Almut HÖ¶fert. Den Feind beschreiben: "TÖ¼rkengefahr" und europÖ¤isches Wissen Ö¼ber das Osmanische Reich 1450-1600. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 2003. 265 pp. EUR 45.00 (paper), ISBN 978-3-593-37482-6.

Reviewed by Kersten Horn (Department of Anthropology and Languages, University of Missouri-St. Louis)
Published on H-German (January, 2005)

That New-time Religion: The Evolution of Religion as an EthnographicCategory in the Sixteenth Century

While a glance at the title of Almut Höfert's book may suggest that her monograph, based on her dissertation, deals with descriptions of the Ottomans, this is only true in part. Her main interest lies in the way in which these descriptions were organized. It is her hypothesis that the angst-ridden motif of the Türkengefahr ("Turkish menace") led Europeans to study their enemies more closely, engendering a more empirical look at the Ottomans, their government, culture, and religious practices. This evolving ethnographic approach, Höfert claims, ultimately led to the creation of "religion" as a category in which non-Christian belief systems and practices could be compared to Christianity on an equal footing.

The motif of the "Turkish menace" gained currency in Europe with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. The fall of Constantinople symbolized the end of the Byzantine Empire and was reinterpreted as one of the last stages in Christian soteriological history: the appearance of the Antichrist before the second coming of the Christ. The "Turkish menace" also gave impetus to a redefinition of the term "Europe" and "elevated Europe from the status of a neutral geographical unit to the theological rank of the last refuge of Christianity" (p. 67; my translation). The fall of Constantinople coincided with the spread of the movable-type printing press, which was instrumental in disseminating the notion of a "Turkish menace" throughout Europe. News accounts that reported the latest Ottoman victories in Europe were filled with depictions of Turkish cruelty, violence, and sexual voracity. Höfert is careful to regard the phenomenon of the "Turkish menace" as related to, but separate from, actual Ottoman military expansion in the region. The discourse of the "Turkish menace" occupied parts of the European public independently of their proximity to Ottoman forces. Höfert emphasizes this point especially in light of the fact that even recent scholarship on the Habsburg-Ottoman rivalry in the region falls into the trap of an "us (Europeans) versus them (invaders)"-dichotomy that attributes greater legitimacy to Habsburg attempts to expand their rule to Hungary than to Ottoman ones.

European knowledge of the Ottoman Empire and its inhabitants stemmed in large part from diplomatic relations between European powers and the Sublime Porte that were conducted "principally according to the same rules under which the European powers also negotiated their claims for expansion and economic interests among each other" (p. 115; my translation). Höfert analyzes exemplarily the diplomatic relations between Venice, France, and the Habsburgs with the Ottoman Empire and observes that elements of the "Turkish menace" were adapted by each to their individual political circumstances. Ottoman operations in Europe spurred interest in the Ottomans as an object of study, and European diplomats and chancelleries undertook extensive research to counsel their governments in their dealings with the Ottoman rulers. The observations gathered and recorded were then organized into categories designed to make information comparable among territories of interest. Höfert shows that the gathering of ethnographic information by European diplomats was therefore instrumental in establishing a system of categorization for ethnographic knowledge.

Knowledge about the Ottoman Empire and its inhabitants was not collected exclusively by diplomats. Höfert is concerned with the information gathered by travelers and shared via their travelogues. Travelogues were already used as conduits for the transmission of empirical knowledge in the middle ages. However, the quantity of accessible material increased dramatically after 1453, due to the use of the printing press and to the discourse of the "Turkish menace." The twelve travelogues selected by Höfert represent those in widest circulation in the sixteenth century.[1] While early modern historiography dealt with the Ottomans much more strongly in the context of the "Turkish menace," these ethnographic texts, Höfert argues, developed "dynamics that imperceptibly initiated a paradigm shift beyond the 'Turkish menace'" (p. 197; my translation).

Höfert's method of analysis is certainly unusual. For what she calls a "building block analysis" (Bausteinanalyse), she dissects each of the travelogues into snippets of ethnographic information (she literally cuts the texts into a total of 2043 pieces). Each of these pieces is then organized into ethnographic categories, to make it possible to discern which (and how many) of the authors cover the same information. Through her analysis, Höfert identifies three super-categories (Hauptfelder): (1) court, government, and military; (2) manners and customs; and (3) religion. Two thirds of the ethnographic information, Höfert argues, can be assigned to one of these super-categories.

A look at the tables provided in the appendix suggests the question of whether Höfert's conclusion would not have been possible without tabulating each of the "building blocks." It is unclear what insight is gained from the knowledge that Giovanantonio Menavino dealt with the topic of messengers at the Ottoman court in 150 words, whereas Bartolomej Georgijevic completely ignored the subject in his De Turcarum ritu, especially if one considers that Menavino's text was almost seven times longer than Georgijevic's. Höfert seems somewhat too concerned with categorizing and cataloging, becoming overly absorbed in the details. While cross-author comparisons may seldom seem fruitful in the minutiae of word counts at the "building block" level, the value of Höfert's tabulations becomes more obvious once she moves to the more general sub-categories (Unterfelder), into which she groups the "building blocks." Höfert's findings could hardly have been any different if she had skipped the "building block" level altogether and had started off right at the sub-category level. It is here that we learn which topoi were featured in the travelogues, and by which author. Since Höfert, at this point, has moved away from counting words and presents us with the percentages that each topos constituted of a given text, we can now actually gain useful insights into what these early modern authors thought worthy of mention or discussion.

Höfert's main interest with regard to the data she has so diligently compiled lies in the topoi that fall within the super-category of religion. Höfert argues that it is the fact that information concerned with the Ottomans' faith and religious practice was becoming conventionalized that led to "religion" being established as a category of ethnographic observation and comparison: "The ethnographic system of categorization thus imperceptibly opened up a space in the sixteenth century in which the semantics of ethnographic terminology were redefined in opposition to contemporary theological discourse; a space in which Islam was described in a terminology that had theretofore been the exclusive domain of Christianity" (p. 306; my translation).

I found Höfert's book clearly argued and her account of the evolution of "religion" as an ethnographic category convincing. In addition to scholars of the area, the book may also find favor with advanced students and non-specialists. Her chapter on the "Turkish menace" motif provides a good general introduction into early modern European depictions of the Ottomans, and her chapter on the European diplomats offers a comprehensive overview of relations between the Ottoman Empire and European powers. Readers familiar with the worst excesses of German academic prose need not be worried by the fact that this book is also the author's doctoral dissertation. Höfert's language is accessible, lucid, and concise, making this not only an informative read, but also a pleasurable one.

Note

[1]. The eleven different authors of the travelogues are: Hans Schiltberger, George of Hungary, Benedetto Ramberti, Antoine Geuffroy, Bartolomej Georgijevic, Luigi Bassano, Giovanantonio Menavino, Theodoros Spanduginos, Pierre Belon, Nicols de Nicolay, and Jacques de Villamont.

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Citation: Kersten Horn. Review of HÖ¶fert, Almut, Den Feind beschreiben: "TÖ¼rkengefahr" und europÖ¤isches Wissen Ö¼ber das Osmanische Reich 1450-1600. H-German, H-Net Reviews. January, 2005.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=10190

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