depth, comparative, and interdisciplinary study. The project's findings went beyond what was expected. The city of Skopje (Üsküb), for much of the period under consideration, turned out as a kind of showcase for what Ottoman culture had to offer on the western frontier of the expanding sultanate. The relatively well-documented case of this city allowed to question two historiographical paradigms. One concerned the problem of Ottoman city-building; more specifically the idea that the Ottomans advanced an instantaneous course of transformation generally termed 'Ottomanization' in research literature. The detailed case study of Skopje, with a view to patronage, demonstrated that this was neither a swift nor a systematic process. It often lasted many decades and was essentially driven by the particular interests of various men of means. Their resolve to compete with each other appears to have overruled grander designs. While for sure Balkan towns experienced decisive changes in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the dynamic of this process may be better described as cumulative rather than linear. A second major finding concerned problems in the historical typology of the Ottoman Friday mosque. The Macedonian case study seems to indicate that a major turning point in the late fifteenth century was generously overlooked thus far. The findings suggest that the way the Ottomans conceived of the functional and ideological/monumental topography of their cities changed at that point. It eventually gave rise to the new type of a mosque, the history of which was seen from its endpoint and written backward, misleadingly, as the result of a linear formal development: the single-domed mosque. The case study suggested that the circumstances that led to its success over other types quite suddenly appeared at one point in history.